Dearest Cowboys Box Set

by Mia Brown

  “No, but the riders can, and it isn’t just me. They give as good as they get, but that’s normal. Barrel racing and all the tamer sports might not have that… but without that side of the competitive edge, what’s the point to them?”

  “Well, I find barrel rolling more pleasant to watch, maybe me and you are just very different.”

  As I looked her up and down, I knew that we couldn’t be more different if we tried. I oozed a cockiness and that bad boy image that had followed me around ever since I made a few drunken mistakes that everyone used to identify me, whereas Emily was a sweet good girl who any man’s parents would love. She was sweet, probably very kind, nice to be around. The sort of girl who wouldn’t eve be late or dance on the bar…

  This was not the sort of woman I was attracted to… usually, but she struck me hard.

  “Maybe we are very different… but that doesn’t mean we can’t get along.” I smirked with arrogance rolling off my tongue. “I usually find everyone easy to get along with because there’s something about me that they just like.”

  “Well, I like you because you saved my life yesterday,” she giggled. “So, thank you for that again.”

  The waiter came over to take our order then, so we were forced to take a quick look at the menu. I was so in to talking to Emily that I just ordered the first thing on the menu that caught my eye, and it seemed like she did the same. I was glad to see us both on the same page. It made it a lot more fun.

  “Not that I mind saving you, but you should know how to protect yourself living in the big city now. It isn’t like the country side where nothing ever happens. Eureka Falls is so safe I never have any issues.”

  “Nor do I usually. Not like that! It’s been here where I faced danger.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good point.” I nodded slowly. “Well, at least you had a big strong man to protect you.”

  As she giggled and darted her eyes downwards, I was struck by something. “Hey, I’ve seen you before.”

  “Huh? What do you mean? I don’t think I’ve ever been to Eureka Falls.”

  “Maybe not in person, but in magazines. I’ve seen your picture with a horse somewhere, I know it!”

  “Oh, the riding gear campaign?” Her face lit up with excitement. “Yes, that was me.”

  “I saw it in your face just then. I always thought that you were very beautiful in that picture.”

  I recalled staring at it a lot when I was bored working alongside Jeff, imagining what it would be like to strip her down and fuck her in every position in the barn. Her hair all filled with hay, her naked body standing to attention in the breeze… I never thought that I would actually be right in front of her like this.

  “Oh, thank you very much… that’s really kind of you. It’s strange to think of myself in magazines.”

  “I bet it is. But you always look incredible, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”

  The sweet smile she gave me brought those images back to the forefront of her mind. Her on her hands and knees in front of me, poking out her ass and biting down on her bottom lip. My fantasies with this woman had always been filthy, but with her here they got even worse, even more real and intense. Fuck, it was going to be hard to act normal.

  Dinner arrived and so did the wine. I was tempted to knock it back at the speed of light like normal but as she took only a delicate sip from the glass, I did the same thing. Keeping the same pace as Emily seemed like the right thing to do. She wasn’t the sort of woman who I could get steaming drunk in front of.

  She also wasn’t the sort of woman that I was supposed to be imagining naked as she sat primly in front of me, eating with all the manners of a proper lady who had been brought up right… but that wasn’t stopping me. I could hardly look at her without picturing her taking me down to the back of her throat and sending me to heaven. The lady like side of her shedding away and the freak in the sheets coming out. I would see that side of her. I wouldn’t rest until I did, I needed to know if she was as good as I pictured her to be.

  * * *

  Time passed much too quickly. Quicker than usual as I was out with a woman, but that was because the conversation flowed easily because it was so natural. There was a real connection between us that made it fun.

  “I don’t want the evening to end,” I told her honestly as we left the restaurant. “Do you want to come to my hotel room for a while? We could have a couple more drinks there.”

  We both knew what ‘a couple of drinks’ meant. I was finally going to get to see her naked at last! But as I glance at her face and I spotted the moment of horror there, I realized that I might not be about to get so lucky after all…

  “Oh sorry, have I said something to offend you, I didn’t mean…”

  “No, no, it isn’t that at all.” She pursed her lips tightly together. “Look, I just want to be honest with you before we go any further.” I sucked in a breath and braced myself for the worst. “I’m a virgin. I don’t want to have sex before marriage, which I know is quite an old fashioned view, but that’s just me. I don’t want to lead you on, I want to be upfront about it. I want you to understand why I’m being strange.”

  Oh shit. She really was a good girl. One far too pure and good for me. It turned out that she didn’t have a secret wild side after all. She was everything that she looked to be. I didn’t even know anyone else who was saving themselves for marriage, that seemed like a view from the early nineteen hundreds…

  All the images of her bent over in front of me vanished in to nothingness. It wasn’t going to happen ever, was it? I was the cheap fuck guy, the one who made you feel amazing for a night, not the one who you gave your virginity to. I wasn’t the special guy that you married either. So, it seemed like it was off the cards for me and Emily.

