Tough and Tamed (Moon Ranch Book 1)

by Em Petrova

  “You were celebrating without me,” he said flatly.

  Her face fell. “No. Well, yes. I thought I deserved to treat myself to a good lunch, and I knew you were doing your…thing at the sheriff’s office today. I couldn’t call you to come join me. But I did have other plans to celebrate with you tonight.” Her eyes twinkled, and he could guess what by the way she bit down on her plump lower lip.

  His cock stirred at the sight, his heart full of happiness for her. His own life was better because of Esme. He was better.

  He couldn’t let her go.

  He wanted her.

  He slid out of the chair and dropped to one knee.

  Esme stared at him. He looked into her beautiful eyes and knew this was all he wanted for himself for the rest of his life.

  “Zayden…”

  “Esme…”

  “You fool, get up!”

  He shook his head. “I’m not so much of a fool that I’ll let another day pass without asking you to walk through life with me.” He took her hand and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

  “This isn’t necessary. It’s crazy, Z.”

  He gave her a crooked grin. “You knew I was crazy when you took up with me. But I’m dead serious right now, sweetheart. I love you and I won’t leave without trying to convince you to be my wife.”

  Her lips parted on a sigh that made no noise.

  “Fuck, I don’t have a ring yet, but sweetheart, first thing in the morning I will get you one if you’ll marry me.”

  * * * * *

  If she could breathe, she might be able to think straight. If she could process what Zayden was saying to her… But she watched his lips moving and heard words coming from his mouth that she never thought to hear, let alone so soon.

  He was seriously on bended knee proposing to her in the middle of the steakhouse. Her throat clogged off, and she focused on the callus of his thumb moving across her fingers.

  One of the things he’d said lit a bulb in her mind.

  A laugh-cry escaped her. “How will you get a ring without money? Who will you sweet-talk or rough up to get it?”

  “I have my ways…” His grin widened, ‘til all she could see was the gorgeous man in front of her, telling her he would love her for the rest of his days.

  “Esme. Sweetheart. Just say yes and we’ll figure out the rest.” His gaze burned through her. “Please. I love you with everything in me.”

  The love words couldn’t have been better said if they’d come from a love ballad or poet. They were true—they were pure Zayden.

  A cry escaped her, and she slipped off the chair into his waiting arms. Throwing hers around his neck, she clung to him. “Yes! You crazy cowboy. I love you!”

  He claimed her lips, and applause broke out around them. As Zayden kissed her to seal their promise to each other, she shook with emotion.

  The day that had begun as great, following the surprise news of her promotion, had transformed to a quiet moment eating alone reflecting on how far she’d come in this world. And the thing that surfaced highest on the list of joys was Zayden. She didn’t want to let him go—wanted to share everything with him. She’d just been wishing he would join her to celebrate when he showed up.

  Now he was her fiancé.

  He pulled back from the kiss and stared into her eyes. “I promise you’ll never regret it, sweetheart.”

  She squeezed him tighter. “I know I won’t.”

  Another round of applause sounded, and both of them realized they had an audience. He stood and drew her to her feet too. They linked hands and looked at the few patrons in the restaurant who were staring with their meals forgotten. Even the dishwasher had wandered out of the kitchen to witness the proposal.

  “We’ve got something else to celebrate now, sweetheart. I’m dirty from working all morning, and Mimi expects me back with some paint for the kitchen, but let’s sit down together and have that steak dinner we never had months ago.”

  Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked them away so she could see the hunky man before her. As they took their seats, he captured her hands and held them while he looked into her eyes.

  “You’ve made me the happiest man on Earth. I never thought… Well, I never thought I’d feel this way about a woman or my life.” His words grated across her senses, flooding her with the need to be in his arms again.

  That would come soon enough. She didn’t think they’d make it back to the Moon Ranch before stopping off to make love on some back road.

  “I’m so happy, Zayden. I love you.”

