Six Degrees of Desperation (Dirty Tricks) Read Online Free Page A

arms into his shirt, his boots
on his feet and crammed his cowboy hat on his head. “Save a dance
for me.” With a wink, he left.
    For a long moment, Charli sat there, her
pussy still throbbing, aching for Connor, the aftermath of her
orgasm still rippling through her system. Then she flopped back,
turned and buried her face in a pillow and screamed her
frustration, pounding her fists against the mattress.
    After her little burst of frustration, she
lay there for a long moment, buried in her pillows, a thousand
thoughts roiling around her mind, all coming back to her safe,
sensitive cowboy, Connor Mason and the fact that she’d had the
opportunity to tell him about her mystery cowboy and hadn’t.
    Damn.
    That night, she’d tell him. She’d pull him
to the side and break it to him, first thing.
    Her cell phone buzzed on her nightstand
several times before she pulled her face out of the pillows and
snatched it up, praying the caller was Connor, asking her to let
him back in to finish what they’d started. Then maybe she’d tell
him what she should have told him already.
    The buzzing stopped before she could answer
and the caller ID indicated an unknown caller.
    Charli’s heart skipped several beats then
raced ahead as the light blinked on for a voice mail message. She
eased her finger onto the play button.
    “Hi, beautiful. Ready for our next dirty
trick?”

Chapter Three
    Charli paced in the storeroom, only
half-listening while Audrey gave her instructions to the waitresses
before the doors opened on the Ugly Stick Saloon, and the annual
Cowboy Masquerade Ball commenced. She'd done the best she could to
fix her mussed hair, finally piling it up on top of her head in
careless curls. The tumble in the bed with Connor had been well
worth destroying Mona's handiwork.
    Customers lined up out front, waiting to get
in, many wearing costumes, others would be given black masks as
they entered to allow them to join in the masquerade, should they
choose.
    Normally excited by the hoopla, Charli was
already sweating the hoards of cowboys that would descend on the
saloon in moments. Tonight would be a nightmare, an absolute
nightmare.
    The call she’d received shortly after Connor
left her, still horny and a little less than satisfied, had been
from her AWOL mystery cowboy, who’d proceeded to drop the bomb.
He’d been sorry about being out of touch, but that he planned to
make it up to her. That night he’d be wearing a black cowboy hat
and wearing a yellow rose at the ball.
    The same night Connor would be there, and
Charli still hadn’t told him the truth.
    "Charli, honey, are you all right?" Bella
Severs slipped an arm around Charli's waist. "You're as wound up as
a blind rattlesnake getting her new button."
    "I'm just a little worried." Charli
appreciated the hug. She could use a lot of those right now, when
her world stood a chance of falling completely apart. But the
longer Bella hugged her, the more she felt trapped. She turned her
back to the pretty brunette. "Could you pull the strings on this
corset just a bit tighter? I'd hate to have it come undone during
our number."
    "Why worry? The cowboys would love it."
Lacey Neil skimmed her finger along the top of Charli's black
corset. "I'd love it too. You have lovely breasts."
    "Don't listen to her," Kendall Mason called
out from the other side of Audrey. "She'll be giving you sex
education lessons before you know it, and then all hell will break
loose."
    Lacey pouted toward her former housemate,
Kendall. "You know you loved it. Admit it."
    Kendall grinned. "You bet. And the best part
is that I got my cowboy."
    Bella tugged on the strings at Charli's
back. "Just rub it in, why don't you? Ed Judson is quite a catch. I
wouldn't mind having him give me a few sex education lessons as
well."
    "Watch it." Kendall's eyes narrowed. "He's
all mine. Plenty of cowboys are out there tonight for you to choose
from, so keep your paws off my man." Her words sounded harsher than
the