“Yes. The lovely smell of leather.”
“Daddy, can I show Ms. Terri my horse?”
“Sure, buddy.”
Ben pulled her along to the small stall at the end. Inside, there was a beautiful palomino gelding. “Wow, he’s gorgeous, Ben.”
“I know. He’s gold.”
“What’s his name?”
“Blackie.”
She smiled when all she wanted to do was laugh. “Why did you call him Blackie when he’s gold?”
“’Cause Daddy’s horse is Blackie and I wanted to be like Daddy.”
“Oh, I see.”
“We call him Blackie and my horse Black Jack so we can tell them apart,” Jeff said with a proud grin.
They two of them were so cute together, she couldn’t help but smile.
“Will you be my new mama, Ms. Terri?”
“Ben, we already discussed this.”
“I know, Daddy, but I thought I’d ask Ms. Terri for you.”
“Sorry,” he mouthed.
What do I say a three-year-old? “Honey, you have a mama already.”
“I know, but I don’t want her to be my mama anymore. I want you to be.”
“Ben, listen. I can’t be your mama. I don’t live here with you and your new mama should live here so she can love you all the time.”
“Okay.”
The disappointment on the little boys face broke her heart.
“But we can be friends while I’m here.”
“Yay!” Ben bounced in front of her on his little feet until she picked him up in her arms.
A quick kiss to her cheek almost made her cry. What a great little boy.
“Can we go for a ride, Daddy?”
“Not now, buddy. I have some work to get done. I need to organize the feed room.” He glanced at Terri. “Would you mind keepin’ an eye on him until my mom can take him back to the house?”
“Sure.” She glanced at Ben. “How about we go dig in the dirt for a while?”
“Can I get my trucks, Daddy?”
“Of course you can, Ben.”
“You have dump trucks?”
Ben nodded quickly.
“Awesome. I love playing with dump trucks.”
“I have lots of different ones too.” He squirmed to get down.
“He keeps them in the feed room,” Jeff said, following the running little boy down the dirt aisle of the barn.
Two cowboys in their finery. Ben had his little hat, tiny jeans and miniature cowboy boots where Jeff had the mighty fine grownup version. The man looked delicious. His ass looked tight in the Wranglers. Damn.
“You comin’?”
“I wish,” she mumbled, following the man as she admired his backside.
Ben grabbed the box with his trucks in it, struggling to hold all of them. “Let me help.”
“Okay.”
She took the box out of his arms. “Will you hold my hand and show me where you play?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
With a quick glance at his beaming father, she winked and said, “After you, sir.”
Ben led her back down the aisle of the barn, around the outside and to a small dirt mound next to the wall. Shaded by a large tree she wasn’t familiar with, she made a mental note to include it in her findings for the development company although she wasn’t sure she’d get a lot accomplished on her mission by playing trucks with a three-year-old. Today, she didn’t care. Today was about playing and having fun. Later, she’d worry about details like how much feed they went through, where they bought their stock and how many guests they had in a month. She didn’t know how that would help the land developers, but she figured the more information she had on Thunder Ridge Guest Ranch, the better.
For the next hour, she played alongside the little boy in the dirt pile, until his grandmother came outside.
“What are you two doin’ over there?” Nina asked, coming to a stop next to them.
“We are building houses, Gram.”
“Are you now? Is Ms. Terri helping you build those houses?”
“Yes, ma’am. She draws them on paper and then the constuction man put them together.”
“Oh?”
Shit. “I’m an architect by trade.”
“Really? We’ve thought about adding on to the main lodge at times, maybe you can talk to me about square footage, building plans and permits one of these days before you leave.”
“I would love to.”
“Pick up your trucks, Ben. It’s time to wash up.”
“Aw, Gram.”
“Come on, little man. You need to come inside so Ms. Terri can talk to your daddy. I believe she has some questions for him.”
The twinkle in Nina’s eye didn’t go unnoticed. What was the woman up to? Playing matchmaker? Surely, she didn’t think anything could come of her short stay here at the ranch? “Thanks, Nina. I do need to talk to him about some things.”
Nina patted her on the hand. “There ya go. I knew you two needed some alone time.”
Terri shook her head in denial. “It’s not like that. I need to make some notes on a project I’m working on.”
“Of course you do, honey.”
Terri rolled her eyes. Apparently, Nina wanted her son hooked up with someone hopefully better than his ex. You’re spying on him. Does that make you better? She bit her lip to keep from blurting out her purpose. She didn’t like lying to these people.
“Come on, Ben. Let’s go inside.”
Nina walked away with Ben in tow, leaving Terri with the box of trucks at her feet. She grabbed it in her arms and headed back inside the barn to find Jeff. He stood inside the feed room with a clipboard in his hands as he scratched his head in apparent frustration.
“What’s wrong?”
“Huh? Oh, hi.” He pushed his hat back down on his forehead, and then jotted down some numbers. “I can’t figure out where all the feed is going. We seem to be going through a lot more than normal this month.”
