Twin Cowboys for Tamara (7 page)
Twin Cowboys for Tamara
47
He glanced over his shoulder to see Blondie staring at him then settled down onto the seat Tamara had saved him near the arm of the sofa. He handed her the martini.
“Woman trouble?” Tamara asked before she took a sip.
“Uh, no. Why do you ask?”
“The blonde at the bar is giving you the evil eye. Jilted lover?”
“Not at all.” He should have been flattered that she’d consider the possibility, but he wasn’t. His ego didn’t need that sort of stroking.
“Or maybe she’s giving
me
the evil eye.”
Jess turned back to Blondie and noticed her sneer though he couldn’t figure out exactly why she seemed so riled. Maybe she didn’t like his rejection, however reasonably he had delivered it? Or maybe she just didn’t like him rejecting her for the company of a black woman.
The latter possibility bothered him on a level he had never been bothered before.
Jungle fever.
He grimaced at the memory of her words before taking a sip from his longneck and gazing at his surroundings. He realized for the first time since he’d started coming to Joe’s that there weren’t any people of color in the lounge. The absence had never struck him so forcefully before. Generally, there weren’t many people of color in Colorado statewide, and definitely weren’t many in McCoy, but he thought he had seen at least a few African Americans or other people of color in Joe’s at one time or another.
With Tamara growing up on The Double R and living in McCoy around him and Jax for most of their childhood, he just never saw her race as a problem though a rarity. Maybe it never seemed a problem because Tamara had always been so intrepid and self-assured, always at ease in her surroundings that she just seemed like she belonged, her skin color notwithstanding.
Before that moment, it had never occurred to him that she might be self-conscious or feel like an outsider, and at the thought, Jess slid Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.
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Gigi Moore
his free arm around Tamara’s shoulders and snuggled close. “Do you want to leave?”
“You mean run?”
He followed her gaze to see Blondie still glaring at them, turned to watch Tamara’s profile and saw the tick in her jaw as she gritted her teeth. “That’s not what I meant.”
“If she’s making you uncomfortable, we can go. I, however, am not concerned with Ms. Attitude Problem.”
Jess grinned at her tough act and thought she could give Blondie a run for her attitude problem any day. “I brought you here to have a good time.”
“I am having a good time.” She turned to him and smiled. “I’ve got a stiff, tasty drink in hand and good company at my side. Why wouldn’t I be having a good time?”
That she considered him good company
did
stroke his ego.
Something funny happened to his heart when he looked in her dark eyes beneath the strobe light of the room and saw the sincerity shining out of them. He squeezed her shoulder and leaned in to nuzzle her neck.
“Are you using me to make her jealous?”
He popped up his head to look at her. Her voice had been firm, her tone neutral and her look didn’t waver when she returned his stare. She didn’t
look
jealous or offended. “Is that what you think?”
“Are you?”
He bent his head again, circling the shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue and inhaling the sandalwood aroma of her skin as she shuddered. “I want
you
.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
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Twin Cowboys for Tamara
49
What did she do? What was on her mind? Obviously, she wasn’t
in
her right mind. Obviously, she’d lost it. Either that or the one little martini that she’d barely consumed had gone straight to her head.
Yeah, like she could blame her raunchy frame of mind on a little libation. She’d been more under the influence in the past than now, and she hadn’t gone to bed with the first pretty face that asked her.
Tamara had just met this guy, didn’t even know his last name—
had no interest in knowing it to be truthful—and already she found herself going to a motel with him.
She couldn’t explain it, but she felt like she’d known Jay all her life. After her encounter at the bar with Ms. Better-Than-Thou, she wanted him more than she had upon meeting him.
Tamara knew she didn’t have anything to prove, not to herself or to him, but something in her wanted to know that a hunky young cowboy like him found her irresistible, that she could pull him in and keep him when the blonde at the bar couldn’t. Petty, she knew, but she wasn’t feeling incredibly generous or gracious at the moment, just very needy.
She needed Jay. She
needed
to feel wanted.
Jay and Tamara made the one-minute walk to The Comfort Inn Beaver Creek companionably holding hands. The silent intimacy felt right in the beautiful spring evening.
Tamara smiled now at the memory of the spiteful look the blonde had given her when she and Jay left—Jay’s arm possessively encircling her waist as he leaned in to tenderly kiss the side of her head. A sense of supreme satisfaction and victory filled her.
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She had had similar run-ins with other women like the blonde before, and the perpetrators came in all shades and races in Tamara’s experience. Black sorority sisters had looked down at her just as much or worse than some white girls had when she’d started at Columbia.
She’d wondered if they could smell the country bumpkin on her, wondered if they inherently knew she didn’t belong.
Though it probably shouldn’t have, the animosity surprised her.
She expected the reaction in a small town like McCoy. She didn’t expect it in a great big melting pot like New York. In McCoy if she passed more than two other black people in town at the market that was saying something.
When Tamara thought about it, maybe this shortage had been the real reason behind her mother’s departure, or at least part of it. Maybe the woman just couldn’t handle being the cynosure and only black person on the ranch other than her baby daughter.
Tamara supposed she owed her own composure under fire to her father, He had instilled in her from the beginning that she was as good as anyone else, and that she shouldn’t judge a man by anything other than the content of his character.
She guessed she should thank her father for raising her how and where he had. The Double R, and the people on it, had proved to be an ideal environment to build her inner and outer strength, the best place to build the personality that she would later need to daily deal with and succeed among New York’s cosmopolitan elite.
Jay squeezed her hand, and when she brought her gaze up to meet his, searching beneath the brim of his hat, he grinned. “What’re you thinking about?”
