Rodeo Rancher

by Lauren Wood

“Well let’s get out of here. I am afraid you are going to be wildly bored for this first meeting. I am the speaker and I have a feeling you don’t want to hear me talk.”

  “Sir, you have me mistaken.”

  “You were clear this morning how you felt.”

  “Well you ruined a good swim for me. I didn’t know who you were and in my world if some drunken guys starts calling you sexy, getting close, you get away from them.”

  Chris’ smile faltered and I was almost wished that I hadn’t said anything to get him upset and to take that smile away, almost. I had to lay down some ground rules if this was going to work.

  “I didn’t mean to appear like some drunken thug.”

  I laughed that time, surprising us both. “I can’t see you as any kind of thug, drunk or not.” The idea was preposterous. He was so straight and narrow that I doubted that he even knew the real meaning of the word.

  “There is a lot that you don’t know about me Stacy.”

  He was so serious for a moment I was at a loss of words and didn’t really know what to say. It was clear that there was more to the rich bad boy than what met my eye first. Maybe there was more to him, but once again, not for me. I didn’t need the stress.

  “I am sure there is. Keenan told me a little bit about you, but I know enough for the capacity of this weekend. I thank you for the ride home and help. I will make sure that Keenan feels like he was actually here.”

  “Back to business huh?”

  “I think it is better that way.” I stood up and waited for him to sign the bill and do the same. Truth was that I had to get away from him before I forgot what I kept reminding myself of. Chris was bad news and I needed to stay away from him.

  **END OF PREVIEW**

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  BE MY DADDY: SNEAK PEAK

  PREVIEWS

  Be My Daddy

  A Billionaire and Virgin Romance

  BLURB:

  I wanted to give her the full service treatment.

  Meri was a client that I wanted to break all the rules with.

  I met her at a wild time, in a wild place.

  One night with Meri changed everything.

  I’m a professional.

  I don’t f*ck clients.

  It’s against all of the rules.

  But with Meri, I’m learning

  Rules are meant to be broken.

  I have my share of women.

  Forgetting them all before they left in the night.

  I didn’t need any more to deal with.

  Didn’t want anymore.

  With so many reasons why not.

  I ignored all of the reasons why.

  Her soft smile and curved body.

  The way her eyes darkened when I turned her on.

  I couldn’t deny myself any longer.

  I had to have her.

  Just a kiss makes her whimper.

  What will happen when I slam inside of her?

  Taking her innocence with it.

  I long to hear the moans and screams.

  Mind made up, I settle on seduction.

  It won’t take much.

  I’m rich, handsome and skilled in charm.

  I will have her.

  I will make her mine.

  Chapter 1

  Meri

  The sun was beating down on my scantily clad body and there was nothing better than this moment. It was a little celebratory trip that I had decided to take to reward myself for finally finishing 6 years of school for my CPA license. I had less than a week before I started my internship in New York and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.

  But for now, all there was this second, this place, this beach and the hot sun above me. The drink in my hand somehow tasted sweeter in the surroundings and I didn’t even feel the warm buzz that ran through me. I had to go home tomorrow, but I wasn’t ready to go back. What I was ready for, was another week, month or so here in Thailand. The waves were beautiful and I never wanted to leave. I knew I had to of course, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to. It didn’t mean that I hadn’t fantasized about staying around and finding another life that wasn’t part of the plan.

  “Miss, would you like another drink?”

  I looked down at the glass I was holding. It was halfway full, but I ordered another anyways. They were ridiculously cheap, as well as the fact that I would need another by the time that tanned man came back. I didn’t miss the ravenous looks that he was giving me and I knew what it was that he wanted. I wasn’t sure if I agreed with it, but I didn’t really have a choice on how he looked at me. I just smiled and tried to be nice, with the same thought that I didn’t want to lead the man on at all. I wasn’t here for anything but the waves and some quiet time to read a book. I wasn’t interested in what the man was selling, unless it had a little umbrella in it.

  Watching the couple on the towel not too far from me, I envied the show of affection. I didn’t date much, mainly because I told myself I was too busy with work and school, but the truth was that intimacy freaked me out. Getting that close to someone was scary and I didn’t know if I was cut out for it. I had been on a few dates through the years out of high school, but they never really amounted to anything. It was all just a waste of time, so for the last year I had given up all together. They wanted one thing only it seemed like and I was waiting for the right man to come into my life. My unwillingness to give it away to just anyone made me a social pariah when it came to college boys.

  The tanned man that was slim and obviously a local kissed on a woman that was much older than him. For a few minutes I had thought that they were a couple, but then I started to think that maybe I was wrong about all of it. He was her lover, but maybe he was not her lover but for more than one day. The man was all over the giggling woman and I looked away, sure that I was seeing something rather unsavory unfolding in front of me. I knew that this sort of thing happened here, far crazier things, but it was another thing all together to see it with my own two eyes.