  His smile was the only answer she ever needed. Making him happy had become a priority in her life, just as her own happiness had long ago become his.

  He squeezed her fingers. “You’d better call in and say you won’t be returning to work this afternoon.”

  She giggled. “Doesn’t exactly look good when I was just promoted.”

  “You were also just engaged.”

  She nodded. “I’ll call off on one condition.”

  He arched a brow. “What’s that?”

  Under the table, she slid the toe of her high heel up his calf.

  His gaze intensified. “Oh yeah.” He pitched his voice low. “I won’t let you out of bed for a lonnnng time, sweetheart.”

  “That’s the promise I wanted to hear.”

  Epilogue

  “Babe…”

  Zayden looked up from sliding on his boots to see his woman braced in the bathroom doorway, looking very well loved and wearing nothing but a pair of skimpy panties.

  His gut burned at the sight of her. Hell, she was tormenting him these past few months—he couldn’t get enough of her.

  She padded across the bedroom and wedged herself between his thighs. Dropping his boot, he put his hands on her bare waist. She leaned into him, and he tumbled her back into the sheets, where she lay staring up at him with come-hither eyes.

  “Do you have to check the herd right now?”

  He sighed. “Yeah. I do.”

  She trailed a fingertip down her breast, over the hard peak. He groaned and buried his face between them. Maybe the herd didn’t need checking right now. Maybe they could wait another hour.

  “You’d better go then. Hurry back, though, and maybe I’ll still be lying here naked, waiting for you.”

  With extreme effort, he lifted his head from her sweet, fragrant breasts. “Give me half hour.”

  A soft smile lit her face, and she nodded. After one more squeeze, she released him. He didn’t get up immediately, and she slapped his backside.

  “Go on, cowboy. Check your animals and then come back to bed.”

  It was early—dawn wasn’t even kissing the sky yet, and only a sliver of dark blue was visible on the horizon. But by the time he did his chores and made sure the fifty new head of cattle he’d purchased were well, the sun would be up. After that, going back to bed for a spell seemed the perfect way to spend a Saturday.

  He pressed her curls away so he could kiss her. “Go back to sleep, sweetheart. I won’t be long.”

  Her eyelids were already drifting shut. He left her curled on her side under the blankets and walked out of the house into the cool morning. The scent of fall was in the air, and he drew in a deep breath of it.

  As he crossed the yard to the barn, he felt the familiar rush of love for the ranch he had every day since getting on his feet. He wouldn’t call things perfect yet, but he was making headway. What debts he knew of were paid, he’d returned the horses to the owner and purchased cattle and a few new horses to help in his day-to-day work.

  And Esme was his everything. Odd, that notion, but true. He’d never be perfect, but he slowly learned how to be there for her… To be the man she needed. Together, they had spent hours making plans for the Moon Ranch. She had a good head for the figures, and he gave her control of the budget while he made the executive decisions on how to get the most bang for their buck.

  She had completed some classes already during the summer and
enrolled in more. The hours taken from him for work and schooling would be well worth it someday, but he sure missed her when they were apart.

  He thought of her asking him to stay in bed with her, and his stomach warmed. Seemed she missed being with him just as much. Yeah, life was good. If he fell down and turned up his toes right now, he would die a happy man.

  Holy shit. I broke the cycle.

  His stride faltered as he realized this. His father had most likely died miserable. When he’d knocked on death’s door, none of his family was around him, and nobody was here to hold his hand as he let go. Zayden had vowed never to follow in the old man’s footsteps, and dammit, he’d kept his promise to himself.

  Inside the barn, he patted Zeus’s side as he drew him out of the stall. “Hey, boy. Ready to ride?”

  The horse responded with a low whicker. He led the animal into the yard and walked him a few times to work out the kinks. Then he saddled up and rode out to check the herd.

  The solitude of the morning ride filled him with a peace he had never expected to achieve. When he spotted his cattle grazing in the distance, he spurred Zeus faster, eager to reach them.

