COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1) (168 page)

Chapter Three

              “We rotate supply runs,” Rob told Jeb Mathis, the newest wrangler at Ghost Lake Ranch, as he parked his pickup outside the farm equipment dealer.  “What’s needed or ready for pick-up goes on the big board in the main house.  Always check it before you head out.”

              A tall, lanky horseman who rarely spoke outside the stables, Jeb simply nodded. 

              Rob sent him in to collect the parts they’d ordered for the baler before he walked down to the public library at the corner.  He hadn’t been inside the little brick building since his high school days, and as soon as he walked in, he noticed how much it had changed.  Everything looked brighter and more colorful, and the children’s section appeared twice as large.   

              “Help you?”  a pretty brunette behind the counter asked.

              Rob took off his Stetson.  “Yes, ma’am.  Is Ms. French here?”

              “Yes, she’s back in her office.”  The woman pointed at the hallway behind the counter.  “Last door on the right.”

              Rob thanked her and headed down the hall, stopping outside the door and tapping on it before looking inside.  “Malory?  It’s me.”  What he saw made him step inside and lock the door behind him.

              Malory sat on the floor with her back against the wall.  Blood gleamed on her lower lip, and she stared at him through eyes dark with pain.

“Hey.”  She patted the floor beside her.  “Come and sit with me.”

Rob eased down beside her and took her cold hand in his.  “What’s going on, honey?”

She picked up the envelope in her lap and wordlessly handed it to him.

Rob took out the photos inside and looked through them.  He was so enraged by the time he finished, he thought he’d feel steam billowing out of his ears.  “Who took them?”

“He didn’t give me his name.  He wants two hundred thousand dollars in cash by the end of the week.”  She rested her head against the wall.  “Or he’s going to make a lot of copies and, in his words, paper the town with them.”

“Now we call the police.”  Rob heard her make a strange sound.  “Malory, we can’t keep this a secret anymore.”

“I can sell my grandparents’ farm,” she told him, her voice dull with defeat.  “There’s a rancher who’s been trying to buy it from me for years.  That and what I have in my savings will cover it.”

“You are not giving this asshole a dime,” Rob said.

She glanced at him as if she didn’t understand the language he was speaking.  “Do you remember me from high school? Don’t lie.”

He grimaced.  “A little.  You were one of the farm girls.” 

“That’s a nice way to say bumpkin.”  She smiled a little.  “My grandmother kept me on the farm as long as she could, teaching me herself.  The county made her put me in public school when I was thirteen.  She was so old-fashioned she never allowed me to wear anything but dresses she made herself – with pinafores over them.  That’s what she always wore.”

Rob didn’t know what to say.  He did remember now how Malory had dressed, and all the torment she’d taken from the other kids because of it.

“I didn’t blame the kids at school for making fun of me, you know,” she said, as if she knew what he was thinking.  “With everyone else wearing jeans and T-shirts, I must have looked pretty hilarious.  Malory the Milk Maid.”

Rob laced his fingers through hers.  “Honey, don’t.”

She drew a photo out of the envelope and showed it to him.  “What do you think they’ll call me when they see me like this?  Maid No More?  Malory Gone Wild?  Or maybe just something simple.  Like Whore.” She choked on the word and shoved the photos away. 

Rob knew what was about to happen and grabbed the trash can by her desk.  As he placed it in front of her, he put an arm around her middle to support her and pulled her hair back.  From there he held her until she finished emptying her stomach.

When she fell back, she gulped in a deep breath.  “Just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do.  I’m sorry.” 

  “Come on.”  Rob tucked the envelope in his jacket and lifted her onto her feet.  “I’m taking you home.” 

#

              Rob hustled her out of the library so fast Malory barely had to time to tell Susan she’d been ill and was leaving early.  He then handed his truck keys off to one of the hands from his ranch and drove her car to her apartment.

              “You don’t have do this,” she murmured, feeling exhausted.

              He glanced sideways at her.  “This time I do.  For me and you, honey.”

