Wrong Side of Love [Wayback Texas] Read online

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  The Wild Rose Press

  www.thewildrosepress.com

  Copyright ©2008 by Sylvie Kaye

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  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

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  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

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  Wrong Side of Love

  by

  Sylvie Kaye

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Wrong Side of Love

  COPYRIGHT ©

  2008 by Sylvie Kaye

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Tamra Westberry

  The Wild Rose Press

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0706

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Yellow Rose Edition, 2008

  Published in the United States of America

  Chapter One

  Lucas Fremont wanted two things before his thirtieth birthday. To stay on Storm Trooper's back for eight seconds and to make it with Lili Marlene.

  The bull had tossed him into the dirt every Saturday night for the past four months, and Lili had said ‘no’ twice that many times.

  Luc parked his dusty pickup, plugged the ugly gray meter, and sauntered over to The Blue Bug Saloon. He needed two shots of whiskey to fortify him before he ventured across the street to the Hair Crazy Beauty Salon for a haircut. He'd quit the barber for Lili's beauty shop not long after his first dance with her.

  Ray-Ray, a regular who was all too aware of Luc's Saturday routine, teased him as soon as he bellied up to the bar and straddled a neon-blue stool that matched the neon-blue bug over the front door of the honky-tonk. “Reason for a Stetson's so a cowpoke don't need weekly shearings.” He spat his tobacco into a Styrofoam cup and chuckled at his own humor.

  Good-naturedly, Lucas flipped him the bird. Both men went quiet when Rita Mae sashayed over.

  "I'll have a shot of TruBlu,” Luc ordered.

  With a smile and a reply of, “I know,” she leaned her elbows on the bar and her cleavage spilled over.

  Rita Mae's rack was real and impressive in size, like two over-ripe melons. Many a cowboy—amateur, semi-pro, wannabe, and local—drooled over her chest, enveloped in its short, belly-baring white T-shirt, which she tied artfully beneath her breasts. Many of her fascinated customers tucked bills between the twin beauties when they tipped her. She made a lucrative living, especially on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights when the saloon had live bands playing to a packed house.

  Luc winked, and she wiggled away after she poured his whiskey.

  "Ray-Ray, do you find that a man has to have goals in this world, no matter how simple?"

  "Sure thing. Mine's to retire when I'm fifty. When the housing market bottoms out, I buy and sell commercial property. When that slumps, I switch back to residential.” He tapped his temple. “Got it all figured out."

  "Have you sold anything lately?"

  "A ranch about ten miles outside of town."

  Although he was hard-pressed to recall seeing Ray-Ray outside of The Blue Bug Saloon, the realtor did own a small office next to Patti-Pie's boot making shop.

  "Anybody I know?” he asked. The rodeo swelled the town to double its small population from Thursday through Sunday during the ten-month competition season. A few cowboys and spectators, who liked the friendly little town of Wayback with its lack of traffic jams and long lines, had stayed on.

  "Hitch Lawrence bought the spread."

  "The professional saddle bronc rider?” Luc was impressed. He'd met the man at the rodeo a month back and had read his bio in the PRCA news at the clinic while waiting to have a bruised rib checked. Hitch was rich, famous, and firmly rooted with family and friends in Arizona, or so the article stated.

  "That's him. One and the same."

  "What a draw for growth in Wayback. He's sure to put us on the map with his friends and his other contacts in professional rodeo."

  "Yeppers.” Ray-Ray grinned as if already counting his future commissions.

  Luc lifted his Stetson, ruffled his fingers through his hair, and resettled the hat onto his brow. “Ever think about leaving Wayback, or Texas for that matter?"

  Ray-Ray stroked his oversized, red handlebar mustache and gave the notion some thought. “Nah, can't say I ever have."

  "I've thought about it some lately.” Ever since his interest in Lili had grown serious. She was hell-bent for leather on getting out of Wayback. He didn't feel the same. Couldn't imagine himself anywhere else but in the white frame house with the picket fence that had been in his family for generations.

  "Your daddy would rise up from his grave and hogtie you. A Fremont's been Mayor of Wayback all the way back to its founding.” Ray-Ray rubbed his chin. “Except for that one term when Sam Glory pulled out all the stops and all his money against your daddy. I didn't vote for Sam,” he swore. “People learned their lesson when he only used the office as a stepping stone to becoming Governor.” Ray-Ray slapped him on the back. “You're doing a great job. Don't let the vote against a new cruiser and two more police officers throw you."

  Luc tossed back his shot. Politics didn't bother him any. He'd learned the ins and outs at his daddy's knee. Was good at it, too. “I'll get the money for additional law enforcement. You'll see."

  "It isn't that folks don't want safer streets, especially with some of the riffraff the rodeo draws, but the taxpayers don't want an increase. Even temporary. When taxes go up, they never come back down. They stick.” Ray-Ray spat his tobacco juice and waved Rita over.