  With the land and two great women at his back, he could do anything, and dammit, he was going to make the Moon Ranch great.

  After a thorough check of the herd, he headed back home, thinking of warm, silky skin and dark shadows between plump thighs…

  In the newly painted kitchen, Mimi had the coffee going but was nowhere around. He heard the shower running and knew before long she’d be calling him and Esme to have breakfast.

  Right now, though, he was keeping his promise to crawl back into bed with his beautiful, sexy, and needy woman.

  He shed his boots before he reached the bedroom. When he opened the door, she was unmoving, eyes closed. His heart gave a hard squeeze as love swelled the organ even bigger than it already was.

  As he moved toward the bed, he shucked his shirt and shoved off his jeans. His underwear and socks were last, and he slipped under the covers, bare flesh against her bare flesh.

  Suddenly, she twisted into his arms and ran her hands over his chest. “That was fast.”

  “Told ya it wouldn’t take long. Now where did we leave off?” He claimed her lips, kissing softly at first and then deepening it with tongues and soft moans. When he drew back, she caught his wrist and looped something around it.

  He shook back the covers to see she held the end of the rope she’d bound around his wrist.

  “Time for a little Saturday morning fun.” She gripped his other hand and guided it toward the rope so she could fasten them together. Without hands, he couldn’t touch her, and no way was that happening, even if the prospect of being at her mercy for a short time was highly exciting.

  “Esme… Sweetheart, what are you doing?” he asked the obvious.

  She bit her lip and attempted to tie him up. In a blink, he had her on her back, sprawled beneath him, arms stretched over her head.

  “Not so fast. First I get my way with you.” He did a slow pushup, brushing his body against her soft, feminine one. She moaned.

  Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him down. “Don’t stop now.”

  He angled into her pussy. In one hard thrust, he joined them. The sensation of being bare inside her would never get old. He ground his hips, rubbing her deeper.

  “Kiss me.” Her rasped cry filled him with all the passion and love he’d never believed he deserved. How amazing that life had made a complete turn in such a short time. Only months ago, he was burying his father and feeling like letting this all go. Then he’d found Esme on that mountain, and he’d started to see a future.

  Her gentle kisses turned hotter, and he plunged into her faster. They galloped toward the finish and when she finally cried out and shuddered beneath him, he let go, filling her with his seed that someday, when they were ready, would make a child.

  With his face buried against her neck, he moaned. “I love you, sweetheart. Don’t ever forget it.”

  She cupped his face and drew his head up to look into his eyes. “I could never forget, not when you show me every day of your life.”

  He rocked his hips once more, raising a groan from both of them. He collapsed onto the bed and drew her against his side while sliding a hand beneath the sheets.

  She jerked. “Zayden!”

  He caught her other hand and bound it to the first. Pinning both rope-knotted hands over her head, he slid down her body. “Spread your legs for me, baby. I’m going to taste both of us on you…”

  Whatever she was about to say was swallowed on a gasp.

  THE END

  Read on for a SNEAK PEEK of SCREWED AND SATISFIED, the next book featuring the Moon boys.

  The vase whizzed past Dane’s head and struck the wall with an ear-splitting crack. Glass exploded, raining down on the carpet and mingling with the two broken beer bottles that landed there first.

  Dane ducked yet another hurled object, this one with a trajectory hell-bent on taking off his head. “Calm down, Liz! Jesus, you know I like to unwind after work. It’s not like I was in bed with another woman.”

  “Isn’t sitting at the craps table all night long worse than sleeping with another woman? You lost our rent money—and next month’s too. You told me if I came back to you that you wouldn’t gamble anymore.”

  “You’ve seriously got your priorities mixed up if you don’t give a damn if I’m cheatin’, but you don’t want me gamblin’.” He eyed his wife. Her blonde hair trailed down into one eye, which blazed with anger.

  “You can get pussy for free—but you owe those loan sharks how much now?”

