Rodeo Blues (6 page)

Whisper put her arms around Jolie and Tye's
shoulders as she positioned herself between them. "How about a
contest," Whisper said, "to see who can tie cherry stems into knots
with their tongue the fastest?"

Buddy threw back his head and laughed.
"Honey, I can do that simple trick in my sleep."

"Wanna make a wager?" Tye challenged.

"What's it going to be?" Jolie put her hands
on her hips, playing along.

Tye glanced at Jolie then to Buddy again and
said, "If I win, Jolie kisses me."

"She's been doing that all night," Buddy said
with a wave of his hand. "What do I get if I win? Do I get a kiss
from Jolie too?" Buddy's eyebrows bounced.

"No," Tye answered, his eyes narrowing.
"Jolie's my girl. If you win, you get a kiss from Whisper – if
she's game of course." He turned toward her for the answer.

Whisper looked Buddy over, her gaze sliding
over him as she tapped her chin with her index finger. "Oh honey,
if you win, I'll give you a kiss to knock your socks off."

"Jesus." Buddy inhaled deeply and let it out
again as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Where are
those cherries?"

Who knew the night of innocent game playing
would turn into something so much more…

Note to self,
Jolie
thought sometime later.
Never agree to have a
drink with an old boyfriend, and definitely never play pool with
him either.

Too bad she hadn't heeded those words
sooner.

Chapter Seven

With a groan, Jolie rolled over in bed to lie
on her back. Her hands held her head, hoping to steady the
throbbing between her temples. She peeked one eye open, then two,
when she realized the popcorn ceiling above her was not the smooth
ceiling of her bedroom. A movement beside her had her sitting up
with a start and she groaned again as a shot of pain ricocheted off
her skull.

When she could manage, she focused her gaze
on the man lying next to her. Not just any man –
Tye Casper.
How much did she have to drink last night? Apparently, enough to
have her fall into bed with Tye. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she
murmured under her breath. Her gaze took in her surroundings – king
size bed, dresser and mirror in the corner, thick drapes to ward
off the morning sun, trying desperately to stream through the
window, and a bathroom to the right near the door. She was in a
hotel – probably Tye's room he rented for his stay in Skeeter
Blue.

She glanced at Tye, who hadn't moved. On the
end table by his side of the bed, she spotted wrappers – condom
wrappers – at least she'd only been partially stupid. She focused
on the alarm clock where the digital numbers read 7:16. Still
early. She gingerly removed the covers, determined to dress and
sneak out of the hotel before Tye woke up, but as her toes hit the
carpet, the weight of the bed shifted.

"Where are you going, darlin'?" Tye's voice
was rough and worn from sleep.

There went her escape plan. She whipped
around ready to scold him for taking advantage of her in her
drunken state, but he sat up rubbing his head. Great, he'd been as
intoxicated as she'd been last night.
Boy, weren't they a great
pair?

"Darlin', what the hell were we drinking?" He
turned toward her, his gaze sliding over her naked body. She
grabbed the sheet and pulled it around her, yanking it free from
its confines of the mattress.

"Listen," she began, trying to think of the
right words, "about last night…" What did she want to say?
It had been fun. See ya.
She cleared her
throat. "Well…let's blame this," she waved her hand in front of
her, "on the drinks Whisper and Buddy supplied us with." Or had
they been doing the buying? She wasn't sure. But a vision of her
making a toast with champagne came to mind. She shook her head,
which proved a big mistake since the room spun from her
efforts.

"Okay," he said slowly as he stared at her
with those big amber colored eyes – bloodshot, but still
gorgeous.

"I have to go," she continued to ramble as
she took a step away from the bed. "I have a booth out at the
fairgrounds. I need to be there. The summer help can't be there by
themselves." She chuckled and tucked a wayward hair behind her
ears. "You know… I'm selling souvenirs and all."

"Okay," he said again with a tilt of his head
and leaned forward to rest his well-muscled arms on his thighs.

Her eyes shifted to his dark hair mussed and
sticking up as if she'd run her fingers through the strands over
and over again. She had a hunch she had. His chin sported a five
o'clock shadow, giving him a rugged edge, while his lips pouted,
begging her to kiss them. She tore her gaze away. "I have to
go."

"Okay."

She swung around to face him once more with
one hand on her hips as she tried to keep the sheet around her with
the other. "Is that all you have to say?"

"Well darlin', you seem determined to sneak
on out of here. I guess I won't stop you, but—"

"You won't stop me. Typical. Sleep with me
and waltz out again. It's a bad habit of yours."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're the one
leaving."

She
harrumphed
then pursed her lips.
She didn't have time for this…this…whatever this was. She grabbed
her panties and jeans from the floor and sat down on the edge of
the bed. She could feel Tye staring at her back, but she wouldn't
let him get to her. She managed the panties without dropping the
sheet, but she had to let it go to wiggle into her jeans. Glancing
around the room, she spotted her other clothing haphazardly thrown
here and there. She stood and strode over to the dresser and yanked
her bra from the lampshade and her blouse from the TV.

Please, oh please, let Tye
just remain silent.
He at least owed her that much dignity.
Once her bra was secure, she shoved her arms into the sleeves and
did a poor job of buttoning it. Tye came up behind her. She felt
the heat of his body, before he wrapped his arms around her waist.
She stiffened, but it didn't stop him from nuzzling a kiss between
her neck and collarbone.

