Strong and Steady - Vanessa Vale Page 0,2

stood with them, a man who definitely had not been there before. If he had, I wouldn't have taken my eyes from him.

“Oh, um… nurse practitioner,” I responded absently as I noticed the man’s arm, corded muscles shifting beneath the white sleeve. A tattoo peeked out from beneath the rolled-up cuff and his hands were big, the fingers blunt. I couldn’t see the rest of him with Paul blocking the full view, and a visceral need took hold to do so. That was a man.

Bob/Bill placed his plate on an empty high top and picked up his beer. Doing so, he inched even closer, irritating me. “Is that one of those aides who helps wheel patients to x-ray? I like those cute uniforms they wear.”

Stepping back, I ignored his words, frustrated I couldn’t get a glimpse of the man. Fortunately, Paul shifted, creating an opening where he was clearly visible. Heat flooded my veins at the sight, and I felt weird butterflies in my stomach. This wasn’t silly, school girl crush feelings. This was something else entirely. This was intense, raw lust. Holy hell, I swore my nipples tightened beneath my dress with one glimpse of him.

He. Was. A. Cowboy. A COWBOY!

Living in Colorado, there were a bunch of them out and about, but I hadn’t seen one this close, and I hadn’t seen one who made me want to pull out a rope and lasso his ass.

Taller than Paul’s six-foot frame, he had broader shoulders and closely cropped dark hair. He wore a crisp white shirt, but it had snaps. A woman must have invented the concept of snaps on a man’s shirt because with this guy, I wanted to grab both sides of it and rip it open, see the defined chest beneath. Lick it.

Snap. Snap. SNAP!

My mouth watered at the idea. It wasn’t just the shirt that said Hello Cowboy! but the pressed jeans that molded oh-so-well to powerful legs. And butt. I’d never had a thing for big, shiny belt buckles, but mmm mmm. He even wore sturdy leather boots as if he’d just come from his ranch. He was all ripped, lean muscle, and my fingers itched to feel every one of them. From across the room, I could see his eyes were dark, a deep and equally dark brow that shadowed them. If my panties got damp from just a glance, what would happen if he turned that gaze on me? I swallowed at the very idea. Look at me. Look at me!

He was definitely tall and dark, but handsome? Not in the traditional sense, but he hit every one of my hot buttons, every button I had no idea I even had. Since when did a cowboy light my fire? They looked hot in the hottie-of-the-month calendar, but I’d never been attracted to one in person before.

But now. SNAP!

The smile Mr. Cowboy gave Paul was wide and friendly and my heart lurched. Although I felt like I’d been staring at him for minutes, it had been a matter of seconds of ogling. My reaction was instantaneous and almost steamy, and… why him? I’d seen more attractive men and felt less. Felt nothing. My body didn’t care that his nose looked like it had been broken at least twice. It indicated a life had been hard and well fought, and I could relate to that.

He was the complete opposite of what I was usually attracted to, which was based on attractive guys in movies not real ones. If the latest James Bond happened to be across the room, I’d certainly knock the other ladies down to get to him. But this wasn’t James Bond. More like his brother who’d spent more than eight seconds on the back of a bull. He looked comfortable in his tattoos and in his western wear. And I liked looking at him in his tattoos and western wear.

“Well?” Bob/Bill shifted enough to block my view of the guy, and I frowned. He was keeping me from staring at the hot guy. What had he asked me? Right, my job.

“Yeah, no.” Such a chauvinistic idiot who didn’t know a bull ball from a bivalve. “That’s a candy striper, and they’re either fifteen years old or eighty, so nothing like that at all. I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing.” Candy striper, my ass.

When I shifted to get a glimpse of Mr. Cowboy again, he was gone. Of course, he was gone while I was lingering with Mr. Dud with