Cowboy Secret (The Dalton Boys Book 4)

Cowboy Secret

All Rights Reserved

Cowboy Secret

Copyright Em Petrova 2015

Kindle Edition

Cover Design by Love, Lust and Lipstick Stains

Electronic Book Publication 2015

Five brides for five brothers…at least that’s the deal the Daltons have struck with their boys. Each son must marry in order to inherit a piece of the ranch they love so much.

Beck Dalton is one of the most arrogant, immature and infuriating men Sabrina has ever met. But he also happens to be the father of her child. Trouble is, he doesn’t know it. Over a year ago she made the mistake of giving Beck a second chance—then a third. Mostly because he made her fire burn hotter and brighter than any other man. But having toe-curling romps in the hay with him didn’t make her stop wanting to bash him over the head with a large, heavy object.

The part-time school teacher sent Beck into fits of insanity—right before she drove off with his clothes and truck, leaving him naked in the middle of nowhere with nothing but his guitar and cell phone. At least he’d had something to pass the time. Now the woman he’s never forgotten has walked back into his life. And she has a secret.

The bundle she’s holding has blue eyes that scream “Dalton boy,” and there’s no denying the infant’s parentage. When Beck not only discovers he’s a daddy but his child and the mother are homeless, his honor forces him to do the right thing even as he wants to throttle Sabrina.

She’ll let Beck help her get on her feet, but that doesn’t mean she has to like him, does it? Too bad her body remembers every breathless moment spent with the rugged cowboy.

Cowboy Secret

Dalton Boys Series Book 4

Em Petrova

Prologue

Golden grasses swayed around Sabrina’s nude body where she lay with the sexiest cowboy in the world. The big Texas sky spread endlessly overhead but all she saw were Beck Dalton’s sapphire eyes with the crinkles at the corners.

He trailed a callused finger between her breasts, raising goosebumps. “Are you recovered? Please say you’ve recovered.” His drawl coupled with his carved muscles meant zero recovery time. Her libido was always revving.

She flipped onto one hip, plastering her body to his. Heat infused her. “What’s the hurry? Do you have someplace to be?”

Leaning in, he brushed his lips over her throat up to the sensitive spot behind her ear. “No place I’d rather be, honey bun.” With a hand planted on her ass, he tugged her against his hardness as he claimed her lips.

She mewled as his manly flavors filled her head—musk and leather. A hint of the minty iced tea he’d drank with their fried chicken dinner before leaving town. Dinner was good, but he’d been almost an hour late picking her up.

As he melded his tongue with hers, her mind echoed with the song he’d wooed her with on his guitar. His fingers were as skilled on the guitar strings as her body. He played her like no other.

Sabrina tangled her fingers in his thick, dark hair and angled her head to accept his kisses. Passion flared as he scraped his teeth over her lower lip. She wrapped her thighs around him, yanking him down.

When his cock pressed against her aching pussy, they stopped dead. “Get the condom,” she panted.

In a flurry, he flipped off her and crawled a couple feet away to where his jeans lay. He dug through the worn denim. “Damn, wrong pocket,” he growled.

She watched the muscles play over his back and shoulders as he located the right pocket and ripped open a condom with his teeth.

Rearing onto his knees, he fitted the rubber over his straining head and rolled. His big forearm popped with veins as he stroked the sheath over his cock then he knee-walked back to her.

She reached for him. Beck’s weight pressing her into the earth felt so good, so right. It made her believe they might make this relationship work. They sure as hell couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and that had to make up for the times he was late or the phone calls he didn’t return. Also, she loved his quick wit and sharp mind—when he wasn’t using it for something besides acting immature.

He hitched her legs higher on his hips and held her gaze as plunged deep in one smooth stroke. She cried out. As he stretched her again and again, need built in her core. She felt the first hum of her inner muscles. God, he was good at sending her reeling out of control.

“You’re so damn beautiful,” he grated out the words between jerks of his hips.

“So are you.” She skated her gaze over his rugged features. Straight nose, hard mouth, jaw darkened by five o’clock shadow. Oh, how she lived for the times he gave her beard burn on her inner thighs. Yes, Beck was the real deal, even if he had some shortcomings.

Okay, a lot of shortcomings, but sex wasn’t one.

The beat of his hips matched the pounding in her heart. A bead of perspiration ran down her spine, and she dug her fingers into his hard backside.

