Add in the fact she has to hire an overseer for the Bar 9 when she’s gone, and she’s flat out losin’ money. I told her she’d be better off breedin’ the stock and sellin’ it off. Let some other fool take on the headache of draggin’ animals to rodeos all over the damn country.”

“Makes sense.”

“She’d come to the same realization right before she hired me. She wants to focus on buildin’ a breedin’ program, with both broncs and bulls. She’s smart. She runs a damn fine operation and I’m lucky to be a part of it.”

“She’s lucky to have you helpin’ her, Cash. You know your shit and aren’t gonna feed her full of none. Which was one of the reasons I recommended you.”

Embarrassed by Colby’s praise, Cash changed the subject. “How’s your leg?”

“Hurts like a sonuvabitch most days.” Colby gave Cash a cool look. “You repeat that to Channing and I’ll kick your ass.”

Cash laughed, mostly because he figured Channing already knew. “I noticed her watchin’ you like a hawk yesterday around that buckin’ bull. She’s afraid you’re gonna get on and show us all how it’s done, eh?”

“Yeah. Well. She don’t understand why I can’t sell the whole shootin’ match outright.” Colby stared off into the distance. After a while he said, “Do you miss it?”

Cash knew it meant all that went along with rodeoin’ and being a professional rodeo cowboy. “Sometimes. I don’t miss the bruises and the constant body aches.”

“Or all the boring hours spent in the truck on the road between events,” Colby added.

“Or the bad food.”

“Or the bad draws.”

“Or the low scores.”

“Or the low payouts.”

Silence.

“Hell yeah, I miss it,” Colby said with a laugh.

“Me too.” Now was as good a time as any for Cash to broach the subject he’d been wrestling with all morning. With any luck it wouldn’t tip Colby off. “You keep in touch with many of the guys on the circuit?”

“A few. Why?”

“Just wonderin’ what Trevor’s up to these days.”

“He’s still chasin’ the Finals dream. Though, he had a pretty serious fallin’ out with his dad about it. I’m surprised you haven’t seen him this year.”

“He ain’t been competin’ in the rinky-dink rodeos I’d been workin’. You have his number? I accidentally tossed it. Thought I might give him a call. I need to ask him a favor.”

“Sure. This favor anything I can help with?”

He nearly choked. “Nope.”

Colby sat up taller and grinned from ear to ear. “Hey, shug, you lookin’ for me?”

Cash turned around and watched Channing crook her little finger at her husband.

Colby jumped off the fence like it’d suddenly caught fire.

Cash grinned. Maybe someday soon, if he played his cards right, Gemma would look at him like that.

Gemma. Lord, thinking about the smokin’ hot sex last night still made his dick hard.

He’d figured once they’d retired to their room, she’d be too worn out to make love.

Or she’d be worried about having sex with other people staying in the house.

Had he been wrong.

They’d started messing around, and the need between them flared as hot and urgent as it always did. He’d gone down on her—man did he love going down on her, the sweet noises she made were music to his ears, but she’d literally turned the tables on him. She’d flipped around so she could suck his cock while he ate her pussy. He’d never been especially fond of sixty-nine until last night when the law of averages caught up with them and they’d actually come at the same time. Explosively. Feeling his cock throb hot spurts in her suctioning mouth while she came, undulating against his face… Well, he’d have to rethink his position on that particular position.

But Gemma hadn’t been satisfied. She wanted to make love face to face. With the lights on.

He’d said no. She’d insisted. When he offered a compromise of making love with her blindfolding him, she offered a new threat: One of these nights she’d wait until he fell asleep, then she’d hog-tie him, turn the lights on and fuck him exactly how she wanted.

For as long as she wanted. In the position she wanted. She haughtily informed him there wouldn’t be a damn thing he could do about it.

Cash knew she’d follow through with the threat. And he wasn’t ready for her to see the truth of how he felt about her. So he pretended to laugh it off and waited until she fell asleep.

He snuck out of bed and cut an old T-shirt of Steve’s into one long strip. Making sure the bottle of lube was nearby, he murmured instructions in her ear.

She didn’t protest, just sleepily rolled to her stomach. As he bound her wrists behind her back, she woke up.

