by Flynn, Ava
Her Cowboy Lover
Ava Flynn
Published by Ava Flynn at Amazon.com
Copyright 2012 Ava Flynn
Kindle Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cowboy image licensed through hotdamnstock.com
Background image licensed through dreamstime.com, copyright © Terrance Emerson.
Font utilized in Cover Text:
IM FELL Great Primer SC font, copyright © Igini Marini.
Pleasure Ridge graphic symbol utilizes as integrated design component the BronzettiExpanded-ExpandedRegular font licensed from fontspring.com, copyright © Greater Albion Typefounders.
Cover designed using GIMP and graphic symbol in Inkscape.
Any persons depicted on the cover of this work are models, and the image is being used for illustrative purposes only.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
***~~~***
CHAPTER ONE
Lily Gibson soaked up the beauty of the landscape as she drove along the curving mountain road. It wasn’t the thick and lush green more common back in Missouri, but there was an awe-inspiring quality to the starkness of western Nevada. Instead it was the varying earth tones of the landscape, the scrubby plant life, and the miles-long views. The more she saw of this gorgeous slice of Nevada, the more she thought maybe she would be content to just paint all week and forget about the fantasy part of her trip.
The fantasy of having a man in her bed who wouldn’t judge her on her looks.
No, she’d spent six months working up the nerve to come to the Pleasure Ridge Ranch. She wasn’t backing out now that she was here.
Still, there would be plenty of time to paint the stunning scenery during the daylight hours when she would be alone. That was her number one condition — that her escort for the week could only come to her at night when her face would be hidden. She could pretend that this man found her desirable, beautiful, something he surely wouldn’t if he saw her in the bright light of day.
Matthew Macon and his knife had seen to that.
She shivered then cursed at herself for allowing the memory of the man who’d ruined her life to bother her. He’d stolen enough from her. He wasn’t going to steal this week, one away from everyone and everything she knew.
She popped over another hill and finally saw her sanctuary, a little cabin nestled next to a small lake. It was a case of love at first sight, and the crazy thought that she never wanted to leave this slice of heaven slammed into her with such force that it stole her breath. She parked next to the cabin and sat long enough for her breath to settle back into a normal rhythm.
Lily had to get her emotions under control. If the very idea of a week alone to paint caused her breathing to catch, how was she going to react when a man she’d never met came to spend the night with her? She shook her head. If her friends knew, they’d think she’d lost her last marble. Maybe she had. After all, she’d driven from Missouri to Nevada so she could pay to have sex with a man she didn’t know.
She gripped the steering wheel and considered turning her car around and retracing every mile, scolding herself for wasting so much money.
But she was going to be thirty at the end of the week, and since the attack three years ago she’d yet to have a relationship with a guy who didn’t either feel sorry for her or get off on the notoriety of bedding poor, tortured Lily Gibson. This week, she would do whatever she wanted with a hot cowboy and love every minute of it. She’d venture a guess that there wasn’t a woman alive who hadn’t some sort of sexual fantasy, whether she wanted to admit it or not. So many of them lived their entire lives without acting on those fantasies, without even admitting them to anyone other than the deepest, darkest part of themselves.
Lily had fought hers for a long time, but the idea of being in total control of a relationship and free of the baggage of her past had taken root in her mind and grown more with each passing day. All because she’d stumbled across the Pleasure Ridge Ranch website by accident.
With another deep breath, she got out of the car and grabbed her bags. When she stepped inside the cabin, that feeling of much-needed sanctuary enveloped her. The décor was cozy with a handmade quilt draped over the back of the couch, carvings of bears lining the fireplace mantel, and Native American pottery on the end tables. A small kitchen and eating space occupied the area to her left, and she couldn’t wait to explore what cooking supplies she had at her disposal.
She noticed a sheet of paper on the kitchen table and dropped her bags to go examine it.
Hello, Lily.
So glad you could join us here at Pleasure Ridge Ranch. Per your request, your companion for the week, Connor, will not arrive until after nightfall. If you have any questions or additional requests, please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope you have a wonderful week.
Heidi
Connor. She tried to imagine what he might look like. The only bad thing about meeting her companion in the dark was that she couldn’t see him either. But it was a tradeoff she was willing to make. After all, none of the guys pictured in the brochure had looked like they’d been beaten with an ugly stick. Of course, they were probably models. She couldn’t imagine the guys working on the ranch wanting their faces on a brochure, effectively screaming, "Hey, look! I’m a prostitute." She shook her head. What really mattered was how he treated her, and this was all fantasy anyway. She could use her imagination to make him look however she wanted.
But how would she feel? She imagined work-roughened hands sliding across her bare skin, sending shivers skittering in their wake. She’d daydreamed about it a million times since she’d first considered coming here, but now that she was actually at the ranch it seemed much more real. In a few hours, it would be real. A man would arrive ready to answer her every desire. Did she really have the guts to go through with this? Down deep, did she really believe that this fantasy could give her something missing from her life?
