Dare to be Dirty (The Dirty Girls Book Club #2) (22 page)

In not much more than a month, she’d be living with her parents again. What woman would she be then? Well, she’d find out, wouldn’t she? For now, she was Kim in Vancouver, Kim enjoying
rumspringa
, Kim pulling her cute co-op car to a stop and getting out to unlatch the gate to Ronan Ranch. Ten o’clock. Right on time.

Last weekend, Ty had rearranged his busy schedule for her. This time she’d told him not to let her interfere. With her art supplies, she was self-sufficient.

She drove through the gate, latched it behind her, and carried on up the road. At the ranch headquarters, there were a couple of people in the yard. Ty’s mom would get a report that Kim was here again. She ran her tongue over her lips. Pie would be good. As for making nice with a protective mom—well, a girl did what a girl had to do.

When she climbed out of her car at Ty’s, he came out of the barn to meet her. In town, he’d looked sleek and virile dressed all in black. Here, in his element, his virility was a different sort, outdoorsy and rougher around the edges. This was the man who could ride a bucking bronc without even a saddle, who could deftly toss a calf without hurting it.

She still had trouble believing she knew a man like this, much less was his sex partner. “Hey, you,” she said, smiling up at him.

“Hey, you.” He smiled back, then bent to kiss her.

She came up on her toes, the kiss deepened, and she pressed her body against his, feeling his immediate response.

A cell phone rang, breaking the mood.

Ty stepped back. “Sorry, I’ve been waiting for a callback.” He pulled a cell from his pocket, glanced at the display, then answered. “Hey, TJ, how’s it going?”

Kim raised her face to enjoy the morning sun and breathed in air scented with hay, sawdust, and yes, a touch of horse manure.

From Ty’s side of the conversation, she could tell he was good buddies with this guy TJ, who seemed to have a family ranch too, and also work at a resort ranch.

“Like I said in voice mail,” Ty said, “the bay gelding, Rambler, is almost ready. I got another rescue horse this week, pretty Paint mare called Distant Drummer. She’s in rough shape, but there’s lots of potential. Think the Crazy Horse would be interested in her?”

He listened, then said, “Yeah, people do like colored horses. She’s a tobiano, chestnut and white, nice markings. Okay, I’ll earmark Drummer for you. As for Rambler, I’m going to the rodeo in the Chilcotin a couple weeks from now. I’ll be taking Desert Sand, so I can bring a two-horse trailer and drop Rambler off at your place on the way.”

Another pause, then he laughed. “Tell Robin I’m looking forward to seeing her too. She’s a sweetheart.”

Kim’s brows rose. Hmm
.
Was this Robin a candidate for ranch wife? And what business was it of hers? When Ty hung up, she carefully didn’t ask about Robin. Instead, she said, “You’re training horses for a resort ranch?”

“Yes. The Crazy Horse in the Cariboo. Know where that is?”

“Vaguely.”

“Nice country, lots of ranches. Anyhow, this woman I know, TJ, has—”

“TJ’s a woman?” She shouldn’t have asked, but the words burst out.

“Uh-huh. Her family has a cattle ranch, but she’s a horse person like me. She works as wrangler at the Crazy Horse and takes some of the rescue horses I train. I get them healed and if their personalities are right, I send them to her and she trains them for trail rides with dudes.”

“Sounds like your perfect woman.” She tried to keep the snark out of her voice. “And who’s Robin?”

Twenty-two

T
y grinned. “Yeah, TJ’s pretty much perfect. So’s her daughter. Robin’s nine or ten.”

“Oh, TJ’s married?”

“Divorced.” Another grin. “She and I get along, but more like sister and brother.”

There was absolutely no reason to be glad. “I wasn’t jealous or anything.”

His lips twitched. “I know.”

“We’re not a couple. Not really. I want you to find the right woman.” Her own lips curved. “Okay, I confess, I’d be happy if that didn’t happen until I’d gone back home. I like being with you.”

He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Me too.”

“Now do I get a proper kiss hello?”

He gave her one that curled her pink-painted toes inside her multicolored sandals, and she smiled with satisfaction. No, Ty didn’t think of her as a sister.

