The Rebel and the Cowboy (The Carmody Brothers Book 2)

by Sarah Mayberry

  “Oh, okay. So you don’t want me to do this, then?” she asked, pulling his fly down and slipping her hand inside his jeans.

  Her fingers brushed against his cock through his underwear and he went from half-hard to fully hard in a split second.

  “What exactly did you have in mind? Just so I can weigh up my options,” he said, pretending a calm he didn’t feel as she stroked him with a firm, sure grip.

  “Well, first I thought I’d do this.” She reached for his belt buckle, making short work of it. “Then I thought maybe I’d do this.” She pushed his jeans open and reached into his boxer briefs, pulling his cock out.

  He watched her assess his erection, her tongue darting out to lick her lips.

  “And then I thought I’d just do this for a while,” she said, and he let out a low groan as she took him into her mouth.

  Her tongue ran along his shaft before she pulled back to circle the head of his penis, and every brain cell he had shut down.

  For the next few minutes he was lost in the heat of her mouth. She was avid and eager as she licked and sucked and teased him, squirming in her seat as though giving him head was just as huge a turn-on for her as it was for him. He sifted his fingers through her short, silky hair and closed his eyes as his climax finally took him, making his knees weak and wringing him dry.

  When he opened his eyes again Eva was watching him, the tip of his cock still in her mouth. She let it go with an audible pop, then lifted an eyebrow saucily.

  “So, that was option number one,” she said, and he laughed, because she was sexy as hell and funny and he adored spending time with her.

  And not just because the sex was great. Not by a long shot.

  Although it definitely had its moments.

  “Why don’t we consider options two and three later?” he suggested.

  “Two and three? That’s very ambitious.”

  “When it comes to you, always,” he said.

  She smiled and tucked him back into his jeans, fastening his belt with nimble fingers.

  “What time are Sierra and Jed expecting me?” she asked.

  “Eight. Is that cool?” he asked.

  “Sure. That gives me plenty of time to work myself into a frenzy of nervousness,” she said.

  “It’s just Sierra and Jed. No need to be nervous.”

  “That’s what you think.”

  He thought she was only joking, but when she arrived at the main house at eight on the dot he saw at first glance that she was seriously worked up. Her face was pale, and her hand was cold and damp when he took it.

  “Relax,” he murmured as he led her into the living room.

  “I can’t. I always get like this before presentations. Even pretend ones.”

  “We promise not to heckle,” Sierra said from where she was waiting on the sofa.

  “Speak for yourself. I have an extensive list of questions already,” Jed said.

  It was a dumb joke, but it made Eva laugh and Casey was pleased to see some of the tension leave her face.

  “Do your worst,” she dared his brother as she set her laptop and handouts down on the coffee table. “I’m just going to jump into this, okay, so I don’t chew up too much of your evening.”

  “Whatever suits you,” Casey said.

  He dropped a quick kiss onto her mouth, aware of Sierra watching from the couch. Then he crossed to the armchair and sat.

  “The floor is yours, Ms. King,” he said with the wave of a hand.

  “Okay. Here goes nothing.”

  For the next twenty minutes Eva walked them through her presentation, the nervous quaver in her voice gradually disappearing as she progressed through the material. She showed them a graphic featuring her finished studies overlaid onto a computer model of the grain elevator, and she explained why she’d chosen each image, what aspects of Marietta’s history each one represented, why she’d opted for such a vibrant color palette. She drew their attention to the blue-purple bulk of Copper Mountain uniting the past, present, and future of Marietta, and she talked about her idea to approach other towns nearby to create a larger than life art trail of murals across the region.

  When she was done she gave a sigh of relief and held up her hands.

  “Okay. That’s it. Phew. How did I do?”

  There was a moment of complete silence, and the bottom dropped out of Casey’s stomach as he waited for his brother and sister to react. He’d thought Eva’s presentation was great, but Jed was hard to read at the best of times, and Sierra looked nothing short of stunned.

  Then Sierra started clapping, the stunned look on her face morphing into a smile that took up her whole face.

  “I don’t know what to say. Outstanding. Sold. I want ten. No, make it twenty. I want to build a grain elevator in the yard just so we can look out at those amazing images every day,” she said.

  Jed was smiling, too, and Casey shot Eva a look, pleased to see she was smiling, and that the color was back in her cheeks.

  “It wasn’t too long-winded when I was going through the technical bits?” she checked.

  “I think it’s smart to talk about life-span and maintenance the way you did,” Jed said. “It’s one of the first things I’d be thinking about if I was on the committee. Everyone knows the weather can be brutal here, so it’s no good putting up something pretty that’s going to be peeling off in a single season.”

  “Pretty? Please. Those images are heart-stopping,” Sierra said. “Can I see them again, please?”

  They spent the next twenty minutes critiquing Eva’s proposal, and Casey’s admiration for her only increased as he watched her genuinely engage with the process. He was almost certain he’d have been telling his brother and sister where to stick it after ten minutes, but Eva simply made notes and asked questions and offered alternative ways of delivering the same information.

