So Tough to Tame

by Victoria Dahl

  “Let me say it before I lose my courage. While you were in the shower, I called the Ability Ranch.”

  “Oh,” she gasped, then covered her mouth to stop herself from interrupting again.

  “I talked with my brother this morning. About my dad. About my issues. And I can’t let the man keep beating me now that he’s dead.”

  Her fingers stroked his skin. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I almost let him make me into what he called me. I see that now. Thanks to you. So I called the ranch. I talked to Marlene. I told her I needed to get my GED, but I’d like to help out while I worked toward that. Once I take the safety certification training and get my GED...I think I’ll have a job.”

  “Oh, Walker. You... I’m so proud of you. You have no idea. I know how hard that was. I—” God, she was crying again. Sobbing, really, when she’d thought herself all sobbed out.

  “Come on, woman. It’s not that big of a deal. You can just say ‘I told you so,’ and move on.”

  “Shut up,” she choked out as he laughed at her. “It’s a big deal. A really big deal.”

  He tucked in his chin and smiled at her. “Now you’re just bragging. You and my brother can crow about your victory tonight. If you’ll stay. I’d like you to meet him.”

  “Really?” Something warm and scary bloomed inside her chest. Something she didn’t want to feel and told herself not to. “You want me to meet your brother?”

  “Yes. Only if you want to, I mean.”

  “Of course I want to.”

  He smiled at that, but then he let his head fall back to the pillow. “But there is one complication about working at the Ability Ranch.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I just thought... I mean... I want to try to do this right.”

  “Do what right?”

  “Well...if I start working at the ranch, I’ll be working with Marlene, so...”

  “So.” She felt a twinge of pain, remembering the woman’s gorgeous eyes and wide smile.

  “Yeah,” he finished weakly.

  She tried to ignore the jealousy that stabbed through her. “You mean maybe you two would have a thing again?”

  “What? No! I meant I’d be working with a woman I once dated.”

  “I don’t know what you’re saying!” she cried out in exasperation.

  “I just mean I wouldn’t want it to upset you. And if it would, maybe I shouldn’t work there.”

  Charlie managed to beat the jealousy back entirely at those words. “Are you kidding? If I were going to get upset about all the women in your past, Walker, I never would’ve slept with you. You’ve had lovers. So have I, I promise. Even if this were more—”

  “It is more,” he interrupted.

  “More?” she repeated, certain he didn’t know what she’d meant.

  “Yes. More than sex, damn it. More than nothing.” He rose on his elbow and met her eyes. “It is for me.”

  “Walker...” What was he saying? Surely not that. Not this soon.

  “We’re friends, Charlie. We always have been. I like you. I admire you. You make me laugh and think. And you turn me on so much, my fucking hands shake when I touch you. That might not be love, not yet, but it isn’t nothing, Charlie. Is it?”

  She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. “Love?” she whispered.

  “Maybe. Someday. Would that be so awful?”

  “With you?” she asked.

  Walker winced. “That’s what I was thinking, yes.”

  Love. With Walker. That damn natural disaster was suddenly looming over her, changing the pressure in the air. Love. Just the possibility of it made her heart shake with fear.

  But fear wasn’t the only feeling. Not at all. She’d always loved so many things about him, after all. That part was already real.

  “Maybe I haven’t been the kind of guy you could count on, Charlie. Maybe that’s why you didn’t confide in me or ask me for help. But I will be that man. I swear it.”

  She thought of the way she’d felt when she’d opened the door. When she’d seen him standing there. Relief had washed over her so suddenly that all the little twigs of bravery and strength she’d stacked up over the past year had been swept away. She’d been left standing there completely raw and crumbling. And Walker had scooped her right up. That had been all she’d needed to let go. His arms. The rumble of his voice telling her it was okay.

  “I know I could ask you for anything, Walker,” she whispered. “It wasn’t like that. If...” She swallowed her fear and tried again. “If this was more, I’d be fine about Marlene. And anyone else in your past. I could deal with that. If...you loved me. Maybe.”

