Thunder awoke her the next morning. She opened her eyes long enough to see that it was eight o’clock, then snapped them shut against the ribbon of gray light sneaking through the slats in the window blinds. It thundered again and she crammed a pillow over her aching head.
Wil snored and she threw the pillow at the wall and sat straight up. Realizing what she’d done the night before put a crimson blush on her cheeks. Knowing that she’d do it again if she had a chance turned it even darker. She pulled the sheet up under her arms and fell back on the pillows with enough force to bounce the bed.
“Mmmm,” Wil mumbled in his half-sleep. “God, my head hurts.”
“So does mine.”
“Did I win?”
“Of course not. You passed out cold.”
He propped up on an elbow. “You don’t lie worth a damn, Red. I remember everything, including that cute little freckle on your fanny.”
Thunder rolled again and hard rain pelted against the window. A truck crunched the gravel as it pulled away from the motel. She snuggled closer to his side and dragged the covers over her head. “Go back to sleep. My head hurts and Lucy said she’d take care of the rooms today.”
“Happy New Year,” he mumbled and drew her closer into his embrace.
Which was a helluva bad idea. The moment that her soft little naked body touched his, he was aroused and ready. He kissed her on the forehead and she opened one eye. Her clothing was strewn all over the room. Bra in one corner. Underpants peeking out from under the bed. Coats on the other bed. Camisole beside the empty bottle of Jack.
Dear God, what have I done?
“You are still beautiful in the morning and I’m sober,” he whispered as he pulled the covers over his head and made lazy circles with his tongue on his way down her body.
“Thank you, I think,” she mumbled.
Her cell phone ringtone echoed like a screeching night owl, and her body was responding to Wil entirely too well. There was a knot of pure desire in her gut that only long, slow morning sex would cure, but the cell phone wouldn’t shut up. She reached out from under the sheet with one hand and grabbed it from beside the empty bottle of whiskey.
“’Lo,” she muttered.
“Who won?” Austin said.
“You are entirely too cheery for the morning after.” Pearl gasped when Wil found one of those erogenous zones.
“Morning after what?” Austin asked.
“I think I’d better call you back when my head stops hurting,” Pearl said.
“Sex is good for a headache. Is Wil still there?”
“Goodbye!” Pearl moaned the moment she ended the call and hoped Austin hadn’t heard it.
He flipped the sheet back and smiled. “That was your wake-up call, and I’m not talking about the cell phone. Are you ready for breakfast?”
“As in?” She blinked.
“As in I’m sober and I’m ready to do justice to that seven-course meal. It might take all day but…” He let the sentence hang.
The phone rang again before she could wrap her mind around seven courses of cowboy sex. She ignored it the first three rings but when he reached for it, she grabbed it out of his hand.
“Hello, Mama,” she said.
“Happy New Year. Did you have another boring night at that horrid motel?” her mother asked.
Pearl swallowed hard to keep from giggling. Wil nibbled on her ear, whispered that he was going for a shower, and threw the covers off. She was struck speechless at him strutting across the floor in all his naked glory. There wasn’t a spare bit of fat on his hard body, which was all muscles and sinewy flesh. Even his sexy butt cheeks were firm and had no wiggle when he swaggered toward the bathroom.
“Are you awake?” Pearl’s mother asked gruffly.
“Sorry, Mama, but I’m barely here. I went to a party at Austin’s last night and had a late night.”
“Well, I’m glad to see you’re doing something other than sitting in that godforsaken motel and taking those silly online courses. Did you get all dressed up and have a good time?”
“Oh, yeah,” Pearl said.
The shower started. Wil began singing an old Willie Nelson song. Pearl fished the remote from under the edge of the bed and quickly turned on the television.
“Who is that I hear?” her mother asked.
“Television. I turned it on to see what the weather is going to be today. Looks like rain all morning. I guess I’d best get up and help Lucy check out the guests. Tell Daddy Happy New Year for me. I’ve got to run now,” Pearl said.
“I’ll call later today when you are awake and you can tell me all about the party. We went over to the Kings’ place. Jasmine sends her love.”
“Tell her hi for me,” Pearl said.
When her mother said goodbye and hung up the phone, Pearl kicked the rest of the covers off and padded across the floor to the bathroom. One look at her bloodshot eyes in the mirror said yes, she’d really drunk enough to stagger a rodeo bull and yes, she had stayed awake through three courses of fantastic sex. She looked like hell, smelled like sex and Stetson, and her mouth tasted like the remnants of half a big bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey.
Wil pulled back the shower curtain and crooked his finger at her. “Come on in. The water is fine.”
“Let me brush my teeth first. I taste horrible,” she said.
“Don’t take too long.” He winked.
