The Cowboy, The Cheat, His Ex-Wife & Her Vibrator

by C. C. Coburn

  “Ready?” he asked Beth and with a nod from her said, “Wagon’s Ho!”, just like in the movies, much to the boys’ delight, and they moved off in single file out of the yards. Gabe’s neighbor, Mac, followed along behind to make sure everything was fine for a bit.

  “Can we gallop now?” Jack asked impatiently when they’d only gone a short way. Mac pulled up beside him and said, “Follow me,” and took off at a slow canter.

  Beth was horrified. It was one thing for the kids to canter around inside one of the yards, it was quite another out here in the wide–open ranch! The boys took off after Mac and Beth screamed, “Gabe! Do something!”

  He turned his mount around towards her. “Relax, honey, Mac knows what he’s doing. He’s been teaching kids to ride and leading trail rides for longer than you’ve been on this earth. They’ll be fine. Look,” he indicated the boys, “they’re having a ball.”

  Beth squinted into the distance: her children were already so far away they looked like tiny insects against the backdrop of the majestic mountains rising behind them.

  “Beth, you need to let go sometimes. You know I wouldn’t let any harm come to your kids.”

  Beth’s tensed shoulders eased a little. Of course Gabe wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her children. It was just that he wasn’t a father, so he wouldn’t understand. She was about to point this out to him when she realized that wouldn’t exactly be diplomatic. Also, she’d been mother and father to her children for so long she’d probably become a bit overprotective, but surely that was understandable?

  The sound of thundering hooves and the squealing voices of her sons had her looking up to find them racing towards her, three abreast.

  Dear God in heaven, she prayed. Please take care of my children!

  “Yee ha!” Jack cried and waved his cowboy hat over his head as he pulled his horse up mere inches from Beth’s. “That was way cool, Mac!” he told their new friend.

  “Yeah, this is the best day of my life!” Mikey enthused.

  “Mine too!” Ben wasn’t to be left out. He wheeled his horse around and took off after the others who were again tearing across the paddock at what seemed to Beth twice the speed they’d done before.

  Molly moved her little legs back and forwards. “Go, horsey,” she called to Raj. “Horsey, go!”

  “Oh, so you like to go fast too, Missy?” Gabe asked her?

  “Gabe, no!” Beth cried in warning, but she was too late and Gabe nudged his heels against his horse’s flanks and it took off into a very slow lope.

  “Whee, horsey!” Molly cried, excited at the perceived speed of her mount.

  Beth nudged her mare to catch up. “Don’t ever do that to me again!” she bit out at Gabe.

  He gave her one of his killer smiles. “I told you I wouldn’t let any harm come to your kids. Why do you have a problem believing that?”

  Beth bit her lip. She knew exactly why she had a problem with that. JJ!

  Gabe guessed at her thoughts. “Beth I’m not JJ. Okay?”

  “I know that! It’s just that I’ve been programmed to not trust anyone with my kids. I’m sorry. I’ll try to behave in future.”

  Gabe leaned across and caught the back of her head and drew her to him for a lingering kiss. When he reluctantly pulled away, he said, “Just don’t behave tonight, okay?”

  Beth blushed. Maybe he’d missed the impromptu lap–dancing as much as she had? She glanced at Molly to make sure she wasn’t listening. Molly was too intent trying to kick her horsey to a gallop that she had no notion of the adults’ conversation nor their stolen kiss.

  “Do you want to go faster, honey?” Gabe asked his tiny passenger.

  “Yeah, yeah!”

  Gabe fastened his arm more securely around Molly and said to Beth, “Want to ride like the wind?”

  Beth was terrified. But this was another one of those watershed moments for her. Either she put her complete trust in Gabe or she didn’t.

  With a smile and a nod, she clicked at Bella and nudged her flanks. “Catch me if you can,” she dared and took off after her sons.

  They arrived back at the ranch mid–afternoon after eating lunch on the banks of the river that flowed through Gabe’s ranch. Beth was saddle–sore and weary, but her children were still full of energy and dying to see more. Gabe took the boys off to the barn to do ‘guy things’, as he described them, leaving Beth in peace for a few hours.

