by Delta James
Tamed on the Ranch
By
Delta James
Copyright © 2019 by Stormy Night Publications and Delta James
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.
www.StormyNightPublications.com
James, Delta
His Taming Touch
Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson
Images by Shutterstock/Book Cover Photos and Dreamstime/Wollertz
This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Author Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
More Stormy Night Books by Delta James
Delta James Links
Author Dedication
This book is dedicated to all of the readers who, after reading Taming His Cowgirl, clamored for Luc’s story. I didn’t see what you did. I am grateful that so many of you reached out to urge me to tell his tale!
Prologue
Fifteen years ago, Calgary, Alberta
Luc Girard stood on the railing of the chute before stepping onto the massive bull that was waiting. This was a contest between the two of them. Luc wanted and needed to stay aboard for eight seconds after the bull was released. Eight seconds didn’t sound like a lot of time, unless you were sitting on a ton of raging beast who considered tossing you on your head and then stomping you into the earth a good afternoon’s work.
Jim Hill, who worked for the group that provided the livestock, looked over at him. “He’s in a nasty mood, Luc.”
Luc smiled. “I think he was born in a nasty mood.”
The bucking rig had been secured to the bull. Now all Luc had to do was climb on, cinch down his hand, get a good seat, give the nod to open the gate and stay aboard for those critical eight seconds. Both the bull and the rider were scored—the bull for his athleticism and how difficult he was to ride and the cowboy for being able to stay on board with one hand in the bucking rig and one arm thrown up and out of the way. It was a contest of strength, balance, endurance, and effort.
Luc settled himself on the big bull—at least as settled as one might be able to get. The bull was more fractious than usual and started to buck within the small confides of the chute. A couple of the bullfighters, also known as rodeo clowns, tried to help distract the bull and give Luc enough time to get his hand cinched into the rig and give the signal for the gate to be opened. As Luc gave the nod, the bull was released from the confines of the chute and began to do what he’d been bred to do... buck!
Luc kept his free arm in position and used all of his senses and skills to stay atop the raging beast. He knew he was having a good ride as he could hear the roar of the crowd and encouragement from the bullfighters, rodeo crew, and his competitors. The whistle sounded and he went to release the rig. It didn’t release quickly enough, Luc’s hand was caught as he was trying to dismount, and for a moment he was hung up on the bull and smashed against the beast’s side. The bull swung his head and entire body around to try to get at Luc. One of the bullfighters yelled and hit the bull with his floppy hat, which enraged the already angry animal; it promptly turned to the new irritant.
Luckily for Luc, the rigging released and he was able to hit the ground and roll out of the way of the bull’s hooves and then make a run for the relative safety of the arena fencing. Luc watched as one of the other bullfighters tagged the bull with a long, leafy switch to distract the bull again.
As it was designed to do, the bucking rig loosened and the bull now seeing the exit gate opened loped out of the arena. Luc jumped down off the fence and heard the crowd cheer. He looked up at the electronic scoreboard. The judges had given him and the bull a combined score of 86. Not a bad score, but not good enough to put him in first place.
Looking down, he saw his hand beginning to swell. That could only mean he’d injured it... again. He headed for the medic tent but asked several people to tell the bullfighter who’d left that he was looking for him.
Luc sat in the medical tent and grimaced as the young paramedic taped up his hand. Two broken fingers and some cracked bones in the hand itself. That would put him out for the rest of the season. Fortunately, this was the second to the last rodeo in which he was entered and he’d done enough winning this season to mean he could take some time to heal up.
“Luc, what’s up? Whoa, that don’t look good,” said Tim Johnson, the bullfighter who had come to his aid.
“Not too bad,” said Luc. “A couple of broken fingers and some cracked bones. Would have been a whole lot worse if you hadn’t stepped in. I appreciate it.”
“Just doing my job,” said Tim with a smile.
“Yeah, but you do your job well. Let me buy you a drink?”
Tim laughed. “Actually rumor is you may have some of that magic Sangria you like to make left over from last night. If that’s the case, I’d just as soon have a couple of belts of that.”
“Let me do you one better, you come for the Sangria and I’ll put on a couple of steaks.”
“Sounds good. See you about seven?”
“That works for me,” said Luc.
When Tim arrived, Luc had a glass of Sangria waiting for him and threw on the steaks. He’d also had the concession stand cook up some fries and the two friends sat and had dinner outside Luc’s RV.
“You ever think about giving up rodeoing?” asked Tim.
“Every time I don’t make money.” They both laughed. “But yeah, I’m getting too old to ride bulls. I’m the old man... and I’m not even thirty.”
“You ever want to try bullfighting, let me know. You’d be great.”
