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  “I haven’t even started the clock.”

  He bent even closer, taking his hands out of his pockets and cupping her face. Long fingers, she thought, nice hands…

  She took in a lungful of oxygen, bracing herself for her first encounter with a guy since Malcolm. Actually, as far as anything sexual went, her ex had been her first, her only…

  Eddie had paused a sigh away from her lips.

  That’s when Carmen realized that she’d gone stiff, like a girl who was awaiting a first kiss and didn’t know what to expect.

  Wild child, indeed.

  “You okay with this?” Eddie almost seemed amused.

  She exhaled, but it did nothing to ease her furious heartbeat. “I’ll be honest. I don’t do much messing around.”

  They were still so close that she was forced to talk softly, almost brushing his lips with hers.

  “Ah,” he said, backing away, but only slightly. And he didn’t remove his hands from her face, either. In fact, he explored her cheeks with his thumbs, strumming her.

  Carmen closed her eyes, well played, vibrations seeping downward until they pooled in a spot that had been buzzing in limbo since they’d come in here.

  “Sorry,” she said, laughing a little to lighten the moment. “Here I am, the older woman, and I’ve only had a blip of dating experience.”

  “A blip.”

  “I mean that I dated the same guy for years when most everyone else was running around experimenting.”

  “The same guy, huh?”

  One of his hands was now stroking her hair back, and she all but melted. She was a total sucker for hair play.

  “I’m not with him now,” she added. “We recently broke up. All that history, down the drain.”

  He listened, stroking, looking into her eyes. It was easy to keep going on.

  So she did, finding herself spilling the beans about Malcolm and his cheating. Eddie kept listening—patient and in no hurry for her to finish.

  “I even think,” she continued, “that the worst part wasn’t the breakup. That turned out to be a blessing, because ending things with Malcolm didn’t even hurt that much. We’d gone different directions, started drifting apart. It was his lying that got to me. The feeling that I’d been such an idiot and hadn’t seen any of it happening right beneath my nose.”

  Eddie nodded, his fingers traveling down to her neck, where he caressed the tender dip between her collarbones. She swayed at the sharp sensation, the pierce of need that split her.

  Head fuzzy, her eyelids went heavy, and her next words barely made it out of her mouth.

  “It’s never going to happen again,” she said. “Being left in the dark.”

  And maybe that’s why she’d come to Eddie tonight: because, with a stranger, lies probably wouldn’t be important.

  She took in his scent: his skin, clean and fresh. It washed through her, a soothing rush.

  “If you don’t like the dark,” Eddie whispered, “we’ll just leave the light on.”

  She couldn’t stand it anymore. The tension between them finally snapped and pulled her toward him.

  As she pressed her lips against his, every fiber connecting her sizzled. She was wired with longing, stimulated by the softness of a kiss.

  He folded her in his arms, and she had to stand on her tiptoes as she sought more, devouring him. As if reading what she needed, he bent lower, accommodating the height difference, and she moaned, relaxing into a more leisurely kiss while her hands skimmed his back.

  Lean muscles streamlined him, and she indolently parted her lips, inviting him farther inside.

  All male, she thought, missing the feel of one: the harder, rougher touches, the bigger hands and the wider chests. But she loved getting to know a new man even more…

  His tongue explored her, slowing their tempo until he withdrew to press small kisses to the tip of her mouth. Her jaw. Her neck.

  Carmen opened her eyes, the overhead light blurring and burning into her. She moved with every gentle buss, grasping his shirt until it bunched in her hands. And when he sucked her earlobe into his mouth, she fell against him, her breasts crushed into his chest.

  Her nipples pebbled at the contact, and their sensitivity made her weaker, even as she grew stronger.

  This is way better than I remember, she thought cloudily. A first kiss. Shouldn’t it be more awkward? Sloppier? Shouldn’t—

  A knock on the door wedged them apart.

  “Hey, lovebirds?” a male voice said. “I gotta go.”

