Hard Loving Cowboy--Includes a bonus novella

by A. J. Pine

  Kate stood on weakened legs and stepped out of the tub. Within seconds, Jaden stood with her, kissing her as he slowly eased her backward toward the bathroom vanity. He lifted her and set her backside on the marble countertop and then opened a drawer and found a condom. She leaned over and kissed his shoulder while he put it on. “I need you inside of me,” she whispered, tugging on his hips and arching her back to bring him in deep.

  Jaden wrapped his arms around her as their bodies came together, moving in a rhythm that loosened her feeble grip on control. He angled his hips on each thrust to graze that magic spot, again and again until she was gasping and throbbing and too close to pull back. Bracing her hands against the countertop, she pushed up to meet his thrusts, welcoming the explosion of sensations as it burst forth inside of her, moaning his name so he knew he could let go too.

  “God, Kate, you’re amazing,” he uttered between jagged breaths. Jaden held her tighter, rocking his body, reigniting her climax until he trembled with release.

  He hunched over her, his forehead resting on her shoulder.

  “Wow,” she murmured into his hair.

  He raised his head and kissed her softly, still out of breath. “Wow.”

  “I’m exhausted.” She could hardly hold herself up anymore.

  Jaden straightened and took care of the condom before wrapping a towel around his waist. Then he came back and lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.

  They both fell to the soft mattress, lying side by side. His fingers stroked her bare arm. “I wasn’t just saying that earlier. You really have changed things for me.”

  Kate entwined her fingers with his and brought his knuckles to her lips.

  “You’re the first person who’s bothered to see me,” he went on. “No one else cared what happened. Everyone wanted a fallen champion, a villain, so that’s what they turned me into.”

  Kate propped herself up on her elbow and looked at him for a long, beautiful moment. “I see who you really are.” And she would make sure everyone else saw it too.

  * * *

  Waking up had never been Jaden’s favorite thing, but it had been especially brutal since February. Most mornings he would’ve much rather kept his eyes closed than face the world, but not when he had Kate in his bed. Since the sun had come up, he hadn’t been able to stop looking at her.

  He still held her in his arms, her body curved against his, their legs tangled together. Kate was asleep, her face still somehow just as stunning as it was when she smiled at him.

  At some point during the night, Bella had snuck onto the bed and curled up at their feet as though she couldn’t stand to be left out.

  A lazy contentment weighted Jaden’s body. He wanted this. Waking up with someone every morning. Feeling the silkiness of her hair over his arm, feeling her breathe so peacefully against him.

  In so many ways, Kate was still a mystery. All he really knew about her was that she lived in L.A. and worked as an editor. But she didn’t seem to love it there. He wouldn’t either, not with the constant crowds and the paparazzi everywhere. Maybe she’d be open to moving. For the first time since the accident, he could see settling down, sharing his life with someone. And he wanted it to be here in the mountains. At least if he took the job at the resort, he’d have stability, a beautiful place to live where the community had seemed to accept him back. He would have something to offer her.

  Kate stirred and stretched her arms. Her eyes opened, and that gorgeous smile of hers bloomed when she looked at him.

  “Morning, beautiful.”

  “Morning.” She wriggled closer and wrapped herself into him.

  He couldn’t resist playing with her long, soft hair as she laid her head back down and closed her eyes.

  “Not a morning person?” he asked innocently.

  “Normally I am, but we didn’t exactly get much sleep last night.” She kept her eyes closed, still smiling.

  “Sorry.” He wasn’t. Not at all.

  “I’m not sorry.” She peered up at him as though her eyelids were too heavy. “It was the best night I’ve had in a long time.”

  “Me too.” This whole week had been some of the best moments of his life.

  “What time is it?” Kate asked through a yawn.

  Unfortunately, he’d been keeping an eye on the clock. He almost lied, but she could easily see for herself. “Nine.”

  “Nine?” She shot up to a sitting position. “Aren’t you late for work?”

  He sat up, too, leaning over to kiss her neck. “Yep.”

  “Then you should go.” The words didn’t have much conviction.

