Cowboys Last All Night

by Jennifer Ashley

  He stood up. “Be right back.” He paced across to the bathroom, knowing she was watching him and hoping she like what she saw. When he returned, he grinned at her expression and she smiled devilishly back at him. She took the condom out of his hand when he approached and he steeled himself for the sweet torture of her putting it on him. Her hands running over the length of his hardness nearly had him coming undone, but when he laid her back down on the bed and positioned himself above her, it was all worth it to know what would come next.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

  “Because I want to remember everything.” Cole couldn’t wait another moment. He lowered himself down on top of her and pressed inside, both of them moaning together.

  Cole’s rhythm was uneven at first because he was so turned on he was having trouble holding back, but they found their groove and soon both of them were breathing hard. Sunshine was unbelievably slick and hot, taking him to heights he hadn’t ever felt before. She was unashamed of showing her reactions and her cries and moans teased him until he could hardly hold back. When she wrapped her legs around his waist, it was all over. He thrust into her hard and fast until both of them cried out in unison. After a short interval, they joined together more slowly, exploring each other more thoroughly, until Cole’s long, strong strokes brought Sunshine over the edge again.

  When they lay entwined together, Cole stroking Sunshine from shoulder to hip, Sunshine running her fingers over his chest, she asked, “Now what do we do?”

  “We could do it again.”

  She swatted him playfully. “I mean with the restaurant and rifle range.”

  He thought about that. “We work together, I guess. There’s no reason why we can’t share, is there?”

  “Not as long as we’re together,” she said slowly.

  He turned to her in surprise. “You thinking about going somewhere?”

  “No. But I hardly know you. Maybe you’re all about one-night stands.”

  He was sure she had to see in his eyes that wasn’t true—not this time. “I think we’ve got something special.” He touched her cheek. “I don’t think I’m going to let you go.”

  A smile curved her mouth. “I’m glad to hear it. What’ll we call it though?”

  “The building? How about Sunshine’s Café and Rifle Range?”

  She sat up. “It’s not my rifle range.”

  “Yeah, but your name is cooler than mine.”

  “I swore I wouldn’t do this again—mix business with pleasure.”

  “I’m not Greg,” he assured her. “I swear I won’t let you down. In fact, I swear someday I’ll take you on that trip around the world, Sunshine.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Living and working together seems pretty serious for two people who just met.”

  “Normally I’d agree with you, but not this time.”

  “What makes this time different?” She gasped as he swept a kiss down her jaw and under her chin.

  “You.” He pulled back to face her. “I won’t ever get tired of you.” He shifted her back down on the pillows.

  She sighed as he positioned himself over her. “You think we’ve got what it takes for the long haul?”

  “I think we’ll have a lot of fun finding that out.” He fished out another condom from his bedside table, made short work of sheathing himself, then surprised her by rolling over and pulling her on top of him. “Meanwhile we better make doubly sure we’re compatible.”

  “Don’t you mean triply sure?” she said, arching back as he filled her again.

  “That too.”

  “What are all your friends going to say?” She gasped as Cole reached up, cupped her breasts and ran his hands over her sensitive nipples.

  “They’re going to wish like hell they were exactly where I am right now. But they won’t get that chance, will they?”

  “No.” She shook her head until her long hair swirled around her body. Cole’s hands dropped to her hips as he rocked inside her.

  “It’s just you and me now, isn’t it?”

  She nodded, arching her back and moving with him.

  “No one else?”

  “No one else.”

  They didn’t speak again for a long, long time.

  Chapter Seventeen

  When Sunshine woke the following morning, at first she couldn’t remember where she was. She wasn’t lying in her accustomed spot on the leather couch. Instead, she was curled up cozily in a large, comfortable bed.

  “Good morning.”

  Cole’s voice brought it all back and her cheeks warmed as she remembered the many and varied ways they’d been together the night before.

  “Morning.”

  “I suppose we have to get up.”

  “I suppose we do.”

