by D'Ann Lindun
Choking back tears, Alannah embraced the other woman. “Where is he?”
“In the barn,” Lupita told her. “He’s been working even more than usual.”
“Thank you.” Alannah turned toward the outbuildings. “I’m going to talk to him.”
Lupita waved her apron. “Go, hurry!”
With a smile, Alannah hurried toward the man she loved.
Inside the barn, she found Gentry bent over Scribbles’ front left leg. He was murmuring something unintelligible to the red-and-white horse.
“Is he okay?” Her voice shook a little.
Gentry spun around, his expression incredulous. Immediately, his face clouded. “What are you doing here? Did you forget something?”
She took a few steps closer. “I came back to be with you.”
“Sorry. Not offering any stud services today.”
His crude words made her flinch. “I mean I want to stay here with you.”
“Why? You already bored by your fancy, uptown friends? Come back for another fuck?” He pushed past her and walked toward the tack room.
Alannah drew in a shaky breath. She’d expected Gentry to be mad but not like this: cold and bitter. She hurried after him and grabbed his elbow. “I made a mistake, okay?”
“No. The error was mine.” He refused to look at her. “Thinking a city girl would ever be happy here. I knew better—my mother proved that—but great sex made me forget for a little while.”
“It was more than a tumble in the hay between us, and you know it.” Desperation filled her. He was more stubborn than an old mule. How to get through his thick head?
“Do I?” He sighed. “We had fun. It was a good time, but we’re too different to ever make anything permanent work between us. You were right when you said so. Now, I have work to do. I know you do, too.” He left her standing in the alley and went into the tack room.
She stood frozen, trying to remember how to breathe.
She’d been dismissed.
She’d gambled her heart and lost.
Shaking, she considered her options—fight or walk away.
Since she’d left, all she’d done was try to figure out a way to make things between them work. The least he could do was hear her out. Raising her chin, she stomped after him and slammed the door shut behind her.
From his position by a rack of saddles, Gentry looked up in surprise. “What the—?”
She strode forward and poked him in the chest. “Listen here, mister. I deserve your anger. I threw your proposal in your face without explanation because I panicked. The thought of giving up my freedom scares me to death.” She drew a shaky breath. “Living without you scares me more.”
“I never asked you to give up anything.” He flashed a frown that cut deep grooves into his face.
“No?” She poked him again. “If I were to accept your proposal, how would you react to me having to be gone two weeks a month on assignments?” At his frown, she nodded. “Exactly. Badly.”
“You never asked,” he countered. “Never gave me a chance to think about it.”
“I’m asking you now.” She stepped forward and looked into his steely gray eyes. “Do you want me? And can you live with me having a career? Because I can’t live without a job of my own.”
“What happens when we have kids?” He placed a hand on the closest saddle. “Who will raise them while you’re running around the country?”
Her eyes widened. “Children?”
He pointed to the child-sized saddle on the top rack. “This was mine when I was a kid. I want someone to hand it down to, not to mention everything that goes along with it being a Gentry.”
“Shouldn’t we talk about marriage before we jump to kids?” Her heart pounded so hard she could almost hear it. The idea of having his baby made her womb clench and her breasts swell.
“I don’t want a part-time wife,” Gentry said. “Or my kids raised by some babysitter. I grew up that way, and it sucked. I’m cowboy bred and cowboy born. I can’t be something I’m not.”
“I don’t want you to be anything but what you are.” She took a shaky breath. “I can be your wife and a mother to our kids and still have my career, too.”
He looked skeptical. “How?”
Here it was. The secret idea she’d come up with. One that would give them both what they wanted. “I’ve been saving my money, and I have enough to set up a studio. I would like to exhibit my photographs at galleries. Until I sell some, I can freelance for magazines, which would cut my travel time in half. Even less after I have some success with the galleries.” She waited. “I want this, Gentry. I want you.” She took a shuddering breath. “And I want to have your babies.”
She held her breath.
This was it.
Hope flashed in his eyes before he hid it behind a cold stare. “This is really what you want? To be my wife? Mother to my kids?” He stared into her eyes. “You won’t regret it in a few months or a year when the new wears off?”
“I’m sure,” she said. “I absolutely want to be here with you.”
He took her hands in his and pulled her close. His cock was already primed, erect against her belly. “Then stay.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “Yes. Oh, yes.”
~*~
Gentry reined in and dismounted. Looping Scribbles’ reins over his arm, he helped Alannah down from Silver. He brushed a kiss over her lips but kept it light. If he kissed her the way he wanted to, they’d be undressed and making love within moments.
He had something to do first.
Taking both horses, he led them a short distance away and tied them to a mesquite tree. After making sure their cinches were loose, he untied a red plaid blanket from behind his saddle and removed a bottle of champagne and two plastic glasses from his saddlebags. Carrying everything, he went to the edge of the bluff, spread out the blanket and placed the wine and glasses on the blanket.
Alannah stood overlooking the ranch. Gentry joined her. To the west, the sun glowed blood red, a gigantic ball sinking behind the rolling hills he loved. The orange and red rays seemed to be trying to hold on, grasping desperately at the horizon.
