Cowboy Jackpot: Valentine's Day (3 page)

"Really." He drawled the word slowly.

Stormie's freckled face glowed and her smile showed perfect
teeth. Her long, strawberry blonde hair floated behind her. "Jayden
Hancock." She stopped in front of him and held out her hand. "I'm so
excited to meet you."

Jayden moved a little closer as he took her hand. "You
can bet I'm just as excited to meet you." His grin could have turned a nun
naughty.

"Wow." Stormie breathed the word as her green eyes
took in Jayden's face.

Kira elbowed Dallas. "Wow is right. What are we
witnessing here?"

Whatever it was, it looked like something they shouldn't be
watching. "Let's get a table." Dallas put his hand on Kira's back and
guided her to the big round booth they'd shared with Boone, Gigi, and Jayden at
Christmas.

Kira slid in while keeping an eye on Jayden and Stormie, who
seemed to be deep in conversation.

Dallas sat next to Kira. "Don't worry about Jay. He looks
dodgy, but he's virtually harmless."

"I'm not worried about him. I'm worried about
Stormie." She wrinkled her brow. "I've never seen her like that
around a guy before."

Dallas didn't see anything wrong with Stormie's behavior. At
the roulette table, she'd been energetic and charming. The same as she was now
with Jayden. "She's a rodeo fan?"

"Uh huh." Kira tapped her finger on the table.
"I'd mentioned all your names last night, but she didn't seem to be a
fanatic. Just a fan."

Stormie and Jayden stood close together, talking like they
were old friends.

Dallas watched them for a minute. "She hasn't tackled
him and ripped off his clothes yet, so I think they'll be okay without direct
supervision."

Kira relaxed back onto the padded seat. "You're right.
They're adults."

He lifted a brow. Dallas sure didn't see Jayden as an adult,
yet. The kid was only twenty, but he had a fake ID. Hell, Dallas was eight
years older, and he barely felt like an adult, himself.

Boone and Gigi walked into the bar. Boone resembled his
little brother, Jayden, but with straight, shaggy blond hair and lighter blue
eyes. His wiry bull rider's body was decked out in cowboy boots, jeans with a
big championship belt buckle, and a black T-shirt.

Gigi, shorter and very curvy, wore a red sundress and white
sandals. Her long, black hair looked mussed, as if Boone had kissed her very
recently. Like in the elevator on the way down to the casino.

Dallas envied his friend's perfect life with the woman who
made him so damn happy.

Jayden introduced Stormie to Boone. Gigi already knew her.
They all wandered over to the booth.

"Congratulations." Boone shook Dallas's hand as
Gigi slid in next to Kira. "What've you got planned for the money?"
Boone eased into the back of the booth next to Gigi.

Stormie piled in by Boone, and Jayden took the end seat next
to her, sitting a little closer than the spacious booth required.

Dallas grinned. "I'm thinkin' about investing it in a
rodeo school somewhere north of here."

For years, Dallas, Boone, and Jayden had been planning to
convert the Reno farm Boone inherited, into a rodeo school for bull and bronc
riders.

Boone nodded. "I know just the place." He'd
already invested his half of the jackpot he'd split with Gigi into updating the
barn into a regulation size arena.

Gigi leaned her shoulder into Boone's. "We'll all be
partners." Gigi had thrown in her winnings, too, and was currently a
half-partner in the venture. "How much was your win? Stormie said almost
two hundred thousand?"

Dallas slung his arm across the back of the booth and
touched Kira's shoulder. "Half of that." He narrowed his gaze on her,
watching for signs of dishonesty. "Right?"

****

Kira started at Dallas's touch. It seemed sweetly possessive
for a man who wasn't usually demonstrative. Glancing around the table, she
caught inquisitive glances from Stormie and Jayden, and surprised looks on Gigi
and Boone's faces.

"Yes, half. We're splitting the jackpot." Of
course, that wasn't the truth, so she avoided Dallas's gaze.

All four of them started talking at once and she leaned
closer to Dallas.

He held up a hand. "It was only fair. My money, her
luck."

Kira smiled up at him. "Stupid luck."

Gigi settled in. "Tell us the whole story."

Kira and Dallas relayed the scene with a few comments from
Stormie.

