T-Bone: Grade-A Beefcakes Series - Book 2

by Vanessa Vale

  Now he tried another tactic. My mother.

  “He could have been dead and you wouldn’t have known,” she replied, her voice going shrill. It wasn’t five o’clock yet, but no doubt she had a Manhattan, extra dry, in her hand. It was cocktail hour somewhere.

  “His demise would have been all over the news,” I countered. Having your photo on the cover of Forbes a few times put him in the famous category, at least in the business world. And if he’d died, then there would be a shakeup in one of the biggest wealth management companies, so… yeah.

  “Avaleigh Marie Carter. I raised you to be more respectful than that.”

  Calling me by my full name used to make me feel shamed. Now, I just rolled my eyes.

  “He’s the one who said I was cut off, no longer his daughter, Mother. I’m just respecting his wishes.”

  She sighed. “Call him.”

  I sighed, already tired of this conversation. She didn’t ask how I was. What I’d been doing these past few months. If I had a job, a boyfriend, been abducted by space aliens. She didn’t ask because she didn’t care. All she cared about was keeping my father happy.

  “Why?” I glanced out at the prairie, the tall grass waving in the soft breeze. It was so pretty here, so quiet and peaceful, but my mother’s shrill voice was ruining it.

  “I don’t know exactly, but he wants to talk with you about something.”

  I sighed again. “Yes, I figured that. If this is about Perry—”

  “He’s a perfect match for you. Handsome, attentive, smart.”

  I thought of Perry, then my mind shifted to Colton and Tucker. They were handsome. Attentive too. Smart as well, but our conversations had been limited. I wanted to talk with them, to learn more. As for Perry, I was all done talking with him. All he talked about was himself, how he’d be an asset to me.

  As fucking if.

  “How many times do I have to tell you I’m not interested in Perry?”

  “You don’t have to be interested to marry the man,” she replied.

  I pulled my cell from my ear and stared at it. I couldn’t believe my mother’s words and wondered once again if I’d been adopted. There was no love in my parents’ marriage, but there sure as shit would be in mine.

  “I have to go. I’ve got work. Goodbye, Mother.”

  I hung up on her, tossed the phone onto the other seat.

  It instantly chimed with a text. I picked it up, saw a number with a Colorado area code, knew immediately it was my father. He must have been sitting right beside her the whole time, probably listening in. All it said was Call me.

  “Asshole,” I muttered, annoyed, tossing the phone again. A song I hated came on the radio and I pushed the button to switch it with a little more force than necessary, then steered the huge-ass pickup back onto the road. I’d gotten pretty good about mentally shoving my father in a drawer, but it took a few minutes to calm down from my father’s side-attack through my mother. It was a waste of time to let them rile me. I had what I wanted. A business of my own. Friends. A paycheck I earned from hard work. And now, I had better—taller, broader, sexier—things to think about. Tucker Duke and Colton Ridge.

  And they were why I was doing this delivery. After spending an hour debating—and making sure I’d shaved and buffed and that my hair and makeup were just right—I was headed to the Duke ranch. Technically, the load in back was a piece of equipment that I was dropping off, but it was more myself. I was delivering myself to Tucker and Colton.

  I licked my lips, thought of the duo. Squirmed on the bench seat. A woman had needs. Serious needs that Perry would never be able to fulfill. Needs the likes of Colton Ridge and Tucker Duke could certainly handle.

  We know what you need.

  Tucker had said that the other day. At the time, it had pissed me off, not because he was all annoyingly sure of himself, which he definitely was, but because he’d probably been right.

  They’d been hounding me for weeks. Ever since I’d first met Tucker at Cassidy’s last month. The Dukes had had a family dinner there. Since the oldest, Landon Duke, had taken one look at my BFF, Kaitlyn, and fallen in love, I’d been invited to join them. So had Jed Cassidy—fallen in love with Kaitlyn, that was. Both of them had claimed her.

  Yeah, it sounded a little old-fashioned, but watching them together only proved Kaitlyn had really been claimed. Heart and body. I’d never seen her so happy, so content. So well-fucked. God, those two were hot—I’d even asked for Duke’s number once, but he’d only had eyes for Kaitlyn.

