Текст книги "Playing With Fire"

Автор книги: Alison Bliss

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

Then he reached for me.

I didn’t even have a chance to run before the stars in the night sky swirled in my vision and the darkness overtook me.

The repetitious scratching irritated me, but it was the sulfuric odor that had awakened my senses. He was here. I could feel him beside me, even if I couldn’t see him. I blinked in the dark, searching for his figure, but was unable to find him. The scratching sounded again and fire exploded in front of my face in the form of a lit match.

A familiar fear rushed through my veins as the flame was extinguished with one alcohol-infused breath. The same breath I remembered from my earliest childhood memories. But was he gone?

No, he was still here. Always here.

When a man’s voice called out my name, I shot straight up. My eyes widened and swept the dark room, searching for two men: the dark-skinned man with the golden eyes and the man who had a starring role in my usual recurring nightmare. But they were nowhere to be found.

It wasn’t the first time I’d awoken in a panic and wondered if what I’d seen in my vision was real. Yet this time was different. The dark-skinned man on the porch had never been a part of my dreams before.

I shivered, although my bedspread covered me to my waist. As the terrifying images trapped inside my head replayed, my heart raced and tears pricked my eyes. I took shallow breaths to calm myself and shook my head. “It couldn’t have been a dream,” I said out loud, trying to convince myself I wasn’t crazy.

Yet, there I was, in my moonlit bedroom…alone.

Chapter Thirteen

After a long, mostly sleepless night, I’d finally resigned myself to seeing the date through. I wasn’t sure exactly how well the night with Cowboy would go, but I needed to do this for myself. Too many times I longed for a man to find me desirable and treat me as he would any woman. I wasn’t about to pass up a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Things were about to get very real, very fast, and I needed to be ready.

I spent the day primping and preparing myself for our date. I’d cleaned my house, washed my sheets, showered, and painted my toenails a pretty shade of coral. Not to mention my trip into town to buy the biggest box of condoms I’d ever seen, that were now resting on my bedside table. Just looking at them made me nervous.

Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. The note I’d found in my mailbox on my way to town had me slightly off-kilter before I’d even picked up the condoms. It said, “Think your hot stuff now? Wait ’til the fire starts.” The glaring grammatical issue on the crinkled paper was the least of my concerns.

The Barlows’ threats were becoming more serious each day. I was no longer certain ignoring them was the best course of action, though I doubted confronting them would do the situation justice. So, for tonight, I’d decided to put it out of my mind and tackle only one thing at a time. Starting with Cowboy.

I smoothed out the wrinkles in my pale blue, flowery sundress and slipped on my white sandals. I wasn’t sure what to wear for a one-night stand, so I just went with something simple and feminine. It was a safe bet. I’d never seen Cowboy in anything other than jeans and a T-shirt, so anything more than casual would be considered way overdressed.

When a truck rumbled to a stop outside, I tousled my loose hair one last time, checked my makeup in the mirror, and hurried to the door. I even waited for him to announce his arrival before opening it, just to keep from looking too eager.

The moment he knocked, I swung open the door and stepped directly into The Twilight Zone. Someone looking an awful lot like Cowboy stood in my doorway with a bouquet of pink roses. Except this guy was wearing a blazer, had his hair combed to the side, and was missing a cowboy hat.

What the hell?

He grinned at me. “Hey, ready to go?”

“Um, okay.” It sounded more like a question looming in the air. “Let me just put these in some water first.”

Cowboy waited at the door for me, whistling a tune I didn’t recognize. He was certainly in a good mood. But then again, what guy isn’t if he thinks he’s about to get laid?

When I finished, I headed outside and he waited as I locked up. Once I turned back to him, he wordlessly offered me his arm and led me down the stairs and out to his vehicle. The red truck glinted in the fading sunlight, bright and shiny, as if he’d recently washed it.

Cowboy eyed my loose red strands before his gaze met mine and he grinned, as if he’d just noticed I wasn’t wearing my glasses. “By the way, you look beautiful tonight.”

“Thank you. So do you. I mean, you look very handsome.”

He held the door for me as I climbed inside and buckled up, then gave me a wink before closing it. I watched as he strutted around the front of the truck to the driver’s side, resembling a peacock proudly displaying his feathers. But, in this case, Cowboy was showing off his newfound gentlemanly behavior.

