Cowboy Cravings

by Morgan Ashbury

  He ambled toward his buddy, whose real name was Eugene. Nobody called him that. He’d been Squirrel since kindergarten, the moniker earned because of the way he used to squint, before his ma got the state to get him glasses.

  “Squirrel.”

  “Rick.”

  “Thanks for coming.”

  “Where the fuck else would I be? You’re my bud.”

  Rick tossed his knapsack into the backseat. He took a moment, just one moment, to look back at the facility that had been his home for the past two-plus years, the medium-security pen, situated right behind the big one called Attica. A shiver wracked him and he tossed it off.

  Then he got into Squirrel’s car.

  “So, where to? Do ya want a burger? Fries?”

  “Shit, Squirrel, it’s eight o’clock in the fucking morning.”

  “So? Got a cold six-pack under your seat. Thought beer and a burger would be a great way to celebrate getting out of that hell hole.”

  Rick fished under his seat, latched onto a chilled can, pulled it out. He waited until Squirrel had passed through the last security gate and was on public land before he popped the top and guzzled.

  “Damn, that tastes good. Thanks, Squirrel. This’ll be fine until we get closer to the city.”

  “So where am I taking you? Your mom’s?”

  That would be a good start. He knew his mom would welcome him with open arms, fuss over him as she always did. Especially since Jimmy bought it a year ago. So, yeah, he would begin there. After he showered and shaved, he’d go over and pay his grieving sister-in-law a visit.

  He and Annie had unfinished business. He nearly nailed her once, a couple of years back, just before he went to prison. If Jim hadn’t gotten home from work early, he would have been banging that little cock-teaser. Probably would’ve given her a better ride than his prick of a brother ever managed.

  Rick had been a long time without pussy with a lot of fucking to make up for.

  After he fucked her, he’d persuade her to tell him where his brother hid the goods. Wouldn’t be hard. Annie was a born doormat.

  To hell with waiting until the right buyer could be found. Besides, with Jimmy gone, who the fuck could look for a buyer? He’d grab the stuff, roll it. They made a pact to wait it out so they could get premium dollar. But that was when the take would be split three ways. With his brother dead, that cut it down to two. He was all for making it just one, himself. No need to share anything with their other ‘partner’. That had been Jimmy’s deal, anyway.

  “Yeah, take me to Mom’s. She’ll be glad to see her baby boy.”

  He sat back, the feeling of freedom better than the beer in his blood to give him a high. He’d been patient, though it had been hell, and now he was just days—maybe only hours—away from having that patience rewarded a hundred times over.

  Maybe he could get Squirrel to stop, so he could pick up one of those travel magazines on the tropics. He could almost hear the pounding of the surf. He could hardly wait.

  * * * *

  The sound of footsteps coming up the back stairs made Annie’s belly clutch for one horrible instant. Then she exhaled on a laugh, shaking her head slowly. That was a New-York-City-girl reaction, the first in a long, long while. She turned her attention to her screen door at the same time two tall, muscle-bound cowboys appeared on the other side of it.

  “Now what’s a pretty lady doing indoors on such a glorious Sunday morning?” Jesse asked.

  Annie couldn’t hold back her smile. She had no idea why Jesse Conrad and Grant Douglas decided to visit, but in the last year she came to value their friendship, their quick wit, and from time to time, their strong backs.

  She took the two steps necessary to flick open the hook that kept her screen door closed. She locked the door not to protect herself, but because the sometimes strong breeze would whip it open, scattering leaves and dust into her kitchen.

  “I’m doing my usual day-off chores, cleaning and laundry. What’s a pair of ruggedly handsome cowboys doing away from their horses on such a glorious Sunday morning?”

  Teasing banter had taken her a while to relax into, but both Jesse and Grant teased so often and so easily—not to mention so good-naturedly—that by now she was quite used to it and them.

  “Well now,” Grant said, “it just so happens that we’ve come calling to give you these, and to invite you to come out to play with us today.”

  They each extended a bouquet of flowers, yellow sunflowers and the blue-purple daisies she saw nearly every day growing wild in the fields around Branchton.

  “Oh, my…thank you.” They completely surprised her. “Both of you. They’re beautiful.” She was afraid to say anything more because she felt perilously close to tears.

  No one had ever given her flowers before. She swallowed against the tightness in her throat and offered her visitors a smile that felt wobbly.

  “You’re welcome,” Grant said.

  Jesse just tossed her a wink.

  She guessed by the tender expression on both their faces that she wasn’t fooling either one. Turning away, she took the flowers over to her sink.

  “I’ll just put these in water.” She didn’t have any vases, unless she went down to the store and purloined a couple. She did have clean, used jars on the shelf under the sink.

  One large jar proved sufficient to hold water and both bouquets. She fussed over them until she felt her emotions were in check. It was only as she turned, bright smile in place, that she recalled what Grant had said.

  “You want me to come out and play?” The notion struck her as a strange one. It seemed ages since she’d done anything that could even remotely be considered playing.

  “We do,” Jesse said. “It’s been a year now, a year that you’ve lived in Branchton.”

