Cowboy 12 Pack

by Cynthia D’Alba, Paige Tyler, Elle James, Donna Michaels, Shoshanna Evers, Randi Alexander, Cora Seton, Beth Williamson, Sabrina York, Sable Hunter, Lexi Post, Becky McGraw

  *

  KENDRA GLANCED AT the clock for the umpteenth time. It was 9:17p.m. The sun had set two hours ago. Where was he? She couldn’t concentrate because Wade hadn’t been seen yet. Billy drove over to the stables after the haboob rolled out, but Wade and Buca weren’t there. Was he all right?

  She’d called over to his office, but the phone lines were down too. She really needed to find a booster or something for the cell coverage. Once the sandstorm hit, the reception was nil so that option was out. “Where are you, Wade?” Maybe she should go look.

  A knock on the door was a welcome distraction. “Come in.”

  “Hey, boss, do you have a minute?”

  “Of course, Powell. What is it?”

  The young man strode forward, taking off his baseball cap with security printed across the crown. Something he had asked be part of his uniform. “I need to tell you something.”

  Kendra tensed. Did he find another problem? She couldn’t find it in her to smile, but she tried to sound relaxed. “Please do. I always want to hear what my employees have to say.”

  He looked away. “I don’t want you to be mad at me. I didn’t hack into anything, I promise.”

  He was well aware to do so would mean his immediate dismissal. She didn’t doubt him for a moment. “Powell, what did you do?”

  The man turned his hat in his hands, his nervousness obvious. “I may have read someone’s emails, but the computer was on and the person nowhere to be found. I couldn’t resist, but then I saw what was written and knew I had to tell you.”

  He must have stumbled upon her saboteur. Kendra braced herself to be hurt by one of her own people. “Tell me what?”

  He finally looked at her. “Wade Johnson has been writing to someone named Dale. I think he may be reporting on you and the resort. He mentioned a lot of details about the issues we have here.”

  Her heart lurched at the information and slowly shriveled. She wanted to be sick. What the hell was Wade doing telling Dale what went on here? Why spy on her unless it was to kill her operation? Was Wade the saboteur and trying to throw suspicion on others? Her body heated with the betrayal, but she wouldn’t let Powell know that. “Exactly what did he write?”

  Powell looked away again. “I’m not sure. I don’t have a good memory and I didn’t completely understand it, but it didn’t sound good.”

  Seated behind her desk, she gripped the arms of her chair. “Thank you for letting me know, but don’t ever look at someone else’s computer again unless I ask you to. That is my prerogative, not yours. I don’t want other employees distrusting you. If they do, so will the guests, and I can’t have that.”

  “Yes, boss.”

  “Was there anything else?” She sincerely hoped not because she barely held back her tears as it was.

  “Nope. That’s all. I’ll get back to my rounds now.” Powell donned his baseball cap.

  She nodded, not trusting her voice.

  After he shut the door, she let Wade’s betrayal sink in and it cut across her heart with a fierceness that took her breath away. It echoed what her ex-husband had done to her, but with him, she’d always expected him to find someone better. Wade had made her believe in him. Hurt, anger, and questions spun like a microburst through her body. She stood, unable to sit still a moment longer.

  Had he disappeared because of what he’d done? Wherever he was, she would find him. She wanted to know everything and she wanted to know now.

  Grabbing a flashlight, she stalked out into the night air. The sound of a coyote in the distance made her shiver. She’d never overcome that particular fear. Jumping into her golf cart, she drove to Wade’s casita on the off chance he’d come back and simply gone to bed. If he was asleep, she’d wake him.

  Taking her ring of keys, she found the one to his door and opened it. The flashlight beam revealed the man was as neat in his home as in the barn. Striding to the bedroom, she pulled the door open, but even before the light of her flashlight hit the bed, she sensed no one was there. “Damn.”

  Worry wormed its way back into her heart, but she thrust it aside. She should go through his belongings, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do so, at least not until she confronted him. She let herself out and locked the door. Next stop, the barn.

