Cowboy's Baby: A Secret Baby Ranch Western Cowboy Romance

by Crowne, K. C.

  I put my hands on my hips and looked the animal over. “Hard to say. She’s lookin’ tired, but in a good way – like she’s about ready to get that foal out of her.”

  “You delivered a lot of horses?” Jess asked as she continued to brush Juniper.

  “Sure have,” I said proudly. “Deliveries can be tricky, but Juniper’s a tough old girl – she’ll be just fine.”

  My eyes tracked over to Jess again, her body a magnet for my gaze. God, I wanted to throw her over my shoulder, march her right up to my room, and do things to her that would linger in her fantasies for the rest of her life.

  Not a good idea. We still didn’t know if she had a boyfriend or a husband back home, not to mention her vulnerable state. Emily’s online skills had garnered nothing; Jessica Whitman, the one that looked like the beauty standing in front of me, didn’t have an online presence. Didn’t seem to exist before I plucked her out of the rain.

  My cock didn’t care about any of that. All he noticed was that a sexy-as-hell woman was in front of him, one who seemed to want me as bad as I wanted her.

  How the hell had it happened so fast? I’d been into Jess since the moment I saw her on the ground in the rain. I thought it might’ve been something that’d pass, but nope – the opposite happened. Each moment I spent around her made her harder to resist.

  As I watched her brush Juniper, I realized it was only a matter of time before I gave in.

  Chapter 8

  JESS

  I did my best to pay attention to Juniper, but damn was it hard. The way Wyatt was looking at me… it made me feel things I wasn’t prepared for. I knew the clothes were doing a lot of the legwork – Emily’s outfit clung to me like spandex – but undeniably there was something between us.

  “Good girl,” I murmured, brushing Juniper’s coat to try to take my mind off the heat between Wyatt and me. “That’s a good girl.”

  He grinned, watching me fiddle with Juniper’s mane. “I’m gonna show you something.” The way he spoke made it clear I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Wyatt was stern, a little rough around the edges at times. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dig it.

  “You wanna show me something?” I asked. Part of me hoped he was going to whip what I assumed was a glorious cock out and have his way with me. I wouldn’t have had a problem with that.

  “Yeah,” he said, his voice low and deep and sexy as hell. “Tricks of the trade.”

  “Sure.”

  He stepped around Juniper and moved to my side. “Your technique’s good for an amateur.”

  “An amateur?” I asked with a smirk. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’m a pro,” he reminded me, winking. “You’re an amateur. Just how it is.”

  “Alright,” I conceded. “I guess technically you’re right.”

  He nodded. “Give me that.” I handed him the brush. “No, not just the brush, your hand, too.”

  Without saying a word, I held out my hand toward him. He wrapped it in his big, rough grip and squeezed it tight. As before, all I could think about was those hands all over my body, touching every inch of me.

  “Now,” he said. “Your technique is good.”

  “For an amateur,” I added with a smirk.

  “For an amateur,” he repeated, the faintest hint of a grin on his lips. “But with a girl like Juniper, you need to go nice and slow. See, she was the jumpy sort even before she got knocked up.”

  “Who’s the lucky guy?”

  “The stud?” he asked. “That’d be Harley. He’s over at a neighbor’s farm right now, doing the sort of work a guy like him can do.”

  Wyatt didn’t need to explain what he meant. All the stud talk, however, got me thinking about the one in front of me.

  “Anyway,” he continued. “Juniper’s a finicky girl. You need to go nice and slow with her.” Juniper snorted, as if agreeing with him. “Don’t want her gettin' spooked. Only thing worse than a spooked horse is a pregnant spooked horse.”

  It was hard to focus on his words when he had my hand wrapped in his like that. Without thinking, my eyes flicked down to his crotch, noting again the way the denim hugged his package.

  “Try it like this,” he said. He urged my hand over to the mane, guiding the brush slowly through it. “See what I mean?”

  “I do,” I said. “Nice and slow.”

  “Right. With an animal like this, you can’t rush. You have to treat her right; give her all the time she needs.”

