COWBOY ROMANCE: Avery (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 3)

by Amanda Boone

  “That’s it?” Raine asked. “That’s your whole history? What about your friends? A favorite place to be? To eat? Hobbies?”

  Antony looked up at her sadly. “We do not have time for many of these things. My family has always been motivated by wealth and the accumulation of money. I suppose that idea has become part of me too. We are not allowed much time to do the things we want, especially if there is business to attend to. And if you try and take a different course, you are cut off, just like that.” Antony snapped his fingers.

  “That sucks!” Raine cried.

  Antony snorted. “You will get no argument from me about this.”

  “Your family, your own parents just, what, disown you?” He nodded, his head bouncing on her leg.

  “I have seen it,” he told her. “One of my cousins thought he could make some money for himself, but he used the family’s company assets to aid him. When they found out, they stripped him of everything he had been allowed before, the houses, the cars, the money, and took what he had earned for himself because it was technically the family’s money. Then they turned him out on the street with nothing.” He turned sad. “I have not seen him since then.”

  Raine stroked his head, running her fingers through his hair. “I never thought life could be crap for rich people as well as the rest of us.”

  “It can be good.” He reached up to stroke her face. “Sometimes.”

  Raine bent down, and he lifted his head to kiss her. The pair shifted, laying face to face, sharing breath.

  “So have you got anything that’s your own?” Raine asked.

  Antony shook his head. “Not really. I can use the family things, like the jet, but only if it is scheduled to go somewhere. That is how I was able to take you to Houston. The jet was there to drop off some legal papers and to bring back Celine to assist in some of the business I have here. We even stayed in a hotel owned by my family.” He looked into her eyes, and she could see he was sad. “I hate it. Carson is loyal to me alone, I am sure, but the car has been in the family since they bought it in the nineteen fifties. I have an allowance, like a child, and I know from experience they would take everything from me if I do not make enough money or displease them in some way.” Raine pulled him close, locking their mouths together.

  “They can’t take everything, baby,” she whispered. “They can’t take me away from you.” Antony smiled and rolled her onto her back, running his hand down the length of her body, pausing when he reached her privates.

  “No,” he said with a husky voice. “They cannot.”

  ***

  Raine woke in a large bed, covered with a thick duvet and snuggled against the hard, muscular body of Antony. A smile crossed her face as she recalled their impassioned lovemaking beside the lake and then back at the Paradise Hotel. She had never come as hard or as often as she had in the past couple of days, and she was definitely enjoying the experience.

  Antony stirred beside her, and she watched as his eyes opened, focused on her face and his pupils dilated with lust. A smutty grin wriggled across his face as his hands started roving across her naked flesh.

  “Matin, mon amour,” he said softly. Raine let her leg fold around his thigh.

  “Hello,” she replied. “Sleep well?”

  “Oh, yes,” he said. “For some reason, I was quite tired.” He smiled, and they kissed. Raine scratched her fingernails down his back, relishing the feel of his hard, sinewy muscles.

  “Hmm. I could get used to this.” Raine said, kneading his flesh.

  “If you are a good girl, I might let you wash me in the shower,” he said.

  “Wow, really?” Raine answered with excessive happiness in her tone, “What will I have to do to earn that honor?”

  “I am almost certain you can figure it out,” he said with a grin, grabbing her breast and squeezing it gently.

  “Are you some kind of machine?” she said with a laugh.

  “The best kind.” Antony answered guiding her hand to his cock before reaching down and sliding his fingers into her. They toyed with each other, kissing hard as they each came, crying out in delight. Antony eventually left Raine to doze while he showered, considering the plans he had for the future and how Raine might fit into them.

  It had only been a couple of days since he had met her, in the gym of this very hotel, watching in fascination as her butt cheeks lifted in turn while she trotted along on the treadmill. She was shaped like a woman should be, curvy and big with lustrous, thick, black hair that trailed over her shoulders like a midnight waterfall. Her breasts were large and round with large nipples he loved the feel of in his mouth.

