Gwen swayed, her hand held high, her lips tingling with the effects of the alcohol she’d consumed and the reverberation of the words she’d shouted at the top of her lungs.

Holy shit! What had she just done?

She’d spent five thousand dollars on a man. A man, for Pete’s sake!

“Wow, Gwen.” Mona laughed beside her. “When you decide to go all out, you go all out. I can’t believe you just bought four dates with your old summer fling.”

“I can’t either,” Gwen muttered, her heart racing at the thought of four dates with the man who’d never left her mind in the past seven years.

“I didn’t even know he was on the lineup. He must have been a late add. Good for you.” She clapped Gwen on the back, nearly knocking her over. “Congratulations!”

Staggering forward a step, Gwen struggled to stay upright, with the room spinning and her stomach roiling.

“Are you okay, sweetie?” Mona leaned into her face. “You’re looking a little green around the gills.”

“I’m a little light-headed.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Gwen clapped a hand to her head. What had she done? Buying Angus was pure insanity.

“It’s probably all that tequila making you dizzy,” Mona concluded. “When was the last time you drank tequila shots?”

“Seven years ago.” She hadn’t had a shot of tequila since she’d been with Angus seven summers ago. Holy hell. Holy hell.

Gwen touched a hand to her cheek, marveling at how numb it was, kinda like when she went to the dentist for a filling and he shot her full of Novocain. Then she saw the look on Angus’s face as he stared across the crowd of women, squinting. From his blank and confused expression, he hadn’t recognized her.

“Holy hell,” Gwen moaned. “What have I done?”

“You’ve just given five thousand dollars to the women’s shelter.” Mona’s brows furrowed. “You do have five thousand to give, don’t you?”

Gwen nodded. With each dip of her head, her vision swam and the murder of crows in her gut churned. “I’ve got the money, but why did I spend it on him?”

A grin spread across Mona’s face. “Something tells me you’re not quite over Mr. Angus McFarlan.”

“I am. I really am. It’s been seven years.” Gwen threw her arm in the air and nearly fell over.

“There are some guys a girl never gets over.” Mona slipped an arm around her waist and guided her toward the back door. “You need air.”

“Air.” Gwen’s chest squeezed so hard she couldn’t seem to breathe. “Yes, I need air.”

“You’re about to hyperventilate.” Mona pushed through the crowd. “Out of the way. Give her some room.”

As she was led through the crowd, women congratulated and thanked her for the sizeable donation.

“You lucky dog.”

“Four dates. Wow! He’s so hot he’d burn me.”

“Wish I were in your shoes, or panties!” Mrs. Fenton said, her lips turning downward in a disappointed frown.

Gwen clutched her purse and staggered alongside Mona. When they made it to the door leading to the back of the building, Greta Sue appeared in front of them.

“Employees only in the rear,” Greta said, her voice deep, her frown so fierce she scared Gwen.

Mona smiled at the big woman. “Oh, Greta Sue, you know me. I’m an employee on occasion. Let us go to the back.”

Greta tipped her head toward Gwen. “She doesn’t work here.”

Gwen moaned and clutched her belly. The tequila, her purchase, the look on Angus’s face were all working against her.

With a hand propped on her hip, Mona stared Greta Sue down. “Greta Sue, have a little respect for the woman who just contributed five thousand dollars to the women’s shelter. Now either step aside, or find Audrey and we’ll clear this right up.”

Mona had more cojones than Gwen. The bouncer made Gwen shaky on her high heels.

Her frown deepening, Greta Sue shot a glance over her shoulder. “Audrey and Jackson are, er, busy in the storeroom.”

Mona blinked. “Oh. Okay, then, just let us out the back door. Gwen is about to toss her cookies.”

Greta Sue grimaced. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” She stepped out of the doorway and waved them through. “The door will lock behind you. If you want back in, you’ll have to come around the front.”

“Will do.” Mona hurried Gwen to the rear exit.

