Shoulda Been a Cowboy

  Dedication

  To all the men and women in uniform, we owe you for your dedication and sacrifice. And to all the families of military personnel, who hold it all together at home…this book is for you too…

  Prologue

  Crash.

  Bang.

  Thump thump thump.

  Silence.

  Another loud thud followed the distinctive sound of breaking glass.

  Not good.

  When the whole building seemed to shake with the next crash-bang-thump combo, Domini Katzinski panicked.

  Call the police, dummy.

  Good plan.

  She scrambled for her cell phone on the nightstand. She dialed and hunkered underneath the covers, counting the rings.

  Pick up. Please pick up.

  “Domini?” Cam McKay said with a surprised tone. “What’s goin’ on?”

  The deep timbre of his voice allowed her to focus on something besides her fear. “I think someone is breaking into the restaurant. There’s loud noises and breaking glass—”

  “Are you locked in your apartment?”

  “Yes. Should I—”

  “No. Don’t move. Stay right there, do you hear me?”

  Domini started to answer but he beat her to the punch.

  “I mean it,” Cam said sharply. “Stay put and stay quiet until you hear from me. Keep your phone close to you and on vibrate. Promise me.”

  “I promise.”

  “Good. I’m on my way.” Click.

  For the next thirty minutes, Domini cowered in her bed, hating that the incident had transported her back to the sleepless nights of her childhood. Hearing the violence in the streets below. Sirens in the distance.

  As terror beat in her chest like a living thing, trying to claw its way out, she realized she hadn’t exorcised that scared little girl at all. No place on earth was far enough away from those horrid memories because she carried them inside her.

  Domini’s phone buzzed in her hand and she nearly screamed. The caller ID read: Cam. Thank God. “Hello?”

  “I’m outside your apartment. Let me in.”

  She tossed back the quilt and raced to the living room. After releasing the deadbolts, she opened the door. The gigantic silhouette slunk into the room and she instinctively backed up, because the guy took up a serious amount of space.

  Cam McKay was imposing, even in near darkness. The dominant male animal. The ultimate guardian. A pillar of strength. A bona fide warrior.

  His deep frown and shrewd gaze read all business. “You okay?”

  I am now. “I guess.”

  He kept looking at her as if he expected her to get hysterical. “Domini—”

  “I’m fine. Really. Just shaky. I’ll umm…make tea.”

  Tea? How lame. But she was so flustered from being scared, and from Cam being right there, she wasn’t thinking straight.

  “Maybe you need a shot of whiskey,” he muttered as he followed her into the kitchen.

  Maybe I need a shot of you to settle me down.

  Domini filled the kettle and fired up the stove. Her hand shook like crazy when she put a jasmine teabag in each mug before she faced him, knowing she looked calmer than she felt. “I didn’t hear sirens. Does that mean there wasn’t a break in?”

  Cam watched her carefully and shook his head.

  Her relief warred with frustration. “I didn’t imagine those noises. I’m not the type of woman who just—” she gestured distractedly, searching for the right phrase, “—who just calls the law on a whim.”

  But Domini hadn’t called 911…she’d called Deputy McKay. At home. Did Cam think she’d tricked him to get him to show up alone at her apartment at midnight? On a night she knew he hadn’t been on duty? Her chin fell to her chest.

  “Hey.” Cam shuffled closer. His warm fingers tipped her face up. “Don’t you think I know you’d never cry wolf? Don’t you think I know what type of woman you are, Domini?”

  No. I don’t think you have a clue.

  “You didn’t imagine anything. You heard somebody throwing stuff in the Dumpster. Inside the container were a bunch of broken glass and rotten wood from old window frames. Either the Dumpster rolled away as they were loading the bigger stuff into it, or they used it as bumper car, because it’s crossways in the alley.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. There are a couple of big chunks out of the sandstone where the Dumpster smacked into it.”

  She blinked at him. “But that was it?”

  “For the most part.”

  “You probably think I’m just another paranoid woman who overreacted.”

  “Not even close. I heard the fear in your voice when you called me. That’s what got me over here so damn fast.”

