FIVE-SECOND SEDUCTION (2 page)

"Who is he?" Jackson slipped in the question while Audrey took a breath.

"She doesn't know. He wore a black cowboy hat pulled down low." Audrey waved a hand. "Anyway, the next night he pulled her over on the highway with a buddy of his and the three of them did it in the back of a pickup."

Jackson shifted on the boxes, leaning toward Audrey. "You're turning me on."

Audrey grinned. "I know, it does, doesn't it?"

"Audrey..." Charli waved her hands in her boss's face. "I need to get back to work sometime."

"So the next night she's meets her mystery man at the furniture store where he treats her to dinner and desert with two other guys."

"Charli and three men?" Jackson choked back a laugh, his eyes getting rounder. "Our sweet, staid, bartender Charli?"

Charli winced at the 'staid' part.

Audrey nodded. "It gets kinkier."

Jackson's brows dipped. "And I take it she still doesn't know who this mystery cowboy or any of his buddies are?" He shot a narrow-eyed glance at Charli.

"Nope." Audrey added her frown to Jackson's. "That has me worried too."

Maybe telling Jackson wasn’t such a good idea
. Charli's face burned and her body heated.

Audrey continued, "The next day she had a date with Connor Mason."

"Ah..." Jackson raised a finger. "Is he the mystery cowboy?"

Charli shrugged. "I doubt it. He took me out on his ranch, we had a picnic and he never made a single move on me."

Jackson's brow wrinkled. "Did you get naked?"

"No."

The Kiowa cowboy raised his hands palms upward. "I told you, men are simple. Get naked."

"Good grief. We're wasting our time." Charli stood to leave.

"Wait. I'm not done filling him in. You might want to stay to make sure I get it right." Audrey turned her attention back to Jackson. "That night, she had another meeting with her mystery cowboy at the historical jail house, complete with manacles and kinky sex with four men this time."

Jackson whistled. "I'm jealous."

"Yeah, you and me both." Audrey stepped back. "And that's it."

"What do you mean?" Jackson stood.

"Nothing for the past five days." Charli paced across the space in front of Jackson and Audrey. "No phone calls, no dates, no sex."

"Did you call them?" Audrey's cowboy asked.

Charli sighed, wishing she'd had the mental wherewithal to ask Original Sin for his number. "I don't have the mystery cowboy's number, or name, for that matter." How was she supposed to remember anything when she'd been treated to orgasmic sex with multiple partners tending to her every need and fantasy? Sheesh, she’d struggled just to catch  her breath.

"What about Connor?" Audrey asked.

"I must not have impressed him on our first date." Charli tipped back her head and squeezed shut her eyes. "He hasn't arranged for another."

"Then call him." Audrey slipped an arm around Charli's waist and squeezed. "Maybe he's shy."

Jackson shoved his thumbs into his belt loops. "Why not just go up to him and ask him out?"

"I  haven't run into him in five days." Charli's frustration bubbled over. "What do you expect me to do, drive over to his place and knock on his door?"

A frown pulled Jackson's brows together. "No. Ask him here. He's in the saloon."

Charli's heart skipped several beats and her lungs refused to work.

Audrey's eyes brightened. "See? He came in to see you." She shoved Charli toward the door. "Ask him out, then get naked like Jackson said."

"I can't just ask him out.” Charli spun from the door and retreated back into the storeroom, face burning, and her palms sweating. “I need a plan. Good God, help me with a plan."

Bless the Kiowa Cowboy for the big dumb lug he was. He slipped his hand around Charli's waist and hugged her. "It's okay. I got one for you."

Audrey and Charli both looked up and spoke at the same time. "You do?"

"Yeah. Call it...I don't know...How about Five Steps to Seduction?" He grinned.

Charli's heart slipped into her gut like a ball of lead. "You're not helping with funny titles. I need a real, concrete plan."

Jackson's hand tightened on  her waist. "I'm getting there. Keep your pants on."

"They're on...that's the problem," Charli wailed.

