Healing a Cowboy's Heart (Cowboy Dreamin' 2) (5 page)

She
yanked her arm out of his grasp. “I’ll lie or whatever I have to do to take him
from you.”

“You
bitch!”

“That’s
right. I’m a bitch. The same bitch you fucked, got pregnant, and then dumped
the minute your dick didn’t get what you wanted.”

“I’ll
see you in hell before you get my son or any money from me. Now get the hell
off my property before I have you thrown out of here on your ass.”

“Is
there a problem here, brother?” Jeremiah asked, standing close enough to Misha
to intimate her from the shifting of her stance.

His
entire family surrounded Misha and him. “I can handle her.”

“You
don’t have to alone, Jeffery,” Nina said, wrapping her arm around his waist.
“You’ll leave now, Misha, and don’t bother threatening Jeff or Ben again. I’ll
mortgage this entire property to keep him from your clutches.”

“We’ll
see about that!”

Misha
pushed her way through the throng of people his family made up, stomping her
way toward the door. She didn’t even stop when Ben called, “Mama?”

Jeff
hurried to Ben’s side and picked him up. “It’s okay, buddy. Mama had somewhere
to be.”

“She
didn’t even stop, Daddy.”

“I
know. I’m sorry.” He hugged Ben tight as tears gathered in his eyes.
What the hell did I ever see in her?

“Don’t
worry, son. We won’t let her take Ben,” James said, patting Ben on the head as
he stuck his thumb in his mouth and laid his head on Jeff’s shoulder.

God, I wouldn’t know what to do if
anything happened to Ben.
The kid was his life. He was sorry
every day for the hell Misha had put him through, but he wasn’t sorry she’d
given him Ben.

Maybe
someday soon he’d find a woman he could tolerate long enough to get laid, but
he sure wouldn’t be able to handle one as a permanent fixture in his life. They
are all too bitchy, self-centered, whorish, and didn’t give a shit about the
man or what his needs were. A man had the need to feel loved too. Not just used
for the pleasure he could give a woman even though doing those things were
pretty cool, they weren’t everything.

“Why
don’t you take Ben in the kitchen for some ice cream?” Nina said, pushing him
and Ben toward the double swinging doors. “I’m sure there are even some
sprinkles in there.”

“But,
Ma?”

“Nonsense.
He needs some Daddy time right now, Jeff. Go on.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re
welcome, son. Don’t worry about her. She’s all talk.”

“I
hope you’re right.”

He
took Ben into the kitchen, found the scoop and the five gallon bucket of ice
cream.

“Want
some ice cream, buddy?”

Ben
nodded before he wiggled to get down. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I
love you too, Ben.”

After
about an hour, they finished eating their ice cream, cleaned up the kitchen and
he took Ben out to his truck to head for home. He hoped he didn’t run into any
guests. He didn’t want to have to play
nicey
-nice with
anyone tonight. If they could just run cattle on the place, he’d be a happy
man. His parents didn’t see it the way he did though.

As
he walked out toward his truck, he noticed a blonde woman standing on the porch
of one of the cabins the guests stayed in. From a distance, she looked
familiar, but he couldn’t quit place her. He shrugged.
Didn’t
matter.
He didn’t mix with guests. He avoided them more times than not,
unlike his brothers who liked schmoozing with them. His job was to take care of
the cattle and keep the ranch running smoothly. Keep the stock fed. Keep everything
from falling apart on the cattle side of the operation. If he did that, the
rest of them could run the guest ranch into the ground for all he cared. He
didn’t like having people on the ranch playing cowboy, but he supposed the
investment kept things in the black.

The
woman backed away into the shadow of the porch.
Odd.
He shrugged.

“Let’s
get you to bed, buddy. It’s past your bedtime.”

“I
don’t wanna go to bed.”

“Sorry.
It’s bedtime. We have to be up early to feed the horses.”

“Okay.”

Jeff
opened the passenger side door on his truck and put Ben in his seat before he
belted the boy in. When he went around to the driver’s side, he glanced over
his shoulder to see the woman again on the porch. He wondered for a moment why
she seemed to be watching him, but he blew it off as a curious guest.

He
drove up to his cabin a few minutes later. The place was home even though it
didn’t have a woman’s touch. He didn’t need it anyway. He liked his place just
like it was. Roughhewn logs with a porch going around the front of the house.
Two small windows overlooked the front yard he had fenced off for Ben to play
in. He loved the small living room with the large fireplace gracing one wall
and the kitchen where he had hoped one day a woman would love to cook for him
and their children. “Bah!
Women.
They aren’t worth the
trouble.”

He
got a sleepy Ben out of his car seat and carried him inside. Within minutes, he
had the boy stripped down to his Spiderman underwear, into his pajamas, and
between the sheets on his bed. Ben snuggled down beneath his blankets.

“Night,
Daddy.”

“Night,
buddy.”
Jeff turned off the lamp, but didn’t leave the room
right away.

Moonlight
played on Ben’s face coming through the window over his bed.
His
little boy.
The tyke carried his dark hair and gray eyes, thank
goodness. He was glad he couldn’t see much of Misha in the child, but he knew
she was his mother all the same and that chafed his hide.

If
he would have listened to his brothers, he probably wouldn’t have married her
in the first place, but he hadn’t. He’d loved her with all his heart. They’d
told him she flirted and propositioned them for months before the wedding. Then
when she’d disappeared right after the ceremony with her friends and didn’t
come home for two days, he should have realized what a mistake he’d made.
Stubborn fool.

“I’m
sorry, buddy. God, I wish your mama was someone else.”

Jeff
wandered out to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. Damn, he needed to unwind
before he tried to sleep. Dealing with his ex always soured his mood.