  Carmen’s hand absently went to her hair. It felt mussed up, and she realized that Eddie had been lulling her by running his fingers through it. She hadn’t even been aware—not with everything else that’d been going on.

  “I guess seven minutes is up?” she asked.

  “I think it was a while ago.”

  Eddie took her chin between his thumb and index finger. When their eyes met, he looked at her—No, in her.

  The penetration shook her, but maybe that was only her body reacting to the aftermath of their kiss.

  “You’ve been the highlight of this trip, Carmen,” he finally said.

  “You just started.”

  “And, believe me, before this afternoon, I was ready for it to end.”

  Again, she wondered just why he was with his friends if he wasn’t enjoying himself.

  “But,” he continued, “we’re off to Lake Havisu tomorrow. There’s a houseboat we’ll be using and it wasn’t ready today. If you want to come…”

  He left the option hanging, and impetuously, Carmen wanted to grab it, to see what tugging on it might unleash if that kiss was any indication.

  “Maybe I’ll check with Lucy,” Carmen said. She had already gotten her way today with the Vegas cancellation, and it wasn’t fair to her friend to demand more. “I’ve already asked a lot of her.”

  As more people knocked on the door, Eddie bent down to give her one last, lingering kiss. It tingled on her lips, even when he pulled back.

  “Try to persuade her?” he whispered.

  Then, as he turned around to unlock the door, he slayed her with that grin.

  Yow. Za.

  He opened the door, revealing two of his friends: the blond curly-haired girl and Richie, the birthday boy. After a strange look at Eddie, who ignored her, Blondie bolted past them and shut the door as soon as they crossed the threshold.

  Glam-rock music filled the room while they avoided Richie’s low “whoo-whoo” whistle, instead making their way back to the dwindling party. The strawberry-blond girl with Lindsay Lohan freckles—Carmen had only noticed thanks to Lucy—was stretched out on a bed with a pillow over her head. One of the guys lounged beside her. The remaining two were chatting at the Quarters table, the game abandoned.

  But, much to Carmen’s shock, they had another guest.

  Lucy was sitting at the table, too, her hair tousled, her skin flushed, her eyes glowing.

  And, most curious of all, her smile loopy.

  “Lucy?” Carmen asked.

  Her friend’s smile widened, and she let out a laugh that made Carmen wonder what the hell had happened in Lucy Land tonight.

  AFTER SEX with the cowboy, Lucy had been bursting with crazy energy, so without wasting any time, she’d hoofed it back to the party, dying to share what she’d done.

  Carmen would never believe it. And maybe hearing the story out loud would even convince Lucy that she’d broken a lamp while doing the dirty with a mysterious cowboy.

  Her friend had taken one look at Lucy then hustled her back to their room where the entire story unfolded. Afterward, the other woman had looked at Lucy as if she’d lost her mind.

  And maybe Lucy had.

  Even now, Carmen sat on her bed, openmouthed.

  Lucy shifted. Yup, she’d had sex with a man whose name she didn’t know.

  Long live the new Lucy—a woman who could damn well walk away instead of the opposite scenario.

  “Where did you…meet this co
wboy guy?” Carmen asked.

  Lucy couldn’t help but notice that her friend had some finger-tousled hair going on herself, but she saved her own questions until later.

  “The diner,” Lucy said. “I mean…we kind of talked. In a way. Sort of.”

  “What does that mean?”

  A laugh burbled out of Lucy. This was nuts. “He overheard Eddie inviting us to the motel and, while I was in the gift shop, thought to warn me about hooking up with strangers. Ironic, huh?”

  Carmen closed her eyes, clearly still processing everything. “So you actually chatted for a few minutes with this…what’s his name?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The other woman’s eyes almost bugged out of her head. “I thought you might be just kidding about that part.”

  “Nope.”

  As Carmen rested a hand against her forehead, Lucy added, “It’s not like it’ll matter. Remember what you told me earlier, in the car? How you made that stranger fantasy seem so appealing? Well, it sure turned out to be.”

