Double the Trouble (Texas Trouble 3) (7 page)

It was true what he told her earlier, Gabe
did like his women with edge, but she
had enough to cut his throat
, if he wasn't careful
.  Karlie Upton was trouble with a capital T, but he seemed to have been sucked into her orbit, and damned if he could get away.
  Like driving this car,
he thought
he might as well just hang on for the ride.

CHAPTER THREE

After driving her powerful car from the Double B to the bar, Gabe could see why she'd been going as fast as she had.  Several times, he had to check himself, when he wandered over the double nickel accidentally.  That car didn't like to be held back, and it seemed a shame to do it, but he had just barely.  One day, he ask her if they could take it out to the country road where he'd tried out the cruiser and see w
hat 'Freddie' could really do.

Parking at the station, so they didn't have to try to find a spot on the street,
Gabe
got out of the car and locked the door
, then went to
Karlie's
side and helped her out. 
W
hen she got out of the car and that short skirt of hers
rode up giving him an unfettered view of her long legs. 
The woman had legs for days...all the way up to her neck, it seemed.
..the thought of them wrapped around him sent the blood in his head straight south.
 

Gabe
put his hand on her lower back to walk her to the bar, and a sweet honeysuckle type perfume wafted up to his nose and floated to his brain, causing all kinds of short circuits.

Taking a deep breath, he inhaled a lungful of her intoxicating scent and felt slightly drunk from the experience, before he even got into the bar and had a beer. 

A
t least five cowboys grin
ned
at her and tip
ped
their damned hats,
before they made it to the door,
which led him to put his hand on her waist and pull her closer to him
, before giving them warning looks
.  When
he and Karlie
finally
got into the dimly lit bar, they headed over to
the crowded bar to
get a beer.  Leaving her standing outside the throng of cowboys lining the bar,
Gabe
lean
ed
between
the only two men
who didn't have hats on
, and tried to get the bartender's attention
. 

Holding up two fingers, he mouthed 'beers',
and
thankfully
the guy nodded
, because it was so loud in here, he would never have heard the words
.
 
It took him a few minutes to come back with two longnecks and take Gabe's money, and when
Gabe turned around to find Karlie
, she was
talking to three cowboys, one of which had his hand on her ass.

Gabe had a bad feeling bringing
her here was not a good idea, after all.

One of the men leaned near her ear and said something, and she smiled that beautiful white, wide open smile at him, and Gabe knew
the man
must have just melted into the floor.  That's the effect
that
smile had on him, and he didn't think th
e
cowboy was immune
either
.
  She held one finger up then looked back over her shoulder, and smiled at
Gabe
, before she turned and walked over to him
. 

Gabe didn't feel like smiling, he felt like punching that cowboy in the face.  Making his feet move from the spot
where
they'd been planted
,
he walked over and handed her
a
beer.
Karlie
took a long drink then handed the bottle back to him
, and said,
"I'm gonna go dance for a song or two
, I'll be right back...don't run off
,
"
then turned and walked
back toward the
other
man without giving him a chance to say anything.
 

What did he look like, a fucking beer caddy? 
She probably thought he didn't know how to dance
.  He
really didn't, he'd done it a time or two and
could
do it, but he wasn't a great two-stepper.
..he preferred slow dancing.
  It wasn't really something he
liked
doing.
..but he disliked her dancing with that cowboy even less than he disliked dancing.
 

Gabe went and sat down at at high table by the edge of the dance floor and s
e
t the beers down.  He emptied his in three long swallows, then started on hers. 
From the looks of it, the beer would be hot by the time she finished dancing.

Watching that guy twirl her around on that dance floor, moving with her like they'd been dancing together for years, and
seeing
the smile on her face, made him want to chew the bottles he'd just finished emptying. 
Gabe was the one who had
asked her out for a beer, she should be sitting here talking to him
, l
eaving him like this was pretty rude on her part.

Gabe got up and went to get another couple of beers, and bumped into a cowgirl on the way.  He looked down at her to apologize, and did a double take.  Literally.
..a double take.  How the hell could Karlie get off the floor that fast, he wondered and looked ba
ck there.  His eyes widened when he saw her still dancing, then he looked back down at the gorgeous redhead he'd just bumped into.  "Katie?" he said incredulously, because he had no doubt this was Karlie's sister.
  He also notice
d
she had on jeans and a western shirt, instead of the hot outfit that Karlie had worn
tonight
.

She
gave him
Karlie's wide-toothed smile, but her
bright blue
eyes weren't filled with mischief
.
"You must've met Karlie," she said and huffed out a breath.  "I'm the good twin," she told him then chuckled. 
It was a
cute little chuckle, not a pig sty snort like her sister
, which disappointed him
. 