She glanced toward a door that had to lead to the bedroom and guessed she’d find out soon enough.
* * * *
Connor Langston headed for his truck as the sun was slipping below the horizon. His mother’s questions as he’d headed for the door of her little house still rang in his ears.
"Where are you going, Connor?"
"To work, Mom."
"You’re riding tonight?"
Possibly, but it wouldn’t be the bulls she meant. He hadn’t ridden bulls in two years, not since Fire Breather had bucked him off during a rodeo in Denver and broken three of his ribs, punctured a lung and broken his leg at such a terrible angle that he still couldn’t believe he hadn’t died of the pain.
"Yeah, Mom." It was no use trying to remind her that he wasn’t riding the rodeo circuit anymore. She’d just forget five minutes later.
It was hard to see Jane Langston’s mind slip away from her, especially when she’d been such a strong, determined woman her entire life. She’d be mortified to know what he did to make enough money to pay for her medical care, the caregivers who allowed her to stay in her own home, the one place she felt safe anymore.
"Well, be careful, honey."
"I will, Mom."
He slipped into the driver’s seat of his truck and tried to leave all his worries behind as he made the hour-long drive across the state line into Nevada. The farther he got away from his childhood home, the better he felt. If he was being honest, his job at the Pleasure Ridge Ranch didn’t just offer the women he met an answer to their fantasies or even an escape from reality. It offered him an escape, too. An escape from all the worry, the uncertainty, the responsibility, the loss of the career he’d loved.
He pushed thoughts of his rodeo days away as he pulled up in front of the ranch office and parked. As he slipped out of the truck, he noticed Heidi Bohannon, his boss, heading back to the office with a basket from the kitchen.
"Is Andre trying to bribe another raise out of you?" he asked as he followed her up the front steps.
"If he is, it’s going to work," she said as she pulled a freshly baked cookie from the basket. "Snickerdoodles, my favorite."
Connor shook his head as he stepped inside the office. He might think Andre was trying to woo Heidi were it not for the fact that the chef was gay and happily involved with an architect in Reno.
Heidi placed the basket atop her desk and looked all business when she turned back toward him. His stomach clenched. He so wasn’t in the mood for one of the really kinky clients tonight.
"I know that look," she said. "And it’s not what you’re thinking. I picked you for this one because of your capacity for tenderness."
Her observation surprised him, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. "Okay," he said slowly, dragging out the word.
"Let’s just say that I’m very aware of my employees’ traits, and this client needs a careful but confident partner."
"She’s been hurt."
It wasn’t a question, but Heidi nodded nonetheless. "Her only request was that you two remain in the dark. No daylight meetings, no lights on at night."
So she didn’t want to be seen. He couldn’t help wonder why, but he had to remind himself it wasn’t any of his business. Women came to Pleasure Ridge Ranch because of its stellar reputation for privacy and discretion.
"I can’t tell you anything more," Heidi said. "You know I want all of our clients to feel special, but...this one perhaps more than the others."
Heidi’s words fueled his curiosity even more, but he’d have to tamp it down before he arrived at the cabin by the lake. With a nod that he understood his assignment, he left the office. But once outside, he realized he had about half an hour to kill before night fully fell. His mind kept coming up with scenarios for the client’s request, and none of them were good. He thought about Heidi’s unusual emphasis on this client versus all the others who came to the ranch. There had to be a mighty good reason for that, and he suspected he might need a little something to break the ice when he arrived.
He eyed the building that housed the kitchen and small dining room. Most people who came to the ranch wanted their privacy and chose to eat in their cabins, but there were still half a dozen tables to be had in the dining room overlooking the main part of the ranch. But the empty dining room wasn’t Connor’s goal when he headed that direction. Instead, it was the chef who reigned over it. Connor couldn’t think of a better icebreaker with a woman than a sinfully good dessert.
* * * *
CHAPTER TWO
A sunset had never made Lily so incredibly nervous. Her heart beat harder as she watched the sun slide below the horizon, inviting twilight and then a blanket of darkness peppered with what seemed like an impossible number of stars. She sat in a rocking chair on the front porch of her cabin, so anxious that she jumped at every little sound. Her ears strained to hear an approaching engine, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear it or not. Part of her wanted Connor to arrive so they could get past the awkwardness of the first night together, but another part, what a voice inside her head kept calling common sense, urged her to call Heidi and cancel the whole thing. She could stop being nervous, stop doubting herself.
She could leave the ranch as lonely as when she arrived.
Lily took a slow, deep breath and resolved to stop having these arguments with herself. She’d come all this way, so she was going through with it. As crazy as it seemed, something told her that this was something she needed to do.
