The Cowboy (Wild For Her Series Book 2)

by Ally Prince

  Realization of what we’d just done washed over me. I clenched my eyes shut, folding my arms over my still exposed breasts. “I think you should leave.” Please. Just leave.

  “I think we should talk,” Mason reasoned, the heat of his body becoming stronger, the wash of his breath not far away. I knew what he wanted to talk about but I didn’t, I wasn’t ready, and Mason might not be the first person I wanted to tell when the time came. So far, ignoring the issue worked, but if I knew Mason well enough, I knew he would not let this fly much longer. Warm hands gripped my arms tugging them away from my breasts, I tried to fight him.

  “Let me fix you,” he snapped batting at my arms. I opened my eyes then and watched as he gripped the band of my sports bra and tugged it over my boobs, thumbs grazing the bottom of the swell, his eyes fixated for a moment. He looked concerned and needy. Then those hands slid up my arms collecting the straps of my tank and he placed them back on my shoulders. His eyes locked on to mine. I wish I had the gall to look away.

  “I’m done waiting, Penny. When I think about all the wasted time we’ve had… I won’t do it anymore. I’ll give you tonight, but Pen, understand this…” his nose touched mine, his eyes still searching, “… I won’t let you have coffee with dickhead downstairs, or anybody else. You’re mine, you know that.”

  Mason was an idiot if he thought he could just control me like that, but the small rush of relief which came from his words made me uneasy. I shouldn’t want or need Mason as much as I did. Being an adult, I should be able to manage my life alone. But someone hurt me, and I doubted myself so much that I no longer took chances. I stuck to the safe side, and maybe just maybe Mason could show me how to be Penny Anderson again.

  Chapter 2

  Mason

  I propped myself against Penny’s shit-box car, wondering how the fuck Logan thought she should drive it. There were rust holes bigger than my fist in the doors. So far this week she smiled at me, but she’d yet to say a word, something heavy was sitting on her shoulders. I wanted more than anything to take that burden for her, but I sensed it would mean taking a drive interstate and beating the ever-loving shit out of some punk who dared to hurt the woman I would marry.

  Did I mention that? Probably not. Pen would get on the same page soon enough. Logan, well, that’s a different story, and I would take a beating if it made him feel better about the situation.

  “Penny’s in a staff meeting,” a male voice came from my left. Turning, I stared at the man. He was clean, preppy even. I bet he hadn’t handled a shovel a day in his life. His slacks were pressed, his shirt and tie expensive, and his haircut stupid. You know the ones where they always need to push it out of their faces. Jerk.

  “Is that so?” I replied turning my eyes back to the elementary school. Most of the kids filed out into buses and awaiting parents’ arms. I waited making sure Penny got home safely. If this was all she would give me for now, I’d take it.

  “Yeah, you might not want to waste your time waiting for her,” he offered his opinion, and I nodded, not caring what he thought. I refolded my arms. “Could be hours.” I recrossed my feet, wishing this dude would just fuck off. “She doesn’t date anyway, total snob in that department. Maybe she’s gay.”

  What the fuck.

  I pushed off Penny’s car and rounded toward him.

  “You always make assumptions about people you don’t know?” I asked as I stepped toward him.

  He straightened his shoulders, “I know her plenty.” The bravado in his voice slipped, and judging by the raised brows there was an insinuation in his voice. Insinuation I knew was total shit.

  “Yeah, you been in town long?” I didn’t know the guy, so my guess said he came here fresh at the start of the school year. He knew fuck all about her.

  “Long enough to know a few intimate things about Penny.”

  I took a large step forward and got up in his face, already over his shit. “Listen here, fuck-face. You don’t talk to Penny. You don’t look at Penny. And you certainly do not talk shit about her. I hear or see you doing any of these things we’ll have some trouble. Yeah.”

  He stared wide-eyed.

  “Mase,” that sweet as fuck voice called from behind me. I raised my brows at him because obviously knob-head here was full of shit. I flicked the idiot on the nose and turned.

