Rough Riders Bundle 1(books 1, 2, 3) (98 page)

“AJ, that’s not me. Then or now—”

“It is. Don’t spoil the memory for me by denying it. Don’t spoil this moment either. Be Cord my sexy fantasy man, not Cord the responsible rancher who thinks too much.”

A section of her hair was stuck to her cheek from where she’d slept on it. Cord peeled it away and rubbed the damp, white-blonde strand between his fingers. So soft. Such a contrast against his rough, callused hand. “You are sweet.”

AJ blushed. She picked up a chunk of salami and held it to his mouth. “I want to feed you too.”

By the time the food was gone, they’d teased each other to the point Cord was crazed to have her again. He sat in the middle of the bed and wrapped her legs around his lower back as she shifted down slowly, encasing his cock in her tight, wet heat.

“I like it this way.”

“Me too, baby doll. Me too.” Cord clutched her ass cheeks in his hands as they maintained a slow, sensual pace. Her soft skin brushed his everywhere. He consumed her mouth, her neck, her nipples, never completely leaving the heaven of her pliant pussy. She climaxed and brought him along with her, in a deliciously sweet throbbing that seemed to last an eternity.

With their bodies and mouths still connected in the aftermath of lazy, but passionate loving, he realized he’d never clicked with anyone on this level—heart, body and soul. He also realized he didn’t know what the hell to do about it.

AJ licked his Adam’s apple. “Mmm. Sweaty, yummy sexy man.”

“I can get some more food if you’re still hungry.”

“I’ll just nibble on you, if that’s okay.”

“Fine by me.” He arched his neck when her teeth scraped up to his ear and released a shudder. “God. I love that.”

“Then I’ll keep doing it.”

His hands were on her butt and his thumbs idly stroked the crack of her ass to the puckered rosette. On the next slow stroke up, his thumb lingered on that tiny opening.

Immediately she tensed up.

“You don’t like that?”

“No. I do, but I don’t think I’m ready for umm…more than that.”

“We can go slow.”

She said nothing—which alarmed him because she always spoke her mind.

“AJ? Look at me.” She lifted her head. Cord didn’t like the fear in her eyes. He especially didn’t like the fact he’d put it there. She’d given her body over to him without hesitation, with eagerness, with utter trust, with joy. He’d be a fool—and a bully—if he let his sexual desires overrule her panic. “I’d never make you do anything you didn’t want to, baby doll. If you’re not ready, no big deal, okay?”

“But you said—”

“Forget what I said. I’m a controlling dickhead sometimes. I’m used to bein’ obeyed. Period.” He kissed her with reassurance. “No hurry. I can wait until you’re ready. In the mean time”—he flipped her on her back—“I want you again.”

AJ murmured, “I’m so glad
Cosmo
was wrong about the male recovery time thingy.”

He chuckled against her throat and wondered how he’d ever let her go.

*

After spending nearly
all day in bed, AJ needed a break. She unfolded from Cord’s embrace and reached for her clothes that he’d brought up from downstairs.

“Where’s the fire?”

“Nowhere. Don’t you have to check cattle?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Can I come along?”

Cord raised both eyebrows. “Really?”

“Sure. Can we take the horses instead of the truck?”

“Takes longer.”

“I don’t care. I like being outside.”

He rolled over and mumbled something as he reached for his clothes.

“What? If you don’t want me to come along, just say so.”

“It’s not that. Just shocks the hell out of me that you want to.”

“It shouldn’t. As much as I bitched about it when I had no choice but to tend to everything, I’m a ranch girl through and through. I think you forget that sometimes.”

“I’m tryin’ to.”

Not touching that comment, cowboy. I can’t wrestle your demons any more than I can make you change your mind or see the truth.

Downstairs, as AJ slipped on her ropers, Cord waggled the silver boots at her. “You still haven’t worn these. Now you’ll have me thinking of all sorts of scenarios in which you’re wearing nothin’ but these
fuck me
boots when we get back.”

She snatched them and threw them in the coat closet. “Wrong. Out of sight; out of mind.”

Cord froze.

“What?”

“Do you think that’ll really work? Pretending something’s not there when it obviously is right in front of you?”

AJ had the strangest feeling they weren’t talking about a pair of boots. “No. Come on. Let’s saddle up.”

Within ten minutes they were riding the fenceline. The late afternoon sun was hot, not unbearably so, but warm enough that AJ wished she’d grabbed a hat. Cord wore his, a finely woven cream-colored straw, not the frat party variety, but the type ranchers needed in the summertime to reflect heat. She couldn’t help but think the white hat just reinforced the white knight image she’d held of him her entire life.

After they’d checked the herd, they continued clopping along. The serenity of the scenery negated the need for idle chatter. Cord led; she followed.

“See that stock tank? Race—”

The second she heard the word
race
she was gone. He didn’t come close to catching her. “Maybe you should ride this horse next time, McKay. I’ve beaten you both times.”

“I won once.”

“Want to go best three out of five?”

“No. You have a daredevil streak, Ms. Foster. How come I never knew about it?”

“Because being a wild child was Keely’s reputation, not mine. I was too busy working in my dad’s stead to be wild.” After she realized what she’d confessed, she kicked her heels into Nickel’s sides and they were off.

Cord reined up beside her. “You gonna explain that, or are you gonna make me guess?”

She said, “Guess,” deciding he wouldn’t figure out what no one else had during those years.

