by Cathryn Fox
Good girl, meet bad cowboy...
Marketing Tycoon Tyler Mackenzie, a.k.a. Wildman Mac, has a knack for knowing what people want and, more importantly, what they need…so when he decides to show sweet and sexy yoga instructor Jess Gray that she’s the one for him, he puts a seductive campaign into motion.
When Mac defines the terms for the week and insists she do everything he says, Jess can’t help but be intrigued. Since this good girl wants to break free and do something naughty, she agrees to his terms and soon finds herself embarking on a sexual journey that knows no limits. For Jess this is one week of living out her fantasies, but Mac is determined to make this wild ride last forever.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Discover the Playing for Keeps series… Slow Ride
Sweet Ride
Hold Me Down Hard
If you love sexy romance, one-click these steamy Brazen releases… Chasing Temptation
Hold Me Until Morning
Played
Naughty Little Wishes
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Cathryn Fox. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Entangled Publishing, LLC
2614 South Timberline Road
Suite 109
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.
Brazen is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC. For more information on our titles, visit www.brazenbooks.com.
Edited by Candace Havens
Cover design by Heather Howland
Cover art from Jenn LeBlanc and Shutterstock
ISBN 978-1-63375-381-5
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition October 2015
To Jan Meredith, for always being there for me.
Chapter One
Jesus Christ this was a stupid idea. Stupidest goddamn idea he’d ever heard. And as president and owner of Mackenzie Marketing, the East Coast’s most successful advertising company, Tyler Mackenzie knew a stupid idea when he heard one. So why the hell had he agreed to it when his best friend Chase Cooper suggested he and their other best friend Curtis Jagger all contact the girls from their past, the ones they thought had gotten away, to see if they could have a future?
Because I’d never gotten over that sweet kiss I shared with her, that’s why.
Mac glanced at Coop and Jag as they all stood under a towering oak tree watching the small plane land on the ranch’s makeshift runway. The warm afternoon sun broke through the canopy of leaves overhead; Mac fisted his hands and exhaled slowly, but it did nothing to ease the cold knot of apprehension tightening his gut.
Sure he’d thought of Jess Gray over the years, the shy, quiet girl next door he’d spent his high school years crushing on, the one who’d always listened silently, carefully, when he spoke, but had little to say in return. But having Jag’s private investigative company track her down while Mac put together a proposal he’d hoped she couldn’t refuse was a damn stupid idea. Shit. When this was all over he’d have to remember to kick Coop’s ass.
Tessa Turner¸ the experienced ranch hand who ran things when the guys were back home in Nova Scotia, where they all held down full-time jobs, met the plane as it came to a stop. The door opened and Mac swallowed against the dryness in his throat as the passengers began to disembark.
Had he mentioned this was a stupid idea?
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the ball of tension building between them. Honestly, what were the odds that any of the three girls would show, anyway? An anonymous invitation to a working dude ranch in Springvale, Alberta, for a week of R&R would probably come off as a little sketchy to smart, educated women like them. Yeah, he had nothing to worry about. The chance of Jess actually climbing off that plane was slim to none.
Or not.
The second he saw a long set of legs touch the first step he knew it was her. As a yoga instructor, her body was lean and fit, and he’d recognize those sleek legs anywhere. His heart hammered against his ribs, and his knees damn near gave out on him as he waited in anticipation. Jesus, his palms were even sweaty. The world seemed to close in on him as he continued to watch her move down the steps. Off in the distance near the horse corral, he could hear someone calling out to him, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying over the sound of his pulse drumming in his ears.
“Holy shit,” he murmured, driving his hands into his jeans as he watched her pull her bag tight to her chest, her long dark hair brushing against her shoulders as she glanced around, trying to orient herself.
Jess was here. She was actually here.
Still trying to wrap his brain around the fact that she’d accepted the invitation and boarded the plane, Mac moved toward her on legs not quite steady. She turned curious brown eyes on him and he stopped to remove his Stetson, which shadowed the lower half of his head and neck. She studied him a moment, taking a good long look, then her mouth parted in an O of surprise as recognition registered on her face. When their eyes met and held, she gifted him with a smile. A smile so bright and disarming, this time he found his entire body breaking out in a sweat—and it had nothing to do with the scorching sun.
He put his hat back on and looked her over. Taking in the dress she was wearing, and the soft auburn highlights in her hair. Jesus, she’d been pretty back in high school, but now she was…beautiful. Jess Gray had blossomed into a gorgeous woman whom he couldn’t wait one more second to get to know better. Strides determined, and with the world around him fading to a dull buzz, he quickly closed the distance between them. His heart thundered in his head as everything about her set off a storm inside him.
But as he approached, her smile fell and panic moved into her eyes. What the hell? Hooves sounded on the dry ground and that’s when he realized the thundering wasn’t coming from inside his head. She looked over his shoulder and faltered backward, and the next thing Mac knew they were both flat out on the ground, his body pressing hers into the soil. He immediately came up on his elbow and brushed her hair from her forehead, wanting to protect her from his weight bearing down on her. He shifted to the side. “Are you okay?” he asked quickly, unease tightening his gut as his gaze moved to her face. Fuck, if he hurt her…
“I’m okay,” she said quietly.