Once he got her inside, Rob made her sit down and put her feet up, and then disappeared into her kitchen.  Just as she thought she might curl into a ball and sob her eyes out he returned with a pot of tea and a plate of crackers.

“It’s good for shock,” he told her, adding two spoons of sugar to her mug.  “The crackers will settle your stomach.”

“Why are you doing all this?” she asked him as she sipped the hot, sweet brew.  “You should be yelling at me.  This was my fault.  The guy wanted to come after me.”  She thought of something and stared at him.  “Robert, do you have a girlfriend?  Please say no.”

His expression turned serious.  “Never thought I’d be so happy to say that I don’t.  Truth is, I’ve never had a girlfriend.”

She nearly choked on the cracker she was nibbling.  “Then what, a boyfriend?”

“No, ma’am.  I like the ladies just fine,” he assured her with a grin.  “But I don’t date.  Trust me, the women of Montana are safer that way.”

Suddenly she recalled the stories about one particular Boone brother from high school.  “You’re the one who took Ruby Stephens to the Prom and had to deliver her baby.”

“Yep.”  He sat down beside her on the couch.  “You remember what they called me?”

“Bad Luck Boone.”  She sighed.  “Looks like your losing streak remains unbroken, sir.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”  He gave her a slow smile.  “We’re here having tea together.  The building’s not burning down.  Your bones are intact.  You still have all your own teeth, too.”

She sniffed.  “I feel a little cheated, actually.  Sally scored a nose job, and some really nice dental implants.  All I’ve gotten so far is tea, crackers, and blackmail porn.”

It seemed horrible to laugh with him over his bad luck with girls and their awful predicament, but Malory did, until tears filled her eyes. 

“You know what?  You need a good, long soak.”  He pulled her up from the couch.  “Come on, I’ll run a hot bath for you.”

Malory should have felt horribly self-conscious about undressing in her bedroom while Rob went to work in the adjoining bathroom, but she didn’t.  When she pulled on her robe and went in to join him, he tested the water and then nodded to her.

“Now I’m going to be right out in the living room,” he told her.  “You call me if you need anything.”  He paused on the threshold.  “Is it all right if I use your phone?”

“Sure.”  She watched him go, and then looked around her.  Rob had lit all the little candles she kept around her tub and added a generous amount of bath salts to the water.  She shrugged out of her robe and slipped into the bath tub, sighing as the wet heat sank into her tense muscles.

Malory spent an hour soaking in the tub before she decided to rinse off and dress.  When she went out to thank Rob, she found him looking through the lurid photos from the envelope.

“You can have them if you like them that much,” she said, feeling a little hurt.

“Did you look our faces in these pictures?”  He handed her one.  “I don’t think we’re even awake, honey.”

Malory forced herself to look at the explicit photo, and then saw what he meant.  “Our eyes are closed, and our muscles are slack, but if we were unconscious you wouldn’t be able to, uh, do that to me.”

“I would if he’d dosed me with another drug,” he told her.  “The one that makes a man stand at attention, so to speak.”

“You mean, when the drug made your – and then he took it and – oh, God.”  She almost felt like throwing up again.  “Robert, I don’t know what to say.”

He opened his arms.  “Come here, honey.”

Moving into his embrace felt like being made whole again after being torn apart.  Malory pressed her cheek against his shoulder and linked her hands behind his back.  “If they ever invent a time-travel machine, I need to take the first trip.  All I need is a two day hop back to make this right.”

“I’d rather you go a bit further, to when I was ready to ask a girl on a date for the first time,” he said softly.  “Tell me to ask you instead of Miranda Logan.”

“Why, so you can break my leg?” she tried to joke.

“So I could start out with the right girl, instead of the wrong one.”  He tipped up her chin.  “You know if that had happened, if I’d met you first, I think by now we’d be married.  Maybe even have a couple of kids.”

Her heart seemed to slither invisibly out of her chest and spill like an unseen pool of tears at his feet.  “You don’t really mean that.  Robert, despite what’s in those pictures, we barely know each other.”