"Step one," Jackson continued. "It's all like hunting. First you got to get the right equipment." He pushed Charli out in front of him and reached toward her breasts, his hands stopping before he touched. "May I?"

Charli glared, resisting the urge to step back. What the hell was he up to? "I have the right equipment, if he's into women." She pushed up her boobs, letting them fall back in place with a perky bounce.

Audrey 's lips twisted and her eyes narrowed. "I see where you're going." She grabbed Charli's shirt and dragged it up her torso. "Take it off."

Charli gasped and knocked away Audrey's hands. "What are you doing?"

"Take off your bra, honey, it's not doing a thing for you." Audrey whipped her own T-shirt over her head and unclasped her bra, sliding the straps down over her shoulders. "Here, use mine. It's guaranteed to lift and push the girls together, giving you some hot cleavage."

Jackson's smile stretched across his face and he reached for Audrey's breasts. "What a friend." He cupped one, bending to take a nipple into his mouth.

Just watching Jackson play with Audrey's breasts brought back too many images of Original Sin doing the same to her own. Her nipples tightened into buds, and Charli creamed in her panties.

Audrey popped the top of his head. "Later, Casanova. We need to focus on Charli." She held her bra out by the strap, while wiggling the fingers of her other hand. "Give me yours. I don't want to start a riot in the bar by going braless."

"You'd have every horndog in the county drooling, babe." Jackson pulled Audrey's backside against the ridge rising in his pants. "Including me." His hands cupped her breasts like Audrey's own, personal bra.

"Cut it out, you two. You're making me horny for some girl love." Charli pulled her arms inside her T-shirt and unhooked her bra beneath the fabric, wiggling out of it. "I don't know. You look bigger than me."

"Only because the bra, dear. Trust me. It's amazing." Audrey snuggled against Jackson, a hand slipping between their bodies, caressing his denim-clad crotch.

Five days since she'd had sex and Charli was forced to watch Audrey and Jackson nearly having an orgasm in front of her. The logistics of putting Audrey's bra on under her T-shirt, plus the frustration of the two getting some while she wasn't made anger replace desire. Charli ripped her shirt up over her head and flung it on a box, grabbed Audrey's bra, hooked it around her waist and pulled the straps up.

Jackson whistled. "Nice breasts. Now, see? That's all it took. She gets a little naked, I get a lot horny."

Audrey slapped him, playfully. "Keep it in your pants until we're alone, will you?"

Jackson looked all innocent. "Just saying."

With a glance downward, Charli had to admit the bra pushed her up, with just enough coverage the cups barely hid her nipples, and displayed a whole lot of cleavage. Anxious to get outside, she grabbed her T-shirt and pulled it over her head.

"Are you trying to attract a man or a lesbian?" Jackson asked with a wave of his hand at her body. "Either way, you're missing the point."

"Oh, no, no, no. Jackson's right." Audrey yanked the shirt back over Charli’s head and tossed it behind a stack of boxes. "Covers far too much." She marched to the rack of costumes the male dancers used on Ladies' Night Out at the saloon and selected a cowboy vest that had only one snap at the center. She slipped the vest over Charli's arms and pulled the lapels together in the front, securing the snap on level with Charli's bellybutton.

Charli glanced down at her exposed chest and sucked in a breath. "You're kidding, right?"

Audrey stood back and tapped a finger on her chin. "Still needs something."

"I can't go out there like this." Charli tugged up the vest, in an attempt to cover more of her boobs.

"Why not?"Audrey pulled Charli's hands down to her sides. "You wanted to attract his attention, didn't you?"

"Yes." Charli pushed away Audrey's hands. "But not everyone else's attention in the joint."

"Well, you gotta let him know what he's missing." Audrey smiled. "The more men who sit up and take notice, the more Connor will notice. You might even kick in a twinge of jealousy."

Jackson studied Charli. "You're right, Charli. It's not quite right." He reached out and grabbed the sides of Charli's jeans and tugged them downward.

"What the hell!" Charli smacked his hands, but before she could pull her jeans back up, Audrey brushed Charli's fingers aside.