  I was thrilled for them, completely. Duke wasn’t for me. Well, not Landon Duke. It seemed Tucker Duke was the one to melt my butter. And Colton Ridge, too.

  Was there something in the water that had me and Kaitlyn being greedy enough to want two men each? I hadn’t had much success with one so far and now I wanted two. I did. I wanted them. No matter how much I behaved otherwise.

  But, it seemed both Tucker and Colton wanted me in return. They’d said it. Shown it by practically stalking me. For a month. If Perry had done the same thing, I’d have had him arrested. But with the two big, hot cowboys? Totally hot. Every single visit was foreplay. Not that I was going to tell them that. If I gave them an inch, they’d run roughshod over me. And there was no way I’d let them do that. My father had done that enough.

  I might look high-maintenance, but I could hold my own when it came to the Wild Wild West. You couldn’t tell it by my dressier-than-required outfits, but I’d been able to ride a horse and lasso a calf, castrate a bull and fix fence posts by the time I was fifteen. Beneath my designer denim and heels, I was all cowgirl. It was my father’s own fault, shipping me off to the family ranch in the Colorado Rockies each summer to get me out of his hair. It had been pretty boring—at first—but the people who ran the place had taken me under their wing, taught me everything they knew. Then, I never wanted to leave. I’d felt more at home, felt more like I’d belonged, than anywhere else.

  If people had pre-conceived notions about me, then that was their problem, not mine.

  As for Tucker and Colton, it was like they had ESP when it came to me. Even though we hadn’t even kissed, they somehow knew I’d like it—fucking—a little wild. Sometimes needed it rough. Needed to be told what to do. I wanted a bossy lover—or two.

  Which went completely against everything I’d fought against all my life.

  Bossy men.

  It was a circle jerk I didn’t want to be a part of. Perry and my dad pissed me off trying to get me to be a pawn in their little world, pestering me like wild billy goats wanting some attention. Just driving in the middle of Nowhere, Montana, and I got all riled up. When I’d been in Denver, it had made me crazy. Crazy enough to walk away from it all. From my dad’s pettiness. From the money, the fancy parties. Everything, to buy an agricultural store, the Raines Seed and Feed and settle in to the small house beside it. Insane? Yes, but it had been easy. Limp Dick did nothing for me and I’d wanted to be as far from him as possible. Far from the life I’d been forced into like cattle in a chute.

  Sure, I might have an MBA, but the only good it would have done for me popping out a few mini-Perrys was figuring out the best deal on mustard at the grocery store. Now, I had my own business and I was working it. Making it mine. It felt good to literally get my hands dirty. And those pre-conceived notions? Even in Raines there were a bunch. A woman like me shouldn’t be getting her manicure all messed up with running a Seed and Feed. What did I know about barbed wire fencing and salt licks for horses?

  They could all just kiss my ass.

  And the funny thing was, Tucker and Colton wanted to. And that was just plain hot.

  I’d spent the past weeks thinking of them, lying in bed at night and fantasizing. Imagining what it would be like with two men. God, there would be hands everywhere. Double the mouths, double the dicks. I was wet all the time and the fact two bossy, cocky cowboys made me this way only riled me even more. I was cranky with them because I was horny. Spreading my thig
hs and making myself come to visions of two cocky grins wasn’t enough. I shouldn’t be that way and I was mad at them about it.

  It was ALL their fault.

  I growled, frustrated, all but strangled the truck’s steering wheel in a tight grip. I had a set of girl blue balls and I’d quickly learned my vibrator wasn’t going to make it go away.

  And this was why I was making the delivery today. I’d texted with Kaitlyn earlier—she’d been at work and couldn’t talk on the phone, especially about this, in the small library—and gotten some girl help on my problem. Yeah, two hot cowboys wanting me was a terrible problem. But I’d walked away from a life with alpha males. Did I really want to take on two new ones? The fact that the answer was yes made me go insane.

  We were both fairly new to town and had become quick friends because of that alone. She was shy and reserved, a book nerd who hid behind her glasses. She was working on her issues caused by her dad. With two jobs, she’d been working herself weary. Until Jed and Duke. I was the complete opposite, wilder and high-maintenance, but had issues with my own father—although there was no comparison between hers being a drunk felon who’d almost killed Mr. and Mrs. Duke and mine wanting me to marry his second-in-command.

