Disclaimer: SE Hinton owns The Outsiders. I have secret relations with the rest.

Summary: Before Tulsa, there was New York. Before Sylvia, there was a red-haired temptress who rocked his soul. Can Dallas Winston survive the onslaught of a woman as easily as he did New York or will she haunt him until the day he dies?

Fire Down Below

Chapter One:

Dallas Winston swiped the white-blond hair back away from his eyes when boisterous laughter echoed from the dining area behind him. Lifting his eyes from his coffee cup, he scanned the small diner using the large mirror that covered the wall on the opposite side of the counter and his attention was drawn to the shapely figure of a waitress as she laughed again at something one of the booth's occupants said to her. She had to be a new worker here since he'd never seen her before and he was in here almost every day around this time. The other gals that took orders in this dive were either brunette or brassy blonde so this one had caught his attention right off just by being different from the others in her coloring.

A predatory gleam flared in his ice blue eyes as he watched her toss her dark red hair back over her shoulders and spin around to head in his direction with the men's orders, his gaze shifting down to the slight sway of her hips in the tight pink and white uniform she wore as she drew closer. She was definitely a new worker here. None of the other waitresses had the same slinky walk as this one did or he would've noticed them long before now. He always did have a thing for red hair. There was just something about it that hinted at abandon and fiery passion in the owner of such vivid hair that appealed to the animal in him on a baser level.

His breath caught in his throat when he raised his gaze to find her staring back at him in the mirror with a knowing light in her eyes and he fought the urge to look away. Instead he held her stare as she moved around him to slide behind the counter, their eyes locked in the reflection while she ripped the order sheet from her pad and slid it under one of the clips at the grill counter. Are they blue or are they green? He wondered to himself, the distance still too great for him to discern the color of her eyes. With that hair, they must be green.

He turned his attention to the lukewarm coffee in his cup when the redhead broke their staring contest as a rowdy group of teenagers entered the diner and commandeered a booth in another section of the diner. The aura of self-confidence and knowledge that surrounded her intrigued him just as much as it aroused him and he wondered what it would be like to shake that appearance of calm control in one moment of animal lust.

"Can I get you a refill, sir?" The husky voice was followed by a low chuckle when Dallas' hand hit the side of his coffee cup, sending it spinning in the saucer and sloshing the contents onto the white counter top. "Or maybe a napkin?"

Dallas lifted the cup and saucer as she swiped up the spill with a counter rag, a smirk tilting his lips. "You can get me something, darling, but refills and napkins ain't what I had in mind," he drawled, waiting on the usual gasp of outrage his propositions got him from the other waitresses.

"Oh yeah?" A sparkle made the woman's hazel eyes light up as she looked up from mopping the spill to meet his hard gaze. "I think you would have more luck with a napkin, sweetie."

His eyes widened slightly at the innuendo in her reply and he clamped his jaw tight to keep from laughing. This chick was going to be harder to crack than the others had been but the excitement came from the thrill of the chase anyway so expending a little more energy and charm wasn't going to kill him. "You're new here, aint you?"

She dropped the coffee soaked rag into something behind the counter and leaned over to rest her arms on the counter top just inches from his cup, a wicked light in her eyes as she watched his eyes move to where her uniform gaped open a little to reveal a hint of her breasts as they rested on her arms. "Nah. I usually work the day shift but Mike needed me on nights since Kathy and Clara both quit at the same time."

"Didn't think I seen you here before," Dallas confirmed, his eyes moving from the creamy skin showing above her uniform to meet her amused stare. "Why don't we blow this place when you get off your shift and go for a real drink, baby?"

"I don't know you from Adam, honey," the waitress said in a teasing tone, her eyes traveling from his face to the lean muscles that showed through his shirt. Her gaze moved back to his face and she raised one hand to twirl a red lock of hair around her finger absently "What makes you think I would just take off with some kid I don't know shit about?"

"I ain't no kid." A wolfish grin crossed his lips as he leered at the front of her uniform again pointedly. "And you sure do like to advertise yourself a lot, doll."

If he was expecting her to blush, he was sadly disappointed. Instead she gave him a sultry look before rising back up into her upright position behind the counter and looking down at him with a faint smirk on her own lips that almost mirrored his earlier expression. "My name is Darla," she informed him in a lower, huskier tone that he took to mean she was entertaining the idea of his proposal. "Not darling, not baby, and most definitely not doll."

"I'm Dallas," he stated while watching the different emotions flicker in her expressive eyes. "Dallas Winston." He leaned forward on the counter a little and stared insolently at the swells of her breasts filling out the front of the pink cloth. "Where'd you get a square name like Darla," he drawled, lifting his eyes to meet her calm gaze. "A chick like you shouldn't have no frigid name like Dar-luh."

An unladylike snort escaped her as she stepped back from the counter and picked her order pad back up. "My mom was a big fan of The Little Rascals when I was born." Her eyes twinkled again and he wondered stupidly if they were more green than brown. She gave him a broad wink and stepped around the counter to wait on the customers that had just come into the diner and seated themselves in her section. "I got customers to see to, sweetie."

A slight shiver ran through him when she hesitated near his shoulder and leaned close enough for him to breathe her scent, the mingling odors of french fries, strawberries, and another more musky smell underlying it all making his groin tighten uncomfortably as her breath tickled his ear.

"Guess I oughta be glad she didn't name me Spanky, " she whispered mischievously before pulling away and swaying toward the now crowded booth near the back of her section.

He laughed outright this time as her words penetrated the fog in his brain from her sensual movements and he understood the innuendo beneath her seemingly innocent words. Darla hadn't taken him up on his offer like a common slut would but … she hadn't turned him down either. He glanced back over his shoulder and zeroed in on where Darla was laughing and joking with the people in the booth as she wrote down their orders.

The tightness in his nether regions grew more intense when her knowing eyes strayed to his and she let her tongue slide out from between her lips a little, the deep pink tip of it moving over her bottom lip provocatively. With a low growl, he shoved the cup and saucer back from him and slid off the counter stool, hoping he could get out of the diner before any wiseass noticed that he now had three legs instead of two and he had to bust someone's head open. Not that he wouldn't welcome a fight right now. The release of the built up tension would certainly be something he could use to his own advantage even if it was just in a brawl.

As he pushed the exit door open with the heel of his hand, he glanced back over his shoulder at the red-haired woman still engrossed in entertaining her customers as she took their orders and smirked. It would take some wooing to get this one on her back but something told him it would be well worth the effort.

Please take the time to review if you expended the time to read this. Any suggestions on improvement will be taken seriously.

A big thank you to Crazy for betaing this for me and not riding my ass too much about the content. :-)