Cowboy Up: A Contemporary Romance (The Cherry Series Book 1)

by Luna Starr

  “Fine, straw will do,” she answered, her lips tight. But then, worry twisted her brow as soon as she caught my expression. She might have been a pretentious little bitch but fuck, she was hot. And my cock was taking notice of exactly that same fact, growing heavy in my jeans. I’d give it a week and I’d be buried inside her wet pussy, stretching her with my huge dick. And if she were like all the other women I’d bedded, she’d be addicted after fuck number one.

  “Straw?” I asked with a smirk.

  “You have that, don’t you?”

  “Nope.” I shook my head. “Too messy.”

  She looked at the stall, then back at me, blinking rapidly like she had something stuck in her eyes. “I can’t put her on the floor like this. She’ll get bed sores. Her hocks will be a mess.”

  “Last I checked, she was an animal, no?”

  “I’m sure this sounds silly to you,” she started, her eyes narrowing on me. I immediately imagined ripping her clothes off until she was completely naked, then throwing her down over my knees so I could slap that indulgent ass a few times… right before I shoved two fingers in her ass and one inside her dripping cunt. God, it had been too long since I’d had sex because this woman was making me all kinds of crazy.

  “Now why would you suppose a thing like that?” I asked with a smile, clearly egging her on.

  “Well, regardless, Aria isn’t used to, uh, ‘roughing it,’” she finished, using the little quotes sign in the air to mock me. I chuckled. The girl had gumption, I’d give her that.

  “Look, Posh Spice, I gotta run into town and when I’m there, I’ll get something from the feed store. I’m sure she can handle being on the dirt floor for a couple hours without getting a sore?” I chuckled. I couldn’t help it. Sores…

  “That would be great,” she answered immediately, a forced smile covering her very pretty face. “And, thanks… Scary Spice,” she finished with a raised eyebrow as I erupted into another fit of laughter.

  “I’ll give it to you—you might be spoiled, but you’re quick.”

  She just smiled back at me as she led the mare into the stall and slipped her halter off. I took a step back to give her room as she hung the halter carefully on the door.

  “I don’t know if Brady briefed you at all, but this ranch runs family style,” I started.

  She looked at me, sort of confused. “Family style?”

  “You know, we—as in everybody who works here—we all sit down for dinner together and visit, talk about the day and shoot the shit. In the mornings, we meet for coffee and breakfast in the kitchen and Brady gives us a rundown of the day to come.”

  “Oh. So, do I need to be at dinner tonight, you think?” she asked and I couldn’t explain the tremor in her voice.

  “If you wanna eat,” I answered with a shrug and another charming smile that was meant to annoy her. It looked like it worked.

  She inhaled deeply but held her tongue. As I looked at her, I thought to myself that she seemed kind of like an injured soul—she didn’t strike me as a victim per se, but something wasn’t right in her world, that much was obvious. But that was her business and it didn’t concern me. What did concern me, however, were those luscious tits which were bigger than I’d previously gauged. They were so big, in fact, the buttons of her white, cotton shirt looked like they were ready to pop open.

  “Do you want some help with your tack before I head to town?” I asked. “I’m happy to put it in the tack room right there.” I pointed it out and she poked her head in. “There’s a saddle rack, and a place for your bridle and whatever else.”

  “I think I’ll just keep my tack in my bedroom.”

  I studied her. “You’re gonna drag it out every time you ride?”

  She slowly nodded and a smile eased across her face. “I guess you’re right. That does sound like a lot of work.”

  “You’re much prettier when you smile and stop being a fussy ass,” I said. Her eyes widened momentarily and I wondered if I’d said too much. Of course, if she wanted to survive out here, she’d need to toughen up. “I’ll help you get your tack.”

  “No. That’s okay. I can do it.”

  I walked with her back to her trailer anyway. The first time I’d seen her in the rusty, old rig, I’d decided it didn’t fit her, but now with the shavings thing and her momentary disdain for the tack room, I wanted to ask what her deal was. Was she just down on her luck? Or was there more to her story? Of course, there was more to her story. There had to be.