  Varying personalities aside, we were both into a Duke boy… and a second. While she certainly hadn’t been living vicariously through me—more like the other way around—I’d kept her up to date on how Tucker and/or Colton kept coming to the store and how I felt about that.

  * * *

  Me: They drive me crazy.

  Kaitlyn: Good crazy?

  Me: They’re bossy and too hot for their own good. They remind me of my father.

  Kaitlyn: They do no such thing.

  Me: OK. They don’t. But they tell me what to do. Grr.

  Kaitlyn: Are you talking about my men because it sure sounds like them (smiley face emoji)

  Me: Tucker and Colton.

  Kaitlyn: It’s simple. Jump them. You know they want you. Tucker can’t stop talking about you.

  Me: That’s reassuring, but I can’t just drag them into the back of the store when they stop by tomorrow and go at it while other men are at the counter waiting for their grain order to be filled.

  Kaitlyn: Go to them.

  Me: No way. Not brave enough for that.

  Kaitlyn: Have an excuse to go to the ranch. Deliver something. They order hay or feed or whatever from the store, right?

  Me: Every time they’re in. I swear, they have enough alfalfa pellets for the next two years.

  Kaitlyn: See? They’re into you.

  Me: Most women get flowers when a guy’s interested, they buy alfalfa pellets.

  Kaitlyn: (smiley face emoji) They tell you they want you, don’t they?

  Me: Daily. Heavy on the innuendo.

  Kaitlyn: The Duke boys’ dicks are named after cuts of meat. Duke doesn’t disappoint. I’m sure T-Bone will be quite a mouthful.

  Me: OMG

  Kaitlyn: And Colton? God, he smolders.

  Me: Fine. I’ll deliver something to the ranch. Then what? Show up in just a trench coat and heels? Tell them I want to tame them like two wild mustangs? Ask to see their beef?

  Kaitlyn: Just say yes.

  * * *

  Just say yes. Tucker had said the same thing. That’s what they were waiting for, would continue to stalk and wait for me to say. And that was why I was here, closing the store early so I could make a delivery myself.

  Kaitlyn had her men. It was time for me admit what I wanted and go after mine. Driving past the iron archway to the Duke ranch, I took in Tucker’s world. Through Kaitlyn, I knew he was the sibling who’d taken over the family’s cattle ranch when Mr. and Mrs. Duke retired. When they’d been hurt in the accident, all the Duke kids had been teenagers and had worked the ranch. The kids had kept it going as the parents recovered. They knew ranching inside and out. But Tucker seemed to have it in his blood.

  I passed the house, a two-story stone and white clapboard behemoth. It had to be considering they’d had four kids. The roof was metal, the steep angle allowing for the piles of snow Raines got each year to slide off. The setting was lovely, a creek lined with old Cottonwoods meandered along the back. The drive followed the creek toward the ranch buildings in the distance and I bumped along slowly in that direction. A barn—which was where I was headed—and several other structures were set further back. I’d guess they were a stable and a bunk house at a minimum. While my father’s ranch dealt in thoroughbred horses, it was familiar, like going home, in a sense. I felt comfortable on a ranch. Welcomed, even from the setting alone.

  Colton had stopped in the other day to do his usual stalking and had ordered an open sweep cattle tub. Yeah, one of those fence things that cattle ranchers needed to get their livestock lined up for, well, branding, ear tagging and even immunizations. Ranchers might know what one looked like, but everyone else in the world would look in the trailer and see lots of metal fencing.

  Since it was thousands of dollars, I assumed it was something the ranch really needed. And I used that big piece of equipment as my excuse to drop by and say yes to Colton and Tucker. While I couldn’t load the trailer myself, or take the parts out because they were ridiculously heavy and required brawn from several big men, I could deliver it, especially since my usual driver was taking pig feed to the Barnes property. I was disgusted by Roscoe for flirting with me since he was married. I didn’t know his wife, but I didn’t want to be that woman. So Hank was dealing with all the pigs. I huffed out a laugh. Yeah, Roscoe fit right in with his livestock.