  The look in his eye told her he could think of better things to do, and she could too, but it was late and there might be customers waiting.

  “Hold that thought until tonight,” she said, and pressed a finger to his lips.

  “If I have to,” he grumbled, but climbed out of bed, giving her all too good of an idea just what had been on his mind. They met again five minutes later on the back deck. Coffee in hand, Sunshine stared across the empty field at the two apartment buildings.

  “I guess we’ll have to make sure we keep all those people afloat.”

  “We?”

  She nodded. “We. I’ll help. We’ll do it together.”

  “I meant what I said last night, though,” Cole said. “Someday we’ll see the world together.”

  “I’m looking forward to that.”

  “Do you think this is what Cecily had in mind all the time?” he asked as he took her coffee cup from her, placed it on the railing and pulled her close again.

  “Maybe.” She twined her arms around his neck.

  A half-hour later they stumbled around the corner to find Ethan and Rob already waiting by the door.

  “It’s about time,” Ethan said. “I gotta improve my score.”

  “And I need some chili,” Rob said. “And a vegetable. Gotta improve my score, too.”

  When both Sunshine and Cole laughed along with him, he eyed them suspiciously. “You two are awfully happy. What gives?”

  “Nothing.” Cole was firm. “Just another busy day.”

  They weren’t fooling anyone, Sunshine realized later, however, when she heard Jamie tell Cab, “They’re sleeping together. It’s obvious. I don’t know how Cole changed her mind.”

  “Maybe she changed his.”

  “Maybe we changed each other’s,” Cole said out loud, surprising all of them. “However it happened, Sunshine’s off limits.”

  “So what happens when the four months are up?” Rob pressed. “Will you own the building or will Sunshine? Who’s the winner?”

  Cole took her hand, raised it and pressed a kiss into her palm. “We’ll own it together and we’ll both win, right Sunshine?”

  “You got that right.”

  I hope you enjoyed Cole and Sunshine’s story. Sign up for my newsletter here for updates on all my new releases.

  The Cowboy Inherits a Bride is a prequel to my COWBOYS OF CHANCE CREEK Series. Find out more about Ethan, Jamie, Rob and Cab in The Cowboy’s E-Mail Order Bride, which is available for free.

  Don’t miss my HEROES OF CHANCE CREEK series, either, which combines the best of military and cowboy romance, beginning with The Navy SEAL’s E-Mail Order Bride, in which a Navy SEAL must find a wife—fast—to save the ranch he thought his family had lost forever.

  COWBOYS OF CHANCE CREEK

  The Cowboy’s E-Mail Order Bride

  The Cowboy Wins a Bride

  The Cowboy Imports a Bride

  The Cowgirl Ropes a Billionaire

  The Sheriff Catches a Bride

  The Cowboy Lassos a Bride

  The Cowboy Rescues a Bride

  The Cowboy Earns a Bride

  HEROES OF CHANCE CREEK
>
  The Navy SEAL’s E-Mail Order Bride

  The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride

  The Marine’s E-Mail Order Bride

  The Navy SEAL’s Christmas Bride

  The Airman’s E-Mail Order Bride

  Sample Some Hot Cowboy Romance

  THE COWBOY’S E-MAIL ORDER BRIDE

  Ethan Cruz should be mending fences on his Montana ranch, but instead he's driving to the Chance Creek, Montana, airport—to pick up the bride he didn't know he had. This latest salvo in his ongoing practical joke battle with his best friend, Rob Matheson, has gone too far, and Ethan plans to send his "bride" right back home, then get busy plotting his revenge. One look at Autumn Leeds changes his mind, however. Perhaps he needs a bride, after all. A breathtakingly beautiful city bride.