“What’s on the agenda?” she asked. “I brought art supplies so I can look after myself.”

“This must seem strange to you. Me working a seven-day week.”

“No. My parents usually do. And I’ve always kept busy. School, homework, working for my folks, doing art. I like to read, but I’m not a do-nothing person. You don’t have to entertain me.” She smirked. “Except in bed, later. Or out of bed, like in the Jacuzzi.”

“That can be arranged.” He looped his arm over her shoulders and tucked her against his side. “I’ve done a bunch of the regular chores. I need to practice with Sand, and I’m itching to start with Drummer, my new rescue horse. You and I could go for a ride later in the afternoon when it’s cooled off a bit.” He eyed her olive capris. “You brought jeans?”

“Sure. But capris are more comfy when it’s hot like this.”

“Look good too. Oh, Mom invited us for a meal, but we don’t have to go.”

So he’d told his parents she was coming. “Which meal?”

“Any meal. She figures if she words it that way, it’s harder to refuse. But we still can.”

“She thinks I’m going to lead her son astray. Didn’t she get that I’m going back to Hong Kong?”

“Or maybe she just wants to get to know one of my friends.”

She shot him a cynical glance. “You believe that?”

“Not for a moment. Well, she does, but there’s a lot more going on. So, you want to say a polite ‘no, thanks’?”

She twisted her lips, thinking. Parents deserved respect. Besides . . . “Will there be pie?”

He laughed. “If not, there’ll be fruit cobbler or chocolate cake. Mom has a sweet tooth.”

“Aha. She and I have one thing in common. Could we make it lunch, not dinner?” Lunch seemed more casual, less stressful.

“Today or tomorrow?”

“Today?” Then it would be over and she wouldn’t worry about it.

He opened his cell and made a quick call, then reported back. “She’s delighted.”

“I bet.”

“We’ll head down around one. And now, I’ve set up some practice time with Sand. Hope that’s okay.”

“Sure.” Watching her hot cowboy on his horse sounded like a fine way to spend a morning.

“Take your bag in, make yourself comfortable. If you want to watch, feel free.”

“You bet I do.” She collected another toe-curling kiss, then took her bag inside. She used the downstairs powder room to take off the wingy blouse she wore over a hot pink tank top and olive capris, and apply sunscreen. Armed with a big sketch pad and charcoals, she went back outside.

Ty was in the ring on Desert Sand, swinging a coiled rope as the horse ran in an easy long-legged stride. A dark brown horse was tied to the hitching rail and a stocky older man in western wear herded half a dozen calves into a small pen. Kim was starting to make sense of the layout of the various fenced areas. One was the paddock where the horses were turned out to run and graze. The fenced ring was Ty’s practice ring, and the small pen was a holding area.

Ty called, “Hey, Kim. Say hi to Dusty, one of the best bull riders you’ll ever meet.”

“Probably the only one. It’s nice to meet you, Dusty.”

“Likewise, ma’am,” he drawled, tipping his hat. “You can perch up there.” He indicated the top rail of the fence.

She accepted the invitation as the two men carried on, the sparseness of their motions and speech indicating the familiarity of this routine. They were setting up to simulate what happened at the rodeo. When everything was ready, Dusty released a calf. Ty and Desert Sand shot after it, Ty roped it, then he leaped down to toss and tie it. A few seconds later he set it free, and herded it back to Dusty. Then they did it again with a different calf.

Kim balanced her sketch pad on her knees as her charcoal flew across the page, capturing action and impressions.

Ty had been compelling at the rodeo, with other cowboys around and an audience cheering, but this was fascinating. One cowboy and one horse, working with a single assistant—an assistant who, in comparison to Ty’s natural grace, hobbled slowly. Though the two men did the same basic thing every time, each calf behaved differently, challenging Ty. The constant was the teamwork and communication between rider and horse. It was a thing of beauty in its way.

It was also sexy as hell: the horse’s powerful muscles, Ty’s agile body, his curse when something went wrong, the white flash of smile at a perfect run. No other man she’d ever met would be capable of doing something like this.

