Corralled (5 page)

Regret wasn’t Lainie’s main concern.

“Did you give them an answer?” Tanna asked.

9 CORRALLED

“No. But they didn’t demand one either. They told me to think about it and we’d talk after the rodeo tonight.”

“See? That right there is exactly why you should do this. Hank and Kyle will try their damnedest to outdo each other in making you scream. They’ll see what turns you flaming hot— by watching the other guy. The bonus? They already know what you like in bed, so they’ll try to kick up the kink a notch or ten. So the person who benefits the most in this situation is . . . you.”

Leave it to Tanna to cut to the chase. Lainie was curious about the logistics of two men and one woman in the throes of passion.

How it’d feel to have two hard cocks demanding entrance into her body. Two sets of hands squeezing and stroking. Two mouths. Two tongues. Two cocks. Yeah. She was kind of stuck on that mental image.

“Here’s my advice. Try it. If you don’t like it you can still walk away, break up with them or whatever. But you’ll be kicking yourself years down the road when you’re a blue- haired little old lady if you don’t seize the chance now.”

Lainie flopped back on the bed and sighed. “You’re right. For once in my life, I’m cutting loose. What happens, happens. No fear, no regrets, no holding back. I’m a woman in her sexual prime; hear me roar. Balls to the wall, right?”

“Right.” Tanna flopped on her back right next to Lainie on the bed. They stared up at the stained ceiling tiles. “On a purely selfish note, I hate knowin’ that you’re getting laid all the damn time and I’m not.”

“Tanna, you could get laid every night of the week by a different cowboy if you wanted. I’ve watched them ask you. Watched you turn every one of them down in the last two months.” Lainie paused, knowing this was a touchy subject. “Are you really that crazy about Steve?”

“Yes. No. Hell, who knows? I was. It sucks because I can feel LORELEI JAMES 9

him pulling away and I can’t do a damn thing about it. Sounds stupid, but the more he pulls away the harder I want to hold on to him.”

“That’s never good, T, and it’s not like you at all.”

“Ugh. I know.” Tanna sighed. “Listen to me, whining about my pathetic love life. We oughta be celebrating yours, loading you up on lube at the local A & P.”

“Think that’d raise eyebrows in Lamar?” Lainie mused.

“If they look at you funny, just tell them it’s for rodeo medical services.”

“Got all my bases covered, huh?”

“I’m a practical girl.” Tanna rolled off the bed and onto her feet. “Look, I’ll see you later. I’ve gotta put Jezebel through her paces before showtime.”

Lainie kept her eyes closed. She hadn’t slept worth beans last night and a catnap might be in order.

Hair tickled her nose. She looked up into Tanna’s face, which hung directly above hers. “What?”

“I’d better not see you at the bar tonight. You’d better not chicken out, Lainie Jay. Although I will expect a fully detailed report tomorrow.”

“Deal.”

Tanna smooched her forehead. “Get some rest, chickie, ’cause with those two guys? You’re definitely gonna need it.”

$IBQUFS'PVS

9

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or the bigger rodeos, the Lariat Sports Medicine team showcased the giant semi with the gigantic logo emblazoned across the side. Most people expected the enormous cargo area was filled with medical supplies and equipment. While that belief was partially true, the real purpose of the tricked- out truck was advertising.

Yes, the sports medicine team fixed broken cowboys, but inexplicably, tying the Lariat brand name of clothing with the sponsorship of pro rodeo was the sole reason for the Lariat Sports Medicine team’s existence.

As much as Lainie liked her job with Lariat, she was strictly part- time, which meant she freelanced as an EMT in Colorado Springs on her flex days. With her fluctuating schedule, the last half of the week she was on the road headed to the next Lariat event. So, basically, she’d had no life for the last two years beyond the folks she’d met in the world of rodeo.

Hooking up with Hank had eased her loneliness. Sometimes she wondered why she’d tried so damn hard to keep her relationship with him hidden.

The door to the designated medical room opened and her boss, Dr. Dusty Bowman, sauntered in.

LORELEI JAMES 9

Right. Now she remembered why things with her and Hank were kept hush- hush. Doc Bowman didn’t like bullfighters. Normally it wouldn’t matter what her boss thought about her love life, but Doc was more than just her boss. He’d stood behind the chutes watching in horror as his best friend, bull rider Jason Capshaw, was gored by a bull and the bullfighters did nothing to stop it.