  Autumn Leeds needs a story—fast—or she's going to lose her lucrative contract with CityPretty Magazine, so when she sees the crazy video plea for a modern mail-order bride for a cowboy, it sounds like the story of the century. Making a video of her own, she casts herself as the perfect mail-order bride for a rancher, but when she finally reaches Montana, she's surprised to find Ethan's the perfect cowboy husband-to-be. Against her better judgment, her plan to keep her handsome groom at arm's length disintegrates into a night of passion spent in his arms.

  Ethan knows he can't keep playing this game—he has to come clean with Autumn and tell her the truth; about the practical joke and about the state of his ranch. He's about to lose it all because of the debts his mother racked up before his parents' deaths. Now his sister, Claire, wants to sell the ranch and collect what little money they can. He'll be out of a home and a job, and in no shape to support the bride he desperately wants to marry, after all.

  Autumn's in bigger trouble than ever. Not only has she fallen in love with the subject of her expose—she might be carrying his child. If she doesn't write this article and secure her contract for another year, she'll lose everything—her career, her apartment, and more importantly, her family's approval. The only alternative is to stay and marry Ethan. But how can she trust a man she's just met when she knows too well that men always let you down?

  Can a love based on lies last?

  Read on for an excerpt…

  Still, just for one moment she imagined herself standing side by side Ethan at the altar of some country church, pledging her love to him. What would it be like to marry a near stranger and try to forge a life with him?

  Insane, that’s what.

  So why did the idea send tendrils of warmth into all the right places?

  She glanced up at Ethan to find him glancing down, and the warm feeling curved around her insides again. Surely New York men couldn’t be shorter than this crew, or any less manly, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been around so much blatant testosterone. She must be ovulating. Why else would she react like this to a perfect stranger?

  Ethan touched her arm. “This way.” She followed him down the hall, the others falling into place behind them like a cowboy entourage. She stifled a sudden laugh at the absurdity of it all, slipped her hand into her purse and grabbed her digital camera, capturing the scene with a few clicks. Had this man—this…cowboy—sat down and planned out the video he’d made? She tried to picture Ethan bending over a desk and carefully writing out “Sweet. Good cook. Ready for children.”

  She blew out a breath and wondered if she was the only one stifling in this sudden heat. Ready for children? Hardly. Still…if she was going to make babies with anyone…

  Shaking her head to dispel that dangerous image, she found herself at the airport’s single baggage carousel. It was just shuddering to life and within moments she pointed out first one, then another sleek, black suitcase. Ethan took them both, began to move toward the door and then faltered to a stop. He avoided her gaze, focusing on something far beyond her shoulder. “It’s just…I wasn’t….”

  Oh God, Autumn thought, a sudden chill racing down her spine. Her stomach lurched and she raised a hand as if to ward off his words. She hadn’t even considered this.

  He’d taken one look and decided to send her back.

  ~~*~~

  NYT and USA Today bestselling author Cora Seton loves cowboys, country life, gardening, bike-riding, and lazing around with a good book. Mother of four, wife to a computer programmer/eco-farmer, she ditched her California lifestyle ten years ago and moved to a remote logging town in northwestern British Columbia. Like the characters in her Chance Creek series, Cora enjoys old-fashioned pursuits and modern technology, spending mornings transforming an ordinary one-acre lot into a paradise of orchards, berry bushes and market gardens, and afternoons writing the latest Chance Creek romance novel. Visit www.coraseton.com to read about new releases, contests and other cool events!

  Cora Seton: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Newsletter

  Rocky Retreat

  Vivian Arend

  Chapter One

  November, somewhere in the Alberta Rocky Mountains

  Rachel Malone shivered as she eased up the handle on the small airtight stove. She added another log to keep the fire going, leaving the door wide open as she hauled over a chair from the tiny kitchen area so she could sit in front of the inferno. The fire crackled with delight at the extra fuel, flames licking their way up the sides of the wood like orange and yellow fingers.

  She dragged the photo album off the table behind her and plopped it into her lap, taking a deep breath for courage.

  The cutout in the creamy white cover showed her and Gary smiling at each other, brilliant sunshine surrounding them—man, she remembered exactly how she’d felt at that moment. Giddy and excited, and so full of dreams for the future. So sure she was head-over-heels in love.