  And despite her resolve not to act wimpy, Domini launched herself at him. She circled her arms around his neck, pressing her face into his sturdy chest as she shuddered with relief.

  It took a minute for Cam to respond. Then one hand stroked her hair with gentleness that belied his size, and his other hand gripped her hip.

  At five foot ten, Domini had always been considered tall. But sheltered within Cam’s height and breadth, she felt positively petite. Surrounded by his warmth and his scent she felt completely…safe.

  Neither one said a word. But their body language spoke volumes. Cam’s heart thumped wildly beneath her ear. Her breathing was as choppy as his.

  Domini angled her head back gradually, not wanting to scare him away from touching her. When he sensed her looking at him, those sinfully long eyelashes lifted and he studied her from beneath the half-lidded gaze.

  Here’s your chance. Take it.

  She stood on the tips of her bare toes until their mouths were a breath apart. “Thank you for coming, Cam.” Without breaking eye contact, Domini brushed her lips over his. Slowly the first time. Even more leisurely on the second pass. The third time she’d intended to leave her mouth pressed to his, just to see if he’d kiss her back.

  But Cam stole that third kiss from her. His velvety tongue snaked out and traced the seam of her lips. She gasped and that wicked tongue dove straight into her open mouth.

  For so long she’d wondered what Cam tasted like. Now she knew—delicious. All hot musky male. The kiss wasn’t aggressive, but a curious dance of tangling tongues and sliding lips. When Cam playfully suckled her tongue, her curiosity vanished and spiraled into hunger.

  Cam’s fingers tightened in her hair. He tilted her head,, devouring her mouth with wet sucking kisses. The hand on her hip slid around to caress her lower back. The heat of his rough palm on her bare skin was as potent as an electric charge as his hand glided beneath her pajama bottoms. His middle finger used the crack of her butt as a sensual guide until just the tip of his finger rested on her tailbone. Then he urged her pelvis closer to his by pressing on that bone.

  The odd pressure on that erogenous spot, coupled with Cam’s greedy kisses set her blood on fire. The man could inflame her entire body with just one finger.

  He briefly lifted his lips. “More,” he growled against her mouth. “Give me all of you.” Cam kissed her harder. Deeper. Plastering her body to his. Grinding their hips together in a show of raw sexual power. He cranked her need higher, tighter, hotter with each consuming kiss.

  Yes yes yes. This is what she’d been dying for.

  Domini dug her fingernails into his scalp, returning his passion. Then she let her eager hands drift down the angular lines of his skull to cup his face between her palms. She traced the outer shell of his ears. When her thumb brushed the raised ridge of the scar on his left cheek, he quickly turned his head away.

  The teakettle whistled and Cam abruptly released her.

  She understood with
out looking at him the foray into testing the water as lovers was over.

  “Domini. I’m…”

  Don’t apologize. Don’t you dare apologize.

  “Look. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

  “But it did.”

  Silence.

  “Sorry. It shouldn’t have,” Cam said tightly.

  Great. He’d reset his persona back to Cam, the helpful deputy, a far cry from Cam, the demanding man who’d just turned her inside out with a simple kiss. Now he’d run. Was he running from her? Or from himself? And would she just let him go?

  After removing the kettle from the burner, Domini mustered the courage to meet his eyes. “I assume you’re not staying for tea?”

  Cam shook his head.

  “Well, thank you for showing up at this crazy hour. I appreciate it.”

  “No need to thank me, princess. That’s my job.”

  “Forgive me for saying so, but your job sucks.”

  “You have no idea how true that statement is right now.”

  Cam’s gaze scanned her from bedhead to bare toes. He rubbed his mouth with his knuckle, almost as if he was wiping her kiss from his lips and his memory.

  Enough.

  Domini kept her emotions in check as she walked to the living room. She stood pointedly beside the open door.

  Cam said, “Look. Don’t—”

  “I know what you’re about to say, Deputy McKay. I won’t forget to lock the door behind you.”

  “That’s not what…” He sighed. “Fine. Good night.”

  Immediately after Cam cleared the doorjamb, she slammed the door, flipped the locks and stomped back to her bedroom.