  “Don’t want to.” He pulled the comforter away from her chest and admired her full breasts. “I’d rather stay in bed with you all day.”

  Kate lay back down and turned on her side to face him. “Aren’t they doing inspections?”

  “Mmm-hmmm.” He couldn’t seem to pry his gaze away from her body.

  “Then you need to be there, mister.” She pushed at him playfully. “Go. Right now. They won’t be able to sign off on everything if you’re not there.”

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blake had already sent him three panicked texts. Jaden scooted off the bed. “What about you?”

  “Bella and I will be fine. Won’t we, sweetie?” Kate reached down and petted the dog’s head.

  “You’ll be here when I get home?”

  “Yes. I have some work to do today too,” she said cryptically. “But I will most definitely be here when you get home.”

  “As long as you promise.” He pulled on clothes and his boots but couldn’t resist going back to the bed where Kate still lay watching him. Her black hair was mussed and gorgeous, her eyes still sleepy and innocent.

  “I’ll see you later.” He kissed her, and she held on to him a little longer.

  “Hurry home,” she murmured. “I’ll make a special dinner.”

  “Can’t wait.” He forced himself to leave then, before he started taking off the clothes he’d just put on.

  The drive up the mountain didn’t ease the ache that had tortured him since he’d left Kate in his bed. When he made it up to the site, Blake jogged over, looking more relieved than pissed.

  “Glad you’re finally here,” he said.

  “Sorry. Got a little hung up this morning.” Could’ve gotten more hung up if it hadn’t been for his damn responsibilities.

  “The inspector is taking some pictures.” Blake pointed to a man who was currently sizing up the towrope. “I hope it passes.”

  “It’ll pass.” Jaden had no doubt. Every detail had been well thought out and executed perfectly. He’d made sure. That was the only thing he’d had to focus on for the last month. And now that the project was ending, he knew what he wanted to do next. “By the way, I’ll take the job,” he said to Blake.

  The man nodded as though he wasn’t surprised. “This have anything to do with the woman you borrowed the snowboard for?”

  “Yeah.” But it was more than that. “I want to be part of a community again too.” He wanted to start over in the same place he’d started out.

  Chapter Nine

  Kate hadn’t been this nervous since that fateful day when she’d asked Tommy to homecoming. She finished setting the table and stood back to admire the simplicity.

  After the embarrassing car decorating debacle, she’d learned that sometimes subtlety was best, so no balloons or flowers or cheesy Please forgive me! signs on the table tonight. No humiliating rejection either. It would be different. She and Jaden may not have known each other long, but he seemed to get her. He would understand why she’d kept certain things from him. And once he read the article she’d written, everything would be okay.

  “Right, Bella?” she asked, kneeling to give the dog some love.

  Gregor had texted her early that morning to tell her he needed a draft of the article by noon or there’d be serious consequences. “Not that I care about the consequences,” she explained to Bella. Writing the
article had become something bigger. She’d spent the whole morning pouring her heart into her keyboard, and the words had flowed. She’d likely get fired for writing a personal exposé on what an incredible person Jaden Alexander turned out to be instead of capturing what everyone expected, but it would be worth it.

  Sure, Jaden would be surprised, but she could explain everything over dinner. It was a simple meal—lasagna and a hearty Italian salad. She liked to think of this as half an apology dinner, half a makeup dinner. Or at least she hoped they would make up after they had the inevitable conversation she’d been avoiding for a week.

  “He’ll forgive me,” she murmured.

  Bella licked her cheek in agreement.

  “He’ll understand just like you do.” Once Jaden read her words, he would see how much she cared about him.

  “Hey, gorgeous.”

  Kate straightened and spun to the French doors. “Hi.” The sight of Jaden standing there in his jeans and boots sent a wave of heat crashing through her. “You’re home early.” She thought she had another half hour to prepare for this.

  “We finished up ahead of schedule.” He took a step toward her but was blocked by Bella, who wanted his attention first. “The inspector was impressed,” he said, giving his dog a pat on the head.

