by Jess Bentley
She just didn’t tell me which brother it was.
There are five McCormick boys, ranging from the oldest, Hawk, to the youngest, Mason. Mason and Anna are twins, and they are freshman at the high school. Hawk graduated two years ago, and I never once had the nerve to so much as look at him in the hallways. He was gorgeous, tall and muscular and powerful, with the kind of eyes that sparkled with mischief no matter what he was thinking. Wild rumors abound that he’s currently a male prostitute living out in California, but it’s all silly speculation because no one has seen him since he graduated.
Matt McCormick is in my graduating class, but he’s a baseball player, a swimmer, and a professional rider for his family’s riding team. I’m a theater nerd, I volunteer at the library after school, and I spend all of my free time at the local animal shelter, helping stray dogs and cats find their forever homes. I can’t fathom that Matt McCormick knows my name, let alone that he’d invite me to a party at the ranch.
And yet, here I am. I wander amongst the crowd of the most elite families in Dylan, Montana, completely at a loss for what to do, or who to talk to. I only see a few people I recognize from school, and they definitely aren’t the kind of kids who could pick me out of a crowd. After picking up a glass of sparkling cider, I finally spot a friendly face in the crowd.
“Anna!” I shout to the tiny redhead, who is ladling out punch to guests.
“Hey, Parrish! Let me get someone to cover for me, and I’ll be right over.”
Anna hands the punch ladle to a woman standing next to her and then runs over to me and gives me a hug. “I’m so glad you came! Everyone here is lame. You’re the only person besides my brothers who acknowledges me and even they can be jerks.”
I laugh. “Were you not allowed to invite anyone?”
Anna waves a finger at me and puts on a voice that is clearly mimicking her father. “You graduate in three years, Anna. You can invite anyone you want then. Until that day, you serve punch!” I shake my head and give her a hug.
“You’ll graduate before you know it, Anna, and I bet when that day comes, you’ll think back fondly on all the years all you had to serve punch.”
Anna rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Speaking of, have you seen my brother? He’s looking for you.”
“Girl, don’t forget, you have five brothers. And I have no idea which one you’re talking about.”
Anna slaps her head. “Silly me. I never told you! The invitation came from…”
She doesn’t have time to finish her sentence. Suddenly, I feel a large, strong hand on my shoulder, and I turn around slowly. Standing behind me is Hawk McCormick. He looks different, older somehow. His reddish-brown hair is shaggy, and his defined jaw is scattered in a week’s worth of stubble. He’s wearing a plaid flannel shirt over well-worn jeans, and I am immediately lost in that same mischievous sparkle in his eye.
“Well. Parrish Monroe. I wasn’t sure you’d show up.”
My jaw drops and I can’t seem to form words. “I… I… I…”
Hawk laughs. “I’m sure glad you did. Do you want to take a walk?”
“I… I… I…”
Anna laughs behind me and gives me a gentle shove toward Hawk. “Go on. I’ll return to my very important duties as Punch Girl.”
I walk away from Anna haltingly, complete baffled as to why I’m going anywhere with Hawk McCormick. We wander slowly away from the party, in the direction of the opulent horse stables on the edge of the property. The McCormicks are the foremost horse ranchers in the entire state, and almost every member of their family has won multiple awards in their classes for riding. Even Candy, the matriarch of the family, is one of the most well-known riders of classical dressage. She only gave it up when the twins were born. Now, Anna is picking up her mantle, while the rest of the boys vary between show jumping, Western riding, and trail. The only outlier is Hawk. No one really knew why he’d so adamantly spurned the family business.
We step into the stables, and the horses mostly seem to have bedded down for the night, but a few are still milling about in their stalls. I have always found horses to be not only beautiful but comforting, and they are working their magic on me right now. I walk up to a gorgeous piebald and trace my fingers across its black and white muzzle. Hawk walks up behind me and stands directly next to me, and I can feel the heat of his body permeating through his shirt and into my skin. He reaches out and gives the horse a loving pat on the neck.