Their drinks arrived; three giant margaritas, three tap
beers in big cowboy boot-shaped glasses, and three shots of whiskey.

The men held up their shot glasses and Jayden toasted.
"To luck, stupid or otherwise."

They downed them and Kira slid her oversized glass toward
the middle of the table. "Another toast. To Gigi and Boone, lucky in love,
and the reason we're all here."

The two other women slid their glasses until all three
clinked, then the men tapped their boot glasses against them. The logistics of
the giant cocktails had them all laughing and Gigi asked the waitress to take a
couple pictures with her phone.

Stormie crossed her arms on the table and looked at Gigi.
"Tell me the story of how you two met."

The loving look that passed between Gigi and Boone set
Kira's heart chugging.

Dallas's hand tightened on Kira's shoulder and she looked
into his dark eyes. His lips curved up just slightly and he inhaled a long
breath.

The chugging in her heart increased. She wanted this man.
Wanted to peel off every stitch of clothing, run her hands over the light
furring on his chest, his belly, his strong thighs. She wanted to taste him,
from his neck to his nipples, down his belly to his cock. To pull the hot,
pulsing head into her mouth and experience the satiny texture of his tight
skin, lave a salty drop of his pre-come on the tip of her tongue.

"Damn, Kira. Don't look at me like that if you don't
want me to haul you over my shoulder and carry you up to our suite." His
voice rumbled, quiet and sensual.

Her nipples perked as a shimmy of desire raced to her core.
Placing her hand on his thigh, she grasped the hard muscle, let his heat warm
her palm. "Is that a threat…or a promise."

He growled low in his chest.

"…anyway…" Gigi said sharply.

Kira and Dallas looked at her.

Gigi gave them the stink eye. "If you two are done over
there, I'll finish my story."

Dallas pulled Kira closer. "We're not anywhere near
done, but we'll take a break."

Kira felt heat rush to her cheeks but she grinned.
"We're listening."

Boone laughed and Jayden snorted. Stormie stared at her as
if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

True, Kira had said some disparaging things to Stormie about
Dallas, and her cousin had witnessed the verbal punches she and Dallas had
thrown at the roulette table. But there had always been a flame burning between
her and the cowboy. Kira looked at him. He was watching her. As soon as they
reached their suite, that flame would become an inferno, and she welcomed the
burn.

Gigi cleared her throat and spoke to Stormie. "So,
together, Boone and I won the slot's progressive. Except he…" She gave
Boone a loving look. "Didn't want to take half because he's such a
gentleman."

Boone gave her a quick kiss. "I still don't know how
she talked me into it."

Gigi wagged her brows. "I have ways of making you do
what I want."

"Damn fine ways, too." His voice grew low and his
arm slid across her shoulders.

Both Kira and Stormie sighed, looked at each other, then
laughed.

"Chicks." Jayden made a disgusted face.

"Get used to it, brother." Boone's gaze didn't
stray from Gigi. "And learn to love it."

Gigi made a little mewing sound and touched Boone's cheek.

"So, it was perfect from then on?" Stormie's eyes
were wide. "You got engaged so fast."

Boone shook his head. "No, not perfect. I screwed up
real bad."

"My fault." Dallas's lips tightened into a thin
line.

Dallas had sent some texts to Boone that Gigi intercepted.
She gave up on Boone, gave up on love, but Boone had found a way to make it
right. Thank God.

"No." Boone looked at his friend. "My fault.”

"It's all in the past." Gigi waved her hand as if
to erase it all. "Then, Boone took me home to his parents' ranch, he
showed me the land and the house he'd inherited from his grandfather." She
shrugged and smiled, her eyes bright with a sheen of moisture. "I spent a
couple weeks there with him, just the two of us in that big old house. I knew
that was where I wanted to be." She turned to her fiancé.
"Forever."

"Forever." Boone lifted her left hand and kissed
her finger where the engagement ring's big diamond twinkled brightly.

"Awww." Stormie looked a little weepy, too, and
Kira felt a lump of emotion in her own throat.

"Tell her how you got engaged." Laughter filled
Jayden's voice.

"Oh my gosh." Kira covered her mouth with her hand
to hold in the sappy sigh. "It was so romantic."

Across the booth from her and Dallas, Jayden and Stormie
looked at her, smiling, but snuggled together in the back of the booth, Gigi
and Boone only had grins for each other.