  “Well good. That’s great.” God, she already sounded guilty, and she hadn’t told him anything yet.

  “I may have gone twenty over the speed limit all the way back here too.” He wrapped her in his arms and lowered his mouth to hers. Nope. Uh-uh. She couldn’t get distracted now. She had yesterday, but enough was enough. Gently, she pushed him away. “Why don’t you sit down? I’ll go see if the lasagna is ready.”

  Without giving him a chance to respond, she hurried to the kitchen, opened the oven, and peeked under the tin foil. The cheese had bubbled to perfection. Okay. Whew. She was really going to do this. Kate patted her pocket where she’d stashed the printout of the article. After a quick explanation of the situation, she’d hand him that right away. Before he could even ask questions. The article would make everything okay.

  When she finally carted the lasagna outside, Jaden was throwing the ball for Bella.

  “Dinner’s ready,” she called, setting the casserole on the trivet she’d put out earlier.

  “Looks good.” He jogged over. “But not as good as you.” His gaze slowly trailed down her body. “Maybe we should eat later…”

  No, no. They had to do this now. Kate scolded him with a little smirk as she sat down. “We don’t want it to get cold.”

  “Right.” Disappointment tugged at his mouth, but he sat too. “So what’d you do today—” His phone buzzed. “Sorry.” He dug it out of his back pocket. “Guess I’ll turn it off. I’ve been getting calls from weird numbers all afternoon.”

  Kate paused in the middle of cutting him a generous slice of lasagna. “Calls?” Her heart glitched. Coincidence. It had to be a coincidence, right? She’d sent Gregor the article at noon, just for his opinion, but it wouldn’t go to print for a few more weeks…

  “Now I got a text.” Jaden was squinting at his phone. “‘What’s your response to the Adrenaline Junkie article?’” he read. He looked up at Kate. “I had no idea Adrenaline Junkie was doing an article.”

  Oh no. No, no, no. Kate couldn’t seem to move. Her body had frozen to the chair. Instead of beating, her heart was zapping in her chest. “Oh God.”

  “I know.” Jaden rolled his eyes. “They’ve left me alone for a long time. Why are they all of a sudden interested again?”

  Tears flooded her vision as she stared at him wide-eyed. “I’m sorry. Jaden, I’m so sorry.” Regret burned through her, thawing the shock, letting her move. She got out her phone and went to Adrenaline Junkie’s website. Sure enough, her article had been posted on the blog, and it already had 14,253 shares on social media.

  When she looked up, he was staring at her. “Why?” His voice hollowed as though he was afraid to know. “Why are you sorry?”

  “I wanted to help.” She dug the folded papers out of her pocket. “To tell your side of the story.”

  “Wait.” His eyes narrowed into that distrustful glare she recognized from before. Before he knew her. Before he’d kissed her. Before they’d made love. “You sent them an article about me?”

  “No.” Don’t cry. She couldn’t let herself cry. “I work for them. I’m a senior editor there.”

  “What the fuck?” He pushed away from the table and stood. His eyes had hardened like he didn’t want her to see the pain behind his anger.

  Kate stood too. “I printed out the article so you could read it. I was going to show you tonight. I had no idea they’d post it today. It wasn’t supposed to go to print for a couple of weeks.” As if that made any of this better.

  Hand trembling, she handed him the papers, but he ripped them into pieces and tossed them into the wind. “I can’t believe this. You played me. You never told me you worked for Adrenaline Junkie.”

  “I was afraid to.” She eased a few steps closer to him, but he backed away. “I knew you wouldn’t even talk to me if I told you where I worked.”

  Jaden shook his head. Closed his eyes. When he opened them, the anger had been replaced with indifference. “Go. Get out.”

  “Wait. No.” He hadn’t even read the article yet…

  “You got what you wanted out of me.” His jaw went rigid. “Now you can go.”

  “I’m not like that.” He knew her. He knew the real Kate Livingston almost better than anyone else. “I don’t use sex to get stories.” She inhaled, calming the desperation in her voice. “I really feel something for you, Jaden. And I think you feel something for me too.”