  As she drove the short distance to the stables, she prayed she’d find him there. At least then she would know he wasn’t hurt. What was she thinking? He’d hurt her, crushed her, and probably didn’t even care. As she topped the hill, feeble light from the barn spread into the dirt parking area. Someone had one of their battery-operated lanterns. Was Powell making his rounds or was Wade back?

  Stepping into the barn, she froze. Wade was naked, his back to her as he dried off his hair, his back rippling with his movements, his ass gleaming with water droplets. He must have used the outside shower. Despite her anger, her body responded to seeing so much male.

  He turned around, his eyes widening at the sight of her. “Hey, what are you doing out here so late at night?”

  Her gaze swept over him of its own accord. The wet hair on his chest emphasized the mounds of his pectoral muscles. She followed the wet line of hair that bisected his abs all the way to his cock. Swallowing, she forced herself to look at his face. A cut above his eye beaded with blood. Before she could stop, she took a step forward. Catching herself, she halted and pointed to his eye. “What happened?”

  “I was stupid, that’s what happened.” He shook his head as he wiped down his chest, obviously in no hurry to cover himself. “I underestimated how fast the haboob was moving and Buca and I had to take shelter in the garage. I just finished brushing the sand off her coat. I’m glad I was the one cut and not her.”

  “Do you need stitches?”

  He patted the towel above his eye and looked at the blood staining it. “Shit. It started again. The shower must have reopened it. Nothing a Band-Aid can’t fix.” His grin was crooked, making it hard to stay mad.

  But she wasn’t simply mad. The anger was intertwined with a pain far too close to her heart and the damnable question of why. Fisting her hands, she took another step closer. “What are you hiding from me? What are you telling Dale? Why are you really here, Wade?”

  His grin faded. “Who told you?”

  At his admission, her stomach tightened so hard she almost doubled over, but she’d be damned if she’d show him how much he hurt her. “It doesn’t matter. I want to hear it from you. The truth, that is.” She kept her poker face firmly in place. He didn’t deserve to know how she felt.

  Wade wrapped the towel around his hips and strode toward her. “I had hoped if I figured it out, you’d never need to know. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “Figured out what?”

  He stopped a couple feet away from her. Maybe he sensed she wasn’t exactly happy with him at the moment.

  “Why your other stable managers quit. Dale asked me to look into it. He can’t afford to have a problem with his staffing placements and he wanted to know why well-qualified men left this job early. It doesn’t reflect well on his new company.”

  That wasn’t what she’d expected. She took a step back. “Did you discover anything?”

  “From what I’ve pieced together, none of them were unhappy. I think they may have been blackmailed into quitting.”

  She raised her brow, unable to hide her surprise. “Blackmailed? With what?”

  “I’m not sure. I think the last one was into pornography and he was threatened with having that revealed to you.” He gave her a smirk. “These men Dale found wouldn’t be aware of your penchant for hiring misfits. So if Michael thought you would fire him, my guess is he would quit first.” His smile turned sheepish. “Men are like that.”

  Her heart responded to his look even as she held on to her hurt. He’d still betrayed her. “So how did someone know Michael liked pornography? How did you know?”

  Wade took another step closer. “If Harper wanted you to close, he could have done some investig
ating. I discovered it when I was going through the files on the office computer.”

  Her heart sped at how close they were to finding the person responsible for so many of her troubles. “Let me see them.”

  “I deleted them. They were inappropriate, especially on a business computer. I also didn’t want you to think I had downloaded them. As the boss, you can search through anyone’s computer.”

  Deleted? That was convenient. She tried to read him like she did her opponents at the poker table. The problem was, in this case, she wanted to believe him. Her objectivity with this man disappeared down a rattlesnake hole the day she met him. Besides, she’d known Michael had liked pornography from Adriana, but the woman wouldn’t have told anyone. Still, he’d known if he was caught with it he would be fired on the spot.

  Wade was right. She could search through anyone’s computer, but employees weren’t supposed to and Powell had. “Wade, when did you get back to the barn?”