At the time, Dusty had been a bull rider as well as Jason’s traveling partner. After her father’s very tragic and very public death, Dusty dropped out of pro rodeo and returned to college, earning a medical degree specializing in sports medicine.

Doc Dusty blamed Jason Capshaw’s death on improperly trained bullfighters and lack of safety gear for the riders. He took it upon himself to design a vest that offered protection from a bull’s deadly horns. He’d sold his patented design to a small company, which also made protective clothing for policemen and loggers.

Eventually Lariat Clothiers bought out the company. Then they approached Doc Dusty about spearheading a sports medicine program geared toward rodeo. With his background as a bull rider and rodeo safety promoter, Dr. Bowman became the “face” of Lariat Sports Medicine.

Dusty hired her, albeit part- time, with her lowly LPN and EMT degrees, when he could’ve hired any one of the hundreds of applicants— all with master’s degrees. She wondered if he’d ever feel he’d repaid the debt he owed her because he was supposed to have been on the bull that killed Jason Capshaw.

But none of the grief or guilt was evident in Doc’s eyes when he saw her. He grinned from beneath the brim of his ever- present cowboy hat. “Lainie! Good to see you.”

“What brings the face of Lariat Sports Medicine to the trenches?”

“A business deal— what else? Plus, I’ve never worked this rodeo, and you know me— always lookin’ for something new.”

9 CORRALLED

How true that was. The man was constantly on the go.

“Also, I wanted to talk to you.”

Lainie’s focus zoomed to him.

He shut the door and leaned against it, offering her a rueful smile. “That oughta buy us a little time.”

“Doc, you’re scaring me.”

“You jump to the worst conclusion first. Just like your daddy.”

“Am I in trouble?”

“No. Far from it. You have a great rapport with the contestants in both the EBS and the CRA.”

“But?” she prompted.

“But I know you hire out as an EMT the days you aren’t working for me. You look exhausted. I’m worried the travel schedule is wearing you down.”

“Funny, I don’t feel exhausted. And this must’ve come on real sudden, because I looked just fine to you the day before yesterday at the Lariat offices.”

He glanced away. Guiltily. Which meant one thing.

Lainie pushed away from the wall. “Did my mother put you up to this, Dusty?”

He still wouldn’t make eye contact with her.

“That meddling bitch.”

“Now, that ain’t no way to talk about your mama. You can’t blame her for being concerned about you.”

“So she goes to you, my boss, behind my back? Instead of talking to me first?”

“This is why she brought it to my attention, because we both knew you’d react like this.”

“Act like what? Resentful that I’m a twenty- six- year- old professional woman and my
mommy
is still checking up on me?”

“Lainie—”

“Are you my boss right now or my family friend?”

LORELEI JAMES 9

Doc hesitated. “I hate that you draw these invisible lines in the sand and I’m forced to stand on one side or the other.”

“Choose.”

“Fine, I’m your friend.”

“Then,
friend
, here’s the side I’m standing on. I hate that you’re still letting my mother lead you around by the nose. I hate that the last time I talked to her I told her to butt out of my life. She couldn’t accept that and she took it upon herself to call you to rectify it.”

“What was I supposed to do? She was crying.
Crying.
About you. It broke my damn heart.”

God, Lainie was mad enough to spit nails. Doc Dusty was one of the most focused, headstrong men she’d ever known. She’d watched Doc stare down the head of a major television network when they demanded to televise his examination of life- threatening rodeo injuries. So his being reduced to an errand boy for Sharlene Capshaw Green burned Lainie’s ass.

“And worst of all she was blaming
me
for
you
not staying in touch with her,” Doc added.

“How is that your fault?” Lainie demanded.

“Sharlene said I’m keeping you too busy working both circuits and you have no life outside of this job. Which, she felt entitled to point out, is only a part- time position.”

Dammit.

“After I talked to Sharlene I checked your personnel file. You haven’t taken any time off since you started working for me.”

“So?”

“So you’re overdue for a vacation. Long overdue.”

“When was the last time
you
took a vacation?”

His eyes narrowed. “This ain’t about me. This is about me and your mama being worried about you.”