He nodded.  “It doesn’t make sense, does it?  But when I woke up in the room, with you in my arms, I felt right.  Like I’d been walking around half-empty and not even knowing it until you.  You fill me up, honey.  Every time I look you, you make me whole.  You make me cherish you.”

Suddenly Malory knew what they had to do.  “This man – this blackmailer – he stole that from us.”  She nodded at the photos.  “Do you agree?”  When he nodded, she took a deep breath.  “I want to take it back, Robert.  I want to be with you, without his drugs and his schemes and his evil.  Now.  Come to bed with me.”

Chapter Four

After she led Rob into her bedroom Malory opened the curtains to let the afternoon sunlight shine in on them.

“That snake did this to us in the dark,” she told him as she untied the belt of her robe.  “I want to make love in the light.”

Rob brought his hands up to her chest and slipped her robe from her shoulders.  “You’re so warm, and soft.”  His fingers stroked over her shoulders, and he watched her unbutton his shirt and open it.  “Waking up with you made me think I was covered in rose petals.”

Malory slipped his shirt down, stroking the muscles she revealed.  “You’re so gentle for such a strong man.”  She leaned forward to press her lips to the hollow at the base of his throat, and nuzzled him there.  “I love the smell of your skin.”

Together they got him out of his clothes, and when they lay together on her narrow bed, they faced each other.  Malory looked all over him, taking in every glorious inch of his body.

“I want to do everything with you, Robert Boone,” she whispered.  “Show me where to start.”

“Here,” he breathed against her lips.

Malory met his mouth with a sigh, opening for him and welcoming the hungry kiss he gave her as sensations poured through her body.  Her hands glided over him, mapping him with her touch, and when he put his on her, she thought her skin would sing with delight.

“I love these sweet peaches,” Rob murmured as he followed the curves of her breasts with his fingertips.  “They make my mouth water.”

“Then have a taste.”  She drew his head down to one throbbing tight peak, her breath rushing out as he kissed it.  He stroked her with the flat of his tongue, and then sucked the puckered bead between his lips, drawing on it until she shivered and moaned.

Everywhere Rob touched her, Malory felt her body warm and grow damp.  By the time his hand glided between her thighs, she felt as if she were soaked down there.

“Sorry,” she murmured as he explored her folds.  “You’ve got me all worked up, Robert.”

He looked directly in her eyes.  “I can do something about that.”  He watched her as he penetrated her with one long finger, caressing her inside as he slowly pumped it in and out.  “I still don’t have any condoms with me.” 

“I don’t want anything between us.”  Malory reached down to wrap her fingers around his thick, swollen shaft.  She shifted her leg, bracing it on top of his as she shifted closer.  “This is ours.”

He nodded, his jaw tightening as he felt her press him against her.  “No one can take it from us.”

“Come inside me,” she breathed.

Robert gripped her hip, and thrust gently, probing and then penetrating her.  The fullness of his heavy cockhead stretched her, but her desire engulfed him with greedy, slick heat.  He hissed in a breath as she wriggled, trying to take him deeper.

“I want to take my time,” he told her, his voice ragged now, “but I need you so much, I don’t think I can.”

“Next time we’ll go slow.”  She tugged him over on top of her.  “I’m yours, Robert.  Take what you need.”

He groaned and then unleashed his passion, driving into her with deep, hard strokes.  The fullness and friction of his heavy shafting fueled her own desire, and she arched under him with every thrust. 

“Oh, honey, you’re so tight and hot on me,” he gasped, his hard muscles bulging as he worked inside her.  “Yes, look at me, I want to see those pretty eyes.  Does it feel good to you?  Do you like me loving this sweet pussy with my cock?”

His graphic words sent a shocking wave of lust through her belly, and she pressed her breasts against his chest.  “I love you inside me.  Oh, Robert, harder.  Please, I need it harder.”

