Sharp Shootin' Cowboy (Hot Cowboy Nights, #3)(47)

Another glower from Reid silenced her two antagonists.

Haley exhaled in relief. Still shaken, she shuffled her notes while waiting for the room to disperse. When she looked up again, it was empty of everyone but Reid.

Stepping down from the podium, she laid a hand on his sleeve. “Thank you for coming to my rescue. I had no idea this would become so confrontational.”

His gaze met hers. “Don’t mistake my actions, Haley. What I did doesn’t mean I agree with you. I’m not on your side on this issue. I just don’t adhere to bullying.”

“Then I appreciate your intervention all the more.”

“I invited you for dinner, but perhaps you’d like to get a drink?”

“Yes,” she replied shakily. “I could definitely use a drink, but could we please go somewhere beside the hotel bar? Someplace quieter maybe?”

“That leaves out the Million Dollar Cowboy,” he replied. “I’m assuming all steak houses are also out, right? You still a vegetarian or have you gone full-out vegan?”

She looked abashed. “No. I’m not a vegan. I tried it for a time but I caved on dairy,” she blurted with a guilty look. “And shoes.”

“Shoes?” He returned a quizzical look. “’Fraid I don’t follow you there.”

“True veganism is a lifestyle, Reid. Vegans shun not just animals as food but animal products. I had a very hard time finding decent shoes that weren’t leather. I also had a hard time giving up wool, especially while in Alaska.”

He shook his head with a tsking sound. “So Dr. Haley Cooper chose personal comfort over ethics?”

“Yes,” she confessed with a look that made him chuckle. “The whole truth is comfort coupled with vanity. I love high heels. When you are barely over five feet tall, you need all the extra inches you can get. But I suppose you wouldn’t understand that, not being challenged for inches.”

He cocked a brow.

Her face flamed. “That didn’t come out right. At. All.”

“Yes. I’m thankful for all my inches.” His lips curved in a slow smile that made her insides quiver. “They help get me into those really hard-to-reach places.”

She shut her eyes on a distant memory of all those thick, hard inches moving inside her. Her thighs tightened against the sudden surge of desire.

“What’s the story on dairy?” Reid’s question jerked her mind from the gutter.

“I made a sincere effort to fall in love with soy and tofu, but there’s no comparison with real ice cream…or cheese. Not even close. One night, when I was feeling particularly blue, I was seduced back to the dairy side by a four-cheese pizza and a pint of Moose Tracks. I fell off the wagon and never got back on. There you have it. Pathetic, isn’t it? I’m the Benedict Arnold of vegans.”

“So pizza was your Achilles’ heel?” His laugh was low and rumbly. She loved the sound. Jeffrey rarely laughed, but when he did it was nasally and grating.

“Can’t blame you there,” he continued. “I love pizza, second only to a good steak. Those were two of the things I missed most in the sand pits.”

“What else did you miss?” she asked.

His grin disappeared. “Ever heard of General Order Number One?”

“No. What is it?”

“The prohibition of booze and all sexual contact in a combat zone. I did seven deployments in eight years, all in combat zones. Each averaging seven months. Some longer. Fifty months of total abstinence. Four-point-one-six years, if you do the math.”

“Oh,” she said. His gaze was too intense. She had to look away. “I guess you must have been real eager to make up for all that lost time.”

He shook his head slowly. “Time, once lost, can never be recouped.”

Was there a deeper message in that? What were they doing now? He’d begun to thaw. In some ways it felt the same between them as before, as if the years had never passed, but in other ways, it was as if they were perfect strangers.

“C’mon.” He pressed a hand to her back. “Let’s go. I know just the place.”

*

Reid drove her to a small Italian restaurant, hoping to get in without a reservation, but the dining room was full. “Do you serve in the bar?” he asked the ma?tre d’.

“Yes. We offer the full menu.”

“Will that suit you?” he asked Haley.

“Yes. I’m easy,” she replied and then colored. “To please, I mean.”

Another Freudian slip? She was edgy as hell, and the tension between them was only growing. She didn’t hide it well. He was happy to see her squirming in her panties and feeling pretty damned smug to know she was thinking the same thoughts he was.

He’d tried to ignore it, to suppress his lingering lust, but he couldn’t deny the semi he’d been sporting almost from the moment he’d seen her. They followed the ma?tre d’ into the bar where he chose a quiet corner table. A waitress appeared almost immediately to take their drink order.

“Jim Beam Black, straight up.” He looked to Haley. “A mojito? Is that still your poison?”

“Yes,” Haley said. “I’m surprised you remember.”

“I never forget details.” He shrugged. “Marine training.” It was true, just not the whole truth. He remembered her. Had memorized every detail over those cumulative four-point-one-six years. He’d wanted her back then, and still wanted her now. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t help himself.