  She was obviously from money, but money didn’t drive a rusted-out truck and trailer. Given how fancy her expectations were, I couldn’t believe she’d even put that horse of hers in the trailer to begin with. I wouldn’t have thought twice about loading our stock in it because it looked safe enough and would get us from point a to b, but this woman was much more complicated and much frillier.

  She opened the tack room to the trailer and stepped in, quickly pulling her fancy saddle off the rack. “You said you wanted to help. Fine. Here you go,” she said as she shoved the saddle at me.

  Her English saddle was much smaller and lighter than the bulky western saddles I was used to carrying around. I settled it on my forearm while she grabbed a bridle, a couple of pads, and another saddle blanket.

  “I hope I never have to saddle for you. I’d forget half the tack!” I laughed as she frowned back at me. “Whatever happened to a single pad, single saddle?” I continued. “Good Lord, woman. Life here is simple.”

  “I’ll come back for her blankets and rain sheet,” she offered, clearly ignoring my comment. I’d broken many a horse in my time and now I was just itching to break her in.

  “After you,” I said as she took the lead.

  The walk back to the tack room was a silent one but once inside, we settled her tack on an empty spot inside.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Sure. No problem, Posh.”

  “Hey, you two,” Brady called from the doorway. “I’m going to show Summer to her cabin, but before I do that, can I see you for a sec, Tom?”

  I nodded as he touched Summer on the elbow. “Be right back, okay?”

  “Sure. Thanks again.” She smiled and damn if she didn’t light up the entire barn, regardless of the fact that she was the most spoiled and pretentious woman I’d ever met. But I was certainly up for the job of bringing her back down to earth again. I imagined I’d had a hell of a time taming the wild, little filly. The thought made my cock jump to attention, something which wasn’t exactly great timing, considering I was about to find myself alone with Brady. At that thought, my dick quieted down again. Thank God.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Brady said as soon as we were out of earshot.

  “What?” I asked, jamming my hands deep in my pockets but I already knew what he was talking about.

  “You know what. Don’t touch that girl. I just saw the way you were looking at her. She’s off limits.”

  “And just why is that?” I asked, sounding bored. He’d never made any woman off limits to me, mainly because Brady tended to keep to himself and respected that my business was just that… mine.

  “Because she’s had a bad time lately and I don’t need you causing her any more grief.”

  “I don’t plan to cause her any grief.” Brady and I got along really well because we understood one another. And because he didn’t shadow me. He respected me because he knew I knew what I was doing.

  “Don’t touch her, Tom.”

  I shrugged. “Fine. I’ll keep it in my pants.”

  “Make sure you do.”

  “Heard you the first time, Brady,” I answered with a bored sigh. Brady nodded and then started back to the tack room. I crossed my arms, content to stand there and watch him lead Summer to her cabin. Yes, I was irritated and disappointed but the more I thought about it, the more I realized she wasn’t my type anyway—way too ornery and pretentious. I liked my women beautiful, sexy as fuck but also down to earth.

  Regar
dless of the fact that she wasn’t my type, the girl had a body. And no one was going to blame a man for looking—and I could do that all day long.

  Look but don’t touch, old man, I thought to myself with a smile because I never had been good at window shopping.

  Chapter Three

  Summer

  “This is your cabin.” Brady swung the door open to a small log cabin.

  The word “cozy” immediately entered my mind. We walked into the front room where a sofa and coffee table sat in front of a wood fire stove. A tiny kitchen was tucked off to the side with a two-stove burner, sink, fridge, and enough counter space to set down a cutting board and a plate.

  Brady showed me past the kitchen to a bedroom where a double bed took up most of the space, and a bathroom only big enough for one person was in the corner. The decor was very ranch style, with some deer antlers over the bed (yeah, those would have to go) and a patchwork quilt on the bed.