  Deciding Molly needed a nap, in spite of the little girl protesting she wanted to spend every waking minute in Gabe’s horse’s company, Beth tucked her into her bed and within minutes her daughter was asleep. Molly was completely infatuated with Gabe. And who could blame her, Gabe had treated Molly with a princess all day, acceding to her every request to make his horse go faster, sit with her during lunch, share her sandwiches or help her take off her shoes so she could paddle in the creek—all things her father had never taken the time to do. Molly had flirted shamelessly with Gabe and he’d taken it all in good humor, so who could blame her for wanting to spend more time with him?

  At least the children were so exhausted they’d sleep like tops tonight, Beth surmised. This was a good thing, because Beth had a few nocturnal activities planned for her and Gabe.

  Gabe’s gut twisted with longing for what he couldn’t have. Beth might have had a lousy marriage, but it had given her four wonderful kids. He, on the other hand, had no wife and no kids. It wasn’t how he’d imagined his life would pan out, that was for sure. He’d hated being an only child, having the weight of responsibility of taking over the ranch from his father thrust upon him. It was just as well that he’d liked ranching, otherwise, things wouldn’t have gone so well between him and his father, a selfish, demanding man who’d expected nothing less than perfection from his only child. Gabe, instead of rebelling, had found the path of least resistance and worked hard to gain his father’s affection. His mother had been compliant but Gabe had seen her grinding her teeth over some of what his father had done. Perversely, Gabe had decided that success was the best revenge against such a tyrant and had worked hard to excel at university, majoring in ranch management. He had been only starting to enjoy seeing his father having to eat his own words about how to go about something, when the old bastard had upped and died of a heart attack while out mending the fences one day.

  Far from being devastated by her husband’s passing, Gabe’s mom had remarried within six months to the owner of the gas station in town and a couple of years later, they’d retired to the Pensacola area. Gabe spoke to his mom every few weeks, but they had their own lives to live and he was happy that she seemed content at last.

  He could understand Beth wanting to live her own life free from JJ’s interference. She was a great mom to her kids—a natural—and their love for each other was mutual. He’d be a proud man if they were his kids. And a happy one, to have a wife like Beth to come home to. He’d thought he’d liked the predictability of his own life, but being around Beth, never being quite sure of what she’d say or do next, had stirred a longing in him to explore a relationship with her that would involve his future happiness.

  Beth leaned against the doorway into Gabe’s room. Was this the right thing to do? she debated with herself for the thousandth time.

  Gabe’s sleeping form was silhouetted in the moonlight as he lay on his back, hands clasped behind his head. The sheets were pushed down to his waist. What Beth could see of him was naked. A rush of desire flooded her and she swallowed the moan in her throat. Gabe’s body was beautiful—more masculine, more muscled than she’d ever imagined in her dreams.

  He shifted slightly, burrowing himself more comfortably into his bedding. The muscles on his chest and stomach rippled with the movement. Beth emitted a sigh of yearning and gripped the doorway for support. Her legs were going to give out on her if Gabe did anything else to make those magnificent muscles move.

  She was one sick puppy, staring at a man in the moonlight and fantasizing about him just about every wa
king moment. The guy did things to her insides that she’d never experienced before. Yet apart from the odd stolen kiss and the phone sex, he’d never given any indication the lust was mutual.

  Beth closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to well as she imagined her mother’s voice, taunting her with insecurities that had haunted her her whole life.

  Don’t be such a fool. This man feels nothing for you, he’s still in love with his wife and always will be. He tolerates you, that’s all. You amuse him with your whacky behavior. Hasn’t he told you that a hundred times already?

  Beth gave herself a mental shake, refusing to allow her mother’s bitterness to intrude. But, oh, how the lessons of her parents’ and her own unhappy marriages bit deep.

  She’d made a dreadful mistake in coming here. Why had she come to Gabe’s, of all places, when JJ had scared the life out of her like that? Why not Tilly’s or any of a half dozen friends’ homes instead? What was she thinking? She’d known Gabe Hunter only a week. What had possessed her to think this man would even care about her and her kids and her crappy, mixed–up life? Let alone want to get caught up in it.