“I wonder why.”
“Well it could be because it’s been rather dry so far. I’ll have to ask Joey if he’s been doubling up on feed or something for some reason.”
“How much do you go through a month normally?”
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her for a moment. It took him a second to answer and she hoped he wouldn’t get suspicious about her questions. “Several tons of both hay and grain.”
“How many animals do you have?”
“We have fifty horses and thousands of head of cattle. We don’t feed the cattle much out of the stores unless the grazing is bad. They have round bales of hay we feed them to supplement their grazing.”
“Sounds like a huge operation.”
“It is. With the guests and running the cattle operation, it’s a big job.”
“I can’t imagine.”
“What are you getting at, Terri.”
“Me? Nothing, why?”
“Why all the questions? I thought you had everything you needed when I took you out to the property lines.”
“I did. I mean, I do. I want to spend some time myself learning about the operation though for my own information. It has nothing to do with the developers, Jeff.” She cringed. Lying to him put a bad taste in her mouth.
“Why don’t I necessarily believe you?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t given you a reason to distrust me.”
“I distrust all women so it’s not just you.”
“I wish you didn’t have such a terrible view of women. You’ve been hurt. I get it, but you know not all women are like your ex. You should think hard on that before you mistrust everyone.”
He put the clipboard down on the bale of hay and pulled her close. “True.” He brushed her lips with his. “I want you. Right now.”
“Now?”
“Yeah. We can lock the door. Ever fucked in a tack room on a bale of hay?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“This can be your first,” he
said, trailing his lips down her neck.
“You’re very persuasive, you know.” Shivers raced down her arms as she grabbed a fistful of his shirt. The snaps gave way with a forceful tug of her hands. “I love your chest.”
He lifted her shirt over her head before he unsnapped her bra and drew it down her arms. “I love your tits.”
She rolled her eyes.
“What?”
“Women don’t like the word tits. It’s vulgar.”
“What do you call them?”
“Breasts or boobs.”
He cupped her bare breasts in his palms, thumbing her nipples to hard little points. “I like your boobs, then.”
“Men.”
“They fit perfectly in my palms.”
“They’re too small.”
“No they aren’t. They’re perfect.”
He ran his tongue over one nipple, pulling a gasp from her lips. She hadn’t realized her nipples were so sensitive to his touch. “Mmm.”
“Like that?”
“Oh, hell yeah.”
He worked the button at her waist loose while he continued to bite at her nipple. Her jeans fell to a puddle at her feet.
“My shoes.”
“Up on the bale and I’ll pull them off. I want to eat you anyway.”
Her pussy clenched as desire raced through her.
“Let me grab a blanket. It might be a bit itchy.” An older horse blanket lay in the corner. He grabbed it and spread it on the hay bale. “This would be better in your bed or mine, but I’m so damned hard for you, I can’t wait.”
“Just fuck me, Jeff. No prelims, just raw sex.”
He grabbed a condom from his wallet, unbuckled his pants, shoving them to the floor in his haste and then rolled the condom down his impressive cock. “Are you wet?”
“Damn right, I’m wet. I’ve been dripping since you walked down the aisle after Ben with your tight ass in those jeans. You are one impressive cowboy, cowboy.”
The head of his cock bumped at her opening.
“Sweet Baby Jesus.” He slowly pushed his cock inside her pussy, dragging out every inch in sweet agony. His thumb found her clit, pulling a moan from between her lips. It felt wonderful, magnificent. She lost the ability to think as he moved in and out of her pussy.
“God, you feel like heaven.”
“Harder, Jeff.”
His pace increased. Heat crawled up from her toes. She was going come and come hard. “Kiss me.”
He pulled her in for the most devastating kiss she’d ever had in her life, just in time for her body to explode in a climax big enough to curl her toes where they rested around his hips.
The kiss broke as he panted her name over and over until he climaxed in a rush.
“Jeff?”
“Shit!”
“Seriously? Who the hell is calling you now?”
“Jonathan.”
“Fuck.” Jeff scrambled to ditch the condom and right his jeans so he could answer his brother while she quickly grabbed hers from the pile to slip on. They were going to be caught red-handed fucking in the stock room.
“Hang on, Jonathan. I’ll be right out.”
“Are you in the tack room?”
“Stay where you are,” Jeff growled as he tucked his shirt into his pants. “You dressed?” he whispered glancing her way while she struggled to get her bra back on.
“Does it fucking look like it?”
“I’ll meet him out there so you have time to finish.”
“Thanks.” Hell, she still needed to get her pants back up. Guys had it so much easier. Whip it out, fuck like bunnies and stuff it back in.
Jeff closed the door behind him, but she could still hear the voices.
“What’s up?”
“I needed to ask you something about the program to keep track of the feed so you aren’t doing it all by paper anymore.”
“Okay, what?”
“Can we go into the tack room? I need to see how big the sacks of grain are so I can—”
“No.”