“This is Moonfire. Well, that’s her family name. Her show name is Apple Blossom but I never thought that suited her.”
I give her another gentle pat and she nickers softly at me. “She’s a real beauty.”
“So are you,” Hawk says as he brushes a strand of blonde hair from my face. I shiver under his touch and squirm away, ducking under his arm and taking a few steps back.
“Hawk… I don’t understand. You’ve been gone two years. And for all the years we were in the same schools before that, you never said a single word to me. Why are you… why…”
He takes a confident step toward me, and my stomach does flip-flops the closer he gets. “Maybe I was too shy to say anything.” I burst out into laughter.
“You? Shy? Just because we’ve never spoken before doesn’t mean I don’t know you, Hawk McCormick. And shy is not a word I’d use to describe you. Ever.”
“People change, right?” he says as he takes another step in my direction.
Hawk pins me up against the wall of the stall, the smell of fresh hay and wood smoke from the bonfire creating a heady combination that almost makes me dizzy. His face nuzzles into my neck, kissing from my shoulder all the way to my ear, while his hands try to sneak up the front of my shirt. “Wait,” I hear myself saying, pushing him away from me.
Hawk suddenly retracts his hands and looks at me with concern. Mere feet away, the laughter of my friends and classmates echoes into the night. The bonfire outside cracks as it casts strange shadows throughout the barn.
“What’s wrong?” he whispers.
“Anyone could come in here,” I reply. “We could be found. What would they think of us?”
“I think I don’t give a shit.” Hawk pushes himself against me once again and kisses me hard. “I have dreamed of the day where I could have you, and now, here we are. I won’t give up that chance. For anything.”
I’m stunned at this revelation. All through high school, I watched Hawk quickly move through his never-ending parade of girlfriends, finding myself increasingly jealous with each new one, wishing I were in her place. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought he’d even give me a second glance, let alone fantasize about me the way I have about him.
Clearly, I was wrong. Now is my chance to turn my dreams into reality.
So why am I hesitating?
I begin to unbutton my shirt as quickly as I can, my hands shaking in anticipation.
“No time for that.” Hawk grabs the edges of my blouse and rips it open, exposing my breasts to the crisp night air. His mouth quickly finds its way to one of my nipples, nipping and sucking with increased urgency. The mix of pain and pleasure makes me gasp with delight, and I wrap my hands in his hair to hold him closer, trying to slow him down just a little.
Another burst of laughter comes from just outside the barn. Hawk looks up quickly to assess the situation, making sure we are still out of sight. Suddenly, I feel his muscular arms reaching around my waist, his hands grabbing my butt to lift me up. I wrap my legs tightly around his waist, and I can feel his hard length pushing at the fly of his jeans just under my ass. Hawk lays me down on the floor of the empty stall, my head resting on his jacket. The cement feels cold and hard against my flushed, anxious body as I watch Hawk quickly unzip his pants. He reaches into his briefs and pulls out his enormous, hard cock. My heart skips a beat at the sight of him.
A quick wave of fear passes over me. I’ve never been with someone so… huge. In fact, I’ve never been with anyone… Oh, god. What am I doing?
Hawk kne
els down in front of me, roughly nudging my knees open. I oblige only too willingly, spreading my legs as wide as possible to accept him into me. I close my eyes, bracing my body to try to take all of him into me.
Suddenly, I feel a warm, soft, wet sensation rising on my clit. I peek open my eyes and see his gorgeous face looking up at me. Stopping briefly, he smiles at me. “Did you think I would be so selfish as to not give before I receive?” he says. He closes his eyes and begins to work at my core, his tongue moving in slow circles around it, teasing and coaxing me. He takes quick passes over the top of my clit in figure eights, sending waves of pleasure through my body. I grab both of my legs under my knees, angling my hips upward towards his face in response.
Every move, every lick, every little nibble builds the energy growing deep within me. His pace quickens, and he begins to move his head up and down slightly so that his facial stubble provides additional sensations. The mix of rough and smooth puts me over the edge, and I arch my back as my orgasm rushes through me. Hawk, realizing my ecstasy, sits up, grabs my hips and thrusts himself deep into my sensitive and longing center.