"That's it." Audrey nodded. "How about one better?" She slipped her fingers between Charli's belly and the waistband of her low-slung jeans and flipped open the top rivet. "Maybe tease him with a little pubic hair?" Charli's boss laughed, delightedly.

"You'll have me stripping before I walk out of this storeroom." Charli held up her finger. "I'm not doing a striptease out there. I told you when I hired on, I can't dance, nor do I want to in front of that bunch of rednecks."

"What about in front of Connor?" Audrey drew a line down the center of Charli's cleavage while her hand dipped into the opening of Charli's jeans. "Bet you'd dance for him. Naked."

Tingles ran across her abdomen. Charli couldn't breathe, her pussy tightening to a point she almost came. "Don't do that, unless you want to share your man," she warned Audrey. "I'm in no mood to be teased and left dry."

"I could be convinced.” Audrey's brows rose and she tipped her head to the side. “What about you, Jackson?"

"Ready.” He reached for the buttons on his jeans. “Just say the word."

Charli's heart stuttered at the thought of a threesome with Audrey and Jackson, but what would they say to each other afterward? It would all be too weird. She planted her hands on her hips. "Before you get too hot and bothered, what are the other four steps in the hunt?"

"Step two. You have to dangle the bait where the poor slob...er...prey will practically stumble across it." Jackson nuzzled Audrey's neck, moving his mouth up and down her skin. "Um, you smell good."

Still naked from the waist up, Audrey leaned back against Jackson. "Go on."

"And you have beautiful tits," Jackson continued.

Audrey's elbow in his gut set him straight, and he gave Charli a sheepish grin. "Three,  Set the Trap." Jackson nipped Audrey's earlobe.

"What do you mean, set the trap?" For a second, she watched her friend’s eyelids drift closed then she snapped her fingers in Jackson's face to make him focus.

"Make it your place." Jackson grinned. "Be naked."

"Really?” Audrey frowned. “I'd think a candlelit dinner and a bottle of wine, maybe a sexy negligee that gives a little glimpse of what's beneath without being too revealing."

Jackson chuckled, plumping Audrey's naked breasts. "Simple, honey. Men are simple."

"Four?" Charli's patience had long since thinned. "What about four?"

"Stalk your prey carefully." Jackson's fingers walked up Audrey's arm. "Don't attack right away. Make him sweat."

Be naked when he arrives but don’t attack right away?
Charli shook her head. "I don't get it."

"Show him a little leg." Audrey's breath caught as Jackson's hand slipped under her waistband. Eyes wide, she hurried to finish with, "Stand in the light so that your outfit becomes see-through, giving him a peek of the treasures beneath."

Jackson glanced up. "Keep it simple."

The tangy scent of aroused female reached Charli’s nose and her pussy clenched. "Five?" Charli prompted, her breathing ragged, her body on fire, ready for sex and not sure when she'd be getting any.

"Five is when you've got him where you want him and you go in for the kill. In this case, for the big O. Just remember...naked."

Audrey's back arched and she moaned.

Jackson's finger must have hit the right spot. "Oh, for Pete's sake, get a room." Charli marched for the door, every sexual fantasy she'd lived over the past weeks following her into the saloon, laughing at her, while Jackson's and Audrey's advice swirled in her head.

One thing was certain, if she couldn't get Connor interested while wearing nothing but a pushup bra and a vest, then she'd give up and go back to her vibrator.

Before Charli had gone five feet, Audrey hurried around her, tugging her t-shirt in place. She grabbed Libby, the bartender, and whispered into her ear. Then a grinning Audrey disappeared back into the store room.

As she stepped out onto the saloon floor, Charli's gaze panned the room, lighting on Connor Mason. He sat at a table near the dance floor, talking to Mark, Luke Gray Wolf and his high school buddy, Ed Judson.

Crap. Why couldn't he be alone? Vamping in front of a table full of his friends wouldn’t be easy. But damn it, her pussy ached for some action and she needed to know where she stood with the man.