If that was all Ty had been, just a handsome, skilled cowboy, that would be sexy enough. The fact that he also ran a successful, diverse enterprise like Ronan Ranch, that in his own way he was as successful a businessperson as her parents, made him even more impressive. A responsible guy who set a course and succeeded was sexy. Top that off with the knowledge that he was a skilled, inventive lover—her lover . . . Oh, let’s face it, sitting on that top rail watching him, sketching him, thinking about his many charms, was a delicious torture.

It also made her seriously crave the chance to draw him nude. After they’d had sex. Otherwise, she’d never be able to concentrate. If seeing him practicing in the ring made her squirm with desire, she could only imagine how turned on she’d be if she drew him naked.

After ten or twelve runs, Ty called a halt to the practice. “Thanks, Dusty, that was great.”

“You and Sand are looking good,” the older man said. “Oh, Ty, Marge says don’t forget you’re coming for dinner Monday.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Ty went into the barn with his horse, and Kim smiled at the stocky assistant. “That was fascinating, Dusty. I’m a total newbie when it comes to rodeo. You were a bull rider?”

“Yes ma’am. Damn fool thing to do.” One corner of his mouth tilted. “But I wouldn’t trade one day. Except that last one. Bull rolled on me, broke my back. They said I was damned lucky to live, much less ever walk again.”

Now she understood why he hobbled so slowly and awkwardly. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” And so glad Ty didn’t ride bulls. Not that one of those bucking broncs couldn’t do the same thing to a man.

He shrugged. “The risk is part of the life. Anyhow, I did get on my feet again, enough to work in a feed store. Then three years ago I saw Ty’s ad about needing folks to work at Ronan Ranch.”

“And he hired you.” A happy ending to a sad tale.

This time both corners of his mouth tilted, and his denim blue eyes lit. “Damn fool thing to do,” he said for the second time. “But rodeo cowboys are family. We look out for each other.”

“Looks as if you’re pulling your weight,” she pointed out.

“Took a while. And only thanks to him and his parents giving me the time, the help.” He paused, swallowed. “The hope.”

She remembered what Ty’d said that first night. A ranch on the way to Hope. When she commented about the name being symbolic, he said it was a second chance for Ronan Ranch and for his family. For Dusty too, it seemed, and his wife, who no doubt preferred seeing her man active and happy. Also for those disadvantaged kids Ty helped. Unexpectedly, she, who wasn’t the emotional type, found her eyes misting. “I’m glad for you. And I can see how much you’re helping Ty.”

“Hope so. They’re good people, the Ronans.”

“I believe you.”

With painful slowness, he clambered onto his dark brown horse. Then he herded the calves out of the holding pen and down the road. Kim did a quick sketch, thinking that the man would fit just fine on Dirk Zamora’s cattle drive in
Ride Her, Cowboy
. Dirk, like Ty, would give Dusty a chance.

“Kim,” Ty called, and she turned to see him at the barn door. “I need to shower off the dust and sweat before lunch. Care to join me?”

Oh, yes! She clambered off the fence. “Is there time?”

As she joined him, he looped an arm around her shoulders. “I shower fast.”

“I hope you don’t do everything fast.”

Laughing together, they hurried inside and upstairs, where they stripped off their clothes in a messy trail on the way to the bathroom.

“Shower cap?” she thought to ask. “If I get my hair wet, it’ll mess up the color.”

“Might have one.” Naked and supremely hot, he opened a cupboard and pulled out a plastic bag with hotel-size toiletries. He also tossed a condom on the counter by the shower.

Kim rummaged in the bag and triumphantly pulled out a small package of her own. “Don’t laugh,” she warned as she slipped the plastic hood over her spiky hair.

The corners of his mouth pulled and his eyes danced, but he shook his head solemnly. “You look cute.”

“Just what every woman wants to hear when she’s about to shower naked with a man,” she said ruefully.

“And sexy,” he added. “Very sexy.”

The man clearly wanted sex, and knew that laughing at her wasn’t the best method of getting it.

