Read Online Cowboy Resurrection: Cowboy Cocktail, Book 2 by Mia Hopkins - Free Book Online

coming around, would they?”
    She shook her head. “They want me to marry a Sikh guy and start a family. According to them, I should’ve started a long, long time ago.”
    “And you? What do you want?”
    A bright blue jay landed at the water’s edge, took a drink and flew noisily into the trees. Monica watched it go. “Since I broke up with my ex, there’s been no one serious. Mostly one-night stands—my mother would throw me off a cliff if she knew.” She paused. “I guess if the right guy came along, I might consider getting married. But I try not to think about it.”
    He understood what she was saying. He’d put marriage out of his mind a long time ago. Been there, done that. Had the ugly-ass scars to prove it. “What else do you want?”
    “I want to bail my family out,” she said with a sigh. “The motel was a bad idea, but they’re not letting go. The rodeo might help them at least break even, and if it becomes an annual event, they might even turn a profit in two or three years.”
    Dean nodded slowly. He’d gotten her all wrong. She wasn’t self-involved. Just the opposite. She was taking care of her family.
    With the back of his knuckle, he reached forward and stroked her arm from her shoulder to her wrist. “And what else do you want?”
    When she smiled at him, he realized he wanted to be the kind of man who was worthy of a smile like that. “I have a job waiting for me in Silicon Valley,” she said, leaning forward as though she were sharing a secret with him. “It’s a start-up. I’d be director of marketing. It’s a huge promotion. A big raise. The sooner I can get out there, the better.”
    “Sounds like you have everything planned out.”
    “They’re keeping the job open for me. I’m planning to make my getaway right after the rodeo. After all the numbers are in.” She looked at him. “What about you? Do you think you’ll find your way back to the circuit?”
    “Hard to say.” He left it at that.
    She frowned. “You know, the laconic-cowboy act is getting kind of tiresome. Does that work with most people?”
    “Most normal people, sure,” he said. “And I’m not trying to hide anything from you. Here. Let me prove it. Ask me anything.”
    The sly look in her eyes gave him pause. “Anything?”
    He stuck to his guns. “Yup.”
    “Okay.” She sat up and faced him. “How many women have you slept with?”
    Shit. He took a sip of beer to gather his thoughts. “That’s what you open with? Goddamn.”
    “You said to ask you anything.” She raised her eyebrows. “Well?”
    “Don’t rush me.” He dragged a hand through his still-damp hair. “Let’s see. I’m kind of an old geezer now, and I started early, so you need to take that into account. Then I was with my ex-wife, four years, just her. After her, free-for-all. I’ve been slowing down in the last few years.”
    “You’re stalling.”
    “That’s ’cuz it’s just a number,” he said. “Doesn’t mean good sex, for one.”
    “But you’re a superstar. I thought you’d be able to skim off the cream of the crop.”
    He shrugged. “Depends on what you mean by ‘good sex’. And where you are in your life when you need it.”
    With a wicked grin, she reached forward and stroked his chest and abs. Her hands lingered on his scars. “So what’s good sex to you?” she asked.
    “This.” He raked his eyes up and down her naked body. “This is some damn fine sex.”
    “Be serious.”
    “I am serious.” He lay back down and put his hands behind his head. It was easier to say some things when he wasn’t looking directly at her. “Some days…I wake up. I can’t stand the sight of myself. I think about the ways I’ve fallen short. The people I’ve let down. The people I’ve hurt. But when you find someone you can talk to…I don’t know. Things seem less lonely. Just a little less…imperfect.”
    Monica was quiet for a moment, but she hadn’t stopped stroking his chest. The feeling of her