"What I was going to say," Tye said, "you go
do what you need to do, but I'll come looking for you after my
event is over."

The warmth of his body surrounded her like a
blanket, comfy … familiar, and she melted against him. She squeezed
her eyes shut. "I can't do this, Tye. Please… I…"

He turned her around and captured her lips in
a long searing kiss. All thought fled her mind and she wrapped her
arms around his neck.

Only when she'd been thoroughly kissed did he
let her come up for air. His fingers brushed a wayward strand away
from her face as his gaze latched onto hers. "Much better." He
smiled then lifted her hand to his lips. "Good mornin',
darlin'."

She opened her mouth to tell him to
stop…whatever he was doing, but her gaze landed on her ring finger.
"What the…" she pulled her hand away from his and stared at the
makeshift ring fashioned out of cherry stems.

"It's a little fuzzy," he said, admiring the
cherry-stem ring, "but I believe I made that for you."

Some of the night came back to her in a flood
of embarrassment. Laughter, clinking their glasses together, and
downing drinks. Tye proposed to her and she… "Oh God."

"I believe you said yes," he said.

Great, he remembered too.
She backed
away and put her hands on her hips. "I was three sheets to the wind
and you believed me?"

"Well, since I was in the same condition –
yes."

She shook her head and backed up another
step. She had to get out of here.
Now
. She
searched for her boots. Finding them, she hopped on one foot as she
yanked it on, and then donned the other.

"Don't you think we should talk about this?"
he asked.

"No."

He stood there staring at her in all his
natural glory –
damn him. Why couldn't he put some clothes
on?

Finally, he threw up his hands and headed for
the bathroom.

Good.

He slammed the door and she cringed, but this
gave her the opportunity to skedaddle out of there. Only two
seconds later, he opened the door again.

"Jolie, darlin'," he said in a singsong voice
that really grated on her nerves. "You might want to take a look at
this?"

"Now what?" She strode over to the bathroom
door and followed his gaze to the mirror. Her eyes widened in
horror at the piece of paper stuck in the corner. She shoved him
out of the way and grabbed it, already knowing what it would
say.

Tye wrapped his arm around her waist and
leaned nearer to rest his chin on her shoulder. She met his gaze in
the reflection of the bathroom mirror. "Well,
Mrs.
Casper
, I guess you'll be talking to me after all."

Chapter Eight

Tye took a shower, leaving Jolie to hunt down
Mayor Dirkly regarding his part in marrying them last night.
Personally, he was in no hurry to annul their marriage, but it
seemed Jolie couldn't make the call fast enough. When he emerged
from the bathroom, she was still on her cell phone. From what he
could make out, Mayor Dirkly wouldn't cooperate one iota on her
demands. Tye dried his hair with a towel as he watched Jolie pace
their hotel room, trying to wiggle her way out of the marriage
she'd agreed to. She even signed the papers with a cute little
heart above the 'i' in her name.

"You can't be
serious
," she said to
Mayor Dirkly over the phone, her voice going up a few octaves as
she spoke each word. "The document can't be real," she insisted.
"We were as full as ticks. We didn't know what we were doing and
since when do you do business after hours? Maybe you were just as
drunk 'cause none of this makes sense. What?" She paused in her
tirade as Mayor Dirkly managed to get in a few words. He couldn't
make out what the man said, but Jolie's face turned a pretty shade
of crimson.

Sure, he would have done the proposing
differently, but he asked her to be his wife – and by the looks of
it, she said yes. Maybe they weren't thinking straight, then
again…maybe they had been. He promised to marry her when they were
all of eighteen. He may have been slow to make the promise a
reality, but it looked like he finally came through.

"Oh really," Jolie snapped. "You haven't
heard the last of this Mayor Dirkly." She ended the call and tossed
the cell phone on the bed with a scream of frustration. "This is
all your fault." She turned her anger on him.

He lifted his brows. "How do you figure?"

"You … you should have known better." She
threw up her hands.

"I take it Mayor Dirkly won't annul the
marriage?"

"No. Said it was all legal with witnesses and
all."

He'd noticed Whisper and Buddy's signatures.
So good of them to help out.

"And because we…"

"We what?"

"He won't give us an annulment because we
consummated the marriage."

He let out a short chuckle then shook his
head. "You told him?"

"Well, I didn't expect him to ask." The
faintest tinge of humor lit her eyes. "My sputtering like a fool
gave him all he needed to know we'd spent the night together."

"You never were a very good liar," he
admitted.

Jolie ran a hand over her face and inhaled
deeply before letting out a cleansing breath. "We need to take care
of the annulment immediately," Jolie said. "We'll just see what
Mayor Dirkly has to say when we show up at his office and demand he
do what is right and proper. Marrying us when we were plastered…
What in the world could he have been thinking?"

Tye had a feeling he knew. He had a foggy
memory of telling the Mayor he owed him one. Told him he wouldn't
have had such a great turnout for his Cowboy Christmas in July
Rodeo if it wasn't for him. Then he might have done a little
blackmailing and stated he could always withdraw from the
event.