“It’s beautiful here,” Alannah said.
“Yes.” He still couldn’t believe she had agreed to stay. How had he gotten so lucky? “You must have seen prettier places in all your travels.”
She turned toward him with a happy smile. “If I have, I can’t recall.”
He prized this land with all his heart and soul, and it meant a lot to him that she might feel the same way.
“I love you, lady.” Holding her gaze, he went down on one knee. From his pocket, he pulled his grandmother’s wedding ring and slid it onto her left ring finger. “Alannah Murphy, will you make me the happiest man alive and become my wife?”
Through tears, she nodded. “Yes, I will.”
He stood, took her in his arms and covered her mouth with his. They kissed for several minutes until his cock threatened to break the seam of his jeans. Breaking the kiss, he guided Alannah to the blanket. They sat, and he reached for the wine. He popped the cork, and after pouring them each a glass, he held his up. “To us. To the future.”
“To the future.”
They clinked the plastic glasses together and drank, watching as the sun continued to sink. Alannah rested her head on his shoulder. “I love you, Gentry.”
“I think I fell in love the first time I saw you.”
She set the glass aside and lay back on the blanket. “No, you didn’t. You were so mad about the bull you could barely breathe.”
Chuckling, he put his own glass at the edge of the blanket. He rolled to his side and smoothed a piece of hair from her cheek. “I was hot and tired. But I still thought you were the prettiest woman I’d ever laid eyes on. I think I lost my heart right at that moment.”
“Me, too. That night, in the pool…well, I’ve never done anything like that before. I had to be bold.”
“If I wasn’t hooked before
, that did it,” he confessed. “I’ve never been seduced like that.”
Color flooded her face, and she ducked her head into his chest. “Gentry.”
He tipped her chin up with his forefinger. “I loved it. I can’t wait for you to do it again.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” He wanted to kiss her, to make love to her. He took her hand and, with his thumb, touched the ring he’d placed there. “This was my grandmother’s. If you don’t like it, we can get you one you like better.”
“No! I love it.” She studied the old-fashioned setting of an enormous diamond surrounded by two rows of smaller ones. She touched it with the tips of her fingers. “It’s perfect.”
“I’m glad you like it.” He reached in his back pocket, pulled out an envelope and handed it to her. “There’s one more thing.”
She gave him a confused look. “What is this?”
“Open it.”
She took the contents out of the envelope and studied them, then looked up with a big smile. “Plane tickets to Australia? Why?”
“You reminded me there’s more to life than this place,” he said. “I need to get away ever so often. See other things. Live a little. We’ll go on a trip at least once a year. That’s my promise to you.”
“Thank you, Gentry.” She smiled so sweetly he would have given her the world if he could.
“If there’s a job you want to take,” he said, “I want you to do it. We’ll make this work. I want you to be as happy as you’ve made me.”
With a contented sigh, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Make love to me, cowboy.”
~The End~
Ride, Cowboy,
Ride
RIDE, COWBOY, RIDE
Can they find freedom together?
A locked up heart.
After imprisoned in a federal penitentiary for ten years over a woman's betrayal, the last thing Lyle Landry is looking for is love. A quick tumble? Sure. A cold beer? Absolutely. And then he's on to the rodeo circuit to reclaim his title.
Broke, busted and blue.
After her ex-husband leaves her high, dry and dead broke, another man isn’t high on Sarah Reed’s list. Especially a sexy ex-con who makes it perfectly clear he’s not interested in more than a one night stand. But his determination to make something out of himself impresses her more than she wants to admit, and she falls hard for the cowboy.
DEDICATION
~For Wes~
I love you—37 years and counting!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
About a year and a half ago, I had a vision—a boxed set about cowboys. I wasn’t the first one to come up with the concept, of course. But, I was incredibly lucky to have five friends who are some of the best writers I know—Allison Merritt, Autumn Piper, Leslie Garcia, Melissa Keir and Sara Walter Ellwood, who were willing to give it a try. I somehow convinced these ladies to take this ride with me, and five boxed sets later, I couldn’t have found a better group to work with. Thank you, ladies! Love you all!
Since that time, we have retired those sets, but I am still in debt to these wonderful ladies.
CHAPTER ONE
Lyle Landry leaned against the brick wall of Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, ankles and arms crossed, waiting for his ride. He’d been released at exactly six p.m. and it was now a quarter past. Impatience gnawed at his gut. He couldn’t get away from this hell hole fast enough.
A rusty blue pickup approached at a snail’s pace, pulling up in front of him. Lyle’s oldest friend leaned across the seat and grinned at him. “Ready?”
“Been ready for about an hour,” Lyle groused as he hopped in the passenger seat. “I thought ten years would’ve taught you how to tell time.”
“You were the one on a prison schedule, not me.”
Lyle didn’t need the reminder he’d done ten years for manslaughter. “I know.”
His Native American friend held out his hand. “Good to see you.”
“You, too, buddy.” Lyle’s throat tightened as he shook with one of the few who had stood by him.
