Every time I Trust a Gal
By: Miss Raye

The bed shifted beneath him. If it wasn’t for the fact that the movement turned him onto a wooden beam that he could clearly feel through the mattress it probably wouldn’t have bothered him much. “What’s wrong?”

She giggled and he cracked open an eye to see her tying the top of her blouse together, her delicate fingers making quick work of the numerous lengths of cotton. “Nothing, eres preciosa, its jus’ that mama won’t like me spending the day in bed… even if she knew you were in it.”

Rosa gave him a wink left the room with a flounce of her skirts behind her.

Shifting over into a more comfortable spot on the thin mattress Buck took a moment to stretch out as he stared up at the fluttering ends of the curtains above him. Spending the day in bed had sounded like a good idea, but if he were honest with himself, the blanket was a bit scratchy and really… he wasn’t the type to ride into town and take advantage of a woman. Was he?

*****

Rosa barely looked up when he walked in through the front door and took a seat at a table against the wall. She had her hands busy with a few gringos that looked like they hadn’t slept off the whiskey from the night before. He watched the exchange carefully from his table, one hand resting on his thigh… within reaching distance from his revolver.

“No no,” she smiled at the men, fairly dancing away from their grasping hands, “we serve food, not me.”

“Awww… don’t you go sayin’ that I can’t have you. That’ll make me mean and when I’m mean… ain’t no one safe.”

“Then you,” she leaned close enough that she was nearly nose to nose with the man, “will find yourself bleeding on my floor!”

The others laughed as their friend grabbed her upper arm with his hand, meaning to drag her into his lap, but they all stopped when he squeaked in pain.

Buck’s advance stopped when a flash of sunlight illuminated the wicked little dagger she held in her hand. If he could trust his eyesight after a night of mescal, he would swear that the tip of her blade had already drawn blood.

“Git off me!”

“Uh uh, you will let me go first.” She twisted the blade to the side and the man lifted his chin in reaction, his hold on her arm loosening until his hand fell limply at his side. “That is better… you have proven yourself to be a smart man,” she pulled the blade back a fraction of an inch as her gaze circled the table, meeting with the other men that were sitting with him, “So, do you want to eat or do you want to bleed?”

Buck’s heart was pounding in his chest, when he finally found himself back in his chair. He noted that the blade disappeared a moment later and he watched a calm, almost cheery smile transform her features and when she sauntered over to his table he had enough control of his faculties to answer her questions as she took his order.

“Is there something else you’d like?”

He saw the twinkle in her eye and the saucy smile playing across her lips, but if truth be told he couldn’t seem to let go of the fear that had gripped him the moment that man had touched her.

She raised a questioning brow at him. “Querida, are you sick?”
“What?” He shook his head, trying to wrap his brain around the question. “Sick? No… no…”

Rosa set down her tray and leaned on the table, to stare at him, concern darkening the look in her eyes. “Is it the heat?”

“No… no…”

She sat down on the edge of the table and slid her fingers through his unbound hair, her palm resting on his forehead. “Then what is it? You look…” She murmured something in Spanish and laid her other palm on the side of his face and he was left staring up at her in amazement. The very touch of her skin against him stopped the frantic pounding of his heart and the fear turning his stomach upside down fell away when she brushed her lips against his. “I think you should go back to bed.”
His hands reached up and settled on her hips, feeling the shift of her muscles beneath the indigo colored fabric. “I’ll go… when you can join me.”

Rosa slid from the table, slowly extricating herself from his touch, her skirt swirling around her as she moved. “Now that order, senor, I can fill.”