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  “Where’s my mom?”

  “Here I am!” Lydia was coming down the stairs. Lexi didn’t look too relieved; she was probably hoping that she was in the kitchen or something so she could escape her new “family.” When Lydia reached the bottom step, she wrapped her daughter up in her arms. They looked really happy to see each other. I compared them now as they stood side by side and decided that Lexi must have gotten most of her father’s DNA. Lydia is a nice-looking lady for her age, but they didn’t even have any of the same features. Lydia was fair skinned and hair and Lexi had dark, almost raven black hair. While Lydia was a subtle short, maybe on five-three or four, Lexi was tall, five seven or eight with legs that went on and on. I could just imagine what they would feel like wrapped around my waist…Damn!

  Lydia held Lexi back after a minute and said, “You are so pretty. Didn’t I make a beautiful girl?” Of course every fiber in my body agreed, but I didn’t want to look that enthusiastic and be outed as a perv right then and there.

  I smiled and nodded as Dad said, “You sure did. She’s as pretty as her Mama.”

  Lexi gave her mom a “stop it” look and then she actually blushed. You would think a woman who was as gorgeous as she is would be used to it. I found the fact that she didn’t seem arrogant about it sexy, though. Shit! Lexi looked at Dad and smiled and then back at Lydia. Her eyes looked sad suddenly, or maybe nervous, and she said, “I’m so sorry that I didn’t make it to the wedding.”

  The wedding! That’s right, she wasn’t at the wedding. I definitely would have remembered that. Everyone in this county was there and a lot of Lydia’s friends from the city. It had been a really lavish affair on the green of the golf course in town. The reception was in the club house and there had been lots of food and champagne, and I danced with twenty different pretty girls…I definitely would have remembered her. I do vaguely remember Lydia talking about her before that and saying that she wouldn’t be able to make it. Why was it that Lydia said she wasn’t there? I wasn’t overly concerned with her absence at the time. I probably would have been if I had already met her before that. Not probably – definitely. What that hell was I going to do with all of this lust for two months? Jeez!

  Back to the wedding…Focus, Mark! I think I remember Lydia saying something about school. She’s in college, first year, which I remember thinking was weird since she’s already twenty-one. But even at that, unless it was mid-term week or finals week, I have a hard time imagining why she couldn’t take just one day off for her mother’s wedding. Dad’s not even my favorite person and I wouldn’t have missed it. I found that strange, especially since Lydia goes on about her all the time and acts like they’re really close. They seemed genuinely happy to see each other today. Relationships in general are strange, though. I guess anyone who knows my Dad and me would have the idea that we’re really close, too. He spends a lot of his time bragging about me…yet he’s not really proud in the least. He’s just really good at slinging whatever B.S. he thinks people want or expect to hear. I know I’m a disappointment to him. He’s never said it out loud to my face, but I just know. The way he looks at me sometimes with so many regrets says it all. He always wanted me to take over the ranch. He said it was supposed to be in my blood. I do feel the land in my blood and it calls me back here sometimes. But I don’t feel it enough that I want to put roots down on it. I feel bull riding in my blood. I feel the rodeo and traveling. I like being in a different town every week and meeting and seeing different people. I’m good at riding bulls, and everyone needs something they’re good at. Aren’t parents supposed to want that for you, too? Maybe when I’m Dad’s age I might be ready to settle down and run a ranch, but I couldn’t promise him that, and I knew that I wasn’t ready to do it now. Dad’s never really been anywhere but here for more than a day or two of his life. Just the thought of that made me feel like my oxygen tube was being stepped on.

  I suddenly caught myself checking out my stepsister again. It was so hard not to look at her. It would be like sitting a plate of prime rib down in front of the cow dogs and telling them not only could they not touch it, but they couldn’t look at it, either. Damn! I have to stop. I’m looking at her like she’s someone I want to take to a motel and have hot, sweaty sex with. She is, but it’s wrong. It’s creepy and it’s wrong…But she is oh so freaking hot! Damn!

