Lipstick and Leather (Rough and Ready Book 7)
Lipstick and Leather
Cheyenne McCray
Contents
Lipstick and Leather
Cowboy Up
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Rough Rider
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Back in the Saddle
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Excerpt…Hot For You
Excerpt…Fire and Ice
About Cheyenne
Also by Cheyenne McCray
Lipstick and Leather
Cheyenne McCray
Copyright © 2016 by Cheyenne McCray LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced in whole or in part, scanned, photocopied, recorded, distributed in any printed or electronic form, or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without express written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to anyone. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase an additional copy or copies. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for honoring the author’s work.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Published by Cheyenne McCray LLC.
Cowboy Up
Cheyenne McCray
Chapter 1
“You’re leaving?” Anna Landon looked at Becky with incredulity, unable to believe what her friend had just said. The party was so loud that maybe she got it wrong. She raised her voice to be heard over the music and voices. “You’re going off with some rodeo cowboy you just met tonight?”
“Les is so freaking hot.” Becky handed Anna folded papers she had taken out of her purse. “Here is the hotel confirmation. You can check in and I will meet up with you tomorrow at the rodeo. You have my cell number if you need anything.”
Anna took the papers from Becky. “This was supposed to be a girls’ weekend out. Not girl-meets-and-goes-to-bed-with-cowboy-the-first-night weekend.”
“Theresa is coming tomorrow and we’ll all have fun. Promise.” Becky hugged Anna with her normal excited enthusiasm. “Oh.” Becky started rummaging through her purse again. She produced another paper and handed it to Anna. “Almost forgot, your ticket for the rodeo. See you there tomorrow.”
With a sigh, Anna grasped the ticket. “Point the guy out to me so that I can pick him out in a lineup if something happens to you. And what’s his name again?”
Becky laughed and gestured to a cowboy across the Denver bar, near where the live band was playing. “It’s Les something. Don’t remember the last name.” Anna squinted to get a good look at him in the darkened bar. He was hot all right. Lean, muscled, tanned. He had a cute grin when he looked over at Becky.
She waved to him before giving Anna her attention again. “Don’t worry, I’ll find out his last name and text it to you. I’ll meet you at the rodeo tomorrow.” Becky said it with a smile before she turned and made her way across the crowded room.
Great. Anna unzipped her purse and shoved the papers inside of it. Nothing like being alone in a strange city after getting dumped by one of your best friends.
“You don’t look like you want to be here.”
The deep male drawl had Anna raising her head. Her gaze met a pair of green eyes that captured hers at once. Her heart started pounding and her mouth grew dry. The man was the hottest cowboy she’d ever seen. Being from Arizona she’d seen plenty, but she hadn’t had the slightest interest in cowboys.
This cowboy was powerfully built, tall and muscular, and looked fit from his cowboy hat to his boots. A thin white scar ran along his stubbled jaw and another just below his right eye. He had a rough, tough look about him, but a smile so sexy it would charm the panties off of most women.
She wasn’t most women.
Not to mention she didn’t do long distance relationships. Once was enough, thank you very much.
“Parties aren’t my thing, especially rodeo parties.” She zipped her purse shut. “I’m not into rodeo.”
“You’ve come to the wrong place.” The cowboy’s smile verged on amused. “Are you lost?”
“I was here with my friend.” Anna sighed. “She’s leaving with some cowboy named Les, so I’m going to go check in at my hotel.”
“Les is a stand-up guy.” The cowboy looked in the direction of Becky and Les. He turned his attention back to Anna. “I’m headed out myself,” he said. “Have an early morning. I’ll walk you to your car.”
Anna paused then said, “That’s nice of you but, no thanks. I’ll be fine.”
He glanced around the bar. “Just about anyone at the party can vouch for me if you’d like to check me out.”
She followed his gaze with her own and a group of cowboys raised their beer mugs to him and no less than six women gave him flirtatious smiles. Two looked like they were starting to come across the room in their direction.
“Why don’t we head on out?” He gave a nod toward the door.
Spending a little more time with this cowboy was appealing, but she was not going to start something with a cowboy. “Like I said, thank you, but no.”
He raised his hands and laughed. “I get the message.”
She held her purse tight to her body. “Now to get myself out of here,” she muttered to herself. She could feel the burn of his gaze on her back as she grabbed her coat from the table she’d been sitting at and then pulled on the gloves that she pulled out of her purse.
The Colorado night was cold and windy, causing her long dark hair to rise above her shoulders as she stepped out of the bar. Immediately, she felt relief from the loudness of the music. The band had been great—for country music—but way too loud as far as she was concerned. Rock salt used to melt the ice in front of the door crunched beneath her feet.