  Idiotic man. He wanted her. She wanted him. So what was his problem?

  What’s your problem? Why can’t you just tell him you want him?

  I did! I kissed him first.

  And it hadn’t changed anything—unless she counted how fast he ran out on her. Evidently actions didn’t speak louder than words.

  Maybe she should just be patient. Maybe now that she’d made the first move, Cam would jump on board and take their flirtation to the next level. Or jump on her.

  Domini just hoped it wouldn’t take another two years.

  Chapter One

  Eight months later…

  At times like these, Deputy Cameron McKay suspected his life would’ve been easier if he’d stayed a simple cowboy.

  Whoosh.

  He managed to stop the woman’s wild right hook from connecting with the man’s jaw. Grabbing her fist, he jerked her arms behind her back. “Assault in front of an officer will get you tossed in jail tonight, Opal, guaranteed, so knock it off.”

  “I’ve known you since you were in diapers, boy, don’t you dare smart mouth me,” Opal retorted.

  Yep, riding the range alone, dealing with animals that didn’t talk back…some days Cam regretted not taking the offer to join the family cattle business. His gun dug into his hip as he shifted off his bum leg to reach his cuffs.

  “Opal. Leave the poor deputy alone,” the man behind him snapped.

  “Why ain’t you arresting him?” Opal demanded. “He started it!”

  “I did not, you crazy old bat.”

  “See? He’s calling me names again.”

  Cam glanced at the gray-haired man holding an ice pack to the goose egg on his forehead. “Now, Ralph, you know I won’t tolerate that kinda talk.”

  “Hah! Told you he’d be on my side,” Opal said gleefully.

  Ralph muttered.

  “There are no ‘sides’ here, Opal. I haven’t made an arrest. Yet. Not until someone tells me what happened.”

  “She—”

  “He—” the couple said simultaneously, and started arguing simultaneously.

  Cam tried to listen to the heated exchange, but the accusations flung back and forth had nothing to do with the issue at hand: Opal Stancil smacking Ralph, her husband of five decades, with her umbrella. Why Opal had an umbrella handy when Crook County had suffered from severe drought for the last ten years remained a mystery.

  Domestic disturbance calls weren’t a mystery or all that unusual. Most incidents were cleared up fairly quickly once the participants were forced to talk to each other in front of an unbiased third party.

  It also helped that Cam wore a gun.

  But Opal and Ralph were too busy shouting to listen to each other, let alone him.

  Cam let loose an ear-piercing whistle. “I’m out of patience. Ralph, since you’re injured, you can ride up front with me. Opal, I’m gonna have to cuff you and you’ll ride in the back.”

  More silence. Then a meek, “You mean, you’re gonna arrest us? Both of us?”

  “Yep.” Cam waited. Rumor in the Crook County Sheriff’s office was Opal and Ralph repeated this same row on their anniversary, every summer, going back fifty-four years. But as there were no arrest records, none of his fellow officers would confirm or deny. They’d just laughed when the call came in on his rotation.

  “I can’t stomach the idea of her goin’ to the hoosegow.” Ralph lowered the ice pack and dropped his double chin to his chest. “Aw, Opal, you know I didn’t mean it when I said I wished I woulda married Marion Lutter. She ain’t never held a candle to you in the looks department.”

  “And she can’t cook worth a damn either,” Opal said.

  “Makes you wonder how she’s so gol-durned, fat, huh?” Ralph peeped at her, wearing a hangdog look.

  Opal cackled. “You’re so bad, C-bear.”

  “I’m sorry, snooker-pie. I shoulda stayed outta the whiskey on our special night,” Ralph said.

  C-bear? Snooker-pie? Sweet baby Jesus. He’d rather jam sticks in his ears than listen to geriatric foreplay.

  “Good thing my aim ain’t what it used to be.”

  “Amen to that.” Ralph squinted at Cam. “I reckon you can let her go now, Deputy, since I ain’t pressing charges.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yep.” Ralph patted the floral couch cushion. “Why don’t you come on over here, my bee-yoo-ti-ful blushin’ bride, so we can kiss and make up proper?”

