by Rhea Regale
Casanova Cowboys
Lexi’s Untamed Cowboys
Lexi Barrett is on the run from her ex-boyfriend after witnessing him kill three men at his Manhattan nightclub. When her car breaks down on a barren interstate outside Ryder, Kansas, she fears the chase is up until a sexy cowboy comes to her rescue. With little money and no place to turn, she accepts help from the stranger who stokes a fire inside her not even the summer sun can outburn.
Travis Coller and Brent Standon have been searching for a woman to complete their relationship. Lexi’s lucky breakdown in their small town makes one fact clear—the sexy city filly is a perfect match for them. They know she needs help beyond car repairs, and offer her protection from the dangers stalking her in hopes of winning more than a roll in the hay.
When her past arrives in Ryder, Lexi is forced to decide whether to walk away from her cowboys and the passion they have shown her, or stay and risk losing them forever.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 48,432 words
LEXI’S UNTAMED COWBOYS
Casanova Cowboys
Rhea Regale
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
LEXI’S UNTAMED COWBOYS
Copyright © 2013 by Rhea Regale
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-392-7
First E-book Publication: February 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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DEDICATION
A special thanks goes to Mandy for your knowledge about mechanics, and more specifically, BMWs. A gracious thanks to the staff at Siren. And, of course, a huge thanks to all of my wonderful readers.
LEXI’S UNTAMED COWBOYS
Casanova Cowboys
RHEA REGALE
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
Pop.
Lexi shrieked, her eyes darting to the rearview mirror. A resounding sputter came from beneath the hood of her car, followed by a disconcerting tink-tink that led into a burst of steam from the creases around the hood. Her heart slowed to a normal tempo, but her arms continued to tremble.
“Dammit,” she muttered, guiding the car to the side of the road. Her tires kicked up dust from its undisturbed sleep. She stole another glance out her back window. Nothing on this long stretch of barren road. Nothing but miles and miles of crop field and blazing sunlight.
Driving a full twenty-four hours without as much as a break left her in a dire state of paranoia. And now, a dead car on the side of a dead road only seemed to magnify where she would be in a short time.
Dead.
Lexi twisted the key in the ignition. The engine turned, screeched, and conked out. She smacked her hands against the steering wheel, kicked the floor of her old BMW, and groaned.
“Piece of shit.”
Tucking hair behind her ears, she reached over to her bag and pulled out her cell phone. Thirty-two missed calls. Twenty-six texts.
All from Dom. All because of what she saw. All the reason she ran.
Ignoring the texts and messages, she dialed out for roadside assistance. Nothing happened. A quick look at her phone told her she was shit out of luck in this dead land.
She tossed her worthless phone aside and dropped her head back on the headrest, closing her eyes. God did her eyes burn. Her entire body ached. If she trusted Dom was far enough behind her, she would indulge in well-needed sleep right about now. Unfortunately, even in this maze of farmland, dirt roads, and narrow two-lane “highways,” she far from trusted he wouldn’t find her.
“Now what?”
Lexi lifted her head and looked down the endless road in front of her. No signs of life were anywhere within the near distance. There had to be something, a gas station or even a broken-down, crummy motel along this country line. She couldn’t imagine these farmers living out here with fuel-efficient tractors.
She gathered her bag and car key, climbed out of the car, and locked the door behind her. Her heels protested the weight of her body in her uncomfortable stilettos. It was bad enough she didn’t have time to pack a bag for this last-minute getaway. Now she had to subject her blistered and aching feet to miles of walking in this godforsaken heat. The tight little dress clung to her body, already eliciting small beads of sweat between her breasts.
Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she began her search for help, walking into the ripples of heat coming up off the blacktop. An hour later, Lexi plopped down on the side of the road, a thin sheen of sweat covering her from head to toe, strands of hair that escaped her careless updo plastered around her neck and down her back. She yanked off her shoes, the tender flesh around her heels bright red and blistered. Her throat was dry and scratchy. To have a bottle of water right about now would be great.
She glanced around. A short distance ahead, buzzards converged on some poor deceased animal carcass. Otherwise, no other signs of life existed.
“I’m surrounded by wheat fields and dirt.”
