Drawn to a Cowboy (Brother Duet #1) Page 7

  “She’s off-limits. So back the fuck off!” I was probably a bit brasher than I needed to be with him. She wasn’t mine, I had no claim to her, but I wouldn’t let him have her either, that was for certain. If he attempted to lay one hand on her, he’d no longer be the Indian, and I would be the one doing the scalping!

  “Oh. That’s the one that’s gotten under your skin is it? I haven’t seen you all hot and bothered about anyone since college, and that one really fucked with your head. I hope this one is not jerking your chain the same way. I can certainly understand your interest in her though. Tap it yet?” I shook my head and took a swig of beer number two… or three.

  “What the hell is with you, Spence? You sound like a douchebag.”

  “I’m just fucking with you. To be honest, I’m going through something familiar myself, and I’m worried that Valerie might have fucked up my chances with her. I guarantee my situation is probably a lot more messed up than yours.”

  “What’s Valerie up to now? I thought she was gone.”

  “She was. She came back. She’s pushing me to sell our place again.”

  “And the new playmate?” I was sure that whoever he was talking about was nothing more as he had never dated anyone seriously after his divorce.

  “It’s not like that. She’s passed the test. It was touchy one night, but it wasn’t an issue. Then Valerie showed up and brought up our past. Pulled some shit with her that I can’t even repeat. Then, of course, she threw up her usual bullshit claim of what I did to her. That her lifestyle was my all my fault. I made her what she is today. Ugh.”

  “Shit!” I shook my head imagining Valerie in action. Whatever she did had to be really bad for Spencer to keep quiet about it. “Why are you still testing women? Not all of them are Val. And what’s so special about this one? You haven’t been concerned about others since your break-up, Mr. I’m Staying Single for Life.”

  “I’m not even sure where to begin, but I can’t get her out of my head. She’s in my every thought. I tried to get her to come here with me. What Valerie did had her running for the airport, and she flew home. I need to think out my next plan, I can’t lose her.” Downing his beer, he asked where he was bunking. I told him his usual room was being used by one of Norma’s sons, and that he had to slum it with me.

  Heading out of the lodge, we jumped into his rental, and I had him drive up to my cabin. I couldn’t believe Spencer had finally decided to commit again after a truly fucked up marriage to his high school sweetheart. I thought he would remain a bachelor for a lot longer. He had been a major player after their split. Said he was done, never again. I guess when the right one came along, everything you thought and swore not to do or refused to repeat again, went out the window. Maybe I needed to rethink my feelings… my actions toward Jade.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Jade

  With the wedding day activities in full swing, everybody was contributing their time. Seeing as he was involved in everything, he couldn’t ignore me completely. Plus, I didn’t think he was happy that I was doing so much with his very, equally, handsome brother. Fraternal twin, they had similar features and skin coloring. They looked like brothers, definitely. But Spencer had dark brown hair almost black and dark brown eyes, opposed to Sage’s light brown hair and sky blue eyes.

  The wedding plans were great. So fun! They opted for getting married in a field near the lake, close to cabin number five. To transport all of their guests they asked for a hayride. After the bride and groom said, “I do,” they had a cookout in a picnic area featuring: steaks, corn on the cob, ranch beans and potato salad. With the two-tiered cowboy hat cake cut, the dancing began on a newly constructed large, raised wood planked platform that they decided would remain a fixed structure on the property. It looked enchanting decorated with millions of twinkling white lights strung across it, from one side to the other. With the addition of a local country western band playing on an elevated stage, everyone hit the floor to kick up their heels and stomp their boots.

  I loved every minute, walking from one event to the next with a smile plastered on my face as I helped do whatever needed attention. Finally off duty, I watched the guests dance. “Care to dance, little lady?” a certain cowboy asked quietly in my ear. Turning around, I nearly stumbled right into his arms as I nodded. He left me speechless, he looked so handsome in black fitted denims with a pale blue, dress shirt with mother of pearl snaps and a black cowboy hat. Needless to say, he was wearing a pair of boots, as well. Damn! He smelled so good too. And felt so good holding me as we swayed to a slow melody. “Pretty dress,” he complimented me.

