The Mobster And The Cowboy (A Cowboy Romance) (29 page)

Richie nodded to the manager and one of the two bouncers half walked half dragged the dude outside.

Logan put his arm around Melanie and kissed her quickly.

Then she noticed everyone else in
their party hanging around the bar, and Richie laying down money.

“Richie just bought us all a shot.” He hesitated as she nodded her head. “We’re gonna take em off
of you,” he said with a wicked smile that brought out his dimples.

She lifted the corners of her mouth at the sight of him.

“You okay with that, babe?”

She nodded her head.

“Ever do it?”

“No.”

“It’s fun. You’ll like it. It’s hot.”

“Ok
ay,” she said as she nodded her head again.

Richie and the manager cleared the bar and she let out a gasp as Logan picked her up and laid her down on it.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered by her ear. “I’ve got you.”

Worrying
was the farthest thing from her mind.

The first one up was Jay.

She didn’t expect it and even jolted a little as he licked her throat and she felt wetness there. Then he sprinkled salt on the wetness and put a lime wedge by her mouth.
Because she had never done shots this way, she didn’t know what to do and looked at him in question.

“Hold this with your
teeth, and don’t look so scared.” He chuckled, “No one will hurt you.”

She
smiled up at him and took the lime, with her teeth, from his hand. Then he downed one of the six shot glasses filled with tequila. He bent his head to lick the salt at her throat and then picked his head up and with his teeth, grabbed the lime wedge that was in her mouth, pausing as his lips brushed hers, to cheers from not only their party, but the revelers hanging around them and on the side of the bar, along with the manager and a couple of bartenders.

Logan took in a breath to hold his ire.
He had to remind himself that this was harmless fun.

Jay looked in her eyes with admiration and smiled. “Thank you
, darlin’.”

She smiled up at him.

Next up was Donna. The same routine
, only she licked and salted Melanie’s belly button and when she took the wedge from Melanie’s mouth the noise level rose by 10 decibels.

Doug licked and sprinkled her left shoulder so that he had to lean over her to do it. He was quick to take the wedge. He didn’t want to anger Logan in any way.

Kara was next. She swiped a long lick and salted Melanie’s ribs. Melanie giggled at the touch.

After Kara downed the shot, she climbed up on the bar and over Melanie
, and provocatively licked the salt and kissed Melanie as Melanie passed the wedge to her.

If Melanie thought it couldn’t get louder than when Donna did her shot, she was surely mistaken.

The grin that was on the guys’ faces was priceless. The crowd grew and the bouncers were on alert.

Melanie looked to Logan who had that same grin on his face too
, and she breathed easy.

Rich
ie was next and having done it before, Logan knew where he was going to lick. He licked her thigh, brushing along her bikini bottom.

Melanie felt a tingle low in her belly at the sensation.

Richie grinned as he made eye contact with
Logan who was shaking his head, grinning. He sprinkled salt and with his mouth, placed the wedge in her mouth. He stepped back to sweep his eyes over her body and drank his shot. He licked his lips and kept eye contact with her as he bent to lick the salt from her thigh.

Her breath caught.

Then he slowly moved up to her mouth and licked her lower lip before taking the wedge.

Me
lanie felt flushed. She liked the game and was so turned on by it, and Logan knew it.

It was his turn. He licked the fleshy part of her left breast that was exposed and Melanie
felt wetness between her legs and moaned. Logan picked up his head to look at her and swiped his tongue across his lips. He knew.

He shook t
he salt on her breast and squeezed some juice from the lime before placing it in her mouth. He drank the shot and licked the salt and lime juice on her breast slowly, and in a circular motion before coming up to her mouth and taking the lime. He sucked the juice from it, turned his head to spit it out. It landed on the bar, and he kissed her long and deep as his hands caressed her waist.

He picked her up off the bar while still lip locked and slid her down his body so she could feel just how turned on he was.

She became weak kneed and she felt him holding her up.

He looked up and the gang cheered a
s they both had a silly grin on their faces.

Richie wanted to buy a shot for Melanie but the manager refused his money and bought the shot for her instead.

They hung around a little while longer then saloon hopped for the next two hours before calling it a night.

Jay had left after the first
saloon; he hooked up with a skinny chick with way too many piercings and tattoos.

“Okay. Thanks, Geli. Okay. I’ll call you later.” Logan hung up the phone and turned in the bed to see Melanie awake and watching him.

“Everything ok
ay?”

“Yeah, Heath called me before
, asking to go to Austin’s for a sleepover but Linda wouldn’t take him, so I called Geli. She’s gonna pick him up and bring him over.”

Melanie stretched. “Mmmmm.” Then she yawned.

“This is
, by far, the best trip to Sturgis so far,” he said.

Melanie smiled and her eyes lit up as if remembering something.

“What?” Logan asked.

“Tell me about the woman with the butterfly nipple patches,” she said playfully.

Logan laughed. “What else did Richie tell you?”