  What the fuck was she wearing? I thought she taught first-grade? Since when did that require you to wear heels like a fucking hooker.

  I stalked toward her. The dude behind me was saying hello and telling her she looked nice, but those blue eyes were just for me. I stepped into her space and wrapped an arm around her waist pulling her against my front so she could feel just what her outfit did. Her cheeks flushed.

  “You look insanely fuckable,” I mumbled so dickhead wouldn’t hear.

  “Hi, Penny,” he said again, this time with a slight frown. She moved to my side a little before making brief eye contact with him. She waved awkwardly, and I laughed before I brought my lips to hers. She didn’t let me down, her lips opened and she let me take what I wanted right there in the parking lot. It was hot and not PG rated at all, so I pulled back not wanting to get her into trouble.

  “See you tomorrow, Penny.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I growled looking over at the fool who just stared at us. No not us, her. A strained smile graced her lips before she turned into me, burrowing her head into my neck, seeking solace in me. I looked back at the dude, he didn’t like what he saw. I made the universal sign for ‘I am watching you’ then I flipped him off and turned us, so all he could see would be my back. The only man allowed to check out Penny currently had his arms wrapped around her.

  “Want to tell me what’s going on?” I rubbed at her back, my hands slipping lower over the swell of her ass in that tight as fuck skirt. God, she looked good enough to eat. Maybe I should eat her out? That would make her happy, me too.

  “Liam’s a bit too friendly,” she purred into my neck, body relaxing into mine.

  “The dude from last night?” She nodded against me. “How was the staff meeting?”

  Her hands slipped around my waist to my back and then down into the rear pockets of my jeans, I loved it when she did that.

  “What meeting? I was just trying to organize my schedule for tomorrow, so I would have a few free minutes tonight.” She yawned, and I chuckled.

  Liam had lied, not wanting me to wait on Penny because he wanted her.

  “What are you going to do with those free minutes?” I could think of many, many possibilities and they all involved us being naked, wet and in extreme pleasure. Pretty sure Penny was not on the same page, but you never knew.

  “Maybe a bath. Maybe a glass of wine, and it’s only Thursday.”

  “No yoga tonight?” She shook her head against me again and sagged a little before pulling out of my embrace. I watched the blush creep up her neck and cover her cheeks, her hands fiddled as she looked down. “What is it?”

  I knew that look.

  Most times that look came after Logan had told her no. So, she’d come and try to give his best friend those dark puppy dog eyes and she’d get what she wanted. Every single time. I’d always been such a sucker for this girl.

  “There’s something I wanted to ask you?” Her voice was just above a whisper and full of doubt.

  “Annnd?”

  Her eyes came up to mine, wide and startled. “Not here. Can you come around tomorrow night?” She chewed on her bottom lip and I couldn’t help but to reach out and touch her. I tugged her chin a little, lifting her face. Her pale skin, that dark hair and denim eyes, Penny was a stunner.

  “Anything for you, baby.” Stepping into her space a little I waited for her to run, hide, or mouth off. She wet her lips and allowed me to kiss her for what felt like an eternity before I pulled away letting us both catch our breath. Dick straining in my jeans, her nipples pebbled against her shirt, and I was seconds away from taking her against her car.

&nb
sp; Penny picked up on the change in me because she stepped back with her hands up. “Whoa, Cowboy. Be at my place tomorrow. I’ll even cook you dinner.” She offered me a small, tender smile with that cute as fuck blush then hopped into her pile of shit car. I followed her home making sure she arrived safely. Tonight would involve a hot shower that involved me jerking off to the sight of Penny’s ass in her tight skirt.

  I would get my hands on her tomorrow and I didn’t plan on ever letting her go.

  Penny

  “So, you kissed him?” Lucy asked as I sat my ass against the railing of my once family home. Now it housed Logan and Lucy. Logan assured me this would always be my home, but seeing your brother getting busy, well, it’s not a nice thing. He liked to get busy several times a day. I’d walked in on them in every room in this house, but their bedroom, and let’s not forget the stables. The pair were insatiable.