  Without asking, she poured another shot into Luc's empty glass. She smiled, her teeth white and even, her lipstick ruby red. “A man can't stand on one leg.” She pointed her finger at Ray-Ray, like a six-gun. “You ready for your draft beer now?"

  He nodded, grinned, pleased she knew his drink of choice. In spite of all the action The Blue Bug saw, Rita Mae never forgot what her regulars drank. A trick of the trade that made a man feel special and earned her bigger tips from the locals to tide her over during the off season.

  "You ridin’ today?” Ray-Ray blew the foam from the draft Rita Mae plunked in front of him on the oak-scarred bar.

  "Every Saturday.” Some mayors threw out first baseballs, Luc rode the first bull out of the pen every Saturday afternoon. As a courtesy, the officials wa
ived the random drawing and allowed him to choose his animal.

  "And you pick Storm Trooper every week.” Ray-Ray laughed and slapped his hand to his knee. “You ever get tired of nose-diving over his horns into the dirt?"

  "Ha. Ha.” Luc was bound and determined to make the eight second buzzer before his birthday. “I'll dismount one of these weeks soon."

  "Hope I'm there to see it. The amount of money I win betting against you is getting downright embarrassing."

  "Enough for that early retirement you're looking so forward to?"

  "You don't want to know."

  Luc took it on the chin. Tugging his daddy's pocket watch free from the watch pocket of his jeans, he checked the time. He had five more minutes until his haircut appointment at Lili's. He'd never needed an appointment at Leroy's Barber Strop. But any excuse to get close to Lili was worth the keeping. He downed his second shot of TruBlu, the whiskey distilled by generations of Fremonts and sold in the tri-state area. The lucrative, growing whiskey business had relocated to Waco before he was born and had been run by a family appointed board of directors ever since his uncle died.

  Ned Brady sidled up onto the stool next to him, sporting a goose egg the size of a second head above his right eye.

  "What in the hell happened to you?” Luc asked.

  "I know you didn't get thrown bronco bustin’ last night. I was in the stands.” Ray-Ray spat his chaw into the paper cup before slugging down half of his mug of beer. His Adam's apple bobbed and bulged like a Texas rat snake swallowing its prey.

  "Bunch of ranch hands from Colorado said their cowboys were better than our Texas cowboys. A fight broke out. We had to defend the honor of the Lone Star State."

  As mayor, Luc had heard about the melee. “The police department was caught shorthanded and deputies from the county sheriff's office were called in to assist."

  Ray-Ray nodded. “Heard things got out of hand, fast. Lucky the ruckus took place out in the open at the rodeo corrals and not indoors at the saloon or the diner."

  "I didn't know you were involved.” Luc eyeballed Ned again. “What were you doing going toe-to-toe with a bunch of twenty-year-olds?” Ned had graduated high school with Luc and worked horses for Hawk and Maggie out at Mercy Creek Ranch.

  Ned shrugged. “My hat got stomped and I got pissed. That custom Stetson cost me a week's pay."

  "Just keep your head from getting stomped.” Luc slapped his old friend on the back and tossed a bill onto the bar for Rita Mae before heading out for the beauty salon.

  * * * *

  When Luc swaggered through the saloon style doors of her beauty shop, wearing his tight-fitting jeans and bronze-colored western shirt that matched his eyes and complexion, Lili's heart skipped a beat or two or three.

  LeAnn Rhymes was singing Good Lookin’ Man over the sound system and it suited him from his tooled boots to his low slung cowboy hat.

  "Hi beautiful,” he drawled.

  Suzie, the beautician Lili leased styling space to, turned from trimming Lyssa Callahan's brunette locks and flashed him a smile that could melt ice cubes from twenty paces. “Well if it isn't the best looking cowpoke to wear chaps."

  Lili had to agree with Suzie. Luc in chaps with the worn leather hugging his tight butt and prominent fly was a woman's wet dream. Hers anyway. But it was a dream she denied herself. The last thing she needed was to get serious about a local and end up stuck in Wayback, Texas forever.

  "Hello, Mayor,” Lyssa cooed, eyeballing him from beneath her fringe of wet bangs, while tucking the baggy cape tight around her curves.

  "Afternoon, ladies.” He tipped his hat, even to Della Ballew who had nodded off under the dryer.

  Lili caught the gleam in his warm, golden brown eyes when he glanced her way, as if baiting her to turn green-eyed with jealousy over the attention the other women lavished on him.

  Lili faked a calm she didn't feel and tossed him a demure little nod. Not wanting to appear overeager, she scribbled in her appointment book while he stood near the reception desk.

  His special scent of man, outdoors and leather mixed with a faint tinge of musk, spiked her hormones into overdrive. She felt his body heat luring her from across the counter and fought the urge to grab his pearl-snapped shirt front in her fist, yank him close, and kiss him silly.

  Her attraction to Luc was a constant battlefront. One she charged at and retreated from at regular intervals. She couldn't deny he made her hot and horny and tender and caring, a whole mess of confusing emotions, all at the same time. Her life would be easier if she detested him.