As he dragged kisses over her throat, she wondered when she’d see him next. Often she’d walk away from the hottest encounter of her life believing they’d finally gotten close, only to be let down when he didn’t respond to her phone calls or see her for weeks.

He gave her a toe-curling smile and yanked her up to meet his thrust. Dizzying pleasure swept her, a wave tumbling her into an ocean of bliss. As her release struck, she was helpless to do anything but cry out. He slammed his mouth over hers and gave a primal grunt.

For long moments she clung to her cowboy, loving every little aftershock in her body. Sweat slicked his spine, and she didn’t even mind that they were sticking together.

He turned his mouth against her shoulder and sucked. “You recovered? Please say you’re recovered. I can’t get enough of you.”

Heart fluttering at his words, she cupped his face and looked into his eyes. “I might need a minute or two.”

Laughing, he gripped the base of his shaft and pulled out. His face changed. He looked down.

She followed his gaze to see the condom. It looked like a wild bear had ripped it to ribbons.

Panic swept her, and she struggled to her feet. His juices dripped down her inner thigh.

“Fuck. I guess I’m too big for this brand.”

“Too big?” She searched for something to wipe on but there was nothing. They were in the middle of nowhere, and she had a bunch of Dalton swimmers rushing toward her uterus. “Dammit, Beck.”

He held out his arms in that don’t-blame-me fashion that drove her up a wall. “Chances are low, Sabrina.”

“Oh yeah? What are the statistics, Mr. Too-Big-for-This-Brand?” She grabbed her panties and used them to swipe her skin clean. Her heart thumped too hard and fast and her temples throbbed.

“Calm down, honey bun.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Nothing’s going to happen.” He gave a snort.

She faced him, incredulous. “And if it does? What if I’m pregnant?” Her career had barely begun. She didn’t even have a permanent teaching job yet, only a part-time training situation in the small town of Vixen.

“You aren’t getting pregnant.” He tossed away the ruined condom and reached for her abandoned panties.

“Ugh, what are you doing?”

He looked up at her with a sheepish smile. “Souvenir?”

“Give me those.” She ripped the silk from his hand and stuffed her underwear into her jeans pocket before shimmying into her top.

“Sabrina, get a grip.”

She whirled on him, seeing red. “I can’t get a grip! I can’t get pregnant right now, Beck. I don’t even have a steady job.”

“Well go get one, then.”

She blinked at him. Nothing infuriated her more than him being down on teaching. It’d been her dream since she was five years old. All she wanted was to shape and mold little minds. Now one moment of pleasure might end that. No one would hire a teacher fresh out of college
and
pregnant.

Biting off a groan, she glared at him. “I hope to get a permanent position at the Vixen school.”

“That place is a dump. Why don’t you go down the road and work at the Suds and Duds?”

Her jaw hung open. She could barely formulate a response. “The…bar?” she spit out.

“Yeah. Pretty thing like you could make a lot more in tips.”

“Are you seriously saying I should abandon my teaching career to bartend?”

“I was thinking waitressing, but yeah.”

“Oh…my…God.” As she stared at the man lounging in the golden grasses, she saw him in a new light. When he wasn’t blowing her mind with pleasure, he was a real jerk. “Not only are you disrespectful of my career, but you’re always late.”

“I told you I was breaking a new horse.”

“Oh yeah, you’re a cowboy.” She hoped she sounded as snarky about his occupation as he did about hers.

For the first time, his eyes sparked. “Yeah, I am. You knew that when you agreed to go out with me.”

“I don’t even know why I went out with you when you were late on the first date, Beck Dalton. In fact, you’ve been a pain in my ass from the start. You make plans with me and break them. You never answer your cell phone.”

“You know there’s no cell service on my ranch.”

She folded her arms and gave him her best glare. “No, I don’t know. I’ve never been invited out there.”

“Is that what’s bugging you?”

A wild cry tore from her, and she forked her fingers through her crazy curls. The light brown ringlets swirled around her head before falling over her breasts. “No, that’s not bugging me! We just had a broken condom scare and that could mean I’m pregnant with your child.” She stomped her foot into the crushed grasses.

He flopped down onto his back and stared at the sky. “You’re not pregnant, Sabrina.”

She gaped at him. Did he care about anything but himself? Ranching seemed to be the only thing that held his attention, and she had a sneaking suspicion that was only due to his four brothers and father getting on his case.