“Wait. I don’t feel so good.” Gwen stopped to lean against the wall and make the world quit spinning. It didn’t help.

Mona bit her lip. “Maybe some ginger ale would help settle your stomach.” She grabbed an empty cardboard box as she led Gwen out the back door. Before the door could shut, Mona stuffed the box in the gap.

The fresh night air should have helped, but it only cleared her mind enough to reinforce the crazy thing she’d just done. Gwen was committed to four dates with the man who’d broken her heart seven years ago. The stars in the wide-open Texas sky spun.

“Sit.” Mona settled her onto a rickety, weathered picnic table beneath a scraggly live oak tree. “I’ll be right back with some ginger ale. Don’t go anywhere.”

“I couldn’t if I wanted to.” Gwen laid her head on the weathered wood, praying for the ground to open up and swallow her.

When Mona turned to leave, Gwen called out, “Wait.”

Mona leaned close to her.

Gwen held her purse up without lifting her head. “My checkbook is in there. Get it out, write the check and I’ll sign it.”

“We can take care of that later.”

“No. I don’t know if I’ll have a brain cell later.” She shoved the purse at her friend. “Please. Do it, and deliver it to whoever’s collecting.”

“For the love of Mike.” Mona dug out the checkbook and wrote the check. Then she placed the pen in Gwen’s hand. “Your turn.”

Gwen lifted her head only enough to see where to put her signature, scribbled her name and let her head fall back to the wood with a thump.

“You didn’t even check to see if I put the right amount in.”

“I don’t care.” Gwen closed her eyes. “I just want the world to quit spinning.”

Mona swept a hand over her hair. “Oh, sweetie, you’re wasted.”

“No shit.”

“I’ll be right back.” Mona left.

The music and the roar of the crowd from inside the building were muffled but still thrumming in Gwen’s head, making her feel as though the world were rocking beneath her.

A mosquito buzzed around her ear, but Gwen couldn’t lift her hand to swat.

Everything whirled. The stars, the sounds, the picnic bench, all around one central thought: she’d just bought herself a cowboy. Not just any cowboy. Angus McFarlan. A giggle rose up her throat and exploded in a bout of hysterical laughter.

Angus dropped down off the stage and tried to get through the crowd to the woman who’d placed the winning bid. But there was no pushing through the women. Their hands clutched at his naked chest, pulled at his arms and even tugged at the belt holding up his jeans.

Across the room, Mona had gripped the woman’s arm and was leading her toward the back of the bar.

He had to get to her and buy back that bid. Four dates with a strange woman would be a nightmare. What would they have to talk about? Where would he be forced to take her? Fancy restaurants meant wearing a suit. Suits made him itch. Angus would almost rather go out with feral Old Lady Fenton than with the stiff-suited woman in the high heels.

When he reached the bar, he leaned over the counter. “Libby, where did Mona and that woman go?”

Libby’s face broke out in a grin. “The winning bidder? Damn, Angus. I didn’t know you had it in you. Five thousand dollars is a lot of money. You better treat her right.”

His heart sank into his belly. Getting out of this mess would be harder than he’d anticipated. Every woman in the saloon would remember this night because of the amount the woman had bid. No one had ever bid that much, as far as Angus knew.

Still, he had to try. Five thousand dollars. He had more than that in savings, but he needed it in case he had to come up with a down payment to buy the ranch from his mother.

The Rafter M couldn’t leave the McFarlan family. He’d sell his soul to the devil before he let that happen. Not that the woman who’d bought him was the devil, nor was she the woman who would get his mother off his back.

He had horses to train and cattle to round up. Dating took time and a whole lot more effort than he was willing to put into it. And the woman in the suit had high maintenance written all over her beautiful body, right down to her pointed-toe stilettos.

Greta Sue was on the job, ushering the next poor slob up onto the stage to be auctioned off. With the bouncer out of the way, he ducked into the back of the saloon and threw open the first door he came to.

