Cowboy 12 Pack
Page 154
“Now, wait a minute. Your bed is occupied, by me.” Joseph was teasing. Maybe. Nathan filled his pockets with treats and he and the black lab were about to scamper out the back door when Lady perked up her ears.
“Isaac’s here!” Nathan announced as Lady dashed over to meet the man who had saved his life by rescuing her from the side of the road.
“Something sure smells good.” Isaac and Avery came through the door. “Hey, Girl,” he stooped to pet the dog and Nathan came over for his hug. “Man, I missed you today, Nate. Guess what I had delivered at the bar?”
“What? A new bike?” Nathan couldn’t wait to have his own motorcycle, but Isaac was the one who had put his foot down. He wanted Nathan to wait until he was at least sixteen.
“No, a mechanical bull.”
“Wow, can I ride it?” Nathan’s level of enthusiasm spiked a thousand percent.
“Yes, you can.”
“Man, O man.” He pumped his fist in the air. “Can I come over tonight?”
“No.” Isaac glanced at Avery. “I plan on letting Avery try it out first.”
His wink told Avery that he was up to something. What it was, she didn’t know.
“Where is everybody?” Isaac wanted to know. “Are the newlyweds back from the courthouse?”
“Yes, they’re in their room,” Cady whispered. “Jessie was tired, and she needed a nap.”
“Is that what they’re calling it now? A nap? And Jacob’s napping with her, I presume?” Isaac held the refrigerator door open for Nathan as he filled a plastic bag with apples and carrots for the horses. No one answered his teasing questions about his brother and his bride’s short honeymoon.
Seeing the pink Hello Kitty suitcase in Isaac’s hand, Joseph asked, “Going on a trip?”
“Just up to my room, Wise-Ass. Avery’s moving in.”
“Sweet.” Joseph grinned. “There’s definitely something in the water around here, Nate my Man. You’d better start drinking Kool-Aid.”
“Kool-Aid is made with water,” Nathan explained patiently.
“Dang, Cady. So, that’s how you caught me.” Cady never blinked, she just whacked Joseph playfully with a wooden spoon.
“When’s dinner?” Isaac asked. “I’m starving.”
“Everything’s ready. As soon as Libby, Aron and Noah get here, we’ll call Jessie and Jacob and get started.” Cady handed Nathan a jacket. “Put this on and hurry back. Don’t make me have to send Joseph out to tear you away from the animals.”
“Yes, Cady,” he promised as he led Lady by the collar. “Come on, Girl, two down one to go.”
Cady saw Avery’s curious expression. “He still has to get the okay from Jessie about letting the dog in the house.”
“I love dogs and cats. Once, I even had a white mouse in the house.” She looked around wistfully at the big, comfortable kitchen. This was so obviously a home inhabited by people who loved each other. Would she ever feel at home here?
Joseph patted a chair. “Come sit by me, Avery, and tell me what you see in this badass brother of mine.”
Isaac jumped over and pulled out her chair. “He’s a gentleman,” she offered as a start. “And I can get all the Shirley Temple’s I want for free.” Isaac roared with laughter.
“See, I have my uses.” He wrapped an arm around Avery and pulled her close. “I’ll show you my other ‘assets’ later.” She kissed his forearm that rested just under her chin.
“I enjoyed your engagement party,” Avery spoke to Cady. “The food was out of this world.”
“I can’t take credit for the buffet. The men prepared the meat and Jessie, Lilibet and Libby did the rest.” She set the platter of pralines on the table. “It’ll spoil our appetites, but these are wonderful warm.”
“Oh, these are my absolute favorite candies in the whole world,” Avery exclaimed as she laid claim to one of the treats.
“I’m glad. I made enough of these to fill the Mississippi. At the rehearsal dinner Friday night, guests get to take a little bag of these home with them. They’re my contribution to the celebration.”
“Oh, I want mine and yours, both,” she told Isaac with serious eyes. “I love them.”
“So, I gathered.” Isaac took one for himself. “I wonder if they make praline flavored massage oil.” Avery punched him. She knew exactly what he was getting at.
“Can I set the table for you?”