  Even the thought of her, naked and willing, made him stiffen in the stream of water, which cascaded over him. Antony jumped as the doors behind him opened, and he turned to see Raine, completely nude, standing there assessing his physique. Without saying a thing, she reached for him, trailing her hands down his body as she knelt outside the shower. His breath came in anticipatory gasps as she lowered her head forward to take him in her mouth, and he groaned in delight as her soft, warm mouth enveloped his cock. Her tongue swirled around the sensitive rim of his head as she took him as deep as she could and her felt the back of her throat, hot and pulsing, for a second before she pulled back again. Raine kept a slow pace, sucking her way down his cock and back up again, gripping his muscular sides and pulling him towards her.

  “This feels so good, Rainey,” he said. “So good.” His world seemed to shrink down to the contact point between them, her hot mouth on his cock. A spot, which felt like it was in the depth of his balls and waist at the same time, throbbed with a growing pressure. As Raine worked his penis with her mouth, the pressure grew, spreading up his abdomen and into his chest, making his throat tighten and his breathing ragged. He gripped the sides of the cubicle door for support as the muscles in his legs stiffened. With an inarticulate roar, Antony exploded, shooting what little come he had left straight into Raine’s mouth. He was amazed she seemed to do this happily, swallowing every drop and enjoying it.

  Raine got to her feet and looked into Antony’s eyes, loving the bright red tint which she brought to his face as he came.

  “Do I get to wash you now?” She asked in a coy, little voice. He shook his head.

  “No. I will wash you.” Antony stepped out of the shower, guiding her under the warm spray and letting the water caress her flesh. His hands glided over her skin, massaging and rubbing her shoulders, back, buttocks and thighs. He squeezed gel into his hand and lathered her skin, taking his time to reach round and tease her nipples before moving down to her belly and then lower. Heat boiled from between her legs when his hand got there, and he circled his fingers round her thick lips, deliberately avoiding her most sensitive parts.

  Kneeling behind her impressive buttocks, Antony reached between her cheeks and gently stroked her clit, watching as her legs trembled. Pressing the tips of his first two fingers against her tight opening, Antony gently pushed up, sliding them deep into her wetness. Raine moaned her pleasure and leaned against the tiled wall, pushing her butt out to let his fingers find their way around. Antony levered his fingers forward, finding and pressing against the spongy tissue of her g-spot. He rubbed against it in small circles drawing quiet whimpers of joy from Raine, who had thrown her head back in pleasure. Rubbing harder, Antony built up the pace of his fingers until Raine was crying out with each breath and her thighs trembled in orgasmic shudders.

  Her breathing stopped and, he felt her clench around him, her ejaculate spraying out over his hand, while her hips jerked and her breath came back with a cry of delight.

  “Oh God, Antony. It feels so good when you do that,” Raine told him. “So amazingly good.” She leaned back into his waiting arms as he stood up, and they both relaxed under the shower.

  Once dressed, Antony ordered some breakfast and made a few calls, while Raine just watched him work. His tone was completely different than the way he spoke to her, commanding and authoritative
rather than sweet and reverent.

  Raine wondered what it would be like for him to order her around like that in bed and concluded it might be quite exciting.

  “What?” Antony asked, as he turned to see her dreamy expression. She grinned.

  “Just wondering how it would be if you were to command me during sex.”

  “Command you?”

  “Yeah, you know, like you were on the phone, ‘Do this, get that, make sure I’m kept in the loop. That kind of thing.”

  Antony looked at her blankly. “I already speak to you that way.”

  She laughed. “No you don’t,” she told him. “You use your special voice to talk to me.”

  “Special voice?” He snorted. “Don’t tell anyone else I’ve got a special voice, I might get some kind of bad reputation.” After a knock at the door, the skinny, Mexican receptionist whom Raine had had a couple of run-ins with rolled a trolley into the room.