Chaco flipped on his blinker and eased into traffic. “Do you want to go straight to Bailey’s?” Lucky for Lyle, although most people had turned their back on him, the lady stock contractor had offered him a job and a place to live when he got out of prison.
“I’d rather go to my place…” He wished. He had no home to go to any more. Chaco’s pitying look only served to remind him that after his conviction he’d lost everything that mattered to him—his small ranch, his rodeo career, and worst of all, his wife.
“I need whiskey.”
Chaco glanced at him. “Here? Or at the ranch?” “Did you bring my clothes?”
“In the backseat.” Chaco hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
“Home then.” Lyle turned on his hip and looked in the backseat where a green duffle bag lay. The same one he’d carried on the rodeo circuit. Next to it sat his bronc saddle. A lump formed in his throat. “You got my saddle?”
“It wasn’t easy, but I convinced Marla not to sell it, along with the rest of your things.” He paused. “She sold your buckles on E-bay.”
Bitterness filled Lyle’s mouth, turning his gut sour. His faithless wife had been the reason behind his incarceration and she’d not even had the grace to be embarrassed. Instead, she’d divorced him and taken everything he’d worked his ass off for.
“Thanks, man.”
“Anytime,” Chaco said.
Lyle struggled out of the hated green shirt and pants he’d had to wear in prison and into a blue pearl snap western shirt and a worn pair of Wranglers. When he tugged on his boots, he felt almost like himself again.
He ran a hand over his bare head. “I need a hat.”
“I couldn’t wrestle those out of Marla’s greedy little hands.”
Lyle shrugged. “Styles have probably changed anyway.”
“Along with everything else.” Chaco shot him a glance. “Internet, cell phones, Skype—”
“Sky-what?”
“Talking on the computer when you can see the person you’re talking to,” Chaco said.
“Looks like I’ve got a bit of catching up to do.” Lyle turned to watch the scenery fly by. Green fields, purple mountains and miles of open, blue sky. He rolled down the window and let fresh air flow over his face. God, it felt good to be free. And alive. At thirty-two, he still had a lot of living left in him.
He pulled his head inside the cab. “Turn into Ranch-Way, will ya? I think I have enough saved for a hat.”
“I can loan you some—”
“No. Thanks, but no. I’ll make it on my own.” He always had, always would.
After a quick stop at the western store where Lyle purchased a black hat, and a meal at a fast food chain, they drove the remaining hundred miles into his new home of Sheep Springs—population 900 and some change.
The café, general store and lone gas station all looked a lot like his hometown, a small hole in the wall where he’d been arrested and hauled off in handcuffs.
His gaze turned toward the run-down motel at the end of the street. It reminded him of the place where he’d caught Roy Gardner in bed with Marla—and everything went all to hell.
Chaco drew him out of his dark thoughts when he asked, “You still want a drink?”
“Yeah.” He hoped strong whiskey would wash the bitter taste out of his mouth.
The only bar in town was the Watering Hole. After Chaco parked, they walked into the dim interior. The scents of alcohol, cheap perfume and bleach washed over him. They chose a seat in one of the booths near the back. The place was nearly empty, for which Lyle was grateful. He hadn’t come here for company, just a drink. Maybe several.
“What can I get you fellows?”
The sultry voice drew Lyle’s gaze up and over a pair of to-die-for legs, a big trophy buckle, a pair of breasts that made his palms itch to test them and finally into a pair of blue eyes that rivaled the clearest Colorado lake. He swallowed ha
rd. “Whiskey.”
She jerked her gaze from his to Chaco. “And for you?” “The same.”
“Coming right up.” She spun on her booted heel and walked away with a spring in her step that belied the tired look in her eyes. Her long, mahogany colored ponytail swung with her indignation.
Chaco grinned. “Good going, Romeo. I hope she doesn’t spit in our drinks.”
Lyle flushed. Ten years without a woman made a man hungry for a woman’s touch. “You know her?”
“No. She only moved here around six months ago.” “Alone?”
“Yup.” Chaco eyed him. “She doesn’t seem to be interested in anyone in particular.”
At that piece of information, Lyle’s heart did a little jig, but he schooled his features into the impassive mask he’d learned to hide behind while in prison. “Good for her. I ain’t interested.” Chaco’s knowing chuckle irked him. “A woman’s what got me in the joint, remember? And I’m not looking to go back.”
“Don’t marry a whore next time.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Lyle vowed. “Once was enough.”
As the brunette with mile long legs approached, Lyle thought he might not mind taking her for a trial spin, though.
~*~
Sarah took her time pouring drinks for the two men in booth four. She’d recognized lust in the gray eyes of the tall cowboy and it had unsettled her. She was used to come-ons from every man who walked in here, but none had ever affected her the way the stranger’s lingering gaze had. His slow appraisal of her had been hot, intense and erotic. He’d made her panties dampen without saying a word.
Damn it.
Getting tangled up with a cowboy wasn’t going to happen. Ever. She knew all too well how they rode away with the sunrise.
Sarah’s hands shook when she picked up the drinks, sloshing amber liquid onto her skin. Forcing her legs steady, she strode toward the two men, although she had eyes for only one. She placed the drinks on the table in front of them. “Anything else?”