“Please do.”
Cady seemed glad of the help and Avery wanted to be useful. Joseph put up his laptop and he and Isaac pitched in until they had everything ready.
“Have you received any word from Austin Boot Company on whether or not they’ll help sponsor your rodeo?”
Joseph carried the heavy tureen of gumbo to the table as he answered Isaac’s question. “As a matter of fact, Beau called me today and gave me good news. Austin Boot is in and so is Barrington Rifle.”
“All right!” Isaac was so proud of his brother. “Avery, Joseph is putting together a benefit rodeo that will give handicapped children a chance to get up close and personal with some cowboys and all profits will go to help paralyzed kids.”
“Wow, that sounds great. I do some work for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.”
“Avery, you have got to meet Joseph’s friend, Beau. He is one of the most colorful characters you could imagine. He lives on the banks of the Atchafalaya Swamp and has more alligator stories than you can count.”
“I can’t wait to meet him.”
“You’ll get the chance soon. He’s coming to the wedding.”
“Who’s coming to the wedding?” Aron asked as he sauntered into the room carrying an armful of packages.
“Beau.”
“Excellent, the more the merrier. I want everybody to witness me marrying the most beautiful girl in the world.”
“Speaking of marrying…” Jacob escorted Jessie through the door. She was blushing and looked happier than anybody Avery had ever seen.
“Congratulations, you two.” Libby hugged Jesse, then Jacob. After much backslapping and kissing of cheeks, the family began to settle around the table.
“Where’s Noah?” Jessie asked.
Aron thought a minute. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since the party last night.” He looked around the table. “Who talked to Noah last?”
“I didn’t talk to him, but I did see him take a call and then he left. I thought he had a date.” Joseph didn’t look concerned.
“If it were any of the rest of you, I wouldn’t worry. But this isn’t like Noah.” Aron got out his phone and rang his number. Everyone waited. Finally, he closed it. “He didn’t answer.”
*
NOAH WALKED ACROSS the parking lot to where Ajax sat on the tailgate of a beat-up Ford pickup. “You Ajax Dirkson?”
“Who wants to know, Pretty Boy?”
“I’m the man who is going to whip your ass, you perverted bastard.”
“Is that so?” Ajax sneered at him. Noah wasn’t worried. Ajax was big, but not that much bigger and he looked bloated and out of shape. But his eyes worried Noah. They were cold and dead looking like snake eyes. He could just imagine this bastard wielding a whip on Harper’s small body.
“You went too far with a friend of mine, and I’ve come to make sure you never have the balls to do it again.” Noah didn’t enjoy fighting, not like Isaac or even Joseph. But he could. He had brawled often enough with his brothers.
Grabbing his crotch, Ajax belched. “The skinny blonde wasn’t the best bitch I’d ever had, but I did enjoy making her scream. That was one little whore who enjoyed the whip.” Noah lunged at Ajax, but he raised his boot and kicked Noah in the stomach. Noah grunted and sidestepped.
“Sick bastard, I’m going to stomp your ugly face.” Noah grabbed Ajax by the shoulders and pulled him off the truck. He was able to land one blow, but out of nowhere he was grabbed from behind by two men and pulled off the rank biker.
“What have we here?” A gruff voice with a
thick Caribbean accent snarled in Noah’s ear. “Do you know who this is, Ajax?”
Noah fought to get away, but he couldn’t. Hell, he was in trouble.
“This golden-haired sissy-boy is a McCoy.”
Ajax stepped closer. “A McCoy, huh? Not the McCoy I was hoping to draw out. Maybe, I didn’t use the right bait. Still, I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Turn him loose, Troy. Let’s at least pretend this is going to be fair.” Ajax reached behind him and pulled out a bullwhip and Noah prayed that he hadn’t made the worst mistake of his life.
*
NOAH HADN’T COME home at all. They had waited dinner until everything was cold, and finally eaten just so Jacob and Jessie’s evening wouldn’t be a total washout. Isaac was concerned, but Noah was a grown man and could do what the hell he wanted to. He just hoped he was all right. At this particular moment, as he walked into his bar with Avery, he had other things on his mind. “You said you wanted to learn how to ride. Right?”