“Nothing. Why, is there more?”

“Oh, um, no. So the girl with the butterfly nipple patches. Okay-”

“Logan?”

“What?” He grinned.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to know?”

“No. You don’t want to know.” He grabbed her and tucked her into the crook of his arm.

“So
, Richie and I are in this saloon, it’s not there anymore, and we’re buzzed, well maybe a little more than buzzed, and this waitress with butterfly pasties comes up to us. She had really big tits and she was really pretty too, and I don’t know, it’s easy to tell first timers, I guess. So, she comes up to us and invites us into the back room. We’re excited. We think we’re cool. We’re walking behind this hot chick with big boobs to a private party or something. She tells us to sit down. Now it’s dark in there, only a lamp light. So, we sit down on two chairs and she hits a switch and music starts to play. She Rides, by Danzig”

Mela
nie shrugged.

“
Never heard of it? It’s your usual stripper music.”

She giggled. “Usual stripper music? I didn’t know there was usual music for stripping.”

He looked at her in wonder. “It’s refreshing.”

“What is?”

He just shook his head and thought,
how innocent.
And he just knew she’d never been to a strip club.

“Anyway,
she dances over to us, swaying her hips. She had on a short ruffled skirt and we saw her ass and knew she was wearing a thong. The chick was smokin’. She shakes her tits in Richie’s face, and man, you had to see his face. The grin he had.” He chuckled while shaking his head. “She picks up one of his hands and places it on her tit and now Richie brings his other hand up too, and he’s getting into feeling her up. He even tweaks her nipples and the patches fall off. Okay, it’s hot. She didn’t seem to mind either. She comes over to me and starts shaking her tits in my face, but now she starts to shake her hips and then she grabs my hand, and now I’m so fucking hard just thinking about feeling her tits and instead of putting my hand on her tits she puts it up her skirt. Now I’m thinking, yeah, I’m going for the gold. Man, you ever hear music playing, you’re into it and then all of a sudden you hear an ear piercing screeching and it stops? That went on in my head.”

Melanie picked her head up to look at him.

He was hysterical laughing. “Now keep in mind I don’t go around feeling them, but she had the biggest boner I had ever felt. Mine being the only other boner I felt.” He added for good measure.

Melanie’s eyes and mouth went wide and she cracked up laughing. “She was a he?”

“She was a he,” he confirmed. “He was a transvesdyke. I jumped out of my chair so fast that the chair fell backwards. Richie looks to me but I was too shocked to speak and the girl, um, I mean the guy laughs as he sashays over to Richie and grabs his hand and shoves it up his skirt. Richie jumped up shouting ‘What the fuck’ and runs out the door.”

“What’d you do?”
Melanie asked, practically rolling with laughter.

“Oh, I was right behind him. We ran out
of that saloon too. Someone was yelling, and ran after us for about a block or two. To this day, we think the manager or someone tried to run after us for payment or something.”

Melanie was gasping for air she was laughing so hard.

“Oh, you think that’s funny?” He teased her as he grabbed her arm and brought her down on top of him.

“Yes,
" she replied.

They soon both stopped la
ughing. They stared intensely into each other’s eyes.

“So pretty,” he said.
Then he brought his lips to hers and began making sweet love to her.

They culminated their trip with a ride to Mount Rushmore. All but Melanie had seen it before. And like most, who have had the privilege of seeing it, she was awed by it.

It took them three days to get home and in that time Melanie got a phone call from her sister saying that Michael was out of jail.

Well, at least she was able to enjoy the trip without having to worry about that, but it just made
it more frustrating for her to even have to think about him. He’d become so irrelevant in her life that it seemed almost unfair to have to still look over her shoulder. She was becoming more and more content with living in Wimberley. She felt like she was on vacation all the time there, and it didn’t hurt at all to be in a relationship with the hottest cowboy there, either.

The first thing they did when they got back was to drive over to Melanie’s and check up on the place. She rarely spent time there anymore and wanted to make sure things were good for Charlie.

They stopped in on Gabe who assured them that he kept an eye on the place and
they made plans to do dinner with him.

When they got to Logan’s he dropped her off and she started the laundry and dinner while he went to pick up Heath.

She was on the computer reading over a manuscript when they came in. Heath was cold to her, but she expected it. Logan and she talked about it and knew that Linda was feeding him stories, so whenever that happened, it took some work to win Heath’s trust again but it was always worth it. She grew to love his son and her heart ached with some of the stories he would tell his father about his home life with his mother.

By the end of the next week
, she must have grown on Heath, because he wasn’t cold anymore. He was sweet and relaxed around her.

That weekend
, Logan, Richie and Heath were going to Corpus Christi for a guy’s weekend. Logan told her they did it the past two years and now they look forward to it. Just a little getaway before Heath goes back to school. They fish, horseback ride on the beach, and just bond. It’s relaxing but he sure wished she could come with them, but Heath was always saying he couldn’t wait for the guys’ weekend. Logan didn’t want to disappoint him. He relayed this to Melanie and she assured him it was fine and she told him she’d miss him.