  I groaned and wondered why the hell I’d told Lucy my Mason troubles. I’m glad Logan found a nice woman like her. I liked her a lot too, and more importantly, we got along. I’d always struggled making friends, but Lucy made it easy to like her.

  “Yeah, I did. In my defense, Liam was creeping, so I kind of thought I’d put him off.” While Liam came across as a nice guy, he invaded in my space way too much. I worked with him and then he started going to my yoga classes, and now it seemed like we shopped for groceries or wine at the same store and same time. It freaked me out, but I was putting it down to what happened at college. Something I needed to talk about soon, but not now. Perhaps Liam needed a friend, and his shy nature made it hard for him to ask me out. God, I hoped there was nothing more to it.

  “Hmm…” Lucy seemed to appraise me a little, a finger tapping on her lips before she smiled.

  “What?” I asked, suspicious of the little evil creature I knew she could be. She could wind my brother up like no other, I loved her for that alone.

  “You need to have sex with him, now. Get it over and done with and you can both move on. You should have sex.” She’d just finished when Logan walked around the corner shaking his head.

  “I will not talk about Penny and sex in the same sentence. Got it?” He pressed his lips to Lucy’s not caring there was an audience, when I saw his tongue and she groaned, I rolled my eyes and headed to my car.

  There would be no stopping that now. Gross.

  I wanted to sleep with Mason, I always wanted to sleep with Mason. That appeared to be the problem. I was sure he wouldn’t consider it one, but it was. Mason had just turned thirty-three, though Logan was twelve years older than Lucy. I groaned to myself, at my stupid thoughts. Deep down, I knew that the age difference was not an issue, I was trying to make something up to help me back out of this.

  I decided on the way home I needed to buy wine or beer, something, anything to defuse this fire inside me that Mason had lit. My mind kept flashing back to last Thursday when I almost let Mason fuck me on the landing near my door, no questions asked, he had fried my brain.

  I pulled into the local liquor store and headed inside. Mason drank beer, men were simple creatures. Beer, food and sex, and they were set for life. Us females, however, made it more complex than it possibly needed to be.

  I headed for the red wine section. It seemed like what I wanted though, I wasn’t sure I even liked wine. Wine went with age, so I thought I was meant to like it. Maybe I hadn’t found the right bottle yet.

  “Penny Anderson, is that you?” a sweet voice called from behind. I turned around and took a moment to realize who’d called my name and I felt like an asshole because she picked me on the spot.

  “Kayla?” Please be Kayla. Please. Please. When she nodded, relief flooded me and I smiled moving toward her. Kayla Summer, the Mayor’s daughter, always a straight-A student as expected, and went off to some Ivy League school if I remembered right.

  “Yes, it’s me.” She seemed happy that I remembered her. Kayla stopped when we were only a few feet apart. She was such a pretty thing. Pale blonde hair, blue eyes, an athletic figure I would love but was not giving up cake for, and that sweet southern drawl which seemed to effortlessly flow from her lips. “I’m so glad I found you. This town is so fucking boring.” She laughed, my eyes widened a little when she cussed but I went with it.

  “It can be. I’m a teacher now, so I think by law I have to be. No one wants to hear about their elementary school teacher dancing on tables at the local bar.” Though letting my hair down sounded like an absolute ball.

  As Kayla laughed, her hair moved from her face. My eyes catching the discoloration on her skin. It could be the lighting, but from previous experience, Kayla looked to be recovering from what would have been a black eye. I averted my eyes, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable, and it wasn’t a conversation for the liquor store.

  “I’ve been home for a few weeks and not spotted a single soul I knew at school, I guess all the smart people have stayed gone.” She laughed but then frowned. “Oh, God, no offense meant, Penny. I shouldn’t have said that.” She seemed to shrink back a little, eyes darting around, cheeks heated and appeared a mere second from fleeing.

  “We should get a bottle one weekend and catch up.” I pointed to the rows of wine.

