Erotica- So Not A Cowboy/ Spanking (3 page)

“I said ‘no.’ There can’t be an annulment, for obvious reasons. And I’m not agreeing to a divorce. At least not yet.”

“You’re kidding, right?” He had to be. Why would he want to stay married to her? Even worse, why did she feel saddened by the idea of divorcing him?

“You need to get up. We’ve got just enough time to grab some breakfast before we head to the airport.” He walked into the bathroom.

“To the airport?” They’d only come here for the one day. She remembered that much now. And oh what a disastrous day that had turned out to be. She had a flight back to Maui to work tomorrow. He had some kind of business meeting, although she still didn’t know exactly what he did for a living. Another reminder of how little they knew about one another.

“Move it.”

She didn’t like being ordered around. Where was the teasing, laughing man she’d spent so much time with? She wanted
him
back. She wanted her exquisite lover back.

“Let’s just go back to the way we were.” She climbed off the bed, searching for her clothes.

“We can still have that, but now we can have more, too.” He looked around the corner at her, his expression determined. “Give us a chance. Give me a chance.”

Her stomach tightened and something in her chest pinched. A part of her wanted to agree, to trust in him…to trust that maybe just this once she hadn’t made another horrendous mistake with a man. But a bigger part of her was scared to take the risk. Every other man had grown tired of her, tossed her away. She had a feeling that when Erik realized they had nothing in common, that she bored him outside of the bedroom… Well, it would hurt a whole lot more when he walked away.

“I can’t.” Tears trickled down her face and she turned away, jerking her dress on. “And I’m not going back to Los Angeles with you.” She swallowed a sob. “I’m going home to the ranch.”

Chapter Two

“Do you want to tell me who Erik Mallory is?
Why
he thinks he’s your husband?”

Mandy’s heart raced at the sound of her irate older brother’s voice. She didn’t need this today. Ever, in truth. From where she sat in the straw trying to clean off a newly born foal while his mama watched carefully, she took her time looking up at Drew. He wasn’t going to be happy with her.

“Legally, I suppose he is.” She admitted quietly and focused once more on the adorable long-legged chestnut foal trying to figure out how to get to his feet.

Big scuffed boots moved directly in front of her. Then Drew crouched down so she had to face him. “Legally? Exactly what’s that supposed to mean? And why did this Mallory sound pretty pissed off?”

Pissed off?
“If anyone should be upset, it’s me!” He’d tricked her into getting married.
Partly your fault
, her annoying conscience added. And he’d wanted her to completely change her life to work with
his
.
Okay, he hadn’t actually said that
. But his world was in California. Hers was here in Kansas on the Weatherford Ranch, at least now it was.

A muscled forearm came down and Drew tugged her awkwardly to her feet. He glowered. “Quit stalling. Tell me what crazy thing you have gone and done this time.”

She shook off his arm and ground her teeth. She wanted to snap that what she’d done
wasn’t
crazy, but it had been. Still. “My business.”

His expression grew darker. He’d been her guard dog big brother far too long. She was thirty now; she could take care of herself.
Oh, and I’ve done such a good job of that lately
. She slumped. “It’s just a little problem I need to take care of.” And the Grand Canyon is just a small crack in the earth.

“A
little
problem? You’re married—legally, or so you said—and you don’t share this news with me. Does
anyone
know? Mom? Dad?”

Soft footsteps padded down the cement path of the horse barn in their direction and drew their attention. Mandy’s best friend, Tanya, took one look at her scowling husband and shook her head. “It’s
her
private business, Drew.” She hurried closer. “She had reasons for not telling you.”

Mandy groaned under her breath at her friend’s foolish attempt to defend her. Drew’s face tightened and his narrowed gaze warned Tanya that they would be having a “talk” later. No doubt a “talk” that involved the use of his hard hand on her soft bottom. He didn’t like secrets or anything that even hinted at his being manipulated. Which he clearly believed he had been.

“House. Now,” he growled at his wife.

When she merely tipped up her chin stubbornly, Mandy wanted to tell her to back down. She should be the one getting the brunt of Drew’s frustration, not Tanya. Not that she wanted to feel the flat of his hand on her butt.