  The ladies were talking about Lexi’s drive out from the city and she was telling her mom how she’d gotten lost trying to find the road.

  “You’re not the first one,” I told her. “I’ve told Dad a hundred times we need a bigger sign at the end of the road.”

  She smiled tightly and said, “I wasn’t even sure that it was a road.”

  “I guess it should be paved, huh?” I asked her with a grin. She narrowed her eyes and me and then went back to her conversation with her mother. I shouldn’t be so hard on her about that. She didn’t understand that paving or not paving had nothing to do with the money it would cost or us being uncivilized and everything to do with how hot it got around here during the summer and how much harder driving cattle would be on the hot asphalt as compared to the dirt. Maybe if she sticks around for a while, I can teach her a few things about the country.

  “Does your cell phone work here?” she asked her mother.

  “Yes,” Lydia told her. “Don’t worry. There’s a dead spot out there close to the main road, but here on the ranch the phones and internet all work.”

  She looked relieved. I suppose she didn’t want to imagine that she was completely isolated away from her city. I was staring at her jean clad butt again when my Dad clapped me on the shoulder. I jumped. I was afraid he saw the way I was looking at my “sister.”

  “Mark, join me in the kitchen, will you? I could use some help.” Please God tell me he didn’t see me checking her out.

  “Sure,” I said. Lexi and I locked eyes for a half a second then and all sorts of my body parts twitched. God, I’m a pervert…a sexual deviant…fuck she’s hot!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  LEXI

  I took a deep breath when Rob led Mark out of the room and into the kitchen. I think I’d been holding my breath the entire time. It was really good to see Mom, and she looked great and happy. She deserved to be happy. I wasn’t going to ruin this for her with my ridiculous lust towards her stepson. God, if only I’d met him before my mind went to that dark place, I think it would have been better. I would have had “brother” in my head ahead of “hottest guy I’ve ever seen.” I thought about those eyes again and wondered if that would have made any difference. I really had to doubt it.

  “Do you want to see the house?” Mom asked me, bringing me out of my perverted reverie.

  “Sure, I’d love to.” Please God, anything to take my mind off of my stepbrother’s fine ass.

  “Did you leave your bags in the car?”

  “Yeah, it was a little muddy and slippery out there. I’ll go back out in a bit and get them.”

  “I’ll ask Mark to help you,” Mom said. “I’m sure he won’t mind.” Jesus, how was I going to do this for two months? Now that I know his name, the sound of it alone conjures up all kinds of kink in my head. I’m disgusting.

  “Okay, thanks,” was all I said. What else could I say? No, please don’t ask cowboy, stepbrother hotness to flex his extraordinarily large muscles and carry in my bags? I’m a mess.

  “This is the den,” Mom was saying. It was cozy, decorated in modern furniture, but with a hint of country in the thick wood that adorned it and the warm red and black plaid upholstery that covered it. There was a baby grand piano in one corner which looked a bit out of place, but I knew that Mom loved to play. I think she gave up the dream of becoming a professional playing for an orchestra or something because of me. She never let on that it was any kind of burden, but sometimes when I saw a piano I felt a twinge of guilt over things that weren’t really my fault.

  The large stone fireplace still held the warm embers of a fire and the glass eyes of the
head of a moose stared out at me from above it.

  “It’s really nice,” I said, trying to pull my eyes from the moose. He was staring at me and it was just a little bit unnerving.

  Mom laughed and said, “I wondered what you would think about him. Rob doesn’t hunt as much as he used to, but he used to be a pretty astute hunter, from what he’s told me. I guess that guy there is proof.”

  “What’s his name?” I asked her, still looking at him.

  “Mark calls him Bullwinkle,” she said with a laugh. I smiled. Mark had a sense of humor and he was hot, still not good. Mom led me from there into a formal dining area with a huge antique-looking oak table and hutch. The hutch was filled with Mom’s china. She’d had it since I was a kid. It was the one thing she never gave up and never replaced or updated. It had belonged to her grandmother, and I think it’s the only piece of her family that she felt like she had left.

