“Trevor? Honey, what’s wrong?”Trevor looked at Chassie. “My father had a heart attack.”“Oh no. When?”“A fuckin’ week ago.”Chassie’s eyes widened. “And they’re just calling you now?”“Apparently. Jesus. I can’t believe it. He’s out of the hospital and recovering at home.”Edgard said, “How serious is it?”“Serious enough that the old man’s requested my presence right away.” A bitter laugh escaped. “Or what he considers right away.”“What does he want to see you about?”“No clue. I hafta go tomorrow. Don’t know how long I’ll be gone.” He looked from Chassie to Edgard. “I’m glad you’re here to help her. Be just our luck if calves started droppin’.”“But…don’t you want me to come with you?” Chassie asked.Trevor sat next to her and took her hand. “Without soundin’ like a dick, you don’t wanna meet my family under these circumstances. Hell, I really don’t want you to meet them under any circumstances.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Chass, baby, they’re not nice people.”“How can that be?
“Same as last time.”“I’ll go get settled in. Is Pa up in his bedroom?” His parents hadn’t shared a bed for years—a fact they were both mighty proud of—a fact he couldn’t fathom since he shared his bed with both Chassie and Edgard in recent days.“He can’t climb stairs yet so he’s set up in the den,” Lianna said. “And he’s sleepin’ right now. I ain’t about to let you just bull your way in there and wake him up. The man had a heart attack. He needs his rest.”Just then a cowbell clanked from the vicinity of the den.Everyone froze.“Can’t anyone hear this goddamn bell?” the old man yelled and proceeded to ring the cowbell as if the den had morphed into his own personal bell tower.“Jesus. I hate that cowbell and it’s your fault for givin’ it to him, Lianna,” his mother snapped and stalked toward the mad ringing.Trevor didn’t jab Lianna for her lie. Instead, he started up the stairs.In the bedroom at the end of the hall, he tossed his bag on the floor next to the old wooden rocking ho
Tater demanded their new home be decorated country cabin style, with exotic and domestic animal heads from his various hunting expeditions mounted on the walls and the space littered with his collection of mostly tacky Western art.Starla ignored Tater’s demands and decorated the house in the style of an English country manor, with chintz-covered chairs, plaid and floral couches, lace doilies, ruffles and bows.The result was pretty hideous, an interior decorator’s worst nightmare—Laura Ashley meets Conan the Barbarian. The horse scenes painted on velvet clashed with the velvet draperies. The rusted barbed wire folk art sculptures did not complement the classic Greek marble figurines. The grizzly bear skin rug clashed with the Oriental carpets. Trevor and Chassie were on the same page for how they wanted their home to look. Hard to be picky when money was an issue. After they’d first gotten married, she’d jokingly suggested they decorate in the theme of cowboy versus Indian to keep wi
“No. But it ain’t like Ma and Pa don’t have the cash to hire a full-time nurse.” Trevor looked Lianna straight in the eyes. “You know why you’re stuck doin’ this? Because you don’t have the balls to stand up to them both and flat-out refuse.”Lianna’s mouth opened. Snapped shut.“I know I ain’t been around, so feel free to tell me to blow it out my ass, but if you don’t take a stand, your only function will be takin’ care of him while Ma smokes in the living room and does word searches all damn day. Is that the contribution you wanna have to the ranch? Think about it.” Trevor snagged his coat and wandered outside. Damn cold. He stamped his boots and had no idea why he’d left the warm comfort of the house.Comfort. Right. Not a word he’d ever associate with the Glanzer abode.He noticed Tanner’s horse trailer and ambled over, beating his fist on the door to the living quarters until a thump sounded inside and the door swung open.A shirtless Tanner squinted at him. “What the fuck, Trev
