by Taylor Berke
Stony Creek
Stony Creek Cowboy
Dr. Billie Rothman, a beautiful, widowed MD, leaves all that she knows behind, attempting to follow her dreams to Stony Creek, Wyoming. She is yearning for the passionate life she wanted to live after a safe marriage to her best friend.
Jackson Powell, a huge, handsome cowboy, literally saves her life soon after she arrives in town. After being married to a selfish and superficial woman, he decides that women are simply for his pleasure and to ranch alongside him and his family, never expecting the bundle of sensual energy that punches him in the gut after meeting his new neighbor.
While getting to know each other, both these wounded souls cannot ignore the instant attraction or the pulling of their hearts, but in the background lurk several individuals who yearn to teach them both lessons in pain and revenge. Unfortunately Jackson’s ex-wife and a jealous acquaintance from his past try to hurt both of them physically and psychologically.
Genre: Contemporary, Western/Cowboys
Length: 79,536 words
STONY CREEK COWBOY
Stony Creek
Taylor Berke
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
STONY CREEK COWBOY
Copyright © 2013 by Taylor Berke
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-305-7
First E-book Publication: February 2013
Cover design by Christine Kirchoff
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
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.
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Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
To my darling husband, my own cowboy, who reminds me daily that there are men willing to protect, cherish, and honor the woman that they love. I always believed that there was a man who would forever light my heart and soul on fire. You help me every day deal with the stresses of life while enveloping all that I ever dreamed that a man could be. I love you.
STONY CREEK COWBOY
Stony Creek
TAYLOR BERKE
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
“How the heck did I get here?” Billie wondered aloud.
Dr. Billie Rothman was driving herself across the country to a new life. The question was a thought that had rattled through her head a least ten times a day for the last two days. In the comfort of her Range Rover, she was halfway from New York to Wyoming. She felt awash with so many emotions, excitement, anxiety, fear, and hope. The dominating feeling, however, was confusion. Did she make the right decision? She was a doctor for Pete’s sake. Doctors stayed in one place, had longtime patients who brought them cookies and asked about their children. Whatever had given her the courage to make this move had now deserted her momentarily and left her pondering her choice.
Ah, Matthew, what would he have thought about this moving business? Nuts, crazy, and irresponsible was probably what her husband would have thought. He would say, what was she thinking leaving a great job and practice behind? He was always the calm, responsible half of their marriage. He never got too excited and never got too upset. He had always been the voice of reason and was such a good, kind man and had been her friend since the first day of medical school. She had loved and respected him in so many ways, but her marriage had been based on the whims of immaturity and the hopefulness of youth, not on true love. Initially, it was his calmness that had made her feel as safe and secure on the inside as she had always wanted to be. It was that need combined with the hardheaded idea that she thought someone might want to finally love her forever.
Billie was a forever type of girl.
Her mom had passed away her junior year in college, followed by her dad in her second year in med school. “Just love me,” she used to say over and over to Matthew. He was now her only family. He had tried, really he had, she mused. However, he just loved being a doctor and the power and privilege that came with it. He loved it so much that there was little room in his life or heart for his wife. He had, however, wanted both of them settled with all the respect and entitlements that come with medical success. She had tried to tell him of her dreams for happiness. She told him that she wanted to travel to see great spaces, practice medicine, and return to the secret pleasures of her youth, riding. He would just chuckle and figuratively pat her on the head as if assuming she was just daydreaming aloud. The need to follow her dreams only seemed to grow as time passed. The more that she tried to explain, the less he seemed to listen, immersed in his world of patients and patience. Then, without warning, he was gone. Taken by cancer so quickly, she still had to catch her breath and blink to believe it was real.
What am I going to do now? she had thought.
Billie shifted her mental gears and thought with the single-mindedness that she had always possessed. “I am going to be a success but on my terms, my way, and apparently, alone.” Well, sort of, unless you counted the two huge dogs in the back of truck that could double as elephants. She wasn’t about to leave Madison and Zeus behind.
She could always do this. In the face of fear, she had always pulled up her bootstraps, lifted her chin, cried
quite a bit, and done what she had to. Laughingly, she realized that there was no longer anything in this world she had to do. She was now on her way to do what she wanted to do. Finally.