A low hum drew her attention away from her despair and the gently swaying wheat a few feet away. Her heart began to thump ferociously in her chest. Quickly, fighting the stiffness in her back and the pain in her legs, she shoved herself to her feet. The hum turned into a deep-rumbling purr, matched by the sound of rubber over asphalt. The intense heat coming off the roadway in distorting waves made it difficult to see details of the vehicle coming toward her. Still far off, the hulking black monster came toward her at a speed that licked anxiety to life in her gut. Was that one of Dom’s Suburbans?
The vehicle blew by her speck of a car and slowed. Oh no. They found her. Ignoring her shoeless feet or the sharp sticks and dry plants, she tramped down the small ditch and dove into the wheat. Her hand clenched at her bag, her mind spinning with possible scenarios of what stalked her. Here she hunkered down in a remote field. Dom could easily do away with her and leave her for the buzzards across the street. She would be eaten to the bones, tilled into the soil, and become fertilizer for the next season’s crop.
The images made her stomach roil, bile rising at the back of her throat. The heat didn’t help either.
The monstrous vehicle approached slowly, judging by the sound of the tires and the push of the engine. She sank deeper into the swaying cape of wheat. Weakness crept down her legs, and she stumbled in the uneven dirt. Her raw heel scraped something hard, and she winced. Tears stung her gritty eyes but dried before they could even crest her lids. She looked down and saw a small trail of blood coming from the fresh wound. One of the blisters had split open.
A massive dark figure cast a thin shadow over her. She shot her eyes up in time to see a pickup truck drive by, the masculine rumble of the diesel engine reverberating in her feet.
A truck.
“No, wait!” Forgetting every stressed bone and joint and open wound on her body, she scrambled to the side of the road, hauled herself up the side of the ditch, and frantically waved the driver down. “Wait! Come back!”
The blacktop seared the balls of her feet, and she jumped to keep from melting into the ground. Over an hour alone on this barren road, she wasn’t about to let the first driver leave her stranded, even if it was some whiskey-drinking, frail old farmer.
“Here! Over here!” She took off after the truck, waving her arms wildly over her head, the soles of her feet burning. “Please!”
Brake lights flared to life in a glare of LED red. She couldn’t see the driver behind the darkly tinted windows of the cab, and she didn’t trust that he, or she, saw her. She sprang forward, still waving and still bouncing. She gasped for breath against the agonizing heat. When the reverse lights came on, Lexi let out a short laugh of relief and stepped onto the cooler dirt along the roadside.
The beastly pickup was definitely a man’s truck, all four tires on the back, two tires on the front. The driver eased up on the gas when the front door of the full cab came even with her. She lifted her hand to her forehead to shade her eyes and try to see through the tint.
At last, the window rolled down.
Every possible idea of what her rescuer looked like flew right out that window.
“Hello, ma’am. Is that your car back there?”
Lexi nodded, her dry throat now beyond revival. The little she could see of the man—sharp, rugged face, strong broad shoulders, and an intense stare beneath the brim of his cowboy hat—stole every molecule of air from her lungs.
“Are you okay?” the man asked.
She cleared her throat and coughed against the sticky dryness. “Yeah.” Another cough. “Sorry. My car broke down.”
“I see that. Why don’t you hop on in? I’ll have someone tow it back to town.”
Lexi looked up and down the road. “I’ve got roadside assistance, but my phone won’t work out here.”
The man chuckled, a sound that crept along her skin like sensual silk. The handsome curl of his mouth highlighted a deep dimple and the flash of white teeth.
“Yeah, those phones don’t always work out in the wheat, I’d say.” The man leaned over the long expanse of console and seat and opened the passenger door. “Hop on up. I’ll get a tow, and we’ll see what’s got ya shoulder-bound.”
Lexi hoisted herself into the cool cab and pulled the heavy door shut. Instantly, the subtle spiced hint of cologne hit her, weaving into the more earthy scents of dirt, dust, and leather. A country tune seeped from the speakers. She slid her toes into her shoes, sparing her bloody heels the torture, and settled back into the seat. The man pulled the truck ahead, the powerful rumble of the engine rising with the speed.
“How long have you been wanderin’ down the road?” he asked, his voice husky. The slow once-over he gave her from her knees to her face left her body warm, and not from the blaring sun. “You don’t seem the type to come from around here.”
