The Billionaire Cowboy: A Billionaire's Club Story (2 page)

“I don’t know what you’ve heard about me, Mr. Blackwell, but I’m not the sort of girl who sleeps with a man to get what she wants.”

He studied her for a quiet moment, his face shaded by his Stetson, and Lara averted her gaze. Looking at her dusty boots was better than meeting the intense stare that promised all sorts of inappropriate things. “And I don’t know what you’ve heard,
Miss
Montgomery, but I’m not the sort of man who has to pay a woman to sleep with him.”

Lara bit the inside of her cheek so her amusement wouldn’t show. Rich, drop-dead gorgeous, and not to mention charming in that self-assured sort of way, there was no doubt that Ryder had women throwing themselves at him daily. But she’d be damned if she was one of them, no matter how tempting he might be.

“So, if you’re not suggesting I sleep with you in exchange for October, then what do you want?”

He flashed her a confident smile and his leather-brown eyes gleamed with a mischievous light. “The way I see it, you talk a good game, schooling me on how I ought to run my ranch and all. But can you back those words up? You think you can do a better job than me?”

So, they were back to the business with that damned calf? Lara didn’t know the first thing about running a cattle ranch. And she’d only told him off because his flirtations made her realize that if she didn’t put some distance between them, she’d wind up in his bed. Still, she’d rather die than admit to him that she couldn’t run his ranch better than he could. “I know I can,” she said, infusing every word with bravado. “At least under my watch, there won’t be any calves left unattended.”

Ryder’s answering laughter sent a pleasant shiver down her spine. “Wanna bet?”

A challenge? Bring it on!
“What are the terms?”

Ryder hopped up on the top rung of the fence and swung one long leg and then the other over, landing with a hop. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him as he walked up to her, his powerful thighs, confident stride, and that same hungry, predatory gaze causing her toes to curl in her boots. Sin incarnate. He stepped up beside her, so close that she had to look up to meet his face. He reached up to pet the mare and as his fingers brushed hers, Lara’s pulse raced in her veins while her breath hitched in her chest.

“You stay here for the weekend,” he said, his voice low and inviting, “and work my ranch. You do what I say, when I say it. If you last ’til Sunday, I’ll give you the mare. End of story.”

Lara cocked a brow as she reminded herself to take a breath. His proximity made her entire body come alive. A pleasant warmth radiated between her thighs; sweet Jesus, he could make her wet with nothing more than a glance. She prayed he wouldn’t notice how her nipples puckered beneath the flimsy cotton fabric of her top, practically aching for his touch. Lara’s gaze locked on his mouth, and all she could think about was taking his lip between her teeth. “And if I don’t last?” she asked, a little too breathy.

Ryder gave her a lopsided grin that turned her bones soft. “If you can’t hack it, you agree to work for me. And
only
me. As the exclusive vet to my ranch. Do we have a deal?”

Lara turned away and stroked October’s neck. She couldn’t think straight with those piercing brown eyes focused on her. Part of her wanted to scream, “Hell, yes!” at the prospect of being cooped up with Ryder Blackwell for an entire weekend. But logic stepped in and put the brakes on any wild imaginings of being at Ryder’s mercy for almost forty-eight hours. The way he devoured her with his eyes made her realize that stepping up to the plate with him might be more than she could handle. It would be so easy to submit to her own silly crush and throw herself at the gorgeous cowboy and put those rumors about his sexual prowess to the test, though. Maybe a wild weekend with Ryder Blackwell was what she needed to finally get over her crush so she could focus on business. But no matter how much she wanted him, she couldn’t risk what any sort of relationship with him would do to her reputation.

She passed her palm over October’s silky soft, dappled-gray coat. The first time she saw the mare at the breeding stables, Lara was determined to own her. A single broodmare wasn’t enough to build a successful stable of her own, but it was a start and that mare was the key to redeeming her family name. Even the most successful stables had to start somewhere, and October was Lara’s somewhere.