“This is between my sister and me. For now anyway.”

Before Tanya could challenge him, Mandy hissed, “Stop it! This is all
my
mess. Not
yours
, Bro. Not
yours
, Tanya. Mine…all mine.” She sucked in a breath. “When did Erik call? What else did he say?”

Drew continued to frown in disapproval at his wife and finally she heaved a put-upon sigh and strode back out into the bright light of the mid-July afternoon. “You two give me nothing but headaches.”

“Considering your wife is six months pregnant, I’d say Tanya gives you more than headaches.” She’d wanted to lighten his mood.

But he was intent on not being distracted. “Back to this husband business. When? Where? Why?” He leaned down and helped the struggling foal to his feet, gently stroking his neck as he wobbled toward the mare now standing as well.

Mandy watched him, thinking how far her troubled brother had come since marrying Tanya. She’d healed his bruised heart, even mellowed him out some. He would make a great father. At the moment, though, he was being a pain-in-the-neck brother. Something he could excel at sometimes.

“We met in Maui.” That first meeting had been pretty embarrassing. She’d been upset about Chad dumping her and gotten…okay, drunk. Erik had taken her under his white-knight wing and took her home with him. And then…. But Drew didn’t need to know any of that.

“You married him there?” His brow was furrowed.

She shook her head.
No, we got hot and heavy there
. But Big Bro didn’t need to know that either. “We just hung out for a few days until I had to fly back to Los Angeles. Erik is from California. So we goofed around some more there until I had a few days off from the airline.” And, oh my, hadn’t they had some seriously hot times in LA. They’d hardly left her bedroom.

“So you married him in LA?” Drew was sounding testy again, tired of her story dragging out.

Again, she shook her head. “Las Vegas. It’s, uh…complicated.” Now she huffed in irritation. “Stupid surfer boy refused to get a quickie divorce like we should have done. He has been totally unreasonable about this marriage thing ever since. And
I’m
the one who is pissed off, Drew.
Me
!”

Drew narrowed his eyes. “Is he thinking he’s going to get part of this ranch in the divorce settlement? It won’t happen; I can tell you that for damn sure.”

“He hasn’t mentioned wanting any kind of settlement. I don’t know for sure, but I think he has money. Trust fund money or something. I’m not sure he even works. We really never talked much about that.” He hadn’t exactly thrown money around while they were together, but he never seemed to have trouble paying for anything, including their short stay in a fancy suite at the Bellagio. She studied her ringless hand, felt the special-made wedding ring on a chain around her neck. He’d sent it to her just last week…with a note wanting her to come back to California, saying he was too busy to get away right now.

“Spoiled rich, huh? Well, hell, Mandy.” He gaped at her like her head was on backwards. Maybe it was.

She scuffed the toe of her boot in the straw. She was so mixed up. And, truthfully, scared to death to even think about what she’d gotten involved in because she’d lusted after the wrong man. “What else did he tell you?”

Drew studied her for a minute as if trying to analyze the situation. He’d calmed down but he clearly wasn’t happy with what she’d done. “He said he’s flying into Wichita in the morning, should be here around noon.”

“Then I’m leaving tonight.” She realized how childish that was the moment she said the words. She’d been running from her problem and Erik for over a month now. Even going so far as to take time off from her flight attendant job with Hawaiian Airlines and stay far away from her condo in Maui and her apartment in Los Angeles. She hadn’t wanted to run into him and had been certain he wouldn’t haul himself all the way out here to Kansas.
Wrong
.

“Nope. You’re staying right here to work whatever the problem is out.” Drew gave her a look that all but promised he would hog-tie her to a chair to make sure she did. “I’m going to be right there when you talk to him.”

Stubborn man would, too. He could be a hard ass sometimes, but there wasn’t anyone more loyal. He’d have her back. She smiled gently at him. “I love you dearly, Bro, but this is something Erik and I need to face together.”

When he looked ready to protest, she stopped him in the quickest way she could. “Where do you and Tanya do most of your talking? Private talking.” Her friend had told her the only times she could get Drew to say more than a few words was when she got him completely sated. They talked as they lie together all tangled up in bed.