Silence sat between us for the first few miles. I spent most of that time sneaking peeks of his meticulously combed hairdo and uncomfortable-looking blazer and wondering what it all meant. The novelty of it all confused me. I yearned to run my fingers through his hair to mess it up and pull his blazer off in protest to see his broad shoulders I loved so much.

“I wasn’t sure where you wanted to go for dinner, so I thought we’d just go somewhere close by.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t stop the disappointment from leaching into my voice. Guess he was in a hurry to get back to my place.

“Is that okay? I just thought you’d be more comfortable that way.”

Yeah, right. “It’s fine.”

“Are you sure? I could call and get us reservations somewhere else, if you want,” he said, lifting his cell phone from the truck’s center console. “It’s last minute, but I’m sure I could find us something.”

“No, really. It’s okay.” I gave him a quick smile. “I’m just a little surprised, that’s all. I figured a guy like you would have this dating thing down to a science.”

He glanced over at me. “A guy like me?”

“You know, someone who dates a lot of different women.”

Cowboy turned left into the parking lot of a restaurant called Junior’s Diner, which resembled a big red barn, and parked in the front row. “I think we have different definitions of what a date is.”

My cheeks burned with the heat of embarrassment, so I removed my seat belt to avoid looking in his direction. “You know what I mean.”

Cowboy opened his door and stepped out. “Yeah, I do,” he said, sounding perturbed by my remark. After marching around to my side, he yanked open the passenger door and took my hand in his to help me out. “And just for the record, I haven’t been with nearly as many women as you think I have.”

“Really?” I climbed out of his jacked-up truck and my eyes grazed over his face, searching for signs of sincerity. “Because I heard you were quite the—”

“Hey, manwhore!” someone called out, redirecting our attention. Emily stood on the nearby curb with an amused grin on her face.

Cowboy narrowed his eyes at her intrusion. The look he gave her was priceless: no parts embarrassment, all parts aggravation. Then he turned back to me. “We’ll finish this conversation later.”

I smiled. “All right.”

“What are you two doing here?” Emily asked, squinting in confusion.

Cowboy hesitated. “We’re…uh, just having dinner.”

As we approached, Jake met Emily on the curb and his gaze landed on his friend. Jake’s eyes widened as he gawked at Cowboy’s attire and neatly styled hair. “What the fuck happened to you?”

I bit my lip to stifle my laughter and to keep from smiling, but Emily didn’t. She chuckled out loud without any reservations at all.

“Since when the hell did you start wearing blazers?” Jake asked.

“What are you, the fashion police?” Cowboy retorted. “Guess that’s what the FBI stands for: Fashion Bureau of—”

“Yeah, yeah. Knock it off.”

Cowboy gritted his teeth together, then relaxed his jaw. “What are you two doing here?”

“We’re celebrating,” Emily said, gleefully. “It’s been exactly six weeks since we’ve been able to have se—”

Jake covered Emily’s mouth and gave her a stern look. “Since we had Lily.” Then he removed his hand.

Emily rolled her eyes. “Oh, because they haven’t heard the word ‘sex’ before. Jesus, Jake. You’re such a prude sometimes.”

Apparently, I was, too. My face had warmed enough that I was pretty sure everyone could see my blushing cheeks from a mile away. Though I liked Emily a lot, being around her in a small group made me nervous. You just never knew what would fly out of her mouth next.

“Well, since we’re all here, why don’t we sit together?” she asked.

Crap.

“Emily,” Jake said, lowering his voice. “We should leave them alone. I think they’re on a date.”

“Date?” she repeated, wrinkling her nose. “Since when did Cowboy actually start dating? I thought he only had one-night stands.” Then she laughed. A lot. Sometime during her fit of laughter, she must’ve realized that no one else had joined in and that there was some awkward tension buzzing from the rest of us, because she stopped giggling. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to come out sounding…well, you know.”

I gave her a nonchalant shrug and a soft smile. “It’s okay. Why don’t we just go in and enjoy ourselves?”

“Sounds good,” Jake said, moving past us through the entrance.

Cowboy took that as his cue and entered as well, while I followed behind him. As I passed by Emily, she mouthed an apology to me and I gave her a nearly imperceptible nod to let her know I wasn’t angry. Then we followed the men inside.