  His brows lowered at the sudden change in topic. “About an hour after sunset. So maybe eight-thirty. Why?”

  “Get dressed and meet me in your office. I think I know who our saboteur might be.”

  He grinned. “That’s the first time a woman has asked me to put my clothes on.”

  “Ugh.” She rolled her eyes and stalked out of the barn. Some men’s egos were just too much. The last thing she wanted him to know was that without his clothes he was too much of a distraction to her thought process.

  Walking into his dark office, the red glow of the exit sign her only light, she hit her hip on his desk. “Damn.” Now how the hell had Powell found the emails if there was no electricity?

  The answer was clear. He didn’t find them tonight. He came in earlier in the day when he should have been sleeping or he knew about them days earlier. Either way, she now had to put him back on her suspect list.

  Wasting no time, she turned on the battery back-up below the desk. It wouldn’t last long, so she sat and zipped through Wade’s emails. After reading three sent to Dale Osborn, her stomach loosened up. Wade had told the truth. She wasn’t happy with Dale or with Wade’s secrecy, but as a business person, she understood it. She’d have to think seriously about whether or not to use Dale’s company again.

  If Powell had read these same emails, he would know they didn’t implicate Wade in the sabotage of the resort, but he had cast doubt on Wade’s character anyway. That didn’t make Powell responsible for all that had gone wrong, necessarily. He could have simply been protecting her. She really didn’t want it to be Powell.

  Wade walked in and placed his hat on the file cabinet. “You didn’t believe me.” His scowl in the glow of the computer’s light made it clear he was upset.

  “Actually, I did. What I wanted to see was what you had written to make Powell doubt you.”

  Wade sat on the corner of his desk. “Powell? You think he might be behind your troubles? But didn’t you say he was loyal?”

  She pondered that. Powell telling her Wade was spying on her was the act of someone who was loyal. “I think he is. I’m just not sure. He’s the one who went into your computer and read these emails. Either he suspected you of being the culprit, or he is and he wants me to fire you. I just don’t know which.”

  Wade looked over her head, his gaze clearly somewhere other than the dark room. Then his lips formed a slow grin. She’d seen that same grin on his face earlier that afternoon, in the barn.

  “I have an idea on how we can flush out our culprit.”

  “How?”

  He shook his head and stood. “I have to see more curiosity than that.”

  Huh, oh. She tilted her head and squinted up at him. “How?”

  He chuckled. “That’s better. If this person, be it Powell or Harper or someone we don’t suspect at all has blackmailed all the former stable managers, maybe we can get him or her to blackmail me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Again, how?”

  “Promote me.”

  “Promote you? To what?”

  He came around the desk, his energy fueling her own. “I don’t know. Something that sounds important. If this person thinks you’ll depend on me, need me, then that might just force his hand.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, but for that to work, you’d have to be easily blackmailed, meaning you’d have to have a vice. Unfortunately for us, you’re perfect.”

  Wade’s laughter caught her off guard.

  “What? Are you laughing at me?”

  He shook his head as he attempted to contain his amusement. “No, no. I’ve just never had anyone think me perfect before. I need you to have a chat with my mom. You might even want to ask Dale or even Buca how perfect I am. Trust me, you’ll get a totally different perspective.”

  “It’s not that funny.” She pouted, the expression coming naturally. “As you have pointed out, I’ve hired a group of outcasts from ‘normal’ society. Compared to them, you are, well…boring.”

  He stared at her in shock, and she couldn’t help the giggle that surfaced.

  “Boring? I’ll show you boring.” He pulled her out of his chair and threw her over his shoulder.

  “Wade! Wade, what are you doing?”

  He didn’t answer. Striding through the building in the pitch black as if he knew it like the back of his hand, he stalked down the back hall. At the end, he opened the door to the metal barn she’d hoped to host parties in, if she ever figured out what to do with the reproduction stagecoach she’d won in a game down in Tombstone.

  The large area appeared bright with its emergency lights compared to the darkness of the rest of the building. Wade strode to the stagecoach. Without hesitating, he opened the door and dumped her inside.

