by Sabrina York
Titles by Sabrina York
Stud for Hire
Cowboy to Command
Spurred On
Spurred On
Sabrina York
INTERMIX
New York
INTERMIX
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Copyright © 2016 by Sabrina York
Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
INTERMIX and the “IM” design are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
ISBN: 9780451488213
First Edition: January 2017
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Titles by Sabrina York
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Epilogue
About the Author
This book is dedicated to Kristine Swartz for making it all happen!
Acknowledgments
A huge thanks to Luann Reed-Siegel for her excellent copyediting. Your eagle eye is much appreciated! And I think we can all agree the InterMix art team did a great job on this scorching cover. A huge thanks to Lane Heymont for all of his support!
As always, I would like to express my appreciation to my fellow 12 Pack authors who helped bring the Stud Ranch to life: Randi Alexander, Cynthia D’Alba, Delilah Devlin, Shoshanna Evers, Sable Hunter, Elle James, Becky McGraw, Lindsay McKenna, Donna Michaels, Lexi Post, Rebecca Schaefer, Cora Seton, Susan Stoker, Paige Tyler and Beth Williamson. You all rock!
And a huge shout-out to the real stars of this enterprise, my AWESOME readers!!
Chapter One
Cody Silver’s feet tangled and he almost fell on his face as a tall drink of water uncurled herself from a refurbished red-hot Mustang and surveyed the front yard of his ranch house. The first thing he noticed was the curve of her ass because, seriously? It was a fantastic ass. And then he noticed her boobs. His pulse picked up and his salivary glands went into overdrive.
Her hair was gorgeous too, a kind of burnt umber, not enough for her to be a classic redhead, but enough that it probably spoke to her passion in bed. It tumbled down her back in a riot of curls.
With that figure, she had to be gorgeous too. Didn’t she? He found himself burning with curiosity to see her face, so he headed in her direction.
This was his home. It was only polite to welcome her.
Maybe she was a potential customer for the Double S Ranch, better known by locals as the Stud Ranch. Maybe she was a friend of Claire’s. Whatever. He didn’t care. He just wanted to meet her because he hadn’t felt this kind of instant attraction since—
She turned, and he got a glimpse of her profile and a skitter of unease rippled through him.
No. God no. It couldn’t be.
But then she heard him coming and glanced over her shoulder. He saw her full on and his heart dropped clear through to his churning belly.
His steps slowed. His anticipation faded. His trepidation rose.
It was her. Sidney Fucking Stevens.
What was she doing here? After all these years? And why did she still have this crazy power over him?
No other woman had. No other woman did.
It had been over ten years since their misbegotten affair, and the sense of loss still felt fresh. Probably because, after all this time, he wasn’t quite sure how it had happened. How he’d lost her. Why he’d done what he’d done.
He idly wondered if she still hated him.
Or, perhaps, not so idly.
He sucked in a breath, steeled his spine, and tipped his hat as he approached. Then he fixed something that might have been a smile on his face. Might as well try.
“Sidney,” he said, ignoring the catch in his voice.
She stilled. Her eyes narrowed and her nose twitched. She looked him up and down in a frigid perusal. Oh yeah. She still hated him.
“It’s been a long time.” The best opening he could manage.
She nodded, and said, “Not long enough.” She muttered it under her breath, but he heard. He suspected he was supposed to.
“What, ah, brings you to these parts?” he asked. “Are you here to see Claire?”
“Yes.” Her response was short and clipped. Nearly snarled, as though she couldn’t bear to be in his presence. Couldn’t bear to speak to him.
Now, Cody had his share of exes—more than a man probably should—but none of them could hold a grudge like Sidney Stevens.
“Claire’s out of town.” He hated saying it, because she’d probably get back into her car and leave and he didn’t think he could bear that. Though this altercation was anything but amiable, he didn’t want it to end. Not yet. It was better to have her stand there and hiss at him like an angry cat than leave. Especially after all this time. He found he wanted, more than he should, to keep her here. Which was, all things considered, foolish beyond reason. “Can I . . . help you?”
She did it again. Looked him up and down. He was left with the impression that, in her opinion, he was lower than a bug. But then, he couldn’t blame her. He’d been a dumbass back then.
And he wasn’t much better now.
“Sidney?”
She huffed out a sigh and turned away, raking her fingers through that glorious mane. “When will she be back?”
“A week. Maybe more?”