I’d never been to Junior’s Diner before, but I loved the atmosphere. The restaurant had a western decor with Old West paraphernalia tacked on every wall. Antique saddles, old spurs, and rusted horseshoes surrounded us.

Jake picked a table in the center of the room. “This okay?”

Cowboy nodded his approval and we sat on one side as Emily and Jake took the other. I’d barely planted my butt in the chair when a pretty young woman approached us while digging in the purse she had strapped over her shoulder.

She stood on Cowboy’s opposite side and giggled shyly. “Would you mind giving me your autograph?” she asked, whipping out a pen and a pocket-sized version of the Liberty County Bachelor calendar.

“Uh, sure,” Cowboy replied uncomfortably. He shifted in his chair as he flipped to the month of May and scrawled his name across his racy photograph before handing it back to her. “There ya go.”

“Would you sign mine, too?” Another woman popped up beside him, holding out a pocket calendar, looking hopeful and eager.

Cowboy smiled politely and gave her a nod as he took her calendar and administered the same treatment to it as the one before. But as he handed the woman back her calendar, another took her place. She held out a Sharpie and smiled flirtatiously at him. “Would you mind?”

“No problem,” Cowboy answered, waiting for her to hand him her calendar.

But instead, she bent down, practically shoving her cleavage in his face. “Just sign anywhere you like,” she purred with a blatant sexual overtone.

My eyes widened. Though it was rude for her to hit on my date, especially right in front of me, I didn’t say anything. I had no claim on Cowboy and wouldn’t pretend like I did. But Cowboy glanced over at me with uncertainty in his eyes, as if he wasn’t sure how to handle the situation any more than I was. So I did the only thing I could do to put him at ease. I pretended to be oblivious to the woman’s request by starting up a neutral conversation with his friends.

“Emily, did you have a good time last night?”

“Yep. Especially when you slapped the crap out of Cowboy. I’m guessing that wasn’t a love tap you gave him on the dance floor.”

I cringed. Well, that didn’t work out in my favor. “Oh. You saw that?”

The woman standing there giggled, though Cowboy clenched his jaw. He quickly signed his name on her forearm and handed the marker back. “Sorry, I’m on a date. Best I can do.” The woman sighed, disappointment tugging at her features, but retreated without another word. As she walked away, Cowboy mouthed a silent “sorry” to me and draped his arm on the back of my chair.

“Are you kidding? Everyone saw it. No doubt Jeremy did, too. That’s probably the reason he targeted you. Jeremy’s an ass like that. But then again, I guess he isn’t the only one,” she said, directing her attention to Cowboy with a suspicious gleam in her eye. “You must’ve done something pretty bad to cause our sweet little Anna to have that reaction.”

God, I wish everyone would stop calling me that. It makes me sound like a four-year-old.

Cowboy’s gaze cut to me, but I just lifted a brow and shrugged. Technically, they were his friends first, and if he wanted them to know, then he should be the one to tell them.

He combed his fingers through his hair, as if he were contemplating what to say. “I sort of…called her a liar.”

Emily’s eyes widened, but Jake chuckled and said, “That was your bright idea? To go over there and insult her? Jesus, Cowboy. Talk about open mouth, insert boot.”

“Shut up,” Cowboy sneered, firing daggers at Jake with his eyes.

Emily cringed, then leaned over to her husband. “Um, Jake, why don’t we go look for the waitress?”

But he was oblivious to the reason for her request. “You do know in here the waitresses come to the table. We don’t have to go look—” The contemptuous glare Emily gave him finally sank in. “Oh. Okay, sure.”

The moment they walked away, Cowboy grasped my hand in his. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m not very good at the whole dating thing. Tonight’s not going at all the way I planned.”

“That’s okay,” I said, giving him a genuine smile. “To be honest, I haven’t been on many dates before so I didn’t have any pre-conceived notions.” Not about the dinner portion of our date, anyway.

Cowboy’s brows furrowed. “My original idea was to take you by horseback down to Rickety Bridge, have a picnic, and then we could have cooled off in the old watering hole, but I wasn’t sure if you would think it was lame or not.”

“Actually, it sounds wonderful, but I…well, I don’t swim.”

“That’s okay. I could teach you,” he offered, looking hopeful.

