by Jenny Penn
Cattleman’s Club 4
Heather’s Challenge
With her son to raise and a business to run, Heather is too busy for romance and wouldn't waste her time on Alex even if she wasn’t. Konor, though, is a different story. She’s had a crush on him forever and can’t resist when he makes his move.
The sexy fireman is intent on claiming Heather not just for himself, but for Alex, too. That is if Konor can convince Alex and Heather to give each other a second chance. It won’t be easy, but Konor has a plan. Then again, so do Heather and Alex.
The challenge is set, and the only question that remains is whether all three can end up winners, or will somebody’s heart end up broken…again?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 177,891 words
HEATHER’S CHALLENGE
Cattleman’s Club 4
Jenny Penn
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
HEATHER’S CHALLENGE
Copyright © 2014 by Jenny Penn
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-679-7
First E-book Publication: December 2014
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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DEDICATION
Vicky B.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
About the Author
HEATHER’S CHALLENGE
Cattleman’s Club 4
JENNY PENN
Copyright © 2014
Chapter 1
Thursday, May 1st
Heather Lawson checked her reflection in the small mirror embedded into the cheap plastic visor and frowned. The curls she’d wasted so much energy on had already started to unfurl into untailored waves. It was too late to do anything about it but pretend like it didn’t bother her and strut her way through it. After all, fake confidence was just as good as real. She’d learned that a long time ago.
Snapping the visor back up, Heather shoved out of her car and began the long walk to Riley’s front door. Weathered and pitted, the bar’s old door swung inward on rusted hinges that matched the aura of despair that engulfed a person the second they stepped into the cavernous saloon. The air still reeked as if it hadn’t been changed out in years.
The stink, though, was just part of the ambience. Strangely enough, the ambience was what kept people coming back. Hell, it was why Heather and her girlfriends came back. The place was dark, quiet, and private. A person didn’t have to shout over the music to be heard. A woman didn’t have to worry about a room full of players trying to hit on her. Instead they got to relax and watch the best show in town—the Cattlemen.
Heather’s gaze flicked over the two drunks hunched over their glasses by the bar and traveled toward the sound of porcelain cracking against porcelain to find a small group of Cattlemen hanging out by the pool tables, right where they always were.
Hard, tall, and with attitude to spare, Cattlemen only came in one flavor—dominant. Jeans and T-shirts topped off with hats and work boots were the Cattlemen’s uniform, and every single one of them wore it well. From the lean to the very, very thick, there wasn’t a Cattleman around that didn’t draw women like flies. That explained why they came to Riley’s—to get away from the adoring hordes.
And there were hordes kept locked up at the Cattleman’s Club. Of course, Heather didn’t have any firsthand knowledge about the club, nobody she knew did. It was some kind of secret man’s club that was rumored to actually be a sex club.
Heather wasn’t sure how those rumors had gotten started, but she knew they’d started with the Davis brothers. Three of the hottest, most eligible bachelors in town, they’d
earned a reputation for liking it rough and were known to share. So, it wasn’t so odd that their club was known for the same.
While the details of what went on out at the massive estate the club owned might be a mystery, the Cattleman’s rules were well known. In fact, they were as legendary as the men who abided by them. The men commanded. The women obeyed. If they didn’t, they were punished. Any woman who didn’t agree to those terms could keep on looking for her boring Mr. Right.
Heather wasn’t into boring, but neither was she into Cattlemen either. At least not just any Cattleman. If she didn’t have a son to worry about she would be awfully tempted to make a stupid mistake. That mistake was bent over the pool table, lining up a shot.
Unable to help herself, Heather admired the way Konor Dale filled out his jeans. The worn denim looked soft as it hugged the thick bulge of his thighs. There was power there and the promise of a stamina that assured he could go all night. Just the thought made Heather’s knees weaken. That was all she needed, just that one thought, to set her imagination on fire.
The images floating through her mind stroked the hunger that lurked deep within her to life. She could almost hear his soft, sexy growl as he covered her with his lean, powerful body. Tanned and rippling with muscles, he would be a feast for her senses. Heather would take her time, learning the feel of every smooth plane and hard ridge beneath her fingertips before she tasted him, licked her way down the magnificent wall of his chest until she reached the thick proof of his desire. Then?
Then she’d make him beg. Heather grinned as that thought filled her with the confidence that had deserted her minutes ago. She knew just how to make him beg. It didn’t matter if Konor was a Cattleman or not. It didn’t matter how many women he’d had before. Heather would make him forget every single one of them.
That’s just what Heather would have done if hadn’t been for one small obstacle by the name of Alex Krane. The mere thought of Pittsview’s finest sheriff soured Heather’s mood in an instant and had her eyes shifting away from temptation. Konor was off limits. Permanently.
Gazing over the rest of the Cattlemen gathered, her attention landed on the biggest one of them all. George Davis, known as GD to his friends, was damn near a head taller than any other man, not to mention about a foot thicker. Most importantly, he was an allowed indulgence, one Heather enjoyed overdosing on once a year, and her time was coming up.
Smiling with anticipation, she caught GD’s eye and held it, giving him a pointed once-over that left little doubt about the direction of her thoughts. He was built like a linebacker and had actually been one all through high school and into college. GD probably would have gone pro, too, if he hadn’t suffered a knee injury trying to help his cousin out of a fight.
He’d lost any chance of making it to pro that night, but GD hadn’t held a grudge. Not against life. Not against his cousin. That wasn’t his style. It was, however, one of the reasons Heather loved him. She would have said she loved him like a brother, but that would have been sick given all the nasty things they did together.
