Colton changed into a Western-cut suit, his best black eel cowboy boots all polished to a shine, and shaved for the second time that day. He was halfway across the floor, heading over to knock on Laura’s door when it swung open. And his boots were instantly glued to the floor. His mouth felt as if someone had swabbed it out with a big ball of cotton, and his brain had gone to pure mush. The reaction against his zipper said that he’d best get it all under control or he was going to be in for a mighty rough night.
He blinked and she did not disappear. It wasn’t the late great Marilyn or Miranda Lambert but reminded him of a fine mixture of both. When she popped a hand on her hip, it was all Laura, turned from the nerd into the princess. He couldn’t take his eyes from her or wipe the silly grin from his face.
He swallowed several times and finally said, “You look amazing.”
“You clean up pretty good yourself.” She smiled.
“I’d best stop by the hotel gift shop and buy all the drooling bibs they’ve got in stock. The other men at the dinner are going to need them,” he said.
He wasn’t just shooting her a line. Her white dress tucked in at her small waist and flowed out over her hips. The back was bare and there were stones that sparkled on the part that fastened around her neck. Her hair had been styled to look like Marilyn’s did in that famous picture where she was standing over the air vent. He looked down expecting to see high heels but she wore brand-new white cowboy boots sporting an inset heart of bright red decorated with sparkling stones.
“Does that mean that you like it?” she asked. “I was a little skeptical about the boots with the dress but Tootsie said they were the finishing touch. Do any of the other women wear boots with a dress like this?”
“It don’t matter what they wear. I won’t be able to keep my eyes off you all evening. Shall we?” He crooked his arm and she slipped hers inside it.
They stepped inside and he stared at her in the mirrored sides. First at her from a side view, then a glance over his shoulder at her from the back view, and finally a full frontal shot just before the doors slid open. There wasn’t a single angle that she didn’t look like a million bucks.
Hell, no! She looked like a billion bucks that night.
***
Laura had been full of self-confidence until she stepped inside the double doors of the banquet room and everything went from a low buzz to total silence. Then she had to rely on pure bullshit bluff because her self-confidence did a backflip right out the enormous window at the end of the room.
She had overdressed. The ladies had steered her wrong and everyone would think that Colton had brought a slutty hooker to the dinner. She tried to think of a reason to cut and run but she couldn’t. Her stomach wouldn’t even cooperate and make her nauseous in her time of dire need.
“I told you,” Colton leaned down slightly and whispered.
“Told me what?”
“That you look awesome. Everyone in the place is thunderstruck. They think I’ve reincarnated Marilyn and brought her to the dinner.”
“They think you brought a prostitute to the dinner,” Laura whispered.
“Honey, there is not a hooker in Texas who’d be as stunning as you are or as classy.”
His comment gave back a tiny bit of her confidence.
Melanie appeared right beside her. “I told you that you would knock ’em dead. I bet Karen is glad now that she didn’t wear that ugly old black pantsuit.”
People began to talk again but Laura could still feel their eyes on her. She glanced down to make sure neither of her breasts had popped out of the halter top. Thank goodness, they were still covered.
“She is gorgeous, isn’t she?” Colton said. “Did you know that she’s a whiz on a computer? She can pull a calf and work magic in flower beds and then look like this for a dinner.”
“Yep,” Bunny said as she crossed the floor in her brand-new electric blue dress, “you done good when you landed this one, Colton. There ain’t enough money in the world to buy quality goods like this woman brings to the table. You’d best hang on to her because there’s a dozen billionaires in this room tonight and they are snortin’ at the gate for a chance at her. Now let’s go on over to the bar and get a drink. I want a White Russian and Laura here wants a good cold beer, right, darlin’?”
Laura felt like a queen again. “Coors, please. Longneck if possible.”
Colton squeezed her hand. “Make that two and we’ll be right behind you. There are a few folks I want to introduce Laura to on the way.”