  She hadn’t realized how tight his jaw had been until the tension left it.

  “I mean, as long as I don’t have to hear anything about it. How amazing the sex was or—”

  “No one is more amazing in bed than you, Charlie.”

  That stopped her words on a laugh. “Ha! You and your flirting. You’re the worst.”

  “You don’t believe me?” He flipped her over onto her back and loomed above her. Taking her hand, he drew it down and pressed it to his cock. It was already hard. “You drive me crazy. Everything about you. Everything,” he whispered as he closed the space between them and took her mouth.

  God. She’d thought she’d never feel this again. She’d thought it was over, and now he was offering more. She kissed him eagerly, desperately, her hands digging into his shoulders so he wouldn’t change his mind and pull away.

  “I’ve never loved anyone, Charlie,” he murmured, “and you’re the last woman I’d ever deserve.”

  “That’s not true.”

  He pushed her shirt up and put his mouth to her breast.

  She gasped his name and pulled him closer. “That’s not true,” she sobbed.

  “It’s true. But maybe...” He slipped her pants down, his hand sliding over the mound of her sex. “Maybe someday...” He freed his cock from his pants, sliding a knee between her legs so she’d open for him. “I could be.”

  By the time he slipped on a condom, she was panting, but she still wasn’t prepared. She wasn’t ready for the sure stroke of his thrust and the shock of being so utterly filled with him. She cried out, and he swallowed the sound with a kiss.

  “This is more,” he said as he pulled back and thrust again. “It’s more than anything else.”

  She framed his face in her hands and kissed him, raising her knees to his hips to take what he offered.

  “It’s better than anything else,” he growled.

  “Yes,” she gasped.

  He took her deeper. Invading her body and her soul. “It’s better.”

  “Yes. It’s better. Walker.” She twisted her hands into his hair and tugged his head up until she could meet his gaze. He pressed his hips hard against her and held himself there, deep inside her.

  “You’re better,” she said. “And, God...Walker, I love you so much.”

  His eyes widened for a moment before he closed them. It was slow after that. Slow and deep and careful, as his tongue stroked hers and his hands touched her everywhere. Everywhere. Finally he pulled her on top of him, and let her set the rhythm. He slipped his hand down her belly, and his thumb brushed her clit, and Charlie was lost.

  She was lost in the feel of him, the fullness, the stroke of his body in hers as she took him faster.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he growled. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Charlie. I love you. Goddamn it, I love you.”

  She came with his words in her ear. Those terrifying words wrapping around her, getting inside her, making her believe that this was better.

  Both their hearts were thundering when he pulled her down to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. She was crying again, her tears sliding down his neck, but there was no way to stop them. She was terrified. She had nothing. No job. No future. And now there was this. Love. Awful, overwhelming love.

  And she wanted it.

  “You
’ve made a stupid mistake, Charlie,” he whispered into her hair.

  “What?” she croaked.

  “You shouldn’t have convinced me I’m good enough for you. Now I’ve gone tame and you’ll never get rid of me. I’ll never leave you alone.”

  She curled her arms around his wide chest, still shocked at the size and heat and strength of his big male body. It was all hers now. Other women might have had their shot, but they’d blown it. “So you’re mine now?” she asked.

  “I’m all yours, Charlie. One good ol’ cowboy in your hands, whether you want him or not.”

  She squeezed him tighter, listening to his heart beat slow and sweet against her ear. “I want all of you,” she whispered. “Just the way you are, or however you want to be, Walker. Just you.”

  EPILOGUE

  THE BRIDE HAD insisted she wanted a small wedding. In fact, she’d insisted she wanted no wedding at all, but she’d given in with suspicious ease.

  First, they’d planned for a small reception at the Crooked R, but so many people had begged for an invitation that the plans had changed. And changed again. Now the wedding and the reception were being held in the huge, high-ceilinged event room at the Ability Ranch. The tall windows framed the snowy Tetons and blue sky above them. Despite the sun, an occasional gust of wind blew sparkling waves of snowflakes off the roof, but there wasn’t a hint of cold inside. Inside, the air shimmered with happy conversation and laughter and waves of anticipation, but when the first notes of the fiddle sounded, every voice went quiet. The groom removed his black cowboy hat and handed it off to his best man, Cole Rawlins.

