Rode Hard, Put Up Wet (Rough Riders 2)

Gemma opened her mouth.

“Let me finish. Bein’ naked, in body and soul, that’s when I can’t blame my goofy face every time I look at you, on the sun, or dirt, or gas fumes. That’s when you can see that you are everything to me. It’s like my fantasy come true, lettin’ me touch your body, be a part of your life, givin’ me a place to live, getting to do work I love. Acceptin’ my daughter and my past.”

“I see all that in your eyes, Cash. But you were so busy hiding from me, that if you would’ve bothered to look, you’d see the same exact thing in mine.”

He swallowed hard. “I’m thirty-eight years old and I’ve never been in love. Made me wonder if I knew how to love.” He didn’t bother to hide his need or fear from her. “Will you teach me?”

“Yes. But you know more than you think.”

“Uncuff me. Gemma, let me hold you. Please.”

Gemma unfastened the handcuffs. Cash rolled her to her back and crawled on top of her. He didn’t move. He just gazed into her pale blue eyes, eyes shining with love. For him. Damn humbling.

“Can I stay right here and look my fill, since I’ve been denyin’ myself the pleasure?”

“It’s the only pleasure you’ve denied yourself.”

“True.” He smiled. “Will you give me the pleasure of becomin’ my wife?”

“Cash—”

“It’ll be a bumpy road. Some people ain’t gonna like the fact you married an Indian.

They’ll think I married you to get my hands on your ranch.”

“The joke’s on them, because we both know you want to marry me to get your big red hands on my body.”

He grinned. “You are one horny widowed lady.”

She smacked his ass. Hard.

His eyes narrowed. “You will pay for that later. Dearly. Anyway, as for family issues that might be a problem once we’re hitched. I have a grown daughter I’m finally learningto be a father to after two decades. I’d like to think the worst is behind Macie and me, but it might not be. Are you okay with that?”

“Plus, there is a difference in our ages.”

“Why the hell does that matter?”

“It doesn’t. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“What? That none of the issues we’ll be facin’ as husband and wife will matter?”

“No, they matter, but will you at least let me say yes to marrying you before you start laying out all our future problems?”

Cash froze. “You didn’t say yes yet?”

“Nope. Ask me again.” Gemma slid her arms around his neck. “Ask me as you’re making love to me. Lookin’ in my eyes.”

“Whatever the lady wants. I’m never turnin’ the lights off again.”

“Be a little hard to sleep.”

“There won’t be a whole lot of sleepin’ goin’ on tonight.”

Chapter Thirty-six

Two weeks later…

The dappled gray filly pranced inside the training arena. She’d trot up to the fence, but the second Macie held her hand out to touch her, the high-spirited horse would whinny and race away.

“Pretty, ain’t she?”

“Gorgeous. She seems to have a mind of her own.”

“Like all good fillies do.”

Macie laughed. “What’s her name?”

Pause.

“You can name her whatever you want since she’s yours.”

“Mine?”

Her dad said, “Yep.”

Hoofbeats faded as the horse galloped to the other side of the fence.

“You bought me a horse?”

“Yeah.”

Macie squealed and threw her arms around his neck. “Omigod, I think I’m gonna cry.”

He squeezed back. “She’s young, and you’re gonna have to work with her a lot before you can ride her. But if you train her right from the start, she’ll always mind you, and she won’t let you down.”

“My first horse. Yay! I feel like an eight-year-old girl. Dad, thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ll ride her, and pet her, and feed her, and take her for walks everyday, and she’ll be my best friend…”

“You are such a smarty-pants.”

“How cool is that? Pretty soon I’ll be clip-clopping along on my very own horse, shootin’ varmints with my new rifle.”

“You bought her a rifle too?” Gemma asked.

They both turned around. Her dad’s face lit up like the bug zapper. He wrapped his arm around Gemma’s shoulders and kissed her temple. “Well, yeah. She needed her own gun out here in the wild wild West.”

Macie watched her father and Gemma mooning over each other. They were so deliriously happy; she didn’t begrudge them a bit of it. It spilled onto her. And rather than his relationship with Gemma driving a wedge between her and her father, it seemed to strengthen their bond.

Happy. Were she and Carter happy?

Despite the fact she and Carter lobbed the “L” word back and forth, things hadn’t changed much in the last two weeks. He’d locked himself in the barn to finish up the final pieces for his show and she’d worked mega hours at the diner. They hadn’t talked about what would happen after his show was over. They hadn’t talked at all about her deciding to take Velma’s offer to help run the diner. Carter had been so…obsessed with his work that he hadn’t asked about hers. It shouldn’t have bothered her, but it did.

It means your job in a small time diner isn’t as important as his big art show.

Macie hoped with the diner closing for a little over a week they’d get to eek out time.

If not, well, she did have a horse to train. She couldn’t wait to tell him. After giving her father another hug, she drove to Carter’s place.

Although his truck was there, he wasn’t in the trailer. She hesitated at the barn door.

He was protective of his space and she never ventured in uninvited after that first day.

She yelled, “Carter?”

Silence.

“Carter? Are you in here?”

No answer.

She slipped inside. It wasn’t the same pigsty she’d remembered from last time when he’d given her the erotic painting lesson. No jars of mineral spirits or rolls of canvas, sections of thin boards or mysterious pieces of machinery covered the ground.

Damn dark in here though.

Macie reached for the light. Once her eyes adjusted, she found herself looking at paintings of herself. Everywhere. But not only was she buck-assed naked in the pictures, she was lost in the throes of passion. Or just looking lost. Each one focused on a different (naked!) part of her body. The disturbing part wasn’t that the pictures were just…parts.