  I grinned, wondering who he was talking about here. “That’s probably true,” I agreed. “But then again, sometimes the stud can’t mess around. Sometimes he needs to understand what she wants and to take it without hesitating.”

  He grinned broadly, and I got the impression he was on the same page as me. “Maybe. But a good stud knows when the time is right. No need to rush.”

  Knowing Wyatt understood exactly what I was talking about sent a tingle rushing through my pussy. At that moment I sure as hell felt like an animal in heat. I cleared my throat and said, “I mean, she gets that. But there’s only so long she can wait.”

  Wyatt moved my hand and the brush through Juniper’s mane, his grip tightening slightly. “And sometimes she knows how to make it hard.”

  The double entendre needed no explanation. I couldn’t take it anymore. I turned to Wyatt, his tall, powerful body looming over mine. I bit my lip, chewing it as I gazed up at him. I was so turned on that I couldn’t even speak. But he’d made his thoughts on the matter clear – we needed to wait and find out more.

  But at the moment I resigned myself to what we’d decided, Wyatt changed his mind. He leaned in, his lips pressing against mine. He released my hand and placed his on my hip. Without thinking, I dropped the brush onto the hay-covered ground, the implement landing with a soft thud. He pulled me close, kissing me harder and deeper.

  I fell into it instantly. It was the kiss I’d been waiting for, the one he’d been teasing me with since that first time on the porch. I placed my hands on his chest, feeling the outlines of his pecs through his shirt. The man was built solid, firm and hard and irresistible. With each second of the kiss, I became wetter and wetter.

  Without thinking, I pulled back. “Is this a good idea?” I had no idea why the hell I’d asked it. His kiss was all I’d been wanting, and Wyatt had been the one to deny me.

  He grinned. “Hell yeah, it is.” Wyatt was confident and sure, wiping away whatever doubts I had.

  Before I could say another word, he scooped me up into his big, strong arms and lifted me from the ground. I wrapped my legs around his hips, his cock stiff and solid against me. I had no idea where he was taking me, but I was ready to go anywhere with him. We kissed as he carried me, the passion between us like the sweetest drug I could imagine.

  He set me down on a bale of hay in the corner of the barn. It was such a fucking turn-on the way he was able to effortlessly carry me, my chest rising and falling from the excitement. Wyatt gazed at me with those steely golden eyes, and I felt powerless before him. And I loved it.

  Was he going to take me? Would our first time be in the barn? All I could do was wait and see.

  He kissed me again, making me melt on the spot. His hands moved over my body, squeezing my breasts through my shirt and making my nipples hard as pebbles. I was paralyzed by him, putty in his hands.

  Please fuck me, I thought. Please.

  But I knew we’d only do what Wyatt wanted to do. The man was stubborn, wanting things his way. I’d thrown myself at him, giving him the all clear. What happened next was his call.

  “I’m gonna make you come,” he purred, his voice low and sensual.

  “O-okay…” His words pushed me to a new level of arousal.

  He squeezed my breasts again before letting his hands move down to my belt. Once there, they undid the big oval belt buckle and pushed it aside. Then he opened the button and pulled down the zipper, revealing a triangle of my dark red thong.

  Wyatt kisse
d me as his fingers moved beneath the waistband of my panties, over the trimmed hair above my pussy. I was soaked by this point, so ready for whatever he had in mind. His touch moved down, grazing my clit and down to my lips. I felt a grin form on his lips as he realized how turned on I was.

  “Someone’s eager,” he teased.

  “I’ve been eager since the moment I saw you,” I admitted. Part of me hated the spell Wyatt had over me. But the bigger part of me loved it. I wanted to give myself to him, let him do whatever he wanted with me.

  How the hell had this happened so fast? Sure, I didn’t know what kind of woman I’d been before the accident, but I couldn’t have been the type to fall for a man so quickly. No – this was something special, something that didn’t happen every day.

  I pushed all that out of my mind as Wyatt spread my lips and slipped a finger inside of me. The pleasure was instant, pulsing through my body as he pushed deeper and deeper. I sighed, the moan pouring past my lips.

