Redneck Romeo (Rough Riders #15)(62)

Dalton moved into the kitchen. “You’re the first.” He opened the bag and fished out two bottles of Moose Drool beer. “You joining me for a cold one?”


“Sure.” He took the beer from Dalton but his gaze was taking in the kitchen. “You’ve got some major renovation goin’ on here.”


“Not too much actually. Person that owns this house is trading rent for my fixer-upper skills. She buys the materials and I follow the unending lists of what I need to do. Keeping me busy so far.” Dalton pulled out a chair and sat.


Ben followed suit. “Looks good. You gonna be here long enough to do the whole house?”


“We’ll see.”


“I didn’t know you were so handy.”


“Neither did I.” He shrugged. “Like most things I’ve had to learn on my own.”


“So is it a new skill?”


“Some of it. But I gutted the trailer after I moved into it years ago. Learned more from screwing up than anything else.”


“I hear ya.” Ben frowned. “Don’t remember if I’ve ever been inside your old trailer.”


“Probably not. Didn’t have drop by visits from anyone back then either.”


Ben leaned back in his chair. “Fill me in on what’s been goin’ on in Dalton’s life.”


“That friend of yours, Boden? I kept in touch with him during my travels. When they lost their hunting guide last year before the opening of hunting season, I stepped in. Been in Montana ever since.” Moping, as Sierra had pointed out.



“Whoa. How’d you and Boden get to be friends?”


Dalton looked Ben in the eye. “At the Rawhide Club.”


That shocked his cousin. “Wait. Are you a member?”


“Guest.” Dalton’s face heated as it did every time he thought about how he’d reacted after seeing something he hadn’t understood. “Look, Ben, that’s the most humiliating thing I’ve ever done—calling your brothers and staging an intervention about your sex life. Not even walkin’ out on my own wedding holds a candle to that boneheaded moment in my life.”


“You gotta know that’s been over and done with for a long time.” He sipped his beer. “So the club must’ve made an impression on you if you’re still goin’ there…six years later?”


“The place—the whole situation opened my eyes. So a few months after you resigned from the club, I went in and ended up talkin’ to Layla.”


Ben’s eyes narrowed. “What did she say?”


“Nothin’ about you or Ainsley. That wasn’t why I went in. I wanted to understand more about that lifestyle choice ’cause it was pretty f*cking obvious I didn’t have a clue.”


“And? What’d you learn?”


“More than anything I learned different strokes for different folks.”


Ben choked on his beer and Dalton laughed.


“Got ya there, cuz.”


“Smart ass.”


“Eventually I learned there ain’t no one-size-fits-all sexual playbook. I stopped in and I took in scenes, figuring I’d try them out in the privacy of my own bed. I assumed once I had the right sex moves down I wouldn’t have to try so hard with women. I’d be a killer lay.” Dalton shook his head. “Jesus. This is really embarrassing to admit, so just tell me to shut the f*ck up and we can go back to kitchen remodeling.”


Ben shook his head. “Keep talkin’.”


Dalton chugged most of his beer. “Without goin’ into specifics, I’ve been in some pretty f*cked up situations with women over the years. I never quite…got it. Hell, I even hooked up with a lesbian for a while so she could teach me about women. Didn’t work. I think she knew less about what women wanted than I did.”


Ben chuckled.


“I’m not qualifying this, but I never participated in any activities at the Rawhide. Not out of fear, or worry about bein’ judged.”


“Then why abstain? It is a sex club.”


“Because when it came to sex I’d always acted first and didn’t consider the results of my actions until it was too late.”


“When did you come to that realization?”


“After Tell and Georgia got married in Vegas. Hot women were coming on to me only because they thought I had money. When I got back home, I realized women were coming on to me because my last name was McKay. Or some women were avoiding me because of my shitty reputation as a wannabe player.” He felt like such a f*cking * talking about this shit with his cousin Bennett, legendary Dominant.


Ben leaned forward. “I’m not judging you. Anything you tell me stays between us, okay? And it seems to me you need someone to talk to.”


“Probably.” Now that Rory was in the picture, he didn’t want to screw this up with her. “So I needed to rethink my entire approach to women, to sex, and what I wanted out of it. That’s why I went to the club a couple years later again.”


“So what did you learn about yourself?”