Stacks of boxes lined walls and shelves, while a barricade of cases of beer created another wall down the center of the little room. Plenty of liquor, but no Mona and no woman in a gray suit.

About to close the door and continue on, Angus heard a muffled giggle and a low groan.

“Mona?” he called out and stepped around the wall of beer cases.

“Oh, darlin’, we’ve got company.” Audrey Anderson was seated on a short stack of boxes full of whiskey, wearing nothing but a bright-red bra, a pair of black, tasseled chaps and red cowboy boots, her legs wrapped around Jackson’s bare waist. Her baby bump was as round as a cantaloupe and she was leaning back on her arms to give Jackson a better angle for what he was doing.

Jackson, shirtless and with his jeans down around his knees, glanced over his shoulder, his face tense. “Sorry, this storeroom’s taken. And I’m having a helluva time finding a position that works. I’ll be glad when the baby comes so we can go back to normal sex.” He moved in and out of his wife, his knees bent, his angle awkward.

Audrey ignored her husband’s surly grousing. “You’re welcome to stay and watch, if you like. It makes me really hot when someone else is watching Jackson making love to me.”

“If you stay, you have to promise not to laugh.” Jackson sighed and pulled free of Audrey.

“Hey!” Audrey pouted. “I wasn’t there yet.”

“Honey, neither was I.” He unlocked her legs from around his waist and lifted her off the boxes, setting her on her feet and kissing the tip of her nose. “I can’t get the baby off my mind when we do a full frontal, babe. I’ll have to come at you from the rear.” He turned her around and patted her naked ass.

All the while, Angus stood there with his jaw slack and all his blood flowing south to his groin. He hadn’t seen anything as incredibly hot as watching Jackson make love to his pregnant wife. “Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” He backed a step, his cock hard. How long had it been since he’d been to the auction in Amarillo? He hadn’t been in two months and damned if he wasn’t feeling it.

Audrey bent forward, bracing her hands on the boxes in front of her. “I’m glad you stepped in when you did, Angus. I didn’t think I could get any wetter, but you proved me wrong.”

Jackson entered her from behind, sliding his damned big cock into her in one long, smooth glide that made Angus’s mouth water.

“Yup, babe, you’re definitely wetter. Damn, you feel good.” He gripped her hips and pumped in and out of her. “But I’d like to think I’m the one making you wetter.”

Angus frowned. “Won’t you hurt the baby going so hard?”

Audrey laughed. “The baby seems to like it when Jackson rocks her to sleep.” Her face tensed. “Yeah, now I’m feeling it. Faster.”

“Going as fast as I can, sweetheart. You’re a demanding little cuss.”

“I know, I can be so bad,” she said, her voice low and sexy.

Jackson slapped her ass.

Angus should have left the moment he spotted the couple doing it in the storeroom, but something about the wild abandon and happy coupling kept his boots rooted to the floor. But when Jackson slapped his wife’s ass, Angus stepped forward and grabbed Jackson’s arm.

“Hey, your wife’s pregnant. You shouldn’t be hitting her.”

“Oh, Jackson, isn’t he sweet? Angus is worried you’re going to hurt me. You better not use the whip tonight.” Audrey winked at the men standing over her naked ass. “For the record, Angus, Jackson never hurts me when he spanks me or uses the whip. But I might hurt him if he leaves me hanging here.”

“Sorry, darlin’.” Jackson started moving again, settling into a steady rhythm of pumping in and out of Audrey, his balls making a soft slapping sound against her skin.

“Yeah, now we’re getting somewhere,” Audrey moaned.

“The woman knows no shame, and she’s been hornier than ever throughout this pregnancy,” Jackson owned.

Angus closed his eyes to the lusty display in front of him. “I only came in here looking for Mona and the woman she was with tonight. They were headed back this way.”