“Nah, I don’t think I could do what you do.”
“Sure you could,” said Tim. “You read stock better than anyone I know and that’s the greatest talent you can have in my line of work. Seriously, give it a thought.”
“Maybe I’ll think about it.”
Luc left the rodeo and was headed to park his RV in the lot where it stayed between seasons. Once he had it been readied for the winter, he boarded a flight bound for his home in Montreal. He lived in a high-rise condo in the beautiful city in his off time. All the way home he thought about what Tim had said. He might have given it more consideration at that time, if he hadn’t been approached by several younger Canadian cowboys to help them sharpen their riding skills.
For the next few years, Luc spent his time coaching and teaching young bull and bronc riders how to improve their scores, minimize their injuries, and come home with money in their pockets. More and mor
e as he watched his young protégés he realized two things. First, he missed being an active participant in the rodeo and second, Tim might just have had a good idea. The next time he saw Tim, he asked about joining Tim’s crew of bullfighters.
Tim had been thrilled and had brought Luc on board and taught him the tricks of the trade. As Tim had predicted, Luc was a natural and very quickly rose to the top of the bullfighting game. He was known as tenacious, fearless, and able to get a cowboy to safety with minimal damage to man or beast.
Although the two men had known each other for years—they had first met when Luc was still riding bulls—it was during the time he was a bullfighter that Luc and Ryder became close friends. Ryder was the son of ranching dynasty in Idaho and worked for one of the best stock providers in the world. Getting to know Ryder and being able to talk to Ryder about the stock he provided gave Luc invaluable insight into the animals that he worked with.
Ryder had been one of the first to support Luc when he left bull riding and left the rodeo circuit and the first to welcome him back as a bullfighter. And he’d been instrumental in Luc quickly gaining fame and acclaim as one of the best in the business.
As time went on, the two men moved through the phase of just being two guys who got along at work; they became good friends and shared more and more of their lives. Luc had just finished up for the day when he went to join Ryder at one of their favorite restaurants in San Antonio. The two friends had found out early on that they both appreciated good food in out-of-the-way local places. They had gotten into the habit of exploring new restaurants together.
Luc walked into the casual restaurant and spotted Ryder. He joined him at the table.
“Now that, mon ami, is not the face of a happy man.”
“Oh, I’m fine, just thinking about things that might have been,” said Ryder regretfully.
“Ah, thinking of the fair Sierra again?” said Luc with a smile.
“It’s not funny, Luc.”
“I know. But the solution is so simple and yet you pretend there is none.”
“There isn’t. We broke up. She blew my hat off my head and blew my windshield out. All over not trusting me when I never gave her any reason not to.”
“Nasty-tempered filly. Probably best you left. Let the next guy who comes along tame her.”
Ryder looked up at Luc with an angry expression. “She’s not nasty tempered. She’s just spirited.”
“Okay, spirited, but still let some other guy hold her accountable for her naughty ways.”
The two men had forged a strong friendship. They’d spent many nights traveling, eating and drinking together. They had both sensed a kindred spirit and had felt comfortable in engaging in frank discussions about women both in theory and in past experiences. Both men had discovered individually a quiet renaissance of couples who were designating the man as the head of the household in a committed relationship and his responsibility to hold his partner accountable for her behavior.
Both had agreed that it made sense to them as it allowed him the ability to express his anger at what she’d done and for her to atone for that behavior but then be absolved of any guilt for having done it, putting the relationship back on track. Once the men had begun discussing it, they had found men of a similar opinion and all had met regularly to talk about relationships specific to them and in general.
“I tried that. It didn’t work.”
“From what you told me, you only got the job partially done. It sounds to me like you need to go home and get your lady back in your bed, preferably with a ring on her finger.”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about—too many times landing on your head when you were riding bulls.”
“What I know is that you are miserable. And yet I envy you that misery.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” said Ryder grimly.
“At least you almost had what we both have said we want and need.”
“In case you missed it, I don’t have it.”
“Because you are too stubborn and too proud to go back and reclaim what’s yours,” said Luc emphatically.
“You’re full of shit.”
“Probably, but that doesn’t mean I’m not right. You said yourself that you heard she hasn’t married anyone and hasn’t really seen anyone long term. Maybe she regrets it too. Jesus, Ryder, go back to Idaho and get Sierra back.”
“Let it go, Luc.”
“I never thought I’d think of you as a coward.”
Ryder slammed his drink down, causing the other diners to jump. He scowled at Luc and his body became tense with anger and aggression. Luc knew he was on thin ice. He knew this was a sore spot with Ryder, but it needed to be said.