  Opal blew Ralph a kiss. “Give me a minute to see him out.” She practically shoved Cam off the porch. “Sorry to trouble you, Deputy. Say hello to your folks from us.”

  Then she slammed the door in his face.

  Stunned, Cam stood on the steps. But when giggles, grunts and the sounds of slapping flesh drifted through the living room window, he practically ran to his patrol car.

  Dust kicked up behind him as he drove away. Fast. His radio crackled before he’d gone too far. “McKay.”

  “Deputy, this is dispatch. Do you need backup for…snooker-pie and C-bear?” Deep belly laughs and kissing noises echoed in the background.

  Assholes.

  Mindful of being on the radio where anyone with a scanner could hear his response, Cam said, “That’s a ten-four,” rather than his usual, “Fuck off.”

  “One other thing. This just came in.”

  “What?”

  “There’s a situation over at the Twin Pines.”

  “What kind of situation?”

  “Looks like a bar fight.”

  It figured. Nothing cowboys liked better than a good fight. “I’m on it.” Cam spun a U-turn. Maybe he’d stick around for a stiff drink after he broke up the brawl. God knew he needed one now.

  “Let’s toast.” Keely McKay held her bottle of Bud Light to the center of the table. “To Hudson McKay, the newest addition to the family. The darling boy of Colt and Indy. He’s beautiful and healthy, but damn, do I wish one of ya’ll would birth me a niece.”

  Laughter rang out as bottles and glasses chinked together.

  “The last thing we need is another wild McKay girl,” Skylar said dryly.

  “But nine boys in a row? Ten, if I count Chassie’s precious Westin? Come on. There’s something in the water in Sundance for sure.” Keely skewered her sisters in law, Channing, Macie and AJ, with a look. “
Maybe ya’ll oughta grab your collective spouses—my beloved brothers—and head over to Moorcroft for a night or two when you plan on getting knocked up again.”

  “Bite your tongue, Keely McKay,” AJ replied haughtily.

  “Uh-huh. We’re done for a while,” Macie said. “A long while.”

  Channing piped in, “Us too.”

  “Right. If you three aren’t pregnant again by the end of the year I’ll kiss a pig.”

  “Is that a challenge?”

  “Yep. Remember not all pigs are of the bovine variety.” Keely grinned and downed her beer.

  Domini sipped her rum and Coke, secretly pleased to be included in the first annual “Cowgirl’s Night Out”, the brainchild of wild child Keely.

  Keely had arranged the shindig at a semi-private table in the back room, inviting her brother’s wives, Channing, Macie, AJ and India, as well as her cousin Kade’s wife, Skylar. Domini didn’t know Quinn McKay’s wife, Libby, or Luke’s wife, Jessie. Poor Jessie appeared as wide-eyed as Domini felt.

  In addition to Keely’s cousins, Chassie West Glanzer and Ramona West, the group included Ginger Paulson, a local attorney who was pals with Libby and Dr. Joely Monroe. Domini was grateful the chatty doc sat on the other side of the table. The woman had rubbed her the wrong way from the first time they’d met.

  Wrong. You’re just jealous because you think she’s been rubbing on Cam McKay, not in an official medical capacity, even when he claims they’re just friends.

  Yeah, Cam was friends with everyone it seemed.

  Cam. He’d rocked her world with that stunningly passionate kiss months ago. Since then? Nothing. Deputy McKay still showed up at Dewey’s every day, friendly as ever. Her own hide-in-the-kitchen reaction bothered her more than his nonchalance. Why couldn’t she just buck up and proposition him?

  Because you made the first move last time and he scampered away like a scalded cat. Obviously he’s not interested in you. Get over it and move on.

  Stupid voice of reason. She scowled at her drink, wishing it were pure rum.

  India warned, “Slap on a happy face, Domini, or Keely will whip out the party games.”

  “Oh no.”

  “Oh yes. Keely and Carolyn have this bizarre fixation on forcing everyone to play games at family gatherings. God save us from suffering though another round of ‘pin the dick on the cowboy’.”