  “Your meal, sir.” He said, pointedly avoiding mentioning Raine.

  “Hey, Ru.” She purred using the nickname she had given him a few days before.

  “Good morning,” he said in a strained voice. Turning stiffly, he sashayed from the room, his skinny legs and back as stiff as could be. Raine chuckled, and Antony smiled.

  They ate in a comfortable silence, Antony skimming through something on his laptop as he chewed thoughtfully. Raine sipped her coffee and watched him contentedly. Antony glanced at her, his green eyes showing amusement.

  “Enjoying the show?” He asked.

  “Oh, yeah. And wondering when you were going to tell me about ADB Holdings and fracking.”

  Jesus Raine! Where did that come from? You’ve got a good thing going here, and you want to go and fuck it all up with stupid questions like that?

  Antony, meanwhile had frozen, his hand halfway to his mouth with a coffee cup. His eyes rolled towards Raine who almost flinched at the coldness she saw in them. His eyes, which were usually so large and full of wonder when he looked at her, so filled with passion when they made love and so full of happiness afterward, had changed to small slits hiding the feelings he had.

  “Where did you get that from?”

  “Lisa,” Raine blurted. “A friend at the local paper.”

  “A reporter?” He nearly spat the name of Raine’s chosen profession as if it tasted like poison to utter.

  “No, she owns it.” She told him in a frightened squeak.

  “This is how I said, once a journalist, always a journalist.” Antony’s lips twisted in a pained smile, “Quelle surprise.” Raine sat with her heart beating and an anticipatory pain in her chest as Antony sipped his coffee in contemplative silence. Abruptly he slapped his laptop closed, stood up from his seat and looked at her.

  “I have some things I need to attend to,” He told her in a business like voice, “Maybe I will need you later.” Raine noticed the lack of questioning tone in this statement but was left breathless, as if he had punched her, by the complete lack of a kiss.

  “Antony...” Raine whispered as he strode from the room they had made love in that very night.

  ***

  Carson pulled alongside Raine as she trudged along Main Street, her tear-streaked face and hitching breath a tell-tale sign of how she felt. He halted the car, opened the door and guided her gently into the backseat before closing the door and driving off. Raine lay over sideways as Carson drove. She didn’t care if he took her home, or if Antony had ordered him to make her disappear. It made no difference.

  Without him.

  Those two words rolled across her mind like driftwood in the ocean swells. One second they were gone, and she started to believe she would be fine. The next they would reappear, sluicing down a wave towards her, reminding her of what she had lost. Physical pain. His rejection and her loss caused physical pain.

  How is that even possible? I was upset when Sam and I broke up, but this feels as if someone died. As bad as when daddy died. I can’t take this. I can’t live with this.

  I won’t be seeing Suzie again, so thanks for that. Her mother scalded her when she arrived home. Raine looked at her mother blankly.

  “Go watch TV, mom,” she said automatically. Dutifully, her mother did so. Raine laboriously climbed the stairs to her room, laid on her bed and wept until sleep claimed her.

  Every waking moment for the next few weeks saw Raine operating on a kind of automatic pilot. She looked after her mother and the house, even tended the garden a little but didn’t really notice any of the things she did. Her mind was wholly focused on her loss and the pain it caused. The abyss, which had opened in her chest, could have been used for landfill and never brimmed over.

  A bottomless shit-pit. Just try and fill me with junk, waste, or garbage. It’s what I deserve for losing the best thing I ever had. I always was a big pointless waste of air, and this proves it. I’m worthless.

  Raine howled. A huge despairing cry, screaming her pain and loss to the uncaring world.

  I only really knew him for a couple of days, but it feels like we loved a lifetime’s worth.

  Raine woke to complete blackness a month after seeing Antony for the last time. Something had roused her from her sleep, and she listened for what it might have been. Despite her depressed state, she dragged herself from her bed and flicked the hallway light on, squinting against the glare. Her mother lay at the bottom of the stairs, one arm folded at an impossible angle.