Snowflakes swirled around her as she walked down the sidewalk to a dark parking lot and she almost wished she did have an escort. She headed in the direction of her Toyota, which already had a good inch of snow on the top and there were a couple of inches on the ground.
When she reached the car, she dug in her purse for her keys and brought them out. They slipped from her gloved fingers before she could press the door unlock button. She tried to hold on but they dropped into the snow.
“Noooo.” She knelt and tried to see the keys but it was too dark in the parking lot to get a good look, not to mention the snow. “Not good,” she said to herself. “So not good.”
On her hands and knees, she started feeling the snow around her feet as she searched. The sound of an approaching truck’s powerful engine was followed by lights that nearly blinded her. Someone cut the lights and she saw spots before her eyes. A truck door opened then slammed shut before she heard the sound of approaching bootsteps in the snow.
She thrust her hand into her purse, trying to find her Mace can before she saw that it was the cowboy who had talked to her in the bar.
“Need some help?” The cowboy crouched besid
e her. His shoulder brushed hers and tingles spread throughout her.
“I dropped my keys.” She continued to feel around in the snow in her search.
“I’ve got a flashlight in my truck.” He stood and headed away from her, his boots crunching the snow.
She continued her search while she waited for him. When he returned, he crouched beside her again and skimmed the light over the snow. A few minutes later she was about to give up hope of finding them before the snow melted.
“Here.” He leaned forward and picked up the keys from a depression in the snow, the motion causing the keys to jingle.
She reached for them as he handed them to her. “Thank goodness.” She stood and opened the car door. Despite the gloves, her hands felt cold and her teeth chattered. In Tucson it never got this cold. “I appreciate the help more than you can imagine.”
She felt a strange thrill in her stomach when he looked at her. He extended his hand. “Mark Cooper.”
“I’m Anna Landon.” She took his hand.
She liked the firmness of his grip but he held on to her longer than necessary.
“How about meeting for a cup of coffee tomorrow morning?” Mark’s face was shadowed, but she could see his smile.
Temptation was so strong she almost couldn’t resist. She withdrew her hand from his. “I appreciate the offer, but no. Thanks again for finding my keys.”
“No problem.” He touched the brim of his hat in a polite gesture she’d come to recognize from cowboys. He turned and walked away.
Once she was in her car, the doors locked, and the heater on full-blast, she sat for a moment wondering if she should have taken the cowboy up on his offer.
Nope. She’d done the right thing. Too many thoughts were going through her mind of what she would really like to do with that cowboy.
She sighed and plugged in her GPS then figured out the best route to take to the hotel. Considering it was dark and snowy, and she didn’t know her way around the city, she was glad she didn’t have far to go and that she had something that would tell her exactly where to drive.
The drive took ten minutes and it took another fifteen to park in the parking garage, unload her suitcase, walk to the front entrance, and make it through the doors and into the lobby of the hotel.
She shrugged out of her coat and pulled off her gloves and tucked them into the pockets of the coat, before heading across the elegant lobby. She rolled her suitcase behind her, when she heard a now familiar voice.
“Ma’am?” Mark said, obviously trying to catch her attention. “Anna.”
Unbelievable. She turned and faced the tall cowboy, feeling a sense of pleasure at seeing him again that she had to push away. “Are you following me?”
His lips quirked as he pointed in the direction she had just come. “Is that your version of a trail of breadcrumbs?”
Anna looked over her shoulder and her face went hot. Her suitcase was open and a trail of three shoes, a blouse, nighty, two pairs of panties and a bra had been left in her wake.
Other hotel guests looked on in amusement as Anna set her bag down and began grabbing up her clothing. Mark started helping her. “I can do it,” she said, then groaned as he picked up some of her lingerie along with her baby doll nighty.
He reached her suitcase before she did and she watched her panties slip from his fingers into the suitcase. She wondered how long it would take before she could look at Mark and not think about him holding her panties.
Her face went hot again at the sudden thoughts that went through her mind—of Mark getting to know her panties in a whole other way.
“I was standing in line and I saw your suitcase come open when it bumped through that door,” he said. “I don’t think anything fell out before that but I’ll go out and check. What level did you park on in the garage?”
“First level.” She latched her suitcase shut and then they stood at the same time. “No need to. I can do it.”
But he was already walking away from her. She watched as he headed out of the hotel and she waited for him to return while trying not to look at the other hotel guests. Mortified didn’t begin to explain the way she felt right now. But then it wasn’t like these people hadn’t seen lingerie before. At least her vibrator hadn’t fallen out—
Her skin went hot again. What if it had and Mark found it? Talk about mortified.
