Ride Me Cowboy #3 (The Cowboy Romance Series - Book #3) Read online

  RIDE ME COWBOY #3

  BOOK 3

  By Alycia Taylor

  Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.

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  CHAPTER ONE

  LEXI

  “What? Why would your dad want to kick you out?” I was shocked. Mark just told me that it was likely he wouldn’t be living on the ranch much longer. I actually couldn’t understand why he still lived there…but the fact was that he did. It was his home. Now he’s telling me that his dad is planning to kick him out. Knowing them both even for a short time, that was hard for me to believe. I had picked up on a little bit of tension between Mark and his dad, but none of it seemed profound enough for his father to kick him out of that huge house. It was so big that people could literally go days without bumping into each other. Mark was rarely even there…Plus, Rob seems like a nice guy and he seems to want to please my mother. I know that she wouldn’t approve.

  “He thinks that I’m wasting my life. He doesn’t approve of my lifestyle…traveling from rodeo to rodeo. He thinks that by refusing to settle down and work the ranch that I’m disrespecting the land and turning up my nose at the legacy he planned on leaving me. He thought that I’d outgrow “the rodeo stuff” as he puts it, by now.”

  “That sucks. Your dad seems like such a nice guy to me and honestly, all I’ve ever heard him do is say positive things about you. He talks about you like he’s proud…” I really thought they were close and just having minor issues.

  Mark chuckled sadly and said, “He’s good at that. To my dad, appearances are important. He has to pretend to be proud of me otherwise he looks like a failure and he can’t have that. His standing in the community is everything…even more than his son.”

  “If he’s always felt that way…why let you live there all this time and kick you out all of a sudden? You don’t think he suspects us…?”

  “No. He would have said something if he did. He’s not one to hold back on telling me what he thinks is wrong with what I’m doing with my life. He suspects me of other things. He thinks that I steal money from him to support my lifestyle.”

  “Oh my goodness! Why does he think that?”

  Mark shrugged. “I guess he just doesn’t understand how I always s have money. In his mind, I don’t work, so I should be broke. I’ve done really well this year and I’ve won a lot of money. It put me in the running for the Nationals. I wouldn’t be there if I hadn’t won money. I tried to tell him that. I even tried to show him the receipts. He didn’t want to see them. He’d rather believe that his son is a thief. I’ve never taken a cent from him.”

  I was surprised at how angry that made me. How can his own father accuse him of something like that? How must that make him feel? I almost laughed at that as I thought that, ironically that it probably felt the same way it made me feel to know my own mother…my biological mother, didn’t want me. I opened my mouth…and then I closed it. I was aching in my heart for him and I wanted to say something to make him feel better, but I wasn’t ready yet for that kind of disclosure. Not many people knew that Lydia was my aunt and not my mom. I’m not even sure if Rob knows or not. Mark trusted me with a lot and I wanted to trust him in return…but I just wasn’t ready yet.

  “So you said he was “probably” going to kick you out by the end of the summer. If he thinks you’re stealing and he plans on kicking you out…why not now?”

  “Like I said, impressions and appearances are very important to him. He is still at the impressing stage with you and your mom. He’ll wait until you go back to school and then he’ll tell your mother some story or other and if I know my dad, he’ll come out on top. Lydia’s a sweet lady. I can’t imagine that she’ll be okay with him kicking me out for just anything…but I’m sure he’ll think of something.”

  “Wow Mark. I’m sorry.” I didn’t even know what to say. Rob was a completely different person than I thought he was. It made me worry about Mom.

  He shrugged. He was always so laid back about everything. I think I’d be having a fit over it if it was me. Just because of the injustice of it. “I appreciate you listening to me. I’d also appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to him or your mom.”

  “No, of course I won’t say anything. I would never share your personal business like that. Thanks for trusting me with it.”

  “Thanks for listening,” he said with a smile. “I’m hungry.”

  I laughed. “Really?”

  “You’re not? I worked up an appetite having all of that amazing sex, didn’t you?”

  “I hadn’t thought about it, but now that you mention it, I could eat. I guess I should shower…”

  “Nah, let’s just order room service. Just don’t tell my dad,” he said with another little chuckle. He’ll think I stole the money to pay for it.”

  He was laughing, but his eyes looked sad. I reached across him and grabbed one of the hotel menus on the nightstand next to the bed. I lay down next to him and opened it up. “What sounds good?”

  He leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips. With a grin he said, “I’d like to order something that isn’t on the menu.”

  I pushed his chest playfully. “Not yet,” I told him sternly. “I’m hungry now.”

  “Oh, now she’s hungry!”

  I giggled. “The veggie pizza looks good.”

  He made a face. “I’m a man.” He actually lowered his voice as he said it.

  “I noticed,” I told him with a grin. Boy, did I notice.

  “Are you sure you noticed? Men don’t eat “veggie” pizza. If you’re not sure that I’m a man, I can prove it.”

  “I’m sure, pervert. So only women are vegetarians?”

  “Women or girlie men.”