“Why the hell not?”
“It’s a mess.”
“What? Seriously? Who the fuck cares if it’s a mess?”
“I do. I’ve got shit all over in there. I don’t want you messing with my system.”
“System? You don’t have a damned system, Jeff. I need to see the sacks.”
The next thing she knew, the door flew open and she came face to face with Jonathan.
“Oh.”
“Hi.”
“Hello.” His face turned bright red as he dropped his gaze to the hay covered floor. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You didn’t,” she said, holding back laughter as she put her shoes back on her feet.
“I’ll uh…get those later, Jeff.”
“You do that, Jonathan.”
Jonathan took off at a dead run out of the barn, his face still bright red even from where she sat on the hay bale.
“Sorry. I guess I should have hid or something.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s not like he’s a virgin or somethin’. He’s kind of shy, is all. He takes care of our website and computer stuff around here. He’s building me a program to keep track of all of this without having to do it on paper.”
“Sounds interesting.” She stood in front of him now, wishing they’d had more time. It had been so great having him sleep beside her all night, but she knew it wouldn’t happen again anytime soon. Ben took priority over everything he did, as it should be for a father. It just made her realize with kids, personal time took a backseat to the needs of the child. “What else can you tell me about the operation?”
“We have six guest rooms outside of the man lodge house. Ten more rooms upstairs from the family quarters where my parents sleep.”
“Sounds like you can take a lot of guests.”
“Yeah. We have a few double rooms upstairs where families can have two rooms or two of the cabins have connecting doors for families too.”
“Have you ever been in a lawsuit for an accident on the ranch?”
He frowned. “What kind of question is that?”
“Just curious is all.”
“Well, not that it’s any of your business, but no, we haven’t. Keeping our guests safe is a huge priority for us. We make sure everyone who rides is given instructions beforehand. They are screened to make sure their riding ability is good before they ever get on a horse. If they’ve never been on one before, they are given their own riding lessons.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it, Jeff. I would think this would be a high risk operation for liability purposes is all. I’m thinking of you.”
“An accident could shut us down.”
“I’m sure.”
Her cell phone jingled in her pocket, but she planned to ignore it. She knew who it was without looking since she’d assigned a specific ringtone to the developers. The last thing she needed to do was answer it in front of Jeff.
“Aren’t you gonna get that?” he asked, propping himself up against the doorframe with his arms over his chest, looking all the more enticing with his clothes back in place.
“I know who it is. It’s my mother. I’ll call her back in a bit.” She stepped forward and ran a fingernail down his chest. “Is there another time we can get together, maybe?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about at your place?”
“I have Ben.”
She fiddled with the buttons on his shirt as she glanced up through her lashes. “I know, Jeff. I wouldn’t ask you to put anyone in front of his needs. He’s your son.”
Her cell phone jingled again.
“Sounds important. Maybe you should answer it.”
“I guess so.” She glanced at the screen. Yep, the developers. “It’s almost lunch time anyway so I’m going to head back to my room to freshen up. I’ll see you in the main lodge.”
“Okay.” He kissed her quickly on the lips.
A simple brush
of his mouth against hers, but her panties felt drenched from the small touch.
The smile she gave him was genuine. She really liked him. Probably a little too much.
Chapter Eight
Terri took the phone from her pocket as she opened the door to her cabin, to call the developers back. Annoyance rushed through her. She had a job to do, but they certainly didn’t seem to want to let her do it.
The phone redialed with a push of her finger.
After the receptionist rattled off her greeting, Terri asked to speak to one of the partners. Mr. Cole picked up the line. “Terri, we need an update.”
“I don’t have an update for you. I haven’t learned anything really. It hasn’t even been half a day.”
“My source on the counsel has informed me the committee has all but agreed with the idiots at Thunder Ridge to postpone the land development until they can do more research on land impact. I need something right now. What about the operation itself? Surely you’ve been able to find out some information on their financial situation?”
“I know they haven’t had any lawsuits.” She frowned. What did all of this have to do with the development and building houses on their property? It almost sounded like they wanted to put Thunder Ridge out of business if they could.
“Well maybe we’ll need to work on that then.”
“What do you mean? These are nice people.”
“Don’t get attached, Terri. We’re in business to make money. We need more property to make more money. It’s as simple as that.”
“It’s just a family run guest ranch with some cattle on it. They are no threat to you.”
“Everyone in the area is a threat to us.”
“Why?”
“We need more land. We don’t care how we get it.”
“I don’t understand?”
“Just get the information we need or you won’t have a job when this is through. Maybe not even a company to go back to.” Click.
What the fuck?
“He didn’t seriously just threaten me, did he?”
“My guess is, yes, he did.”
She spun around to find Jeff at her open door.
“You left your underwear in the feed room. I thought I’d bring them back before someone else found them.”
Healing a Cowboy's Heart (Cowboy Dreamin' 2) Page 9