How to Love a Cowboy

by Jessa James

  Sara held her hands up expectantly. “So?”

  I reached for her hands and took them in mine. “I am genuinely sorry that my omission hurt you. I thought I was doing the right thing by not telling you, but I realize that a lot of that was because I didn’t want to say anything disparaging about my mother. She was a good woman, but I think we’ve all had our moments that we aren’t proud of. I didn’t want to talk about it because I was ashamed. That wasn’t reason enough to keep the secret from you, not when you were working so hard to make sure we could still be in the derby. You were standing up to your father for me, and I know the kind of guts that must have taken.”

  I saw a tear start to creep down her face and I reached up to wipe it away. She took my hand and held it to her cheek.

  “I know it’s not your fault and I understand that you were just doing what you thought was right. It’s all in the past, and you’ve known about it for some time, but I’m just learning about it now, and it’s all quite a shock.”

  “I know,” I said as I leaned in to kiss her. She didn’t resist. Instead, she held onto me and kissed me hungrily. She was tearing at my clothes, and we were barely inside her bedroom before she had peeled away ever stitch of my clothing and she was out of her dress as well.

  “Fuck me,” she demanded, and I was all too eager to accommodate her wishes.

  I leaned down and began to kiss and suckle her breasts which were bared before me. Her entire body was shivering, and she sighed deeply, the desire she felt palpable underneath my hands. I reached down between her legs and found her slick and wet, and I wanted to taste her again.

  She was sweet and slightly tart, and as my tongue moved in circles around her clit, I could feel her vibrating under me, a strong orgasm building as I used my fingers to reach deep inside her, finding just the right spot and stroking her until she screamed again and again, until my lips were covered in her wetness. Only then did I sink my cock into her, fully to the hilt. She was tight and oh so wet; it took all of my restraint to keep from blasting inside her in a single stroke. She moaned and cried out underneath me, her finger rubbing her clit as I fucked her with deliberate, hard strokes.

  “You’re mine,” I said as I stood at the edge of the bed, her ass hanging off of it as I held onto her thighs and plowed into her. I watched as she reached up with her other hand to pinch her nipples in turn and the sight of it was almost too much. “You are so fucking hot, Sara. Tell me when you want me to come.” I groaned as I tried to hold back. “I am so close.”

  My hips were thrusting like mad, balls slapping against her ass.

  “Fuck me,” she cried out, and that was all it took for me to fill her up, my cum seeping out from between us where we were joined. I held my weight above her and watched her as she moaned and writhed underneath me.

  “I’m going to need you to do that a few more times tonight, Pete. Promise?”

  “Promise,” I said as I scooped her up into my arms and kissed her deeply.

  10

  Sara

  * * *

  I woke the next morning with Pete Killarny still in my bed, his fingers between my legs and his cock prodding me in the back. I could tell what he had on his mind, and I wanted to stay and indulge him, but we had already done so much the night before that I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to walk today.

  And today was the day that I had a lot left to do. It was derby day, and I knew that Pete had to get back to his people.

  “Hey now,” I said as I swatted him away playfully. “You’ve got places to be and so do I.”

  He rolled me over and kissed me, groaning, and moving his body on top of mine.

  “I do have somewhere to be,” he whispered in my ear. “Deep inside that sweet pussy of yours.”

  I laughed and tried to push him off, but he was showering me with kisses and caresses. Giving in for a few extra minutes, I let him travel further south, licking me and fingering me to one incredible orgasm before I insisted that I had to get in the shower.

  By the time I got out, he was gone, but I found a note left tucked within some panties on my bed.

  “Do not wear any of these today,” it read, and I decided I could work with that. I laughed as I got dressed, wondering what else I’d learn about Pete Killarny in the coming days, but knowing that there was so much more that had to be handled today before I could start thinking about the future.

  The first thing that had to be done was the last thing I wanted to do. I didn’t even want to think about it, but I knew that I was the only person in the world who had a chance of stopping my father from following through with whatever his plans were today.

  I finished getting ready. Done up to the nines I carryied my hat down to my father’s office, where I hoped I would find him.

  He was there, and like I had been a few nights before he was prowling through the same drawer.

  “Dad?”

  He looked up and closed the drawer, offering me a smile. “Good morning honey. I was just about to head out to take one last look at the paddock. Our attorney will be by soon, and he has all the paperwork. We’ll be handing it over to the Killarnys, and that will remove them from the derby.” He started to head toward the door, but I put up my hand.

  “Dad, why don’t you have a seat. We need to have a little chat.”

  “Honey, I know you think it’s nothing. But we really can’t have people like that around if they are involved in illegal activity.”

  “Dad.” I stopped and stared at him until he sat down in his chair. I remained standing. “I know about Emily Killarny.”

  He looked perplexed. “What do you mean?”

  “The drawer. I know what’s in it. I’m sorry for going through your things, but I had to know what was going on here. I knew that it couldn’t be what you said it was, but I wanted to find out what exactly was motivating you to keep them out of our derby.”

