Cowboy Up (Coming Home #3)

“God fuckin’ damn, that’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen, darlin’. You comin’ from just rubbin’ yourself against my cock, fuck,” he groans, pulling me harder against his erection, pressing firmly against my sensitive sex and making me whimper. “My good girl doesn’t need any help bein’ bad anymore, does she? I’m about to love you so hard, you’ll think I’m still inside you for days. So vividly that you’ll take one step, feel what my hard does to you, and come from just the thought of me takin’ you alone.”

“Yes,” I mewl. “Please.”

“Go get in our bed. I want you waitin’ for me, spread so wide, offerin’ me that sweet pussy so I can eat my fuckin’ breakfast in bed. I’m goin’ to call Drew and let him know I’m takin’ a sick day.”

I jump down from his hold, my whole body alive and craving his promises. I don’t even spare him a glance before I’m sprinting through the house, tossing my clothes as I go, and following his every command. Then, true to his words, he joins me a few minutes later and spends the day showing me just how delicious breakfast in bed can be.





19


CAROLINE


“Make You Mine” by High Valley

- -

“I’m gonna kill her.”

Lucy makes a snarling sound in her throat, backing up Leighton’s threat without words.

I keep my mouth shut but grab Leighton’s hand before she can leave the table at which Jana had told her, firmly and without room to argue, to “sit down and not move from that spot” not even five minutes after walking into her bakery. I feel the wide-eyed stares of the people in the shop around us, but it oddly doesn’t bother me, proof that I really am becoming stronger. The only thing I care about in this moment is the nasty woman causing a scene inside my boyfriend’s sister-in-law’s bakery. His very, very pregnant sister-in-law’s bakery. And that woman is going to find out just what the new me is capable of.

“You might think you’ve got him,” Jess continues in a snarky tone. “Hell, you might even keep his attention for a little while, but he’ll be back. He always comes back. No woman stands a change at changin’ that.”

“You stupid bitch. Smartest thing he ever did was scrape you off, and he wasn’t stupid enough to come back to you once since then. You can be damn sure he isn’t gonna do it now,” Leighton snaps with fury in her words.

“We have a history!” Jess shrieks, her beautiful face turning hideous and revealing her true nature.

I stay silent and study Clayton’s ex. Jess really is lovely, I’ll give her that, but she’s the kind of woman who thinks that beauty is the be-all and end-all. The type that only has their beauty going for them and it really doesn’t get them as far as they’re convinced it does. Every time she throws more nasty words around, her shoulders start shaking with temper, her long blond hair swinging. Her blue eyes are cold, calculating, and full of vicious evil. She’s taller than me and bustier than me, with curves I’ll never have.

And I’ve never felt more beautiful.

“Your desperation is embarrassing,” I finally say, low and steady, not backing down when that evil gaze homes in on me.

I stand and step in front of Leighton when Jess moves forward. Her eyes track my movements like a predator hunting its prey. Before Clayton, I would’ve curled into myself and backed down instantly under the weight of her stare and impending confrontation. Now, though, I’m ready to take this horrible woman on, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting her close enough to Leighton to have even a slight chance of harming her or the baby.

“How does it feel to have my sloppy seconds?” she mocks.

I roll my eyes. “Bless your heart, honey. You really believe that, don’t you? Insinuatin’ a man as incredible as Clayton Davis could ever be sloppy seconds to any woman is pathetic and insultin’. You might think what you had with my man is worthy of bein’ some secondhand, used-goods kinda love, but that handsome cowboy has never loved another woman until me. You were just a way to pass time until we found our way to each other.”

She moves closer, stepping on my sandal-covered feet with her boots and making a shooting pain jolt through my body when she rolls her weight onto my toes. I don’t give her the pleasure of flinching, though. I hold myself strong and true, unwilling to give her the upper hand.

“I was pregnant with his baby,” she hisses, thankfully low enough that the people eating farther away can’t hear.

Again, I don’t react. Not even when I hear Leighton gasp as the secret Clayton kept from his family unfolds. I see Lucy start to stand in my peripheral vision, but I wave her off.

I might not care what the gawkers around me think anymore, but I won’t allow Jess to hurt Clayton by bringing something so painful to light.

Moving my face closer, I sneer at her. “Correction, bitch, you tricked him and then killed his baby. Even if you ever had a chance at experiencin’ the beauty of his love, you were dead to him when you showed him how nasty he already knew you were by doin’ that.”

I can tell she hadn’t planned on me knowing the truth, but when her hand comes out and cracks against my cheek, I lose the upper hand.

“That is enough!” I hear Jana bellow from behind the counter.

“I’m fine, Jana,” I call in her direction, pressing my hand against my cheek and not looking away from Jess.

“I’m gonna kill her,” Leighton grumbles, repeating her threat angrily behind me, but thankfully, she doesn’t move. I feel her knees bouncing against the back of my legs, so I don’t need to turn to make sure she’s still sitting. I’m not going to have another pregnant woman go into labor because she got too excited at the crazy that keeps invading my life.

“You can have that hit, Jess. I’d be mad too if I lost someone as amazin’ as Clayton, but honey, you never did deserve him. I want you to really listen now. I’m gonna marry that man. If fact, he can’t wait to get his ring on my finger. I didn’t have to trick him into wantin’ that. When the day comes that I’m blessed enough to share somethin’ as beautiful as a child we created with our love, I’ll be thankin’ my lucky stars to have a gift that incredible. And we’ll have that baby, Jess. It will be one that we both enjoy the hell outta workin’ to get—without tricks and lies. We’re gonna raise a house full of babies on that ranch. Babies we would have tomorrow, we want that blessin’ built from our love that bad. Both of us. And sweetheart, I’m gonna keep lovin’ Clayton so hard he’ll feel that long after we’ve both left this earth.”

“You stupid bitch. Clay doesn’t believe in marriage.” She cackles, the sound evil and malevolent, either not hearing me or really believing, after years of not having him, that Clayton might be pining away for her.

I press my hand against her breastbone, pushing her out of my face. After I get her a step away from me, I pull my phone from my back pocket and bring up Clayton’s name. I hold up a finger in Jess’s face and wiggle it a little before pointing down at my phone and tapping the speakerphone button. Ringing fills the shocked silence at the PieHole and this time I don’t care that our audience is making an attempt to get a little closer and hear us better.

“Hey darlin’,” Clayton answers, his voice soft and happy. I picture him smiling that heart-pounding smile and my own grows.

“Honey,” I answer lightly, not wanting him to hear just how tense I am, but I should’ve known he’d hear it anyway. My cowboy knows his woman.