by Marin Thomas
AH, HELL.
Dexter pulled on Digger’s reins and the horse slowed to a halt. “Ricky, you’ve gotta turn the steer to the left sooner,” he called across the practice ring.
“Shoot, boss, I’m no header.” Ricky swung his mount around and followed Dexter back to the starting boxes.
The Missoula Hoedown was Saturday. Dexter wanted to make sure Digger wasn’t favoring his front leg anymore, so he’d coerced Ricky into playing Dusty’s role in team roping. Digger’s leg was the least of Dexter’s problems. He had five days to prepare for the rodeo—not an easy task when half the roping team remained missing.
Last night he’d phoned Dusty, and as was the norm, his brother’s voice mailbox was full. Timing was everything in team roping. If Dexter and Dusty didn’t perfect their moves, both as a team and with their respective horses, they could kiss their chances of winning the event goodbye. Losing was out of the question. Josie planned to attend the hoedown with Matt and he wanted to impress them with a win.
Earlier that morning he’d dropped by the Lazy S to work with Zeus and discovered Josie waiting by the corral with a hot thermos of coffee. For a few minutes they’d stood side by side sharing the coffee while they watched the stallion eat his oats. Sexual tension had sizzled between them, but he’d kept a respectable distance from her, avoiding any accidental brushes or smoldering looks.
When the temptation to touch her had become too much, Dexter had retreated inside the pen and spent the next two hours attempting to saddle Zeus. By the end of the training session, the stallion had only tolerated a saddle blanket over his back. When Dexter had departed, he’d issued Josie an invitation to drop by the Cottonwood Ranch later in the day for a tour of the horse barns. He glanced at his watch. The afternoon was slipping away, and Josie had yet to make an appearance.
Maybe she’d changed her mind because she hadn’t wanted to chance running into his parents. He shouldn’t have invited her in the first place, but Josie was wearing down his defenses one smile at a time. After another practice run with Ricky, he’d phone Josie and inform her that his folks had flown to Harrison, Idaho, to view a stallion at the famous Black Rock Ranch. He’d rather be with Josie on his home turf. Nothing could happen between them with a ranch full of cowboys wandering around.
“You two want another steer loaded in the chute?” Slim’s question grabbed Dexter’s attention.
He nodded to the ranch hand. “One more time, Ricky.”
“Whatever you say, boss.”
Dexter and Ricky entered their respective boxes on either side of the chute. Slim attached a breakaway barrier to the steer and stretched it across the open end of the header’s box where Ricky sat astride his horse, Maverick.
“Ready?” Dexter asked.
“Don’t have much choice, do—” The rest of the cowboy’s words were cut short when the steer broke free and crossed the score line, which released the barrier. Maverick shot out of the chute, almost unseating Ricky. Digger responded to Maverick’s move and trailed slightly behind. From there everything slid downhill.
Ricky threw his rope and missed the steer’s head. Maverick chased the steer and Digger, confused, slammed on the brakes, sending Dexter flying over his head into the dirt.
“Sorry ’bout that, boss,” Ricky said.
Feminine laughter met Dexter’s ears as he crawled to his feet. Josie stood outside the corral, one boot propped on the bottom rung. “Better luck next time, cowboy.”
“Who’s that?” Ricky whistled between his teeth.
“Josie Charles. Instead of gawking at her, you should thank her.”
“For what?”
“For showing up when she did or else I’d have beaten the crap out of you.”
“In that case, ma’am, thank you.” Ricky tipped his hat.
“My pleasure.” Josie’s pretty brown eyes sparkled.
She’d done something different to her hair since Dexter had seen her earlier in morning. The bright sun intensified the red highlights and he clenched his gloved hand into a fist to keep from tugging on the curls that fell to her shoulders.
“Wasn’t sure you’d show up.” He kept his voice low in deference to Slim’s and Ricky’s big ears.
“I waited for Matt to go down for a nap.”
Her smile jolted him. How easy it would be to lose himself in Josie and forget about the consequences.
“We finished, boss?” Slim asked.
