Cowboys Last All Night

by Jennifer Ashley

  They were fully clothed for the most part. Winter boots, toques on their heads. Jackets done up. But his cock was inside her, and she was panting as if him stopping would kill her.

  Him stopping would kill him.

  Lee tilted his body back, forcing a hand between them so he could reach her clit and apply pressure as he continued to fuck her hard.

  Her fingertips scraped his neck a bare second before she jerked him to her lips, their mouths crashing together as she came. Her body tightened down on him so hard he lost it as well, his release rocking him.

  “Lee.”

  She tore her lips free to gasp his name, a cloud against the frigid air. He locked his knees and pressed her harder to the door so he wouldn’t do something stupid like collapse and send them both sprawling to the floor.

  His head rested on the door, hers on his shoulder as he held her in place until their heart rates dropped far enough he was no longer hearing drum beats echoing in his brain.

  She pushed on his chest, a lazy, satisfied smile breaking free as she held a hand against his cheek. “Lee Coleman. You certainly know how to show a girl a good time.”

  He nuzzled against her hand and sighed happily before pulling them apart and dealing with getting dressed. He helped rearrange her clothing into some semblance of order, although there was nothing he could do about the torn crotch of her underwear.

  They were both grinning like fools when he took her by the hand and led her from the room, the fogged window the only lingering evidence of their adventure.

  He paused for a moment as the impulse hit to stop and draw in the condensation. He resisted, but only because he figured it was too soon—Rachel would probably head back into the hills at a dead run if he were to go and place their initials in a heart.

  But holding back didn’t remove the urge, and it didn’t erase the realization that Rachel truly was the one for him. In the middle of fooling around he’d gone and done it.

  He’d fallen head-over-heels in love with Rachel Malone.

  And now…he just had to convince her to fall hopelessly in love with him as well.

  Chapter Ten

  Days passed in a blur of happy attention and dizzy anticipation. They didn’t see each other every day, but often enough she had grown more than comfortable with Lee’s presence in her life.

  A New Year’s Eve party where they kissed at midnight. Trips to Traders that didn’t end with them rushing out the door, but dancing until the pub closed before stumbling to the truck, barely able to keep their hands off each other. Ordinary evenings spent at her house or his, eating a meal then watching TV.

  Rachel had fun during her time with Lee, but she was enjoying the rest of her life as well.

  Even her job at the café was something to look forward to every morning. Simple though it might be, she liked what she was doing. She appreciated the people she worked with, and the people she served. She didn’t need the rush of excitement that Gary had tempted her with during their all-too-short relationship.

  She’d wanted to put her past behind her, and as the new year began, it seemed she was successfully doing exactly that. It was good to have a reason to celebrate, and it was even better to celebrate with Lee at her side.

  January passed before she realized it had been a long time since she’d seen her grandmother’s necklace. She racked her brain for the last time she remembered seeing it, but like a forgotten word on the tip of her tongue, the answer eluded her.

  Memory struck the next morning, sending an uncomfortable sensation roiling though her gut. She’d been in the middle of pouring coffee and paused for long enough to pull a chuckle from Lee.

  “I only get half a cup? Am I being rationed?” He slipped his fingers along her arm, his familiar touch raising goose bumps.

  Rachel shook herself alert. “Sorry, it’s not you. I just remembered I was wearing my grandmother’s locket when I went up to the cabin. I took it off and hung it on the wall by the bookcase for safekeeping, and I must have left it there. I’ll have to go back to get it.”

  Lee whistled softly. “You might have to wait until the spring. The snow’s only gotten deeper since we were there, and getting up that road —I’d only try it on a perfectly clear day.”

  Double drat. “It’s not that important.” She offered him a warm smile. “As long as I don’t forget where it is.”

  The scent of frying onions wafted past, and she worked to hide her rising discomfort. Maybe it wasn’t just the missing locket making her uncomfortable. There was a nasty flu bug going around, and so far she’d avoided it, but the twinge in her belly said her sick-free days were numbered.

  Lee rose from the counter and offered her his usual farewell wink. “I’d better get going on my chores, or my big brothers will be tracking me down with cattle prods.”

  “Telling you to mooooove your butt?”

  He laughed as she settled against him briefly, enjoying his firm hug and the kiss he gave her, ignoring the cat calls and whistles that had become another part of their daily ritual. Life was comfortable. Simple.

  She should have known better than to think it would keep going that way.

  It wasn’t something huge like Gary blasting into her life, tearing her apart. It wasn’t something terrible with her family. It was quiet and completely life changing, because sometimes that’s how the world works.

  After the first week of February, she no longer could say she’d escaped the flu. She was miserable, curled up in an easy chair after having warned Lee to stay away from her germs. She stared at the television without seeing it, nausea making her swallow far too often. Alone with too many thoughts.

  She missed him, and yet it was as if he was still with her.

  And that…

  …was it.

  Between one moment and the next she realized Lee Coleman was more than someone she enjoyed spending time with. He was more than someone she enjoyed fooling around with.

  She liked talking with him, liked dancing with him, liked drinking coffee and eating meals, and sitting quietly together—everything about them fit, and the revelation hadn’t required trumpeting fanfare or flashing neon lights.