  He shook his head. “You shouldn’t have gone through my things.”

  “I am deeply sorry for that. But I know Dad. I know about the affair, and I know that you and Mom couldn’t stay married because you were still in love with Emily.”

  His eyes were closed for a long moment before he opened them again and blinked. “You have no idea what it was like to watch the person you loved more than anyone else in the world walk off and marry someone else.”

  “Really, Dad? You think I couldn’t possibly understand that? Do you recall that a year ago I found my fiancé in bed with my best friend? They’re getting married in two months. I think I have some clue what that might feel like. The only difference is that you slept with your best friend’s almost wife. You are not the victim here so don’t even play like you are. You drove Mom away.”

  He was quiet then.

  “This stops now,” I said in a commanding tone. “It all stops right here. You said Terrance is coming over with some papers today? You’re going to call him and stop him.”

  My father frowned at me and raised his voice. “You don’t call the shots around here.”

  “I may not, and I know that I don’t have the controlling stake that you do, but dad, I swear to you, if you do not stop this, if you do not let the Killarny horse race, then I will walk out of here and have no part of this business again. You lost your wife because you were caught up in all of this jealousy shit and some silly feud. Do you want to lose your daughter as well?”

  His eyes were downcast, and I waited for him to speak. Finally, in a softer tone than what I was used to hearing from my father, he said: “I’ll make the call.”

  * * *

  I slipped out into the morning sunshine and put the wide-brimmed white hat with a black bow on my head. I looked at my reflection in one of the windows to make sure it was straight; then I made my way toward the track.

  Instead of sitting in the usual box where I had grown up sitting with my father, I looked for the box filled with Killarny men. There, in the middle of all the other boxes, I found them hooting and hollering, wit
h Emma there in the middle of the group. Taking the steps carefully in my heels, I walked up toward them and was greeted by Alex.

  “Well, if it isn’t little Sara Waters. Not so little anymore, are you?” He said with a wink, and I rolled my eyes with a smile as I moved past him, maneuvering my hat so as not to gouge anyone’s eyes out. I smiled as I approached Pete.

  “Nice to see you again,” I said, and a knowing glance passed between us. “And nice to see you too, Emma!” I shouted over the roar of the crowd that was really starting to build.

  “You made it just in time!” Emma said.

  Pete took me by the arm and pulled me close. “Is everything okay?”

  I nodded, leaning in to speak close to his ear. “I talked to him, and he wasn’t very happy about it, but the plan he was going to go through with has been stopped. There’s not going to be an attorney, and your rider won’t have any problems down there.”

  “What did you say?” He asked, looking at me with some surprise.

  “I told him that if the Killarny horse didn’t run, then he was going to be losing one very important employee—me.”

  Pete’s eyes were wide. “Really? And what were you going to do when you left, if he called your bluff?”

  “Number one, it wasn’t a bluff. Number two well, I thought you might have a position I could fill at Killarny Estate.”

  Pete grinned and whispered in my ear, “I could think of one or two.”

  We turned our attention to the horses, and the crowd was going absolutely wild. The horses were off, and we all watched the Killarny horse, Clement, cheering him as he raced along, his long, quick strides rapidly advancing him to the front of the pack. It seemed to all happen in a flash and Clement crossed the finish line an entire two seconds before any other horses.

  The Killarny box went wild with all the brothers whooping and shouting. I kept my composure for the most part, but couldn’t help letting out a little yell.

  Pete pulled me close and kissed me on the lips, then put his other arm around Emma. “Here’s to another Killarny win! And here’s to my favorite ladies!”

  I looked over at Emma, who was wearing a particularly knowing grin for a girl of her age. I smiled and leaned in close to Pete, thankful for a second chance with the man who had been my first kiss.

  Want more? Read The Teacher & The Virgin

  An older man, a younger woman, an irresistible attraction.

  How To Hold A Cowboy - Chapter One

  Alex

  * * *

  I stepped out of my house that morning, breathing in the crisp air that blew across the rolling hills of this part of Kentucky and closed my eyes, savoring the moment for just a second more. There was plenty to do around the ranch today, but I wanted to take a minute more to revel in the stillness of this most remote part of the ranch.

  My father knew what he was doing when he gave me land in this area of the ranch. It was no secret that I was the most hermit like of all the Killarny brothers. I just had my own way of doing things and my preference for how I lived out here. Even though I was close to each of my brothers in one way or another, I was the one who tended to prefer retiring to my own house for the evening or any time that I wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle that followed them all around. It seemed like wherever you found more than one of us gathered together it either turned into a friendly argument or a wrestling match.

  It was simply that we liked to poke fun at one another. My mother had been very patient with us all, but I knew that while she was alive, we had caused her an awful lot of grief. She had tried tirelessly to keep us all out of trouble and aside from a few drunken nights spent in county lockup we had stayed out of any kind of major drama for the length of our adult lives. We had all been a worry to her, and I thought about that on occasion, how she wanted us all to be happy and how many times I had heard her pray for that.

