Taming a Texas Devil (Bad Boy Ranch Book 5)

by Katie Lane

  Holden shrugged. “Maybe keeping a few of our wild ways isn’t such a bad thing.”

  All the boys laughed. When the laughter died, Lincoln took the opportunity to say something he should’ve said a long time ago. “I love you guys.”

  The other boys exchanged looks before Cru squinted at him. “Are you drunk?”

  “No. I just wanted to let y’all know that you mean a lot to me.”

  Sawyer flung an arm around Lincoln and tugged him close. “You mean a lot to me too. Without you, I would’ve gotten my ass whipped on more than one occasion for my smart mouth.”

  “Because you were a punk,” Cru said.

  Logan laughed. “We were all punks. Thank God we found women who loved us regardless. And speaking of those women, I’d like to get back to mine. We only have another hour before Helen will need to eat.”

  “Please don’t tell me you’re keeping a nursing schedule,” Cru said.

  “In a couple more months, you’ll be keeping one too, bro.” Logan glanced at Holden. “And you won’t be far behind.”

  Cru and Holden had announced their wives were expecting within weeks of each other. Lincoln figured there would soon be lots of little bad boy babies toddling around. But tonight there was only one baby he was interested in. His baby. And it was time to get back to her.

  The line dancing had ended and Dixie was now dancing with her daddy. Not wanting to cut in on the senator, he stood at the edge of the dance floor to wait his turn. But when Dixie spotted him, she stopped dancing, kissed her daddy, and came straight over to pull him out on the dance floor. He’d never been a good dancer, but he felt like one in Dixie’s arms. Especially when she looked at him with love in her eyes.

  “Hey, stranger. Long time no see.”

  “I was talking with the boys.”

  “And what plans have you bad boys been hatching?”

  “No plans . . . except maybe living happily ever after with the women we love.”

  “Mmm.” She snuggled closer. “I like the sound of that.”

  “Me too.” He kissed her forehead. “And if we’re going to live happily-ever-after, we probably should build us a house.”

  “About that. Daddy gave me a little surprise just now.”

  He drew back to look at her. “Oh, no. Your parents aren’t giving us a house.”

  She swatted him. “Of course not. They already gave us our honeymoon to Hawaii. Daddy’s just giving me the money my grandma wanted me to have and I thought I’d build a house right smack dab in the middle of that piece of land you don’t seem to know what to do with.”

  He started to argue, but then realized he didn’t have anything to argue about. Dixie had solved two problems at once. She was a smart woman and he was one lucky man. He kissed her long and deep, communicating all the love he felt in his heart. When he drew back, she swayed on her feet as if dizzy. He planned to make her dizzy for the rest of his life.

  “Please tell me that you’re ready to take me back to our room and make love to me, Officer Hayes,” she said.

  “I couldn’t be more ready, Sheriff Hayes.”

  Dixie kept her eyes closed and smiled. “Sheriff Hayes. That has a nice ring to it.”

  After Sheriff Willaby had been arrested, the town had an emergency election and had chosen Dixie as their new sheriff. Lincoln wasn’t surprised. She had turned out to be one damn fine law officer.

  He stopped dancing. “What do you say we leave this party and go see how well a sheriff and a Texas Ranger fit together?”

  Her green eyes twinkled with love and happiness. “Somehow, I think they’ll fit perfectly.”

  * * *

  The End

  * * *

  Turn the page for a Sneak Peek of

  Katie Lane’s next Texas Bad Boy . . .

  Sneak Peek!

  Special Sneak Peek of Taming a Texas Rascal!

  Coming your way December 2020!

  * * *

  Sawyer Dawson woke with a bad feeling that he’d done something he shouldn’t have. But since he woke with this feeling most mornings, he didn’t pay too much attention to it. He’d spent his life doing things he shouldn’t do. If something was forbidden, that usually meant it was a whole helluva lot of fun.

  And Sawyer was all about having fun.

  Sometimes he had to pay for it.

  Like this morning.