  “Hey.”

  “I’ll show you boring.” The tone of his voice caused ripples of anticipation to spike through her.

  Climbing in after her, he shut the door and sat on one of the seats. He pulled her up and positioned her between his legs. “Kneel.”

  His face was tense, revealing nothing, but when she glanced at his jeans, a large bulge was clear, and she licked her lips. Kneeling, she immediately unzipped him and nudged his jeans down his hips, but before she could touch him, he stopped her.

  “Uh-huh. I don’t want your mouth, I want your breasts.”

  Her pussy swelled at his words and she willingly unbuttoned her shirt. Happy for the second time that day that she had on her new front-clasp bra, she quickly popped it open and shrugged out of it. Naked from the waist up, she released the clip that held her hair, knowing how much he liked it down. His intake of breath made her grin, pleased she could excite him with such a simple move.

  She leaned forward, pulling his hard cock toward her then used her hands on her breasts to sandwich his long, thick dick.

  “Yesss.”

  She glanced up to see Wade’s eyes closed and her own need took a backseat to pleasuring him.

  Slowly, she moved her breasts up and down, squeezing his cock between them. His breathing increased and pre-cum leaked from the small hole at the tip. She stopped moving and licked it off while still keeping him captive. The head was just too close to resist. Lowering her face, she took the tip into her mouth.

  His moan was followed by his hand burying itself in her hair, encouraging her in her attentions. She scraped her teeth around the ridge and lightly tugged on it before nibbling across the tip.

  “Kendra, you are too good at that.”

  His hands drew hers away from her breasts and he gripped her shoulders, pulling her up.

  She tried to twist away. “I want to feel you come in my mouth.”

  “Not now. I need to be inside you too much.”

  She had no warning. One minute she was standing half naked and the next he had tugged down her skirt, leaving her in only her boots.

  He grasped her hips, his thumbs rubbing her sides. “Hey, where are those pretty lace panties you were wearing earlier?”

  She glanced at her left boot. “I didn’t ha
ve time to put them on when Lacey arrived at the barn.” She shrugged. “I guess I forgot about them.”

  “I think you should forget about them more often.” He wiggled his brows and she laughed.

  He was so easy to be with. He made her want to be with him all the time. She watched as he pulled a condom from the front pocket of his jeans and tore it open. He unrolled it down his length, her pussy contracting with excitement.

  “Come here.”

  She didn’t need to be asked twice. Settling her knees on either side of him, she positioned her opening over his head, barely touching it. Unable to resist, she stroked herself against his cock, back and forth from her opening to her clit, her nipples brushing across his denim shirt.

  “Fuck, woman. You’re killing me.”

  Grinning at her perfect cowboy’s language, she stopped teasing. Grasping his hard shoulders, she slowly lowered herself on him. He was large and every inch of the sheathing was excruciating pleasure. When she was fully impaled, she gazed into his eyes.

  There was no smile or scowl, just a sense of wonder.

  She felt it too. A sense of perfect. I love you.

  Chapter Nine

  ‡

  THE WORDS CREPT up Kendra’s throat, but she swallowed them down. The feeling too new to share, a wild card she wasn’t accustomed to playing with.

  Wade’s arms wrapped around her like steel bands and he kissed her, his tongue plunging into her mouth like his cock between her legs.

  When his pelvis pressed up, she sucked hard on his tongue. She couldn’t get close enough. She clasped his head to her and rocked against him. He matched her movements, adding friction against her clit as he pushed into her.

  Her body flowed against him as he stroked her need tighter. Tension built in her core and she pulled her mouth away, needing air to gasp as the sensations whipped through her.

  Wade’s mouth found her right breast and sucked, his tongue stroking her nipple. His arms loosened, allowing her to arch back as he grasped her ass. He kneaded her there, but kept them glued together.

  Her blood flowed to her pussy, thickening the tight passage around his cock as it pushed in and out. She arched farther and his arm came around to support her, the friction between her thighs keeping her on the edge.