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“You’re right, I don’t. I’ve never had what you had and what you could have had with Sierra. But I know for damn sure if I had, nothing but my death and being chained in hell could keep me from going back for it.”
Ryder suddenly looked like a balloon that was being deflated. “I wish I thought it would do any good. I know Sierra. That might have worked if I hadn’t left or if I’d gone back years ago. I just need to accept that she’s the one that got away and make a life without her.”
Luc placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You can do that, but are you willing to settle for some half-life because you didn’t even try? What if she feels the same way, Ryder? Just think about it.”
* * *
Eight years later, Calgary, Alberta
Luc woke and groaned as he went to get up. It wasn’t so much that he wasn’t rested, it was that certain parts of his body took longer to wake up than others. He sat on the edge of the bed. He was quite certain God had never intended for men to try to ride two thousand pounds of bucking bull.
Luc was standing off to the side of the chute chatting up one of the abundant buckle bunnies that always seemed to attend the Calgary Stampede. Arguably the largest rodeo in the world, it didn’t just attract girls from Canada and America, but from all over the globe. Luc felt he was making some headway with this pretty blonde from France when he heard the rhythm of the bull’s bucking go off kilter.
Luc whirled around and started toward the huge beast in the same instant. It took his mind a moment longer to process that Deadshot, probably the best bucking bull in the business, had once again tossed the cowboy unlucky enough to draw him. Only this time, the eighteen-hundred-pound bull’s former rider was hung up and hanging from the bucking rig.
Every bullfighter in the arena converged on Deadshot.
Luc was coming up behind them and didn’t hesitate to grab his cowboy hat and swat Deadshot across the rump. As Deadshot swung around, one of the other bullfighters moved in to release the rig and the cowboy. Luc yelled to keep Deadshot’s attention focused on him and backed away.
Normally, the bull should have charged at his irritant... Luc. Luc had his arms stretched out from his sides and was prepared to swat at the bull again when Deadshot shocked both Luc and the crowd. He just stopped moving.
One of the other bullfighters was able to free the cowboy and get him out of the arena and to the medics. Another of Luc’s compadres was about to move in to tag the bull with a long switch to give Luc an opportunity to escape to the relative safety of the arena wall. But Luc waved him off. It seemed the arena had gone dead quiet and the world had collapsed to just the two of them.
Deadshot was looking at Luc with keen, but benign, interest. He tilted his head back and forth as if trying to make sense of the man before him. The bull then dropped his head and in a completely nonaggressive manner, approached Luc. Luc was fascinated. He’d been riding or fighting bulls for the better part of two decades, and he’d never seen a bucking bull act like this. Luc reached into his pocket and pulled out a slice of apple. He walked toward Deadshot with his hand outstretched offering the bull the treat.
Uncertain as well, Deadshot reached out and gently lipped the a
pple from Luc’s hand. Luc responded by offering him another apple slice, which the bull deftly took and munched on happily. Luc couldn’t believe what was happening. He closed the distance between them and patted the bull on the head between his horns. Deadshot seemed to enjoy that and nudged Luc, looking for more apples. Luc accommodated him and then ran his hand down between Deadshot’s big brown eyes and rubbed him. Deadshot closed his eyes and responded by moaning with what seemed to be a great deal of contentment.
Shaking his head and chuckling, Luc did something no bullfighter ever does... he turned his back on Deadshot.
“Come on, big boy, let’s go back to the pens,” Luc said as he walked toward the exit gate. Deadshot fell in behind him and calmly followed Luc. Once inside his holding pen, Luc gave him a last piece of apple and another head rub and then returned to the arena to the roar of the crowd.
Luc felt like a gladiator from ancient Rome as he entered the arena to the roar of the crowd. He half-skipped, half-ran around the arena playing up to those who had come to watch the rodeo. He waved his hands over his head to encourage their cheers and took many exaggerated bows. It was clear that his performance with Deadshot was a hit.
Thus began a story that caught the attention of social media. The upside was that Luc could always get Deadshot to quit bucking and come over to him like some enormous dog. The downside was that from that point on, Luc could not be in the arena if Deadshot was performing. Once the big bull spotted the rodeo clown, he’d quit bucking and trot over to him looking for a piece of apple.
A few weeks after the incident, Luc was approached by two men who represented EquiBlues, the largest rodeo festival in Europe. They wanted to talk to Ryder. The only problem with the two men wanting to speak to Ryder was that neither man spoke English and Ryder’s high-school French was atrocious.
Luc, who was French-Canadian, agreed to play interpreter. Luc escorted them back behind the shoots to where the animals used in the rodeo were kept. He knew he would be able to find Ryder there checking on the well-being of the stock.