  The bride had refused to wear white, but she looked stunning in a pearl-gray dress. A sapphire necklace and earrings played up her blue eyes and upswept white hair, and it was clear that the pink in her cheeks couldn’t be attributed to rouge.

  For a moment, Rayleen looked scared, her eyes darting over the large crowd of people rising from their chairs for her.

  Charlie wondered if Rayleen was now regretting her earlier speech about not needing anyone to give her away because she’d been supporting her own damn self for years. But she visibly steeled herself, set her mouth in a serious line and started down the aisle to the sweet notes of “Here Comes the Bride.”

  Charlie squeezed Walker’s hand and smiled when he pulled her a little closer to his side. “She looks beautiful,” he whispered, just as Charlie was thinking it.

  Rayleen did look beautiful, and when Charlie turned to peek at Easy standing just in front of the dais, she caught the wistfulness of his smile as he watched his bride approach.

  Rayleen stared straight ahead, as if she were afraid to meet anyone’s eyes, and Charlie noticed that the bouquet in her hands trembled slightly as she passed.

  “Miss Rayleen,” Easy said softly, holding out his arm as she reached him.

  The bride murmured something that ended with “...foolishness,” but she took Easy’s arm all the same. In fact, her knuckles turned white where she gripped him as she stepped onto the dais.

  Grace, Rayleen’s only attendant, took the small bouquet of white lilies from the bride’s hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek. The audience seemed to hold its collective breath for a moment, waiting for Rayleen to either bolt or loudly declare that she’d changed her mind and wasn’t letting some half-dead old cowboy take over her life. But Rayleen only drew a deep breath and faced the pastor.

  The ceremony went off smoothly, though when the pastor accidentally uttered the word “obey,” Rayleen shot him a look of such promised violence that he choked on the sentence and immediately corrected himself. Easy snorted, and then Cole tried to swallow a laugh and failed so miserably that he had to duck his head for a long moment.

  But Rayleen held her tongue up until the moment the man intoned, “You may now kiss the bride.”

  “Pah,” she scoffed. “I’m not going to let Easy show off in front of half the town, just because some old—”

  Her words ended in a squeak when Easy swept her close, bent her over his arm and kissed her senseless. When Easy finally stood her straight again, he only smiled. Rayleen smiled back.

  The crowd cheered, filling the room with a happy roar as Rayleen patted the back of her hair and pretended she wasn’t blushing. Easy held her hand and kissed her on the cheek for good measure.

  “Well, all right,” she grouched when the cheers finally died down. “Let’s have the damn party, then.”

  The fiddle sang out the wedding recessional march, but instead of exiting down the aisle with her groom, Rayleen tugged him toward the bar on the other side of the room. “I need a damn whiskey,” Charlie heard her mutter as they passed.

  Walker pulled Charlie into his arms as the crowd began to drift toward the tables set up for the reception. Charlie didn’t feel any compulsion to move.

  “God, you look delicious,” she groaned, tilting her head up for a kiss. She’d made the same complaint three times on the drive over, manhandling him until he’d been groaning, too. If they hadn’t been running late, she would’ve made him pull the truck over for a quickie, but she’d have to be satisfied with molesting him on the way back to town. As it was, she slipped her fingers into his recently cropped hair and pulled it.

  “Stop it,” he growled, tugging her hand down.

  “Why?”

  “You know why. You’re too good at getting me...interested.”

  He stepped a few inches back.

  “But you look so hot,” she whined, giving his shoulder an insolent shove. He did look hot. She’d never seen him in a suit before, and combined with the short hair and newly close-cut facial hair, he looked like a damn movie star. The rugged kind of star who just got hotter and hotter the older he got.

  “You look pretty hot yourself, Charlie.” His eyes swept down her tight blue cocktail dress. “But I’m still managing to restrain myself.” When she shot him a doubtful look, he answered with an innocent smile, as if he hadn’t slipped his hand into her panties on the way over.