“Haven’t seen them.” Audrey’s back arched and she sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m on the verge of coming. Angus, if you’re going to stay, you have to play.”

“Huh?” Angus stared at the woman. Had her pregnancy made her lose her mind? “Play?”

She plumped her full breasts. “Jackson’s got that end occupied but you could make yourself useful and touch these.”

Jackson growled. “Touch them, and I’m afraid I’ll have to kill you.”

“Oh, honey, you let your brothers touch me.”

“We’re married now. I don’t mind someone else watching, but the girls are mine.”

Audrey pouted. “Spoilsport.”

His cheeks heating, Angus backed toward the door. “That’s okay. I really need to find Mona.”

“Try out back of the saloon,” Audrey said, her attention shifting back to Jackson. “And you try what you just did again. Mmm…yeah…that.”

His face burning all the way out to his ears, Angus hurried out the door and ran for the back exit. Never in his entire life had he walked in on someone else getting it on, not even his parents. He certainly didn’t expect to be as aroused as he’d gotten. Embarrassed, yes. Aroused? Well, if he went by the tightness of his jeans, he was well on his way to another lonely night in a cold shower.

What killed him was that Jackson and Audrey hadn’t been fazed in the least. Why was he so incredibly turned on by seeing them making love?

Two months without sex. That’s why.

A box had been jammed into the door to keep it from shutting all the way. Angus kicked it aside and left the saloon, the door closing behind him.

For several seconds he stood beneath the yellow light shining over the back door, waiting for his eyesight to adjust to the darkness and his body to cool from overexposure to raw sex. Other than the muffled shouts and music from the Ugly Stick, nothing moved or made a sound in the darkness.

Until something that resembled a girlish giggle drew his attention to the silhouette of a tree with a picnic table set up beneath it.

Another giggle erupted from the table.

“Mona?” Angus stepped off the back stoop and eased toward the picnic table.

“Mona, Mona, Mona. Wherefore art thou, Mona?” Another giggle and a woman’s head rose from the table. “I can’t believe I bought a cowboy.” She giggled and hiccupped. “Damned tequila. Should be called to-kill-ya.”

His vision finally adjusting to the starlight, he recognized the suit and sexy legs of the pretty woman who’d been the winning bidder.

“Oh good.” Angus moved forward. “Ma’am, I wanted to talk to you about that bid.”

“Angus, Angus, Angus. Where have you been for the past seven years?” She tipped her head so far back she swayed and would have fallen over had Angus not swooped in and caught her.

His heart lurched and his stomach bunched into an instant knot. “Gwen?”

“Oops.” She giggled again, her hair slipping from the carefully constructed twist she’d had it in at the bar. Pins fell and the full, thick auburn hair he remembered so well slipped down around her shoulders and he fought back a sudden surge of joy. In the next second, a lead weight settled in his knotted gut, reminding him of why he shouldn’t be happy.

Holy shit, this was the girl who’d ruined him for other women. The girl who’d made him fall in love with her one bright summer, only to leave him behind and never contact him again. He’d been nothing more than a summer fling. And here she was seven years later, having bought him in an auction. What kind of cruel trick was she playing?

“What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” She leaned close to his face. “Boo.” She kissed his mouth, her breath smelling of limes and tequila. Then she fell back against his arm. “Are you as wasted as I am?” Her head dropped back, her hair trailing over his arm, her body slack and her eyes closed.

“Damn it, woman, you better not pass out on me.”

She lay as still as death, not a muscle twitching.

In that moment, Angus wondered if she’d drunk so much alcohol that she had alcohol poisoning. He laid his ear to her chest and listened for her heartbeat.

When he didn’t hear it right away, his pulse kicked up and he shook her gently. “Gwen baby, wake up.”

“Angus?” Her eyes blinked open and she smiled at him with the smile that had made his heart stop so many years ago. “When did you get here?”

“A few minutes ago.”