Dallas ran his hand up and down Kira's bare arm and
goosebumps rose.

Gigi set her hand on Boone's chest. "It was romantic. A
month after we met in Vegas, I flew to Maine to be with him at a rodeo. After
he took first place…" Her pride showed on her face. "The band
started, and he took me out on the packed dirt for a dance. I'd heard the song
before, but the band was throwing in all these references to how Boone and I
met. I froze."

Boone laughed. "Thought she was gonna faint." He
told Stormie, "I know the guys in the band, and I asked the lead singer to
tweak the song for me."

"That's so frickin' romantic." Stormie had
finished over half her margarita already.

Kira should take her to the ladies' room and tell her to
slow down. Kira's aunt and uncle, Stormie's parents, would kill Kira if she let
her cousin get too wild. Kira was only two years older than Stormie's
twenty-two, but her cousin had grown up on a ranch, attended the local
agricultural college while living at home, and hadn't had the life experiences
Kira had.

"Yeah, frickin' romantic." Jayden gestured to
Boone. "Tell her what you did then?"

Kira would have sworn Boone blushed under his tan. He
grinned. "The band sang 'Boone has something to ask you, Gigi' and they
stopped playing."

"The whole arena went silent." Gigi's voice
sounded awestruck.

Boone held Gigi's hand and gazed into her eyes. "Then I
went down on one knee and mumbled something about needing her, and loving her,
and would she be my wife."

Gigi looked at Stormie. "I can recite the exact
words." An emotionally choked laugh came from her lips. "Remind me to
tell you later, at the bachelorette party. But before I have too much to drink
and end up crying off all my makeup."

"I will." Stormie looked as moved as Kira felt.

"She said yes." Boone lifted Gigi's hand. "And
there was this huge cheer that shook the roof. The band broke into the wedding
march and I slipped the ring on her finger before she could change her mind. I
grabbed this beautiful woman and took her to my hotel room." His voice
went deep and trailed off as he stared at his fiancée.

She stared back, her face hot pink and her chest heaving.
"Speaking of the bachelorette party. We'd better get going. The Hummers
will be in front of the hotel in a couple hours." They'd rented two
stretch Hummer limos, one in white for the women, and one in black for the
guys.

Kira could tell what Gigi and Boone would be doing in their
suite for the next two hours. "You two go, have some time together before
we pull you apart, and utterly embarrass the hell out of each of you in
public."

"Don't wear him out, Gigi." Jayden stood, helping
Stormie from the booth to let the engaged couple out. "Us cowboys have big
plans for him tonight."

Gigi giggled as she and Boone slid out of the booth.
"I'll try not to." They left so fast, they were nearly running.

"While we're up…" Jayden laid his hand on
Stormie's back. "Wanna go see if we can win a jackpot of our own?"

Oh heck, no. Kira had to stop this. "Ah, maybe we
should—"

Stormie grinned at Jayden. "Okay. Let's go."

"Stormie." Kira moved to get up and Dallas tugged
her back down. "They'll be okay."

The two walked out of the bar, Jayden's hand resting on
Stormie's back.

Dallas pulled out his phone. "I'll send Jay a
reminder." He started typing. "Better yet, a threat."

"Thank you." She felt a little guilty letting her
cousin loose with a rodeo cowboy, but when Dallas put his phone away then
looked at her with those sexy eyes, only one thought crowded her mind. Naked.

"Wanna go check out our suite?" His face softened
and his eyes lured her.

"Okay." She swallowed. Not her most brilliant or
sexy line, but her body tingled with desire.

He charged the drinks to the credit balance on their comped
suite and led her to the elevators. He pressed the up button and tugged her
against him, pressing her breasts against his hard chest, and her hips against
his granite erection.

"Kira, I want you. I've wanted you since
Christmas." He let out a long breath. "Are you gonna want to talk
first? Get everything settled between us…I mean, the shit that happened in
December?"

Could she wait that long to have him kissing her? Touching
her? Sliding his shaft deep inside her?

They'd had a fierce argument in the hotel's lobby bar, she'd
accused him, he'd been both insulted and angry. It had been a scene she'd
regretted ever since.

The elevator opened and they jumped in, pressed the top
button, and found themselves enclosed and alone together.