“You’ll be loading her up in a trailer for me by Sunday,” Lara said with a smirk. “Because you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Lara pulled back on the reins, stopping her horse at the top of a tall hill that looked out over the entire thousand or so acres of the Blackwell ranch. She rolled up the too-long sleeves on the thick wool shirt Ryder had loaned her—it’s not like she’d come prepared to work outside in December’s fifty degree weather—and tried to ignore the very male scent clinging to the garment. Her horse shifted on his feet as she stared out at a veritable ocean of cattle and wondered,
What in the hell did I get myself into?
She knew that Ryder Blackwell was a self-made man, working hard for everything he had, but until this moment, she’d never really considered the actual size of his cattle empire.

“Sort of tough to notice one calf out there, isn’t it?” Ryder rested his arms on the pommel of his saddle as he stared out across the field, the wide brim of his hat shading his face. His tone wasn’t snide or even mocking, more … awestruck. “And that’s only about a quarter of the entire herd.”

Lara’s jaw went slack. “There’s got to be three thousand head of cattle out there.”

“Closer to five,” he remarked. He shifted in his saddle and Lara couldn’t help but notice the muscles in this thighs flexing against the tight denim as he pushed off the stirrups. This weekend would be a study in willpower, that was for sure. “The rest are at ranches in Idaho and Oregon. I could’ve put these somewhere else,” he said, jutting his chin toward the herd. “Let some other cowboys be responsible for them. But I keep them here to remind me that success isn’t possible without hard work.”

His work ethic was something Lara respected. He might have been a player, notorious for bedding any woman who caught his fancy, but when it came to his ranch and the running of it, he was dead serious. “So, what’s first on the agenda?” He might’ve scored a point or two with his down-to-earth work ethic, but she needed to remind herself why she was here. No doubt Blackwell would tip the odds in his favor. He wouldn’t give October up without a fight.

“There’s a few hundred head in that far pasture.” He pointed out to a smaller fenced-in field about two miles or so from the main ranch. “We need to move them from where they are to the corrals at the ranch.”

Lara stared at him, waiting for the punch line. They’d need at least five more bodies to move that many cows, wouldn’t they? But instead of following up his statement with a “Gotcha!” or a round of laughter, he clicked his tongue a couple of times and shook out the reins, urging his horse down the hill.

“You’re kidding, right?” Lara called as she spurred her own horse after him.

“Nope.” His voice bounced in time with each step of his mount. “And there are probably fifty or so calves in that bunch. Best not leave any of ’em behind.”

He might have dazzled her with his, “Behold, my kingdom!” moment at the top of the hill, but she wouldn’t be so easily fooled again. This entire weekend would be about nothing other than retribution. Her humiliation as payment for his. She’d never run cows before in her life. Where would they even start?

Lara’s horse, a five-year-old gelding named Samson, negotiated the hill with ease, picking his way down the incline as sure-footed as any mountain horse. Granted, the rolling Texas hills weren’t treacherous by any means, but all it would take was a single misstep on a rock or gopher hole to send both horse and rider toppling down the hill. One hand gripping the reins, the other on the pommel, Lara leaned back in the saddle, helping Samson with her weight displacement. When they neared the bottom of the hill, he picked up his pace and headed after Ryder as though he knew his job and couldn’t wait to get to work.

As she gained ground on Ryder, he turned in his saddle and called, “Get the gate, will ya?” and motioned to a section of barbed wire fence that had been fashioned into a makeshift gate. Well, he’d said she was there to work. Apparently, Ryder was planning on taking advantage of the situation. She steered Samson toward the gate and eased him to a stop. Ryder veered down the fence line to her left, looking over the rest of herd while he waited on her to open the gate for him.

Lara hopped down from the saddle and Samson took the opportunity to graze on the tall field grass. She eyed the fence and took one of the sections of wire in her hand, wiggling to test its strength. Ryder sure didn’t scrimp when it came to building fence. The damned thing was taut, held in place by a section of wire that looped over a fence pole. She wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to pull the fence posts close enough together to create the slack she’d need to lift the loop of wire and release the fence.

No way would she ask for help, though.

All the money in the world at his disposal, and Ryder Blackwell chose to use an antiquated homemade gate for his pastures? Lara took a deep breath, dug the balls of her feet into the ground, and wrapped her hands around the gate’s fence post. Leaning all of her weight into the motion, she shoved the gate’s pole closer to the fence’s anchor pole, until she’d created just enough slack in the wire to lift it off the fence post. She reached for the wire and jimmied it up the pole, but it took away some of her leverage and the tension in the fence increased, keeping her from working the wire the rest of the way up the post.
Damn it
.