He arched back, dragging her hips up with his strong hands.  The shift in position brought him impossibly deep with every full thrust, and Malory cried out when he used his thumb on her clit.

“Oh, yeah, that’s what you need.”  He gave her a savage grin as he rubbed her hard pearl and pumped his cock into her clenching softness.  “I want to feel every inch of your pussy wrapped around me when I come.  But first you.  Soak me with that hot sweetness, honey.  Drown me with it while I fuck you.”

Malory cried out as the pleasure exploded inside her, her vision graying and her body straining as she clamped down on him.  She heard Robert grunt and then utter a low roar as he drove into her fluttering softness and then jerked.  The slow, thick jets of his seed pumped from his pulsing cock into her, setting off a second, dreamy climax.

Robert bent over her, bracing himself on his hands as he gave her a long, tender kiss.  “I want to do this again,” he said, panting the words.  “How about you meet me here in five minutes?” 

“Well, if you’re going to make me wait . . . .” she laughed and hugged him.

#

              Rob lay on his side to watch his woman sleep.  Once she drifted off, Malory curled up like a little shrimp against him.  She hadn’t moved since the last time they’d made love; his cock still lay snug inside her body.  Rob held her and thought about how odd it was that the blackmailer had demanded money from her but not from him.

The Boones didn’t keep millions in the bank, preferring instead to invest much of their profits back into Ghost Lake Ranch.  Still, it would be a damn sight easier for Rob to get his hands on two hundred grand than the town librarian.

Unless the money wasn’t the reason for the blackmail.

Carefully Rob drew out of Malory, and saw her stir and frown in her sleep before she sighed and went still.  He climbed out of bed and pulled on his jeans.  From there he walked silently out into the living room, closing her door before switching on the lights. 

Malory kept her bills and important papers in a pretty white fold-out desk, which he went to and opened.  A brief search of the largest drawer produced a deed to her grandparents’ farm, and several letters from Harold Ames, a rancher who wanted to buy it.

              He took out his phone and called The Cue Ball.  “Margie, hi,” he said as the bartender barked a hello.  “It’s Rob Boone.  Can I ask you a question?”

              “Make it quick,” she told him.  “It’s Truckers Drink Free Night, and they’re all thirsty.”

              He glanced down at the letters in his hand.  “When I was there for my brother’s bachelor party, there was a guy sitting next to me at the bar.  He bought me a beer, but I never got his name.”

              “That was Harry Ames,” Margie said.  “He and his sister have got a big spread just north of here, but you should know that.  You gave him a ride home that night.”

              “Thanks, Marg.  I owe you one.”  He ended the call and then dialed his brother Chris’s home phone number.

              “Ethan just called me, looking for you,” his older brother grumbled.  “You shacked up with some good-time girl again?”

              “No, I’m helping out someone in town,” Rob said.  “Chris, can I talk to Becca?  I just need to ask her a question about her baby shower.”

              Chris called for his wife, and then said, “Notice how I’m not grilling you about your weird interest in my wife’s surprise parties.  Here she is.”

              Once his sister-in-law was on the phone, Rob said, “Hey, little mama.  How are you and that basketball you swallowed?”

              “I think we’re playing kidney kickball tonight,” she said.  “But we’re good.  What’s up?”

              Rob closed Malory’s desk drawer.  “Becca, was there a lady named Ames at your baby shower?”

              “Let me think.  Oh, yes, Shawna Ames,” she said with a note of triumph.  “I remember her because it was a little weird.  She didn’t seem to know anyone, and Caroline told me later that she didn’t invite her.  Is there such a thing as a baby shower crasher?”

              “Sounds like it.”  Rob glanced at the closed bedroom door.  “One more thing, Becca – did this woman sit next to Malory French?”

              His sister-in-law giggled.  “How did you know that?  Were you spying on my baby shower, Robert Boone?”

              “No, sweetie, but I met her brother the other night.”  He kept the cold tide of anger rising inside him out of his tone.  “Can I talk to Chris one more time?”