“No, that’s not exactly…um, what I mean is, I know how to swim. I just…” I peered down at our hands as he linked his fingers with mine.

“You don’t want to get into a swimsuit?” he asked. When I nodded silently, he reached over and tilted my chin up until my eyes met his gaze. “Darlin’, the only person here who is bothered by your scars is you.”

His words warmed my heart, melting the tension. The sincerity in his voice and eyes left little doubt that he was telling the God’s honest truth. He didn’t care about my scars. And the sheer notion sent endorphins rushing through my system, filling me with relief.

Until he winked and added, “Besides, who needs swimsuits?”

I sighed inwardly as Jake and Emily returned to the table with a waitress who handed us menus. She was an older woman but she chewed and smacked her gum as loudly as any teenager. She took our drink orders, shoved her notepad into her apron, and pulled out a pocket calendar of her own.

Sheesh.

Before she could even speak, I rose from my seat. “Excuse me for a moment,” I said, heading in the direction of the restrooms. I didn’t really need to go to the bathroom, but I couldn’t sit through another moment of these women stroking Cowboy’s ego. No wonder the man was insatiable. He had women coming out of the woodwork to get to him.

In the small room, I checked my makeup and hair in the mirror and then washed my hands. I waited a few more minutes, then left, working my way back to our table. But halfway there, I bumped directly into a tall, broad Native American man wearing a black western shirt with white pearl snaps who smelled eerily of mint. I started to apologize, but the moment my gaze met his, the only thing that left my throat was a strangled gasp.

Oh my God! It was him.

Last night, I hadn’t realized he was a Native American, but standing before him now, face-to-face, I had no doubt this man was the very same man I’d seen on my back porch. His long, silky black hair was braided this time, but I recognized the minty scent of the chaw of tobacco he held in his bottom lip and the golden hawk eyes sliced into my soul.

But that was a dream, wasn’t it?

The dark-skinned man blinked at me, almost as if he…recognized me, too. Then an unpleasant scowl appeared on his face. “Don’t scream,” he ordered and put his hand on his hip, which showcased a large knife in a brown leather sheath.

Jesus! It hadn’t been a dream. So I did what any intelligent woman would do in that situation. I screamed.

The sound could’ve shattered glass and basically did, since a young waitress passing by dropped the drink-filled tray she’d carried. Shards of clear glass lay on the wet tile floor at her feet as everyone in the restaurant—including Jake, Cowboy, and Emily—jumped to their feet. Cowboy came running toward us, but since the man in front of me was armed, I didn’t bother waiting for him to arrive.

I grabbed the first thing I could reach on the nearest vacant dish-covered table and pointed it at the man in front of me. The corner of his mouth lifted into a tiny smirk. To him, it may have only been a dirty butter knife. But to me, it was a deadly weapon, one I planned to gouge his eyes out with if he came any closer.

“Anna…?” Cowboy stopped beside the man and held up his two hands, as if surrendering. “Sweetheart, what are you doing?”

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“It’s me, Cowboy.”

“Not you. Him.” I nodded toward the burly Native American.

The two men exchanged casual glances, but the Indian spoke up first. “She saw me last night.”

Cowboy blinked in surprise, then shook his head. “What the fuck do you mean she saw you? You’re a goddamn tracker, Junior. You’re supposed to be good at this shit.”

Junior? As in the owner of Junior’s Diner?

The man named Junior gave Cowboy a death stare. “She caught me standing on her back porch and fainted. I caught her before she fell and carried her back to bed. You could have warned me she doesn’t sleep.”

“What do you mean she doesn’t sleep?” Cowboy asked him. “Of course she does.”

“Not for more than two hours at a time on any given night.”

Cowboy wore a perturbed expression. “Then what the hell is she doing if she’s not—”

“Stop talking about me as if I’m not standing right here.”

Cowboy’s hard gaze landed on me, but his tone softened. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

I placed the dirty butter knife back on the nearby table. “That’s none of your business. Why are you having me followed by your…er, friend?”

“He’s not following you. He lives about a mile up the road from your house and I asked him to keep an eye on you.”

“Well, you should’ve cleared that with me first.”

“I didn’t want you to worry. I told you I’d handle the situation with the Barlow boys, and that’s what I was doing. You don’t have to lose any sleep over them.”