“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”
“I’m not much into clichés or stereotypes.”
“That’s good to know.”
“So, what’re you thinking about?”
“Persistent, aren’t you?”
“If you don’t want to tell me…”
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51
She squeezed his hand back then twined her fingers with his long, thick ones. His hand gobbled hers, the palm rough yet soothing against hers, strong like him. “Who was that woman at Joe’s?”
He paused, released her hand to tip his hat back on his head and stared down at her. “That still bothering you?”
“I’m not bothered, just curious.”
He shrugged, grabbed her hand and started walking again. “She’s just a woman who thought I’m someone I’m not.”
“I bet you get that a lot, huh?”
“We’re here.” Jay pulled open the heavy glass door and ushered Tamara into the motel lobby in front of him. He took her hand and led her to the desk, adjusting her Keepall on his shoulder and reaching for the wallet in his back pocket.
She caught his wrist as he extracted it. “What are you doing?”
“Can’t get a room on my good looks.”
Tamara laughed as he wiggled his eyebrows Groucho style then suddenly turned serious and said, “That’s not what I mean.
I
wanted to come here.”
“It’s not like you dragged me here against my will.”
“But I—”
“Look, Tamara, call me old fashioned, but I pay my own way. I’m not some gigolo.”
“Oooo-kay.” Tamara rolled her eyes as the desk clerk warily approached. Evidently, she’d hit a nerve and the clerk understood this as well as she did.
“May I help you?” asked the small, nattily dressed man.
“We’d like a room for the night,” Jay said, sliding a credit card out of his wallet and slapping it down on the desk.
“Of course, sir. Smoking or non-smoking?”
Jay looked to Tamara and she said, “Non-smoking.”
“Non-smoking it is.” The clerk began tapping on his keyboard, gazing at the monitor in front of him. “We have a lovely room Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.
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Gigi Moore
available on the fourth floor, mountain view, king size bed, non-smoking.”
“That’ll do right fine.”
Tamara waited as the clerk took Jay’s credit card and started the transaction. She drummed her fingers on the marble desktop and took the time to admire her surroundings, the expected turquoise-and-burgundy, Aztec-patterned carpet and western-theme furnishings.
The clerk inputted the required information. “You’ll be in Room 404. That’s $129.66 for one night. We have free deluxe continental breakfast until ten a.m. Checkout is at eleven a.m.” The clerk handed Jay his credit card and two electronic keycards then directed them to the elevators behind him and to the right.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, sir. Will there be anything else?”
“No. We’re good.”
Jay took her hand and led her toward the elevator bank.
“Well, that was quick and easy. I hope
our
transaction isn’t,”
Tamara murmured.
Jay leaned in to kiss her, slowly sliding his tongue along the seam of her mouth until she parted her lips on a moan. She stimulated her already hard sensitive nipples even more when she pressed herself against him. She flattened her breasts against his chest. He wrapped an arm around her to hold her close.
She realized a second before one of the elevators sounded and the doors slid opened that she stood on her tip-toes and ground her pelvis against the hard bulge in Jay’s jeans. She pulled away to glance around him into the empty car. “That’s us.”
Jay shouldered her bag, grabbed her hand and pulled her into the elevator with him. He punched four right before turning to and cornering her against the back wall of the elevator as the doors slid closed behind him. “So you like it slow and easy do you?”
She wanted to tell him that almost any combination would work with him—slow and easy, quick and hard. It just didn’t matter as long Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.
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Twin Cowboys for Tamara
53
as he moved inside her as soon as possible. “Slow and easy is good for now.”
“We’ve got the whole night to try out some other combinations more to your liking, ma’am.”
Her stomach tightened at his husky words.
The man read her mind, but why did the idea of the whole night, disappoint her? Did she want more than
one
night from him? She hadn’t even had him yet, but something told her that one taste would not be enough.
The elevator stopped and signaled that they had reached their destination.
Jay took her by the hand and pulled her from the car, his steps sure and purposeful as he marched down the plush-carpeted corridors in search of their room.
He finally found it at the end of the hall, slid his keycard into the slot, and when it clicked over to green, he pushed open the door and let Tamara enter in front of him.
She stood in the middle of the clean, well-appointed room, had a moment to admire the turquoise and burgundy carpeting and thick bedding, and the imposing, four-poster solid pine bed before Jay sidled behind her.
He dropped her bag at their feet and slid his arms around her waist, easily pulling her back against his chest and bending his head to nuzzle her neck. He lingered for a minute at her pulse-point, sucking and licking her skin before he turned her around in his arms and zeroed in on her waiting mouth. “I want to taste all of you, every inch,” he whispered before thrusting his tongue past her lips. His mouth devoured hers in a mind-blowing, nipple-tingling kiss that had buckled her knees and made her heart hammer hard in her chest.
There ought to have been a law against a man looking and smelling so good who could kiss like
this
!
Jay upped the ante even more when he slid a hand up to her head.
He buried his fingers in her hair right before gently fisting a handful Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.
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and directing her head to an angle that better suited his need to ravish her mouth.
Tamara groaned deep in her throat, pressing her body so close to his she felt like she tried to climb inside his skin. Jay pressed right back like he wanted to climb into hers.
He stopped suddenly and cursed.
“What is it?”
“I don’t have a condom.”
“I thought all guys keep one in their wallet.”
“I wasn’t exactly expecting anything to happen, and it’s been a while…”
“Fear not. I’ve come prepared.” And if that made her seem like a cheap floozy, then so be it. Better safe than sorry.