  Now my mother was gone, and things on the ranch hadn't been the same since her death. We were all moving on in our own ways, and things had changed even further when my father had decided to pick up his things and move to Puerto Rico. It hadn't been too much of a shock to me. I knew my father was struggling to get past my mother's death, and the best way for him to do it would be to get as far away from the thing that most reminded him of her -- the ranch that the two of them had made their own after the death of my grandfather.

  Killarny Estate spread out across the vast expanse of green hills in this part of the state. Perfect for raising horses, my family had carved out their place in the industry over a hundred years ago and continued to raise some of the fastest and most sought after thoroughbreds in the country and all over the world. You never knew who might call the office to inquire about a Killarny horse. We had seen some princes and sheiks visiting our estate in the years when we had our most distinguished horses breeding new foals every year.

  The breeding had been what my father was most passionate about and in the years when my mother was battling cancer it had taken a backseat to her health. Now that we were back to our normal state of things, at least as normal as things could be without my father and mother overseeing the operation, we were expecting more foals, and we had reached the time of the year when we would need to start checking our mares for possible pregnancy. And that was the thing on my to do list for this particular day.

  I closed the door behind me and headed up the road. It was about a half mile to the main barn from my house, and I enjoyed the walk. Even though I preferred being on a horse, I didn't really see any need in building my own stables like some of my brothers had at their own homes. To me, it was nice to maintain the sense of being out away from the rest of the world. I had a lot of pasture lands around me where some of our wild horses from the Dakotas were kept, and out the back of my house was where the woods started and things became a deep, dark thicket the further in you went. That was all Killarny land as well, a portion of it that had been set aside and would never be cleared, at least as far as any of us were concerned because it provided a nice buffer between our estate and the other ranch that was the nearest to us.

  Walking up the road to the barn I caught sight of my niece Emma on her horse Saoirse. It was clear that she had not seen me there when I saw what she was about to do. Emma leaned in and urged her horse on, and together they bounded over a fence -- a fence that was absolutely not intended for jumping. I knew better than to shout out because it would spook the horse, and at that point, there was no need. The two of them had already cleared the fence and Emma was patting her horse on the head, telling her what a good job she had done. I was up behind the two of them before she noticed me there.

  "So, Emma. Does your dad know you're practicing your jumps back here?"

  Startled, my young niece turned around to face me, her cheeks burning red and her eyes going wide.

  "Uncle Alex! Oh...please don't tell dad. He'll ground me if he knows I was back here jumping."

  The girl looked legitimately afraid of being told she couldn't ride her horse for a week, the same as I would have been if I had been grounded at her age. Riding horses had been life for me just like it was for Emma and I had done much wilder things than jumping fences. There was a memory of crossing a ravine that stuck out to me in particular.

  "Promise me you aren't going to do it again?" I asked, trying to make my tone sound as serious as possible, but I didn't really have the paternal sternness that her dad, my oldest brother Pete, always managed to use.

  "Promise. I'll wait until my lessons." She answered affirmatively.

  I nodded. "Good. But if I catch you again you know I'll have to tell your dad about it." I hoped that she wouldn't take that word of caution the same way I would have at her age. That sort of thing would have meant, "Don't get caught."

  She smiled and nodded at me. "Deal." Emma led her horse back around and through the pasture and I headed on my way to the barn, making a mental checklist of the things I needed to accomplish on this particular day.

  I neede
d to give the vet a call and see when they could come out to do pregnancy checks on the mares. It was a task that we sometimes handled ourselves, but was best left to the professionals. Doc Halloran had always been the one to service our horses and check up on the wild herd out back, but he had recently retired, and there was a new vet setting up shop at his practice. He had assured everyone that the new vet was going to be able to take care of us all just the same and I took his word for it. The man had been in the business of caring for race horses longer than I had been alive...and possibly even longer than my father. He was in his 80s, and it was well past time for him to hang up his hat. I trusted that the man knew what he was up to hiring the new vet that would take over for him and continue working with all of the nearby ranches, but I knew that some of the older generation would have an issue with it. They always took issue with something new changing up what they were used to as the norm.

  The barn door squeaked as I opened it and I made a note to grab some WD-40 the next time I was in town. Otherwise, it wouldn't get done. It was the sort of thing I could assign to one of the hired hands to make sure it happened, but if I left it up to one of my brothers to notice it, then it would be forever before it was taken care of. Pete was too busy with the business side of things, and I couldn't really blame the man for that. Taking care of his daughter and maintaining his new relationship was enough work for any one man. I didn't cut my younger brothers as much slack, but everyone knew that Jake was up to his own thing and the twins were always off doing as they pleased as soon as their work was done. Stephen and Sam were living up to their reputations as the youngest, and while I knew I could ask them to do something, they'd rather be off chasing tail than running errands for me. I was always the one who noticed the details and paid attention to the smallest changes around the ranch. I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or if I was slipping into my father's OCD ways since he was no longer around to monitor the day to day running of the ranch.