  Frustration circled through me, my cock was utterly furious that it wasn’t going to get the action that my brain promised, but that still didn’t stop me from wanting to see more of Emily and I wasn’t sure why…

  “We can literally just talk and have a couple of drinks.” I held up my hands in a surrendering gesture. “I won’t try anything on. I respect that you have your views and you want to hold on to your virginity.”

  “You promise?” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “This isn’t some sort of trick?”

  “You’ve been honest with me, so it’s up to me to be honest with you as well.”

  It wasn’t where I wanted the night to end up, but maybe that was a good thing. I was supposed to be clearing my image up after all and acting like a much better person. This was just the start of that.

  Eight

  Emily (later that evening)

  “Wow, they really do treat you well, don’t they?” I chuckled as I scanned my eyes over the hotel room. Well, room was putting it mildly. This had to be counted as the penthouse suite for sure. “You even get a hot tub.”

  “Hey, when you make people good money, they will treat you well.” He shrugged and smirked. “Plus, I guess they assume that I’m going to be entertaining a lot of women in here, so they need it to be top notch.”

  “And have you been…?” I gave him a look. “Entertaining a lot of women in here?”

  “Surprisingly no. You’re the first woman in my room, and I don’t suppose you’ll be getting in there?”

  “No way!” I exclaimed in shock. “I don’t even have my bathing suit with me.”

  “You wouldn’t need it…” I narrowed my eyes at him unimpressed. “Not that I’m flirting.”

  He was, but in a sweet, harmless way, so it didn’t matter too much. It was actually kind of sweet and disarming. I found myself relaxing around him easily. Not enough to head in to the hot tub but still…

  “So, are you trying to tell me that your bad boy reputation isn’t an earned one then? That you’re really just a good guy at heart and the media has you all wrong as a play boy and a cocky asshole?”

  For a split second, I thought that he was going to flip out, offended by my remarks, bu
t then he tossed his head back and laughed loudly. “Oh no, it’s all earned. I’m everything they say about me and more.”

  He was proud of his image, which was strange since it wasn’t the best one, a bit like mine just the opposite.

  “Right.” I nodded and perched on the edge of the bed. “Well I guess mine is earned as well.”

  “Oh yeah? And what’s your reputation? I can’t imagine you having one.”

  “And that’s the issue.” I sighed, a bit irritated by the whole thing. “I want my career to progress and to become a bit of a house hold name in the modeling world. But it isn’t happening because I’m too wholesome.”

  “Hmm, I can see that.” I glared at him, infuriated. Maybe he was right but that didn’t mean I wanted to hear it. “You have a good girl look and apparently the personality to go with it. I can’t imagine you in any drunken scandal.”

  “Why do I have to be in a drunken scandal?” I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “Why can’t I just be a good person? I would rather volunteer my time and help people than get drunk and act stupid. I don’t know why that has to make me boring. Doesn’t it just make me a little different to the rest of them?”

  “Sorry,” he replied bashfully. “It seems like I have hit on a nerve here. If it helps, I know a little bit about what you mean. Sure, I have good sponsors. I can get a hotel room like this one, but it doesn’t matter how many rodeos I win, how often I prove myself, there are a lot of companies that won’t touch me because they don’t think I’m reliable. It doesn’t matter how good I am at riding those bulls, they let what happens afterwards, outside of work, change their minds about me, in case I get ‘distracted’. I find it incredibly frustrating that my reputation affects me like that.”

  We sat and stewed in our own irritation for a short while, having surprisingly found more in common that we realized… but as the time ticked passed, I suddenly realized that we could help one another!

  “Wait a minute.” I grabbed his arm and gave him an excitable look. “You need to look like you have calmed down in life and that you’re going to behave better, that you’ll be more focused now… and I need to become more interesting, to seem like I’m a bit of a mystery and I have an edge, a bit of danger or whatever…”

  “What are you trying to say?” He really didn’t seem to get where I was going with this.

  “That we can help each other. I can make you look calmer with my good girl, Modeling Nun, appearance.”

  “Modeling Nun?” his expression twisted up in confusion.

  “Don’t ask… that’s just what they call me. And you can make me look a bit wilder.”

  “Wait, I don’t understand.” He held up his hands to stop me talking. “Are you asking me to date you?”

  “Yes, don’t you think that’s the best idea ever? It could really work out for the both of us, couldn’t it?”

  “You mean actually be together?” He looked totally thrilled by the idea. “For real?”

  “Well, more of a showmance thing. I’m not saying that we need to be together for real, but we can act like we are to the rest of the world. We can make sure that we seem like this really exciting new couple. If you’re seen to have a steady girlfriend like me, then they will have to see you calmed down. And people will wonder from my end what I’m doing to keep a man like you amused. It will create a media interest, won’t it?”

  I stared at him pleadingly, hoping that he agreed with me. I couldn’t see any way that this could go wrong. I mean, a man like that wasn’t going to actually fall for me, was he? He clearly liked wild women, and I wasn’t going to fall for him. He wasn’t the clean cut professional man that I wanted in my life. He never would be.

  “Why not actually date someone?” he asked in the end, confused again.