  I parked the truck near the stable and hopped out, looked around.

  “Ma’am, can I help you?”

  I spun around at the voice. A curious cowboy. He took off his hat, held it by the crown and pressed it against his jean-clad thigh, offered a smile I knew could tug down the panties of lots of ladies. He was large, brawny in his snug t-shirt, jeans and sturdy boots, but he didn’t hold a candle to his boss. Or Colton—who just also might be his boss since he was foreman here.

  I felt an odd disappointment because it wasn’t Tucker or Colton. Colton, I knew, was somewhere about and lived in the bunk house. That little gem I’d gotten from Kaitlyn, my inside source to all things Duke. Sure, I’d taken extra time with my makeup before I drove out from town. No other delivery driver probably had the hots for a customer, but they were getting to me. I was interested… eager even, to see Tucker and Colton.

  Realizing the guy was waiting for me to answer, I pasted on a smile. “I’m Ava from the Seed and Feed and I’ve brought your cattle tub.” I thumbed over my shoulder to my payload.

  “Well, Ava from the Seed and Feed, I’m Ryan. I’d be happy to get some of the others to offload that for you.”

  “Thank you.”

  He took a step closer, settled his hat back on his head. “And anything else you might need, just ask. I’m at your service. Anything.”

  “Ryan!”

  I startled at the bark and Ryan spun on his heel.

  I had no idea how I missed Colton approaching, but I had. So had Ryan.

  “Boss,” Ryan said, the smile gone from his face.

  “Go find some others to help get that equipment off the trailer,” Colton said, tucking his thumbs in his front pockets, his gaze squarely on me. It only drew my eye to his well-worn jeans and how they molded, ahem… everything. God, from fifteen feet I couldn’t miss the outline of his dick. And it wasn’t just a little bulge either. No, it was as if he’d stuck a pipe in his pants. The way it curved up to his left hand made me lick my lips. Was that why only his thumb was in his pocket because his dick was in the way?

  I glanced up and the corner of his mouth tipped up.

  I’d been caught.

  I blushed, but I wouldn’t be embarrassed for my appreciation of the male form.

  He was admiring me in the same way. His dark gaze roved down my body as if he had Superman’s X-ray vision and could see through my clothes. And the equally appre
ciative look in his eye proved he liked what he saw.

  As for me? The whole tall, dark and handsome thing was doing it for me. It had ever since he came into the store that first time. His dark hair curled beneath the brim of his hat, touched the back collar of his snap shirt. The snap shirt that wasn’t supposed to be sexy, but was snug fitting because his shoulders were just too broad, his muscles too thick. Speaking of thick… I could barely tear my eyes away from the front of his pants, although I shifted a few inches to look at the big-ass, shiny belt buckle that indicated he had won some kind of competition. Rodeo, roping, something. Something that made my pussy get wet and my nipples—I was sure—poke against my top.

  When I looked at his face again, yup, he’d noticed.

  Ryan glanced at me and then Colton, tipped his hat without saying a word and walked off.

  Once Ryan was around the side of the building, Colton approached. “Can’t say my dick’s ever gotten hard for a delivery driver before.”

  3

  AVA

  * * *

  When he stood before me, he adjusted himself as if he was in pain. I had to guess it might be; that was a lot of… of meat to fit inside a pair of jeans.

  “I’m sure your dick gets hard for anything in a skirt,” I countered.

  He watched me as he stepped impossibly closer, said nothing. His hand came up and he tucked my hair back behind my ear. A gentle touch, as if he’d wanted to know what my hair felt like. As if I were a skittish mare and he didn’t want to scare me off.

  Oh shit. He could be gentle with those big, strong hands. A big, rugged cowboy who knew how to be gentle? My panties were ruined by that alone.

  “Haven’t you figured it out by now, sugar? You rule my dick. It’s yours. You just have to stop fighting this pull between us and say yes.”

  Oh. The yes again.

  I glanced away, cleared my throat. “Where’s Tucker? I thought you two came as a pair.”

  It wasn’t exactly true; they’d come into the store on their own a number of times. I just thought of them as a duo. As… gulp, mine?