by Avery Gale, Jess Buffett, Willow Brooke, Lynn Ray Lewis, Gracie Meadows
Cowboys and Candy
Valentine’s Anthology
Featuring:
Avery Gale
Jess Buffett
Willow Brooke
Lynn Ray Lewis
Gracie Meadows
© Copyright February 2014 JK Publishing, Inc.
ISBN # 9781310376702
All cover art and logo © Copyright February 2014 by JK Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Edited by Kimberly Morgan, ML Hill
Artwork by Jess Buffett
Published by JK Publishing, Inc.
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Table of Contents
Lighting Up Valentine’s Day
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Her Outback Valentine
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Roping Cupid
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Edna's Heart
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Roping Candy’s Heart
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Books by Avery Gale
Books by Jess Buffett
Books by Willow Brooke
Books by Lynn Ray Lewis
Books by Gracie Meadows
JK Publishing, Inc. Author List
Lighting Up Valentine’s Day
by Avery Gale
Chapter One
Kylie stood on the small stump block her dad had set near the fence, leaned over the top pipe on the horse corral, and nuzzled Bandit. “You’re my best friend. Did you know that, sweet boy? What do you say we work out a bit tomorrow? I think we both need to let off some steam.” After spending several hours in airports and flying in a crazy zig-zag pattern that had left her questioning her travel agent’s sanity, Kylie had arrived home only a couple of hours before sunrise. She was running on fumes, and she wasn’t sure she had it in her to go through their usual routine, but she certainly didn’t want to shortchange Bandit when he’d been so patient over the years. She’d been so lost in her thoughts she hadn’t realized she was no longer alone until she felt the shift in Bandit’s attention. Glancing to her right she saw the face of chiseled perfection that she’d dreamt about almost every night for the past five years.
Gavin McCloud was without question the sexiest man she’d ever met. His brown eyes were the color of milk chocolate and his plump lips were usually tipped up just slightly at the corners, making her think he was just on the verge of grinning at her. Even though he’d settled his Stetson low over his brow, she could still see the sun-bleached tips of his hair curling over his collar. She knew without looking that he was wearing his favorite Ariat boots complete with well-worn spurs and that his Wranglers would be faded and riding low on his slim hips. The man was as close to a pin-up as any real life cowboy would ever be. Her bedroom windows faced the barns and she’d often laughed that her dad would have boarded them all over if he’d known how much time she’d spent over the years lusting after his second-in-command.
Gavin McCloud was only seven years her senior, but he’d always treated Kylie like a kid, and it had annoyed her beyond belief. She used to lie across her bed and peek through the lacy curtains her mother had insisted she use, watching as Gavin worked with the horses. He had usually shed his shirt in the hot summer sun, and watching the sweat glisten in the sunlight as it ran in rivulets down his ripped torso had fueled her fantasy and made all the boys she met at school pale in comparison. Just thinking about all the jacked perfection of his back and chest was starting to make her dizzy, and she was almost grateful when his deep voice pulled her out of her musing.
“When did you make it home, Ky?” His use of her childhood nickname reminded her that he still considered her a kid and that was more depressing than it should have been since it really should have been expected. Maybe she was just tired, but she had really hoped the men on her dad’s ranch would see her as an adult since she had graduated from veterinary school. Oh, she knew she’d still have to prove herself a competent vet, but was it too much to ask that at the very least the foreman viewed her as a professional? She’d spent five years in College Station and graduated mid-year with honors from Texas AM’s prestigious veterinary medicine program, but with one word, Gavin had shown her exactly how he viewed her…as the naïve young girl who had left home so long ago.
Her parents had given Kylie and her best friend a trip for graduation, and they’d spent the holidays bounci
ng around the Caribbean. She’d had a fantastic time and had the tan to prove just how much she and Penny had enjoyed their beach getaway. Kylie knew all the traditional songs touted the joys of a white Christmas, but as far as she was concerned, Kenny Chesney had gotten it right when he’d sung that all he wanted for Christmas was a real good tan. There wasn’t anything better than dancing to Christmas carols under lights strung high in swaying palm trees…unless you were doing it on the white sand of Palm Beach, Aruba. She’d fallen in love with the small island when she was fifteen and had returned every chance she’d had ever since.
Taking a deep breath, Kylie decided that even though it shouldn’t matter, it did, and she needed to nip it in the bud. “Kylie. My name is Kylie, Gavin. No one has called me Ky for years. And I got in very early this mornin’.” She watched his eyes widen in surprise before they darkened with something that looked like a cross between lust and warning. The look was fleeting, but it still sent a flood of moisture to her sex. She blinked and tried to decide whether it had been real or a product of her fatigue-fogged imagination.
“Well, Ky, as I heard it, you graduated before Christmas, and it is now the end of the third week of January. Even if you’d walked home—backward—from College Station, you’d have been home before now. So I guess my question is…where did you spend the holidays if you weren’t with your family?” She knew he’d deliberately used her nickname again just to annoy her, and damned if it hadn’t worked. She tried not to frown, but knew it hadn’t worked. Damn! He still knows exactly how to push my buttons. Well horse shit and hand grenades. You wanna play? Batter up, baby, because I’m not the same sweet, shy girl who followed you around like a puppy five years ago.
“Vacationing in the Caribbean with a friend. We had the best time. You just haven’t lived until you’ve tried to dance the Cotton Eyed Joe in soft sand.” She watched his clasped hands stiffened just a bit as they rested over the top rail. Bingo! Penny had come home with Kylie for holidays several times over the years. Penny’s family’s ranch was just outside Missoula, Montana, and it was often too far to travel if their break in classes was only a few days long. Kylie didn’t intend to tell Gavin she’d been with Penny unless he asked because…well, mostly just because she was being bitchy. If he wanted to poke at her with a sharp stick, she was more than willing to poke back.