  Looking down at the dark rose printed, spaghetti strap, fitted bodice and full skirt dress, I did a little shimmy to swing the fabric. “Thanks it was my grandmother’s. When I was a little girl I used to play dress up in it. It used to drag on the ground. Not to mention I didn’t quite fill the top part out. Ropes and strings held it in place.”

  “Now your curves are hugged nicely.” His voice was raspy. He was making me nervous, among other things.

  “My grandmother was into fashion. She was a part-time movie actress, part-time costume dresser. She was so elegant. Adorable. She looked like Doris Day with Rita Hayworth’s red hair color.” I could see her clearly. She is still precious!

  “So you get your red hair from your grandmother?” He wore a smirk.

  Bless him for breaking the tension, I laughed wildly. “Not quite!” Before I was red, as a natural blonde I always liked my grandmother’s red hair. I started adding a few natural red highlights as a teen. After high school, without rules, I experimented with different shades and wound up with my “mermaid princess color” as the beauty shop called it. The unnatural red shade seemed to suit me. My grandmother got a kick out of it. My grandfather just shook his head.

  Dancing so close to Sage at the wedding reception had me thinking about them and their many years together. They met on a western movie set that my grandfather was acting on, and she was working with costumes on location. She was in charge of outfitting the cast. With one look at the beautiful Bonnie Lane, he was smitten. My grandmother said he was constantly ripping his britches just so he could see her. She didn’t mind at all, she thought he was so handsome. She joked that he was such an ass and that he had a mighty fine one!

  She was just barely twenty, still a virgin. He tried like hell to get in her panties. She said he was a real wolf, what we would call a player. He had quite a reputation already at twenty-five. Sounded so young. I was thirty and never married, at least I wasn’t still a virgin. She told him that she was saving herself for her husband. She let him smooch her, but that was it.

  One day he came to see her dressed up, all spiffy, nothing torn. He told her to put on her best dress. They were shooting a few miles out of Vegas. He wanted to take her out on the town, he said. Ready to go, he drove straight to The Little Church of the West Wedding Chapel, of course. They got hitched. Went out to dinner then spent their first night together in a swanky hotel room where he deflowered her, my grandmother’s words.

  Then they were back to the set the next day and he was up to his same antics, ripping anything and everything he could to visit his bride. The studio sent him a hefty bill at the end of the filming. He didn’t care, he said it was worth every penny to be able to see his Bonnie-girl. I wanted someone to feel that way about me. Someone that would continue to pursue me. If only it could be the man that held me in his arm at the moment.

  “Where did you go, Jade?” I heard Sage ask, pulling me closer still.

  Had he heard any of my thoughts? “Nowhere, I was just listening to the words to this song.”

  To my surprise, he began to sing the words. “Pretty mouth… thank God… I live for little moments… steals my heart… doesn’t even know it!” He sounded great. He was killing me slowly. I couldn’t believe how the night was turning out. I couldn’t believe that I was in his arms. I couldn’t believe that his lips were skimming my neck and heading toward m
y mouth. If I’m dreaming, please don’t wake me.

  “Hey you two, get a room!” We heard someone say.

  “Sounds like a good idea. Come with me?” I nodded yes and he scooped me up. Walking off into the darkness of the night, I had no idea where he was headed, but at that moment I would’ve gone anywhere with him. I was weak, his dancing and singing had hypnotized me—I was at his mercy.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To the hump… honeymoon cabin.”

  “What about the bride and groom? Are they into kink? Group thing?

  He laughed. “I’m not sharing you with anyone. They took our Columbine tent for their stay. We gave them the option.” I loved that he called it “ours” and I was extremely jealous of them getting to use it.

  Arriving at the door of the cabin, he had me reach into his pocket and pull out the key. “Keys? Already had this in mind?”

