Fred wasn’t working on the bridle at the moment, Quinn noticed as he shucked his pants and shirt and pulled back the blanket on his bed.Fred’s belt was undone, and the guy looked uncomfortable.Emmy Lou obviously knew Fred’s digestive system well.
Quinn’s stomach felt fine, but the rest of him was a little beat-up.He groaned softly as he climbed into bed.Between bruises and sore muscles, he could be pretty well crippled by tomorrow, especially considering the activity he had planned for tonight.He took off his watch and set it on the windowsill next to the bed, where he could see the time by turning his head.An hour and a half before he was supposed to meet Jo.
His groin tightened.In less than two hours, assuming he could sneak past Fred, he’d have Jo in his arms.He wondered what she’d wear to their rendezvous and if she’d bother with items like underwear.Underwear could be very erotic, but getting it off might take up valuable time.Quinn decided he’d rather she didn’t wear any.
Maybe he wouldn’t wear any, either, although you had to be damn careful with the zipper in a case like that.Too careful, come to think of it.He’d wear his briefs.Considering how much he wanted Jo, he’d be shaking like a leaf, and sure as the world, he’d get something important caught in the zipper.
Then he wondered if he should wear his hat to the barn.Of course he didn’tneedthat Stetson on his head, considering it would be dark and he was planning to climb to the hayloft and make love all night.But in another way he did need the hat.Wearing it made him feel more like a cowboy, and damned if that didn’t seem to add a certain something to his self-confidence.
He also liked the idea that he’d meet Jo looking like a seasoned ranch hand, a devil-may-care stud of a wrangler.Maybe he ached all over from today’s activities, maybe he couldn’t sit a horse like a pro or rope a wild bull yet, but he could project the image darn well when he put on that Stetson.He knew because he’d checked it out in a mirror.
Yeah, he’d wear the hat, maybe even keep it on while he took his other clothes off.He hoped Jo would keep her outfit simple.A pair of pull-on shorts and a T-shirt sounded perfect to him.He could strip those off in no time, leaving Jo lying on the blanket, waiting....
And then Quinn went cold.He had no condoms.He had no reason to expect Jo to be using any form of birth control, and besides, a stud didn’t show up at the appointed place with no protection for his lover.Dammit, what to do?Benny wouldn’t have any, but Fred...Fred might.But he couldn’t ask.He’d have to snoop, and if he hit pay dirt, he’d have to swipe.Normally he wasn’t a swiper, but this was an unusual situation.
“You asleep, Mr.Hastings?”Benny whispered from across the room.
“Not yet, Benny.”
“I can’t sleep from thinking about the movie.”
Quinn sighed.“I don’t think there will be a movie, so just relax and go to sleep, okay?”
“I think there will be a movie.And I want to be in it.”
“Benny, I’d give up the idea if I were you.Chances are?—”
“Will you promise me, if there is a movie, I’ll get to be in it?”
Quinn hated to make a promise like that to a guy as trusting as Benny.What if the real Brian Hastings showed up some day?What if the damned movie actually got made?Dick and Doobie could go hang, but Quinn didn’t want Benny to be disappointed.“I don’t think I can make that kind of promise.”
“Yes, you can.Jo did.”
“She did?”Quinn thought about that for a minute.All along he’d been hoping that Hastings would come back and make the movie so Jo would get the money.Yet he suddenly pictured Hastings hanging out at the Bar None, interacting with Jo and granting her favors like giving Benny a part in the movie.If Jo was attracted to Quinn, who was a poor woman’s version of Hastings, then she’d probably fall head over heels for the real thing.Quinn felt a little sick to his stomach imagining Hastings putting the moves on Jo.With a guy like that, it would probably be an automatic reaction to a beautiful woman.
“So can I be in it?”Benny asked again.
“I guess so,” Quinn replied, feeling depressed.“If there is a movie.”
“There will be,” Benny said with complete confidence.
Quinn grimaced.Damn, he really wanted that movie to be filmed at the Bar None, for Jo’s sake.Of course he did.This morning she’d insisted that looking at Hastings’ bare butt hadn’t been the reason she’d jumped Quinn’s bones.Quinn wanted to believe her, but Hastings was America’s sexiest leading man.Peoplemagazine had said so.Quinn wondered why every single thing that would be good for Jo turned out to be the worst thing that could happen to him.
“Night, night.”Benny yawned.“Sleep tight.”
“Thanks, Ben.”
“Don’t let the bugs bite,” Benny added in a sleepy voice.
Quinn stiffened.“What bugs?”
Benny’s reply was barely audible.“Dunno.People just say that.”Soon afterward he began to snore.
Quinn lay rigid as a corpse and tried not to think about wolf spiders as big as his fist creeping under his bed, on his bed.Finally he cleared his throat.“Fred?”he called softly.
“Yeah, Quinn.”
“You get many of those wolf spiders in here?”