  “I just…” Carmen waved her hands around. “I never expected this from you. You never even said anything about him in the car.”

  “He’d mentioned he was staying here, but nothing like this ever happens to me, so I kept my trap shut.”

  “But it did happen to you.” Carmen paused. Then the situation seemed to hit her all at once, and she laughed, coming over to sit on Lucy’s bed. “You little pixie, you. Was it everything you ever dreamed of?”

  In spite of Carmen’s light tone, Lucy’s body flared, as if heating with the imprints of his hands and lips on her skin. She could still feel his erection filling her up, thick and hard.

  “It was…more,” she said. “You know, regular sex is so run of the mill, I suppose. You go out a few times, kiss, build up to the big moment, and it’s all very good, but…” She flapped a hand in front of her warming face. “Then there’s tonight’s sex.”

  And then there was her, Lucy Christie, the girl who wore conservative skirts to work every day and knew her company’s human resources manual backward and forward. She’d gone crazy in the heat, and it’d happened faster than she could’ve ever imagined.

  Her cooped-up id had finally come out to play.

  Carmen took a pillow out from under the bedspread and hit her friend with it. “So what did he look like? I’ve got to know the juicy details.”

  “Why? You look like you could tell me some yourself.”

  “Oh, babycakes, I’ve got nothing on you. We’ll save my story for after.”

  So Lucy went into the gentler details, keeping the more intimate ones for herself. All the while, Carmen listened, an intrigued expression on her face.

  When Lucy finished, she tossed the pillow back at Carmen. “Now you.”

  “Me? I’m an amateur in the presence of a sex goddess.”

  “Come on, surely you and Eddie…”

  Carmen sighed and leaned back against the headboard. “A kiss. Can you believe it? After all my big-girl blather…And the thing was, I was scared to death.”

  Lucy widened her eyes.

  “No joke,” Carmen added. “When it came right down to it, I realized that I haven’t played the field and…Man, now that I think more about it, I suppose I could’ve been nervous that I might be a terrible lover and that’s why Malcolm had cheated.”

  “But you know that’s crap now?”

  “From the way Eddie seemed to enjoy kissing me? Um…yeah.” Something changed in Carmen’s eyes, a shift in thought. “I can’t believe this, but I think a kiss might’ve made me feel better than full-on sex could have.”

  Lucy just sat there, wondering how that might be possible after the night she’d had.

  Then Carmen sat up. “But that’s silly. Kisses are romantic and sex is sexy. And I’m not on the market for a romance, just a little nookie. Who needs to be tied down again.”

  “Carm, I’m sorry I took you away from Eddie.” Lucy nodded toward the door. “You going back?”

  Her friend got off the bed and went for her suitcase, opening it then grabbing an oversize SDSU T-shirt. “No, I think the party was winding down anyway. I’m fine with what I got…for now.”

  Lucy waited for the follow-up.

  And, indeed, while Carmen changed into her nightshirt, she explained about Eddie’s houseboat and Lake Havisu. Even before she’d finished, Lucy knew what they should do next on their revised road trip.

  “Seeing as I cut off your courting dance by blasting in there with my tale of tail,” Lucy said while Carmen went to the sink and brushed her teeth, “I think we should spend some time on the lake. We can cancel our other reservations and play everything by ear.”

  Besides, Lucy thought, she wanted Carmen to come away from their vacation satisfied, too.

  She dwelled over that word: satisfied. Was she? No, not really. Her body cried out for more.

  Because the more she got, the more independent she was bound to feel.

  Over by the sink, Carmen did a happy dance at the new arrangement. Glad to see it, Lucy hopped off the bed to get herself nightified, as well.

  Then she noticed something sticking out from under the pillow Carmen hadn’t disturbed. It looked like money, tucked under the crease of the pillow and bedspread.

  Money?

  She pulled it out as Carmen went into the bathroom.

  Three faded twenties.

  Lucy could only stand there. Had the cowboy left this? And what did it mean?