  “I love this table,” I said. “It reminds me of the one that Marcy had brought over from Italy, remember?” Marcy is my mom’s best friend. She still lives in the city close to me, and I see her a lot. She asks me all the time if I’ve seen my mother. I guess now when I get home I can tell her that I had. Marcy would have a million questions. Like me, she’s confused about Mom’s sudden change in taste. She was also confused about why I didn’t attend the wedding. I stuck with the same story with her as I had with everyone else: school.

  “Of course, that table is her pride and joy,” Mom said. “One of Rob’s friends made this one. He has a custom furniture shop here in town. He does beautiful work. Rob lets him buy some of his trees and he makes these knotty pine end tables and beds. They’re amazing.” It was cute to see my Mom becoming so acclimated to her new lifestyle. I was genuinely happy for her. “Have you seen Marcy lately?” she asked me.

  “I had coffee with her and Sue last Friday. They both send their love.” Sue is Marcy’s daughter. She’s about six years younger than me so we were never really close, but sometimes it’s fun to get together with them. Being a teenager without the world pressing down on you seems so long ago to me sometimes. It’s refreshing to be around Sue and remember being that young and naïve. I know that I’m only twenty-one, not that far out of my teens myself. I feel a lot older sometimes, though.

  “Oh good! I talk to her about once a month. I can’t believe Sue is already going to be sixteen this year. Time flies.” Mom led me up the stairs as she talked and down a short hallway. There were pictures of Mark at various stages of his life along the walls. It seems there would be no escaping him. She opened the first door on the left.

  “This will be your room while you’re here. There’s a private bath attached to it there,” she said, pointing at the door on the other side. The room had a large four-poster bed and matching heavy oak dresser and nightstands. There was a big picture window with a window seat in it and a bookshelf filled with books in one corner. The curtains were made out of delicate white lace and the bedspread matched them. It was really nice, and I had a feeling Mom decorated this one with me in mind. I felt a pang in my chest again about not being at the wedding. She did so much for me. No matter how hard she had looked for the “right” man after I got older, she was still always there for me. I owed her better than that. Guiltily, I was glad she hadn’t mentioned it again after I stupidly brought it up.

  “So how is school going?” she asked me as we continued down the hallway.

  For me, school has never been easier to talk about. This was actually the first year that I could honestly say that it was going well since I was in the eighth grade. “I’m doing really well,” I told her. “Imagine me having two whole months to visit over the summer and not having to go to summer school.” I had considered spending it on the beach instead. Venice Beach was calling to me…but like I said, I owed Mom better than that, so here I am. It really was the first summer I’ve had off in years. I had gone to summer school every year since middle school. My teachers were always fond of telling me how bright I was and how I could do the work if only I would apply myself. I knew that. When I did the work, it came easy. It wasn’t until I was nearly grown before I realized that I wanted to do it and I wanted to succeed.

  Mom laughed. School used to be a sore subject, so it was good that we could laugh about it now. I had missed her so much, and I hoped so badly that the issue of the wedding wasn’t something that would come between us. She acted and treated me the same as she always did…with love and warmth, as if nothing I could ever do would make her not love me. I knew that I needed to keep my thoughts about my “brother” to myself and snuff them out as quickly as I could. It was all just too sordid, and I was not going to put her relationship with her new husband in jeopardy for my over-active libido.

  Speaking of my libido, she asked, “So have you seen Scott?” She was showing me a room filled with craft supplies. My mom loved her crafts. I picked up a pillow she looked to be in the middle of embroidering and fingered the lace. I hadn’t thought about Scott for a while. At first it had been too hard and now I was actually at a place where none of that stuff in the past mattered any longer.