Kylie just let the silence float around them like a slow rolling haze while she continued to pet Bandit while cooing nonsense to him. She knew her dad had alerted all the ranch hands that she was heading home, because the small guest house near the barn she’d be working out of had been cleaned both inside and out until it shone to perfection. She hadn’t made her way up to the main house yet, but knew she needed to head that way soon, or she would miss breakfast. She’d been on her way up the path when she’d spied Bandit and had stopped to greet her favorite ride. Bang head to rail. How sad is it that your favorite “ride” is a horse?
Gavin McCloud had walked up behind Kylie Stone as she’d been sweet-talking her favorite barrel racing horse and wafted between the urge to pull her into his arms and never let her go, and the competing compulsion to yank her over his lap and give her the paddling of a lifetime. Sighing to himself, he wondered at how many hundreds of times that thought would float through his lust-addled brain before he acted on it. He was surprised she hadn’t sensed he was near until Bandit looked over at him. Gavin had been watching over Ky’s favorite horse while she’d been away, and even though as ranch foreman all of the animals were technically his responsibility, there wasn’t any doubt he’d given Bandit a lot of special attention. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the treat he knew the sweet-tempered horse was expecting, and ignored Kylie’s raised brow.
Kylie Stone was five and half feet of perfection. She wasn’t reed-thin, but her hourglass figure was the stuff of every man’s dreams. Her jeans looked like they’d been molded to her and the soft blue t-shirt she wore advertised a snorkeling adventure in Aruba. She’d pulled her long hair back into a single braid that fell to the middle of her back, and he longed to run his fingers through the blonde silk that had always reminded him of waving fields of sun-ripened wheat. Her face was heart-shaped and her green eyes changed colors with her mood.
He’d known using her childhood nickname would rankle her, and he wasn’t even sure why he’d done it. But there was something about watching her spine stiffen that made certain parts of him stiffen as well. He’d battled to resist her ever since he’d first come to work for the Stone Ranch. Over the years, it had become more and more difficult as she’d grown from the lanky teenager he’d first met into the amazing young woman standing so close now that he could practically feel the heat of her body. Yes, indeed, Kylie Marie Stone was now a fully-grown, exceptionally bright, sharp-witted, and beautiful young woman.
During the years she’d lived in College Station, he’d often wondered what her reaction would be if she ever found out about his kinky tendencies. She’d been so young and innocent when she’d first gone to college, he’d worried about her safety right along with her parents. However, that had all changed one hot summer afternoon when he’d overheard a conversation between Kylie and her friend, Penny, as they lounged beside the pool. That one moment had changed everything and had squelched all his concerns.
He’d replayed that conversation over and over in his head like one of those old eight-track tapes his gramps had still been using when he died a couple of years ago. Gavin had specifically let Kylie’s words play in his mind hundreds of times over the past several months, and his conclusion was always the same…his boss’s daughter had grown up to be Gavin’s own personally tailored “perfect woman”. Hearing her mention a spanking scene in the romance novel she’d been reading had frozen him in his tracks, and then when she’d gone on to describe in vivid detail the effect reading about the young sub’s punishment had on her own libido, Gavin’s knees had nearly folded out from under him.
He’d left her father’s office and was walking along the backside of the privacy hedge separating the pool area from the barns when her words had floated on the breeze and shocked him to his core. Gavin had stood stock-still and listened as she and Penny had discussed the hero’s physical attributes as if they’d actually seen the fictional man in the flesh. They’d wondered if some men really were that well-endowed. Yes, sweetheart, indeed they are. And they debated whether or not it was possible for men to be ready to “do it again” in less than an hour. Oh, yeah, baby, indeed it is. He’d barely resisted the urge to shout the answer to that last question over the hedge. Christ, what kind of books was she reading anyway?
And now, leaning against the corral fence, he was standing so close to her that he could smell the citrus scent of the shampoo she used and the fresh scent of her body wash. He wondered how he would ever be able to work alongside her without envisioning her tied to a St. Andrew’s Cross or, better yet, lying over his lap while he lit up the lush globes of her perfect ass as his hand left its imprint on her bare cheeks. Hell, just thinking about it was causing his wayward cock to press against the zipper of his jeans with an urgency that was about to drive him mad.
The rest of their conversation had been sprinkled with their usual banter, but he’d felt an undercurrent of disappointment in Kylie, and for a few minutes he’d wondered what the problem was. But when he realized she’d purposely referred to Penny as “a friend” when discussing her holiday trip, he’d had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from smiling, because he had actually known the details of her trip before she had. And in that instant he’d figured out what was making her so prickly. She’d graduated from college, hell, she was a doctor, and he’d used her childhood nickname when she obviously thought she’d outgrown the moniker.
Kylie Stone wanted him to see her as a grown-up, and she’d mistaken his use of the pet name as confirmation that he still thought of her as the young girl who had been his shadow until her father had stepped in and threatened to ground her from her belove
d horses if she didn’t stop interfering with ranch business. Gavin’s heart had nearly broken when he’d seen the look of devastation and betrayal in her eyes. He’d known that she’d blamed him for her father’s harsh words, when, in fact, he hadn’t complained to Talon Stone about his daughter. Hell, he’d actually enjoyed her company even though she had often been underfoot.
Oh, she’d been full of questions, to be sure. And often, they’d been more about keeping the conversation around her flowing than they’d been about learning, but most of the time her sharp mind had been racing to process and catalog every piece of information she could glean from anyone within earshot. And he’d never told her dad of the times she’d still managed to sneak into the barns when her parents were away from home. Talon and Kay Stone had traveled for business a lot when the ranch had been growing, and they’d continued that trend after they’d become financially more able to travel for pleasure.