“About an hour. I need to get my car fixed and be on my way,” Lexi said, adjusting one of the vents to direct cold air at her neck. “Thanks for picking me up.”
“Not in me to leave a stranded lady on the side of the road.” Another coy side glance and a shadowed grin. “Not one as pretty as yourself.”
Usually loaded with retorts and comebacks for men’s constant implications about her looks, she had none for this one. In fact, she actually liked the compliment coming from him. He made it sound genuine with his smooth Southern drawl and good-boy vibe.
“I didn’t catch your name,” she said.
“Travis Coller.” He propped an elbow on the console and tapped his chin. His eyes never moved from the road flying at them. Another truck passed, and Travis lifted his fingers from the steering wheel in a short wave. “You look like a city woman, Miss…?”
“Alexis.” She fidgeted, uncertain whether to leave it at that. Then again, he’d know nothing about Dom unless he dealt with underground drug trafficking or embezzlement, two reasons three men ended up with gunshot wounds to their heads and she now had a bullet etched with her name. “Alexis Barrett.”
“Miss Barrett—”
“Lexi, please.”
Travis flashed her another bone-melting, dimple-showing half smile. “You have a lovely name, Alexis, if I might say.”
Heat again, in her cheeks, flowed up from her sun-baked ovaries. Damn, why did this guy have to sound like caramel over pebbles? Thick, smooth, gravelly, and too hot for this scorching day.
Lexi turned the second vent on her. Travis turned up the air.
“Better?” he asked.
She nodded, finding a smile and offering it to him. “Thanks. For everything. I’m sure you’re busy.”
“Nothin’ that can’t be tended to later.” He thrust a thumb toward the backseat. “There’re some bottled waters in the back. You look a bit red, sound a bit parched.”
He didn’t need to offer twice. Lexi twisted in the seat and located the water. Her throat scratched and scraped like sandpaper, the little moisture in her mouth thick and sticky. She climbed to her knees and stretched back, grabbing one bottle. “Want one?”
“Nah.”
Lexi slid back into the seat, her skirt barely moving from being plastered to her legs. She cracked open the seal and greedily gulped down the water. Travis tapped the console and pointed toward the floor by her feet.
“Your heels are a bit raw,” he said. Lexi finished off the bottle, capped it, and tucked it between her knees.
“My shoes aren’t walking shoes.”
“Do you have a pair in your car?”
“No.” She watched the wheat field come to an end along a line of tall oak trees. Travis banked the truck onto a narrow dirt road. Lexi gripped the door handle as they bounced over the rough terrain. She shot Travis a reserved look. Where the hell was he taking her?
Something must’ve showed because he said, “A shortcut to town. This is Ryder property.”
“Ryder?” Her heart stammered. Travis led the truck through an open gate. When he rested his work-rou
gh fingertips against her shoulder, she jerked. The man seemed nice enough, but what if, in her hazy state of sleep deprivation, she had placed herself in the hands of another crazy killer?
Travis’s brow pinched beneath the low brim of his hat. He withdrew his hand and clamped it on the wheel.
“All due respects, Lexi, is something botherin’ you? Should I be callin’ for help?”
“Why would you say that?” she asked, her tone clipped despite the rising pitch to her voice.
“Where are you coming from?”
“New York. Why?”
Travis slowed the truck and navigated through a line of trees that put them onto a side road. At least this path was paved, and she stopped bouncing.
“I may not be a city boy, but city gals don’t come ’round these towns unless they’re heading to the ranch for vacation.” He slowed at a stop sign and pulled onto another road. Lexi mentally noted the paths he took in case she needed to backtrack to the interstate. “Do you have clothes back in your car?”
“No.”
“Where’re you headin’?”
Lexi peeled her gaze away from the sprawling two-story mansion perched on a small hill off in the distance. The green lawn was vast and rolling, neatly landscaped with flourishing gardens that wrapped toward the back of the house. A path of cottonwoods created one of the most exquisite archways over the driveway, stealing Lexi’s breath.
“I–I don’t know yet.”
“Are you runnin’ from someone?”
Lexi caught his eye as he pulled to another stop. She licked her lips, feeding their dried and cracked surface moisture, but her body had sopped up every last drop from the bottle.