“Why doesn’t she worry about her other kids and leave me the hell alone?” Lainie fumed. Paced. Cursing her mother’s need to

9 CORRALLED

control everything, which had always been a major sticking point between them.

A year following her husband’s tragic death, Sharlene Capshaw was wooed by Marcus Green— an ambulance- chasing attorney— to sue the venue where Jason Capshaw had been killed. Sharlene refused. Yet a romance between the grieving, beautiful young widow and the greedy, hotshot lawyer blossomed. By Lainie’s seventh birthday, her mother had remarried.

They moved out of Oklahoma to Marcus’s house in California.

Which would’ve been fine, except Sharlene decided Lainie acted too rural for Sharlene’s new station in life. She enrolled Lainie in a private school and cut Lainie off from anyone who’d mattered in her old life. Her grandmother, Elsa Capshaw, wasn’t allowed contact, under the guise of Lainie needing to acclimate to her new surroundings.

By age nine, Lainie refused to travel with her mother and stepfather, demanding instead to spend her summer vacations at her grandma Elsa’s house in Oklahoma.

During those hot summers she fell in love with the world of rodeo her mother had left behind. The month Lainie graduated from high school, she moved back to Oklahoma for good. Partially because her grandmother needed a caretaker; partially because Lainie’s career goals weren’t lofty enough for her mother.

It hadn’t mattered that Lainie had earned a CNA certificate and become an EMT while a senior in high school. Or that after moving to Oklahoma she’d earned a degree as an LPN, as well as becoming a licensed massage therapist. Sharlene constantly harangued Lainie to go back to college for an RN or PA degree, with an eye toward medical school.

Medical school didn’t interest her. She couldn’t fathom the extra burden of attending classes and finishing homework at the end of a brutal workweek.

LORELEI JAMES 9

So Sharlene had been beyond infuriated when Lainie accepted Dusty’s job offer to work in the world of rodeo. Things had spiraled to the point where she and her mother rarely spoke at all these days.

“Lainie? You went awful quiet. You all right?”

“No. I’m not all right, Doc. Don’t do this.”

“Too late. After tomorrow night’s performance, you’ll officially be on vacation for three weeks.” He raised his hand, stopping her automatic protest. “This is nonnegotiable.”

Seething, Lainie itched to smack something. She inhaled two deep, long breaths and exhaled with deliberate care. “Okay. Say I agree to take this blasted vacation and don’t just quit outright.

What happens when I come back? Will you knuckle under to Queen Sharlene every time she feels I’m being mistreated?”

Doc scowled. “No.”

“Because as a fully grown adult woman, I tend to get a little pissy about stuff like that.”

“I imagine so. Look, I’m not knuckling under to her. In fact, I’d planned to approach you about this and another issue
before
Sharlene called me. It seemed a good idea to get what I want—forcing you to take the break you need— while allowing Sharlene to believe I abided by her wishes and keeping her happy.”

Warning bells rang in her head. “Whoa. Back up. Approach me about what other issue?”

“About you going to work for Lariat full- time.”

“You’re joking.”

“Nope. But before you get all hyped up about it, I’ll tell you this: It wouldn’t be under the same structure we are right now. We’ve been in negotiations for months about serious changeups. By the time you get back, hopefully we’ll have all the details ironed out.”

Trying to contain her excitement, Lainie casually asked, “Can you give me any ideas on the full- time job?”

9 CORRALLED

“Off the top of my head? It’d be administrative duties. There’d be no traveling,” he warned. “You wouldn’t work either circuit, which I know is your favorite part of the job.”

“Would I be in Colorado Springs?”

“Of course.”

Lainie scowled at him.

“I know you don’t like living there, but suck it up.”

“Fine. Who’s working the circuits as an official Lariat rep while I’m gone?”

“No one.”

“So I’m not the only one forced to take a vacation?”

Doc smiled sheepishly. “No. It’s pretty much everyone across the board. This time of year, with Cowboy Christmas, it’s notoriously slow as far as big official events.”

“I find it hard to believe no one gets injured during that time.”

“Actually, there are more injuries, being as the contestants are racing from event to event. But treatment is sporadic. Very few of the smaller venues can afford to do more than park an ambulance beneath the stands, get a local doctor to volunteer, and hope like hell there aren’t life- threatening injuries.”