  A small smile graced her lips, and she nodded. “I’d like that.” The bell on the door chimed and she froze, her eyes going over my shoulder. “I better go, I’ve been in here too long. I’ll be in touch. Please.” With those odd words, she walked to a man standing toward the front of the shop. I couldn’t hear what he said, but the deep frown on his face and the way spittle flew from his mouth as he got closer to her had me stepping in their direction. But before I could make it to Kayla, she hustled the man out with an apology in her words.

  I made my way to the beer and grabbed a six-pack. The blond cashier looked like he lived in his mom’s basement but seemed kind enough.

  “Who was that?” I nodded to the parking lot, and he turned.

  “Ah, that’s Rove Miskin, asshole extraordinaire, from what I have heard. He also beats his girl. That’ll be $11.28.”

  I paid and walked to my car in a daze. While I had experienced domestic abuse, I got out real quick. Kayla looked like she stayed and her ‘please’ made a hell of a lot more sense now, I would be there when she called.

  Chapter 3

  Penny

  I really should have considered the logistics of the night before I opened my mouth and invited Mason into my space. But the only way I would know was to try it. Gosh, I sounded like a hooker, luckily Mason wasn’t paying me. I hoped he didn’t think the invite was purely for sex. How embarrassing would that be?

  Oh, God, he probably did.

  Kill me now.

  I’d rushed home after work, avoiding Liam, and whipped up a lasagne and salad before heading to shower, shave and prep. One hundred percent just made myself sound like a hooker. I now understood the tag on social media which stated you were in a relationship but it’s complicated because that shit summed up Mason and me. Just before I left for college I asked him to do something I probably shouldn’t have. I had spent my life crushing on my brother’s best friend. He had always been there for me, looked out for me, and his eyes always found mine in a room. When Mason agreed to take my virginity, I nearly backed out then and there. I didn’t want to go to college a virgin and end up losing it to some random guy at a party and regretting it for the rest of my life. I never expected Mason to blow my mind, he seeped himself into the deepest recesses of me, and no matter how much I tried I could not get him out. Then I tried to get independent at college, which resulted in me leaving early, getting drunk and trying to hide from life. I needed Mason’s help again, and if he said no this time, I had no clue what I’d do.

  I knew Mason wanted me, he didn’t try to hide that fact but was it deeper than that. Did I live inside him like he did me?

  Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I checked myself in the mirror again. My dark hair pulled back in a low pony, I had a little make-up on. The
slinky but casual dress hugged my curves and showed off my assets. I had opted to forgo underwear and hoped it paid off for me, and that Mason didn’t leave here thinking there was something wrong with me.

  Maybe the dress would scare him off? I turned and looked at myself from behind. My curves looked great, legs still had a slight tan for October, but I had a feeling this dress screamed desperate.

  Opting to change, I headed to my small chest of drawers, pulling open the drawer and looked for something to cover up.

  There was a knock at the door and I froze, maybe if I ignored it he would go away.

  He knocked again.

  I left the safety of my room and headed to the door, taking a deep breath I pulled it open. The sight of Mason sucked the breath right out of me. Why the hell did he always look so freaking good? He had on his signature black trucker’s cap, dark hair tamed under it. His face clean-shaven, his sharp jaw tight, those dark brown eyes scanning me as I did him. His black shirt pulled in all the right places, and the man should not be allowed to wear jeans. Simple.

  “Come in.” I opened the door wider motioning for him to do so. Closing the door, I turned and found Mason right behind me.

  I swallowed, my eyes taking in every detail of his face. I couldn’t wait to see his hair with specks of gray at the sides—he would be even hotter then—but at thirty-three, he might have a little way to get there yet.

  “Take a seat, I’ll just get changed.” I needed more clothing pronto.

  “I don’t think so,” he whispered, his eyes stopping on the slopes of my breasts before continuing down my body. Heat swamped my veins and between my legs became damp. “You’re staying in that.” Placing a finger on my chin, he slowly ran it down my neck, stopping at my collarbone before heading over my chest to stay between my boobs. His hand twitched to touch more, I could tell, but sucking in a breath, he forced himself to step back. His smile strained and he said, “Smells great in here.”