Chassie sat in the same place at the kitchen table an hour later when Edgard returned to the house. He snagged a beer from the fridge and straddled the chair opposite hers.Finally she looked up. “You didn’t kill Greta, did you?”“No. Her reprieve might be short-lived though when Trevor catches wind of it.”Edgard took a long, slow drink and eyed the bandage on her forehead. “You should’ve told him.”“Leave it be, Edgard.”Edgard sighed. Not that he blamed her, but Chassie’d been extremely grouchy all day. Hadn’t helped matters hearing Trevor snap off the news he was considering his father’s offer to run the Glanzer Ranch on a permanent basis. Not that Edgard believed Trevor would follow through. It reminded Edgard that sometimes Trevor could be thoughtless and a little mean to those he loved just because he didn’t know better.“Sorry. It’s just…” Chassie sipped her warm milk, scowling when she realized it’d gone cold. “Trev didn’t seem the same.”“Trevor is different when he’s around
“Your brothers and sister?”“Yep. He bribed a government official and the verdict handed down decreed we had to sell the homestead that’d been in my family for seven generations.” He closed his eyes.“I never once thought about cheating my siblings out of any money and they made me feel so…dirty for everything I was. Everything I thought they’d accepted about me. I lost my mother, my ancestral home, my family, and my…dignity.”“Edgard—”“The final cut was when my stepfather told everyone in my hometown selling had been my idea because I wanted to live in Sao Paulo with my male lover. I became a pariah. The church forbade me from even visiting my mother's grave.”She couldn’t speak.“So see. I know about difficult family issues. I’ve lost everything that ever mattered to me.”Except Trevor.Edgard didn’t say it; he didn’t have to.Her heart seemed to shatter into a billion pieces. That’s why Edgard had come back.Not to steal Trevor away, but to remind himself of something that’d been
“I’m glad something is appealing, since I don’t have the appendage you prefer.”He smiled gently. “Joke all you want. But I understand now, maybe more than I ever did, Trevor’s confusion when he started having feelings for me. I have those same confusing moments with you, Chass. You’re not my type, yet I realize for the first time that you really don’t fall for a person’s gender or appendage so much as you fall for the person. And I’ll be damned if I’m not falling for you, Chassie West Glanzer.”In that instant everything between them changed.“I love him,” Chassie said softly.“I know. I love him too.”“What do we do if he really wants to make a go of it with his family?”“I don’t have any idea.”Silence descended as they stared at each other helplessly.Edgard withdrew and set her back on her feet. He kept his back to her as he pulled on his jeans and buttoned his shirt. “What are your plans for the rest of the night?”“Nothin’.” She snatched her jeans but didn’t bother putting them
Carolyn didn’t glance up when she said,“Keely shouldn’t have told you.”“I’m glad she did, Aunt C.”No answer.Chassie crossed the room, her sock feet silent on the wooden floor. She sat on Carolyn’s left side. Click click click as the metal needles whipped the yarn into shape.Neither one spoke for the longest time, which was fine by Chassie. She honestly didn’t know what to say.Aunt Carolyn babbled, “I’ve been putting off finishing this baby blanket for Carter and Macie’s newest addition. You know she’s due any day, right?”“Right.”“The baby is a boy. Always a boy in this family, so I have every color of blue yarn you could imagine. I wanted something different for each of my grandchildren. Thane’s baby blanket is navy blue and Kyler’s blanket is turquoise. It’s so sweet Ky still needs that blanket every night before he can sleep even when he claims to be a big boy. Gib’s blanket is robin’s egg blue. Channing won’t let him have it in his crib anymore because she’s afraid he’ll ti
