Secret Confessions: Down & Dusty — Clarissa Read Free

be that and a whole lot more inside the bedroom. Adam, on the other hand, probably had half a dozen women tucked away in every township the rodeo took him. His experience alone meant he’d know exactly how to please.
    Adam took a swig of his beer, though he too seemed to be watching her every move. ‘Brandon told me the station cook is out with the stockmen.’
    ‘Yes.’ She sighed. ‘Cooking isn’t my strong point, so I hope you’re not expecting your first night to be something memorable.’
    Brandon winked and nodded. ‘Unless “memorable” includes burnt toast and cold baked beans.’
    Clarissa shook her head. ‘You’ll never let me live that one down!’
    Brandon grinned. ‘Not for as long as I draw breath.’
    Adam set the bottle onto the countertop. ‘Hey, I won a shitload of cash, why don’t we eat out tonight? My treat.’
    Clarissa frowned. She could only imagine what the publican, Lucky, would say when she saw her walk in for dinner with these two men as escorts. Holy smokes, she mightn’t ever look Lucky in the eye again, not with the wicked thoughts that had been going through her head. And the publican always had been too good at reading her mind.
    Lucky wasn’t just her confidante, she’d become her friend too. Clarissa saw beneath the publican’s tough brashness to the gentle soul beneath, in just the same way Lucky had seen how much Clarissa and Dean had drifted apart before his accident.
    Brandon grinned at his friend. ‘You know me, mate, I won’t ever say no to a free meal. Especially if you’re buying.’
    When two sets of eyes met hers, there was no way she was going to disagree. ‘Sure. Why not.’ She placed her beer down. ‘I’ll drive.’
    Brandon put his half-empty bottle beside hers. ‘No way.’ He sent his friend a knowing glance before facing her again. ‘It’s your turn to relax tonight. If Adam’s buying, I’m driving.’
    Damn it was nice not to be the one giving orders. Ignoring the curl of need deep inside her womb, she nodded. ‘Fine. Just give me ten minutes to shower and change.’
    Adam’s smile was lazily amused. ‘Let us know if you need a hand.’
    The goosebumps that cascaded over her body weren’t from dread. She wanted to be the woman demanding they did exactly that. Instead she was the woman running upstairs and into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She was the woman stepping under freezing cold needles of water to get her overheated body under some semblance of control.
    ***
    Clarissa barely noticed the wide sweep of the Royal’s wraparound verandah, or how uniformly the half-dozen utes and four-wheel-drives were parked in front of it. She was too busy floating on air as she stepped through the sliding glass door and inside the Royal Hotel, Brandon on one side of her and Adam on the other.
    She pulled in a steadying breath, wondering not for the hundredth time if she’d ever felt so sexy and beautiful. Certainly when the two men had spied her platinum-blonde hair worn loose to her shoulders and dressed in a flaxen-coloured dress that hugged her curves and accentuated her breasts, their whistles of approval had boosted her confidence way past normal.
    Even without the three-inch heels of her thigh-high boots, and between two men who stood head and shoulders taller than most of the men in Milpinyani, she felt ten feet tall and as though she was walking on air.
    Lucky’s dark eyebrows arched over her sapphire eyes, her usual efficiency behind the bar for once on hold as she stared at the trio entering her pub.
    Brandon nodded at the publican and murmured smoothly, ‘Lucky.’
    It appeared to drag Lucky from her trance when she said, ‘Brandon,’ in return, before asking, ‘What are you having?’
    Brandon smiled. ‘A beer for my friend Adam.’ He turned to Clarissa. ‘And for our dinner date tonight, I was thinking of something sparkling and sweet.’
    Our dinner date?
    Clarissa inwardly reeled. Brandon had all but publicly