Read Online All Fired Up (Stardust) by Mimi Riser - Free Book Online Page B

what it felt like to him. But he checked his watch just to be certain. “An hour, maybe a little more.” He retrieved his vest from the cave’s floor, shook it out and put it on, waiting. Roxanne stood up, dusted herself off, gazed out of the cave again – and shrieked.
    “The gully’s flooded!”
    “It’s an old creek bed with a clay bottom. It’s always flooded after a heavy rain,” Slo said.
    He seemed so unconcerned, Roxanne wanted to smack him. A little below her swirled a murky river. It probably wasn’t very deep, but it still looked pretty nasty, and from what she could see, the muddy water was in no hurry to recede. They could be stuck here for days. Weeks. Years!
    “Slo, how are we supposed to get out of—”
    An ungodly cry came from somewhere above. The mating call of a bull moose? A water buffalo in heat? Someone being disemboweled?
    Roxanne winced. Her hearing aid seemed to be working too well. Ever since waking up, noises had been strangely increasing in volume, but this noise was the strangest yet. “What is that?”
    Slo gave her a small tight smile. The people who’d pointed him toward the gully knew where to find him, of course. They also would have called his grandmother and Lydia Jones to let them know the situation and alleviate any fears. That’s why he hadn’t worried about the flooding. With the storm now over, the cavalry had arrived.
    “Either there’s a hog calling contest on the ridge above us, or Cody Carston is still laboring under the delusion he can yodel.”
    “I heard that!” Cody hollered. “Slo? That you?”
    “No, it’s Little Bo Peep. I’m looking for my sheep. Have you seen them?”
    “Yep. They were delicious.” Cody smacked his lips. “Hey, stick your ugly face out, and I’ll toss you a rope. Harp said it’d be okay to leave the Harley here for now. No one can ride her through this mess. We’ll come back for her later.”
    Yeah, Slo had already figured that. The bike would be safe in the cave till the gully dried. He leaned out of the hidey-hole.
    Cody let fly with the rope.
    It hit Slo in the head.
    “Ow!”
    “Dang. Sorry ’bout that.”
    As a yodeler, the young rancher left a lot to be desired. As a tosser, his aim was impeccable.
    “He did that on purpose,” Slo grumbled to Roxanne.
    Cody’s chuckle rolled down from above. “I was just tryin’ to knock your brains back into place.”
    Slo flashed an evil grin upward. “I’m gonna knock yours out the minute I get up there.”
    “Yeah, I heard that before. Ain’t seen it happen yet though. Now shut your mouth and put that lasso around Roxy. I’ll pull her up first.”
    “Like hell.” With his hands on the rope and his feet braced against the rock face, Slo was already climbing. “I don’t hand over any woman to you, Casanova, unless she has an armed escort,” he panted out as he reached the level stretch of range above the gully.
    Roxanne heard a mocking guffaw from Cody.
    “Look who’s talkin’. I ain’t the one who’s been holed up with her in the Kissin’ Cave.”
    Kissing Cave? Roxanne blushed. Given the steamy flood of visions that had swamped her earlier, the name shouldn’t be a surprise, but somehow she had assumed this cave had been Slo’s secret love nest. Discovering it was a well-known make-out spot put a whole new slant on things. This was a small, gossipy community. All of Star would now be talking about her and Slo. Her reputation was ruined.
    Did she care?
    Damned if she knew.
    Having spent most of her life in an institution, Roxanne had never before had a reputation to worry about. For years the only people she’d had any contact with had been lunatics and the staff who cared for them. She could imagine this might have warped her perspective a bit regarding group dynamics and human nature in general – although she had to admit she hadn’t noticed much difference yet between the inmates of her asylum and most other people. The others perhaps drooled a little