  “I don’t.” His tone was as dull as his eyes. “I feel nothing for you.”

  The apathy in his gaze tempted her to look away, but she refused to give in. “Nothing? Really? Because you said all that stuff. About me changing things for you…about wanting to trust someone again.”

  “And you proved I can’t trust anyone.”

  No. She’d proved that he could get back on his board. That he could come out of hiding. That he could feel something again. He just needed to remember that connection they’d built. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Adrenaline Junkie. I should have. But spending time with you wasn’t only about the story for me.”

  He studied her for a minute, as though trying to judge her sincerity. “Why did you offer to watch my dog?” he finally asked. “Did you know who I was when we met on the street that day?”

  Before she even answered, she knew she would lose him. But she couldn’t lie. “Yes.”

  “And you saw an opportunity to use my trauma to your advantage.”

  “No,” she whispered. “I didn’t know…” How deeply he’d been wounded by all of it. How it haunted him so much. “I never meant to hurt you. I only wanted to help. If you would just read the article—”

  “You’re the fakest person I’ve ever met.” Anger simmered beneath the words. “You’re worse than the reporters who ambushed me on the streets.” Jaden turned and strode down the deck stairs, heading for a trail worn into the tall grass at the edge of the forest. “Bella, come.” The dog looked at Kate and whined.

  “Come, Bella,” he commanded again.

  Head down, the dog trotted across the yard to follow him.

  Kate wanted to follow him, to force him to read what she’d written about him. She’d put her heart into that article. But it was too late. She’d lost him.

  Before Jaden disappeared into the trees, he glanced at her over his shoulder once more. “You need to be gone when we get back.”

  * * *

  If Kate had learned one thing about the women of Topaz Falls, it was that they were always prepared.

  When she pulled up at Everly’s adorable café on the outskirts of town, Jessa, Naomi, Darla, and Everly were all there to greet her. They ushered her into the old converted farmhouse where they’d already claimed a booth, and they
were armed with enough comfort food to feed a whole cast of brokenhearted rejects from The Bachelor.

  “We’ve got chocolate and scones and muffins and wine and brick-oven pizza,” Darla announced.

  “We wanted to cover all our bases,” Jessa added, patting the open seat next to her.

  “Thanks.” Kate slumped into the booth, unable to look any of them in the eyes. She’d given them the gist of what had happened with Jaden via text so she wouldn’t have to relay the story in person.

  “It’s a great article,” Everly said, pushing a plate across the table. “Very heartfelt.”

  “Has he read it?” Naomi asked quietly. Her baby girl was sleeping contentedly in a wrap secured around her shoulders, and she obviously didn’t want to wake her.

  “No. I printed it out for him but he ripped it up.” Kate winced at the sting the memory brought.

  “Well that’s dramatic.” Darla popped a truffle into her mouth.

  “I’m sure he’ll calm down when he reads it,” Jessa offered.

  “I don’t know.” His eyes had been cold and dull. Not full of feeling like they were when he’d looked at her before. “He has every right to hate me.” Though she hadn’t exactly meant to, she’d tricked him. He was right. She’d seen an opportunity, and she’d selfishly pursued it, never considering how it might hurt him. Or her. “I should’ve told him a long time ago.” Like her new friends had recommended. They could all be sitting there saying I told you so.

  “It seems like people are really connecting with the article, though.” Everly glanced at her phone. “Up to 24,953 shares already. It’s going viral.”

  Yeah, she’d heard. On her way over, she’d called Gregor to have a few words with the man about posting something before she’d approved it, but he’d been too busy counting hits on their website to care much.

  “So what are you going to do now?” Jessa asked, cutting a slice of pizza into petite bites. “Head back to L.A.?”

  “I don’t have much to go back to. I quit my job.” She hadn’t planned to, but when she was talking to Gregor, Jaden’s words had echoed back in her head. You’re the fakest person I’ve ever met. He was right. She didn’t want to be a fake anymore. Even if it meant she had to slink home with her tail between her legs and move back into her parents’ basement for a while.