Drawn to a Cowboy (Brother Duet #1) (7 page)

“Where are you two off to today?” Norma asked, wearing a shit eating grin.

“Oh hey.” Jade turned to see we weren’t alone. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, I can come back.” She started to back out of the office, “You guys finish up.”

“Nonsense honey, we were just finishing up. I can only take him serious for so long. He needs to get out of here,” I noted concern in her voice. “What’s the plan? Whatever it is, have a hell of a good time!”
Damn, Norma!
I saw the gleam in her eyes, she was good one minute and the next she was full of vim, vigor and vitality. She was trying to make more out of our work relationship, but that’s all it was. We hadn’t had anything but platonic conversations.

Of course, I thought of her over my desk, naked in a field of wildflowers, riding bare on horseback… in my bed. One too many times she was visible behind my eyelids as I stroked myself, I couldn’t help it. Since she whirled into my life a little over a week ago with her crayon-red hair—my favorite color in a box of twenty-four—she was never out of my thoughts for long.

“Hello!” Jade waved her hand in front of my face. I looked up dazed. “Sal said if we’re going, we needed to get a move on. There could be a storm moving in.”

“What? There isn’t a cloud in the sky,” I hissed as we started for the stables.

Horses saddled, we climbed on, and started heading up the hilly path.

“I notice you always hook me up with a mule. The first day Wayne helped me up onto a horse, I thought this is certainly a different looking horse. Hmmm… I was glancing around to everyone else’s mount and he told me, ‘it’s a mule, relax there’s nothing wrong with him.’ I told him okay, if you say so and off I went, and he was perfect.”

“They are actually better at maneuvering the rocky hillsides, safer for you.”
And I want you safe. Just looking out for my cowgirl.
As if she was reading my mind and noticing how uncomfortable I felt about my own thoughts, she changed the subject making me wonder if I had said what I had been thinking out loud.

“I love all the wildflowers, so colorful, so beautiful. I especially adore the ones that look like pretty little fairies resting in the middle of more boldly shaded petals. So many colors!”

I had never looked at them that way. She was changing my views about a lot of things. “They are native to the area—I’ve been told—and they’re called Columbines. They’re abundant this time of year along with many other wildflowers you’ll be seeing in just a second or two.”

Hitting the peak, one of the few meadows was visible amongst the flowers I had just promised, and off to one side before a forest of trees sat one of our luxury tents. These were an addition I made in the last year. We had always taken people off for overnight trips in groups. We set up temporary tents, did a cookout, campfire singing with everyone’s favorite toasty treat, s’mores. We still offer that, but some people wanted alone time, namely couples.

So I came up with the large, sturdy, canvas tents attached to elevated platforms. We supplied them with hotel room amenities, nice beds, linens, and furnishings, including some fancy, heavy duty, battery operated lanterns. We even added an extra smaller tent, other known as an outhouse, close to the main structure. I had to admit they were stunning with the help of a local decorator.

Dismounting the horses, we led them to some trees and wound the reins around some logs loosely, then we walked to the big canvas structure. Unzipping the flaps, Jade helped me roll back the sides of the large tent to reveal the room.

“Oh my God! This looks like a fancy hotel room with a deck and everything.”

“Grab a chair, I’ll get the other one and the table. In my backpack are some sandwiches and bottles of water. I had the kitchen make them.”

“Perfect. I only brought cookies, some trail mix and a couple apples.”

“Sounds like we have a feast.”
Damn!
She was so beautiful smiling at me. It took every ounce of willpower not to throw her over my shoulder, strut inside the tent and throw her down on the bed.
Fuck! Why did I bring her here?

“Did you see that?”

“What?” I wasn’t paying attention.

“I just saw lightning in the distance.”

“Look at the bright blue skies here, we’re safe.”

“Hear it?” I didn’t hear anything but my heart beating.

Determined to ignore my tight chest and jeans, I spread out our food on the table and we began to eat as clouds began to arrive. There were still bits of blue dotting the sky, nothing looked ominous. I focused on her as she told me about the latest sketches she had finished. She was pleased with how her three paintings were coming along. She apologized for not working more quickly, but she was having so much fun helping out with the guests. I didn’t mind, she had no reason to say she was sorry. However, the longer she took to do the artwork the longer I would be in misery. Some pain wasn’t so bad, she was wonderful to have around.

Crackling through the sky, bolts of light appeared in a few directions, I clearly saw those. Then we heard the rumble and even felt the ground move, it was so powerful. Next came big droplets of rain, slow and constant to pouring down. Grabbing our stuff we moved inside just as the rain turned into an actual all out raging storm. Crackle! Boom! Crackle! Boom! We were stuck.

“Are you sure they’re okay out there?” she asked gesturing toward the horses.

“They’ll be fine. We can’t bring them in the tent.”

“I don’t know, this is the biggest tent I’ve ever seen, outside of a circus big top.”

“Norma has them labeled as glamping instead of camping accommodations.”

“They are glamorous. I’m not one that likes roughing it, but I could make an exception… Oh no! I don’t think they appreciated not being included under the canvas.” I followed her extended arm to see our two horses running back to the barn.

“Shit!” I yelled, taking off my hat and slapping my leg with it.

“Will they come back? Get lost?” I saw the concerned look in her beautiful pale green eyes as she looked off in the direction they had bolted, fearful for their wellbeing.

“They know this area well. They will head straight back for their stalls.”

“And us?” she asked hesitantly, biting her lip.

“The guys will know we’re stranded once they see the horses without riders. Norma knows I was taking you up here. Someone will come for us once the storm eases up and the lightning stops.”