His attention fixated on Josie’s mouth, Dexter said, “Yeah. We’re taking a break.”
“Figured.” Slim roped the steer and led the animal into a holding pen with other livestock used for training the cow horses.
Dexter grabbed Digger’s reins and clicked his tongue. The horse followed him out of the corral. “Let me ask one of the hands to put Digger up, then I’ll show you the infamous Mr. Lucky Son.”
After a short walk to the barn, Dexter handed Digger’s reins to Paco, who nodded politely to Josie before leading the horse to a stall. Halfway to the stallion barn, Dexter’s sister, Elly, interrupted. “Dex, wait up!”
Elly trotted along the paved driveway, her blond ponytail swishing across her back. “Josie?” she said when she drew close. “Josie Charles, is that you?”
“In the flesh. Hi, Ellen.”
Elly’s gaze bounced between Josie and Dexter. “How’s your dad feeling?”
“He’s much better, thanks.”
“I haven’t seen you since you graduated from high school.”
“I live in Santa Monica now.”
“Really? Would you be willing to do an interview for my blog?”
“Whoa, Elly, you’re doing it again.” His sister had a habit of ambushing ranch visitors and badgering them for interviews.
“What kind of blog?” Josie asked.
“Cottonwood Chronicles. I write about ranch life. I have a large following, and I know my readers would love to hear more about California.”
Josie chuckled. “My life isn’t as glamorous as the movies.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
Dexter crossed his arms over his chest and swallowed his irritation. Might as well give in to Elly now, or she’d buzz around them like a pesky horsefly until she obtained the information she wanted.
“Well, the Santa Monica Pier is fun and I love living near the ocean,” Josie said.
“Have you been to a gallery called the Fig?”
“Once.”
Elly elbowed Dexter in the gut. “Bergamot Station has the single greatest concentration of art galleries in Santa Monica.”
So?
“I wish I could get my ranch photographs into one of those galleries. Or have my own booth during the film festival in November.”
While Josie and his sister chatted, Dexter’s thoughts drifted along a serious path. He stared northeast toward Carter Mountain and higher to the summit where the Shoshone National Forest began. He loved the wild beauty of the mountains. But how would they stand up against constant sunshine, sandy beaches and ocean waves? There were no piers with carnival rides out here—only rodeos. As for retail shopping…the mall in Cody couldn’t compare to the upscale stores in Josie’s neck of the woods.
A pit formed in his stomach. Santa Monica was a world away from Markton, Wyoming. Josie had left Markton because she’d wanted change—a different lifestyle. There was nothing in Markton to keep her here—except Dusty.
And me. Dexter’s feelings for Josie were a tangled mess. He didn’t know which was worse—the idea of Josie returning to California or staying in Markton and making a life with Dusty.
“Here’s my card.” Elly dug out a business card from her pocket and handed it to Josie. “E-mail me when you get back to Santa Monica and I’ll send you a list of questions I use for interviews. It’ll be fun.”
“My mother mentioned seeing your prints at the Tangled Antlers Gallery.”
“Photographs from my Cottonwood Collection.”
“Mom was very impressed.”
Elly snapped her fingers. “You should tag along with me and Janie Hansen—you remember Mark Hansen’s sister?—on our next girls’ day out. We’re making plans to fly to Sheridan to a new day spa that’s gotten rave reviews. Maybe you can join us.”
“Elly…” Dexter scowled.
“Sorry.” His sister smiled sheepishly. “I tend to hijack conversations.” She motioned to the barn. “Is Dex taking you to see Mr. Lucky Son?”
“Yes,” Dexter answered for Josie. “Now bug off.”
“I used to get into trouble for tagging along after my brothers.” Elly winked at Josie. “Remember the time I found you and Mary Francis kissing behind the bleachers during the football game?”
“Mary Francis?” Josie’s mouth dropped open. “Didn’t her mother send her to a private girls’ school out East after her sophomore year?”
“They were afraid Dex would steal her virginity.” Elly snickered.
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Dexter shook his head. “It was one kiss.”