“Look, I appreciate your concern, but you can’t have someone watching my house and not tell me. This gentleman…Junior, is it? He’s scared the devil out of me twice already.”

With wide eyes, Cowboy tossed Junior a dumbfounded look. “Twice? Christ, Junior. Maybe next time I should get Big Jim’s three-year-old twins to ride their tricycles over to her house and keep an eye out. They’re low enough to the ground that she might not have spotted them,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Some fucking tracker you are.”

Junior’s eyes narrowed and his voice held a menacing tone. “If you want to know what it feels like to be skinned alive, keep talking.”

I shuddered visibly.

“It’s okay, Anna. Junior’s just spouting off. He wouldn’t really do it.”

With a lethal gleam in his eye, the big Indian put his hand directly on his knife at his side and cocked an eyebrow at Cowboy. I don’t know whether Cowboy believed what he said or not, but the color suddenly drained from his face as he gave Junior a weak smile.

Junior wore a stone-cold expression, but it softened as he shifted his gaze onto me. “You didn’t see me twice.”

“Yes, I did. I saw you about a week ago standing at the edge of my property. You were watching me from the tree line.”

“Wasn’t me,” he said, his mouth grim. “Last night was the first time I’d ever dismounted from my horse and approached the house. Had to be someone else.”

Cowboy must’ve believed him because his eyes immediately lit with concern. My heart leaped into my throat and my knees wobbled, but I steadied them. This was not the right time to have a nervous breakdown. Not that there ever was a good time for that.

I glanced around the room, realizing all eyes were on me. Between the threatening notes that had me on edge, the disastrous date gone wrong, and the events of last night’s public embarrassment, I couldn’t take any more. “Cowboy, w-would you please take me home? I think I’ve caused enough of a scene tonight. It’s probably a good idea to—”

“Go back to our house and order pizza,” Emily chimed in. At first, I thought maybe she had something in her eye, but then I realized it was an exaggerated wink. She obviously thought she was somehow helping me out. “We have alcohol,” she whispered. “Lots of it.”

I’d never been much of a drinker, but I was suddenly parched, imagining that this was how it felt to think, “God, I could go for a drink about now.”

Emily stood on the other side of her dining room table, holding up the bottle of white wine. “More?”

“Why not? One more glass won’t hurt.” I pressed my cool hand to my hot cheek and swayed a little in my chair. Nope, I was definitely not hurting…anywhere.

Cowboy grinned. “Darlin’, maybe you should slow down a little.”

“Oh, please!” Emily shrieked. “Since when did you not know how to have fun? Don’t tell me Jake has finally rubbed off on you.”

“Hey!” Jake said, clearly offended. “I’m lots of fun.” He leaned over the table and snagged Emily’s top with one finger, pulling her to him. Then he took a quick peek down her shirt and grinned. “See? Fun.”

Cowboy stood up fast. “Okay, I think it’s time for us to go and let you two have some alone time.”

“It’s fine,” Emily said, waving off his comment. “Floss is keeping Lily until the morning. I pumped breast milk by the bucketful earlier today just so Lily wouldn’t run out in the middle of the night.”

“Still, it’s your first night alone since you had Lily,” Cowboy said. “I doubt you two want to spend it with us.”

“Hold up,” Jake told him. “I wanted to show you our new bay mare out in the barn real quick. Won’t take but a few minutes.”

“All right.” Cowboy glanced at me. “I’ll be right back to take you home.”

The knot in my throat wouldn’t allow me to answer him, so I just nodded an okay and took a large gulp of my wine.

“Don’t be out there too long, Jake,” Emily said with a quick wink. “Since they’re leaving, I have plans for us…something that might involve pickles.”

Jake gave her a quick kiss on the lips and headed for the door, wearing a huge grin. “I’m feeling a little lazy tonight. Might let you do all the work,” he teased.

Emily smirked at him. “So what else is new?”

Cowboy chuckled as Jake stepped out the door, mumbling under his breath.

I waited until the door shut behind them. “Pickles?”

Emily laughed. “Jake won’t allow me to eat pickles in front of him anymore. My entire pregnancy, he swore I was torturing him.”

Normally, I would’ve blushed and stammered all over myself after a sexual innuendo such as that, but the alcohol in my system lent me some perspective. Instead, I broke into a fit of giggles.

