Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars #2)(20)

He looked around as if he were seeing it all for the first time. “I guess it is pretty nice. I hadn’t noticed.”

How could he not notice something so wonderful? A cluster of deep-seated couches and inviting chairs occupied the center of the room. A rectangular parquet table sat before a wall of windows, and a silk flower arrangement exploded with color on a bombé chest. She gazed at it all with delight.

“How could you not notice something like this?”

“I’ve spent so much of my life in hotels I guess I’ve gotten kind of numb.”

She barely heard him as she rushed over to the windows and gazed out at the dark water and twinkling lights. “That’s the Mississippi River out there.”

“Uh-huh.” He took off his Stetson and went into the bedroom.

Wonder filled her as she tried to absorb the fact that she was staying in a hotel room that overlooked such a marvelous sight. She moved around the living area, testing the comfort of the sofa and wing chairs, opening the desk drawers to touch the stationery, peering into the towering armoire that held the television. Her eyes automatically scanned the movie schedule for the week and stopped on something called Red Hot Cheerleaders.

The words leaped out at her. On the few occasions she had stayed in hotels, she had been tempted to view one of these adult movies, but the idea of having it show up on her bill where anybody could see it had always discouraged her.

“You want to watch something?”

Her head shot up as Bobby Tom appeared behind her.

She dropped the movie schedule. “Oh, no. It’s too late. Much too late. We should really—We need to get up early and—”

“Gracie, were you looking at the dirty movie schedule?”

“Dirty movies? Me?”

“You were. That’s exactly what you were doing. I’ll bet you never saw a dirty movie in your life.”

“Of course I have. Lots of them.”

“Name a few.”

“Well, Indecent Proposal was quite erotic.”

“Indecent Proposal? Is that your idea of a dirty movie?”

“It is in New Grundy.”

He grinned and glanced down at the TV schedule. “Pit Stop for Passion just started. You want to take a look at it?”

Her sense of propriety barely won out over her curiosity. “I don’t approve of that sort of thing.”

“I didn’t ask if you approved. I asked if you wanted to take a look.”

She hesitated a moment too long. “Absolutely not.”

He laughed, picked up the remote, and turned on the set. “Settle back on the sofa, Miss Gracie. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

He was already pushing the buttons that accessed the adult movie. She did her best to appear reluctant and primly crossed her hands in her lap. “Perhaps just this one time. I’ve always enjoyed movies about auto racing.”

Bobby Tom laughed so hard he nearly dropped the remote. He continued to laugh as the screen filled with four naked, writhing bodies.

She could feel her cheeks begin to flame. “Oh, my.” Bobby Tom chuckled and sat down next to her. “Let me know if you have any trouble figuring out the plot. I’m pretty sure I saw this one before.”

There wasn’t any plot; she realized that in the first few minutes. Just lots of naked bodies carousing on top of a hot red sports car.

Bobby Tom pointed toward the screen. “See that brunette with the tool belt strapped around her waist. She’s the head mechanic. The other woman’s her assistant.”

“And that guy with the real big—”

“Yes,” Gracie said swiffly. “The one on the right.”

“No, honey. Not that one. I’m talking about the one with the real big hands.”

“Anyway, he owns the car. He and his buddy have brought it in for the girls to give it a valve job.”

“A valve job?”

“It also has a leaky hose that needs attention.”

“I see.”

“They’re worried about the ball joints.”

“Uhm.”

“And the dipstick’s bent.”

Gracie whirled around and saw that his chest was shaking. “You’re making this up!”

He gave a hoot of laughter and wiped his eyes.

She raised her chin. “I could follow the plot very well by myself if you’d stop talking.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Gracie turned back to the screen and swallowed hard as the man with the big hands dipped one of them into an open can of 10W-40 and trickled it over the head mechanic’s bare breast. Her nipple puckered and beaded while droplets of oil drizzled down the side of the snowy mound. Gracie’s own nipples tightened in response.

The delicious foreplay continued, and Gracie couldn’t tear her eyes from the screen, even though she was painfully aware that she wasn’t alone. She licked her dry lips. Her heart pounded. She had never been so embarrassed or so aroused in her life, and she wanted to do every single thing she was seeing on the screen with the man sitting next to her.

The actor with the big hands began to play with the woman’s tool belt. His mouth followed the track of his fingers lower and lower. Moisture gathered between Gracie’s breasts as his tongue settled into a cranny just to the left of her socket set.