  Rachel unlatched the front cover and pulled out the eight-by-ten, admiring the outfit she wore, the tan linen showing off her dark shoulder-length hair to perfection. “Damn, I looked good.”

  She flung the picture into the fire, the heat instantly taking effect as the paper ignited, their faces melting into oblivion.

  She turned her attention back to the album as she flipped it open to deal with the first official page. One after the other she peeled out the pictures, her voice echoing in the quiet of the small room as she talked to herself. “Of course I’d love to go out for dinner to this fancy restaurant. Of course I’d like to try that appetizer, if you insist. Gag.”

  Raw oysters. She shuddered before contributing another picture to the bonfire blazing ever hotter before her.

  She paused in the middle of removing the reminders of her past six months and the whirlwind romance she’d shared with Gary Ricardo. Stared at the photo in her fingers without seeing it.

  Whirlwind was accurate, romance though? Definitely not the correct word, not considering that here she was, five months after saying I do knowing I don’t would’ve been a far better choice. Pictures from their month of dating, shots from their July honeymoon in Tahiti—all torn from the album to be sacrificed to the fire along with the charred remains of her heart.

  A snicker escaped. “Melodramatic, much?” she chastised herself.

  She rose and went to the window. The cold seeping through the pane cooled her flushed forehead as she eased closer to the glass and peered into the growing twilight.

  Melodrama wasn’t how she typically dealt with things. Nothing about her relationship with Gary had been typical, though. Maybe she should’ve known better, but at the same time he had fooled her enough that when she found evidence he was cheating on her, the blow had struck straight through the heart.

  Outside the cabin the late-November weather had turned ugly. She pressed her palms to the window, watching as huge snowflakes twirled downward only to be shoved aside with each new gust of wind. Already a foot of the white stuff had accumulated on top of her car. It was a good thing she wasn’t planning on going anywhere for a while.

  Nope. She was there in the wilderness for her own private lick your wounds retreat, and she had a good five days bef
ore anyone expected her back in Rocky Mountain House. She needed to put her screwup of a relationship behind her so she could move forward into something far better.

  Only as the temperature dropped further, and the snow continued to fall, Rachel worried she might have bitten off more than she could chew. Snow had piled up on the path between her and the outhouse, a thick blanket covered the wood stack, and the cold increased, creeping through the log walls.

  In the interest of saving herself from having to venture outside for more wood in the middle of the night, she pulled on her boots and heavy winter parka, and slipped out the backdoor. It was a cold and miserable job, but far better than running out of fuel.

  A sudden tug at her neck caught her by surprise, and she froze in the middle of lowering her load. Somehow her necklace had worked loose from under her layers and become tangled around the rough bark. Rachel moved carefully to free it—that necklace was one of her only mementos from her grandmother, and she’d hate to break it.

  She desperately needed to keep all the good memories she had intact, thank you very much.

  Rachel looped the golden chain over a nail by the built-in bookshelf then returned to her task. One armload after another, she carried wood to beside the stove, stomping the snow off her feet at the door the best she could on every trip until her pile was so tall it teetered.

  She went outside again for one last chance to use the facilities. The wind roared in her ears, and the door to the cabin slammed shut, torn from her grasp. Ice crystals wedged their way past her hood and scored her cheeks like microscopic razor blades.

  Rachel shuffled through the knee-deep snow and up the steps to the outhouse. The howling wind cut off as she jerked the door closed and stood in the small enclosure, her flashlight as pathetic as a single candle attempting to illuminate an entire pitch-black football field.

  Sure, I can nab you a friend’s hunting cabin for a getaway. It’s not fancy, but the price is right.

  Right then she was cursing her tight-pocketed decision to take up her friend Connie’s offer. Instead of freezing her tushie to the seat of an outhouse, she could have been off at some spa in Banff, getting herself pampered from head to toe…