  “This means that you’re now an official Wyomingite. You’re no longer an ‘Easterner’.” Grant’s pronouncement made ‘Easterner’ sound like something she didn’t want to step in or touch with her bare hands.

  Annie set the vase of flowers onto her tiny kitchen table, right next to the cutting board she used as a center piece, then turned and leaned against the table and folded her arms in front of her chest. “I suppose you’re going to tell me there is some sort of ceremony involved in becoming an official Wyomingite?”

  “Oh, indeed there is,” Jesse agreed.

  She performed as their straight-man long enough to have provided that opening automatically. Truthfully, she hadn’t blown off a day since coming to Wyoming. Looking around her small apartment told her she really could forgo cleaning this once. Alone, she didn’t tend to make much of a mess. So what if the kitchen floor didn’t get washed today? She could always do it tomorrow after she closed the store. The same held true with her laundry.

  Why not accept their offer to go and play for a few hours?

  “And this ‘ceremony’ requires that I accompany you?” She knew they could see the laughter in her eyes because both Jesse and Grant’s smiles widened.

  “It does. And you don’t even need to don any protective gear.”

  “Well, that’s a relief because I left my pepper spray and my panic whistle back in New York.”

  Jesse’s eyes gave away a flicker of horror before he got his expression back under control. His smile was smooth and his expression more than a little flirty when he said, “I guarantee you won’t need them or anything else. Grant and I will keep you safe. That’s a promise.”

  “I know you will. Do I need to change?” She put on a t-shirt and denim jeans after her shower that morning. Although it was the middle of July, the temperature rarely got as hot here as it did back in New York.

  “Not one damn thing,” Grant replied. She heard a husky quality to his voice that sent a shiver of awareness skittering up her spine. That voice didn’t belong in her kitchen in the middle of a summer Sunday morning. It belonged to the twilight world of half-sleep and fantasies, the world Annie sometimes floated in as she was sinking into slum
ber. That voice could whisper to her softly while her hand wandered down her body to stroke and tease her sex into orgasm.

  Annie blinked, unwilling to allow that thought any more room. Looking at the men, her senses told her that something was different, something had changed about the way they stared at her. Both Jesse and Grant continued to grin with those nearly identical mischief-making smiles. Did the blue of Jesse’s eyes somehow seem darker? Did Grant’s smile look sultrier than just a few moments ago?

  What was in that cleaning compound I used on the kitchen counter this morning? She just barely resisted the urge to shake her head to dislodge these bizarre thoughts and half-formed images. Instead, she straightened up and dropped her arms to her sides.

  “Just give me a couple of minutes to run a comb through my hair and put on some lipstick, then.”

  “Take whatever time you need,” Grant said. “We’ll wait right here.”

  In her bedroom, she took a look at her reflection and decided she needed a clean t-shirt, too. She picked the kelly-green V-neck top because it was close at hand, not because it made the green flecks in her hazel eyes sparkle. Smoothing the garment into place, Annie decided to ignore the pink tinting her cheeks. Moving quickly, she stepped into the bathroom and ran a comb through her auburn hair. She never bothered to use her curling iron, or makeup for that matter. A part of her felt those female accessories belonged to her old life. Jim would get angry if she didn’t dress herself up just so when they went out.

  No. Those thoughts didn’t belong here and now. She need only please herself these days. Well, herself and those two cowboys waiting for her. And they never gave any indication she didn’t measure up.

  She used a wet face cloth to remove whatever bits of dust or dirt might have found her since her shower. A few drops of moisturizer and a swipe with her lip gloss, Barely Toffee, and she was good to go.

  It felt more than a little disconcerting to step back into the living room—back into their view—and have their gazes on her as if fixated, waiting on her entrance.

  “Will I need my purse?”

  “Nah, just your keys to lock up.”

  Curiosity began to curl inside her the moment Jesse opened the passenger door of Grant’s enormous pick-up truck and she slid to the middle. No surprise they arrived together. She rarely saw one without the other. From what she understood, their ranches bordered each other’s before they merged them into one operation.

  “I happened to hear you chatting with Mrs. Bishop a while back. You told her you’ve never ridden a horse, and that the closest you’ve been to one was when you drove past some grazing in nearby fields.”

  Annie turned to face Grant. He spoke without looking at her, his focus on the road.

  “There aren’t a great many horses in New York City, unless you want to count the ones pulling carriages full of tourists through Central Park or the few used by the police department.”

  “We’re not being critical, Annie. I know that I, for one, sometimes take my horses for granted. I’ve always owned them, always been able to head out for a ride whenever I’ve wanted to be off on my own. They’re such an important part of life here we thought it time you had the chance to get a little closer to them than the side of the road.”

  “You’re going to show me your ranch and your horses?” She often wondered exactly where that ranch was. Seeing their home and their livestock up close sounded like a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.

  “We’re not just going to show them to you, Annie,” Jesse said, his tone taking on a teasing lilt. “We’re going to take you for a ride.”

  Chapter 3

  “Ohmigod!” Annie squeaked when the horse beneath her started to move.

  “It’s okay, Annie. I have you.” Jesse knew she could hear the laughter in his voice. He was trying very hard to keep his amusement under wraps, but he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

  “I know. I trust you. I do. And I don’t even blame you for laughing. But holy cow, this is really high up off the ground!”

