Looking For Trouble (2 page)

After she sang the last note, to wild
applause and whistles, she said into the mike breathlessly, "We're
gonna put on some tunes so y'all can dance, and we're taking a
short break," then she put her guitar on the stand and grabbed a
towel to wipe her face and neck, then downed a bottled water. Wade
was breathless too, the woman had stolen it from him with her heady
performance, his heart was still pounding in his chest and the hair
on his arms was standing on end.

The band members went down the back steps
behind the stage, then canned music started playing over the PA
system. Wade sat there a moment, stunned, trying to get his heart
rate and breathing back under control, then he pushed up from the
chair and finished his beer. He needed to get the hell out of here,
fast. He knew she was just teasing him, while she sang to him on
stage, she was probably paying him back for ogling her. There was
no way in hell she'd be interested in him, a thirty-four-year old
broken down bronc rider who was basically a gypsy. He'd just
stepped into the grass when someone grabbed his arm and he
stopped.

"You're not leaving, are you?" the sweaty,
but beautiful, blond singer asked him, then winked, and added,
"We're just getting warmed up."

"I'd say if that's you getting warmed up,
then they're in for a helluva show. You were amazing," he told her
and saw her fan her shirt out from her breasts to try and cool
down. Wade swallowed hard against the lust that slammed into him
again, and dragged his eyes back to hers.

"Thanks...I kinda hoped you'd stay around a
little while, we have two more sets, then we're done. Thought maybe
we could go have a drink...or something," she told him and licked
her full lips, which made
him
want to do the same thing.

Holy shit, she
was
hitting on him.
Jesus, she could have any cowboy in there panting after her, and
she'd chased him outside, it just didn't make sense to him, but he
wasn't going to kick a gift horse in the mouth. She must have a
screw loose or something, he thought, then chuckled. "Wow, sugar,
I'm flattered, really flattered..."

"But? You're married?" she asked him with a
raised eyebrow.

He coughed and beat his chest, that was the
last thing he was, or probably ever would be. "No, I'm not married,
engaged, or otherwise occupied, how about you?"

"Nope, sadly single, and obviously desperate
if I chased you down, right?" she teased in that smoky voice of
hers then chuckled.

He laughed at her bluntness and said,
"That's kinda what I was thinking...you're way to beautiful for the
likes of an old broken down bronc rider, sugar."

"If you're what young, green bronco riders
grow up to be, then I was right to chase you down, darlin'," she
purred then grinned and her green eyes sparkled.

She was definitely hitting on him, and Wade
felt like they'd just opened the gate for him for a ride.
Adrenaline and just a little fear pumped through his veins, then he
told her, "I need to head back to Steamboat Springs..." then
grinned, and finished, "But you know what? I have a little
while...you like to dance?"

"Haven't done that in a helluva long time,"
she said then added with a wink, "other than onstage to entertain a
certain cowboy."

Wade stifled a growl and the intense urge to
pull her into his arms, then said in a low husky voice, "I was
thoroughly
, um...
entertained
."

"Good, Jazzie bet me I wouldn't do it
earlier, but it looks like I won that bet," she said then squeezed
his arm.

"Who's Jazzie?" He hoped it wasn't a guy,
because that would mean she really was just messing with him, most
likely.

"Jazzie Ramos, my best friend, and the
fiddler in my band...she can burn the strings off of that thing,"
she told him and shook her head.

He breathed a sigh of relief then asked
curiously, because he wasn't entirely sure he liked being their
stake. "What was the bet?"

"That I wouldn't do the Aerosmith thing and
then talk to you...she saw me looking at you earlier. I haven't
done that since, um...well...in a
long
time," she told him
then pulled him toward the dance floor, and added, "I'm pretty
focused on my career, and she told me I needed to get my groove
back, that I was working too hard and needed to play a little...not
to mention it's my birthday, and she said I deserved a
present."

"Happy Birthday, sugar. She sounds like a
good friend," he told her and then swung her into a two-step once
they got on the floor. "And I'm glad you picked me as your
present..." he grinned at the gorgeous, talented woman in his arms
and sent up silent thanks to the man above, because divine
intervention could be the only explanation for her picking
him
to get her groove back with.

"She's the best, we've been friends since
grade school," she told him then added, "I'd introduce you, but
most of the time when men meet her they fall in love with her. I
think I'll save you for myself," she giggled.

"You wouldn't have to worry about that,
sugar," he whispered by her ear, "There's nobody here that I'd
rather be dancing with...or
something
."

Her brilliant smile made the synapses in his
brain short-circuit, and he knew he was staring at her like a
lovesick fool...there could be a reason for that too.

Jess couldn't believe she'd actually chased
down this cowboy, because her best friend had goaded her into it.
If anyone knew why she was leery about getting involved with men
now, it was her best friend. Jazzie had been there, while Jess
clawed her way out of the deep dark depression Ray had sent her
spiraling into when he'd done what he had two years ago. Jess knew
Jazzie only did it, because she was worried about her, though. This
was the first time she'd shown any interest all in another man
since Ray, so she had poked her in the ass a little.

Looking up into the handsome cowboy's
whiskey brown eyes, she smiled, something she hadn't done much of
lately. Maybe this
was
what she needed, maybe he was what
she needed. His sexy smile with the adorable dimple, and the
devilish sparkle in his eyes is what first caught her attention.
There were mysteries behind that smile, she would loveot uncover,
and she wouldn't mind uncovering him too, and find out what he
looked like out of the white dress shirt and tight Levis he had
on.