I shouldn’t be doing this, she thought as she looked at the woman with smeared mascara and tangled red curls in the mirror. She ran the minty-flavored toothbrush over her teeth and argued that she should wrap up in the blanket and make a hasty retreat to her apartment. When he finished his shower he’d find her gone, get mad, and never call again.
I’m crazy, but there’s something different about Wil. There’s an excitement I’ve never known, something deep inside me that feels so right. Am I headed for a heartache?
She threw back the curtain and stepped over the edge of the bathtub. Heartache or not, she needed a shower and Wil had already invited her in.
“So you have a headache?” he asked.
She nodded.
His gaze started at her toes, and heat traveled with it all the way to her eyes. He leaned in and kissed her. She tasted toothpaste and wondered briefly if he’d used the same motel complimentary brush that she’d just used. The thought slipped away when he teased her lips open with his tongue and made love to her mouth before running a warm soapy washcloth up her backside and across her shoulders.
He broke the kiss and gently walked her backwards until her hair was under the spray. When it was thoroughly wet, he poured shampoo into his hand and massaged it down to the scalp.
“That’ll make it all better,” he whispered as he planted wet kisses on her eyelids.
She moaned something but it wasn’t words.
He leaned her head back, cradling it in his big hands, and rinsed every smidgen of soap from her tight red curls. Then he began to soap her body using his hands instead of the cloth. It took forever and she’d forgotten all about the headache by the time he finished.
He stepped out of the tub, grabbed a big white towel, and hurriedly wiped the water from his body. Then he wrapped one around her hair and a second one around her body before scooping her up in his arms and carrying her back to bed. He laid her down gently, kissing her passionately before he flipped her over on her stomach.
“A good neck and back massage is good for a headache too,” he said softly.
She didn’t even know he’d picked up the small bottle of lotion from the vanity until she heard the burp of it leaving the plastic bottle. “If this is the awkward morning after, then I vote we have another contest tonight,” she said.
“No thank you, Red.” He applied the lotion and massaged the knots from her neck and shoulders, working his way down her back, her fanny, and that tight place right under the butt where it meets up with the back of the leg.
“Oh, God, that feels so good,” she groaned.
“Now for the heat pad to help the lotion soak in and do its job,” he said.
“Heat pad?”
He stretched his warm body out on top of her back and kissed her neck, nibbled on her ear, and unwrapped the towel from her head. Then he dug his fingers into her damp curly hair to massage her scalp.
“Dear God,” she said.
“Are we going to pray? I’d rather turn you over and have sex.” He chuckled.
“Forget prayers,” she mumbled as she felt the hardness against her lower back.
He flipped her over, kissed her lips until they were swollen and her panting matched his; then he began a rhythm that kept time with the fast beat of their hearts.
“Have I told you this morning that you are even cute with wet hair and freckles shining?” he whispered as his fingers laced into hers.
“Have I told you that you are sexy as hell when you are all wet?” she answered back.
“Open your eyes, Red.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to look at me.”
Her eyes popped open and stared right into his dreamy eyes as he lowered his lips to hers. He kissed her one more time, his tongue doing a mating dance with hers, then he left her bee-stung lips and worked his way down to her breasts, touching and feeling and tasting.
Before he went on further down her body, she pulled him back up for another kiss.
“I like your lips on mine,” she said.
“They fit right together real well, don’t they?” he whispered.
“Like all the rest of our bodies.” She giggled.
“We’re sober now, Red. You sure you want to do this?”
“Yes, I am,” she said.
His hands slid down past her breasts to her hips. Just his touch fired her up to the explosion stage. She arched her back against him and the world disappeared in a blink. The delicious ache had returned. She’d never wanted sex more than she did right then, not in her entire life. No one and nothing had ever erased everything from her mind except the primal need to be satisfied.
She ran her fingers through Wil’s hair. “Please, Wil, take me now. I’m so hot,” she said.
“Your wish,” he said as he covered her mouth with his in a searing kiss and entered her with a powerful thrust that made her groan.
She arched her back and tangled her fists in his hair. “I don’t need a marathon. I just need release,” she whispered.
“Me too this morning,” he said as he sped up the motion. He thought he heard her say his name but his ears were ringing so loud that when he collapsed on top of her that he wasn’t sure what she said.
“Dear…” she gasped.
“God ain’t interested in mighty fine sex, only begetting,” Wil said.
“Well, I’m not ready for the begetting but that was wonderful,” she said between raspy breaths.
“I’m sober.”
“What the hell has that got to do with anything?”
“It’s better when I’m sober.”
“Then you can’t ever drink again,” she said.