Attempt two at opening the gate ended much the same, with her panting, her arms shaking from the effort, and the fence mocking her with its very presence. A soft chuckle from behind her steeled her conviction, though, as she refused to let Ryder Blackwell get the best of her. She might not be strong enough to open his damned gate on her own, but she was smarter than all of his muscles combined were strong.

Ignoring him, Lara walked over to Samson and swung up into the saddle. She grabbed a length of rope and wound it around the fence’s post before wrapping the other end several times around the saddle’s pommel. She nudged her heels into Samson’s flanks and his head bucked up before he took a step back, and then another, pulling the two fence posts together. Once the tension in the rope was taut, she hopped down from the saddle, counting on the horse’s training to do the rest. A good roping horse knew when to stay put, and Samson did just that.

With more than enough slack in the wire, Lara lifted the loop off the fence post and gave a tug on the rope. Samson took a couple of steps forward and she threw the rope to the ground as she guided the barbed wire fence-gate wide open and let it fall to the ground. “After you,” she said to Blackwell with a wide sweep of her hand.

***

Ryder had dated—well, more to the point, slept with—all sorts of women: wannabe cowgirls, rodeo queens, debutants, hard-core business types, a cocktail waitress or three, and an elementary school teacher up in Lubbock, but there was something about watching Lara Montgomery open that gate that heated his blood to volcanic proportions. In tasking her with opening the gate, he’d hoped to give her no choice but to ask for his help. Hell, on a good day he had a hard time pulling those posts together himself. But the fiery vet refused to back down, and it was damned smart of her to get Samson to do the heavy lifting. He’d have to remember that trick the next time he was out here alone.

“So, why are we moving this group and leaving the others down here?” Lara asked as she maneuvered Samson into the pasture.

Her cold tone did little to cool his jets. On the contrary, it made Ryder more determined than ever to melt her icy exterior. “We separated this group last week. Most of these cows will be calving in the next few weeks. I want them closer to the main house. They’re easier to take care of that way.”

Ryder pushed his hat up on his forehead and turned in his saddle. A few miles wasn’t far to ride, and even without Lara’s help, he could have moved the herd with little to no trouble. They’d been moved back and forth between these pastures for years, and the cows knew what to do when he opened the gate. But he didn’t want Lara to know that.

“Okay, so where do you want me?”

He couldn’t ignore how her voice dropped a couple of decibels with the question, almost breathy, and Ryder thought of several places he wanted her, one of which was straddling his cock, riding him like she did that horse. Jesus, the way her ass came off the saddle and settled back down was enough to knock the air right out of his chest.

“Come around and flank the left side.” Ryder’s voice was strained, but it was nothing compared to the erection straining in his jeans. He cleared his throat and shifted in his saddle. “It’ll push them out of the pasture get them headed toward the ranch.”

She shielded her eyes with her hand as she steered Samson toward the sun. Ryder pulled his Stetson from his head. He walked his horse, Dakota, up beside her and tossed the hat. “Here. You’re gonna need it.”

Without even a pause to consider the offer, Lara put his weathered Stetson on her head. It was a little big, and slid down her forehead, but Ryder couldn’t deny that she looked damned fine in it. Seeing his hat and shirt on her body drove him crazy, scrambling his thoughts to the point that the entire herd could get away from him right here and now and he wouldn’t give a single shit about it.

As if he wasn’t even there, Lara steered Samson around the pasture, pushing the cows and calves out through the pasture gate and into the next field. He didn’t know what he found more aggravating, the fact that she ignored him, or well, the fact that she’d
ignored him
. If Jase was here right now, he’d have fallen off of his horse laughing. What did he have to do to get a second glance from her?

Ryder never went into any situation half-cocked, though. He’d orchestrated the purchase of October Sky, knowing it would get Lara out here. He never left anything to chance. And as soon as the herd filed out of the gate, he sat back in his saddle and waited for Lara to lose that cool she so easily maintained.