Spitting mad.

Her fury lasted about a minute until she felt his slippery thumb stroking her clit and his fingers snaking up inside her, bringing her to a fast orgasm. While she recovered, he hiked her hips in the air and squirted more lube on his fingers and his straining cock.

Gemma gasped when he squeezed a dollop on her anus.

“Cash—”

“Did he have you here?” He inserted two fingers in her ass.

She sucked in a breath and released it on a moan, nodding.

“Good. Then you’ll know what to expect.” He scissored his fingers inside that dark hole, stretching her to fit him. He angled over her arched spine to whisper in her ear.

“You didn’t expect I’d stay out of this gorgeous ass forever, did you?”

“No.”

“See, this is the way I deal with threats, sweets, call it a pre-emptive strike.”

“But—”

“Who’s hog-tied now, Gem?”

“Umm. Me.”

“And I’m gonna fuck you exactly where I want, and how I want, as long as I want, exactly as I’ve fantasized and there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it, is there?”

“No.”

He growled, “If I knew where your vibrator was I’d shove it up your pussy while I ream this tight hole. You fantasize about having two men at once. Two men fucking you in every way imaginable.”

“Cash.”

“Do you want that, Gemma?”

“Ah. Yes.”

“Another time. Right now, I’m gonna fuck you so hard that you remember who makes the decisions in the bedroom. I’m gonna fuck and use this ass to the absolute limit and you’re gonna love it, aren’t you?”

“Please. Oh—”

Cash impaled her to the root on the first stroke. He reached between her thighs and rubbed her clit while he tunneled in and out of her ass. Faster. Harder. Each thrust had enough force to send her knees sliding toward the headboard. He wrapped his hands around her waist and jerked her back to the end of the bed and started over.

She smelled good. She felt good too. As much as he wanted to stay buried in that hot, tight channel, Cash couldn’t hold back.

Neither could Gemma. She came, muffling her cries into the pillow as his cock pumped and jerked and finally shot his load high and hard into that hot, tight portal.

Gemma flopped to her stomach after he eased out of her. He was half afraid he’d been too rough. But after he loosened the bindings and spooned against her, she murmured, “I’ll have to threaten you more often.”

Two shouts sounded from the tent bringing Cash back to reality. The boys returned for their riding lessons and all thoughts beyond rodeo disappeared.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Later Cash was taking a breather, enjoying the serenity of the ranch when he heard footsteps behind him. When he turned to see his daughter approaching, his heart lightened. They hadn’t spent much time together recently, and he was afraid it wouldn’t take much to snap the tentative connection they’d established.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Hoka hey, honey-girl.” Poor thing looked tired. “Gemma finally parole you from kitchen duty?”

“How many times do I have to tell you cooking is not a chore?”

“I suppose it is different when you’re good at it.” He hesitated. “If I’ve forgotten to tell you, the food’s been mighty tasty the last coupla days. I know everyone’s been talkingabout it. I’m proud of you for pitchin’ in.”

Macie blushed. “Thanks.”

The scent of hot dirt permeated the air as they gazed across the paddock. A pair of crows circled the turquoise sky, their caw caw lost in the breeze blowing through the stand of cedar trees.

“It’s so beautiful here.”

“That it is. I was just thinkin’ the same thing.”

“We haven’t been riding for a couple of days.” She picked at a loose chunk of wood on the fence. “But I suppose you’re pretty busy, huh?”

“Not too busy for you. Wanna go out right after supper?”

“Sure. Is Gemma tired of me taking her horse all the time?”

“No. She’s glad. Daisy needs the exercise and she’s been swamped catchin’ up on ranch paperwork.”

A truck whizzed by on the gravel road, sending clouds of chalky dust across the rocky field.

Macie angled her chin toward the empty mechanical bull. “What was the toss off rate today?”

“Eighty-five percent.”

“Not good.”

“Better than the ninety-nine percent from yesterday.”

“True. So how many times did you have to demonstrate?”

“None.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“So you’re not all beat up?”

“No.” But the truth was, all damn day he had been feeling some of those old aches and pains from previous rodeo injuries.

“Huh. That gives you no excuse not to give me a personal demonstration on your bull ridin’ expertise.”