  As he watched her, a warm sensation filled his chest, pushing against his ribcage. It took him a moment to recognize it—he was proud of her, of the way she was handling herself, of what she’d pulled together.

  She was so talented and smart, so capable and thoughtful. On some instinctive level he’d understood she was special the moment he met her, and every second since had only underscored that belief.

  She was hyped after the run-through, talking in a stream of consciousness as they walked side by side out to the trailer. He listened and responded and watched her beautiful face and finally admitted to himself that he was more than half in love with her.

  Not exactly a huge revelation, but it added an extra layer of complexity to the situation.

  “God, listen to me—can’t shut me up,” Eva said, dumping her stuff on the counter.

  “I like listening to you,” he said.

  She smiled wryly and shook her head. “Do you ever say the wrong thing?”

  “Have you met my sister? She’d be happy to give you chapter and verse on my many follies, vices, and faults,” he assured her.

  She sat on the edge of the bed, still smiling. “Name some of them for me.”

  “You want me to inform on myself? I’ll leave it up to you to discover my feet of clay for yourself.”

  “Give me just one fault, then. Something I can cling to whenever I start to despair over how perfect you are.”

  “All right. Let me think,” he said, gazing toward the ceiling as though he really needed to interrogate the subject. “Okay. Sometimes, I put my elbows on the table during dinner.”

  Her smile widened into a grin. “That was pathetic. You know that, right?”

  “It’s not my fault my faults are so minor.”

  “I’m not going to tell you any of my faults now,” she said.

  “Just as well. We don’t have all night.”

  “Oh. Foul. That was brutal,” she cried, but she was laughing, and when he joined her on the bed, her arms came around him willingly as they tumbled back together onto the mattress.

  “Take it back,” she said, her nose only an inch
from his.

  “Okay, I take it back.”

  “I think I’m going to need a physical token of your contrition.”

  “Really. What would that look like?” he asked.

  She wrapped her legs around his thigh and humped it shamelessly.

  “I’ll give you two guesses,” she said, and he couldn’t keep a straight face any longer.

  “What could it possibly be?” he wondered.

  The next half hour involved lots of laughter interspersed with liberal quantities of nudity, heavy breathing, and moaning. By the time they were lying tangled and replete beneath the covers, Casey had sore stomach muscles from laughing so much.

  “Thank you. I needed that,” Eva said, lifting her head from where it was resting on his chest to look him in the eye.

  “Anytime. And I mean that.”

  “I believe you.” She lifted a hand to press the tip of his nose playfully. “That offer you made earlier to drive me tomorrow—is that still on the table?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then I think I’m going to take you up on it, thank you.” Her smile was slightly shy, and he wasn’t prepared for what it did to his chest. “I feel stronger with you in my corner.”

  “You’re gonna kick ass,” he said fiercely. “So much ass, they’re going to need an ass-cleaning crew in there after you’re done.”

  “I really hope you’re right.”

  They turned out the light then, and he stroked her back until her breathing evened out and her body became heavy with sleep.

  He was way, way too wired to follow suit.

  He wanted her to succeed tomorrow, so badly—and not just because she’d be leaving town if she failed.

  He wanted her self-belief to be vindicated.

  He wanted her to have the recognition and success she deserved.

  And yes, he wanted her to stay, even if it was only for a few more months, because he was crazy about her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Eventually he fell asleep, only to wake at the usual time when his internal alarm told him it was time to get up. Eva was once again glued to his side like a limpet, something he’d come to enjoy and expect when he stayed overnight. It took him several minutes to extract himself without waking her, and he strode up to the house to get ready for the day.

  Sierra was in the kitchen yawning and rubbing her eyes when he entered.

  “Pancakes would be great, thanks. That’s an awesome suggestion,” she said.

  He smiled and went to the pantry to grab the flour and eggs. Sierra did the lion’s share of cooking, but he was more than up to making pancakes.

  “How did Eva sleep? She seemed pretty hyped up last night.”

  “She was out like a light pretty quickly,” he said. “Me, not so much.”

  Sierra nodded as though she understood. “You’re nervous for her.”

  “Yeah.”

  Sierra filled a fresh filter with coffee and slotted it into the coffee maker. “Well, her presentation is really impressive. She’s got a good chance.”

  “Hope so.”

  Sierra started to say something, then clearly thought better of it. Instead, she simply rested a hand on his shoulder briefly before reaching for a couple of mugs.

  “You want bananas with your pancakes, or berries?” she asked.

  He spent the morning servicing the sickle-bar mower. They were probably still a good three weeks off harvesting the second cut on their alfalfa crop, but he wanted to be ready for all contingencies. A good run of weather, or some unseasonal rain could change everything. If they lost the harvest…

  He didn’t want to think about what would happen if they lost the harvest.

  At one, he went inside and washed off the grease in the shower and changed into fresh clothes. Then he went to pick up Eva from the trailer.

  She was sitting on the step, her head lowered, hands clasped together over the nape of her neck when he found her.

  “Hey. You okay?” he asked, lengthening his stride.

  “Yes. I think so. Just, you know, a bit shaky.” She offered him a wan smile. “I’ll be fine. I just want this over with now, so I can be on the other side of it all.”

