The Convent Rose (The Roses) Read Online Free Page A

need a condom, Rusty?”
    “Got my own, thanks!” Russ tried to answer in the same gasping voice. He whispered to Noreen. “Lie down and sort of swirl your head in the rice hulls.”
    Rusty lowered himself carefully on top of Noreen. If he wasn’t careful, he’d embarrass himself. They kissed some more until they heard a shriek from Renee. Russ rolled off of the girl and instructed, “Try to look satiated, will you?”
    They lay side by side waiting for Bodey and Renee to put themselves back together. Noreen closed her eyes and breathed through half-open lips. She put a hand behind her head making her rumpled white blouse gap. Rusty could see the swell of one flushed breast. He closed his eyes and tried to relax. Finally, the other couple came clumping toward their stall. He helped Noreen up and was brushing rice hulls from her hair and skirt when Renee looked in.
    “Well, how did it go, Noreen?”
    “Great, really great. It didn’t hurt at all. I think Rusty Niles is the most wonderful boy I’ve ever known.”
    Bodey raised his dark eyebrows at Renee. Renee looked at her cousin as if she’d never seen him before. She sniffed. “Coming from a member of the Courville family, I guess that is a compliment for all of us lowly Niles.”
    Then, Renee said smugly, “Well, I guess Bodey Landrum is the best lover I’ve ever had, and he’s going to be the best bull rider in the whole world.”
    “Bodey, Bodey Landrum! Some of the guests are leaving. You come out here and say good-bye.” Mrs. Barnum’s voice came closer and closer to the barn.
    Frantically, Rusty Niles brushed Noreen’s backside. She tossed her hair trying to remove all the rice hulls. Bodey, though, he just sauntered out meet his mother in the spring twilight as if nothing had happened. He did keep a hand over the place where his championship belt buckle had gone missing—down the front of Renee’s dress. Oh well, he could win another one. Renee followed him, her frock looking as if she had slept in it, her hair as full of rice hulls as if she had been showered with confetti.
    Bets gave her son a once-over stare along with Renee and the sheepish couple behind them. “I think it’s time for your little friends to go home, too.”
    The boys walked the Mount Carmel girls back to their convertible. Despite Mrs. Barnum watching from a distance, Renee gave Bodey a sizzling good-bye French kiss of some duration. “Happy birthday, cowboy. I hope you enjoyed your present.”
    “Yes, ma’am, I sure did. We got to get together again some time.”
    Noreen pecked Rusty’s cheek and even that caused him to blush, the curse of the redheaded. “I hope I’ll see you again.”
    “Me, too.” Russ ground his boot toe into the grass and concentrated on his action to avoid looking in those beautiful brown eyes.
    The convertible packed solid with passengers again, Renee drove away with her clique, the Sexy Seven. Bodey turned to his best friend. “How was she? Nice and tight, I’ll bet. Did she cry or did she like it? Man, I should have told you more about pleasing a woman, but I didn’t expect us to get lucky tonight, not with all the old folks around.”
    “I think I’m the lucky one. Noreen is fine. I wish I could see her again, but she’s a Courville and I’m a Niles. Romeo and Juliet’s families couldn’t hate each other more. Still, I think I could fall in love with her. Maybe I’m in love already, it feels so right.”
    Bodey slapped Rusty on the back a little disappointed that his buddy wasn’t more of a kiss-and-tell kind of guy. “Forget about old plays. Come on, a man doesn’t fall in love at first fuck. We got years ahead of us, just you and me having a good time on the rodeo circuit. We’ll drink hard and screw plenty of women before we settle down. When we do, I’d want a wife like Eve Burns. You know kind of fancy and refined, not easy like Renee. Sorry, I know she’s your cousin and a mighty good lay, but you don’t marry a girl