  I laughed. “Ladies and gentlemen we have a chauvinist here.”

  “I’m not a chauvinist. There are just certain things men don’t do and one of them is eat veggie pizza. The meat lover’s pizza looks good though.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay, we’ll get half and half. What do you want to drink?”

  “Beer.”

  “Is wine too girly?”

  He shrugged and said, “I’d prefer a beer and we drank the ones out of the mini bar. But, I think I’m masculine to pull off one glass of wine.” I laughed.

  “You are that,” I said, surprised at myself for flirting so much.

  Mark was so different from the executive types that I was used to dating. It was actually refreshing. With Mark, there were never any pretenses. He was who he was and he didn’t offer any apologies for it.

  Mark ordered the half and half pizza, a bottle of wine and two pizzas. I tried to help pay for them but he wouldn’t let me. He poured me a glass of wine and popped the top on his beer and we sat on the bed with the pizza between us and ate.

  “So…when your dad does tell you to leave, what are you going to do?”

  “I reckon I’ll have to leave. It’s his house.”

  “That’s not what I mean. Are you going to buy a house or rent an apartment?”

  “I don’t know. Until I get married, buying a house seems like a big waste. It would sit empty for so much time through the year. If I had a girlfriend or a wife…kids, maybe…it would be worth it then. I could have a place to come home to….”

  “A place to co
me home to? If you had a wife and kids, you would keep doing the rodeo stuff?”

  “Well yeah,” he said that without any thought at all. “People do it all the time. I don’t reckon just any woman would want to live that way, but some women don’t mind. A lot of my buddies have good women waiting for them at home….”

  “So are you saying a woman who wouldn’t be willing to do that isn’t a good woman?”

  “No, of course not. You just say it like it’s wrong…but it’s just a different lifestyle from what you’re used to. That doesn’t make it wrong.”

  “No, you’re right. I don’t think it’s wrong. It’s just hard for me to understand why you’d want to be married if you’re going to be gone so much.”

  He finished chewing a bite of his pizza and then he took a long draw from his beer. “I reckon that a cowboy…or cowgirl, whichever the case may be…gets married for the same reasons everyone else does. They’re in love and they want to start a family and have someone to grow old with. If you fell in love with any man with a different lifestyle than yours, you wouldn’t be able to compromise and change the way you do things a little bit?”

  Was he asking me this because he wants to know if I’d be willing to change my lifestyle for him? I hope not. It’s way too soon for that. I considered my words carefully before I answered and then I said, “When and if I fall in love, I would hope that we would both be willing to make compromises in order to make each other happy. I couldn’t honestly imagine getting married to someone that I knew would be away more than he’s home. But that’s just me. What about an apartment? You’re going to need somewhere to live in the off season, right?”

  “Yep, I reckon I’ll have to figure it out. Like I said, it all seems like such a waste. I was on the road for over three hundred days last year.”

  “Three hundred days? Really? How many days are in a year? 365? You were home for 65 days?”

  He laughed. “Calm down, you didn’t even know me then.” His smile made me smile as usual.

  “I’m sorry. I just didn’t realize how extreme it was…your traveling…I can’t imagine why so many people are drawn to that profession.”

  “Well, numbers wise we’re becoming an endangered species. Not as many people are rodeo-in and then there are organizations like the PBR that offers a regular salary and benefits and a lot less travel.”

  “Why don’t you do that….the PBR?”

  “It just ain’t the same,” he said. “I love the rodeo. It’s a way of life, you become like a family…PBR is big business. It lost that small town, country feel.”

  But he could stay closer to home it sounded like. “You don’t think there’s any chance of reconciling things with your dad?”

  “He’s been the way that he is my entire life. I don’t believe anything short of a miracle is going to change his mind about me. I haven’t been one for miracles much in my life.”

  “I know I ask a lot of questions…”

  He grinned. “Ask away. I don’t have anything to hide.” Did I misinterpret that look, or did he look at me strangely when he said that?

  “I was just wondering if, when you finish doing the rodeo thing…what then?”

  “My whole life I just figured that would be when I’d take over at the ranch. That was my plan. Dad doesn’t see it…because he doesn’t want to, I guess…but, I love that land. It’s as much in my blood as it is in his. But rodeo is in my blood too. In an ideal world, I could do both. A lot of the guys I ride with still run a ranch. They just have help to do it during the season. Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.” I hoped I sounded happier about that than I was. There were still some questions that I wasn’t ready to answer.

  “How do you manage living in the city without having a job?”

  Great, the other thing I was self-conscious about. “My mom pays my bills. Don’t worry, she has her own money. Your dad isn’t supporting me.”

  He laughed. “I wouldn’t mind if he did, but I’m aware that Lydia has her own money.”

  “She was a pianist…a really good one. I think she could have been famous. She chose not to go out on the road and instead she stayed home with her family. Now is her time. She deserves some happiness.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. He was probably wondering if that “stayed home with her family” was directed at him and his lifestyle. It wasn’t…as I said it I realized how it sounded. With Mark though, it didn’t seem to matter how much you baited him, whether it was volitional or not…he never seemed to rise to the conflict. I wondered what it would take…I lay back on the bed and patted my full belly.