Minus any other furniture inside the tent, we sat on opposite sides of the bed. “Guess we might as well get comfortable for the show,” she said pulling off her boots and flipping over onto her belly, facing toward the opening in the tent. Attempting to relax, I followed suit, but kept my distance. Quietly, we looked outside and witnessed a crazy, wild, stormy show. “Looks like Sal was right,” she laughed and moved over to nudge my shoulder with her fiery-red head.

“Who knew he was a weatherman?” I tried to be cool.

Avoiding my comment, she moved back to business. I wanted to kiss her for taking my mind off being so close together on a bed.
Shit! I just wanted to kiss her.
“This storm makes me think that the art in these tents should be all about bringing nature in. Imagine above the headboard…” She flipped onto her back and I watched her lips move. “Wildflowers… can name tents… no numbers… are you listening to me?”

“Name tents after flowers.” Hopefully, that was what she was saying. I think I was close enough as she smiled.
I am so screwed.
I knew it for sure as I pressed my lips to hers. Her mouth tasted sweet with a hint of the apple slices she had been nibbling on before we quickly ran for shelter.

My brain told me to pull away. My body told me it wanted more as she wrapped her arms around my neck and her fingers grabbed my hat, tossing it. With an arm around her, I ran my hand down her back, over her nice ass and lifted her leg to get closer. She moved right with me, winding her leg over mine. I couldn’t help myself, I pushed my painfully hard cock shamelessly up against her. We both moaned kissing and grinding into each other. It was the best dry humping, make-out session I had ever experienced.

A loud crash had us both jumping apart. Taking our break as a sign, I moved onto my back and looked up at the ceiling. I rambled about how we picked tents that had high peaks so water wouldn’t collect and collapse the structures. We didn’t want them collapsing on our guests. I couldn’t stop my chatter. It wasn’t what I wanted to be doing right at that moment, but we barely knew each other. I couldn’t just throw myself on her…
could I?
I prayed she would stop me with her lips… her body. Instead it was laughter and her own rambling, we were quite a pair.

Jade

“I
have a confession.” I had to giggle at the look on his face.

“You do, do you?” He looked like he was afraid to hear what I had to say.

“I love thunder and lightning. I think it’s magnificent. Thrilling! Most kids get scared and run and hide in their parents’ room. Not me, I would hop up from my bed and rush to the window to watch the show.”

“Tornado skies, those are impressive. There was amazing thunder and lightning during the one I saw. The sky was wicked and wild. I had never seen a purple sky, deep purple and then with each flash of light it varied in shades all the way to a pale lavender, almost white. Spectacular! I refused to go to bed. Sat by the basement window for hours. I couldn’t be pulled away.”

“Where were you to see a tornado… Kansas, Dorothy?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. And I believe the name Toto may suit me better than Dorothy.” We both laughed.

“A dog, huh?” I asked once I regained enough composure to speak.

“I look better in fur than a blue and white checked dress, and I’m not wild about red shoes… well, not sparkly ones.” I watched his eyes look down my legs.

“You like my red boots, do you?”

“Yes, I visualize you in them and nothing else…”

“You do? Did you want me to put them back on?”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. I bet he was thinking that he shouldn’t have said that. True or not, he changed the subject. “Sorry about putting you with the guys.”

I laughed at him and shook my head. I knew what he was doing, back pedaling as fast as he could. It was probably obvious that I was playing along by the sexy smirk on my face. “I don’t mind. They’re better than girls I’ve roomed with. You know what, girls can be real pigs, and I mean with a capital p-i-g. I hosted girl surf trips in exotic locales for my grandpa since I turned eighteen until a few years ago.”

“Well, at least you didn’t have to listen to their guy talk.”

“Ha! Your guys… most guys are mild. Girls are graphic down to every vein on a penis or for some of the girls on the trip, vaginas. I learned more about my own anatomy than I needed to know. Plus I got a bird’s eye view demonstration walking in on a couple of girls once.”

“I got one of those a few years back with a couple of ranch hands. I learned to avoid showering in the afternoons.”

“So you worked here first?” I could tell by the way he sighed that he was thankful for my change of subject. Talking about penises and vaginas was not helping his jean situation, they appeared a bit tight in his crotch area. I would be willing to help him with that too, but he was my boss. I didn’t want him writing me up for sexual harassment.
Although
I would let him harass me happily!

“Yep, stayed in your room every summer for many years.”

“So we’ve shared the same bed already.” I winked at him just as a gush of water cooled us off. Well partially, even water couldn’t stop the fire burning deep inside of my body, longing for him.

“Shit!” He rolled away from me and jumped off the bed, yelling, “Help me bring down the flaps before everything is soaked.”

Joining him on my feet, we rolled down the sides we had put up an hour or so ago. “These are much easier to roll down.”

“The bottom edges are weighted so they hang straight down and to block the wind from whipping them up and around.”

“No wonder. I thought it was just that it was a heavy fabric, and so much of it.”

Watching him zip the canvas shut, my heart fluttered. I looked like I had entered a wet t-shirt contest I realized as I followed his eyes down to my chest. Moving my eyes back up to his, we stared at each other, and I thought to myself, here goes nothing before I began to take action. Stepping back a short distance, I crossed my arms and pulled my top up and over my head then reached back and unhooked my bra. I was on a roll, I had his full attention—I only hoped that he’d take the bait. Thinking I needed to make it absolutely clear what I wanted, I unbuttoned my jeans, pushed them down with my panties and stood before him within reach. “Don’t stop this time,” I said softly—my heart just the opposite, beat loudly.

His eyes took in every inch of me before resting just below my waist. He seemed quite fascinated with my minuscule patch of little red curls. “Your tiny carpet matches the drapery.” I couldn’t help but giggle, he was right I had always dyed my short curls below to match the bright red shade I tinted my long mane of hair. However, as his fingertips gently circled through my vibrant curls and then slipped lower, my laughter was replaced with a moan before his mouth engulfed mine.