How to Love a Cowboy

by Jessa James

  What wasn’t justified though was the way he was trying to punish the entire family for something he felt toward my father. We weren’t responsible for whatever still stood between these two guys, and I took personal offense that Ken Waters wasn’t man enough to step up and say it himself. The truth of the matter was that had Sara not broken down in the driveway and needed help; I was already considering getting into my truck and driving the three hours to the Waters’ place in Tennessee and giving Ken a piece of my mind. It was unbelievable to me that he would send Sara up here to do his dirty work and then expect us to just roll over and take his judgement like he was some overlord.

  The Killarnys were the ones with the power here. We were the family who had been in Kentucky almost longer than anyone around here could remember. We were the people who had made horse racing what it was today, and Ken Waters wasn’t going to take that away or tarnish our name. On the contrary, by attacking us, he was putting himself in the line of fire. If he cut us out of his derby, then he would have to answer to a lot of other ranches that considered us close friends. Ken might have viewed this all as something between himself and our family, but the truth was that when it all came out in the open, Ken was going to have to explain himself to several very important people.

  One thing I knew for sure was that he didn’t want to talk about the real reason behind all this. I had no idea what he had told Sara we were up to, but it was bound to be something bad since she had driven up here herself to take care of it. I knew she didn’t have a clue about what went on between our father’s years ago and so she couldn’t possibly understand that her father’s motives were questionable. I knew she trusted her father, that much was very clear. Otherwise, she wouldn’t feel so compelled to do his bidding. And since I had a daughter that I loved dearly, I knew how strong that pull could be, to protect that person you loved most and make sure they stayed far from harm.

  But I also knew that I could never lie to my daughter. The idea of sending Emma to do something so that I wouldn’t have to wade knee deep in shit was unheard of to me and what little respect I had left for Ken Waters was dwindling fast.

  I wasn’t going to bring it up, but Sara was halfway through her second glass of wine. I think if she hadn’t had any she never would have brought up the subject of what had called for her appearance at the ranch today, but she was a little looser now and ready to discuss things.

  “Do you want to talk about why I’m here?”

  I shrugged and leaned back in my chair opposite the fire. Sara was sitting on the leather sofa perpendicular to me, and she turned to face me. The way the firelight caught in her dark brown hair, now dry after her post-rainstorm shower, had made the red highlights flicker mesmerizingly. I wanted to reach out and touch the soft curls, but I didn’t dare at this moment. She was so beautiful, and it was almost impossible for me to take my eyes off of her. With this thing hovering between us though, our two families could be about to go through something very messy.

  “Whatever you feel like talking about, Sara. I’m up for it.” I had no idea if she was going to tell me the real reason behind her visit—the reason she thought was real, that is.

  She cleared her throat and set her wine glass down on the coffee table. “My father shared some information with me about what’s going on here.”

  “Go on then.”

  “We don’t have to go into the details of it. Frankly, I want to stay as far away from this as I can. If there is anything illegal going on around here, then I would like to have as little to do with it as possible. I just want you to understand that this isn’t anything personal. We are looking out for the best interests of our family business, something I am pretty sure you can understand.”

  I nodded my head, but I still didn’t have any clue what her father could possibly be accusing us of. “What kind of illegal activity do you think we’re up to around here, Sara? I can assure you that there’s nothing going on here that would make you think twice about letting us show up at your derby.”

  She bristled visibly at this, and I could tell she was getting ready to defend her dad again, but I stopped her.

  “Listen, I know you trust your dad, and it’s only natural to be on his side of things. He’s your family. I understand that. And I’ve got a daughter, so I know what the bond is like there, but I want you to think for just one minute that maybe your father has his own personal feelings he is wrestling with. How could it be fair for him to dump this on you and ask you to come here and do whatever it is you are doing? Dumping us from your derby.”

  Sara looked at me without blinking. “You have got to understand that while I have my own feelings about this, I do trust my father. If he says that letting you guys go and keeping you from our derby this year is what we need to do, then I believe it.”

  I guffawed at that. “Really? You’re just going to walk in here and tell us that we’re done with you guys, after all, that time together? You won’t even tell me what we’re supposed to have done. Let’s say whatever your father had to say about us was true. I hope you know that I’m an upstanding guy and if there was something illegal happening here then I would want to know about it so I could set things right.”

  That seemed to catch her off guard, and she gave me a wary look. Sara was honest, and she believed in doing the right thing. That much was as plain as the nose on my face. But it was a difficult thing to make someone disagree with a parent, especially when that person had always been on their side and had never given them any reason not to trust them in the past.

  “Think about it, Sara. If you had someone at your derby who was doing things that were illegal or could do harm to someone, wouldn’t you want to know who it was so you could rectify the situation?”

  She nodded and pursed her lips.

  “Okay then, you agree with me. We’re on the same page here. I’m telling you that I don’t have any clue about something illegal happening in our stable and if something is going on, I sure as hell want to know what it is and who is responsible so that I can put a stop to it.”