  Her glance coasted to the broken lamp on her nightstand—she and Carmen had enjoyed a good laugh over that when they’d first come in the room—and she wondered if maybe her one-night fling was merely paying for the damage. He’d told her he wanted to.

  However, even though she was sure that’s what the money was for, she hid the bills in her purse so Carmen wouldn’t see them.

  It was only another detail she wanted to keep to herself.

  Another part of a fantasy that was growing by the heartbeat.

  5

  THE NEXT MORNING over biscuits and gravy in the near-empty coffee shop, Lucy and Carmen talked about what they might want to do beyond Lake Havisu. Lucy was still getting used to this fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to life, and even if she ended up throwing out this particular list, it gave her a measure of direction.

  But the fact that she could throw it out only added an element of excitement to the next couple of weeks.

  “After you get what you want from this Havisu houseboat trip,” Lucy said, “there’s Oatman. It’d be the closest I’ll get to anything cowboy again.”

  She wasn’t quite ready to leave him behind, even though the money niggled at her. She’d even been hoping to see him in the coffee shop one last time, just so she could give the bills back. She earned enough money to be comfortable, and she didn’t like accepting any—especially with all its paid-by-the-hour echoes.

  “Oatman,” Carmen repeated. “We could go the tiny-Western-town route. I read in the guidebook that they stage gunfights there.”

  She’d taken the booth seat facing the door, and Lucy knew it was because her friend was hoping Eddie might come through.

  Both of them were so in heat.

  “Oatman’s not too far away from Lake Havisu City.” Lucy paged through the guidebook, coming to a map that she’d highlighted with their original route. She ignored the yellow line in favor of seeking out new options. “We’ll see what happens though, okay?”

  Carmen wiped her mouth with the napkin, grinning at Lucy. “Okay. And, Luce?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you.”

  Lucy shrugged it off, indicating that gratitude wasn’t necessary. She was pumped about seeing what was in store for them, and she hoped it included some action with Eddie for Carmen.

  But for Lucy, herself?

  Well, for now she would hold on to her cowboy fantasy because the novelty of it was still feeding her with ideas about what else she would change when she got home. Her
job?

  Yeah…Why was she chaining herself to something she didn’t enjoy?

  While trying to find an answer, Lucy settled the bill with Carmen, then prepared to move on. Her friend posted a quick blog on the office’s rental computer, and Lucy made arrangements to check out and pay for the damaged lamp. Then, after they climbed into their car, Lucy took a moment to appreciate their vehicle.

  To appreciate where she was and where she might be going.

  Previously, she’d merely been playing a wishful role—the girl on a nostalgic road trip—by borrowing this car from her brother. A red 2005 Mustang convertible with its retro-designed red leather seats and black highlights. But now, she felt as if she belonged in something so spirited.

  “And…we’re off,” Lucy said, starting the engine.

  But she didn’t head for the motel exit. Not yet. Instead, she drove the opposite way.

  “Where…?” Carmen started to ask.

  But she must have realized that Lucy wanted to cruise the motel, looking for signs of the cowboy. There’d been a beat-up red pickup near the office, as well as a gold SUV, but she couldn’t be sure either of them belonged to her stranger. So what should she do—knock on doors to find him?

  Dissatisfied, she headed for Eddie’s motel room.

  If neither of those vehicles were his, maybe her cowboy had left right after the sex, Lucy thought. Or maybe he was restless like her, wanting an early start on the day.

  Whatever it was, Carmen was in luck. Eddie’s subdued group was outside, clearly hungover. The guy himself was out there, too, dressed in jeans and a Henley with the sleeves rolled up his straining forearms to his elbows. He was the only person in the group moving with fluid grace while packing one of two cars—an old blue Cadillac. The other was a black Ranger.

  After stopping, Lucy allowed the engine to idle, and Eddie glanced up, a smile spreading across his face when he saw Carmen.

  Lucy elbowed her friend, cueing her to say something. Odd—nothing usually got confident Carmen’s tongue.

  Finally, the other woman managed to talk. “Looks like you’re packed for a long voyage.”