  “A guy can hope… wish… anticipate… be prepared.”

  “I get it.” I tightened my hold around his neck and attacked his lips.

  Breaking our kiss, he urged me to concentrate on the lock. “Hurry. I need to fill… feel you. I’m aching here. Painfully so!” I giggled at his words.

  With the door unlocked, we moved straight through to the bedroom, bathed in low lighting. There was no stopping what was about to happen. Placed on my feet, I wasted no time unhooking my dress. Letting it fall to the floor, I stood naked and he groaned.

  Then before he could grasp a hold of me, I untucked his shirt from his pants and pulled—God, I loved his snap closure shirt. With him, they should be mandatory. Running my hands down his hard chest, I leaned forward and nipped him. I wasn’t about to play games or be upset that he had ignored me. I wanted him and I was willing to take him when I could.

  “I’ve missed this.” I whispered, continuing to run my hands down to his pants, helping him out of them. My fingers were tingling as they skimmed over his naked muscular frame. “You. Us together.” Stop your words before he pulls his clothes back on and leaves you wanting! Adding my lips to his skin on a downward journey, I was able to quiet my verbal declarations.

  “Oh my God, Jade, no, you don’t…” he murmured as he tried to keep me from sinking to my knees in front of him, “have to do that.”

  Too late, I was already licking my eager lips looking up at him, “Keep the hat on,” I said excited to taste him—excited to live out one of my cowboy fantasies. I probably should have been letting him pleasure me, letting him make up for the lost time apart, letting him give me a sexy apology. But it was what I wanted to do, so in a way, it truly was more for me than him.

  Aroused by his moans as I cupped his taut balls, I ran my tongue up and down his thick length. Add in the lovely look on his face and I was even more turned on. My nipples hardened as I took him completely into my warm mouth. His whole body shook as he groaned.

  Working my hand into the mix, I wrapped one around the base of his cock firmly. Stroking and licking and sucking, I worshipped him. I loved when he took matters into his own hands literally; his fingers grasped my hair, winding it around his fists. Guiding me up and down his length, I moaned as I looked up at him.

  “So pretty,” he said as I slipped my free hands over my body.

  With one hand to my breast I played with my nipple, while my other hand ran between my legs to toy with my vibrant red curls that I knew he loved so much. “Oh Jade,” he panted before closing his eyes, throwing his head back and releasing his salty honey down my throat. So good! My whole body shuddered as I worked myself into a state of complete bliss.

  What I thought was bliss proved to only be an appetizer, as I was lifted up off of the floor and deposited on top of a soft, downy bed dressed in white billowy linens perfect for deflowering a bride. Not a bride nor a virgin, but I still felt special as he paid extremely generous attention to every inch of my body. Slowly and meticulously, he made me feel beautiful with his loving words and his incredible touch that warmed my skin and overheated my sexy bits.

  The orgasms he provided were mind-blowing, spectacular, but it was the tenderness that hit me. It was the cuddling between each renewal of our coming together. It was the lyrics. The words that had been quietly recited to me, I realized were songs, songs that I was familiar with:

  Ones that proclaimed stories of loving someone from the beginning.

  Ones that spoke of forever.

  Ones that could hurt me deeply if I believed that he meant them.

  Ones that when I was gone would play on my radio and crush me.

  Or, maybe they were his way of telling me he loved me, I liked my “or.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Sage

  Taking Jade to the honeymoon cabin, the “hump shack” as the guys called it, was the best move I had made in weeks. Why did I deny myself her company, I questioned. I wasn’t completely opposed to having a relationship, but it had to be the right person. Someone who was going to stay. I couldn’t do what Hank did, waiting for his woman to return. I was ready to make a commitment to something that I was sure was permanent. Until she came along, I was satisfied with brief encounters here and there off the ranch. Jade on the ranch was probably not smart, but I couldn’t stop the want for her. One look at her in that flower printed dress and red boots, I was a goner. I knew what Hank meant when he talked about Ginnylee.