  “Feel good?” he growled. Something in his voice made me think he was confirming instead of asking, like he knew the effect he was having on me.

  “So fucking good,” I said, my eyes closed.

  He thrust one finger deep, followed by another. I was so wet he was able to enter me easily, effortlessly. I bit my lower lip as he eased in and out. But as good as it felt, all I could think about was how much the tease of his fingers made me crave his cock.

  We kissed as he fingered me, and I was barely able to keep my lips on his as I moaned.

  “Don’t stop,” I whimpered. “It feels…so fucking good.”

  “I bet it does.” His cockiness made it even hotter.

  Closer and closer I moved to orgasm, and right when I was on the brink, he kissed me again as if guiding me through it. I fell off the edge, the pleasure cascading over my body as I shook with delight.

  I came hard, just like he said I would.

  His fingers remained inside me as I came, only removing them when he knew I was done. My eyes widened like I’d woken up from a dream, and I sucked in breath after breath.

  Holy shit. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d come, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind there was something special about that one.

  Wyatt grinned, and I knew he wasn’t done with me. Not by a longshot.

  “Lose the boots.”

  I bristled slightly at his command, but more than that, it excited me. I kicked one boot off, then the other, followed by peeling my socks off with my toes. When they were gone, he grabbed the waist of my pants and panties and yanked them off, rendering me half-naked.

  Was he going to give me what I’d been wanting since I’d first laid eyes on him? I waited for him to undo his belt buckle and jeans. But he didn’t. He lowered himself to his knees and spread my legs, his eyes on my soaked pussy. Wyatt moved closer and closer, kissing along one of my thighs and then the other. Slowly, he moved up between legs, his lips so close to my center it made me want to scream.

  Finally, he placed his mouth on me. All I could do was let my head hang back with total ecstasy. He licked me slowly at first, dragging the flat surface of his tongue over my clit. Shocks of sensual delight coursed through my body.

  He flicked his golden eyes up as he ate me, his gaze narrow and heated. I ran my hands through his thick hair as he began to flick my clit with the tip of his tongue, each pressure pushing new waves of electricity through my body. I sighed, I moaned, I did everything I could not to thrash in place. But it was hard – Wyatt knew what he was doing, and there was no holding back.

  When he entered me again with his fingers, his tongue and his touch working in tandem, I knew I was done. Another orgasm broke loose, and I couldn’t hold back my screams. Wyatt expertly ate my pussy as I came, not relenting even for a moment.

  The orgasm faded and I collapsed, my head resting against the rough wood of the barn wall. Wyatt rose, his mouth glistening with my juices as he wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

  “Damn woman, you taste amazing.”

  I couldn’t speak. He grinned, knowing he’d taken me to the point of speechlessness.

  “Don’t need to say a word,” he said. “Your face says it all.”

  He kissed me again, a smile forming on my lips as I tasted myself on him. As pleased as I was, I realized that he’d taken me to the brink, stopping short of giving me what I really wanted. It drove me crazy. He’d made me come, but all I wanted was for him to fuck me, to pleasure me in the way I knew only his cock could. Wyatt’s restraint was crazy – how was he able to hold back when I knew he wanted me as much as I wanted him?

  “Now,” he announced, as if he’d completed the job he’d started out to do. “We need to get moving. Come on. Big day ahead.”

  He handed me my clothes, and I wordlessly slipped into them, frowning. Once I was dressed, he stuck out his hand and I took it, him helping me to my feet.

  As I stood, however, I froze in place. Memories began to come back. They were faint, nothing concrete, but they were there. Several moments must’ve passed, because by the time I came back to myself, I felt Wyatt’s hand on my shoulder, jostling me back into reality.

  “Jess,” he said. “You alright?”

  “Yeah,” I said, shaking my head. “Just…remembered some stuff.”

  Wyatt raised his thick eyebrows. “As in, from your past?”

  “From my past,” I confirmed.

  “Shit,” he breathed, looking at me with concern. “This is a good sign. Come on, let’s talk on the way back to the house.”