I feel him fill me completely, deeper than I ever thought imaginable. My honey has made my thighs slick with satisfaction, and he slides in and out of me. He licks his thumb and places it gently on my clit as he begins to pump me with relentless, long, steady strokes. I’m so sensitive, it’s almost too much, but I don’t want him to stop.
“Oh god, Parrish, you are so beautiful. I’m going to cum so hard,” Hawk mumbles. His thumb starts working in circular motions on me as his rock-hard cock begins to move faster in and out of me. I feel the energy start to rise in my body again, faster this time.
“Hawk… I’m…” I barely stutter as I begin to shake with uncontrollable delight.
“Me too, oh fuck, me too” he responds, as he roughly pumps me full of his seed. Hawk collapses on top of me, his arms wrapped around my head.
“My god, Parrish, that was better than I ever could have hoped for.” Hawk kisses me tenderly, gazing into my eyes.
I try not to cry as I revel in the moment and the thought of what’s just happened between us. I know Hawk. He’s too wild, too free to ever be tamed. I know that I could never end up with him the way I want to. And as he kisses me on the forehead, stands up and re-dresses, then wanders out of the barn without another word, I know for sure that my instincts are right…
I may have just made the biggest mistake of my life so far.
Chapter 1
Present Day
Parrish
“Parrish! Parrish, where are you? I need you in the office now!”
I roll my eyes as my father-in-law, Sam, is shouting at me from the front door of the main office like he doesn’t know exactly where I am. Whenever I get stressed, or overwhelmed with my work as office manager on the ranch, I always disappear into the stables to spend time with my favorite horse, Moonfire. She hasn’t been in competition for a while now, given the fact she’s reached the ripe-old age of twenty, but Sam agreed to keep her on for me. It was a kindness far greater than he was usually capable of, but when his son, my husband, died two weeks before our daughter was born… it seemed like the least he could do.
I run the brush through Moonfire’s mane as I remember that horrible day, two years ago October. I didn’t think I would survive it. None of us did. He’d been driving home from a meeting with a breeder in Helena when a storm snuck up, and between the pouring rain and slippery roads, it seemed like the universe was conspiring to steal my heart away. Gracie had been born barely two weeks later, and the McCormick family had vowed to protect us for as long as we needed them.
Not a day goes by where I don’t think about my Matt.
I never in a million years imagined that things would end up the way they did. The summer after the graduation party, long after Hawk had disappeared into the ether again, Matt McCormick came into animal shelter when I was working to adopt a new barn cat for the ranch. We started talking and the rest, as they say, is history. We discovered we were bound for the same small college in September; he was majoring in veterinary sciences, and I was planning to focus in business. Matt knew about what had happened with Hawk, and he didn’t care.
“If I ignored every woman my brother slept with, I’d have to move to Kathmandu to find a girlfriend,” he said with a grin.
We got married as soon as we finished college, and had a beautiful wedding on the ranch. We moved into the little carriage house at the edge of the property while Matt finished his schooling, and Sam and Candy gave me the job of office manager. Before we knew it, Matt had his DVM and our first daughter was on the way. And then, in a flash…
He was gone.
I never thought I’d be a single mother at twenty-eight-years-old. But at the same time, Gracie and I are never really alone. Anna still works here, taking care of the stables, and the other brothers, Mason, Jasper, and Carter, are almost always around. We eat dinner in the ranch house as a family every night, and Gracie only knows this life. I am happy that she has a loving family to surround her, but at the same time, I regret that my little girl will never get to know her father.
“Parrish! Quit daydreaming and get back in the office. The phone is ringing off the hook and you know I’m not answering it.”
Sam walks into the stable and completely startles me. I drop the brush and spin around, causing Moonfire to bristle up. “Sam, you can’t sneak up on me like that. You know how easily I freak out.”