  “Meri, there you are. I have been looking all over for you.”

  I looked up to see Carol standing there. She was getting as tanned as the locals in the short time that we had been here.

  “I told you I wasn’t leaving this spot and I meant it.” I had spent most of the day on the beach, trying to get every moment firmly planted into my brain so that I would always remember this time. I was going to need it for the next fifty weeks until I got another vacation. That was a long time away and I didn’t want to waste a moment of it doing something that I could do back at home. There were no beaches like this in New York, certainly not in the city.

  “Well you missed an awesome day. Me and Rico had the best time.”

  I looked around for the handsome man that my friend had become attached to the hip to over the course of the last week. It was nothing new. Carol always found someone to love when we were out and about. It didn’t matter where we went or what we were doing, men flocked to Carol like she was honey. It used to bother me, but it was now just the way things were. She had that free spirit that people were attracted to. We were friends because she was so open and nice. I met her one of my first days of college as a freshman. She had shown me around and we had been friends ever since.

  Carol’s hair was long and blonde. She had that California girl look down to a science and her skin glowed a pretty bronze color that made her light blue eyes pop. Carol was everything that I wasn’t and though I loved her to death, I felt instantly frumpy standing next to her. This moment was no different.

  “He is going to miss you when we leave tomorrow. I don’t think you two have separated since we got here.”

  “I am going to miss him. I am starting to wonder if maybe I should stay a little longer. I mean, it’s not like I have a job waiting for me
like you do. I could stay here and just see what happens with Rico.”

  I just shook my head and closed my eyes. She was always finding male friends to keep her company, but Carol also thought that she fell in love with half of them. I must have spent a majority of my time, trying to convince her that she wasn’t in love. She didn’t love Rico. I think my friend just liked the idea of love and it came so easy for her.

  She saw my eye roll and got defensive. We had this conversation many times before. “What? You don’t think I should stay?”

  “No.”

  Carol pouted and told me that I was no fun. I could go with that, if I had to, but it was better to be safe than stranded alone in a whole other continent on the other side of the world. There was no way that I was going to be able to leave without her. I was just going to have to convince her that she was making a mistake.

  “Come on Meri. You haven’t even really met him or talked to him more than a few minutes. Come out with us tonight, one last hoorah before you go home and then you will see what I see. Then you will feel better about me staying. I know how you worry.”

  I didn’t want to, but I knew she would hound me until I agreed, so I just saved us both some drama. “Fine, but only under the agreement that tomorrow morning we hit the beach before our flight, sans Rico?”

  “What if I stay?”

  “You aren’t going to stay. You are going to come home with me and we are going to pack up the house and go from there. If after a couple of weeks you still feel the same way about this guy, the flight isn’t very much. Just give it some time to see how you feel. Take care of stuff back home and if you still can’t live without him, what is a couple of weeks. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and all that jazz.”

  I knew that a little time would have her seeing things my way or at least the right way. She didn’t even know the guy and though she said he was great in bed, it hardly seemed a reason to move across the world for someone. It just didn’t make sense to me, considering that her whole life was going to be back in the United States. I never would understand what made people do such crazy things for love or in Carol’s case, lust.

  She agreed and we got dressed to go out. I had bought a few fun little dresses while I was here. I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to wear them when I got back home, I would never have the guts. I wanted to have some courage here to wear it at least once out.

  The soft fabric swished around my legs and hugged my larger tits. I was well endowed compared to the most of the women I had seen here and it was no clearer than when I was wearing their clothes. I checked myself out in the mirror and almost turned around to change, but Carol liked it and I guess it was good enough.

  “You look hot Meri. You should wear stuff like that more often. You are always wearing dark colors. All of these bright colors look good on you.”

  “Yeah well don’t get used to it. I get back home and I am going to be an accountant. I don’t think there are going to be many occasions where I will be able to wear this.”

  She waved me off and told me that there was always a place to wear something like that. I didn’t want to really think about it, but I knew that she was right. If I wanted to wear it, I would find a reason. I kept telling myself I was going to get out there more, now that I had done what I set out to do, but my mind was still trained in the past.

  “I would get out more if you would come with me. If you don’t have an internship or a job offer when we get back, why don’t you come to New York with me?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anyone there.”

  “Me either, but at we would know each other. There will be a thousand Ricos in New York. You can have your pick of them.”

  “You make me sound so bad.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. There really wasn’t much to say. “Whatever it sounds like, I am just saying you should think about it. Now let’s go out.”

  “I forgot to tell you one thing.”

  I stopped at the archway to the outside and looked back at my friend. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like the one thing she was about to tell me.

  “What?”