Let’s see how he likes this.
She scooped up his jeans. Then his shirt, underwear, boots and socks.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you care? Don’t ever expect to see me again, Beck.” With that, she ran to the truck parked along the road. She knew the keys were still in the ignition—she remembered seeing the keychain with the tractor insignia swinging.

“Hey!” He leaped to his feet and started chasing after her.

Sabrina twisted the key and jammed her boot on the gas.

Speeding away from the naked cowboy was the best decision she’d ever made. So why did her chest have a hollow ache? In the rearview mirror, she saw Beck running barefoot down the road. When he was swallowed in the cloud of dust, she focused on the road ahead.

Amazing sex and an occasional laugh weren’t worth putting up with his immature ways. She didn’t even feel bad about leaving him without clothes or transportation. After all, he still had his guitar to pass the time. And his cell phone. She hoped he had service way out here.

Chapter One

“What’s the matter with you, Beck? There’s a woman between the age of nineteen and forty standing over there and you haven’t even glanced at her.”

Beck gave his oldest brother Hank a dirty look.

Hank had his son on his shoulders, and the little boy was drooling into the depression on the top of his cowboy hat. Beck wondered how long it would take before the spit sank through the felt.

While the idea amused him, he rumbled, “I’m not in the mood.”

Two of his other brothers swung around to pierce him in their stares. Beck shifted his shoulders within his suddenly tight denim shirt. Being the baby of the family had never felt as annoying as when his brothers tried to play matchmaker.

Three out of five of them were married and had kids or babies on the way, and now they constantly harassed the unmarried Daltons. He and Kade grumbled about it all the time.

Witt sank to the bench next to Beck and grabbed a slice of watermelon off the platter. “You musta noticed a pretty little blonde like her.” Juices showered from his mouth as he took a bite.

“Say it, don’t spray it.” Beck brushed his knuckles over his shoulder.

“Look around, baby bro. Do you see any other women of marriageable age?” Cash asked as his little girl batted his face with a fat palm.

Beck put his head down and ate his watermelon. At one time the church picnic had seemed like a good place to cruise for chicks, but he hadn’t been lying when he’d said he wasn’t in the mood.

I haven’t been for a long time.

Hank climbed over the wooden bench and took a seat. His son played the drum on his hat, a huge smile on his face. “What’s going on, Beck?”

“Well there’s been a lot of rain and we’ve got cows with hoof rot. I don’t have time to sit here eating watermelon at the church social.”

“I know all that. We’re fighting it too, remember? I mean, there’s a pretty woman over there, and she looks interested.” Hank pointed at the shapely gal. She glanced up and smiled, fingering a strand of her sunny yellow hair. “Or don’t you ever want that piece of land to have your name on it?”

“It’s a stupid-ass condition.” Their parents had laid down the law—in order to get a piece of the Paradise Valley Ranch, each of the five brothers must put a wife on it. Beck ground his molars. Whatever his parents had been thinking to set that term, Beck would never understand. He could work the land much better without a female burden.

“She’s pretty, and she’s looking lonely,” Hank urged.

Beck gave up on his watermelon, spat a seed and got up. “I’m goin’ home.”

As he passed the blonde, she looked a little crestfallen. A year ago he would have been all over that. He used to like having fun. Then a certain little vixen had left him nekkid in the middle of nowhere.

As he walked past the knot of Dalton relatives, Kade caught his shoulder. “Where ya headed?”

“Home. Gotta see to the cows.”

“Manny’s there.”

Their ranch hand was more than capable of taking care of the animals for a few hours, but Beck couldn’t come up with another excuse.

Kade raised a dark brow and gave him an expression he’d seen on himself a time or two. All five of them looked similar, but their personalities were quite different.

Beck jerked his head toward the lonely blonde. “Why don’t you make use of your time?”

Kade’s eyes widened. “What’s a perty little morsel like her doing in Vixen?”

“Maybe she’s visiting family. Why don’t you go find out?”

As soon as Kade’s hand fell from Beck’s shoulder, he felt the family shackles loosen. He quickened his step and rushed around the church. Thank God he’d seen the sense in driving himself to the picnic. He could make an easy getaway.

* * * * *

Sabrina pressed her hand over her mouth and gazed at the box high on a shelf in her closet. In awkward, childish letters it said
TOYS.
If she took the box down, she’d find the handful of items she’d prized as a kid. She’d lugged that box from apartment to apartment. Each time she and her mom moved, she at least had her box of stuff.