Dust roared up around him, and when something nudged him he turned to see his horse Eleanor.
“Shit,” ranch hand Blake Callahan said as he came running over. “Sorry, Mac. She got loose. I tried to warn you but you didn’t hear.” Blake grabbed Eleanor’s harness. “She’s been temperamental lately.”
“It’s okay,” Mac assured Blake as the ranch hand started to guide Mac’s pregnant mare back to her stall. “She’s been a little possessive of me all week.”
Blake ran a gentle hand over the horse’s protruding side. “She’s getting close.”
“I’ll check on her in a few,” Mac promised, watching Blake lead the mare away.
When they were out of sight, he turned his attention back to Jess, and her body softe
ned beneath his as their gazes once again collided. While he wanted to apologize—Christ, he hadn’t expected their first meeting after ten years to go down quite like that—he couldn’t say he was sorry that Eleanor had gotten loose and knocked him into her.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked again and slipped his hand around her head to lift it off the hard ground and provide a cushiony place for it to rest.
Jess nodded, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink. “I’m okay,” she said breathlessly. “You?”
“Yeah. I’m okay.” Warm familiarity curled around him and he couldn’t seem to move—didn’t want to move. He stayed on top of her, his glance moving over her pretty face, her mouth. Lips he’d kissed so long ago, and was dying to kiss again. Jess Gray. Jesus, he couldn’t believe she’d actually taken him up on his invitation, or that he had one whole week to spend with her and explore the pull between them, one he felt now, every bit as much as he had all those years ago.
“Mac?” she asked.
He looked deep into her eyes, dark, expressive eyes that told him so much about her. He took a moment to recall that kiss from long ago—one he’d tricked her into—yeah, he was always the joker back in the day. The high school gym had been full of students and teachers, celebrating the last dance before Christmas vacation. He’d called her over to the doorway, and when she reached him, he pointed upward. He remembered the flush on her cheeks, much like the flush she had now, when she saw the mistletoe dangling over his head. She’d opened her mouth to say something and that’s when he kissed her. So sweet. So fucking soft and sweet. That kiss, not to mention the journal of hers that he’d managed to get a quick peek at earlier that same day, had told him so much about the girl beneath the shy surface, so much about who Jess really was, and what she truly wanted. But when he’d pulled back she took off, leaving him standing there completely crushed and utterly speechless. Never before, or after, had any woman left him feeling so…confused after a simple kiss.
As he looked her over now, it occurred to him he never wanted to frighten her off like that again. She might be shy and sensitive, bringing out the protector in him, but she also had a quiet strength about her. It was just going to take the right guy to show her she was strong, beautiful, and desirable. The right guy to coax her out from her shell and release her adventurous spirit, one he’d discovered that fateful night so long ago. There was no doubt he wanted to be the guy she needed.
Hell, he would be the guy she needed.
He looked at her lips, full, plump…so damn kissable. Her hair splayed across the ground, and a bevy of fantasies rushed through his brain, mainly how she’d look spread out on his bed. He swallowed the groan of want rumbling in his throat.
“What…what am I doing here?” she asked.
He touched a strand of hair, running it though his thumb and forefinger. “I needed to see you.”
“You did?” she asked, confused. “Why?”
“Because we have some unfinished business, Jess.”
“We do?”
He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “Yeah, we do,” he said quietly, completely blown away that she was here, with him. Jesus, he was the luckiest man alive.
She went quiet for a moment, and then she said, “Perhaps we should get up, so you can explain it to me.”
Shit, he hadn’t even realized they were still on the ground. “Right.” He inched upward and frowned when he noticed the dust caking her sundress. “And we should probably get you out of these clothes.”
Her eyes dimmed with something akin to desire and Mac couldn’t help but smile. This was the best goddamn idea Coop had ever had.
He’d have to remember to thank him when this was all over.
Chapter Two
“You can’t be serious.”
Jess Gray could hardly believe what she was hearing, what the boy from her past was suggesting. Surely he had to be kidding, playing one of his infamous childhood pranks on her.
Perched at the edge of the ranch’s crystal-clear pool, Tyler Mackenzie, aka Wildman Mac, casually rolled to his feet and stretched out his long, athletic body with the same lazy ease Jess remembered from their youth.
There wasn’t a hint of teasing in his voice when he answered with, “I’ve never been more serious in my life.”
Jess blinked against the blinding glare of the late afternoon sun reflecting on the water and struggled to wrap her mind around this unexpected turn of events. Exactly when had the invitation for a week of R&R evolved into them getting reacquainted?
Good Lord, she could only imagine what he meant by reacquainted.