“Good. You can take me to my room. I don’t think I can drive.” She yawned. “I’m too sleepy and my head is spinning.”

“Just stay with me, will you?”

“Have to. Something’s wrong with my muscles. I can’t seem to move them.” She raised her arm and let it fall around his shoulder. “See?”

Her head swiveled, her hair spreading across Angus’s shoulder. The scent of honeysuckle wafted up, wrapped around his senses and made his knees weak with the rush of memories.

“Where’s Mona?” he asked.

“She went to get me a drink,” Gwen mumbled.

“You don’t need another drink.”

“Then take me to my room. I’m sleepy.”

“Where are you staying?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere in Temptation. A BBB.” She giggled. “Why do they call them BBBs?”

“Bed-and-breakfast.” Angus lifted her up into his arms.

Gwen dug her hands and face into his chest. “Whoa, stop the world. Let me off.” She jerked her head up. “Wait a minute, I bought you.”

Angus’s arms tightened around her. “You bought four dates with me.”

She poked a finger in his chest. “Damn right I did.”

“I wanted to talk to you about that,” he started.

“Nothin’ to talk about. I bought you.” She hiccupped. “’Scuse me. Damn, where was I? Oh yeah. Now you have to deliver.” She poked him again and curled her fingers into the hairs on his chest.

“I want to buy back your bid.”

She raised her hand, her fingers splayed. “Five grand. Holy shit, five grand. What was I thinkin’?” She stared into his eyes, her own blurred and glassy, and her face flushed. “Oh yeah. I wasn’t thinkin’.”

“Exactly. Let me buy back your bid,” he begged, knowing this was a really bad idea.

“No, no, no.” She shook her head side to side and shut her eyes tight. “Ooo, can’t do that.”

“What? Shake your head, or let me buy back your bid?”

“Both.” She laid her cheek against his chest. “I need you, and I need for the world to quit spinning.” Her voice faded and she went limp again.

“Damn.” So much for talking her out of the dates.

“Angus?” A voice behind him made him turn around.

Mona stood with a paper cup in one hand. “I see you found Gwendolyn. Congratulations on bringing the highest bid in the cowboy auction’s history.”

“I’m sure they won’t hold her to that bid. She was obviously stoned out of her mind.”

“Not only is she going through with it, she’s already delivered the check. The ladies from the women’s shelter were ecstatic.”

His heart sank into his stomach. Angus had no idea what Gwen had in mind when she bid on him. If she thought they would pick up where they’d left off, he wanted none of it.

Why had his mother meddled in his life? He was perfectly happy working the ranch, training horses and getting on with his life. Now he felt like his entire world had been flipped on its side.

“So what are you going to do about it?” Mona asked.

“I have no idea.”

“Weren’t you and Gwen a thing way back?”

His jaw tightened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Hmm.” Mona nodded, her lips twisting. “You’re gonna play it that way, huh?”

“Is she staying with you?”

“Nope. She’s staying at that B and B on Main Street in Temptation, across the street from my shop.”

“Then you take her there,” Angus said.

Mona shook her head, a wicked grin tugging at the corners of her lips. “She won you fair and square. After she paid five thousand dollars for the pleasure of your company, I think it’s only right you escort her home. Besides, she’s in an upstairs room. I can’t carry her.”

Angus’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t leave the saloon. I’m designated driver for my brother.”

“Colin?” Mona’s smile turned smug. “He caught me on his way out. Molly O’Brien bought him on the auction block for a measly thousand dollars. She’s giving him a ride home.” She tipped her head. “Any more objections?”

His jaw tight, Angus bit down hard on his tongue to keep from saying something he would regret later. “Fine. Where are her keys?”

Mona set the cup she was holding on the picnic table and grabbed the purse on the bench where Gwen had been sitting. “She’ll want her purse and I’m sure the keys are inside.” She dug her hand in the bag and brought out an old-fashioned key with a room number engraved into it. “Here it is.”