  “He got out of county about a month ago. Last I heard he was clean and doing well.” Scott was an executive with a social media firm. I’d met him at a party and was instantly infatuated. He was handsome and fun and he charmed the pants right off of me. I found out after I’d practically let him move in with me that he was very addicted to cocaine and very married with two kids. The night he was arrested for possession almost nine months ago, I finally told my mom everything about his drug use, his wife and kids, our fights…she’d advised me to use the time he was in jail to make a clean break. Walk away. It wasn’t easy because I truly did love him…at least I thought I did, but I knew that she was right. I changed my phone number and didn’t go visit him. The first thing he did when he got out of jail was knock on my door. I stayed strong, and I didn’t let him in. I told him we were through and he needed to go home to his wife. Then I wished him luck with his sobriety and closed the door. I was finally focused on getting my own life on track – I didn’t need to have to try and fix someone else’s.

  “He doesn’t bother you?” she asked. That was her main concern. She was afraid when he got out that he would be coming around again and that I would take him back. I don’t have the greatest track record with men.

  “No, he came by once when he first got out, and I told him we were finished. He hasn’t bothered me since. I think he’s moved on, and I know that I have.”

  She came over and put her arm around me. “Have I told you lately how proud I am of you?” she asked. I felt tears spring into my eyes. I wondered how long I was going to remember not going to her wedding every time she said something nice to me.

  I forced a smile and said, “Not lately.”

  “Well, I am. You’ve come so far and worked so hard. I’m very proud of you.”

  I hugged her, “Thanks Mom.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  MARK

  I was “helping” Dad in the kitchen when Lydia came back downstairs. Lexi wasn’t with her and I wasn’t surprised to find myself disappointed. She’d only been here an hour or so and I already felt infatuated with her. What in God’s name was wrong with me?

  “Mark, can I ask you a big favor?”

  “Sure.”

  “Lexi was going to take a shower before dinner. Her bags are still in the car. Would you mind getting them out for her?”

  “Not at all. Is it open or do I need the keys?”

  Lydia held out a key fob and said, “She said this is all you need.” I looked at it and smiled. It was one of those push button start cars. You just had to have the fob on you and the doors and the trunk would automatically unlock when you touched them. Pretty fancy. I took it from her and slipped my muddy boots on that I’d left drying at the front door. I opened the trunk on her nice little Charger and saw that it was literally full of bags. Damn! Who needs this many clothes on a ranch? I pulled out a wardrobe b
ag that looked like maybe it had nice dresses in it and I wondered where she thought she was going. I slung that over my back and pulled out a hand-held suitcase and one with rollers on it. I was careful not to roll it over the mud. I carried those up to the porch and went back for the rest. There were three more. Once I had them all out, I closed up the car and looked down at the mud situation. Lexi was kind of right about this, it was a big mess.

  Before I went back in with her bags, I went over to the barn and took out a few long pieces of plywood we kept in there for repairs. I took them over and laid them down over the mud. It was like a make-shift sidewalk. I guess it would be better than nothing. I slipped off my boots again on the porch and then headed up the stairs with my first load of Lexi’s stuff. This was what being a brother was about, lugging around your sister’s stuff because she packed way too much to be able to carry it all herself. When I got to her room, the door was closed and I could hear the shower still running. I just left the bags outside the door and went to get the next batch. As I sat those down, I heard the shower stop. I let my perverted mind go to the fact that just one thin door separated me and the sexiest woman on earth…and she was naked. Damn it! I’m going to need my own shower now – a cold one.

  *****

  Dinner was…interesting. Dad cooked up some steaks on his grill. He cut up a bunch of vegetables and stir-fried them together with some kind of homemade sauce that caramelized and gave them a sweet flavor and crunchy texture, and he made the best garlic mashes potatoes in the world. I still have no idea if Lydia cooks or not. If she does, it’s probably just a battle to get Dad to let her in the kitchen. He’d taken me in there professing he needed my help, but it was just to give the women some space, I’m sure. The meal was delicious, as usual. I wished that I could concentrate on the food. Unfortunately the woman sitting across from me at the table was much more interesting and delicious than the steak…or any of the rest of it. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of my new stepsister and as sweet as she was to look at, I was completely creeping myself out.