  “That pizza did me in.”

  “The veggie stuff? Really?”

  Laughing, I said, “Yes, really. “ I yawned and stretched.

  “You look like a cat when you do that,” he said. He had that lustful look in his eyes again.

  “This cat is tired.”

  “Then we should call it a night.”

  He got up off the bed and put on his jeans and t-shirt. Then he cleaned up our mess and like a perfect gentleman, he kissed me softly and said goodnight. I watched him start to leave, knowing that I should let him go…but before I could stop myself I was saying,

  “Hey, why don’t you stay here with me tonight?” I wasn’t ready for more sex, but the idea of cuddling up with him was very appealing.

  I didn’t have to ask twice. His jeans and t-shirt were off and he was slipping under the cover next to me. I rolled over on my side and felt his arm go around me and pull me into him. It felt good. Damn it! I lay there for a long time, tired, but unable to fall asleep. My mind kept going back to Mark talking about having a wife or a girlfriend again. If we put aside the fact that we have a complicated family situation…which I’m not sure how that would even be possible…I have school and I meant what I told him too. I don’t see any benefit in living with a man who is rarely home. I do like the fact that he’s straight up about it though. At least he’s not one of those guys who tries to get you in to bed by telling you whatever you want to hear. I like him…more and more as we spend more time together…I find myself wanting to spend more. I wish that wasn’t so complicated…but it is what it is….

  CHAPTER TWO

  MARK

  I woke up with a smile on my face, thinking about cuddling with Lexi all night long. She was so soft and warm. It had been a long time since I’d woken up with a woman in my arms. Before I opened my eyes though the smile faded. Her warm body was no longer pressed up against mine. I opened my eyes. She wasn’t there. I turned over the other way and I heard her giggle.

  “Good morning.”

  She was sitting at the little table next to the window, already showered and dressed and drinking coffee. Her long dark hair was still wet and she didn’t have any make-up on. She was gorgeous. I propped myself up on my elbow and said, “Good morning. You’re up early.”

  “I needed coffee,” she said. She smiled at me and my parts south began to rise already. She looked so gorgeous in her denim cut-offs and pink t-shirt. She likes to tell herself and everyone else that she’s a city girl…but I think she’s got a lot more country in her than she’s willing to admit.

  “You’re in cowboy country, you know,” I told her. “That’s cowboy coffee you’re drinking.”

  She smiled again but this time she let her eyes run across my chest, seductively. Damn! “I like it,” she said. I wasn’t sure if she was talking about me or the coffee. I decided to risk it. I threw back the covers and got out of bed. She was still looking at me with those bedroom eyes. I went over and bent down to give her a sweet kiss…but sweet wasn’t what she was looking for. Before I knew it we were stuck together with open mouths, lips and tongues. It was a hot kiss and my southern parts were now standing at full attention. Lexi noticed and surprisingly and without any hesitation on her part, she took the sides of my boxers in her hands and pulled them down. Then she bent her head forward and licked the tip of it. I thought I was going to have a
seizure. She licked it again, from the base to the tip with the flat of her tongue and then licked all over and around the head, swirling that hot, wet tongue around it. Damn, she was good at this.

  She let it pass through her lips and let them slide down about halfway before pulling back, sucking slowly as she did. She let if come all the way out and rest against those sexy lips of hers. She was holding the base of it with her hand, squeezing slightly and smiling as it twitched and throbbed against her pretty mouth. Then she gave it one slow, firm stroke before licking the head again. I was moaning. It felt incredible.

  She put her lips back around it and slowly let them slide further down the shaft this time. Her tongue was still moving, toying with the head as she got into a steady rhythm of sucking and licking and stroking. My moans and gasps were getting more desperate. I felt it pop out of her mouth again and I opened my eyes and looked down at her. She was lowering her mouth to my balls. She took one into her mouth and literally fondled it with her tongue while her soft fingers rubbed the other one in slow, gentle circles. It felt so good and my cock felt like it was going to explode. She took her mouth off of me and I thought she was finished, but then she brought her head back up and took my cock about halfway into her mouth. She started bobbing that pretty head up and down, swallowing more of it each time, hungrily opening her mouth wider and sucking it in until I could feel the head of it pressing against the back of her throat.

  I groaned as she let it slide out of her throat and came up to breathe. She took a few breaths and then she was down again, once again taking it in as deep as she could. My breaths were coming in rapid, shallow gulps as she bobbed her head up and down, steadily increasing her pace. I was getting more and more excited and my hips were thrusting forward now. I knew I needed to stop…she already had me ready to cum. But I wanted inside of her, desperately. I pulled back slightly and when it popped out of her mouth, I took her under the arms and lifted her up. I leaned towards her lips, still breathless and I felt her shudder as mine met with hers. We kissed passionately again as I led her over to the bed. When we got there, she gently nudged me back, wanting me to lie down.