He’d never seen Tell so mad. And what sucked is Chase didn’t blame him for his fury because Tell hadn’t said a thing that Chase hadn’t considered.But you discarded the guilt and did what you wanted anyway, didn’t you?“Look. I’m sorry.”“Goddamn right you should be. Does your family know you’ve done this?”He shook his head.“And why is that?” Tell let the pause linger. “Because you know it’s wrong. They’d tell you it’s wrong, and they’d kick your ass until you made it right. I look at you and I feel like I don’t know you at all.” Tell stormed off, stopping when he reached the metal fence by the livestock gate. His fingers curled around the rail and he stared across the arena, his posture vibrated with anger.Why hadn’t Chase considered he might run into his cousin while skipping from event to event in Tell’s jurisdiction?Because once again you only thought about yourself.Seemed to be a theme.Chase slumped against the corral and waited for the impending ass-chewing from his upstan
“How’d you meet? Since you all have diverse occupations.”“I graduated from high school with Lance and he met Dylan through a friend.” When Ava remained quiet, he said, “What?”She reached for his hand and threaded her fingers through his. “Is that where you were before you decided to hide out at Ginger and Kane’s?”Yeah. And I felt like a fucking loser the entire time. Sitting alone in a place as impersonal as another damn hotel room. Wishing I could go home, but feeling like I didn’t have one. Didn’t have anyone I could really talk to either. Not like I’ve learned to talk to you.Rather that share that embarrassing memory, he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “Smart and beautiful. How did I get so lucky?”Ava laughed. “And wily, because you’re avoiding the question, cowboy.”“Oh, I ain’t the only one who avoids questions.”“Meaning what?”“Meaning…why won’t you tell me what you’re working on so diligently? Since you spend hours on it.”She gazed out the window.
“No way,” she sneered. “I hate that whining, puntastic drivel.”“And ‘Poker Face’ is what? Pure musical artistry?” Chase sneered right back.“Yep.” Ava cranked the music a notch higher.He turned it back down. “You’re starting to piss me off.”“The feeling is mutual.”How had they survived these last two weeks?Wait a second. Hadn’t Chase told her he’d rarely made it past the two-week mark with any lover? Maybe this was how he intended to end it. By picking fights.But you started it. Be the bigger person and let it go.“I wish I had your damn camera pointed at you right now so you could see your diva side, a side which you claim ain’t there, because darlin’, it sure as hell is.” Spit. Spit.That smart comment totally screwed him for her being the bigger person. “I wish I had my damn camera pointed at you right now so you could see how ridiculous you look with your mouth crammed full of sunflower seeds,” she mimicked. “Ooh, and the bonus? You’d get to hear how fucking irritating it is
“What? Why?” Recognition lit her eyes and a secretive smile appeared. “Really, Chase? Right now?”“Yep.”“But I’m all sweaty. Can’t I take a shower first?”He growled, “No. Seeing your hot, bendy body stretched out over that ball does it for me in a bad way.” Using a single rough-edged fingertip, he leisurely traced the waistband of her yoga pants, low on her hips. But not nearly low enough. “Take. Them. Off.”She stood and peeled the stretchy black fabric down her legs. She began to remove her bra, but he said, “Leave it. Same position you were just in. Arched over the ball, hands on the floor behind you, feet on the floor, legs spread.”With effortless grace, Ava returned her body to its previous pose.Goddamn she was beautiful like this. Not just her bared body, but also her willingness to cede control to him. His hands skated up the outside of her thighs, still trembling from her workout. Or were they trembling in anticipation? He palmed her hips and squeezed, stopping to stroke t
He growled at the visual feast before him. Ava bound, at his mercy.Chase rocked his hips faster, driving his cock against that pliant skin, pinching her nipples in time to his thrusts. When his balls lifted, his hands fell away and almost told her to open up and swallow him to the root. But he stopped.Too soon. Not about you. About her. She needs this.Ava whimpered at the loss of contact.He caressed her cheek as he leaned forward to grab his supplies off the nightstand. “You’re beautiful. Incredible. Christ, Ava, you undo me.”She twisted in her bonds. “I want—”He placed his fingers over her lips. “In time. Now hold still.” He scooted back until he straddled her pelvis. Holding open the old-fashioned, spring-loaded wooden clothespins, he simultaneously attached them to her nipples.When she arched and emitted a surprised cry, he murmured, “Seems you have some feeling there after all.” He hopped off the end of the bed. Tapped her ankles. “Spread your legs for me. Wider. Nope wider