  In the living room, the dead animal theme was continued with the cow-hide on the floor under the coffee table. I just had to remind myself that all of this was a temporary situation until I got my life figured out. Brady had agreed to hire me for the spring and summer and that was going to be the end of my employment here, as far as I was concerned. Then I’d start to think about a real job...

  My room back home was twice the size of this cabin. But none of that mattered anymore because Connecticut didn’t matter anymore. I set my things in the corner and walked over to the large window which faced Pikes Peak.

  “Work for you?” Brady asked as he set my other bag down.

  I’d only brought two suitcases, my laptop, and iPad. “Yes. It’s great. Thank you.”

  “Good. We have breakfast at six each morning in the kitchen up at the main house but you’ll be needed before then to help cook. Then, we start chores. Lunch is on your own, and dinner is at 6:30 after chores.”

  “Great,” I said, although this was starting to sound a bit too much like the summer camp my mother made me go to when I was twelve. I’d never wanted to go but my mother insisted that Camp Yodelanda would help make me a well-rounded individual. So, she sent me there for the entire summer. And I hated every second of it. All I’d wanted was to be back home with my horse. Plus, I’d started my period halfway through the summer. Stained the white shorts I was wearing. I became the joke around camp. The nurse even called home and suggested my mom come out and at least talk to me about it.

  But had she?

  No. Because she couldn’t be bothered to miss a single practice with her hot tennis instructor. Fiery anger quickly replaced my pity party. Even four years later, I still hadn’t gotten over her betrayal with Ryan, my ex-boyfriend. If nothing else came out of this trip, I wanted to be free of the stranglehold my mother still had on my emotions.

  I took a deep breath and tried to look at the cabin with fresh eyes as I prayed that this wouldn’t be anything like that summer camp. And even if it were, at least this time I had Aria with me.

  Brady approached the door and pushed the screen open. “Get yourself settled. I’m sure you’ll want to check on that mare of yours in a bit. We feed alfalfa here. I assume that’s okay?”

  I shook my head as my stomach dropped. “No. She’s been on Orchard and Timothy hay. I give her supplements as well.” I still had a bale of each left in the trailer from the trip, but my bag of supplements was almost gone.

  “Huh. Well, I’ll give you the number to the feed store then, and that’s a cost you’ll need to absorb. I got a program here and it’s alfalfa.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say. There was no way I could feed alfalfa to Aria. It was too high in protein and she wasn’t used to it. I was sure with my new workload that I’d be backing off her exercise program, which meant the alfalfa would make her fat. I groaned to myself as I decided I should have thought this through better. But, really, how was I supposed to know what he fed his cow horses?

  Our deal was that I would work the ranch for Brady and in return, he would supply room and board for both Aria and me. I didn’t have any other money coming in and I was down to my last hundred twenty bucks. There was no way I’d be able to purchase her feed, but I didn’t want to jeopardize the job here either.

  “Okay,” I said as my voice fell and I started worrying my lower lip. “Um… but, I’m not sure how I can do that. I, uh, I’ll need some actual money to buy her feed.”

  “Guess you might have to get a second job in the evenings, then,” Brady answered with an uninterested shrug like this wasn’t his problem. Which it wasn’t. “My good friend Sharon owns a diner in town and just last week she said she was looking for a part time waitress. Ever wait tables before?”

  My heart sunk even further. “No.” I had less than zero experience with anything that I was about to take on here.

  “That’s alright, Sharon’s place isn’t exactly a five-star restaurant. I’m sure she can use you if you can learn quickly.”

  I nodded, not really sure what else to say. Waitressing? In a diner? God, this situation just kept getting better and better. “Yes, I pick things up quickly.”

  “You’re pretty, so just smile a lot and act like you’re happy to be there,” Brady advised. “People around here are easy to please. I’ll give Sharon a call an’ see if I can’t get you in for an interview.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, basically speechless. I didn’t want to admit that maybe I’d made the wrong decision to come here, because I was out of options. There was only here. So now it was time to make lemonade.