He
also
noticed other small differences between them too, like
the tiny scar at the edge of her left eyebrow, and her eyetooth that turned a little bit inward.  Hell, he could just look in their eyes and tell them apart.  Karlie's held devilment and passion, and Kate's held only honesty and sincerity.

"Oh yeah,
I
've
met her..." he said
then
laughed because the beer was starting to take the edge off of his anger, as was this cute redhead
ed imitation of the woman he really wanted to be talking to
.

"Oh, god
,
what did she do now?" Kate said and shook her head.

"C'mon let me buy you a beer and I'll tell you,"
Gabe
said
then
slipped his arm around her waist.  If he couldn't have the real thing, at least
this
carbon copy of her
would keep him occupied
,
while the hellion was dancing her legs off.

"That sounds great, thanks," she told him with a grin.

He bought four more beers and then led her to the table he'd
been sitting at watching Karlie, and they sat down.  "So, why are you in town?  How'd you find us here?"

"Oh! Are you and Karlie here together?  You must be Gabe...Cassie told me she saw ya'll leaving the ranch together, and figured you might be coming here
."

Gabe liked Katie's
bubbly
personality, but she was so
s
weet it made his teeth hurt.
"Yeah, I asked her out for a beer, to pay her back for fixing my patrol car...but it looks like she's more into dancing than drinking," he told her and used his bottle to point out Karlie on the dance floor.  She was with a different guy now, but she was still smiling, and so was
the guy she was dancing with
.  Gabe ground his teeth when he noticed where the guys hands were.  He'd about had enough of this torture.

"Wow, it didn't take her long this time," Katie said then took a swig of her beer.

"What do you mean?" Gabe looked over at her and asked.

"She's got you and every cowboy in town wrapped around her pinkie..."

That made him sit up and take notice.  Gabe didn't appreciate teases...and from the looks of how
Karlie
was dancing and acting, she might very well be that.  He liked upfront women who wanted the same thing as he did, no games, just sex.  Gabe didn't chase women...or fight other men for them.  He didn't have to.
 

A slow song came on and he asked, "You wanna dance, Katie?" then
he
stood up and took her arm when she slid off the stool.  He smiled down at her and led her to the middle of the floor where the belly rubbers were dancing, not moving, just swaying.  That was his speed, and the more he thought about it, Kate was probably much more his speed than Karlie.
  At least
she
seemed interested in dancing with
him
.

When they got to the middle
of the floor
,
Gabe
pulled her into his arms and she slid hers around his neck and leaned into him.  He put his cheek to her hair and rubbed and
a
spicy scent wafted up to his nostrils
, so unlike the
fresh honeysuckle scent Karlie had on
, it was a shock to his system
.  Dammit, forget about Karlie...you've got her identical twin in your arms, enjoy it, he told himself and then pulled Kate tighter against him and swayed to the music with her.
 

After a few minutes, Gabe
reluctantly
admitted that although they were identical twins, evidently his libido knew the difference, because Katie
nothing for him.
  N
ot even a little spark of interest flared inside of him, so he just held her and finished the dance.
  When it
was over
, h
e
leaned down and kissed her cheek, then
dropped his arm around her shoulders,
and
whispered near her ear,
"Thanks for the dance, sugar."

She smiled that bright, knee melting Karlie smile at him, and he still felt nothing.  He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to meet the angry, but identical, blue eyes of the sister he held in his arms.
 

"What the hell are you doing here, Katie?"
  Karlie said with a hand on her hip.

"I came to talk to you...we need to talk about the team.  JoJo is getting fat just being in a stall, and I'm not going to trailer him from rodeo to rodeo
,
if you aren't going to ride with me anymore.  I need you, Karlie...I want you to come back.
  Jake is really pissed about Sarge too.
"

Karlie snorted and crossed her arms under her breasts, "Jake can go fuck himself," she told her sister.

"Can I go fuck myself too, Sis?  Cause that's what you've basically done to me by leaving the team without any warning."  Gabe was shocked that the crude word, that he used all too often, came out of the sweet, but evidently not so innocent twin.
  Her blue eyes were also angry now like Karlie's.

"I'm working on getting you another partner, Kate...I've been a little, um,
detained
since I got to Bowie," she said then cut her eyes at
Gabe,
before looking back at her sister.

"Come back with me, Karlie...you've only missed one competition.  We can pull it back together," Kate pleaded.

"I can't," Karlie told her then looked away toward the dance floor.
  "And please don't tell Jake where I am...it would cause problems."

"I haven't told Jake a damned thing, and I don't plan to, but you need to get your head out of your ass and think about us...about how we earn a living.  The money we make is a lot to give up, Karlie."