About five minutes later, to her relief, he came back empty-handed. “Looks like that’s it.”
“Thank you, Mark.” She clenched the handle of her suitcase. He touched the brim of his hat again. “Anytime,” he said before turning away.
She rolled her suitcase to the end of one line and saw him get into another where his own suitcase was waiting for him. Apparently he had been standing in line, just like he’d said, before coming to her aid.
And she had accused him of following her. She almost groaned again.
Every now and then she would glance at him from beneath her lashes. He was the first to reach the front of his line. By the familiar way the guys at the registration desk acted, it appeared that they knew Mark. She found herself trying to listen in but then it was her turn in her own line and she stepped toward the registration desk.
“Anna Landon.” She watched as the clerk looked her up on the computer.
“I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “We don’t have a registration for an Anna Landon.”
She frowned. “Then it must be under Becky Tolbert or maybe she used her real first name. Rebecca Tolbert.”
He checked his computer again. “There is no registration for a Becky or Rebecca Tolbert.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Anna dug out the hotel confirmation. “Here’s our confirmation number.”
He looked from the paper to her. “This is for next weekend.”
“What?” Anna turned the paper around and read it to see that he was right. Becky had booked the wrong weekend.
Frustration bottled up inside her and she pushed her long hair behind her ear. “Do you have any rooms available?”
“We’re completely booked, ma’am.” The clerk gave her an apologetic look. “With the rodeo in town and a couple of conventions, it won’t be easy finding a room anywhere.”
With her heart dropping to her toes, she clenched the papers in her hands. “You’re sure you don’t have any rooms at all?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the clerk said. “Here’s a directory we keep of local hotels.” He handed her a sheet of paper.
If he called her ma’am one more time she was going to choke him.
She sighed. She would start calling every hotel in the city. There had to be a room somewhere.
One night, she only needed one night. Theresa was coming tomorrow and she had booked a room of her own.
“Are you all right?” Mark said from beside her. “I overheard your conversation with the clerk.”
“I’m fine.” She grasped the handle of her suitcase. “I just need to start making calls.”
“I’ll buy you a drink,” he said. “You can make calls from the lounge.”
She hesitated, wanting to accept but knowing she shouldn’t. It was easy to see how she could lose her heart to this cowboy. “No thank you,” she said as she forced herself to say it. “I appreciate the offer but I’ll just sit in one of the chairs in the lobby and make calls from there.”
He gave a nod toward the right of them. “If you change your mind, I’ll be in the lounge.”
As he walked away, she was so tempted to call after him. Just being around the cowboy made her think of how being with him would melt snow.
She rubbed her temples and looked at the long list of hotels then drew her cell phone out of her purse and started dialing.
Chapter 2
No rooms. No rooms. No rooms.
Anna pressed her fingertips to her temples. Every place she’d called so far had said the same thing. Rodeo in town and two conventions. No rooms.
Tears stung the backs of her eyes but she
forced them away. She still had ten hotels on the list to call. She would not give up.
But she could really use a drink. Or three.
With her suitcase in tow—and securely latched—she made her way to the lounge. Mark was across the room at one of the corner tables and she had the opportunity to take in his appearance. He’d removed his cowboy hat and his chestnut hair gleamed in the bar’s lighting. His white western shirt fit him perfectly, not too loose and not too tight. He wore blue denim jeans that hugged his thighs and a pair of brown boots. It struck her how good looking he was in a rough kind of way.
He raised his hand and gestured to her to join him. She was too close to tears for company. She gave a little wave but went to a booth in the opposite corner of the lounge.
After she gave her drink order to the server, she started working on the last of the hotels on the sheet.
Fifteen minutes and one vodka martini—with another one the way—later, Anna was on her last hope. The last one on the sheet, an Econo Lodge motel.
She dialed the number, asked about rooms—
None.
Of course not.
This time she couldn’t stop the tears. She never cried. But after a long drive from Tucson to Denver, she was exhausted and, for the night, homeless. Defeated, she put her face in her hands.
“Are you all right, Anna?” The booth’s padded seat dipped with his weight as Mark sat beside her.
She was too exhausted to be embarrassed about bursting into tears like she had. She raised her head, reached for the napkin beneath her martini glass, and wiped her face with the damp napkin. “I’d say I was fine,” she sniffled, “but I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve called every hotel on this sheet and there’s nothing. Anywhere.”
He rubbed her upper back with his palm. It was a comforting gesture and right now she could use comforting.