  “Rico said that he was going to bring a friend. I am not saying that you have to go out with this person tonight, but at least have dinner with us and be nice.”

  “I’m nice.”

  “Yeah, well seriously, just be nice. You know I am not going to stay here most likely, it was a whim and I know you are right. So this will be the last night. Don’t do what you do.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. Whatever it is that you do when you are around guys. You put this wall up and get a little snobby.”

  It wasn’t the first time that I had heard that before, but I still didn’t like to hear it. I had been called frigid, cold, prudish, everything because I wasn’t a girl that went with the rest of the pack. I saw it as a good thing, but there were many others that didn’t feel the same way. Carol knew that I hated it and she tried to take it back, but it had me thinking. Maybe I was a little too uptight. I was going to try my best to have a good night and to not worry about everything so much. I was going to try not to do what I do.

  I went to the club and dinner with that in mind. The guy had a name that I didn’t remember as soon as he said it, heck, I tried unsuccessfully several times to pronounce it and I don’t think I ever got it right, not even once. I did everything that was expected of me and I had a pretty good time.

  But then again, I woke up the next morning with a headache I couldn’t ignore and Carol nowhere in sight. The sun and the brightness that I had loved so much were now a problem that squinting seemed to solve.

  Calling out Carol’s name, I waited for her to answer. When she didn’t, I tried my best to get up, but my head was swimming. I knew that something was off. I hadn’t drunk that much the night before, I mean, I don’t think I had anyways. I hadn’t drunk enough to feel this bad and not remember anything.

  Standing up, I went to the doorway and looked outside. It was then that I saw the lights and the men in uniforms walking towards me. My head was still hurting, but I blinked my eyes several times, sure that what I was seeing wasn’t real. I heard my name being called by one of the men, my name sounding strange with their accent.

  “You are under arrest Miss. Clemons.”

  “For what?”

  I was never given an answer as I was carted off towards one of the small cars with flashing lights on the top. I was still trying to piece it all together. What happened last night?

  Chapter 2

  Sam

  “What do you think of the color?”

  “It is good Sir. You have an eye for this sort of thing.”

  It was not the best complement, but what I wore said something to the world about who I was. I had a huge court date set for next week and there was going to be press. I didn’t want to think of myself as vain, but there was a part of me that knew I was. I wanted the pictures to go well and everyone always said I looked good in blue. My vanity was part of the reason that I was able to do what I do. I had to look the part, long before I was actually living it.

  “I will need three by Friday.”

  Charles was the same man that had been dressing me for years and never once had he missed a deadline. He was the best in the city, but never once as he even an hour late for a pick up. That was part of the reason that I went exclusively to him for all of my dressing needs. “Get up on the stand. It looks like you have filled out a bit, working out again?”

  “Just a little. I didn’t have to work out as much before, but with age comes more time in the gym.”

  I got on the stand, taking the jacket off I was wearing and letting him do some measurements so that they could be taken down a little and added to in the shoulders. I had a big week next week and all I could think about was how it was all going to go. If I won, it would be huge for my career, but if I lost, then I would lose in front of a lot of people. I didn’t like to lose, r
arely did, but I knew that it was my healthy dose of fear that kept me in line. Complacency was the devil.

  I got off the podium when Charles was done with his measurements and I picked out a few more things to have resized for me. When I left I was five figures lighter, but it was worth the weight lifted off of my shoulders to know that it was finally done and with Charles doing it, it would be done well.

  When I left out of there, I could feel my phone vibrating in my inside chest pocket and I checked to see who it was. I didn’t recognize the number at first, but then I remembered that it was Ashlyn’s new number. I made a note to myself to put her name in the phone after I got off with her. I almost didn’t answer and she was one call that I would have regretted missing.

  “Hey Ashlyn, how are you?”

  “Good Sam. Are you busy?”

  “Not too much. I just left the tailor and I was about to go grab some lunch. Are you downtown? We could meet for some lunch if you wanted to. I haven’t seen you in quite some time.”

  “No, I am not downtown right now. I was actually calling to see if you could do me a huge favor Sam. A friend of mine is in a jam and needs a good lawyer to help her out of it.”

  “You know that I don’t really do criminal cases Ashlyn. I don’t know how effective I would be.”

  “Please Sam. Can you just come down here and hear me out at least?”

  I owed her for some life changing introductions, but Ashlyn was never the type of person to bring something like that up. She never asked me for anything, so I figured that this had to be serious. It was going to be a hell of a week for me next week, but I did have now. I could do what I could or at least point her in the right direction of someone that would be better suited to help her.

  Agreeing to meet with her, I took the car down to the address that she gave me. I didn’t know the area all that well. It was an up and coming neighborhood, but one that was way below my price range. It would have been the kind of neighborhood that I would have moved into when I first came here, before I made my fortune.