Nonetheless, she startled when she heard the first distant rumble of an engine then the pop of gravel beneath tires. With another deep breath, she stood and stepped just inside the front door, leaving it open.
She watched as a truck pulled into view. As its headlights cut a swath across the front of the cabin, she slid farther into the interior darkness. When the truck stopped and the driver cut the engine and the headlights, it took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the full dark again. Her heart rate picked up when someone got out of the truck and rounded the front. Even in the dark, she could tell he was tall and that he wore a cowboy hat. Beyond that, she couldn’t tell anything about his appearance. She was free to imagine him any way she wanted.
He stopped halfway to the porch as if he sensed her watching him. "Hello, I’m Connor. Heidi sent me."
Lily had to swallow against the sudden dryness in her throat. "Hello," she managed, sounding a bit like a frog.
"Is it okay if I come closer?"
She nodded then remembered he couldn’t see her. "Yes."
He approached slowly, and Lily found herself straining to pick out anything about him that might tell her more about this man who’d been sent to fulfill all her fantasies. She listened as his boots clonked against the wooden front steps. When he reached the top of the steps, he stopped and held out his hand. She tried to focus on what he held but couldn’t make it out.
"I brought you something I think you’ll like," he said.
"What is it?"
"Why don’t you take it and find out?"
She glanced at his face but couldn’t make out his features beneath the brim of his hat. Confident that he couldn’t see hers either, she took a step out onto the porch, just enough to be able to reach what he offered. A zing of awareness traveled from her finger up her arm as he placed his hand beneath hers to steady the transfer. She was so focused on the warmth and slightly rough texture of his hand that it took her a moment to realize he’d hand her a small plate. She lifted it close enough to make out white icing and what appeared to be fruit atop it.
"Strawberry shortcake?" she asked.
"The best you’ll find in Nevada."
She looked up at him again just as Connor tipped the front of his hat up a bit. She still couldn’t see his face, but she thought she saw him smile. And no matter what he looked like or the fact that he was on the clock right now, his simple gesture touched her.
"Thank you. It’s one of my favorite desserts."
"Lucky guess on my part then."
Lily looked down at the dessert and fought back tears. She shook her head at her foolish reaction. For all she knew, Connor brought desserts to all the women he bedded. Still, she couldn’t shake the light feeling in her heart.
"Would you like to come in?"
"It’s up to you," he said.
He hadn’t said much, but already she liked his voice. It was the kind of deep, masculine voice that made a woman’s body tingle. The kind that made you believe you could listen to him read legal contracts and swear up and down it was the most fascinating thing you’d ever heard.
Finally remembering that it was her turn to speak, she took a step back and said, "Sure."
He followed her inside, and her nerves fired up like they were at a clogging competition. Connor halted just inside the door as she walked across the room to place the miniature cake on the dining table. Wanting to put off figuring out how to initiate the sex part of the evening, she turned halfway toward him in time to see his movements as he placed his hat on a hook by the door.
"Would you like to share this with me?"
"I brought it for you."
> "And I don’t want to eat it alone." She hoped her words didn’t sound as desperate and lonely as she felt inside. It still amazed her sometimes how she could feel so lonely when she had good friends, a loving family, and work she enjoyed. But there was a hole that none of those things could fill. Most likely Connor wouldn’t fill it either, at least not long term, but for just this one week she wanted to pretend that he could.
Connor moved toward the kitchen and retrieved two forks. The ease of his movements made her think about how many times he’d likely been in this cabin and others like it, how many times he’d been with other women. But that shouldn’t matter. He wasn’t her boyfriend, her husband or even someone she knew. After this week was over, she wouldn’t know him if she passed him on the street. He was a fantasy man, a dream, here to make her forget the real world.
When Connor pulled out her chair, she smiled and sank onto the seat. "Thank you."
"You’re welcome." He slid onto the chair across from her, allowing the table between them to give her a barrier she still needed.
Not knowing what to say, she instead took a bite of the cake. The sweetness exploded on her tongue. "Oh, my God. This is awesome."
Connor chuckled. "Chef Andre strikes again."
"Be careful, I might trade you in for him."
This time, Connor barked out a laugh. "I’m afraid you might be disappointed. You don’t have the right parts."
"Who said anything about sex? I’d just have him make me desserts all week."
Connor laughed again, and she found herself joining in.
"You have a nice laugh," he said.
Her first thought was that he had to say that, but she caught herself before she voiced that. "Thank you. Yours is nice, too." It was true. The sound of his laugh made her smile, something she didn’t do often around men. That alone made her believe this trip was a good idea.
They ate in silence for a couple of minutes. When Connor set aside his fork and leaned back in his chair, she glanced up at him. Though she couldn’t see his eyes, she knew that he was watching her and she forced herself not to fidget.