As she’d known he would do, he blushed and went wide-eyed. “He is
not
sharing your bed!”

Now she giggled. He still saw her as his baby sister, always would. “We won’t be getting an annulment, Drew, if you understand me.” She was telling him without actually saying the words that she and Erik had already shared a bed. And they’d done a lot more than just share some Zs together.

His horrified expression told her that he didn’t want to think about it, let alone talk about that, her having sex with anyone. He glanced at the foal wobbling around his mama. “I reckon what you two do together isn’t my business, considering you’re married and all.” He faced her again. “But I don’t have to like it.”

He walked off, grumbling about impossible sisters, secretive wives, women who needed good butt burnings. She had a feeling Tanya would probably get one fairly soon. She’d tolerate it because she loved him…and she also really liked the make-up sex afterward.

Her thoughts turned to Erik, her blond, hunky surfer boy. Talk about from two different worlds. More like different universes. But he could sure make her tingle from her head to her toes with just a flash of those sky blue eyes. She didn’t even want to think about…. Damn, her panties were already damp.

* * *

Jimmy Buffet crooned “Hey, hey, good looking what ya got cooking” as Erik tooled along the highway out of Dodge City. “How about cooking something up with me.”

His thoughts turned to the woman he’d come halfway across the country to see. His wife.
Wife
. Even after almost two months of being married, he could hardly believe it. But then they’d lived apart for all but the first day of being man and wife. One way or another, things needed to get settled between them. He had one idea, she another. His idea—about staying married and finding a way to make it work—still surprised him. Stunned her, too. Everyone else in his life from his parents (who really couldn’t give anyone advice on marriage) to his “think tank” computer nerd business partners to his surfer buddies and especially to his lawyers thought he was unwise and thinking only with his dick. Maybe he was. Maybe he was thinking with his “lower brain” rather than with his real brain, but damn, Mandy was…. Well, she’d kept him rock-hard aroused from the moment he’d met her in that bar in Maui.

He shifted to make a suddenly needed adjustment to his package just from remembering what a hot little mama his Mandy could be. But, while the sex had been amazing, he’d really enjoyed being with her. She wasn’t like any of the many women he’d had affairs with over the years. He couldn’t pick out any one specific thing that drew him most to her, but he knew he wasn’t ready to call it quits so easily. He’d had a gut-deep feeling she would be worth putting time (which he didn’t really have) and effort into this spur-of-the-moment marriage. His partners sure didn’t like him taking time away right now, but he hadn’t been able to focus on business or anything else. Mandy haunted him day and night.

He glanced around the gentle rolling hills of the almost flat-landed part of Kansas. This was so not his usual kind of place. He supposed it was okay, just not what he was used to. Finally he spotted the gravel road leading to his wife’s family ranch and eased up on the accelerator. He turned and the wheels of his newly purchased Hummer rumbled over the steel bars stretching across the road. His stomach churned with nerves. He’d met with powerful movers and shakers, big time bankers, and a fair number of the Hollywood elite in the last six years and hadn’t blinked an eye. Confidence in his business made that possible. But now…about to meet again possibly the most important person in his life…he was shaking in his flip-flops.

A few minutes later he drove into the main ranch area and found himself impressed, although he didn’t know what he’d actually expected. He’d seen Westerns, old West and modern day, but this spread—was that the right term?—was far different from the ranches in those shows. A two-story log house spanned a large area, looking new and worth some serious bucks. It faced a long, steel-fenced riding arena that currently was the center of attention for a couple of dozen people—dude ranch guests, he suspected—and six cowboys standing at one end. Everyone watched a woman on horseback riding around several barrels. She rode leaning low over the horse’s back, guiding the striking black horse expertly around one barrel and then another. Both of them were beauties, even from this distance.

Pulling up next to a pair of dust-covered pickup trucks, he cut the engine and gaped in surprise. That rider was his wife. Slowly she reined the big horse to a stop in front of the ranch guests, who appeared to eagerly greet her. But her attention turned to him. She gazed directly at him in his Hummer and didn’t look happy, at all.