  “Your mother has suffered a stroke due to the pressure from the tumor in her brain,” The polite Nigerian doctor explained. “She broke her arm in two places when she fell down the stairs, and three of her ribs are punctured.”

  “Is she going to be okay?” Raine asked in a little voice.

  “It does not look good for her,” He said in the same calm voice he used before. “I would be very surprised if she regains consciousness.” He shook her hand and offered his condolences before taking her to her mother’s bedside.

  Three hours later Raine’s mother stopped breathing.

  Somehow Raine managed to get home. Walking into the empty house was almost calming. This had been her mother’s space for so long, her mark was indelibly printed in a thousand different ways, and it felt comfortable to Raine. She sat in her mother’s old spot on the sofa and sighed.

  She can’t suffer any more. No more pain for mom. Just me.

  Raine had no idea how long she had been there or how long the hammering sound had been coming from the front door, but she eventually roused herself from whatever waking coma she had been in and shuffled towards it. She didn’t even consider who it might be, just opened the door as her mind told her to, years of human conditioning taking over.

  She didn’t recognize the man standing on her porch at first. He was tall and dark with rain slicked hair and sodden clothes, disheveled and dirty.

  “Yes.” Raine said to his filthy trainers.

  “Raine?” The voice tugged at her mind as if caught on a fish hook. “What is wrong?” Raine raised her eyes as if in slow motion to study this stranger’s features. His green eyes jolted her memory, and everything cruelly shot back into focus.

  “Antony?” she asked pointlessly. “Antony!” Raine launched herself at him, making them both stagger out into the rain. She wrapped her arms around his chest and laid her head against him, listening to his heartbeat. “Real. You’re real.” She assured herself.

  “Allez, we should get out of this, Raine.”

  “And this rain. When did it start raining?” she asked.

  “Who cares?” he asked.

  Inside, Raine handed him a towel and started brewing coffee. As soon as he had dried himself a little, he pressed himself against her back.

  “This is where I need to be,” he whispered into her ear. “Where I belong.”

  “Crutch Junction?” Raine asked, smiling. “What happened to you?” she asked then, seeing his rumpled and dirty state properly for the first time.

  “I...crossed the family.” Her eyes widene
d, “I was doing some business of an...extraneous nature.” He added cagily. “They cut me off like they did my cousin, and I have been working my way back to you ever since.

  So now that you’re broke you come see me?

  Raine stepped away from him, turning and searching his face.

  “I went through hell when you threw me away,” she barked at him. “I wanted to die. Now you come back because you need somewhere to stay? And you think I’m just going to let you waltz back in here?” She patted her chest unconsciously. Antony took her hands and knelt on her kitchen floor.

  “I am so deeply sorry for everything I put you through, but I needed to protect you from them. I suffered too. I wanted to see you, speak to you every day.” His words caressed their way into her heart, warming it a little. “You must believe me. I did this for us, so we can be free, together, without the DuBesne family controlling us like puppets.” His voice was strained, as if he believed it at least. Raine lifted his chin and looked deep into his eyes, seeing the honesty there.

  “What are you going to do now?” she asked.

  He grinned. “Make love to you for the rest of time,” he said in a suggestive tone.

  “Tempting as that is, normal people have to work for a living, baby.”

  “You think I am normal?” he asked with mock seriousness. Raine smiled. “You remember Celine?” She nodded, “We have been friends since childhood, almost as soon as I was sent to France.” He moved closer to Raine, taking hold of the dressing gown she wore, “Celine owns ADB Holdings, not I.” He pressed his lips to hers, flicking his tongue across them and lighting fires in her belly. “So I have plenty of time to make love to you and a little time to work with Celine.” He grabbed her hair and tugged gently, turning her face up to his, “I love you.” He growled, “And we are rich.” He smirked.

  THE END

  The SEAL’s Command

  Bound to the Alpha Billionaire