  My mind raced with the memories that had returned. Between that and what Wyatt had done to me, I could hardly think straight. Seeming to sense this, Wyatt took my hand and led me out of the barn. He gave Juniper another once-over before the two of us headed back into the chill of the late afternoon.

  “Okay,” he cajoled. “Start slow. Don’t rush yourself.”

  I loved the firm calmness in his voice. It was as though nothing could bother him. It helped set me straight. “Like I said, it’s only swatches of memory.”

  “That’s a start. Could mean the details are coming back. But let’s hear what you remember.”

  “I remember…living alone.”

  “Living alone?”

  “Yeah. I live alone. I can picture a tiny studio apartment, probably in Houston. I live alone. There’s no kids, no husband, no boyfriend.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “Yes. I’m sure. And I…I work by myself. Not at an office or anything like that.”

  “What kind of work?”

  I closed my eyes and tried to focus. “Nothing’s coming to mind. I can’t say what it is, only what it’s not.”

  “Well, that means we’re gettin' closer. What else do you remember?”

  “I…” I closed my eyes for a moment. “My parents.”

  “What about them?”

  “They’re gone. I can’t remember their names or what they look like or anything like that. But when I think about the subject of parents, there’s this…emptiness, this sadness. I know it means they’re gone.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he sympathized. “But if you don’t have parents or a family or even a boyfriend, that means…”

  “It means I’m alone,” I said, a piercing pain in my heart. “I have no one.”

  Wyatt stopped and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Now, you know that’s not true.” There was a tinge of something, almost like anger to his voice that froze me. “You’ve got me, you’ve got us here.”

  His words moved me. I didn’t know what to say.

  “You’re goin’ through a hell of a lot right now. But don’t think for a second that you’re goin’ through it alone.”

  As I stared into his eyes, the camera popped into my head like an invading thought. Was I a photographer? That didn’t sit right…perhaps a private investigator? My brain had no answer. With my eyes on Wyatt, I realized I wanted to tell him about the camera and its contents. I knew it wa
s the right thing to do. But the moment the words formed in my mouth I stopped them.

  I chickened out.

  “Thank you.” The words came out weakly, and I hated feeling so frail. But as Wyatt gazed at me, his golden eyes even more brilliant in the clear light of day, I felt his strength pour into me. I cleared my throat, ready to move on. “Anyway, what about the horse ride?”

  He grinned. “That’ll have to wait. Dinner’s before too long, and Mama G’s not gonna be too happy if we skip out on it for a ride. And Juniper’s lookin’ to pop at any moment – I wanna be nearby when it happens.”

  “Got it,” I said. “But I’m holding you to it.”

  He grinned again, as if sensing I meant something else by the phrase. It wasn’t only the horseback ride we were putting off. We’d started something in the barn, and it was only a matter of time before we finished it.

  We arrived at the house, Wyatt holding the door for me as we stepped inside. Once in we headed to the kitchen where Silas had on a pot of delicious-smelling coffee. He poured us a couple of mugs and we sat in the lounge and chatted about nothing in particular, mostly goings-on at the ranch. I was happy to discuss lighter stuff after the shock of my memories coming back.

  Before too long five o’clock hit and we were ready and waiting for Mama G to serve dinner – the delicious aromas of cooking food had been thick in the air since we’d walked in the door. By the time the dinner bell hit I was so ready to eat it wasn’t even funny.

  Dinner was steak, and lots of it. Along with the meat there was butter-sautéed asparagus, skin-on mashed potatoes, and heaping piles of golden-brown biscuits. I ate my fill, the conversation flowing as I did. As we ate, I thought about what Wyatt had said, about how I wasn’t going through this alone. It’d only been a short time, but I was starting to feel like a member of the family.

  It was…strange. Strange, but nice. Better than nice, really – I relished it.

  There was after-dinner coffee and apple pie, and by the time we’d polished that off I was ready for some rest.

  “I’ll see you up to your room,” Wyatt offered, seeming to sense what I was feeling. He flashed me a grin as he rose from the table, and it made me wonder if he planned on finishing what we’d started in the barn. We headed up the stairs, Wyatt leading me to my room.