“Dusty never said a word about you dating Mary Francis,” Josie said.
“Dusty didn’t know.” Elly pointed her finger at Dexter. “He bullied me into keeping his secret.”
“I paid you to keep your mouth shut.” Dexter had given his sister a dollar a day to forget what she saw. Obviously he’d wasted his money.
Right then a horn honked, drawing the group’s attention. “Oh, look, it’s Nicki Sable.”
“What’s she doing here?” Dexter asked.
Ignoring him, Elly spoke to Josie. “Nicki’s the girl Jesse took to the senior prom.” Elly waved a hand in the air at the pretty, blond-haired, green-eyed woman who stepped from the truck. “Anyway, she and Jesse are still good friends.” Elly pointed to the stock trailer hitched to the back of the pickup. “Jesse said Nicki might be bringing over a bull from her father’s herd for him to practice on today if she got out of work early.”
“Tell Big Ben to put the bull in a pen by himself,” Dexter told his sister.
Elly’s cell phone rang and she glanced at the number. “It’s Stella calling from the gallery. Maybe I sold a photograph.” She answered the phone and walked off to greet Nicki.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “Elly’s a pest.” Hoping to avoid another interruption, Dexter grabbed Josie’s hand and walked at a fast clip toward the stallion barn.
“I like your sister. She’s spunky.”
“Yeah, she’s spunky, all right.” Dexter held open a door at the back of the barn and motioned for Josie to precede him into the building.
“Dusty used to complain about you.”
“Me?” Dexter stopped outside his mother’s office.
“He said you were nosy.”
Dexter snorted and Josie giggled. “Is it true that after Dusty came home from one of our dates you would ask him what base he got to with me?”
Okay, so he had been nosy. He’d had a crush on Josie and imagining his brother kissing her, touching her in places Dexter wanted to touch her had darn near killed him.
“I don’t know what Dusty told you,” Josie said. “But I held out a long time before I had sex with him. I probably wouldn’t have slept with him at all if I didn’t fear he’d dump me for a girl who would.”
Yeah, that sounded like something his brother would do, but in his brother’s defense, there were plenty of girls back then willing to put out for Dusty.
“And there was another reason I slept with your brother.”
Dexter didn’t care to talk about his twin, but Josie appeared determined to rehash the past. “And what was that?”
“I worried that if I broke up with Dusty, you and I would no longer be friends.” She clasped his hand. “I didn’t want to lose your friendship, Dex.”
Guilt flooded him. Josie had lost his friendship not because of anything she’d done but because Dexter hadn’t been able to handle his jealousy. Had he even crossed Josie’s mind the night she’d slept with Dusty and conceived Matt? He doubted it.
“C’mon. I’ll show you where Mom keeps her stallions.” To his knowledge Josie had never been inside any of the Cottonwood barns. Because their parents had disapproved of Dusty dating her, his brother had rarely brought Josie to the ranch.
“Wow.” Josie’s eyes widened. “The stalls are huge.”
Each stallion had a sixteen-by-twenty custom stall.
Josie wandered closer and read the information sheet that hung on the outside of one solid oak door. Right then Black Duce Two kicked the side of the stall and Josie squawked.
“Careful. Black Duce has a temper.” Dexter led Josie along the row of stalls and stopped at the end. “This is Mr. Lucky Sun.” The horse ignored their presence, his head stuck out the open window on the other side of the stall.
“He’s gorgeous.” The horse sported a dark brown coat with a white blaze down his face.
“In here,” Dexter said, “is our state-of-the-art reproduction facility.” He and Josie entered a large sterile laboratory. “Mom’s staff identifies embryos and prepares them for transfer and does semen evaluations and processing for cooled transport or freezing.”
“This is really high-tech.” Josie ran a finger across the edge of the stainless-steel table with several microscope stations.
“And this is the semen collection room.” Dexter opened another door and Josie moved past him, the scent of her shampoo trailing behind her. The sweet fragrance made Dexter wish they were anywhere but here.
He opened another door. “This is our surgical suite used for embryo transfers, insemination and standing reproductive surgeries.”
