Cowboy Fling

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An Excerpt From: COWBOY FLING

Copyright © SHERRY JAMES, 2007

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Paige parked the rental car in the crowded parking lot near the rodeo arena. A billow of dust rushed through her open window and stung her eyes. So this was Cheyenne Frontier Days? She couldn´t believe she was in Wyoming. Even more so, she couldn´t believe why she was here in the first place.

To fulfill her sexual fantasies.

Yeah, right. She would´ve laughed out loud at the idea if she wasn´t shaking in her tennis shoes. Going on the prowl for men wasn´t something she made a habit of doing. And to be honest, she really didn´t know where, or how, to start.

"Paige Holister, you´re out of your league here," she said aloud with only her Dachshund, Nappy, to hear. The dog looked up at her with big, heart-melting brown eyes as if understanding her plight. Paige gave the dog a scratch behind his left ear, glad she´d brought her trusted friend along for a sense of security on this insane trip.

"Nappy, remind me to send Dorie a really nasty postcard while we´re here."

The roar of the crowd filling the grandstands drifted on the dusty afternoon breeze, telling her to get it in gear. The clock had started ticking the moment her flight landed in Cheyenne.

She glanced at her watch. "Seventy hours and three minutes. Time to get busy, Nappy." She opened her purse and did one last check for important items. "Cell phone, Mace, wallet, lipstick, hairbrush and...condoms! I didn´t put those in here."

Nappy barked and wagged his tail as if to tell her he knew who had put the gold foil packages in his mistress´s purse.

"Dorie. I should have known. Of course she´d think I´d fail to be prepared for-"

Thunk! The car rocked on its tires.

Thunk! Thunk! The car rocked again. And again.

Paige´s gaze flew to the rearview mirror. "What the heck?"

"Son of a bitch!" a voice hollered.

Paige caught sight of two men using each other for a punching bag, and jumped out of the Dodge Neon. Two cowboys scrambled for the upper hand in the fight and were now beating on each other while sprawled on the trunk lid of her rental car.

"Hey! Knock it off," she hollered as she tried to pull the grown men apart. A hard elbow in her stomach knocked her off balance and sent her flying backward. Pieces of gravel bit into the palms of her hands as she tried to brace her fall, but it didn´t do any good. She landed squarely on her derriere with a painful thud.

The men slammed into the Neon again and Paige cringed. "If you dent this car, I´m the one who has to pay for it," she yelled. But the men continued to beat on each other and didn´t seem to notice, or care that she was even there.

"Enough is enough," she grumbled under her breath as the scuffle continued. Paige bolted to her feet, determined to put a stop to the brawl. Dealing effectively with out of control situations was one thing working in the ER all these years had taught her how to do. Hopefully she could handle this one as well.

Paige grabbed the cowboy on top by the collar of his shirt and yanked with all her might. To her surprise he came easily. She shoved him aside and placed her shaking fists on her hips.

"Get off my car! Both of you!"

The cowboys looked at her, surprise and anger filling their eyes. The bigger of the two men backed away and wiped his bloody lip with the back of his hand. "I´ll finish with you later, Hart," he growled before storming away without so much as a word of sorry.

The remaining cowboy still leaning against the car, removed his hat and wiped his brow with a red bandana. Settling his hat back in place, he looked up at her from beneath its vast brim before slowly pushing away from the car. A low groan escaped his throat as he moved.

The guy was hurt, but Paige didn´t care. All she cared about was the huge dent that now covered the trunk lid. This was going to cost her big-time at the rental car company.

"I´m real sorry about this, ma´am," the cowboy drawled with a deep, smooth voice. "I´ll pay for the damage."

Paige glanced in the direction the other cowboy had gone, but he was nowhere in sight. "What about your friend? He should foot half the bill. You weren´t out here fighting by yourself."

"Don´t worry about it, ma´am. I´ll handle it."

Paige turned her attention back to the cowboy and her breath died in her throat. He was leaning against the car again, his pain evident. His shirt was torn open and revealed a muscular chest beneath that would make any woman drool. Paige averted her gaze to his eyes and what she thought was safe territory.

Wrong. In spite of the fight he´d been through, his blue eyes sparkled with mischief and not anger. Could it be the guy actually liked fighting in a parking lot on a 90˚-plus day?

She scanned his face and saw the cuts and bruises marring his chiseled features. Hmm. Devilishly handsome, and possibly the answer to her mission. She swallowed hard at the prospect of getting intimate with a man she knew absolutely nothing about.

What was she doing? Paige was a good girl. She wasn´t supposed to have wild, uninhibited sex with a man she didn´t know, especially one who obviously made fighting a pastime. What was she thinking? Fantasizing about running her fingers over and down his strong chest, following the sculpted trail of muscles that led down to...

Paige glanced up and saw he was watching her. He smiled a killer smile that spoke volumes.

He knew exactly what she was thinking. Damn.

"You´re bleeding," she said, hoping to cover her embarrassment of being so transparent. "That´s a nasty cut above your eye. You need to have that taken care of right away."

"Ah, it´s not the first time. I´ve had my share of cuts. I´ll live."

"No. Really." She shortened the distance between them to examine his wound. "This is very close to your eye, and it´s deep. If we don´t tend it now, it´ll get infected and swell up like a balloon. You won´t be able to see." She couldn´t help noticing several tiny scars dotted the skin near the corner of his injured eye and she wondered if fighting was his favorite pastime.

The warmth of his skin seeped into hers. The subtle scents of fresh air and horses mingled with his muskiness to create his own unique essence. The man exuded promises of potential sexual pleasures from every pore.