“What? Where the hell did she go?”
He blinked at her ferocity. “She’s gone to Houston to do some marketing. See if she can get more customers in.”
Cody, his brother, Cade, and sister, Claire, had turned their large ranch house into a B&B that specialized in parties for women . . . complete with hot dancers. It had been Cody’s idea, one born of desperation, when the bank had threatened to foreclose on the property after their father’s death. They’d gotten a lot of interest, but the jury was still out on whether this side-business could save the farm.
It would kill him to lose everything his grandfather and father had worked so hard to build. He didn’t know who he’d be without the Double S. And his siblings felt the same way. Each of them put their
all into this last-gasp chance to save their inheritance.
Sidney made a face and sighed. “I wish I’d known. I came from Dallas to see her.” After high school, after their breakup, she’d moved there and—other than an occasional visit to her parents—she’d never come back. He’d certainly never seen her around town. Not that he looked for her. Every day.
He suspected she took great pains to make sure they never crossed paths when she happened to come to Snake Gully. Damn it all anyway.
She looked good, real good . . . but he knew better than to say as much.
Her nose curled again. “I heard about what you’re doing here.”
Sidney’s distaste wasn’t the first he’d faced. Snake Gully was a small, conservative Texas town, and even though the ranch was on the outskirts, some of the old-timers didn’t like the idea of bringing in dancers and horny housewives from Dallas. They didn’t like it one iota.
But not one of those bastions of society had offered to help them out of their financial quandary. So, well . . . so there.
He didn’t know how to respond, so he just nodded. “What brings you to town?” he asked before he could stop the words.
She pinned him with a sharp glance and stared at him for a long while, as though trying to decide if she should deign to speak to him or just turn around and flounce away. At long last, she said, with a huff, “My sister is getting married.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I heard. Um, congratulations.” The word burned on his tongue. Cody knew Hanna’s fiancé . . . and hated him. Zack Pucey was the biggest asshole on this side of the Rio Grande.
And the other side.
And anywhere, really.
Why Hanna had agreed to marry him was a mystery. She was sweet and well-liked. Zack was despised. It was the oddest coupling he’d ever seen.
Sidney shuddered. “Congratulations? Thanks a bunch. Anyway, I’m in charge of the bachelorette party. I was thinking about having it here.”
He gaped at her. A rowdy party featuring a passel of hot, toned strippers was hardly Hanna’s style. But hell, a booking was a booking. “Sure. Come on inside and we can look at the calendar.”
“I’d rather deal with Claire.”
Not a shock. “She’s not here.”
“Or Cade.”
“Not here either.” He held out his hands to illustrate his helplessness. Not that he wanted to get her alone in a private space, but he did. Of course, if he dared touch her, she’d probably rack him in the balls. But a guy could dream. “Looks like you’re stuck with me.” He batted his lashes, surely not because he knew it would annoy her. “I promise to behave.”
Maybe he shouldn’t have made that vague reference to the fact that they’d once been something more than icy-polite strangers. She’d melted him once. That was how hot she was.
But she wasn’t hot now. Now she was cold. Frigid. Her icy glower made him shiver. He turned and walked back to the house. He didn’t check to see if she followed, because that would be an admission that he cared. Besides, he could hear her heels crunching on the gravel.
And damn. She was wearing heels.
He loved her in heels.
He forced that scintillating thought from his mind as he pushed open the door to the office and gestured to a chair. Then he dropped into the seat on the other side of the desk—surely not because he felt a sudden need for some barrier between them—and opened the calendar. “Do you have a date in mind?”
She mentioned something in June, and they settled on a couple of options.
“And how many people?”
Another frown. “I don’t know. Twenty-five?”
He arched a brow. “That many?”
“Tibby wants to come.” This she spat.
His head came up so fast he bit his tongue. Tibby. What a horror. Aside from being Zack’s sister and a monster in her own right, she was the woman Cody’d started dating right after he and Sidney broke up.
Beyond that, Tibby was still convinced Cody was in love with her—even though their relationship, if one could call it that, had ended nearly as soon as it had begun. Even though all that had happened nearly a decade ago, Tibby attached to him like a remora whenever they happened to cross paths.
Naturally, he avoided her like the plague.
He swallowed heavily. Cleared his throat. “Ah . . . Tibby?”
Sidney nodded. “She’s bringing her friends.”
“Awesome.”