  The truth had snuck up on her. He was important to her in ways she’d never expected, and she trusted him in ways she’d thought she might never trust a man again.

  That’s when the flu decided she’d had enough introspection time, and she had to race to the washroom to deal with an urgent bout of nausea.

  Yet not even five minutes later, someone spying on her would’ve discovered the most inexplicable thing. A grown woman sitting on the edge of the tub so she could be near the toilet, yet wearing a goofy grin because there was so much happiness bubbling up inside her.

  So, how did she tell him? Oh, God. Should she tell him? They’d been having fun, but he’d done nothing to indicate this was more than dating to him.

  Her eye fell on the calendar on the wall as she pondered. Would he be shocked to hear that she wanted more from their relationship? Only, wasn’t that logical—when two people enjoyed each other’s company the way she and Lee did, they should take it to the next level.

  Her gaze was stuck on the calendar as a sense of being slightly off-kilter struck, and she focused harder, trying to comprehend what part of her brain had already registered.

  The calendar showed two months at a time, and she’d circled the date of her last period in bold red. It was the only way she avoided being caught at work without supplies.

  Her stomach continued to complain as she rose to examine the dates closer. She ran her finger backward over the weeks, counting twice before a shiver of fear snuck in.

  When a third time counting once again added up to two weeks late, her nausea took on a whole new meaning.

  Melody had been right. She should never have held the baby.

  With her head spinning and her emotions jumbled, Rachel made her way to her bedroom and collapsed on the mattress. Lying flat out on her back, she stared at the ceilin
g and tried to figure out where she went from here.

  A baby.

  Oh God, she didn’t even dare think about how much she would like to have a child. Thinking about it would mean that it might be real. And if it was real, then she had a hell of a conversation she needed to set up with Lee. They’d used condoms every single time, but…

  Damn it. All the joy she’d felt not even ten minutes earlier seemed locked in ice. She wasn’t certain exactly how Lee felt about her. Oh, she knew he liked her, but he was twenty-four years old. Had he even thought of having his own kids? And now she was about to throw a huge, life-altering change his way because she wouldn’t dream of not telling him.

  She wanted him. She wanted him in her life because he made her happy, and she liked herself when she was with him.

  But if she was pregnant—

  Like one of those old-fashioned spiral graphs, her thoughts shot off in one direction before looping back again and again. Nothing so elegant as a starburst was drawn, the messy tangle more like a heavy Gordian knot.

  She had no idea what the solution was.

  When the next day dawned bright and clear, the Alberta sky sparkling blue in spite of the frigid temperatures, Rachel dragged herself from her crumpled bed. She had fretted nearly all night. She needed to get out of the house, and her “nausea” seemed to be behaving itself.

  It wasn’t a solution, but it was something to do to distract herself. She picked up the phone and called Lee’s brother.

  “I don’t mind giving you a ride,” Trevor told her, even though his tone said he was confused. “But Lee’s only gone for the morning. If you wait until he gets back, he can take you.”

  She needed another day to sort things out before she saw him. “No, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go get the necklace now.”

  “No problem. I’ll pick you up in half an hour.”

  Rachel pulled on warm clothes, thankful Trevor had the truck well heated by the time he was outside her door. She avoided looking him straight in the eye, and he did her the courtesy of not diving into all the questions she knew he wanted to ask.

  A weird sense of comfortable awkwardness settled over them. Trevor knew damn well something was wrong, but he wasn’t rude enough to ask her straight out what it was. So they sat in silence until he turned onto the forestry road that led to the cabin.

  Rachel stared out the window and tried hard not to think about anything. Instead she watched the tops of the tall pine trees dance against the blue sky as Trevor guided the truck along the narrow road. She admired the thick clumps of snow resting on the outstretched branches and wondered how the trees possibly held up that much weight without their limbs tearing free.

  “Did my brother do something to piss you off?”

  Rachel snapped upright, twisting to face him. “Of course not.”

  Trevor grunted. “There’s no ‘of course’ about it. He’s just as capable of pissing a person off as any of us.”

  “He hasn’t done anything. Everything’s fine.”

  “But you didn’t want to wait until this afternoon to do this trip with him. Gotcha.”

  Maybe Trevor wasn’t as slow as Lee and Anna thought. Rachel wasn’t about to spill her guts, but talking about her concerns in a generic way might help. “I’m trying to figure out how to start an awkward conversation.”

  “With my brother.”

  “Yes. Because you’re right, otherwise I would have asked him to drive me, but I’m not sure what I want to say to him right now.”

  “He’s not that tough to talk to. I mean, he can be a bit of a jackass, but as far as younger brothers go, I kind of like him.”

  His plainly said pronouncement made Rachel smile. “I kind of like him too.”

  A snort escaped him. “I should hope so. You two have been living in each other’s pockets for the last couple of months. That would’ve really sucked if you hated him.”

  They hadn’t been keeping their time together a secret. “I don’t think anybody hates Lee, well, except maybe for my ex-husband.”

  “The feeling is mutual.”