* * * *
“How did I get here?” mused Jackson while sitting on his horse, Lachlan.
Geez, he thought. Two years ago, he’d just figured it was time to settle down and finally act like a mature man. A rancher his whole life from a family of lifetime ranchers, there was nothing else in this world that even tempted his soul. He was the eldest of three brothers. All shared a love for the crisp, clean Wyoming air and the land on which they were raised. At a mere six feet six inches he was everything you would imagine a Wyoming rancher to be. He was big and brawny, the type of thickly muscled physique that came from a real day’s labor and defined a rugged man. With sensuous green eyes and rich chocolate brown hair, he was definitely a man to make a woman stand up and take notice. Jackson bore the air of responsibility that only the oldest brother could wear. He had spent a lifetime of bailing his brothers out of scraps with other boys, schoolhouse pranks, and as they matured, some very irate female encounters. He had to laugh at that. The Powell boys sure did get into sticky female situations. He had had his fair share as a younger man, but now, at thirty-six, he was more mature and, as he thought, past his wild ways. Well, it had just been time.
He had married Gwen, a longtime Stony Creek girl who knew her way around the ranch, tough winters, and men. “Ah hell, that last part hadn’t been so bad.” Jackson laughed. She sure had tried to wear him out. She just hadn’t touched him inside. “Damn, I am starting to act like a woman,” he grumbled. He didn’t need love, he needed understanding of his seriousness, he needed a woman to get that his job was his only true love. Not so sadly, she left him in a flurry of tears, drama, and runny mascara not more than a year ago.
“You have no idea how to love a woman,” Gwen had spat out.
“Really? You seemed quite loved not two days ago,” Jackson had said.
“Ugh, Jackson, you don’t love me. You only need a body for pleasure and to keep the bed warm,” she yelled. “You are a cold, unfeeling man. You have no joy in anything except those stupid cows and horses! I need a man who wants me around, wants to have some fun, ya know! Dinner, dancing, and shopping, Jackson. These are things women want! You are supposed to cherish me, adore me, and spoil me.” Wow, Jackson had never thought of that, never wanted that…with her.
“I worked and slaved on your ranch for what? You never bought me a gift, never made me dinner, and I don’t see any babies running around here, so what the heck do you need me for? Nothing. I am sorry, but Len Drexel—you know, the guy who hates your guts—has offered me something different, and I am going to try it on for size,” Gwen had said finally. “It’s over.”
Suddenly, the sun had come out and as sure as he knew his name, relief poured out of him. “Sorry things didn’t work out, Gwen. I know you wanted more,” he said.
“Jackson, what I want is to be a woman, to have fun, and a life. You are too damn serious and domineering. Women just don’t like that. Lighten up a little bit, will ya?” she griped. “I have already seen a lawyer and the papers should be delivered in a day or so. I would like to say that I am sorry, but I’m not.”
Jackson couldn’t help the huge smile that just burst across his face with genuine feeling. He was free. Free to try again. Free to be himself, not pretending to be in love or whatever he was “supposed” to feel. He needed a drink and some man time ’cause he was starting to feel giddy like a girl. Yep, some time with the guys would set everything back to rights.
The divorce was a year ago and now, sitting astride his horse, Lachlan, he wondered what the winter would bring.
* * * *
The six men sitting astride their mounts up on top of the ridge looked down at the new construction home below. The group of gorgeous related men started with William Powell, owner and boss of Rugged Hill Ranch with his beautiful wife, Lillian. His sons in order of appearance in the world were Jackson age thirty-six, Benjamin age thirty-three and lastly Troy, who was affectionately known as “Tiny,” was the baby at twenty-nine. Bill’s brother, Martin, who owned half the ranch with his wife, had tragically died in an accident eight years ago. His Florence and their two sons, Brody age thirty-four and Cole age thirty-two, lived in another beautiful ranch house on the other side of the property.
With its English cottage design and leaded insulated cut-glass windows, the new house was an architectural dream, particularly out in this part of Wyoming. There was a matching barn out back and an inground hot tub, all secluded behind a grove of evergreens near the back door. It needed landscaping, but it was the beginning of November, and that kind of work would have to wait until spring thaw. It was a soft sage-green-colored stucco with a slate roof. It was nice, really nice, if not quite the typical ranch-style house common to Stony Creek. It sat on one hundred acres that was west of the Powell Ranch.