“Let’s see. I moved back here seven years ago after bein’ in Seattle for two years, so you would’ve been fifteen. I don’t remember you chumming around with Keely until you were at least eighteen, after Ky was born and Marla took off. So during those missin’ years you were—”

“Wow. Look. A red-tailed hawk.” AJ pointed to the bird circling in the vibrant blue sky off to the west.

“Baby doll, I could be sarcastic and list a buncha things you might’ve been doin’, but I’m asking you to be honest and tell me the truth.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

“Do it anyway.”

AJ met his hard gaze. “I was working the ranch. Daddy had a debilitating heart attack when I was thirteen. Mama and Daddy didn’t want anyone to know about his health problems, so all the doctor’s visits were done in Cheyenne.”

“So you’re saying what? You did everything? Ran the ranch by…yourself?”

“I couldn’t do the haying. But I knew what else needed to be done, so I did it. End of story.”

Cord looked like she’d punched him in the gut. “You ran the ranch? From the time you were thirteen? Why didn’t anyone in the community notice? For Christsake, why didn’t anyone in
my
family notice?” He demanded, “Did Keely know this?”

“Not until a few years ago. She always teased me about being such a goody-goody. But the truth was, I was too damn tired to care about being the belle of the county.” After she’d told Keely the truth, Keely had been suitably appalled by her own clueless behavior. She’d also been embarrassed by the McKay family’s tendency to take care of their own to the exclusion of all others. AJ had sworn Keely to secrecy and they’d become friends on a much deeper level than she’d ever imagined possible.

“You took care of the cattle? And the horses? And fixin’ fence and mowing ditches? And breeding and branding?”

“After the first calving season Daddy started selling off cow/calf pairs. By the time I was fifteen all the cattle were gone. Dad told everyone he wanted early retirement and we leased most the grazing land. Then I just had to deal with the other ranch stuff you’re always talking about.”

“You didn’t ask my dad, my brothers, my cousins, or any of the McKays? You have to know that someone in my family would’ve helped you out—”

“Which family, Cord? Colby was rodeoin’. Cam joined the service. Carter was at college. You were living in Seattle, which left Colt. Your McKay cousins, Kane, Kade, Quinn and Bennett had to do all the rest of the work—except for Chase who was still in high school—and they had to hire out, remember? The McKay ranch is fifty times the size of ours. So your family couldn’t have helped us even if my dad hadn’t had too much pride to ask.”

“AJ—”

“I’m warning you, Cord, drop it.”

“Like hell.”

AJ reined Nickel the opposite direction, snapped the reins and raced back to the barn like the hounds of hell nipped at her heels.

Cord was right on her horse’s tail. But all thoughts of continuing the discussion were lost when she noticed Colby’s pickup screaming up the driveway as she reached the fence beside the barn. She jerked Nickel to a stop, causing Cord to do the same with Jester.

He snapped, “What now?”

“Do you want me to hide in the barn until Colby leaves?”

“Fuck that. I’m sick of this hiding shit. I think it’s time we told everyone the truth about us—”

“Cord!”

They turned to see Colby running toward them.

A sick feeling churned in AJ’s stomach. Colby. Running.

“You gotta come. Dag had an accident.”

“Dag? What the hell happened?”

“We ain’t sure.”

“He okay?”

Colby shook his head. “He’s dead.”

Shock hung in the air.

AJ said, “Go on, Cord. Be with your family. I’ll take care of the horses.”

Neither he nor Colby said another word as they climbed into Colby’s truck and roared off.

‡

Five days later…

C
ord sat next
to his brother Carter in the church basement after Dag’s funeral service. Everyone was somber, still in a state of shock over Dag’s death.

Sometimes a tragedy will pull a family apart. But it had the opposite effect with the Wests and McKays, by putting an end to the rift between them. Carson and Cal and Charlie McKay and all of Dag’s male McKay cousins—less Cam—were pallbearers right alongside the West cousins.

The church had been packed with family, members of the community and lots of young rodeo cowboys. They’d all been holding up fairly well until Dag’s buddy Trevor Glanzer brought the traditional riderless horse to the funeral procession of cars headed to the graveyard.

In the last four days, Dag’s father, Harland, aged twenty years. He refused to let his daughter, Chassie, out of his sight. Cord’s mother shooed Chassie away to give her a much needed break from her father’s overwhelming grief, and Carolyn stayed beside her grieving brother. The only other time Cord had seen his mother so distraught was two years ago when Colby nearly died from a rodeo injury.

Cord’s gaze swept the table. Carter and Macie. Colby and Channing. Keely. Kane and Kade. Chase McKay and his older brothers Quinn and Bennett. Cash Big Crow. Trevor. But Trevor went to comfort Chassie and they disappeared outside. Cord imagined it wouldn’t be much longer before he’d be hearing another set of wedding bells. Better that than the somber tones of a funeral dirge.

Colt was conspicuously absent. He’d been at the service and the burial, but no one knew where he’d gone afterward. No one said it, but everyone knew his brother was drinking someplace. And of all the stupid fucking things to do…drinking was what’d gotten Dag killed.

Dag had still been half-drunk from a hard night of partying when he’d started chores Saturday morning. The assumption was Dag passed out on the tractor, drifted into the ditch where the tractor flipped on top of him and crushed him. Luckily Trevor discovered Dag that afternoon, not Harland. God knows that would’ve killed his uncle and they’d be having a double funeral.

Ranching was a dangerous life. Fatal accidents happened all the time. Not in their family in recent years. And not because of a bad decision that could’ve easily been avoided.

A fucking senseless waste of a life.