time in a long time…Kate felt fine.
And Darius in the black cowboy hat looked even more fine.
Their eyes kept meeting…they kept smiling at each other…and every time she looked his way, he got more attractive. She was dancing for him. He was playing for her. He kept looking at her as if he wanted to jump off the stage and eat her alive.
This was really happening, even though it felt almost surreal, as if she was dreaming the entire thing.
She was very, very out of practice at anything that didn’t involve legal filings or growing peonies. Even drinking, for that matter. The Moose is Loose poured generous shots and the waitress was keeping them well-supplied. Was Maya ordering them? Jessica? Did it matter?
The moments blended together in a happy, seamless blur. The taste of lime on her tongue, the thump of the beat, the smell of her own sweat.
At some point Maya went to the restroom. Jessica had gotten into a soulful conversation with a cute guy. Kate was basically dancing alone.
This was it. Time for Naughty Kate to make a move on that mud-rescuing, cowboy-hat-wearing, bass-playing hottie.
On the one hand, she knew perfectly well that she was hellaciously buzzed and probably not making the best decisions. But that was the entire point. She wanted to do One Stupid Thing. Well, technically…One More Stupid Thing. This was happening, damn it.
As long as he was definitely from Oregon.
Hauling in a deep breath, she slid through the crowd, dodging elbows and beer bottles.
“Ow, ow, ow,” she kept saying; her dodging skills clearly needed some work.
Finally she made it to the stage. Darius hadn’t noticed her; he was sitting on a stool next to the standup bass, casually propping it up with one hand as he leaned back to listen to the something the drummer was telling him.
She reached onstage and tugged at his pants leg. He didn’t notice because he was too wrapped up in the conversation with the drummer. So she rapped lightly on his shin with her knuckles.
It was hard as a tree, that shin. This man was packed with muscle, every part of him.
When he still didn’t turn around, she tried again—harder.
So hard she activated an automatic response and his foot jerked toward her, kicking her on the shoulder.
“Ouch!” It didn’t hurt so much as surprise her, but the word popped out anyway.
Darius swung around, an appalled expression on his face. “Good God, did I just kick you? Are you okay?”
As he reached toward her, the speed of his movement knocked the bass out of balance. It slid out of his grip and toward Kate. He lunged to grab it.
“I got it!” she announced.
She stepped forward and caught the rounded lower part of the bass in her arms, dodging the endpin with its rubber cap. The instrument was so large; that thought sounded kind of naughty.
“Kate Robinson to the rescue!” she continued. Sweet lord, was she buzzed. “Coulda shattered all over the floor. Nothing but splinters.”
She grinned up at Darius, who still wore a concerned frown. “Don’t move,” he said sternly. “That thing’s too big for you to handle.”
“That’s what they all say.” Did that sound flirty like she’d imagined? Or weird? She blinked at him, replaying it in her head.
Yup, weird. Definitely weird.
“I mean—”
“I’m coming down there,” he interrupted. “Hold on.”
“You’re so bass-y. I mean bossy. Get it?” Was that any better?
The instrument slipped in her grip, so she adjusted the placement of one foot. Suddenly she was sliding on someone’s spilled drink and she staggered backwards.
Oh shit. She was going to fall. She couldn’t fall. That would be so humiliating, not to mention painful. She teetered on the backs of her heels, fighting to stay upright.
Then she blinked to clear her vision, because either she was really really buzzed or she’d never seen another human move so fast. In a blur of black, Darius leaped off the stage and landed at her side with a thump. His cowboy hat went flying off his head and she caught a glimpse of thick dark hair.
Somehow, within moments, he’d settled his arms around her to keep her from falling.
A warm male wall of pure muscle was holding her up. Her entire body relaxed with a sigh. All her troubles melted away and she leaned against him. He felt like heaven, like every fantasy male she’d dreamed about before she’d lost all her illusions about men.
In her distraction, her grip on the bass loosened. It tilted to the side, ready to