“We kinda must look like a Bonanza episode,” Troy said laughingly.
Jackson smirked at his youngest brother while Brody chimed in, “Yeah, but we are way hotter and can actually bale hay while roping calves!”
“Uncle Bill, you so know you want to sing it. Ba ba ba ba Bonanza!” sang Cole.
“Could you guys attempt to act your age?” said Ben, Jackson’s other huge brother. “This New York guy is going to think he has jerkoff neighbors as it is. Building a home like that costs big-time. I wonder who he is and what the hell he is doing out here.”
Bill filled in. “Sam and Phillip just said that he wanted the best and had very expensive taste when it came to the build. Apparently, it is state-of-the-art.”
“Uncle, I say we send Mom and Aunt Florence over as the welcoming committee to see if he is friendly. They live for that stuff. Then we can just be neighborly and get a look at what he had built,” said Troy. “I wonder why he didn’t do any of the work himself,” mused Jackson aloud.
“Maybe he doesn’t know how, idiot,” stated Brody. “Not everybody can be a superman like me.”
“If you are such a superhero, how come I had to wake you up twice this past week alone to get out to the south fields to do the morning check?” inquired Bill smugly.
Cole snickered. “Uncle, he had some, uh, company, that wouldn’t let him alone.” That had all the men chuckling except for Bill.
“Perhaps this new neighbor will show you something about the rewards of success and hard work as opposed to trying to plow fields through all the young women of Stony Creek,” Bill replied.
“Dad, man cannot live on beef alone. We must do our part to entertain the poor womenfolk of our town during the cold winter season. It is our inherent duty as men. Can we help it if they find us irresistible?” Troy piped in.
“They find you the least attractive, Tiny. I have that on good authority!” Ben shouted teasingly at his baby brother. At six feet two inches, Troy was the shortest on their branch of the Powell line.
“Don’t be a dumbass. I am the one all the ladies look for on Friday night at The Pump!” Troy said confidently. “You are always so quiet, if it weren’t for your good-looking brothers, they would never know you were there.”
Bill looked at his boys. “Eh, I blame your mother. She is the looker. However, I seriously doubt that she will find it a compliment to know that you boys, and this goes for all of you, have not been treating the women with as much respect as you should be.”
“She would want us to marry each one, Dad,” groused Ben.
“No, she would only want you to be happy, son,” he said, looking sadly at Jackson. “Enough dawdling boys, the herd isn’t gonna feed itself, and I hear there is a new doctor moving in, too. I believe his name is Bill, perhaps it is him? It would be kinda nice having a doc for a neighbor. Very convenient.” Bill laughed.
* * * *
The drive was beautiful. Already Billie felt her burdens lighten and soul soar. Once she entered Wyoming there was an endless parade
of snowcapped mountains ringed with evergreens. She couldn’t imagine what the wildflowers would look like come spring. I’m on my way, she thought. She had just gotten off the phone with Sam Tourgent, the contractor for her house as well as her office. She wasn’t sure if she should be offended or laugh at his surprise that Billie turned out to be Dr. Billie Rothman and a lady at that. She chose laughing until the tears ran. He hasn’t been able to stop sputtering that he thought “Billie” was a man. This should definitely be interesting.
She switched thoughts to her new home. Were there any sort of men around the area her age? It had been so long since she thought about that part of herself, but if she was going to be honest and start anew, she needed to acknowledge the part of herself that she couldn’t with her husband. She craved the physical contact that only a lover who understood her could bring. She knew that men found her attractive but hadn’t made her sexual side a priority, having primarily focused on her work. At five feet eight inches with green eyes, she had a generous chest and tiny waist. Her long, silky auburn hair wiped against her neck as she drove toward her future. Hopefully she wouldn’t allow herself be caught under an avalanche of work once she got there. She was going to Wyoming to change her life and find herself.
Through the open window came a sudden gust of air, which swirled her skirt up over her thigh. She had on cotton tights with over-the-thigh boots but gave a shiver anyway. It wasn’t from the wind as much as she was imagining her new lover sliding his hand over the newly exposed section of leg. She caught her breath and wondered how big his hands would be, the scent of his body and taste of his skin. She wanted…