  He understood what she meant, and he rested his hand on the center of her back in silent sympathy.

  “I love it when you do that,” she said quietly. “You’ve got good hands.”

  “We don’t need to head into town just yet, but I thought you might want to get there a little early, just to make sure you’re on time.”

  “That’s a great idea. Not that Marietta probably gets a lot of traffic jams, right?”

  “Had a logging truck turn over on the highway once. Couldn’t get into town for hours,” he said.

  Her eyes widened with alarm and he quickly reassured her.

  “That was years ago. We’ll be fine.”

  “Okay. Good.”

  She stood and dusted the seat of her pants. She was wearing the same tailored black pants she’d worn the first night they were together with a black, silky-looking shirt that had a draped panel across the front that was tied over her hip. Her hair was more refined than usual, smoother and less spiky, and her eyes were carefully made-up, making them look bluer than ever. She looked arty and interesting and stylish, and he felt another surge of pride in her.

  “You look great,” he told her. “You’re going to do great.”

  She just smiled faintly and shook out her hands. “Let’s do this before I literally wet my pants with nervousness.”

  She was silent on the drive into town, and after a few minutes, he reached across and took her hand in his. It was cold and clammy, just like last night, and he brought it over to rest on his thigh and laid his hand over it.

  She gave him a grateful look, the frown easing from between her eyebrows briefly.

  “You want the radio? Or we can talk?”

  “The radio might be good. I need to get out of my own head.”

  He flicked the radio on and the sound of Kacey Musgraves filled the truck. He kept shooting glances Eva’s way, wishing he could do something to take away her nerves or reassure her.

  “The Whiskey Shots should enter that,” Eva said suddenly, glancing at him.

  “Enter what?” he asked.

  He’d been so busy thinking about her he hadn’t registered that the song had finished or that the announcer was talking.

  “The radio station is running a competition for local bands. I didn’t catch all the details,” she said.

  “Already on it. We’ll probably record something this week or next to send in.”

  “Really? That’s great,” she said.

  He kept his eyes on the road. “The boys are keen. Figured we might as well put our hat in the ring.”

  Personally, he still didn’t see the point in putting their hands up for attention they didn’t need or want, but he didn’t want to rain on the other guys’ parade, either, so he was prepared to go along for the ride.

  “Don’t be surprised when they love it,” she said.

  “We’ll see.”

  A few minutes later, they were driving into town and it wasn’t long before he was parking the truck in a spot opposite the library.

  “Ten minutes to spare,” he said, and Eva nodded, her gaze fixed on the dash, the intense little frown once again pleating her forehead.

  He was about to say more when a group exited the library, their obvious high spirits drawing his gaze across the road. Too late he saw that Dane formed the nucleus of the group, and he shot a look at Eva to see if she’d noticed. Being rattled by her ex was the last thing she needed right now.

  Sure enough, she’d seen them, too, and her mouth pressed into a flat line.

  “Looks like they had a good meeting,” she said.

  “Doesn’t mean anything. He probably thought he had a great meeting last time, too, and you’d blown them away so completely they had a complete rethink.”

  She nodded, but her gaze remained on her ex.


  “Want me to walk you in?” he asked.

  She blinked, then shook her head. “No. I’d better do this last bit on my own.” She shifted so she was facing him more fully. “Thank you for last night, for organizing the run-through, and for making me laugh so hard afterward. I needed that distraction like you wouldn’t believe.”

  He caught her hand and lifted it to his mouth for a brief kiss. “You’re amazing. You’re going to knock their socks off.”

  She mustered a smile. “Okay. I’m going to try to hang on to that. I’ll see you in half an hour, I guess.”

  She leaned across to plant a quick kiss on his lips, then she turned and opened the door. Her laptop was in her backpack, along with her handouts, and he passed it to her as she got out of the truck.

  “I’ll be here,” he told her.

  “Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Putting on my big girl panties…now. And here I go.”

  She gave him one final shaky smile, then started across the road.

  He could see the nervous tension in her body as she walked—the way her shoulders were too stiff, her gait tight and too fast. Again he wished there was something he could do to convey to her his belief in her talent and tenacity. She was brilliant, and the committee had to see that. They had to.

  The next half hour crawled by like molasses. Casey checked the clock on the dash so many times he started to think it must be broken. Eventually he got out and paced beside the truck, unable to sit still any longer.

  He imagined Eva in her meeting, walking the committee through her vision. He remembered how good her graphics had looked last night, how impressive her studies were.

  Come on, man, this has got to be hers. She’s fucking earned it.

  He’d never wanted something for another person so fiercely before. It was a little scary, feeling this invested so quickly. Her happiness had very swiftly become his happiness. But there wasn’t much he could do to slow down the charging freight train that was his emotions—and he wasn’t even sure he wanted to. Yes, this was a crazy ride, but so far, it had been the ride of a lifetime and he hoped the best was yet to come.

  If she won the commission, she’d be in Marietta for at least another couple of months. It wasn’t long, but it wasn’t nothing, either.