With Heath loaded up and waiting in the truck, Logan was saying goodbye to Melanie in front of Richie’s house. Richie was inside doing last minute packing.

They had their arms wrapped around each other, a sight Heath was now familiar with, and he went over some things with her.

She was to stay here at Richie’s house with Kara. He had state of the art security, and when she protested, he threatened to call off the guys’ weekend. That wasn’t something he wanted to do because he wanted to take that weekend to talk to Heath about having Melanie in their lives permanently. This he didn’t relate to Melanie because if Heath wasn’t good with it he wouldn’t be either. Oh, man, he needed to convince Heath. He knew he couldn’t walk away from her. She was his addiction.

And she didn’t want him to call if off either. Heath would be so disappointed.

“Ok
ay, so no going anywhere by yourself-”

“Logan.”

“No. Promise me, Mel or I call off the trip.”

She sighed as she nodded her head. “No going anywhere by myself. Got it.
”

“Brett and my grandfather will be here often to check up on you.”

She rolled her eyes.

He frowned.

“If you go out at night, call the security firm Richie uses and they’ll send someone to escort you. In fact, anytime during the day and in between my family keeping and eye, call them.”

“Logan. This is crazy. I don’t want to be a burden.”

“Burden? That’s the furthest thing from my mind. I just want to keep you safe, baby.”

They looked intently at each other as the front door to Richie’s house opened and out came him and Kara.

They all kissed hello and then Logan grabbed Melanie again for a long, weak kneed kiss.

Heath
watched from inside of the truck and brought his hands up to his eyes and with a giggle, covered them.

Richie
caught him and laughed out loud, and Logan and Melanie broke their kiss and looked to Richie who nodded to Heath. They turned around and laughed at the sight of him.

“Have fun
, baby,” Melanie said to him.

He liked that she called him that.

“We will. I’ll call you when we get there.”

“Ok
ay.” She walked away and he grabbed her arm and brought her in for a quick kiss. Then let her go and waited for her and Kara to go inside and close the door.

That night, Melanie and Kara met up with Geli, and the girls went out to dinner and had a few drinks. Kara called the security firm and they had a big heavily built guard tail them all night.

The next day, Melanie and Kara were going for a waxing and Kara called the security firm again. Melanie looked to her. “I thought it was only at night.”

“Richie said to call no matter when we step out.”

****

“I wish we could have brought our horses with us,” Heath said to Logan as they, along with Richie, were riding along the beach at sunset.

It was a warm
day and the sky was a colorful red and yellow, muted by the clouds. They were by the water’s edge, trotting.

“Yeah
, buddy. Maybe next time.” Logan said as he was trying to enjoy the scenery.

Whenever he didn’t have much on his mind, it would turn to Melanie. He wished she was on his horse in front of him. She mentioned she loved riding
along the beach. She would like this.

He knew he was prolonging it because he was afraid of the outcome.

“Hey
, buddy, I want to talk to you.”

“Yeah
, dad.”

“So, what do you think of Melanie?”

He giggled. “Oooh, you two kissed.”

Logan
looked to Richie and the both of them shared a smile. “Yeah. Are you okay with it?”

“Yeah. I like her. She
’s nice to me.”

“Yeah, she likes you
, too.”

“She’s pretty
.”

“Yeah.”

“She likes the color lavender like me.”

Logan nodded his head. “Yeah, she does.”
He paused a few moments. “So, you’d be all right if I ask her to marry me?”

Heath’s eyes shot to his father’s. “What about mom?”

“What about her?”

“Don’t you like her anymore?”

He wasn’t going to tell his son he couldn’t stand his mother. He glanced at Richie who gave him a sympathetic look.

“Boys, I’ll see you back at the stables,” Richie said and he took off in a gallop.

“Heath, you know your mom and I are not together
, right?”

Heath looked around. He looked anywhere but at his father. “I know. Austin’s mother and father are together.”

“I know.”

Neither of them talked
about it anymore at that point.

Logan w
as somber the rest of the night, all through dinner, all through playing video games.

Richie was great to have around. He would interrupt Logan’s thoughts when it was his turn to play or nudge him when Heath would ask him a question.

When Logan went to tuck Heath into bed, Heath asked, “Will she take you away from me?”

“Who?”

“Melanie. If you marry her?”

Logan felt like he let out a breath for the first time since their horseback riding earlier and he also realized
Heath said her name correctly.

He smiled. “Of course not. I told you that before. Don’t you remember?”

“Yes, sir. I just wanted to hear it again, I guess.”

“Any time
, Heath. Anytime.”

“Mom always has different guys around. I don’t even know them. Some of them scare me.”

Logan gritted his teeth and felt bile in his throat.

“You always have Melanie around. You make her happy and she makes you happy.
I can tell.”