When he'd walked across the floor to go
dance with the bride, her mouth had watered as she watched his
spectacular ass in those tight jeans. Now that she had her hands on
him, she felt the solid muscles in his arms and appreciated how
they stretched the material of his shirt across his chest. The
warmth of his hand at her waist felt like an epicenter of desire,
as hot tendrils of awareness radiated from there throughout her
body. Jess licked her lips, then grabbed his hand and pulled him to
the center of the floor when a slow song came on. This was the last
one before they started their next set, so she wanted to get her
fill of him, before she had to go back to work.

"So where are you from, sugar?" he asked in
that gravelly sexy voice of his right next to her ear. Shivers
worked their way along her nerve endings and her hair stood up.

"Dallas originally, but my parents moved us
to California when I was fourteen."

"Bet that was a culture shock, huh?" he
chuckled and pulled her tighter against his hard body. "Why
California?"

"Well, they're kind of hippies...we lived in
a commune for a while," she admitted hesitantly. People didn't
usually understand that way of life, and looked at her like she was
some kind of freak. Hell, she'd been fourteen, she had to go where
her parents led her, and that happened to be a commune of inner
peace and tranquility, or so they said.

Jess had never found peace there though,
she'd gone to school, but could never bring friends home because it
would have been awkward, and she'd probably have been teased
unmercifully. And her daddy's constant schedule of gigs for her,
hadn't helped her inner peace either. Since he quit his job when
they'd moved from Dallas, and didn't find another, he contributed
to the commune by giving them the money from her gigs. The only
good thing to come from that lifestyle had been perfecting her
guitar and songwriting skills.

"Interesting...it was probably like
traveling with the rodeo...we're like gypsies," he said with a
derisive smile.

"How long have you been in the rodeo?" she
asked, then studied his face and saw that he was probably a little
older than she was, but she didn't care. Maybe he had a little more
maturity than the last man she'd been with, she sure hoped so
anyway. And regardless of his age, he was hotter than a habanera,
and she wanted to be burned. He set off a four-alarm fire inside of
her that Ray never had.

His face reddened and then he admitted,
"Since I was eighteen, got my pro card on my birthday," he told
her.

"I don't care how old you are, sugar...how
many years?" she told him thinking his evasiveness was because he
recognized their age difference too, and didn't want it to
matter.

He studied her a minute then said, "Sixteen
years."

"Only eight more than I've been singing
professionally," she said with a grin, then told him, "I left
California to come back to Dallas, on
my
eighteenth birthday
too," then she slid her hands into his back pockets and pulled him
to her.

The cowboy groaned then lowered his head and
covered her mouth with his, tasting her, savoring her, then when
she opened her lips, he plunged his tongue inside and she moaned,
as she felt his hardness against her. The music was low and slow
and it, along with the heady kiss this cowboy was giving her,
wrapped her in a sensual haze that had her panting and rubbing
against him in rhythm. In a strangled voice, she whispered when he
broke the kiss, "Wait for me...I'll be done soon, and I have a room
at the bed and breakfast in town."

Blatant desire heated his brown eyes, and
his throat worked a few times, then he nodded and claimed her mouth
again, before he let her go.

CHAPTER ONE

While Wade was helping set up chairs under
the tent for Cole and Sabrina's first anniversary party, his mind
kept wandering back to where he was a year ago today...loving the
most beautiful and special woman he'd ever met. Since he'd left
that bed and breakfast the morning after the wedding, when he'd
headed to Steamboat Springs, and Jess Sparks had gone back to
Dallas to sign that big recording contract waiting for her there,
he'd thought about her a lot. That night she'd not only rocked his
world on that stage, she'd knocked it off its axis that night at
the bed and breakfast outside of town.

He didn't know about her life, but a lot had
changed in his since then. One wild horse trapping him in the
bucking chute, and almost breaking his back, had ended his rodeo
career. The docs had told him that he was lucky he hadn't wound up
paralyzed. They'd done surgery and stabilized the vertebrae, but
hadn't been able to remove a small bone chip on his spinal cord.
They said if he kept competing, it could shift and leave him
paralyzed anyway, so he quit. It had been time anyway, he was
thirty-four years old and had tempted fate long enough in the young
man's sport.

Now, he was the manager at the Double B
ranch, and he liked his new sedate life.

He wondered, numerous times though, what
would have happened if he and the beautiful country singer had
exchanged phone numbers that night. At the time, they thought it
would be a waste of time, since they were both going to be
traveling, and the odds of them connecting again were slim, so
they'd taken their time together for what it was, a one-night
stand.

Hell, he couldn't even remember if he'd
given her his name, or if she'd asked. Sugar, baby or darlin' had
seemed to be the only names they needed. That night hadn't been
about names or reconnecting later, it had been a once in a lifetime
experience, a sexual adventure that touched him deep inside. One
he'd never forget as long as he lived.

Since that night, he'd listened to the
radio, hoping he'd hear her smoky voice teasing him again, but so
far he hadn't. Wade knew if he heard it now, it would just be
torture, anyway. It would make him ponder 'what ifs', now that he
was settled in at the Double B as ranch manager, instead of
traveling the country riding broncos. Jess Sparks had been out of
his league then, and was probably even more so now.

She was probably on a different stage, in a
different town every night, thrilling packed crowds...and with a
different man every night, now that she had her 'groove' back. As
wild as she had been for him that night, though, he doubted that
Jess had ever lost her 'groove' in the first place. The thought of
her with another man sent jealousy spiraling through him.

Wade sucked in a sharp breath, then released
when he felt himself harden just thinking about it. He needed to
quit messing around here and get these chairs set up, so he could
go get ready for the party. He was sure that the gang would frown
upon him showing up in a sweaty t-shirt and dirty jeans, smelling
like a horse, and he was running out of time.