She laughed and got up from the chair. “This is exactly what I wanted, Colt Waggoner.” Her hands went to his undershirt and flicked down his ni**les. “Now that we’ve gotten all the sex out of the way, we can be together and not worry about being tense or weird about anything.”
He leaned down and kissed her fiercely. “Two things,” he said, when he pulled away from her mouth.
“What’s that?”
“First of all, this is not all the sex gotten out of the way. This is the first round of sex gotten out of the way.”
She laughed, and her hands stole to his bu**ocks, squeezed. “And the second?”
“The second is that you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Beth Ann Williamson.”
Her mouth got all soft and she stared up at him with a smile. She squeezed his ass again. “I’m still game to go out if you are. Night’s early. Where did you want to go?”
He shrugged, remembering what Allan had mentioned. “You like Italian?”
She made a face. “Not really.”
He thought for a minute more. “Wings? There’s a sports bar next town over. Great wings. Private booths.”
She laughed and twirled away. “You just want to see me licking my fingers all night, don’t you?”
“The thought did cross my mind,” he said with a smile.
They cleaned up with towels and her rinsing sink, redressed, and drove to the next town over. In the car, Beth Ann chatted with him about her week—the new salon that had moved in down the street, her customers, her sister being grounded for a month after being caught at the Arcane Forest with Lord Colossus.
He’d told her about the class he’d had, and how they’d gotten lost almost immediately. She’d laughed at all the things he thought were amusing, and listened to his camping stories. Boring shit for a girl that liked hair and makeup, but she didn’t seem bored by them at all. And when they got to the bar, she’d sat on the same side of the booth as him so she could watch the TV, too. He spent most of the night watching her lick her fingers as she ate wings—and damn it if that wasn’t one of the hottest things he’d ever seen—and explaining hockey to her. He’d become a fan ever since Dane had been drafted, and she seemed eager to learn more.
They’d ended the night with a sweet kiss on her salon doorstep. Then, she’d murmured naughty things into his ear, and they’d stumbled back to the air mattress she had in the back storage room, and made love twice more before he’d kissed her good night and headed back to the ranch.
All in all, not a bad first date.
TEN
Beth Ann saw Colt three times that week, and regularly for the next three weeks. Twice he’d swung by to see her to bring lunch, or have dinner, and once she’d headed by the ranch just because she’d been thinking about him, and brought him dinner. They kept tabs on each other’s schedules, since his job had varying hours and he wanted to make sure that her schedule matched up with his at least a few times during the week. The nights he was gone on overnight trips and she didn’t get to see him, she missed him. Stupid to be so far gone over a guy she’d only been seeing for a month, but there it was. And every time he got back from a trip, he’d swing by the salon on the pretense of a haircut, and they’d end up in the back room with her ankles on his shoulders and his c**k deep inside her.
Beth Ann flushed at the thought. So far, so good on the relationship. They’d gone out of town to date more often than they’d stayed in, and no one in Bluebonnet had seemed to pick up on the fact that they were seeing each other. They weren’t hiding it, after all. But no one seemed to notice, and Beth Ann was still frequently asked when she was going to get back together with Allan.
She didn’t know what to make of it. She didn’t mind if people thought she was dating Colt—not in the slightest. But when people asked, she didn’t say she was dating anyone. Colt hadn’t mentioned if he wanted it to be known or not. And the longer Allan was kept in the dark about how serious they were, the easier it was for her. She liked things how they were.
Well, she’d have liked them more if they had a real bed, she amended. The last time Colt had been over, they’d busted the air mattress and ended up on the floor. He’d bought her a new one and promised to accompany her apartment hunting his next Saturday off.
Which was today, and just as soon as she was done with her appointments, they’d be heading out the door. She smiled at the thought and had dressed to please him. A white backless sundress covered in a cherry pattern with a swingy skirt. Heels. No panties. And bare again, because she knew he liked that. She glanced at her watch. Her last appointment was running late. Annoying. Her Saturday hadn’t been great so far—she’d had another client defect to Cutz, the new salon across the street. It was ridiculous. She’d heard the woman was horribly unfriendly, the prices sky-high, and Beth Ann still lost clients on a regular basis.
It was going to drive her crazy. She had to do something about it, but what, she didn’t know.
The mailman dropped by with a nod and a wave, handing her a stack of magazines. “Thanks, Doug.” She took them and flipped through the mail, frowning at a personalized envelope. From her landlord? Beth Ann pushed the stack of magazines aside and tore open the envelope.
Her rent was going up. A full six hundred dollars a month. That was ridiculous. Her landlord had included an apologetic note, citing property tax rates and how she understood if Beth Ann needed to break her lease.
Tears of frustration pricked at her eyes. Drat. What was she going to do? She was trying to save money to afford an apartment of her own so she could stop having to go to her parents to shower and do laundry. She wanted her own home, not hiding out in the back room of her salon. If her landlord knew she was doing that, she’d probably get booted for that, too. An extra six hundred a month was going to cut her savings to zero, especially now that she was losing clients to the rival down the street. She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, willing the tears away.
The cowbell on the door clanged, announcing a customer. She looked up with a smile of greeting. It faded as Allan entered, carrying a bouquet of pale pink roses—her favorite.
“Hi, Allan,” she said, softly.
“Got time for a walk-in?” He smiled at her. “We haven’t talked much in the past few days and I thought this would be a good chance to say hello.”