  “Oh, Lee doesn’t hate Gary. They’ve never had any reason to interact—” Trevor wore such a strange expression Rachel stopped in mid-sentence. “What?”

  He paused. “No one ever told you? Lee never mentioned it?”

  “Mentioned what?”

  The longer Trevor remained silent the more her curiosity rose. Finally he spilled the beans. “Last August when Gary was in town, Lee punched his lights out.”

  Rachel laid her hand on the dashboard so she could lean forward and examine Trevor’s face closer. “Why on earth did he do that?”

  “Gary was at the bar with…” Trevor paused again. “I don’t want to bring this up. I don’t want to say something that’s going to hurt you.”

  Oh. Understanding dawned. “Gary was at the bar with another woman. It’s okay, I knew he was cheating on me.”

  “Doesn’t make it right to drag it out again into the light of day.” Trevor glanced at her. “I’m sorry. He was an asshole. You didn’t deserve that.”

  “You’re right.” Only it was interesting how little it hurt to think back to even a few months earlier when she’d been packing up her things and leaving him. She’d changed. Moved on.

  Now she had a whole new set of troubles to deal with.

  She offered Trevor a smile in the brief moment he took his eyes off the road. “I didn’t know Lee had done that. He shouldn’t have.”

  Trevor made a rude noise. “Right. He should have just let the guy have a free pass, even though Gary was fooling around in public. No, Rachel, there’s no way Lee would have ever let that go. Not when it involved the woman he loves.”

  “What?” Rachel shook her head. “Lee’s not in love with me. And he certainly wasn’t in love with me last summer.”

  “Really?” His disbelief was clear. “You need to look a little harder, sweetheart. Lee has been crazy about you for a long time.”

  “It’s not that serious,” Rachel insisted even as her cheeks heated, torn between hope and fear. “We only started seeing each other a couple of months ago.”

  Trevor tapped his hands against the steering wheel, counting on his fingers before humming decisively. “Hmm. Which means it’s been two months plus eight months since Lee decided you were the one for him.”

  “But…” Rachel let out a slow breath. “I wasn’t even dating him back then. I never encouraged him at all.”

  “You didn’t have to.” Trevor made a face. “My little brother is one of the most stubborn people on the face of the earth. He saw something in you that intrigued him, and that was it. Boom.”

  “Boom.” Rachel imitated Trevor’s comment, gesture and all, dragging a reluctant smile from the man. He seemed far more serious than she’d seen him before.

  “Face it,” Trevor shared somberly. “The fact you officially got together with him back in early December doesn’t change how he feels about you. I’m pretty sure he had his seduction planned to the hilt. That’s just how he rolls. Not very impulsive, but rocklike and immoveable when he decides what he wants.”

  In spite of the flutter of hope in her chest, Rachel didn’t know what to do with this information.

  Fortunately, Trevor had had enough sharing and fell into a sort of silence, humming along with the radio as she watched the trees go by.

  Even if Lee loved her, finding out his world might have changed overnight? It was going to be a shock.

  She needed to…

  Lordy, what she needed was to grab a pregnancy test ASAP. Then at least she’d know for sure if she had to dredge up the courage to face him, life-altering conversation and all.

  Trevor pulled to a halt outside the cabin, the truck shimmying in the thick snow that lay piled to the top of the wheel wells. “Go get what you need, but stay clear while I turn the truck around.”

  Rachel went willingly, dropping out of the truck cab into thigh-deep snow. She struggled to the front sta
irs, feeling her way to the front door and letting herself into the icy-cold cabin.

  She went to light a candle, her fingers numb just from removing her gloves to deal with the match. She inched toward the wall, moving at a slow pace as the flame flickered. Outside, the truck engine roared in protest as Trevor made a five-point turn to get the nose of the truck pointed down the mountain again.

  Every time she exhaled, clouds of white surrounded her. She held the candle ahead of her and waited for a gleam of gold in the darkness.

  She’d just wrapped her fingers around the necklace and had turned to the door when the rumbling sound of the truck grew quieter, as if the engine were moving farther away. Rachel hurried forward, jerking the door open in time for the red taillights of Trevor’s truck to vanish down the snowy road.

  It took a moment for her brain to catch up with what her eyes were seeing. He wasn’t turning around; he had left her.

  Trapped at the cabin with no way to get home.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lee was barely in the door before something flew at him from the living room. He raised a hand to knock aside the pillow his brother had hurled.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Lee demanded.

  “That’s what I was going to ask you,” Trevor growled. “You know, you’re a damn idiot, screwing things up with Rachel.”

  Lee jerked to a stop, totally confused. “What? What are you talking about?”

  “She phoned me this morning, and when I picked her up she looked like she’d been on an all-night bender, and not the good kind.”

  The entire conversation so far was like stepping into the twilight zone. “What…? Rachel phoned you? Why would she call you?”

  Trevor rose out of the easy chair he’d been sprawled in and stalked toward him. “Why don’t you answer that? She insisted you hadn’t done anything wrong, but she sure didn’t look like you’ve been doing things right, either.”

  “Stop,” Lee snapped. “Stop talking gibberish and tell me what’s going on.”