Claire was going to have a conniption. She’d made it clear that Tibby was never to be invited to the ranch. But if it was a condition of Sidney’s booking, he would have to accede. Because he’d realized, all of a sudden, this was the opportunity he’d dreamed of. An opportunity to see her again. And maybe, if he was lucky, to seduce her again.
It was something he’d fantasized about for ten long years.
Making love to Sidney again . . . and finally getting her out of his system.
He hummed with excitement as they waded through the details of her event. Even as he wrote down each of her requirements, his mind was in a whirl, surreptitiously planning how he might soften her wrath, when and where he might kiss her again. It was foolish of him, but he couldn’t resist. Being so close to her, drawing in her scent, hearing her voice . . . all weakened his resolve, his protective instincts.
With a shock, he realized he would do anything to be with her again. If only once.
When they’d finished all the paperwork, she stilled and folded her hands in her lap. Then she looked at him—really looked at him for the first time. For once her gaze was not distant. It was warm, open, almost pleading. “I have . . . a special request, Cody.”
He poised his pen over the order form, even though all he wanted to do was stare at her. And maybe drool. “Yeah? What is it?” Whatever it was, he’d do it. If only to see that sincere look in her eye again. If only to please her.
She took a deep breath and captured his gaze.
“I want you to help me scuttle this wedding.”
***
Cody stared at her. As well he should. It was an insane idea, but Sidney was out of ideas.
Obviously.
She’d been desperate enough to come here. To take the chance of seeing him again, after all the heartache he’d caused. And man, it had been hard to maintain a civil countenance in his presence. She wanted to yell at him, rail, howl. She’d wanted to run. But she didn’t. This was too important. Hanna needed this—even though she didn’t realize it.
Still, Sidney deserved a frigging Oscar for her acting.
Cody blinked. “Excuse me? You want me to . . . what?”
She glowered at him. For some reason, he flinched. “Come on, Cody. Quit playing innocent. You and I both know there’s something wrong here. Hanna doesn’t love Zack. Not really. We need to show her.”
He shook his head, as though he didn’t understand. But then, maybe he didn’t. Men were notoriously oblivious. About everything. “Show her what?”
“That she’s not in love with Zack. What a mistake this wedding would be.”
“Sidney . . .” He sighed. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“You have hot guys here. Can’t you have one of them . . . ?” She waved a hand in an illustrative manner.
“What?”
“Seduce her?”
“You want me to hire a gigolo to seduce your sister?” He gaped at her, so she glared back. “That’s illegal, you know.”
“It doesn’t have to be a gigolo.” Hanna was hardly the type of woman who needed to pay for play. “What about other men?”
“Other men?”
She shot to her feet and began to pace. “Surely you have friends?”
He seemed slightly put out. “I have friends,” he insisted.
“Some handsome, hot, single guy friends who might like red
heads?”
“You want me to matchmake?”
“Whatever it takes. Anything to make her realize that whatever it is she has with Zack isn’t love.”
“Are you so sure it’s not love?”
She whipped around and pinned him with a sneer. “Zack? Really?” Surely Cody could see that Hanna was making a monumental mistake. One that would ruin her life.
Cody took a moment to consider her request, then shrugged. “I can try.”
Try? She braced her hands on the desk and glowered at him. “Go through your little black book. Invite some friends who might be interested.”
He pushed back his chair and stood. “You’re asking for a lot.”
“Am I? Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Asking that you invite some friends to a party?”
“It’s a party for women.”
“There you go. You have horny friends, don’t you?” Her tone underpinned the old adage that birds of a feather flocked together, and for some reason he looked wounded. She didn’t care.
His beautiful features firmed. He eyed her with a sharp consideration that made her teeth clench. “And what do I get in return? For this . . . favor?”
His tone made the tiny hairs on her nape prickle. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Will you?”
She narrowed her eyes. “What do you want?”
“I think you know.”
She leaped to her feet. “Forget it. I am not sleeping with you.”
His smirk was so annoying she wanted to smack it off his too-pretty face. “Did I ask you to sleep with me?”
“Then what?” A snap.
He shrugged and arranged his features into an innocent mien, one he’d perfected after years of practice. “A kiss. That’s all I want.”
She gaped at him. “A kiss?”
“Just a kiss. But a real one. You know what I mean.”
“Fine. Come here.”
He laughed. It was low and rumbling and arrogant and annoying as hell. “Not now. Later.”
“Later?”