Mona laid the purse and key across Gwen’s inert body. “Have a good night, Angus. Thanks again for volunteering to be one of our cowboys tonight.”

“I didn’t volunteer,” he muttered.

Mona had already turned and walked away, chuckling as she went.

Hiking Gwen’s limp body in his arms, Angus marched around to the front of the building, to his truck. Once he had her settled in the passenger seat and buckled the seat belt around her, he rounded the truck and slid into the driver’s seat.

When he’d rather be on his way home to have words with his mother for volunteering him to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, he was driving the opposite direction into Temptation to deliver a heavily inebriated woman to her room. A woman he’d spent the past seven years trying to forget.

She remained passed out for the drive into town and only moaned softly when he lifted her into his arms and carried her into the two-story colonial that had been converted into a bed-and-breakfast several years ago.

Once he had Gwen in the room, he carried her to the queen-sized bed and leaned over to lay her on the comforter.

“Mmm,” she whispered, her voice gravelly and sexy as hell. “You smell good.” With her hair down, her suit jacket open and several buttons on her light-pink blouse undone, she looked more like the girl he’d fallen in love with all those summers ago.

When he bent to lay her on the bed, she held on around his neck and wouldn’t let go. It brought his face so near to hers it wouldn’t take much to close the distance and kiss those full, rosy-pink lips.

“Stay with me,” she said.

Images of Jackson making love to Audrey flashed through his mind, too fresh to dispel, and his cock hardened. He’d never made love to a woman as drunk as Gwen, and he had no intention of doing so now, even though his body burned with need.

“I can’t,” he said. “I have animals to feed in the morning.” The reminder of all the work he had on his list for the next day should have brought him down. But when she stretched, her chest rising, her breasts straining against her soft pink blouse…

“For just a few minutes,” she begged, her hands slipping up to cup the back of his head. She drew him closer until her lips brushed his.

Like a moth dragged to the flame, he couldn’t break her hold, and for a long, delicious moment, he didn’t want to. Too many nights he’d woken from dreams including her, only to find his bed empty, the sheets and pillow beside him cold.

He claimed her mouth, his tongue sliding in to stroke the length of hers, reveling in the taste and familiarity of Gwen. Her arms twined around his neck and she crushed her breasts to his chest.

God, she felt good. So good he wanted to strip naked and crawl into the bed beside her and make mad, passionate love to her through the night.

Angus froze. What was he thinking? The woman was drunk. He didn’t take advantage of women who’d had too much to drink. It wasn’t right.

When he straightened, her hands were locked behind his neck and she sat up, blinking. “The room is spinning.” She giggled. “And it’s hot in here.” Gwen let go of him to shrug out of her jacket, getting tangled in the process.

Angus helped pull her arms free of the jacket and slipped her shoes from her feet, his hands skimming across one shapely calf, electricity slicing through him, straight to his groin.

Damn.

“Still hot.” She slipped the side zipper down on her skirt and shimmied out of it and the shirt. Finally flopping back against the mattress, patting the space beside her. “Stay.”

Angus clenched his fists, fighting the urge to lie beside her, gather her close and feel her sweet skin against his.

Her pretty lips pouted and she stared up at him with a pleading look. “Stay until the room stops whirling.” She smiled and closed her eyes, her breasts rising and falling with each breath.

When he turned to leave, she captured his hand and looked up at him again. “Please.”

He glanced down into those hazel eyes that had exhibited every color of summer, and he knew he couldn’t go. “Okay, but only for a minute.” Calling himself every kind of fool imaginable, he lay on the bed beside her. For several minutes he allowed himself to stroke the hair out of her face and drag his thumb across her mouth. Her hair, her cheek, her lips were as soft as he remembered.

Angus snorted softly as he cupped her chin and pressed his lips to hers. Just one more taste. Gwen wouldn’t remember it in the morning.

Oh, but he would.

What new kind of hell had his mother gotten him into?