She wound up sitting between Colton and Tootsie at the dinner table. Steaks, dinner rolls, baked potatoes, and steamed baby vegetables were served. A dessert cart offered a variety of cheesecakes, cobbler, and pies. Tootsie told her the gossip during dinner and she enjoyed that even more than the food. Besides, the steaks were better at the ranch, Chester made much better hot rolls, and the cheesecake was bought, not homemade.
“See that woman in the red dress with the cheesy arms?”
Laura tilted her head enough to call it a nod.
“Now look at the hunky bodybuilder next to her.”
“Her son?” Laura asked.
Tootsie whispered, “Son, my ass! That’s her fifth husband. They get younger every time and she puts on more and more makeup. I swear the next one will come straight out of high school and she’ll put on her makeup with a putty knife.”
Laura checked the couple out again and sure enough the man had his arm thrown around the lady in a possessive husbandly fashion.
“What about the one in the gold dress with all that sparkly jewelry?” she asked.
“Oh, that’s fake, honey. He probably hired her from one of the local hooker unions, but he’s finally woke up and got some smarts about him. Last two wives almost cost him his ranch and his oil wells.”
By the time dinner was finished and the band started playing, Laura had forgotten all about how uncomfortable she’d been when she first arrived. When Colton stood up and asked her to dance, she put her hand in his and looked back at Tootsie.
The old girl shook her finger at Laura. “Don’t you dare sell a single piece of your body without calling me first. I’m richer than any of those other three.”
The lead singer in the country-western band strummed a guitar and started a Blake Shelton tune, “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking?” Laura stepped into Colton’s open arms and when the second verse started the crowd parted. When she realized she and Colton were the only ones on the floor, she felt like she did at the church potluck when the preacher told her and Colton to head up the buffet line.
It was all even more surreal when Colton looked right into her eyes and sang along with the singer. The words said that he had not tasted all her cooking and he wondered who she was when he wasn’t looking. She could answer that easily enough by simply saying that what he saw was what he got. Yes, she did break things when she got mad and she would eat a whole box of chocolates when she was sad, just like the lyrics of the song. He must have known women a whole lot better than most men because he asked if she left a path when she undressed and if she sunk to her nose in a bubble bath.
The song ended and the crowd all clapped. The singer went right into a George Strait song and Colton kept his arms around Laura.
“Who are you, Laura, when I’m not around?”
“I am who I am and I do leave a path of clothes when I undress just like he says in the song,” she whispered.
“I haven’t seen you break anything when you are mad,” he said.
“You haven’t seen me mad. And I really do all the things that he sang about except callin’ my momma when all things fail. That’s when I call my sister, Janet, or my best friend, Brenda.”
“Why?” Colton asked.
“Because as unstable as she is, Janet is all I’ve got. I’ve been getting her out of trouble since we were kids and she’s been my responsibility that long. And Brenda is the only friend I had in high school. She lives in California now and has three kids, but we try to call on birthdays and holidays and play catch-up.”
***
Colton had a million questions and he scarcely knew where to start or how fast to go. He drew her close enough to his chest that he could hear her heart pounding. No wonder she and Roxie hit it off so well. They were cut from the same bolt of denim.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to find a grinning cowboy who asked if he could cut in.
“I’ve always been a big admirer of Marilyn’s and my friend is going to take a picture of me dancing with her for my website,” he said.
“What kind of donation did you make?” Colton asked.
The cowboy’s grin got bigger. “For two dances, I bet my donation will have another zero on it.”
“Colton Nelson! I’m not for sale!” Laura said.
“Of course not, darlin’.” Colton stepped back. “I wouldn’t dream of selling you. I’m too selfish.”
He joined Tootsie and Bunny at the table and watched the cowboy dance with Laura from a distance. He was smooth on his feet and she kept up with every step.
“You are an idiot,” Tootsie told him.
“A damned fool,” Bunny said.
“Why are you two ganging up on me?”
“We didn’t get her all dolled up for nobody but you. Everybody has seen her. She’s danced with you. Now take her up to y’all’s room. Do we have to spell it out for you?” Bunny asked.
“And put a ring on that girl’s finger before the next meeting,” Tootsie whispered.