  Sara took a deep breath. “I told you I don’t want to get involved in it.”

  “Involved in it?” I shook my head. “Are you kidding me, Sara? You’re the whole damn reason the subject is even on the table. No one around here was talking about any kind of illegal activity until you came along. And I’m sure as hell not going to bring it up around any of my employees until I have an idea what it’s about.”

  “Well, that’s your business. I’m here as the messenger, and you’ve got the message now. I’ll be leaving your check with the secretary in the morning when I leave,” she said as she stood to leave the room.

  “Just hold on a minute. See, there’s a thing I’m not getting here. What kind of evidence does your dad have against us? I’ll tell you what I know—as far as I am aware, there’s nothing illegal going on here at Killarny Estate. And I know everything that goes on here now that I’m the one running the business side of the place. So if I know everything that goes on here and I don’t know of anything, then your dad must have some kind of evidence that convinces him there’s something happening here, right?”

  Sara was silent.

  “But if you won’t tell me…you know what that leads me to believe?”

  She shook her head indignantly and looked like she was about to head for the door.

  “I think it means that you think it’s me. You won’t tell me what your dad is accusing us of because you think I’m party to it. And if you’re too scared to mention it then it must be pretty damn dangerous.”

  “I’m going to bed. Thank you for dinner,” she said as she moved toward the door, but I was out of my chair and had my hand on her arm before she could get the door open. She swung at me and barely missed my cheekbone with her fist. “Let me go!”

  My grip was gentle but firm. I pressed her against the door and held her there.

  “You think I’m a criminal, Sara? You think that I’m the one here who is up to
no good?”

  I could feel her pulse quicken against my hand, and I wanted to lean in and kiss her neck, make her squirm and squeal. Her breathing was heavy and in spite of the topic of conversation, her body language was screaming that she wanted more of this. More of my hands on her skin, my breath against her ear…this woman wanted me inside of her.

  “Pete…”

  “Maybe I am bad,” I growled in her ear and slowly let my hand glide up her arm to her breast. She was braless, and I could feel her nipple beneath my old plaid shirt. She sighed as I kneaded her breast and I nestled my thigh between her legs. She was hot, and now her eyes were closed. I wanted to pick her up, pull down those jeans, bend her over the couch and slam myself inside her.

  But she would enjoy that too much, and it would be over far too quickly. I opened up the top few buttons of the shirt and pulled it open, revealing her pert breasts to me. They were gorgeous, and each of her soft pink nipples were erect. I leaned in and licked one at a time, then I let my lips settle around one and suckled it softly.

  “Oh god, Pete…” she was grinding against my thigh as I continue to lap at her breasts. I could feel her reaching for my pants, but I pushed her hands away and pressed my thigh harder against her. She was so close, I could hear it in her breathing.

  I wanted to hear her cry out as she peaked, but a wicked part of me wanted to make her wait. She wanted this so badly, and I could tell it was more than that—she needed to be fucked by someone who knew what he was doing. I could be that, but I wanted to make her beg for it.

  I released her nipple and trailed kisses up the side of her neck, kissing her finally on her lips.

  “You’re beautiful,” I said, and she let me lift her up and carry her up the stairs. I pushed the door open to the room that had been prepared for her, and I laid her down on the bed. She was moaning and calling out for me as I gave her one last kiss and winked. Then I turned around and left the room, closing the door behind me.

  “You are a wicked bastard, Pete Killarny,” she screamed out. It would take everything in my power not to go back to her room and claim what was mine. But this woman had a lesson to learn, and I was going to leave here there in that room alone, wet and wanting. She could think about me for the rest of the night if she wanted. Sure, she was probably going to be pissed, but I didn’t care. She had walked into my house thinking she was going to put an end to the Killarny and Waters relationship that had spanned decades. That wasn’t how it worked.

  I went to my bathroom and turned on the shower, undressing and stepping into the steaming spray. Immediately my thoughts turned back to Sara where I had left her down the hall. She had been so close to orgasm that I imagined she had pressed her hands between her legs and finished what I had started. The thought of it made me harder than I already was and I wrapped my hand around my cock, pumping it several times as I thought of what it would feel like to plunge inside of Sara as she begged for me to fuck her.

  It was too much, and I came quickly, gasping as I thought of her body writhing beneath mine. We would experience that together, and it would be soon. But it would be when she could no longer stand the thought of not being with me. I didn’t know what this was, hell; it had been forever since I had been with a woman. Sara Waters was the next on the list though, and the girl who used to chase me around as a child would soon find out what it was like to have the tables turned. She was in my sights, and once I decided that I wanted something, I got it. There was no family feud that could keep me from getting the thing that I most wanted—Sara.