  “I am going to ruin you on the drive home,” she promised. His innocent smile faltered. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go congratulate the happy couple.”

  She thought she heard him moan in frustration, and that made her smile all the brighter as she approached the large crowd that had assembled around Easy and Rayleen. Easy was shaking hands. Rayleen had her back turned and was instructing the bartender on how to serve whiskey properly.

  Walker shook Easy’s hand and added a slap on his shoulder. “Congratulations on snatching her up before I could,” he said.

  Easy laughed. “Thank you, but—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Rayleen swung around with drink in hand. “As if I’d have given you the time of day, Walker Pearce. I like a man who hasn’t put all of his business on the internet.”

  Charlie nearly fell over laughing. “My God, Ms. Rayleen, I think I love you,” she said, before she pulled the old woman in for a tight hug. “Congratulations. Easy is such a good man.”

  “Aw. He’s all right,” Rayleen answered, blushing again.

  “So all right you decided to pen him in for good?”

  Rayleen shrugged, but Easy shook his head. “Naw. I told her she could have one sample and then she’d have to buy the bull.”

  “One sample?” Rayleen cackled. “That was more like four. Four and a half if you count the time we—”

  “Woman!” he barked. “My point is that I told you that was all you got unless you agreed to do it proper.”

  “Proper. Sure.” Her blue eyes rolled. “You didn’t want it so proper a few nights ago.”

  At that point, Charlie wondered if both Easy and Walker might faint if they blushed any harder, but Charlie worried she might pass out from laughter. “I see why you didn’t wear white.”

  Rayleen shrugged. “Everything’s pretty gray now anyway. Can’t imagine I’d fool anyone.”

  A flash went off just as Easy shot his bride an exasperated look.

 
; “That one should probably go on your wall,” Eve said as she aimed her camera one more time. She’d donated her photography skills as a wedding gift, and she was obviously enjoying herself. “Everybody gather around,” she said, gesturing to Walker and Charlie, as well as Grace and her boyfriend, Cole. She called out for Merry and Shane as well, and then began snapping pictures of the group. A few seconds later, Charlie’s cousin Nate joined the group with Jenny, and Eve’s boyfriend eased the camera from her hands.

  “You get in there, too,” he insisted. “I’ll take the photo.”

  “But what about you?” Eve protested.

  “You know how much I hate having my picture taken.” When she looked as though she’d protest again, he kissed her forehead and shooed her into the frame. “Everybody smile.”

  “Ridiculous crap,” Rayleen muttered, but Charlie noticed she hid her drink and smiled all the same. Her smile turned to laughter when Easy kissed her temple. Charlie found herself blinking back tears. It was so sweet. Such a cute couple surrounded by so much love. It made Charlie feel...certain. That love was real and good. And that every couple here had it in spades. It was the first wedding in a long while that was filling her up with more than booze.

  In fact, it was long after the opening notes of the local country band before Charlie even found herself with a glass of champagne. The sun was setting, sending jagged rays of orange and pink from behind the darkening mountains. Charlie wandered the edges of the crowd, smiling at the happy dancers. The evening was perfect and beautiful, and the bride and groom swayed happily together to an old Patsy Cline cover.

  For a strange second, Charlie imagined herself with Walker like that. In that moment. Married and hopeful and happy for all to see. The thought made her dizzy. She’d never considered that with anyone. She’d never even brought a date to a wedding, worried that the celebration would somehow rub off and snap her dormant serial-marriage gene into activity.

  But now...she wanted to be near Walker. She wanted to hold his hand and watch the happy couple and...she wanted to hope.

  Five minutes later she’d begun to suspect that he’d gone to visit the horses when she finally spotted him just past the glass doors. He was only a shadow in the evening sun, but there was no mistaking his silhouette, even with the new haircut. She knew his body, after all. The curve of his shoulders, his narrow hips and strong thighs. And when his head turned, the bold line of his nose. God, he was beautiful. Charlie followed him outside.