She sucked in a breath, letting the aromatic scent of fresh hay and warm¸ country air soothe her soul. But the relaxing atmosphere did little to calm her nerves, not when Mac began to undress right before her eyes. Lacking any sort of modesty, he peeled off his T-shirt to expose a gorgeous, muscular torso, one that instantly caught Jess’s attention and quite frankly, aroused her.
In a nearby pasture, a stallion whinnied, followed by a chorus of crickets. The sounds caught on a breeze and drifted past them. As she listened to the cacophony of ranch noises, Mac gifted her with a lopsided grin full of sensual promises.
“So, what do you think?” he asked as heat pooled between her thighs. He tipped his Stetson, his eyes full of fierce determination when he added, “Are you up to spending one full week here on the ranch with me…my rules, my terms?”
His rich voice trickled down her spine and elicited a shiver from deep within. It became glaringly apparent that she was no longer staring at the class clown from her childhood, a lawless ruffian known for his practical jokes. No, the Tyler Mackenzie standing before her had grown into a man—tall, gorgeous, hard in all the right places—and while the rebellion from his youth no longer colored his personality, the Mac looking down at her now still had stubborn resolve written all over him. As she entertained his question, shocked that he’d gone to so much trouble to arrange this reunion, it occurred to her that this Mac wasn’t quite so different from the one she’d known in high school after all, because when he set his mind to getting what he wanted, he’d go to extreme measures to get it as well.
And this time, he wanted her.
With her voice lodged somewhere in her throat, she didn’t answer him. Instead, Jess averted her eyes, lifted her face to the sky, and drank in the sun’s warmth as she mulled things over and fought the urge to gawk at his magnificent body. It was a difficult task, considering how badly she wanted to let her hungry gaze trail down the firm ridges of his abdomen, to follow the sexy line of hair that disappeared into the faded jeans that hung low on his hips and did little to hide the huge bulge pressing insistently against the zipper.
Unable to help herself, she stole another peek at him, registering every delicious detail of his fine body as sunlight spilled over him. Awareness soared through her bloodstream as her gaze shifted to his face. She took in his hard angles and noted the way he towered over her, confidence and sex dripping from his every pore as he haphazardly tossed his shirt and hat onto a lounge chair.
Her breasts grew heavy and full, highly sensitive inside her suddenly too-tight demi-bra, the telltale hardening of her nipples letting the world know what the half-naked—half-hard—cowboy was doing to her libido. Jess crossed her arms over her chest to hide her arousal and pinched her thighs together in an effort to get herself under control.
Publicly lusting after a guy was so uncharacteristic of her. Everyone knew she was shy, quiet, and conservative—a good girl who never had the nerve to put herself out there sexually, even though she’d always wanted to. This, of course, was why she kept her naughty fantasies to herself, secretly writing them down in the private journal she kept tucked under her mattress. But there was something about Mac, something from the way he moved with self-assurance to the perceptive way he looked at her, like he could see beneath the surface and read every desire that tempted the vixen inside to come out and play. The truth was, everything about him
made her think about sex. Hot. Hard. Toss-me-onto-the-hay-pile kind of sex.
Her mind took that moment to careen in an erotic direction, urging her to step out of character and bring a few of her written fantasies to life. Honest to God, she’d be crazy not to, considering the boy from her youth had grown into a drool-worthy cowboy, one she’d likely never see after this week. She had no doubt getting reacquainted was a euphemism for sex, and when it came right down to it, wasn’t he presenting her with the perfect opportunity to break free and indulge? She knew Mac, trusted him…well, she trusted the boy she remembered from her youth, anyway. So why the heck shouldn’t she spend the week bedded down with him? Mac was just the guy to help her play out her fantasies and take her beyond her wildest imagination.
Jess sucked in a quick breath, both shocked and excited at the direction of her thoughts. She panned the wide expanse of ranch and took in the corrals, the horses, the man-made lake off in the distance, the lodge that sat in the shadows of the towering Rocky Mountains, and the large homestead near the lodge that looked empty.
A week ago, she never would have expected to find herself smack-dab in the middle of a working dude ranch, thousands of miles away from home. But when the anonymous invitation had arrived by courier and promised a week of rest and relaxation at an all-inclusive ranch in Springvale, Alberta—a far cry from her beloved one-bedroom condo and yoga studio on Canada’s East Coast—she couldn’t help but be intrigued. Nor could she help but think there was a mix-up of sorts. She didn’t know anyone out west, or even outside Nova Scotia, for that matter. But after a bit of research, she discovered the invitation was legitimate. She went to the airport out of curiosity, and when she recognized two women from her high school days and they all exchanged similar stories, the next thing she knew, the three of them were boarding the plane to embark on a cross-country adventure.
The last thing she expected to find was Mac and his proposal waiting on the other side for her.
“So, let me get this straight. You invite me to this ranch. A ranch you own with Coop and Jag,” she clarified, waving a finger toward the lodge, where she saw Mac’s childhood best friends enter earlier. “Because you want me to spend one week with you so we can get reacquainted, because we have unfinished business?”