  6

  Sara

  * * *

  The twin brothers must have done some kind of magic the evening before because when I got up the next morning, my car was ready to go. I didn’t bother to find anyone to say goodbye to, not after what had happened between Pete and I the night before. I had no idea who had been in the house or what they might have heard. When I slipped out the next morning, I left the check on the secretary’s desk and made my way out to the SUV. It started, and I was soon on my way, off the Killarny property and out of Kentucky. Hopefully for a very long time.

  My memories of the Killarny ranch had been mostly positive ones up until now, but last night had tarnished all of that. Pete Killarny was a pig and while I had at one point thought of him as a gentleman, no man of any good breeding did what he had done to me the night before. He could have fucked me and walked away, never saying another word, and that wouldn’t have been half as bad as what he had done in reality. It took some serious cruelty to lead a woman on like that, make me think he was taking me to bed, only to leave me there in the bedroom sopping wet and aching.

  The frustration had been too much, and after the shock had worn off, I stripped out of my clothing and tried to go to sleep. There was too much running through my mind though, and it would be hours before I was finally able to get some rest. Now I was on the road, grateful the drive was only three hours. As much as I was ready to get back to the warmth and comfort of my own bed, I knew that before a nap came, I would have to talk to my father about what had happened at the Killarny ranch and what Pete’s response was. He wouldn’t be happy about that, and I would be the one to face his anger about the issue.

  It still plagued me that he really thought the Killarny family were doping their horses. It wasn’t the most shocking thing in the horse world, but so many people frowned upon it these days, and there were many more crackdowns than there had been in years past.

  Something Pete had said kept coming to mind on the drive back to Tennessee. If my father had evidence, why didn’t he just take it to the authorities? If he knew something was going on then, it would only make sense for him to go and report what the Killarnys were doing so that they could be stopped. Trying to handle things himself looked shady and people were going to wonder why the Killarnys had dropped out of the derby. I knew my father wouldn’t say anything about the doping, but I also knew that Pete would not hesitate to let word get out that my father had dropped him and the entire ranch unceremoniously. People would want answers, and they would be worried that the same thing could happen to them. No one would want to get involved in our derby, to register and train for it for months and months, only to be told at the last minute that they weren’t going to be allowed to race. It was unheard of to do such a thing to an established stable—not to mention the Killarnys and what they stood for not only in their home state of Kentucky but in the horse racing world around the globe. People came from Saudi Arabia and Australia to purchase Killarny horses. They weren’t just good thoroughbreds—they were the very best. No one would forget this slight soon.

  But they might not have to. If Pete stuck to his guns, then it sounded like he would be there, permission or not. I didn’t know if my father would follow through with the threat to have law enforcement there, but the threat alone scared me. Having officers escort Pete and his brothers from the event would be a spectacle, and I had a feeling that it would make waves via social media. While we didn’t have network television coverage of our derby, it did stream it online, and the thing drew hundreds of thousands of viewers. People would know what had happened before the race was over and I didn’t know how the Waters Derby could survive the public relations debacle that would inevitably follow.

  The hours slipped by, and finally, I was arriving back at my father’s house. His car was in the driveway, and I skipped doing anything else before I went to his office to confront him about everything that had gone down at the Killarny ranch. Well, within reason. He wasn’t ever going to find out about anything that happened—or didn’t happen—between Pete Killarny and me.

  I found my father in his office, without a cigar this time, rummaging through some drawers in his ancient desk. When he saw me, he shut the drawer and pulled the key out of it, placing it back in his pocket.

  “How did the meeting go?” He asked cheerfully.

  I flopped down in the chair across from him and let out a long sigh.

  “Honestly, Dad, h
ow did you expect that little meeting to go? You sent me with a huge check to tell Pete Killarny to go to hell. Needless to say, the man wasn’t pleased. I wouldn’t have been either if it had been me. We’re ripping the rug right out from under them. I don’t feel very good about it.”

  He coughed. “Elsie said you had car trouble or something? You stayed there?”

  I nodded. “Yes, Dad. In spite of the news I had just delivered, Pete was kind enough to have his younger brothers’ work on the car. I stayed for dinner, and they gave me a place to sleep and that was my day. Now I’m back here, and I would love to know what you propose to do from this point forward.”

  “What do you mean? You delivered the news, so it’s done.”

  I shook my head, hardly believing that my father thought it would be that easy. “Seriously, did you think that Pete Killarny was just going to roll over and do what you asked?”

  “I sure as hell do. He took the money, didn’t he?”

  I closed my eyes for a brief moment, trying to come to terms with the fact that my father was on a completely different plane about all of this.

  “Dad, he didn’t take the money, and I don’t think there is any way you are going to be able to make him. I left the check there with his secretary, but I wouldn’t expect it to ever be cashed. You’ll probably get it back in the mail in a few days.”

  My father chewed his bottom lip while he thought and I could see that he had been doing it a lot lately. His lower lip was chapped and cracked, and now that I looked at him I could see that it seemed he hadn’t been getting enough rest. He had dark circles under his eyes.