Not this time. She didn’t have room in the car.

She twisted away from the closet and closed the door on her past. The car was packed with as much as she could possibly fit and still see out of the windows. She only had one more thing to place inside.

As she approached the infant carrier she smiled down at Owen’s round, chubby face. Twin blue eyes blinked up at her and he gave her a toothless grin. Slobber rolled down his chin.

She hooked her arm under the handle and lifted her boy. “Ready?”

He burbled a reply.

At the door of her apartment she took a last look around. So much left behind. The landlord would profit from her dire circumstances.

Her temporary teaching contract hadn’t renewed. After searching every school and daycare program within a sixty mile radius, she’d given up and taken a job at the local bookstore. But part-time hours didn’t pay the bills.

Which was how she’d ended up selling furniture, clothing and a few items of jewelry worth any money. Still two months behind in rent, she had no choice but to leave. Tears misted her eyes and she fought to hold them at bay.

With a shuddering breath she steeled her spine to walk away from her dreams.

She descended the stairs and stepped out into the fading evening sunshine. At least she and Owen weren’t beginning their new life under storm clouds. That had to be a good sign, right?

Tucking her six-month-old into the back seat, she handed him a ring of rubbery keys to gnaw while she drove. The miles between here and Texas might as well be 5000. She had no one to relieve her when she was tired.

When she slid behind the wheel, she glanced at the energy drinks she’d bought with precious dollars to keep her awake. She had her work cut out for her, but driving all night with a baby was best. The tank was gassed, Owen was stuffed with formula and baby cereal, and they were ready.

Setting out of the city, she swung her head right and left, looking at landmarks that meant little to her. She hadn’t made memories here, just as she hadn’t anywhere else in her life.

The best memory she had was of a field of golden grasses where a sexy cowboy had tumbled her. His rough jaw and a wild look in his sapphire blue eyes still haunted her. Then Beck Dalton had wrapped her legs around his hips and given her a screaming orgasm.

He’d also given her a broken condom scare and acted like a total dickhead.

Six weeks later she’d discovered his DNA was growing inside her. Owen squealed from the back seat, the best thing that could have come from the bad relationship.

“Does your tooth bother you, love? It will break through the gum soon and won’t hurt as much.” She paused at the exit ramp. Up ahead the highway led to Texas.

Her heart rate sped as panic filled her. Was she really going back to that infuriating man?

Beck Dalton must be a player, pure and simple. He’d never been serious about her. Yes, she’d taken one look at his handsome face and muscled body and fell half in love with him. But that was hormones. Her brain outweighed her body’s needs.

He didn’t appreciate her passion for her job or the efforts she put into making her classroom fun. While she’d spent hours preparing for the next day, he’d shrugged off her work ethics and went for a beer in Vixen. When he wasn’t ignoring her calls, he was making excuses about slaving away on his family ranch. But she didn’t believe for a minute he was working hard.

She sniffed and depressed the gas. Merging onto the highway felt like trudging up a mountain laden with her baby and everything in this car on her back.

If only she had family to ask for help or even a friend to crash with, she wouldn’t be resorting to this. Going back to Texas and begging Owen’s father for help was the equivalent of petting a cat backward.

It made her want to bite someone. Namely, Beck Dalton.

Long before he could find out about their child, she’d lost her short-term job at the school in Vixen and left the area. It was all for the best.
She didn’t need an immature, dead-beat dad for Owen. After growing up with one herself, she saw the warning signs in Beck.

As a kid she’d been passed back and forth between bitter mom and angry dad, being played off them—a pawn in a sick game of hatred. She wasn’t having that for her son.

Actually, she hoped Beck was amiable about what she was about to ask. She and Owen were homeless and she had just enough cash to get them to Paradise Valley Ranch. If Beck had any honor, he’d give her enough money to see her through until she found another teaching job.

Those positions seemed to be thin on the ground, though. Who could have guessed schools would lose funding and be run on minimal staffs? If it weren’t for bad luck, she wouldn’t have any.

Except that broken condom seemed the exact opposite of bad luck. She’d won the lottery that day.

Feeling a little brighter, she switched on the radio and began to sing. Half an hour closer to Texas, she glanced in the little mirror that reflected Owen’s beautiful face and saw he was asleep, trusting her to care for him.

She prayed she could rely on that idiot Beck Dalton.