Sam gives Moonfire an affectionate pat on the butt, then shakes his head at me with a smile. “You’re jumpier than a jack rabbit on a busy highway and I’ll never understand why. Anyway. The phone keeps ringing and it’s driving me bonkers. Can you please go deal with it? I think it’s the people from the bank about the Canyon Crest Farms merger.”
I groan and set my forehead against Moonfire’s haunches. Without my input, Sam approached a farm in California about combining our assets, and buying all of their horses. It’s not that we can’t afford it; McCormick Ranch is doing more business now, and winning more competitions, than it ever has before. I just don’t like when Sam completely bypasses my role as manager and does whatever he wants.
“Explain to me again why we needed to do this? We don’t have the stable space for an entirely new team of horses. And what exactly will we gain from merging with a farm in California?”
Sam shakes his head with a sigh. “You’re full of questions, ain’t you girl?”
“It’s my job to be full of questions, Sam. I’m the ranch manager.”
He holds up his hands defensively. “Fine! The reason I picked Canyon Crest is because they have a collection of young colts, a mix of Paint horses and Friesians, and I want to start training them for competition. I think a few of them have real potential. As far as the space, I’ve already been in touch with an architect about building a new, state-of-the-art stable on the back part of the property that we haven’t developed.”
My jaw drops. “Sam! Do you have any idea how much that will cost?”
“With all of the upgrades I asked for, the architect estimated around $750,000, but he’s using his connections to get us a steal at five-hundred.”
I have to lean against Moonfire to keep from collapsing. “Sam. I’m going to say this very slowly and I need you to hear me. Five-hundred-thousand dollars is a year’s worth of upkeep and salaries on this place. Please process that. You’re going to spend almost our entire slush fund on something we don’t remotely need, for what? A few more wins? A feature in Horse & Rider?”
“Parrish, honey. It’s already a done deal. I just need to sign the check. I appreciate your concern but at the end of the day, this is still my ranch, baby. You’ll see it’s the right call once those stables are built, new and shiny. Maybe I’ll even let you move old Moonfire over there.”
I scowl at my stubborn-as-nails father-in-law. “You think you can buy me off?”
“You said that, I didn’t.”
Sa
m starts to walk out of the stable and I give Moonfire another pat as I follow him toward the office. “Who is this architect anyway? There is no one in Dylan I would trust with a project like that.”
“He’s from out of town,” Sam says without looking back at me.
“Does he have a name?”
“You’ll meet him tomorrow. He’s flying in to survey the property and start planning. Now, I know you love pinching the purse around here, so you’re going to be working closely with him to make sure he keeps to that budget.”
We get to the office, and Sam gives my arm a squeeze. “I do appreciate you, Parrish. You’re a pain in my ass sometimes, but I appreciate you.” And then he turns and heads up toward the ranch house, leaving me to field the endlessly ringing phone at my desk for the rest of the day.
Chapter 2
Los Angeles, Present Day
Hawk
“Carly! Carly, where is my boarding pass? I thought you printed it off for me last night?”
My assistant is running around my office, trying to find my driver’s license and passport so I can actually get on the plane that is leaving LAX at six a.m. tomorrow. I haven’t actually driven myself anywhere in years, so knowing I will have to drive from Helena to Dylan is stressing me out more than seeing my family for the first time in ten years. I honestly can’t believe that my father asked me design their new stables. When I didn’t come home after Matt died, I thought for sure I’d never hear from them again. But I was in the middle of a huge project in Barcelona, and there was no way I could leave. I was devastated; Matt was my best friend, even though we didn’t talk as much once he married Parrish. Still, me being in Montana for the funeral and losing my job wasn’t going to change anything. I felt like a jerk, but why should that day be different than any other day?
Ten years ago when I walked out on my hometown, and Parrish, I swore I would never go back to Dylan. It wasn’t that I didn’t have feelings for Parrish; I did. Genuine feelings. I’d been infatuated with her since we were kids, even though I never said anything. I was too busy dating cheerleaders, and girls from the college in the next town ... and one really young substitute English teacher. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be with Parris. It was that I knew damn well she was way too good for me. She deserved better. And she got it in Matt.