“In fact,” he said, “they should put you in an ad. It’d sell a lot of shower caps.”

She gave an amused snort. “Don’t push it, Ty.”

“I’ll just shut up now.” His eyes still sparkling, he turned away to get the shower going, then he stepped under the spray. The shower was large enough that there was no need to pull the curtain.

He didn’t, and nor did she.

His back was to her, and Kim took a moment to enjoy the view. Water sluiced over his head, darkening his hair, molding it to the strong shape of his head. Streams ran down his muscled back and broad shoulders, to the hollow at the base of his spine, over the taut curves and pale skin of his butt. She’d read that women didn’t get aroused by looking, but her body disagreed. Watching hot water course over Ty’s body was enough to send warm pulses of arousal darting through her veins to pool between her legs.

He turned to face her. “Waiting for an invitation?”

She stepped in to join him, his body taking the brunt of the shower water so that only a fine mist sprayed over his shoulders to touch her face and chest. His own chest was soaked, droplets gleaming on his brown skin and catching in soft curls of hair. She spread her hands over his pecs, tested their muscled perfection. One day, she really did want to draw this man.

Now, though, arousing him was her goal. She leaned forward to lick water from his nipple, then she sucked the small bud, teasing it to hardness. Glancing down, she saw his cock swell and lift.

He turned and did something with the shower control, and suddenly it was raining. Rather than water from a showerhead pounding against his back, now a gentle rain came from the ceiling, sprinkling both of them. Shielding her eyes with a hand, she gazed up and realized he’d installed a rainfall shower. She’d never been in one before and, entranced, said, “This is wonderful!” It was like standing outside in a warm spring shower. Naked. With a shower cap on her head. And with Ty.

“You could design a line of shower umbrellas,” he joked.

She chuckled. “Kind of defeats the purpose.”

“Which some of us would say about shower caps,” he pointed out, green sparkles dancing in his eyes.

She really didn’t want him thinking about the unsexy shower cap. And she knew the perfect way to distract him. Enjoying the soft patter of drops on her shoulders, she wrapped one arm around Ty’s body and slid down until she was kneeling, hugging him with her hands cupping his butt and her face pressed against his waist. She licked his navel as his cock rose to bump her chin. It had been her ultimate goal anyhow, so why delay any longer? She tongued the crown, tasting mostly shower water but also a seductive hint of musky, aroused male that grew stronger as she opened her mouth and took him in.

He was so big, and her mouth was small. She couldn’t encompass much of him, but she sucked and licked him like he was a Popsicle, melting faster than her tongue could keep up with. The full, dusky head of his cock, the sensitive ring beneath the crown, the thick shaft with that throbbing vein—all so erotic. Her pussy craved that organ, and she squeezed her thighs together, feeling a deliciously frustrating ache of desire.

Ty groaned, shifted, braced himself with a hand against the wall. He widened his legs.

She dipped her head, working down his shaft with her tongue, caressing his balls gently with her fingers, then with her tongue. Her own body tightened and vibrated with arousal. She thrummed the sensitive spot between cock and balls.

He thrust convulsively. “Jesus, Kim.”

Then he bent and caught her under the armpits, hauling her up roughly, needily. He grabbed the condom and sheathed himself, then he hoisted her as if she were weightless.

Under the rain shower, she wrapped her legs around him tightly, anchored herself with an arm around his neck, and reached down to guide him into her more than ready body.
Oh, yes!
That was exactly what she needed.

There was little more she could do than cling to Ty as he held her hips steady and plunged into her, deep and hard, over and over. The rain was gentle and steady, a counterpoint to his jerky, forceful thrusts. Inside her, there was friction, her muscles gripping and releasing, his shaft stroking, bringing every cell alive. Tension, delicious tension, building, building until she couldn’t bear it.

And then Ty found a spot, a magic spot inside her, a bright, sweet, blazing spot, and she lifted her face to the rain and cried out as her body broke and convulsed in bliss.

Dimly, she was aware of Ty giving a wrenching groan, climaxing inside her, almost losing his balance but somehow managing to stay on his feet. To keep her safe in his arms.