  I plopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. This was so not me. This place… was… so… not… me… I sighed and told myself that for the next few months, I had better let this become “me,” and get my shit together. No more worrying and dwelling on a past that I couldn’t change, no matter how badly I wanted to.

  God. Waiting tables. I closed my eyes as memories started to flood my mind. Situations that I’d played witness to over the past ten weeks flashed through my head, turning into a myriad of colors—finally going red, black and then gray. And, that was how I felt inside—gray.

  As exhaustion shifted through me, I heard a scratch at the door—or, thought I did anyway. Then again. It sounded like a dog. I’d had a dog once, but that was also something my mother took away from me, as she felt the cocker spaniel my father had bought me was simply too high maintenance. Please. Nothing was more high maintenance than she was. She just hated anything that could possibly take attention away from her.

  I got up and opened the door. In bounded a medium-sized dog who immediately padded into the bedroom and then jumped on my bed, tail wagging. It happened so quickly that I couldn’t even tell what type of dog it was until it lay down with big brown eyes looking at me with keen interest. Holy shit, it was a pit bull. But its tail was wagging, so I imagined it probably didn’t want to kill me.

  “Bob! Bob!” a deep voice yelled from outside.

  Bob? I opened the door wider and peered out to see my new friend, Tom, racing toward the cabin, yelling “Bob.”

  “I think I have him,” I said once he was within earshot.

  He jogged closer, panting. “I’m sorry.” He scraped his boots on the step up into the doorway. “She’s, uh, well this was our cabin for a bit, and she hasn’t gotten used to our new digs.”

  “Wait, you guys didn’t have to move out because of me, did you?” I asked, looking up at those damn blue eyes of his as I nearly forgot what I was saying.

  Tom patted his leg. “Bob. Come. Come here.” Then he glanced up at me once Bob was standing beside him and he had hold of her collar. “We didn’t mind moving. Besides, we’d been talking prior to you coming out here—Brady and me—and we decided it was a good idea for me to sleep in the apartment above the stables. Had some issues in the past couple of months.”

  Hold on! What? “What are you talking about?”

  “It’s nothing,” he answered as he waved away my concern with his free hand. A hand, that I notice
d was very, very … large. Of course, I immediately asked myself what else would be large on this man and then blushed in spite of myself.

  “What’s nothing?” I demanded.

  “We had a break-in about a month ago, had a couple of saddles stolen and some other items go missing. But now that I’m up over the main barn, I doubt that’ll happen again.”

  I swallowed hard because all I could think about was someone getting into that barn and harming Aria, or taking my stuff. I had a Devoucoux saddle that was expensive, to say the least. Yes, I could’ve sold it but it was made custom for Aria and me, and I couldn’t part with it. That would now be coming into my cabin with me. For sure!

  Aside from my concern for my six-thousand-dollar saddle, I also felt bad that Tom and Bob had to move out on my account. I had no idea what the accommodations were like in the apartment above the barn, but I did know what the apartment above the barn back in Connecticut was like, and even though I’d ridden in one of the most prestigious barns in the area, the barn apartment left something to be desired. Although my cabin was quaint, it certainly wasn’t what one would call luxurious and I could only imagine the apartment in the barn was tons worse.

  Bob somehow had slipped past Tom and was now lying on the bed again, staring at us. “Bob,” Tom repeated. “Come on, you pain in the ass dog.” Then, he glanced down at me with a shrug. “She’s kind of stubborn.”

  “So I see,” I started with a frown. “How did she get the name Bob?”

  “Well, let me tell you, Posh,” Tom started with that boyish, up to no good smile of his. “Her full name is Roberta Flack, after the singer. I shortened it to Bob. Much easier.”

  I swallowed hard again, caught completely off-guard by him. I didn’t understand any of my reactions to him because they were the complete opposite of how I normally was. And that was avoidant, where men were concerned. Maybe it was owing to what had happened with Ryan and my mother, but I hadn’t had a boyfriend since. In general, I tried to keep away from men because I didn’t trust them. Most men, as far as I had decided, were out for sex and nothing else.