  Beth decided the only possible explanation she had for coming here was that JJ knew everyone else she would run to, knew where they lived, and would try to manipulate them into telling him where she was.

  JJ had no idea about Gabe or where he lived. Gabe’s ranch offered the protection and isolation she needed to get her thoughts together and work out where to go from here in dealing with JJ and his senseless threats. Surely that was all they were? JJ had claimed a loan shark was after him, as if that could scare her into giving him money. And it had very nearly worked. She’d have done anything, paid anything, to keep her children safe. The thought of anyone, especially their father, threatening her kids’ security like that had caused her to panic and head to Gabe’s ranch. She’d needed protection for her children and Gabe had been the obvious answer. But had she once again acted too rashly? Loan sharks. Seriously?

  Once again, JJ had proved himself a first–class manipulator and she’d fallen right into the trap.

  Noticing the chill of the mountain night air, Beth clasped her arms around her in a pathetic attempt to ward it off. She was standing barefoot and clad only in a thin nightgown at the bedroom door of a half–naked man who was merely amused by her.

  She was every kind of fool to have crept along the hallway to Gabe’s room with the intention of seducing him. He’d have probably laughed in her face if she’d dared to lift those covers and crawl in beside him, snuggle up to his warm, hard body and hope he’d make love to her.

  A shiver ran up her spine and Beth clasped her arms tighter about her. She needed to get out of here, not just out of Gabe’s bedroom, but out of his house and his life if she was to preserve any sort of dignity. A mental checklist of what she needed to collect—kids, dog, clothes—and hastily bundle them all into the car and depart as soon as possible was running through her mind as she turned away to head back to her room.

  “Are you going to stand there all night, or are you going to join me?”

  Beth halted mid–turn. Was she imagining things, or had Gabe just spoken to her? She turned back to look at him again, but he hadn’t moved. He still lay flat on his back with his hands clasped behind his head. Beth shook her head to clear it. Maybe she was wackier than Gabe thought? Certifiable even? She could’ve sworn, Gabe had spoken to her. Wishful thinking? Overactive imagination? Sexual frustration? It could have been any one of those things, she told herself, shrugged and turned again to head back down the hallway.

  “I said: are you going to stand there all night staring at me?”

  Beth spun around. Gabe hadn’t moved. Oh, God, she was going crazy! Maybe the kids and Applebee were safer here with Gabe and she should just drive herself to the nearest psychiatric hospital and check herself in for a very long stay?

  Then Gabe turned his head and his dark eyes bored into her. Beth gasped with fright. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears.

  Gabe extended his hand towards her. “Or are you going to come over here and climb into my warm bed with me?”

  Beth’s heart was pounding so loudly, her body almost shook with each deafening beat. Her hands trembled. How was she going to explain this to a psychiatrist? She’d be locked up for good and never see her kids again.

  Clasping her arms about herself again to stop her whole body trembling with the bone–sickening fear of that ever happening, Beth told herself she wasn’t mad, just dreaming. All she had to do was stop this dream and go back to her room and work on dreaming about something else. She shook her head to clear it and wake herself up enough to take those steps back to her room.

  “No?” Gabe sat up slightly and turned towards her. “You’d rather stand there shivering with cold than have my arms around you?”

  Maybe I ought to let this dream go on a bit longer? Beth debated Gabe extended his hand towards her. “Come on,” he coaxed.

  “A… Are you real?” Beth ventured.

  She could see him smile. “Yes, of course I am.”

  Amusement danced in his eyes and it made her suddenly angry. “Don’t toy with me,” she snapped, then wondered how this wonderful dream of Gabe inviting her into his bed had suddenly turned nasty and bitter.

  “Do you think you’re sleepwalking, Beth?”

  “I… I think so. Maybe… I… don’t know for sure.”

  Gabe lifted the covers. “Then how about you sleepwalk over here where I can keep you warm and safe?”

  Beth hesitated. Who was she trying to kid? She wasn’t sleepwalking, she was hallucinating!