  His stomach felt queasy and his head felt like it might explode. That’s what happens when you downed an entire bottle of tequila all by yourself.

  Or had he?

  A weak memory of two pretty full lips on the rim of a shot glass fluttered through his mind. He tried to pull up the rest of the image, but his head hurt too much. When his cellphone rang, it felt like a toy monkey was inside his head banging its cymbals. He moaned and blindly reached out for his phone on the nightstand. When it wasn’t there, he opened his eyes. The sunlight coming in through the tinted hotel windows had him squinting. After a few blinks, he focused and spotted his cellphone lying on the floor next to his jeans. He leaned over the edge of the mattress and grabbed it.

  “What?” he answered grouchily.

  There was a chuckle on the other end of the phone. “Bad night, I take it.”

  Even with a major hangover, he couldn’t help smiling when he recognized Lincoln Hayes’s voice. Lincoln had been his friend since they’d been pain-in-the-ass teenagers. Now Linc was a Texas Ranger who had gotten Sawyer out of more than a few jams over the years . . . all from doing things he shouldn’t have been doing.

  He leaned back on the pillows and massaged his throbbing temples. “Hey, Linc. Is there a reason you’re calling me so early on a Saturday morning? I would’ve thought a newly married man like yourself would have better things to do. Of course, you’ve always been more work than play.”

  “And you’ve always been more play than work. It’s not early. It’s after ten o’clock.”

  “Shit.” Sawyer sat straight up and glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Sure enough it was ten sixteen. He never slept past nine. Especially when he was riding in a rodeo that day. His body and mind needed time to prepare. He liked to run a couple miles to get out the excess energy and focus his brain, then he ate a healthy breakfast and did a good hour and a half of stretching exercises before he headed to the arena. And he never drank the night before a ride.

  But last night he’d needed to numb his mind. Even now, he wished he had a bottle of tequila handy. But as he glanced around the room, he didn’t find a drop of alcohol. What he did find was a pair of red cowboy boots lying on the floor. Not the fancy designer kind the rodeo groupies liked to wear. These were red ropers that looked well worn. As he stared at the boots, the toilet flushed in the bathroom and the shower turned on.

  He grinned.

  Obviously, his Tequila Girl hadn’t been part of his drunken imagination. He tried to remember a face and a name. But all he could remember was those pretty lips pressed against the shot glass and the drop of leftover tequila begging to be licked off. Had he licked it off? He must have if the woman ended up in his hotel room. Maybe he could do a little more licking this morning. Sex worked just as well as alcohol at erasing pain.

  Suddenly, he felt much better.

  “So what’s up, Linc?” he asked, hoping to get to the point of the conversation so he could slip into the shower before Tequila Girl finished.

  “Dixie has been helping the town council here in Simple plan some activities that will bring in more tourists. She had the idea for a fall festival and rodeo. She wanted me to ask if you’d help her plan it.”

  He didn’t even have to think about it. “No.”

  “Come on now, Sawyer. It won’t take that long. All you have to do is meet with the town council and give some advice.”

  “This isn’t about a rodeo, Linc, and you know it. This is just some scheme you and the other boys hatched up to get me to Simple and married off like the rest of you.”

  The “other boys” Sawyer had me
t at the same time as Lincoln. All six boys had been trouble teens who were sentenced to one summer at the Double Diamond ranch. But the ranch had turned out to be more of a vacation than a punishment. The owners Lucas and Chester were two old rodeo cowboys with hearts as big as Texas. They had taught the boys everything they knew about cowboying and had given Sawyer the rodeo bug.

  Lincoln laughed. “Well, I can’t deny that all the Double Diamond boys would love to have you settle here in Simple. But I think we’re all very aware of the fact that you aren’t the settling down type, Sawyer. This really is all Dixie’s idea. Since becoming sheriff, she’s hell bent on putting Simple on the map.”