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” The words came out slow and hesitant. “Although, I was talking about either riding you or a meek steed like your horse Molly. Libby says she’s as gentle as a lamb.”
“Zeus can be gentle. I’ve got a pre-programmed setting all figured out. Besides, you aren’t going to be riding by yourself.” He turned her around, kissed her at the corner of her mouth and began undoing her clothes.
“You’re going to ride with me?” She didn’t protest his efforts to get her naked. Instead she began unbuttoning his shirt.
“Close, sugar. Actually, I’m gonna ride the bull and you’re going to ride me.”
To his delight, she growled. “Oh, yeah. I want a T-shirt that says ‘save a bull, ride a cowboy’.”
“I bet I could handle that.” He was already getting hard. She was excited, he could tell. Her nipples were hard, her skin was flushed and yeah, he dipped his hand between her legs and it was sweetly damp. With a smooth move, she pulled his pants down, all the while running her tongue and lips over his chest. “I love the way you touch me.” He couldn’t help but let her know.
“How about this?” She slipped her hand down his tighty-whiteys, cupped his nuts and began massaging them.
“Damn, yeah, that’s so good.” His balls weren’t the only things that got attention.
“Two hands are better.” He pulled his shorts down to give her more room to work as she began pumping his erection. Running her thumb over the tip, she found the dewdrop.
“I want you so much, Isaac.”
Damn! Avery was such a firebrand. He was a damn lucky son-of-a-gun. “Come on, or the rodeo will be over before we get on the back of the bull.” They shed their last few pieces of clothing and he led her to the mechanical ride. There was a small remote control device that he picked up before climbing on the back and holding out his hand to help her get in place. He stood up in the stirrups and leaned as far back as he could and still stay on. “Come to me, Sugar. I’ll make you feel really good.”
She placed her hand in his and used the stirrup to get on, scrambling in place facing him. Once she was there, he fit himself down and hauled her up next to him. She gasped with satisfaction and surprise as he picked her up by the waist and draped her thighs over the top of his. “Isaac, I’m so excited, I may melt from just being close to you.”
“Good. I want you to enjoy everything we do,” Isaac spoke in a low, heated whisper as he nuzzled her neck, licking and nibbling, causing goose bumps to rise all over her skin. “Lean into me. I wanna feel your nipples rubbing me. Touch me, Avery.”
She got as close as she could and still stay in her own skin. When her breasts rubbed up against him, she couldn’t be still. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she caressed his neck, petted his hair and nipped him on the earlobe, just because she could.
“You ready to bump and grind a little?”
“Please,” she murmured, her head already spinning from the electric sizzle of his nearness.
“Tighten your grip on me. I’m gonna get this boy going, real easy like.” It was slow, but the front of the rodeo simulator lifted, causing Avery to fall into Isaac. It was like coming to rest against a stone pillar. He didn’t budge. She could wrap herself around him during any storm and he’d be like an anchor of safety. “That’s right, give me all your weight, put your trust in me.” No problem. She was already there. His manhood was like a steel rod between them, and she was more than ready to feel him stretching her. They’d only made love a few times, but she was already addicted to how he could make her feel. “Can we put him in now?”
“Hell, yes.” He picked her up a few inches. “Guide him in.” As she fitted the head to the opening of her channel, he sucked and bit at her nipples, making her close her eyes in ecstasy. “Now, ease down. Oh, God, yeah, just like that.” The feel of their union was exquisite for both of them. “Okay, here we go. And this is the first time I’ve ever done this by the way, just so you know.” His words weren’t plain. They were gritted out between his teeth.
The bull spun to the right and she laid her head on his shoulder. “No, raise your head. I need you up here.” Avery obeyed, and she was glad she did, because he covered her mouth with his and kissed her with abandon. She kneaded his muscles, holding tightly and his hands weren’t still. They were everywhere. She felt adored, and she wouldn’t have traded that feeling for anything.
Their bodies moved with the pitch and sway of the bull. He did all the work and all she had to do was give herself over totally to him. Even in this, she was submitting and it felt heavenly. She wondered if he realized. “I love to be in your hands like this. To feel your control is so hot.”