“Thanks.” Ava sat up and drank all the water. “So I crashed for over twelve hours. Guess I missed the rodeo last night. How’d you do?”Chase wore a stoic expression.“What? Did you have like a ninety-nine point ride or something?”He snorted.“Seriously. What happened?” Her gaze swept over him. “Did you get hurt?”“Nothin’ happened, Ava. I didn’t compete last night.”“What? Why not?”“Do you really think I’d just leave you here alone when you were so goddamn sick?”She froze.Chase grabbed her hand and rubbed her knuckles against the razor stubble on his cheeks. “I was freaked out about you. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do. I’m not…well, I don’t have much experience taking care of sick people. My first response has always been to get the hell away, so I sort of winged it.” A sheepish smile curled the corners of his mouth. “You don’t look too worse for the wear.”“I can’t believe you didn’t compete last night.”“There are more important things in life than bull ridin’.”This tough man
“The camera showed you that?”“Ava. I don’t need to look through a viewfinder to see you’re upset.”Damn intuitive man.“The camera is off. Talk to me.”“My grandfather commissioned a necklace for my sixteenth birthday. A tiny beautiful Swarovski crystal rose with a gold stem artfully twisted into an ‘A’. The one time I didn’t take it off before I jumped into the ocean? I lost it. I don’t know if the chain broke or what, but I was devastated because it happened about a month after he died.”“Aw, sugar, I’m so sorry.”Evidently Chase had enough taping. He returned the camera to the case and faced forward, wiggling to get comfortable.“Before you nod off, tell me why we’re backtracking. You planned a route through Montana and now we’re back in Cornhusker territory.”He rolled his eyes. “South Dakota is not Cornhusker territory. The reason I’m not goin’ to the event in Billings is because Ryan told me a former PBR bull rider who switched to the PRCA circuit will be competing. I don’t wan
He’d known the second he touched her he was done for. Ava needed him in a way no other woman ever had. He was a different man when he was with her, regardless if they were naked. So maybe that’s why he couldn’t freakin’ wait to get naked with her again, day after day after day.Seemed to take forever to check-in. He ditched the bags in the corner of the room. In the mirror above the sink, he saw Ava flop on the bed and heave a huge sigh.“Before you get too comfy, maybe you oughta see if you got the door shut.”She popped to her feet and resituated her skirt as she crossed the room, those fucking sexy little pleats teasing the back of her legs.When he’d gotten a look at her outfit this morning—short plaid skirt, plain white blouse, black ballet shoes—his cock had been hard all day as his head conjured up bad-schoolgirl-needing-a-spanking scenarios.Ava tested the door by pushing on it. “I don’t know why you were worried it wasn’t shut—”“Lock it.” He put his mouth below her ear and p
He stirred, moaning as his cock hardened. Lengthened.When Ava started sliding his shaft over her tongue, his hand landed on her head.Immediately it snapped back and Chase scrambled upright. “Ava? What the devil are you doin’?” He inhaled a sharp breath through his teeth when she tongued the tip. “Hell. I thought it was a dream.”She pulled off his shaft long enough to say, “Nope. I want to make this buff body to squirm.” She licked him like a lollipop.“Oh, I’ve no doubt you can make me squirm. You probably could get me to beg.” He brushed her hair back from where it’d fallen in her face. “But—”Again, Ava eased off and met his gaze in the near darkness. “But nothing. You don’t get to direct this.”If she thought he’d lovingly pet her, agree, and murmur encouragement, she was mistaken. Chase’s big hands were on her face, gripping her jaw. “Yes, I do.”His answer turned her panties damp. As did his explicit command, “On the floor. On your knees.”As Ava moved, so did Chase. He perche