  Annie clutched onto Jesse’s thighs, which was fine by him. He could feel the sweet curve of her bottom pressed up against his sex. He was more than semi hard, and wondered when the woman sitting in front of him on his horse, Drifter, would notice that.

  He’d put a blanket on his stallion but not a saddle. He figured this way the ride would be more comfortable for Annie. Grant prepped his horse the exact same way and would have her with him on the way back to the ranch house.

  Since all of the crew bunked at Grant’s, they began their ride from Jesse’s. Neither man wanted Annie to feel self-conscious with strangers looking her way.

  “It’s not really that high up, honey,” Grant said from beside them. “The deck out your back door is over twice as high as that horse you’re sitting on.”

  Jesse could tell his best friend was having as much trouble keeping a straight face and an even tone as he.

  “That’s true.” Annie replied. “Of course, my deck doesn’t tend to move while I’m standing on it, either.”

  She leaned back just a little more against Jesse, and he thought she might be starting to relax some. Their destination wasn’t that far away, and it wouldn’t take them more than fifteen minutes, all told, to get there. He and Grant didn’t know how Annie would take to being on horseback, so they chose their spot as well as their method of riding with that in mind.

  “Guess it would be a little bit scary if your deck did move,” Jesse conceded. “But you don’t have to worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.” To prove his point, he took the reins in his right hand and wrapped his left arm around her from behind, tucking her in closer. It sure wasn’t a hardship having his arm around her waist and her sweet bottom nestled tight in the V of his legs.

  Because he paid attention, he heard the little catch in her breathing, felt her pulse jump. He’d been thinking about this for so long, though, that he couldn’t completely trust his perceptions. Annie still leaned against him, one hand braced on his thigh, but the other one settled against the arm around her waist.

  Her ass nestled so wonderfully tight against him, she must feel his stiff cock.

  The day had turned sweet and warm, the breeze a light one, a perfect summer day for a picnic. No rain threatened—not a lot of problems with that in their part of Wyoming, anyway—and the temperature promised to stay warm without inching into hot.

  As they crested a small hillock, Jesse felt Annie fully relax into the rhythm of the horse. He said, “If you find you don’t mind being on horseback, Grant and I thought we could teach you how to ride. If you’re open to new experiences, that is.”

  “Now that I’m a little bit used to it, I think I like it. And I guess it would depend on the new experience you’re referring to, but I like to think I have an open mind.”

  He shot a look at Grant whose twinkling eyes told him he caught that bit of teasing she’d thrown out.

  Jesse couldn’t be happier.

  “There’s our picnic place just up ahead. Let’s get settled and then we can talk about new experiences, and just what you might be open to.”

  He and Grant had scouted this spot earlier in the week. Here by the creek, the grass grew just a little more lushly, making the ground feel softer. On either side of the waterway, the run-off from one of the many springs on their land, cottonwoods and willows provided plentiful shade.

  “It’s pretty. More….”

  She stopped in mid sentence and Jesse laughed. “More like what you’re used to back east?” He finished for her.

  “Yeah. I am used to seeing a lot of trees, even if I did live a dozen years in one of the boroughs of New York City.”

  Her face was flushed. He gave her a hug and found he had a hell of a time keeping it friendly. “My mother used to call this area Whispering Springs. She said sometimes when she and Dad would come out here on a summer evening, they could hear the springs whispering the secrets of the universe.”

  “Whispering Sprin
gs. Isn’t that what you named your business?” Annie asked him. Her voice went quiet, and he gave her an extra squeeze to acknowledge the tenderness in her tone.

  “Yeah. Seemed like the thing to do.”

  Grant dismounted and looped his reins over a low hanging branch. Sandstone, the chestnut gelding he’d ridden, was a gentle old horse, quite content to stay where he was put. Grant flexed his shoulders so the straps of his backpack slid down his arms. He set the bag on the grass, then came over to Jesse and Annie.

  “Lift your leg over, honey,” Jesse instructed as he helped her raise her right leg over the horse’s back. He only let go once Grant had his arms up to receive her.

  “Oh!”

  Jesse flicked his glance down. He figured Annie’s startled exclamation had been prompted by being held close by Grant, sporting as big a hard-on as he was.

  “My legs are a little stiff,” she said when the other man set her down.

  Jesse caught the nervousness in her voice. He couldn’t help but smile. Any doubts about Annie’s awareness of both himself and Grant as men were gone now. When he spoke, he let the hunger he felt for her come through in both his expression and his words.

  “That’s just because you’re not used to having your legs spread, honey.”

  Grant hadn’t stepped away from her once he set her on the ground. He stood just on the other side of her. Jesse knew his best friend was on the same page when he said, “If you let us, we’d both like to help you with that.”

  * * * *

  Annie felt her heart thud heavily in her chest. She knew her mouth hung open in shock, but she couldn’t seem to close it. This was not what she expected when these two handsome devils came calling. They said they wanted her to come out and play, but of course they hadn’t said what kind of play they had in mind. It took some effort to close her mouth. She let her gaze wander from one man to the other.