  Since Simple, Texas, was only a grease spot on the highway that was a tall order. One Sawyer wasn’t about to get roped into. “I think the world of Dixie, Linc, but I’ll have to pass. Why doesn’t she ask Maisy Sweeney? She’s a damn good rodeo gal and I’m sure she’d love to help out since she and Dixie are close friends.”

  “She already asked Maisy, but Maisy says she’s too busy.” There was a long pause. “I’m worried about Maisy.”

  Lately, all Lincoln seemed to do was worry about the pint-sized saddle bronc rider. In the last few months, she had become like a little sister to him. And Sawyer got it. It was hard not to like the cute, feisty cowgirl. She was the type of woman most single men wanted as a friend—a straight shooter who wasn’t looking for a wedding band or a man to talk about her feelings with. She and Sawyer had been friends . . . until Lincoln took her under his wing.

  “She’s working way too hard,” Lincoln continued. “When she’s not riding in some rodeo, she’s working some temp job to get money to pay for the fees to enter a rodeo.”

  “That’s rodeo life for you. Unless you get a sponsor, you have to work other jobs to pay for your passion.” Sawyer was damn lucky to have a sponsor. Although the chewing tobacco company that sponsored him was getting damned tired of him not winning any championships. But this was Sawyer’s year. He could feel it. After the crappy year he’d had last year, God owed him a good one.

  “Maisy will be okay, Linc,” he said. “She’s tough.”

  There was another long stretch of silence before Lincoln spoke. “You’re staying away from her, right?”

  It hurt a little that Lincoln didn’t trust him, but Sawyer could understand why. In the last year, he’d run through his fair share of women. “I gave you my word, Linc. And I don’t break my word. I haven’t seen Maisy since the wedding.”

  About then, Tequila Girl started singing in the shower. She had about the worst singing voice Sawyer ever heard in his life. She was completely off-key and got the majority of words to the country song wrong.

  “I’ll go sky fly-in’! I’ll go Rocky Mountain driv-in’! I’ll go eight point seven second on a bull named Fool Man Two!”

  Sawyer squinted at the door. Fool Man Two?

  “Who’s that?” Lincoln asked.

  “A friend. I better get going. I have a rodeo this afternoon.”

  “When are you going to give this foolishness up, Sawyer? You’re getting too old to be tossed around on the back of a wild-assed horse.”

  It was true. At almost thirty, he was getting too old for saddle bronc riding. But if he didn’t have rodeo, he’d have nothing. “You’re only as old as you feel,” he said. “And I’m not ready to become an old married man like you and spend my days holding my wife’s yarn while she knits.”

  Lincoln laughed. “That’s not how Dixie and I spend our days, but I’ll let you keep your illusions.” He paused, and there was real concern in his voice when he spoke. “Be careful, Sawyer. I mean it.”

  “I’m always careful, Linc. Give Dixie a kiss for me.”

  “Hell, no. You kiss enough women. Dixie is all mine. Go kiss your . . . friend.”

  Sawyer laughed as he hung up. But his laughter faded when he noticed the unopened message on the screen of his phone. The same message that had prompted the bottle of tequila. Even now, the words made his gut tighten and his chest ache. And if he’d had a bottle of tequila, he would’ve taken a deep swig—rodeo today or not.

  I’m getting married on September 15. Please forgive me.

  Sawyer deleted the text and tossed his cellphone to the nightstand before he gingerly climbed out of bed.

  Every bone in his body hurt and not just from his hangover. He woke up in pain every morning. All the abuse his body had taken over the years had started to catch up to him. If you were only as old as you felt, he was a hundred and ten.

  “I’ll love cheat-ers. And I’ll talk sweet-er,” the woman’s off-key voice pulled him from his thoughts and made him smile. She was so bad that it was kinda cute. He cracked his neck and stretched out a few of his sore muscles before he headed to the bathroom. The door was locked, but luckily, his little Tequila Girl hadn’t closed it tightly and he was able to push it open. All he could see behind the white shower curtain was a shadow. He quickly stripped off his boxers and eased back the curtain.

