Rough and Tumble by CRYSTAL GREEN Page B

going to kill Arden twice,” he chuckled.
    â€œIt’s really not funny,” she said. “This trip hasn’t exactly been what I was thinking it would be.”
    â€œDidn’t you want something different?” he asked. “I’d say you now have an adventure you can bring back to your weekend parties with all your Gap-wearing friends back home. It’s just too bad that you didn’t stop by the Rough and Tumble at night. Then you’d really have some stories.”
    â€œYou mentioned that earlier. Everyone crawls out of the woodwork at night, yada-yada-yada.” She drank a healthy dose of her cocktail.
    â€œThere’re some real characters that materialize after dark, all right. They’re probably descending on the saloon about now, too. A band will be playing some roadhouse music, the place will have beer splashed all over the floor, and I guarantee one or more of my friends will sweet-talk some girl into doing a striptease on the bar. It’s a Rough and Tumble tradition—first man to get a new girl to dance there has his drinks paid for that night. Everyone puts money in a pot early on.”
    â€œAnd how many rounds have you had for free?”
    He sat back in his cushioned chair, crossing his arms behind his head. “That’s confidential.”
    She laughed. “I’ll bet your friends would tell me.”
    Friends. He could see them now, their eyes popping out of their heads if he brought an accountant to the Rough & Tumble at night. Most of the girls there would be experienced—they’d be fun and free like he was, all of them running away from something or other outside the bar.
    Shit, he’d love to take Molly there, showing his friends that he was top dog in the get department before he eventually moved on to wherever he’d be going next.
    But there was a part of him that wanted to keep Molly from all that wildness, wanted to keep her to himself. That part of him was weak, though, and he stuffed it away. He was never going to be weak for a woman—or anyone—again.
    He tested her out. “My friends could tell a few tales, mostly about me. I wouldn’t want you to
ever
meet up with them.”
    Yup, that’d intrigued her. As she sipped her drink, she assessed him, then set down her half-full glass, running a finger over its rim. The gesture tickled him in his gut, riffling something that shouldn’t be disturbed.
    She smiled. “Maybe I’ll go out there one night with Arden and Sofia. That way I can have my posse with me while I get the dirt on you.”
    It was the opening he’d been hoping for. “Maybe we should just go out there tonight.”
    Her gaze went smoky, like she was actually considering the possibility, like there was even a chance that she was as insanely attracted to him as he was to her. If that was the case, she was good at hiding it. Girls like her flirted, but they never followed through.
    So what made him think she’d go there tonight to be shown off like a trophy he’d won?
    When she finished her drink with one decisive toss back, pounding her glass on the table, he had to look at Molly P. Preston twice. Was that a wild streak he saw? The same one he’d detected when she’d accepted his offer of a whisky at the saloon this afternoon?
    â€œSo it’s too much to hope,” she said, “that the date doesn’t end here? You’re dictating that I go with you to that saloon now?”
    â€œI’m not making you do anything. But I will say this . . .” He smiled. “If you were to go there with me, I could find it in my heart to negotiate with you about how long this date will be lasting.”
    She seemed disappointed that she’d overlooked that detail. “How long
will
it last?”
    â€œI was thinking you’d be with me ’til dawn.”
    She gaped at him again. But the more he thought about it, the more he liked