They’d been going at it for over a decade now, and had known each other even longer, since before they were even born technically. They’d been neighbors when they were only bumps in their moms’ bellies. It had been inevitable that they’d be friends given how close their families were but it hadn’t been love until the first time GD let Heather steal his pudding pop.
“Hey, baby doll.” GD smiled as he came sauntering up. Settling his beer down on the same table Heather had just dropped her purse on, he took one last step and pulled her into a quick hug. “How you been?”
“Same as usual,” Heather returned, stepping back as GD released her. “And yourself?”
“I got nothing to complain about,” GD assured her with his normal cheer. “Been busy, though.”
“Same here, but that’s what makes life worth living.” Heather waggled her brows at him. “Nothing worse than boredom.”
With a twelve-year-old son to keep up with, a father to look after, and a diner to run, that wasn’t something she suffered from often. Getting a chance to relax and flirt with a handsome man…now that was a treat she rarely got to enjoy. Heather didn’t plan on letting the opportunity pass her by.
“Wanna dance?”
“I never say no to that question, especially when it’s a pretty lady asking.” Taking the hand she offered him, GD escorted her over to the cleared little area by the jukebox.
She waited there as he dropped a quarter down the slot and made a selection. A few seconds later Patsy Cline’s familiar voice filled the bar as GD returned to sweep her up in his arms. The hard wood beneath their feet creaked as they stepped into a tight embrace that fitted lush curves against angular planes. Despite having the entire floor to themselves, they didn’t bother to do much more than sway in place, a subtle grinding that had Heather’s temperature rising.
It was a shame, and she’d never admit to it, but GD didn’t have much to do with the flush working its way up her body. No, Konor was the one who had her heart racing and her palms sweating. With her cheek resting on GD’s bicep, Heather watched the other man through the veil of her eyelashes, only wishing that it was his arms locked strong and tight around her.
It wasn’t the first time Heather had pretended GD was Konor, not that he ever need to know how many times she closed her eyes and imagined it was Konor pounding into her. Of course she had to figure GD had his own fantasies. The only difference between them was that GD got to give into his urges.
While they might have a thing going one week out of every year, there were fifty one more weeks. Heather knew that GD filled them with as many women as he could talk into his bed. After all, he was a Cattleman. Besides it wasn’t like they had a real relationship. It was more like friends with benefits, with Konor starring as the dream that kept things interesting.
That’s what she was having right then, an interesting dream. A dream of her splayed out naked on the pool table, bound to its legs and vulnerable to Konor, who circled around, teasing and taunting her with little touches and nibbles that soon grew longer and more intimidate until he had his head buried between her legs and his tongue—
“You’re not going to drool on me, are you?” GD’s amused voice broke through Heather’s daydream just in time to stop her from doing just that.
“I’ll try not to.” Lifting her head, Heather offered him a small, seductive smile as she ground subtly against him. “But it’s hard because you feel good tonight.”
“So do you, honey.” GD returned her smile and her compliment, but he didn’t tighten his hold or return her seductive grinding. Instead, he turned the subject to the very thing Heather didn’t want to think about right then—her son. “Good enough to make me wonder just when Taylor’s going to visit his grandmother.”
“We still got a month to go.”
God but that sounded like forever to Heather right then. She was half tempted to break with tradition and suggest they go for a quick spin in GD’s truck, but her gaze caught on Konor and she knew she’d need more than a quick spin to satisfy the ache building in her.
“You sure you want to wait that long?” GD asked, all but reading her thoughts.
“I think we better.” Heather sighed and glanced up, catching GD’s amused gaze. “Yeah, go on and smile. At least you have a club full of women ready to take care of any of your itches. What do I have? A drawer full of vibrators.”
“And hopefully another drawer full of batteries,” GD tacked on, giving into his chuckles and earning a dirty look from Heather. “Ah, come on now, beautiful. It’s not that bad and I promise to keep the second week of July clear just like always.”
“July?” Heather blinked, her happy glow fading away as the sense of doom began to thicken in her stomach.
“Like always,” GD repeated, not sounding so certain this time. “Right?”
“No.” Heather came to a standstill as she pulled even further back to confront him without di
straction. “The school district decided that instead of doling out the unused snow days into a few long weekends, they’d let the kids out early.”
“How early?”
“A week.” Heather felt her heart plunge at GD’s look, already knowing that wasn’t going to work for him.
“You mean they’re getting out at the end of May?” GD hedged, sounding depressingly unhopeful.
“Last day is Friday the thirtieth.” Heather nodded. “Taylor’s leaving for Florida the day after Memorial Day.”
“Well, that’s not good.” GD shook his head as he muttered to himself before becoming aware of Heather’s scrutiny. He tried to soften the truth, but it was too late. She’d already gotten the message. “I mean—”
“You have plans.” Probably with another woman. The bite of jealously nipped at Heather but she fought back, refusing to let the emotion take hold. This was exactly why she limited herself to simply one week of fun with GD. Too much more and it would sour their friendship.
“Ah, honey,” GD sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s all right.” Putting on a brave face, she refused to let her smile dip as she tried to mask her disappointment. “I’m sure I’ll find something else to do. I hear knitting is fun.”
“I wouldn’t know about that.” GD grimaced. “But I wouldn’t be offended if…maybe, you found somebody else to entertain yourself with”
“I have somebody,” Heather assured him before answering the question she could see building on his lips. “Me.”
“Yeah and I bet you know all your favorite moves.” GD smirked as he stepped up to take her back in his arms. “But you know there are some games that are more fun when played with two people.”