  His breath hitched at the sight that greeted him. With the way the woman sang, he’d been a little nervous about her looks. But she had one hot rockin’ body. She was a petite thing. Her head barely reached the top of his shoulders as he stepped into the tub. She was standing in the spray of the shower with her back to him, which was probably why she hadn’t realized he was there. That and she was still caterwauling. But he didn’t mind the singing so much when he had such a great view.

  Water cascaded through hair the color of a sorrel mare. The river of hair hung all the way down to the curves of her ass. She had one fine ass. The two firm, rounded cheeks made Sawyer’s dick feel a lot younger than the rest of his body. The butt cheeks were attached to lean, muscled legs. Legs he intended to have wrapped around his waist as soon as possible. He picked up the bar of soap on the side of the tub and worked up a lather. When soap bubbles were dripping through his fingers, he moved closer and slid them over each sweet cheek.

  A startled gasp was quickly followed by the sharp pain of an elbow to his stomach. Sawyer sucked in air and stumbled back. His feet slipped on soap bubbles and slid into the woman and they both fell into the bathtub in a tangle of legs and arms. He took the brunt of the fall, his shoulder bumping the edge of the tub. But with two soft breasts pressed against his chest and something even more tempting pressed against his semi-erection, he barely registered the pain.

  “Well, I guess that will teach me to surprise a woman in the shower,” he said with amusement in his voice. “Although I can’t complain with an outcome like this.” He slid his hands over her nice butt and gave each cheek a gentle squeeze.

  She released another gasp and lifted her head. All desire was completely obliterated by the familiar brown eyes the color of rich chocolate . . . and the little nose sprinkled with freckles . . . and the full bowed lips—the same lips he’d pictured taking a shot of tequila.

  He slammed his eyes closed and hoped this was all just a bad dream brought on by his hangover and the conversation with Lincoln. But when he cracked them back open, she was still there.

  “Maisy Sweeney.” (Taming a Texas Rascal Excerpt by Katie Lane)

  Also by Katie Lane

  Be sure to check out all of Katie Lane’s novels!

  www.katielanebooks.com

  * * *

  Bad Boy Ranch Series:

  Taming a Texas Bad Boy

  Taming a Texas Rebel

  Taming a Texas Charmer

  Taming a Texas Heartbreaker

  Taming a Texas Devil

  Taming a Texas Rascal (coming December 2020)

  * * *

  Brides of Bliss Texas Series:

  Spring Texas Bride

  Summer Texas Bride

  Autumn Texas Bride

  Christmas Texas Bride

  * * *

  Tender Heart Texas Series:

  Falling for Tender Heart

  Falling Head Over Boots

  Falling for a Texas Hellion

  Falling for a Cowboy
’s Smile

  Falling for a Christmas Cowboy

  * * *

  Deep in the Heart of Texas Series:

  Going Cowboy Crazy

  Make Mine a Bad Boy

  Catch Me a Cowboy

  Trouble in Texas

  Flirting with Texas

  A Match Made in Texas

  The Last Cowboy in Texas

  My Big Fat Texas Wedding

  * * *

  Overnight Billionaires Series:

  A Billionaire Between the Sheets

  A Billionaire After Dark

  Waking up with a Billionaire

  * * *

  Hunk for the Holidays Series:

  Hunk for the Holidays

  Ring in the Holidays

  Unwrapped

  About the Author

  Katie Lane is a firm believer that love conquers all and laughter is the best medicine. Which is why you'll find plenty of humor and happily-ever-afters in her contemporary and western contemporary romance novels. A USA Today Bestselling Author, she has written numerous series, including Deep in the Heart of Texas, Hunk for the Holidays, Overnight Billionaires, Tender Heart Texas, The Brides of Bliss Texas, and Bad Boy Ranch. Katie lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and when she's not writing, she enjoys reading, eating chocolate (dark, please), and snuggling with her high school sweetheart and Cairn Terrier, Roo.

  For more on her writing life or just to chat,

  check out Katie here:

  Facebook www.facebook.com/katielaneauthor

  Instagram www.instagram.com/katielanebooks.