  He waved a hand, scoffing off her words. “I can make that back in two nights of dancin’. I’ll let my thong slip and the ladies will toss enough twenties at me onstage to pay what I owe plus give us extra for that helicopter ride over the city you’ve always wanted to go on, baby.”

  Starting across the living room toward her, he held out a hand.

  She picked up an ashtray and cocked her arm to hurl it too.

  He clenched his jaw. “Put it down, Liz.”

  “Or what? You’ll leave? If you ain’t, I am! I never should have come back to you that third time. Or the fourth, for that matter.”

  He stared at his wife and tried to remember what it was about her had drawn him to her. Married a year and split every few months, he couldn’t remember much.

  “You know I never cheated on you,” he said, low.

  “Nah, you were too busy fondling your dice.”

  “Stay.”

  “Fuck you.” She rifled the ashtray. The butts she smoked scattered and ashes cast out in a cloud. The jagged heavy glass blasted into the wall right where his head had been a moment before he ducked.

  “Those guys have cornered me twice at work now. I can’t have people coming to my workplace and demanding I pay them what you gambled away the night before, Dane. I’m leaving, and this time I want a divorce.”

  Her chest heaved, and the red mottling her face and throat turned him on. Always had. He loved when she got ticked at him, because it meant they could make up.

  This time, though, he knew things had gone too far. He’d gone too far.

  She thought the pennies he owed those guys who hassled her at the strip club where she worked was bad. Well, she hadn’t discovered the fifteen grand missing from their bank account yet—the money he’d given his brother to help with the family’s failing ranch.

  Pushing out a sigh, he rubbed a hand over his tired face. Why did Liz have to get on his case right now? After a double shift at the club where he ground his hips to pop songs and changed out costumes—the firefighter had always been his favorite—he’d hit the casino and lost another grand.

  “You’ve got a problem, Dane Moon.” She twisted away from him and started grabbing any item that belonged to her. When she stomped into the bedroom, he followed, even though what he wanted to do was lie down on the couch and sleep.
/>   “Baby. Lizzie. You know I love ya. I can’t live without ya.”

  She cast him a dark look as she dropped the items on the bed and yanked out her suitcase that hadn’t even been put away after the last time she left. As she packed it haphazardly with clothes and shoes, he stood there watching.

  Did he really want her to leave?

  Did he really want her to stay?

  Maybe he should go. He hated Vegas. Hell, he’d only ended up here to get far away from the Moon Ranch and his drunken asshole of a father. Now with the man gone and his brother in charge, Dane could leave all this behind—his gig as a dancer in the male revue, drinking and gambling with people he’d never in a million years consider friends, the shabby apartment over a cigar shop he shared with a wife he couldn’t remember why he married in the first place.

  Or why he wanted her to stay, either.

  “Go on and leave.” He zipped up her bag for her while she dug another out from under the bed.

  “I will!” Her breasts jiggled with each move she made, and he found one of the reasons he’d wanted her didn’t look so appetizing these days. Liz had a bangin’ body, that was true, but she knew how to use it on every single man in Vegas. The fact he didn’t give a damn who she slept with woke him up further.

  “You’d better take care of those loan sharks too. I don’t want them coming after me again, Dane.” She folded a knee-high glittery boot and stuffed it into the bag.

  “I said I’ll take care of them,” he bit off. “Just send the divorce papers to the ranch.”

  “I fucking will!” With two bags stuffed to overflowing with her things, she grabbed one and slung the other over her shoulder. He watched her walk out and didn’t make a move to stop her.

  1-click SCREWED AND SATISFIED

  Em Petrova

  Em Petrova was raised by hippies in the wilds of Pennsylvania but told her parents at the age of four she wanted to be a gypsy when she grew up. She has a soft spot for babies, puppies and 90s Grunge music and believes in Bigfoot and aliens. She started writing at the age of twelve and prides herself on making her characters larger than life and her sex scenes hotter than hot.