Texas Fever. Kimberly Raye
she added, “As in Red Rose Farraday?”
Holly nodded. “She’s my grandmother. Well, she was my grandmother before she passed away. She left me her place. First thing tomorrow, I’m packing up my business and moving everything here.”
“You’re setting up shop out at Rose’s place?”
Holly nodded. “I’ve been operating from Houston, but the city is so crowded and my place is too small to accommodate all of my customers.” When the woman’s eyes widened, Holly realized what she must be thinking. After all, Red Rose Farraday hadn’t just been Holly’s grandmother. She’d also been one of the most notorious madams in Texas history who’d plied her trade at none other than the Farraday Inn.
Oddly enough, her grandmother’s notoriety hadn’t come as near a shock as the news that she’d had a grandmother in the first place.
“I make desserts for a living,” Holly explained. “I sell through a mail-order catalog and on the Internet. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.”
Sue teared up again. “I always thought I knew how to satisfy Bert Wayne, but then he up and left. Didn’t even say goodbye.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Not really.” She sniffled. “I mean, it is terrible, but I don’t blame him. He’s right. I am dried up. I’ve been sitting here for three hours and not one man has tried to pick me up. I’m a total loser. I’m a jawbreaker in a candy store full of mouthwatering chocolate. No one in their right mind picks a jawbreaker when they’ve got wall-to-wall Hershey’s Kisses.”
“You’re not a jawbreaker.”
“Yes, I am. I’m a big, fat, round blue jawbreaker.” She hiccupped. “On top of that, I’m drunk and I can’t drive home.”
“You don’t have to,” Holly said as she climbed from her bar stool. “Let’s go.”
Sue shook her head. “Thanks, but you shouldn’t have to leave and ruin your Saturday night just ’cause of me. I’ll just walk. It’s not far. Just a few miles up the—whoa,” she said as she tried to slide off the bar stool. She teetered and would have fallen flat on her face if Holly hadn’t caught her by the arm.
“I think walking is out of the question.”
“That’s funny,” Sue said as she leaned against Holly. “My legs were working just a few minutes ago. It’s probably arthritis.” She sniffled and sobbed. “That happens when you get old and dried up.”
“It’s not old age. It’s the tequila,” a deep voice said.
Holly glanced up just in time to see Mr. Hot and Hunky Cowboy walk up next to her. He gave Holly a smile and a wink that stalled her heart before turning to Sue.
“Hey there, Josh,” Sue said, a smile warming her face as she glanced up.
“Hey there, Sue. You look mighty nice tonight.”
“You’re just saying that.” But she smiled anyway. “Josh McGraw, have you met Heidi. Or is it Hominy? Or Hailey?”
“My name is Holly,” she told Josh.
“Nice to meet you, Holly.” The name rolled off his tongue, so deep and husky, and heat rushed through her body. Her nipples pebbled and pressed against the lace of her bra. “You need a lift home, Sue?”
“Hannah’s takin’ me.” Sue beamed at Holly. “She’s my new friend.”
“That’s right,” Holly said. “Let me just pay for my soda and—oomph!” she groaned as Sue teetered, threatening to pull them both to the ground if the cowboy hadn’t reached out and steadied the woman again.
“I’ll help you get her to the car,” Josh told Holly. He motioned to the bartender. “Put everything on my tab.”
Sue’s eyes teared up again as Josh slid an arm around her and hefted her to her feet. “You’re so nice,” she told the cowboy. “Bert Wayne was nice, too. But then he got bored and I got fat and…” She rambled on as Josh steered her after Holly who headed for the exit.
A few minutes later, Josh settled Sue into the passenger seat of Holly’s champagne-colored Lincoln Navigator. He clicked her seat belt into place, closed the door and rounded the front.
“Nice wheels,” he said, trailing his hand over the hood as he rounded the front of her SUV.
“Thanks. I got it in Houston.”
“Is that where you’re from?”
She nodded. “Thanks for the help,” she told him as he came around to the driver’s side where she stood. “I don’t know how I would have done it without you.”
“No problem.” He stopped just inches shy of her. So close she could feel the heat coming off his body and smell the faint scent of beer and leather that clung to him. “Sue’s not usually like this,” he went on. “She’s just having a hard time. She’s been pretty torn up since Bert Wayne moved out and filed for divorce.”
“I know the feeling.”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “You know what it’s like to have a cheating husband?”
“I know what it’s like to be alone. I’ve been that way most of my life.” Until now.
She had a home now. And she intended to plant roots and make friends.
Starting now.
“So you don’t have a husband, cheating or otherwise?” he asked her.
“No.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Not at the present time.”
“Girlfriend?”
She grinned. “No. How about you?”
“No girlfriend or boyfriend.”
“A wife?”
“I don’t have one of those, either.”
“That’s good.” The lust she’d felt inside the bar returned in full force and she forgot all about her vow to hold back and take things slow and… Permanent. Her nipples throbbed and heat flooded between her legs and she had the sudden urge to lean up on her tiptoes and touch her lips to his to see if he tasted half as delicious as he looked.
She leaned up and he leaned down and—
“The car is spinning,” Sue said from inside.
Holly froze, her mouth just inches shy of touching his, and licked her lips. “I, um, think I’d better be going.”
“Let’s go.”
“I thought I was driving her home.”
“Do you know where she lives?” When she shook her head, he ducked his head to glance in at Sue who’d tilted her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. She murmured something incoherent and whimpered. “I don’t think she’s going to be much help. I’ll drive.”
Holly handed him her keys and climbed into the backseat. She settled into the soft leather as Josh McGraw climbed behind the wheel of her Lincoln Navigator, started the engine and pulled out of the gravel parking lot.
The drive took less than five minutes, but it was the longest of Holly’s life. He was too close, too tempting, his gaze too disturbing every time he glanced in the rearview mirror and eyed her.
Awareness rippled along her spine and heat fluttered over her nerve endings. Her stomach hollowed out and a hunger, fierce and demanding, settled inside. It was one thing to watch him from afar, and quite another to have him just an arm’s reach away.
So close all she had to do was reach out and…
She wouldn’t. Not really.