  “Because I don’t want real romance to get in the way of my career. I’m sure you feel the same way. Relationships demand time and effort which I just can’t put in right now.” I didn’t want to tell him that my manager wanted me to date a bad boy and they really weren’t my type. It didn’t matter how hot Alex was, I wouldn’t see him as anything more than just the guy who saved me and hopefully my ticket out of my reputation. “This is easier. All the perks and none of the stresses, don’t you think? More of a business arrangement than anything else.”

  “Right, before I agree to anything, I need to know what the rules are going to be,” he insisted. “This fake relationship isn’t something that I have any idea about, so we need to set out the guide lines.”

  “Actually, that’s a good idea, yes.” I nodded. “I definitely think so. Like, rule number one, we’re obviously going to have to get comfortable touching one another so that we can be lovey dovey in public. We need to sell it.”

  “Right, okay. And what about other people? What happens then?”

  “What do you mean? I don’t think that we should tell anyone else about what we’re doing.”

  I might have considered telling Rebecca, but I wasn’t going to tell Alex that. I wanted to control the flow of information as much as possible and I didn’t yet know how much I could trust his people.

  “No, I don’t mean that. Of course I won’t tell other people. What I mean is hooking up. If me and you aren’t going to be really together, then it doesn’t matter if I screw around with other women, does it?”

  “No way!” I exclaimed, shocked that he would even suggest that. “I want to be seen as exciting, not some idiot walk over who gets cheated on all the time. And don’t tell me that you can keep it a secret because you can’t guarantee that. The women might go to the press to do a kiss and tell. Their stories will be much more interesting if you’re seen as in a relationship, so they might get paid a fortune for their words. We can’t let that happen. I have to be strong and confident. Not the good girl who can’t see how awful the bad boy is.”

  “Wait, so I can’t have sex for how long?” Alex demanded.

  “I don’t know… what about six months? We keep this up until the end of your championship then orchestrate a break up because of our work schedules or something. That way, it’s long enough to be significant, and the sponsors will look at you differently. It’s also enough time for me to make it big as well.”

  “But six months? That’s a god damn long time you’re asking of me here.”

  I cocked my head to the side, refusing to acknowledge his complaint. I hadn’t had sex ever, so I couldn’t understand why six months was such a big deal to him. He couldn’t honestly be serious.

  “Right, okay.” Eventually he threw his hands in the air and agreed. “I suppose the benefits will out weight the negatives. I don’t really have any choice but to go along with this, do I?”

  “Yay!” I leapt of the bed and leaned to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Well, I will find a way to make this work, and to get media attention as well. This will work out of the both of us, I promise you that much.”

  He didn’t look so sure, but he would in the end. I was going to make this happen. We would manage it around work and our lives somehow to become the hottest new rodeo couple around. Then when people saw that I was dating Alex Fancy, they would have to drop it and finally start taking me seriously. I couldn’t wait.

  “Right, well I am going to get an Uber home…” I pointed behind me. “But we’ll catch up soon.”

  “I can drive you,” Alex offered with a lovely sincere smile. “I haven’t had much to drink.”

  “I’m sure that many women would be so desperate to get in to one of your nice cars that they wouldn’t mind how much you have had to drink, but that isn’t me. I will never be able to forgive myself for it.”

  “But it’s my choice…” When he saw that wasn’t going to happen, he tried a new tactic. “You know, you could always stay here. I have a great big bed and an awesome hot tub… I don’t know if you saw the hot tub…”

  “I did!” I laughed and nodded. “But no, I’m not gong to stay. Thank you though. I’m outta here.”

 
; “Are you sure?” he called as I pushed the door open behind me. “It could be a great laugh…”

  “I would say some other time, but that isn’t going to happen either!”

  “Ouch.” He clutched his hand to his chest hard in mock pain. Of course, I couldn’t help but laugh at him. “You’re breaking my heart, Emily. How could you do this to me? How will I ever recover from this?”

  “I’m pretty sure that you’ll survive. I’m not too worried about you. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

  He was being cheeky, which I didn’t mind at all. I could handle him easily. At least I didn’t have even a scrap of feelings for him because then there was a chance that I could end up in a very messy situation. That wasn’t going to happen. It was just going to be a bit of fun. As long as I could get used to him touching me as if we were a couple.

  I shivered as I waited for the car to arrive, and not because of the cold. It was the idea of having a boyfriend, even one who didn’t really belong to me. It was definitely going to be very strange. A hand to hold, an arm around me, probably kisses in front of the cameras to solidify that we really were together…

  Yep, very strange indeed.

  Nine

  Alex (a couple days later, mid-June, afternoon)

  It was the knocking at the door that shook me from my near sleeping state. But it wasn’t a powerful enough sound to drag me from my rest. I hoped that it wasn’t someone important and they would just go away.

  “You in?” Kenzie called through my front door, which she’d realized was left open. I knew that I should have been a bit more careful, but I always felt safe at home. “Alex? I could be a robber here.”

  “You could,” I called back groggily from the living room where I’d set up shop on the couch for a while, to relax and watch TV. The near nap came along without me planning for it. “But I doubt that you’d be announcing your presence if that were the case.”