“You’re hot, damn hot.” These words were mouthed against her lips.
And she was listening, truly she was, except her clitoris was getting a thrill every time the bull dropped down. Gravity and delicious proximity pushed it against the ridge of his pelvis and the hard muscles of his abs. He was so big, so strong. She loved to massage his thick hardness by tightening the muscles of her sheathe. “Does it feel good when I do that?” She rocked on him.
“Damn, I’m close, Avery.” He tilted her head back and licked her breasts. The rhythm of the bull and Isaac’s natural ability to move his body made the whole experience seem like an erotic dance. “Squeeze me, harder. Bounce a little, Baby.” He turned the bull’s movements completely off and gave her free rein. He let his legs drop straight down, giving her the stirrups. She braced herself against his hard body, stood up in the stirrups and slid up and down on his rock hard staff, impaling herself over and over. He reached between them and began to feverishly rub her clitoris.
“Not fair. I’m gonna come.” She didn’t want it to be over so soon. Avery wanted this feeling to go on forever.
“That’s the idea. I love to see you come apart.”
As he stroked her, she could feel her world narrow down to that sweet place between her legs. “I need help. I need you to pound me.” She wasn’t sure if she was making it clear as to what she needed. It was hard to think and communicate when all she wanted to do was be ravished. Yeah, that was it. “I need you to ravish me.”
“Lay back.” He helped ease her down to give him room to work. “Ravishing is my specialty.” She picked her legs up and wrapped them around his waist, then he stood up and began to thrust powerfully. It didn’t take but half a dozen strokes till her whole body began to jerk, and when he felt the fluttering of her vagina, he exploded. Ramming in hard, he pumped her small canal to the brim with hot semen, his seed, his essence. She loved how it felt. Unable to stop, she kept working him, loving the connection and the pleasure the movements were giving her as she savored each sparkling aftershock.
“Kiss me, Isaac. Please?” Before she finished asking, his lips claimed hers in a series of kisses that ran the gamut between tender and voracious. This bull wasn’t the most comfortable of surfaces to be having sex on, but she wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything. Hugging him tight
, she told him so. “Thank you, thank you. That was incredible. I’ll never forget this night as long as I live.”
Isaac appreciated the sentiment, but she made it all seem so temporary, that it worried the hell out of him. “We’re going to make a lot of memories like this…” A banging on the door caused Avery to startle and jump, almost dislodging them both. “What the hell?” He hopped off, handed Avery her clothes and started climbing into his jeans. The banging was insistent and he could hear Aron’s voice. God, something bad was going down.
“I’m coming!” Isaac yelled. Not bothering to fasten his belt he padded barefoot to the door. Throwing it open, he saw his brother standing there ashen white. “What’s wrong?”
“A passing motorist found your brother on the side of the road about a half-mile from here. He’s been horsewhipped. Why didn’t you answer your damn phone?”
Damn! “My cell was on vibrate and you can’t hear the office phone from the bar. And, hell, we weren’t in the apartment.”
“I don’t give a crap what you were doing, just get the hell home. He won’t go to the damn hospital. I may just whip him again. He’s asking for you.”
*
NOAH LAY IN the bed in agony. Cady had cleaned his wounds and she and Libby were applying a stinky herb poultice to the bloody stripes. “There’s going to be scarring, but we can lessen that over time.” Cady looked at him with pity. “I can make the pain more tolerable, I promise.” He knew she was an empath. Belief in faith healing or supernatural intervention was hard for Noah to swallow, but he had seen Cady do some miraculous things. He wondered if she could heal his spirit as well.
“Thanks, Cady, I appreciate it.” He had thought nothing could be worse than losing his parents, but he had found an equal agony. Tonight, he’d learned his brother was involved in something he despised. Bitterness welled-up in him like a geyser. He was ready to blow.
Footsteps and familiar voices on the stairs heralded Isaac and Aron’s arrival. “Get Joseph and Jacob for me, please.” Noah looked to Cady for assistance. “They need to hear what I have to say to Isaac.”