He
tipped the bottle to his lips before he studied the clear bottle in his hands.
The light reflecting off the golden liquid swirling around in the bottle
reminded him of the woman he’d met yesterday.
Terri Kennedy. The sunlight reflecting off her hair looked like the
beer in the bottle.

“What
the fuck? Where did that come from and why the hell am I thinking about her?”

He
took another swig.
Her eyes were green
like new grass in the pasture
.

“Huh.”

He
laid his head on the back of the couch as he remembered the woman standing next
to George in her citified outfit. She was kind of pretty with her hair back in
a ponytail and those wire rimmed glasses perched on the edge of her nose. He
laughed a dry, not so funny chuckle as he rolled the cold bottle over his
forehead. “I’ve been too damned long without a woman if I’m thinkin’ about
her.” He took another long draw from the cold liquid. “She works for those
fuckin’ developers who are
tryin
’ to take over all
the property out here to make
housin
’ developments
out of them. Bring all those city folks out here to take over the land.”

Grabbing
the remote for the television from the coffee table, he flipped on the news
just for some background noise. He didn’t like the way his thoughts were roaming
tonight. Women were the bane of his existence. Thinking about them just brought
about heartache on his part. Look where Misha had gotten him. Miserable, that’s
where.

Terri didn’t do anything to you.

“Terri?
Why do I have to think about her?” He finished his beer. “She’s out to destroy
the whole damned place!”

“In
more news.
The
firm working on
the land developments in Bandera have
hired Terri Kennedy, architect, to
work on the particulars concerning environmental aspects of changing the
landscape.”

Jeff
sat forward as the woman he’d seen out on their land came into focus on the
television.

“Ms.
Kennedy, can you tell us what plans you are working on at the moment?”

“We
are studying the impact the development will have on the surrounding community,
but rest assured we are planning to make the smallest changes possible and
still get the housing project done. We don’t want to affect the landscape at
all if we can help it.”

“Yeah
right.
They’ll be fuckin’ digging up trees, moving rocks
and disturbing the wildlife the minute they fuck with anything.”

“It’s
imperative that I talk to the local people to find out more about the area. I’m
looking to get immediate feedback from the cowboys foremost since they work
with this every day.”

“Not
from me, sister.”

“How
are you planning to get your information?”

“I’m
staying at one of the local guest ranches in hopes of talking with the family
and wranglers for my research.”

“Which
one?”

“I’d
rather not say. My sources will be kept confidential except for in my report.”

“There
you have it, folks.
Straight from the mouth of the firm’s
representative.
It’s a very controversial topic amongst the locals in
Bandera since many would be affected directly by these housing developments.
Several of the local ranches in the area don’t want the development in, but
there are a few selling out to them in hopes of a better life elsewhere. The
weather has been particularly brutal this year with the lack of rain, making
grazing especially hard. Many of the ranchers have given up. We haven’t been
able to get any of them to talk to us here at Channel Four News, but we’ll
bring you continued coverage as the story develops.
Back to
you in the studio, Marie.”

“Thank
you, Ashley.”

Jeff
flipped off the television before he set the remote back on the coffee table.
Seeing the woman’s face on the screen brought back the rush of anger he’d felt after
meeting her the other day, but also something else. He remembered the slope of
her neck, the curve of her shoulder and the shape of her hips. Why, he wasn’t
sure. She wasn’t particularly pretty. Not a beauty in the model sense of the
word, but she had something about her, a confidence maybe, that drew him to
her.

“Doesn’t
matter.”
He stood to head into the bedroom. A
nice warm shower would do him good before he tried to sleep.

With
a touch of his hand, the light in the bathroom flipped on. One thing he did
enjoy in life was a hot shower. Tonight he certainly needed it. He wrenched his
shoulder this morning fighting with a particularly ornery calf who didn’t want
to come out of the brush even when its mama called to it. Some days he really
hated his job, but most of the time he loved being a cowboy. Not like he’d
known anything else in his life.
Cowboying
was in his
DNA. He couldn’t see his life any other way.

He
quickly stripped out of his clothes and turned on the hot water. One thing he’d
insisted on when his parents helped him build his house was a top of the line
bathroom. The shower had tile from top to bottom along with a large rain showerhead.

With
a weary sigh, he climbed in and shut the door. Hot water streamed down on his
head as he closed his eyes.
God, that feels
good
. He worked his shoulder under the heat of the water to try to loosen
it up. He hoped it didn’t stiffen up tonight while he slept, but he figured it
would.
Some liniment might help.

While
he washed the dirt of the day from his body, his mind wandered to baser
thoughts. It’d been several months since he’d been with a woman and even though
he didn’t need the headaches of a female in his life, he still had the needs of
a man.

Maybe it’s time to hook up with
someone. I could do a bar run into San Antonio and probably pick up some chick
there who wouldn’t know who I am.

Terri
Kennedy’s green eyes popped into his head. She did have pretty eyes behind
those wire rimmed glasses from what he could see.

He
rubbed the soap over his cock and balls, losing himself in the feel of his hand
over his flesh.

Would
she be good in bed? How would she look with all of her blonde hair spilling
over his abdomen while she sucked him off?

His
eyes popped open. “Wow. Her?”

What the hell.
He shrugged and closed his eyes again.
She’s pretty enough.

With
his cock wrapped in his fist, he imagined her sucking the whole shaft between
her lips. Each suck, each lick brought his desire higher. Her beautiful green
eyes sparkled with lust as she sat between his thighs bringing him the best
pleasure he’d had in a hell of a long time. Moments later, cum sprayed over his
hand as he came so hard, he saw stars.