“Whoa! I’m just now getting used to a girlfriend,” he countered.
“Women like her don’t come along every day, boy. She’s one of those that heads the list of, ‘What money can’t buy.’ She’s the type that don’t care if all you got is two dimes to rub together in your pocket or if you got enough money to buy the whole state of Texas,” Tootsie said.
“Tootsie, you are so right,” Colton said. “I think I will go find something more interesting to do than dancing.”
All of Bunny’s chins wiggled when she nodded. “She’s a keeper, son. We’ll expect you to bring her back to play with us next year and it really would be good if she came with diamonds on the right finger. We really did like her and we can’t wait for Blanche and Dottie to meet her.”
He waved at the ladies and reclaimed Laura just as the second song ended.
They two-stepped to an old Conway Twitty tune and he moved closer to the door with every drumbeat. “You ready to get out of here or do you want to stay and dance some more?”
“You mean we don’t have to stay until the last dog is dead?” she asked.
“I’ve done my duty, written my check, and I can go anytime,” he answered.
***
Laura looked around at the ballroom one more time, memorizing all the details to tell Janet and Roxie about later. She might never get to be Cinderella again. It wasn’t midnight and she could stay, but she’d already captured the prince—at least for that night. Her cowboy boots weren’t made of glass and she didn’t intend to lose one of them on her way out of the ballroom. The cowboy that all the women kept staring at was leaving with her. It just flat-out didn’t get any better than that. For the first time in her life, she was walking on clouds.
“Well?” he asked.
“I’m ready anytime you are,” she said.
The twin chandeliers were sparkling crystal. The tables were covered in white and the centerpieces were red roses. The floor was hardwood, and Western artwork covered the walls. Yes, she could tell Janet the details, but she could never explain the feeling in her heart or what that whole day had meant to her.
Colton’s hand was warm on the small of her back, downright hot by the time they reached the elevator. He guided her inside and used the key card in his jacket pocket to take them to the penthouse. Then he looped an arm around Laura’s waist and bent her backwards for a Hollywood kiss that came close to frying her boots right there in front of the mirrored elevator walls.
“I’ve wanted to do that all night,” he said.
He raised her up and she snaked both arms up around his neck and kissed him passionately. “And I’ve wanted to do that all night.”
The doors opened and he walked her backwards into his bedroom, leaving a trail of clothing behind them—fancy dress, jacket, shirt, boots, pants, underpants all in a line from elevator door to the edge of the bed where the last item was her boots.
“You are as exquisite without clothes as with them,” he said just before he tumbled her back on the bed.
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Never said it before in my life. Is it a good line?”
She kissed him and nipped his lower lip. “It’s a good line.”
Something in her mind reminded her that tomorrow morning she was going to wake up and throw a pillow over her head again, that two times in his bed would be asking for even more trouble and heartache. But right then, she was the rebellious child who didn’t listen to common sense when it spoke. She wanted what she wanted, and that was Colton.
He returned the favor and they quickly went from teasing kisses to searching ones and then to the hot, steamy kind that left them breathless. Her hands caressed his muscles and moved lower. His teased her body into an arch that begged for more without her having to say a word.
“Just looking at you all evening made me hot,” he whispered.
“Oh, yeah?”
“I thought my zipper was going to bust when you reached over and laid a hand on my thigh during dinner,” he said.
“It was payback.”
“What did I do?”
“You put your arm around my naked shoulders and made circles on my upper arm with your thumb.”
He even had a deep, sexy drawl when he chuckled. “That made
you
hot, did it?”
“Let’s just say I missed a juicy bit of gossip that Tootsie was telling me because my whole body was humming.”
He grinned and her heart did a couple of flips.
His hands moved slowly from neck to knees. “Is it humming now?”
She grabbed a handful of hair and brought his lips to hers. When the kiss ended she said, “It’s singing at the top of its lungs.”
She’d never flirted like that before. Talking during sex had never happened before. Looking back, she wasn’t sure she’d even known what a real climax was until the night before.