The storm had passed and the sun was sneaking through the slats of the mini blinds. She looked over at the clock and let out a squeak. It was already ten o’clock. Lucy would be frantic, trying to check out customers and worrying about getting rooms cleaned at the same time. And Pearl had a research project due in three days for her last hospitality course that had to do with creating a space for a breakfast nook in the lobby. She didn’t have time to be lying around in a bed of pure unadulterated 100 percent guaran-damn-teed best sex ever, even if it was where she wanted to be.
“Wil, I’ve got a million things to do and you’ve got a ranch to run. It’s the middle of the morning. We’ve got to get up and—”
“Get up! I think I can arrange that at least one more time.” He smiled.
She kissed him and bounded out of bed before he could wrap his big arms around her again.
“You are a tease. Talk about getting up and then leave me cold,” he said.
She knew better than to look back at him. If she did, she’d be in the motel room until she starved to death or died from too much sex.
“Time to go, cowboy. I’m going around the end of the motel and going in through my back door. You leave however you want. And Wil…”
He winked at her. “I’ll call you later today. I’ll cook for you tonight. You can cook later in the week. I think the whiskey contest was a draw so we’ll each pay up.”
“Sounds like a deal to me,” she said.
* * *
Delilah met Pearl at the door, yowling and fussing because she’d had to spend the night alone. Pearl took time to rub the cat’s ears for a few seconds before she unbuttoned her coat and dropped it on the sofa and headed straight for the bedroom. She undressed, piling all her rumpled clothing on a chair to send to the cleaners. She pulled clean underpants and a bra from a dresser drawer, jeans and a sweatshirt from her closet, and was dressed in record time. She was on her way to the living room when she caught sight of herself in the mirror above her dresser.
She went to the bathroom, took a very quick shower to get the smell of hot sex off her body, and scrunched mousse into her hair. She was on the way to the lobby when the feeling hit her. Austin used to tell her that the Lanier gut was never wrong. Well, the Richland gut knew when something or someone was watching. She turned around slowly. Her gun was stuck between the mattress and box spring, handle toward the outside so she could get at it easily. But she was in the living room and there was no way she’d make it back to the bedroom if an intruder was hiding over at the end of the sofa or jumped out from the pantry.
The hair on her arms tried to stand up but the sweatshirt and the jacket pushed it back down. The itch was unbelievable. When she’d made the full circle, she saw Wil standing just inside the back door into her apartment.
“You forgot this.” He pulled her lace bra from the pocket of his jacket and held it out. “Don’t know what you are going to tell Lucy, but I didn’t want her to find it in the room when she goes to clean it up.”
“I’m cleaning that room today. She’d take one look at those sheets and know…” Pearl blushed scarlet.
Wil laughed. “I took all the linens to the laundry room and put them in the washing machine. Threw the whiskey bottle in the big trash can out back, and made sure no one would ever know exactly what went on in there. You can tell her whatever you like.”
Pearl crossed the room, rolled up on her toes, and kissed him soundly on the lips. “You are a good man, Wil Marshall. Now go home and feed the cows. I’ve got a helluva lot of work to do.”
“Dinner is at six thirty at my house. Bring a tote bag and spend the night?”
“I’m not leaving Lucy with the place two nights in a row.” She shook her head.
“Then dinner is at my house tomorrow night at six thirty,” he teased.
She kissed him on the cheek. “Tomorrow night then it is. We’ll see about bringing a bag.”
He waved over his shoulder and disappeared outside. Pearl opened the door into the lobby.
Lucy looked up from the counter. “Good mornin’. I been checkin’ out folks and lettin’ you sleep. Who won?”
“I think it was a tie,” Pearl said.
“How’s your head?”
“Not too bad considering I almost got defeated,” Pearl said.
“Well, everything went smooth as it could last night. Got two more guests who called to say they’ll be out by the checkout time. They sounded like they had big old hangovers. Then I’ll get busy on the rooms.”
Pearl’s cell phone rang before she could tell Lucy that she’d help clean that morning. She expected to hear her mother’s voice but it was Wil’s deep drawl that answered when she said, “Hello.”
“So is it tonight or tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow.”
“We really brought in the New Year in style, didn’t we?”
She smiled. “We did.”
“Have a wonderful day. I’m going to be whistlin’ and singin’ all day.”
She giggled. “You are…” She looked up to see Lucy grinning from ear to ear.
“Can’t think of anything sexy enough to call me, can you?” Wil teased.
“Have a good day, Wil,” she said and ended the call.
Lucy kept grinning.
“What?” Pearl asked.
“First thing is that you got your shirt on wrong side out. Next is that you got that glow all around you. You might’ve got drunk but you slept with that cowboy, didn’t you?”
“Damn sure did,” Pearl said. “But that’s all I’m sayin’ about that.”
“Kind of like that Forrest Gump movie, huh?”
Pearl nodded. “You got it, Miss Lucy Fontaine.”