“How much of your day do you spend in here?” she asked.
“None. I don’t have anything to do with Mom’s breeding program.” They retraced their steps through the lab. “I’ll show you where I spend most of my time.” They left the stallion barn and cut across the drive, past the round pens and the remote-controlled roping chutes. When they entered the barn they ran into Slim.
The ranch hand tipped his hat. “Ma’am.”
“I’m giving Josie a tour of the barn.” Ignoring Slim’s quizzical expression, Dexter placed his fingers against the small of her back and escorted her down the center aisle. “This barn is home to the working horses, the yearlings and our family’s and ranch hands’ personal mounts.” When Josie stared quizzically at the empty stalls, Dexter said, “Most of the horses are out in the pastures or being worked with by the hands.
“Feed storage room is at the front of the barn.” Dexter motioned behind them. “This is the tack room.” He opened the door and Josie poked her head inside.
“What’s in there?” She pointed to the closed door across from the tack room. “The playroom.”
“Let me see.” Josie opened the door and gasped. “A mechanical bull?”
Dexter closed the door behind them. “When Jesse turned ten, he told our parents he wanted to be the best bull rider in the world. Our father went out that day and purchased a mechanical bull. That one broke years ago. This is the fourth one we’ve had at the ranch.”
Josie stepped over the mats to get a closer look at the machine. “Can I try?” Her flirty smile had trouble written all over it.
Why not? “Hop on.” He walked over to the control unit mounted on the wall and flipped the switch to the lowest setting. The machine jerked, then began a subtle twisting motion while raising and lowering in the air.
Grinning, Dexter said, “Lift your right arm above your head.” He immediately regretted his words. When Josie raised her arm the action pulled her Western blouse tight across her breasts, showing off their size and shape.
“I think I’m ready for more,” she said.
You’re not the only one. Unable to tear his attention from her swaying body, Dexter flipped the switch to the next level and the bull rocked at a steeper angle.
“Ooh… This is fun.”
His mouth turned to cotton as he watched her body twist and stretch. Like an erotic dancer, her br
easts thrust out, then in, teasing and taunting him. The bull dipped forward sharply and Josie’s fanny lifted in the air. Arousal swift and sharp swept through Dexter, carrying his imagination along for the ride. An image of him and Josie sitting astride the rocking bull sans clothing flashed before his eyes and he groaned.
Watching no longer satisfied Dexter. He flipped the switch back to level one and slid behind Josie on the bull, his thighs bracketing her hips. The next time the bull dipped, her breath hitched—the quietest of gasps—when his arousal pressed hard against her fanny. He caressed her flat tummy, then trailed his fingers up her side and along the arm she held in the air.
“Mmm…” Josie leaned back, her head resting on his shoulder. He nuzzled her neck, inhaling her perfume, the tempting scent of her skin. “You’re making me crazy, Dex.”
“Then we’re even, because you’re driving me insane.” She turned her head and he captured her lips. Never before had he been this attuned to a woman. Her heat and softness sucked him under like quicksand and with each rocking motion of the bull Dexter flirted with the point of no return.
He nibbled her earlobe. “Want me to stop?”
Josie sighed, the whisper of air rising from the depths of her soul. Stop? “Never.”
Chapter Ten
You’re playing with fire, man.
One more touch, then Dexter would stop.
The rocking motion of the mechanical bull forced his body against Josie’s in places he’d only dreamed of touching these past few weeks. He freed the buttons on her blouse and stroked warm, quivering flesh. Closing his eyes, he let his senses consume him. How many nights had he lain awake in bed, his mind racing with fantasies of making love to this woman? Those dreams hadn’t come close to the reality of here and now.
This is wrong. Stop.
“I’m hot.” Josie’s breath caressed his neck and a groan of pleasure exploded from Dexter’s gut. Her touch was torture. Teasing…taunting…begging him to cross the line with her.
Feeling torn inside, Dexter’s brain chastised him for touching Josie this way, but his heart insisted here and now—this moment—was all they’d ever have.