  Every summer I watched the interaction between Hank and Ginnylee, I was always envious of their love. I first met them when I was a kid visiting the dude ranch with my parents on a family vacation. The older I got, the more Hank told me about her and their situation. There was a big age gap between them and they preferred to keep their relationship private.

  She had a child and he was pretty sure that she was his daughter, but she told him that she was sorry, she wasn’t his flesh and blood. He refused to believe her and treated the child as if she was his own. He took time away from the ranch from time to time to visit her. He said he loved them both more than life and would never abandon them no matter what Ginnylee told him. Hank showed me the right way to love someone, something my parents never did.

  Unfortunately, he got very sick and everything changed, he pushed her away. He told her that he had met someone else more his age and that he was going to marry her. He asked that she not show up at the ranch again. He never saw them after that, he knew he was terminal and he didn’t want them to see him deteriorate. He also knew that if she came to take care of him that she would have to divulge their private life. I tried to talk him into letting her make that decision, but he wouldn’t hear of it, and made me promise to keep his secret. I did as he wished and sadly, watched him die without his real family at his side.

  I loved him like a father, even though he was more the age of my grandfather, I missed him every day—more so lately. I think my feelings, the feelings I was trying my hardest to deny for Jade, had me thinking of their everlasting love. That all-consuming, death til we part kind of love. Though he died alone, without her, I knew that he still loved her as he took his final breath.

  Could Jade be reading my mind, I wondered as she stirred next to me, and asked me a shocking question out of the blue, “You ever been in love like that?” I must’ve spoke some of my thoughts out loud, otherwise where were those coming from? What had she heard?

  “Not like that,” I said scrubbing my hand over my stubbled chin, puzzled. “But yeah, there was a farm girl in college. Or at least, I thought, she wanted to be a farm girl. I was fooled or blind to the subtle hints she dropped.”

  “Not like what? What do you mean by that?” she asked, raising up, exposing her beautiful breast with pale pink nipples.

  “Nothing. I was just mainly thinking aloud.” I grazed her peaks with a fingertip and watched goosebumps dot her skin. “Sorry if I was yammering and woke you.”

  “So this farm girl?” She laughed. “Trying to avoid my question?”

  “No.” I looked at her face instead of her body. “She was just your basic college ro
mance gone terribly wrong.” A subject I didn’t want to talk about, but I wouldn’t lie and say that there wasn’t a certain someone who I thought was my forever. It was her turn, I redirected our conversation, “What about you?”

  “Not really.” She smirked, moving her body closer to my growing erection. “There were never any real cowboys at the beach to scratch my itch.”

  “Partial to cowboys?” I pushed up against her. Expecting to return to playtime, she was suddenly serious, and moved back to look me straight in the eye.

  “I’ve been around make-believe cowboys my whole life. My grandfather is an actor, mainly in Westerns. I always made him let me believe he was a real cowboy. I never wanted to go on location, I wanted to stay in my fantasy world. I wanted movies to be real. Ha! I didn’t want to know anything about the behind the scenes stuff.”

  Talking about her family, I understood why she had changed from a sexy cowgirl to just the most beautiful woman ever sitting in front of me. She had my full attention, she had me curious with her statement about her grandfather. “I love old Western movies, as a kid they were my all-time favorites. I loved to watch them wearing a cowboy hat with my cap guns in my holsters. Then, of course, I liked to play Cowboys and Indians with my brother.” I stopped as I visualized Spencer and I as plain as day, then asked the question I was dying to hear answered, “Who is your grandfather? A major star? Would I know him? What movies?” My voice was overly excited.

  “Tex Cassidy,” she answered casually like he was just any ol’ guy.

  “Very familiar! Wow! Jade Cassidy?”

  “Yep, that’s me. Cassidy is his real surname. Tex, no, but it fits him.”

  “Bonnie Lane’s granddaughter? Western royalty.”

  “Ha! Ha! They are nothing like the Hollywood crowd depicted them.”