  He was the last man she should get involved with and the only man she wanted. She sighed. She only had to be strong for another few months.

  While flipping through the pages of the appointment book, waiting for her pulse to slow down, she noted a slow and steady rise in business. The rodeo drew women who were out to lasso themselves a cowboy for a fun night, a weekend, or a lifetime. Not afraid to pay for the best the beauty shop had to offer, from perms and foils to cut and colors, locals and buckle bunnies alike kept the place busy during the rodeo season. Looked like she'd have enough saved up by the agreed upon deadline to close on the new shop in Austin.

  "Ready?” She stood and met Luc's sexy eyes and full-lipped smile head on.

  Oh, she knew what his mouth could do. His French kisses made her hotter than a curling iron in less time than it took to close her eyes. His talented tongue drove her to the brink of giving in and tangling in the bed sheets with him.

  Breaking eye contact, she turned and strode toward one of the empty black-and-chrome styling chairs. So far, she'd managed to stop things before they'd gone too far. Sex with Luc would only heighten the attraction she felt for him. Like could turn to love too easily with naked bodies thrown into the fray.

  Still, she'd give her Sunday off to know what it felt like to lie naked in his arms, lose herself in his eyes, and let their passion unleash. Maybe just once, the night before she hightailed it out of town.

  She felt his tall, sexy body behind her as he followed her over to the styling chair. When he sat down, she sucked in a steadying breath before tying a black-and-white striped cape around his neck and resting her hands on his broad shoulders.

  His muscles flexed hard and taut beneath her fingers as she peered into his handsome face through the mirror in front of them. His square jaw, firm lips, and eyes, bronze-brown like the mountains when the sun hit them just right, were a heady sight. Both her fingers and her belly tingled.

  This early afternoon Saturday ritual was becoming more like foreplay than a haircut. Regardless of how often she determined to avoid him, except during his standing appointment, every time he asked her out, she buckled. Thankfully, she wouldn't have to deal with him once she got out of Dodge. Or in her case, out of Wayback.

  "You're quiet today.” His voice was smooth like the TruBlu whiskey his family blended and just as intoxicating.

  "You know what they say about the quiet ones,” she teased to lighten the mood. Picking up the comb she ran it through his thick, collar-length hair. She bypassed his ears, which she'd like to whisper into in the deep darkness of her bedroom, and his earlobes that she wanted to tug at with her teeth, just to feel him shiver with his want.

  "They say the quiet ones are wild.” He winked, slow and sexy.

  She tapped him on the top of his head with her comb. “No. I meant still waters run deep."

  "You a deep thinker, Lili?"

  "About some things."

  "About business,” Suzie interjected. “She's already got a ten-chair shop with established clientele lined up in Austin. I'll be renting this salon.” She glanced at Lyssa and Luc. “Hope you stay with me when I take over."

  "The new do you gave me last month got me a night of dancing with the hottest cowpoke at the rodeo. I'll never leave you.” Lyssa laughed, lusty and low. “He called. Surprised the heck out of me that he still had my number after all this time. He said he's in town again and asked if I'd
be at The Blue Bug tonight."

  "Who's the cowboy?” Both Lili and Suzie said in unison.

  "Hitch Lawrence,” she squealed while Suzie jumped up and down with glee like her personal cheerleader.

  When Suzie stopped hopping around, she leaned into the mirror, flicking the ends of her dark, blunt-cut hair. “I wonder how I'd look in your hairdo."

  "Oh, no you don't.” Lyssa laughed, shaking her head. “I'm putting a patent on this cut."

  "Ray-Ray claims Hitch bought a spread about ten miles out.” Luc grinned, seeming pleased with himself to be able to contribute to the female gossip fest.

  "Interesting.” Lyssa licked her lips.

  "Must be the Circle D,” Suzie said. “A customer told me yesterday that old man Danfield's place was vandalized while he was in rehab for his hip replacement. Said he gave up ranching to move in with his grandson in Houston."

  "Bunch of good ole’ boys out of Utah got drunk, lost, and broke in to sleep it off until dawn. They swore they didn't take any money. Didn't have but a few dollars on them when they were picked up. I'm inclined to believe them.” Luc's brows knitted into a formidable Vee. “We need to increase the police force so we can patrol regularly, especially during rodeo season."

  "Wouldn't that raise taxes, Mayor?” Lili scowled.

  "Not property or school taxes. I'm trying to add an increase onto the local business tax before the bills go out next month.” His jaw got squarer with his determination.

  "How big of an increase?"

  "A substantial one, I'm afraid. But the businesses benefit the most from the rodeo."

  "The hike in the tax might slow down my plans to move to Austin.” She chewed her lip while she fretted over her deal in Austin falling through. Even with the current rise in her business, she was cutting her expenses close.

  He didn't look in the least upset for her.

  Why would he, when they both knew he didn't want her to leave?

  "What's Austin got that we don't?” Luc sounded like he'd change whatever displeased her in Wayback.

  If only.