“About time you loosened up,” Emily said, smiling. “Now would you mind telling me what’s going on between you and Cowboy?”

“We’re friends.” My cheeks grew warmer, so I took a sip of my chilled wine.

“Uh-huh. And Jake and I are brother and sister,” she said. “Has he tried to undress you yet?”

Nearly swallowing my tongue, I choked at her bluntness and let out a little cough. “Um, not exactly.” I wasn’t aware that having a conversation with Emily would lead to such an intimate discussion, but maybe it was a good thing. She obviously had more experience with men than I did and could probably give me some fascinating advice on how to handle the situation with Cowboy. “If anything, he pulls back whenever we start to…you know, do stuff.”

Emily’s face warped with genuine confusion. “Really?”

“You seem surprised by that.”

“Well, it is Cowboy we’re talking about. Hmm. Guess that puts a whole new spin on that fireman saying, ‘Find ’em hot, leave ’em wet.’”

We both laughed at that, and the sudden camaraderie put me at ease. Emily was impulsive and wore her blatant sexuality on her sleeve like a badge of honor. No wonder Jake couldn’t keep his hands off her. All the sexual energy buzzing in the air between them after their ten minute round of under-the-table touching hadn’t gone unnoticed.

But I wasn’t Emily, and there was nothing wildly sexual about me. “Most men are simply not attracted to me. Not that I’ve given them much reason to be.”

“What? That’s ridiculous! You’re much hotter than you give yourself credit for.” She shook her head in disbelief. “You have the most amazing blue eyes I’ve ever seen. And look at that gorgeous red hair of yours. Any woman would kill for that shade of natural red.”

“But I dress like an old maid,” I said, averting my eyes to avoid showing her how embarrassed I truly was.

“Well, Cowboy doesn’t seem to mind.” I glanced back to her and caught an unreadable expression on her face. Then Emily grinned at me. “I think he likes the primness. You could probably curtsy and cause him to ache in places he never knew existed.”

I shrugged lightly. “I don’t know about that.”

“Well, I do. Cowboy is well-known with the ladies for his insatiable desire. If he’s not jumping in the sack with you, especially when you’re offering, then there’s something more going on.”

It was true I’d seen oddities in his behavior that didn’t coincide with the rumors I’d heard. But that couldn’t possibly mean anything, could it?

“I don’t know. I think we’re just circling each other, trying to figure out what’s about to happen. I’m not sure how to take things to the next level.”

Emily leaned toward me. “You want to seduce him?”

I felt compelled to answer her honestly, but there’s nothing like being asked a direct question that makes you lose confidence. So I chewed on my lower lip and nodded.

She grinned at that. “Anna, just think of this as sexual warfare. Panties are your weapons.”

“Chalk this up to cluelessness, but how do I go about getting to that part?”

“That’s easy. Just give him a sexy look and you’ll be knocking boots with him in no time. Here, try one on me and I’ll tell you what I think.”

“You want me to—”

“Yep. Give me your sexiest look,” she encouraged. “Then I’ll judge if it will spark his libido.”

“Okay. Um, here goes.” I breathed out a slow breath and relaxed my face. Then I cocked my head to the side, batted my eyelashes, and smiled wide, teeth showing.

It must’ve went horribly wrong because Emily wrinkled her nose and cringed. “Um, yeah, that’s not sexy. Creepy, maybe, but definitely not sexy.”

I covered my mouth and giggled with embarrassment. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“That was obvious by your epic fail of turning me on.”

I rolled my eyes. “I wouldn’t have turned you on, anyway.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. You are pretty cute.” She leaned closer and toyed with the stem of her wineglass, licking her lips as she lowered her chin and looked up at me beneath her dark lashes.

The sudden change in her demeanor had me stammering. “I…um…”

Emily sat back in her chair and threw her head with a laugh. “I’m just messing with you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I thought you were flirting with me.”

“Exactly,” she muttered, taking a sip of her wine. “You saw how I did that, right? You can totally do it, too. Just practice a little. Then Cowboy won’t know what hit him. He’ll have to be carried out on a stretcher.”

“But what do I do in the meantime?”

“Have another glass of wine for the extra boost of courage and then show him your panties. The rest will fall into place.”

“Are you sure?”

Emily grinned. “As Cowboy would say, ‘God always takes care of helpless creatures.’”