  “Beth? Come on, darlin’. I don’t want to have to get out of my nice, warm bed and come get you. Besides that, I’m not wearing pj’s and I don’t want to frighten you if you suddenly wake up and find a naked man standing in front of you.”

  Beth’s eyes widened. She glanced towards the rest of Gabe’s body, hidden beneath the rumpled covers. She couldn’t begin to imagine how good he looked down there but suddenly she wanted to know, and wanted to know badly. Real bad.

  “Beth. Come here,” he commanded.

  “No. I want to see you. All of you.” She cleared her throat. “I want to know that you’re real.”

  Gabe’s brow furrowed. “O… kay.

  Beth’s jaw dropped as Gabe threw back the covers, climbed out of bed and strode towards her. Every muscle in his body seemed to ripple. Muscles that had been hidden from her gaze beneath his clothing, muscles she’d only dreamed of, were there for the admiring as her gaze raked his body from head to toe and then slowly, ever so slowly, back up again, pausing at his groin where a very large muscle, tumescent with need, protruded towards her. Beth swallowed. “Oh, my,” she whispered in awe as he halted a few feet in front of her.

  Beth wanted to reach out and touch him, feel the steel–hard length and width of him covered in silky smooth skin that she knew would react with pleasure to her touch. Involuntarily she licked her lips, then swallowed as his penis reacted. She reveled in the sense of power it gave her, for no matter how much Gabe’s brain and heart might try to deny that tiny feminine gesture, there was one part of him that couldn’t.

  She dragged her eyes away from the magnificent sight and smiled up at him. “I’m… not disappointed.”

  Gabe grinned back. “The rest of my body is telling me how cold it is in here. However, I have no control over what that thinks.” He pointed down. Beth couldn’t help it, she had to look again. His penis was even more magnificent than when she’d last seen it a couple of seconds ago.

  Beth crossed her arms. “It’s a mystery to women, the relationship men have with their…ah… manhood.” For some reason, she couldn’t say the word penis. It was such an ugly word, not at all deserving of the powerful beast that jutted towards her, begging her to touch it, taste it. She licked her lips again as a flush of heat suffused her face.

  Gabe lifted her chin with his finger so she was forced to look int
o his eyes. “Why, I do believe you’re blushing, Miss Scarlett,” he teased, in a voice reminiscent of Rhett Butler, then segued easily back to being Gabe. “And for your information, I have about as much control over his reaction to you as your nipples do to me.” He brushed his palm over one taut peak and Beth gasped at his audacity and the pleasure it gave her. Then her teeth started to chatter.

  Gabe rubbed her arms to warm them. “Get into my bed, darlin’, and we can explore our wayward bodies’ reactions to each other further. But first I’m going to stoke the fire.

  He released her and strode to the fireplace that Beth noticed for the first time. So focused had she been on Gabe’s body lying on the bed, she hadn’t observed any of the other features of the large room. Apart from his enormous bed. Embers flared as Gabe poked at the half–burned wood, then burst to life as he threw on some kindling and it caught.

  Beth’s mouth went dry as she watched Gabe’s practiced movements as he hunkered down and loaded more logs onto the fire, his magnificent body illuminated by the dancing orange flames.

  “You’ve got three seconds to be under those covers,” he threatened gently, his gaze still on the fire. “Or I’ll come over there and throw you over my shoulder.”

  Beth didn’t need any further prompting. Apart from the fact that her toes had nearly turned blue from the cold and her teeth were chattering so loudly she was sure they’d wake any resident ghosts—the thought of getting to explore Gabe’s body further, had her racing across the room and diving under the covers without further delay.

  “That’s better,” Gabe growled as he closed and locked his bedroom door, then strode to the bed, lifted the covers and climbed in beside her. “I like a compliant woman.” He pulled her half frozen body against the length of his. “Sheesh!” he exploded. “Your feet are like blocks of ice, woman!”

  “I’ve been standing there a long time,” Beth blurted before thinking.

  “I know, honey,” Gabe said as he wrapped her more tightly in his arms.