The Cowboy's Saving Grace, an erotic western novella (Taming the Cowboy) (4 page)

That was true, but Liam wouldn’t have a good ride until he got the news off his chest. He vaulted over the fence. “I’ll get back to it after lunch. Come on, the place across the street has a good buffet.”

Luke’s step faltered, but Liam clapped him on the back and steered him toward the door.

“Is Kennedy with you?”

“Yeah. She’s sleeping in the RV. I let her drive part of the way out.”

“You mind if we eat lunch without her? I need to talk to you.”

Luke’s frown deepened. Okay, Liam didn’t think he’d ever said those words before, but hell, he’d never had anything to share before, had he?

They crossed the giant parking lot outside the arena, and jaywalked across the street. Liam let his brother go through the buffet first, choose a table by the window and shovel a couple of bites down before Liam cleared his throat.

“I—have some news.”

Luke pointed his fork toward the arena. “Other than you’re one of the top rodeo riders in the nation?”

“Possibly bigger. I went looking for an old girlfriend last night. Found her. Took her back to her place. Woke up looking into my mirror image.”

Luke went absolutely still, staring at his brother. “She had mirrors? I wouldn’t have thought that would be new for you.”

“No. Christ.” Liam scrubbed his hand down his face. He wasn’t explaining this well. He was still processing it himself, hadn’t thought about how he’d tell his brother, figured he had another week to work that out. “My kid. She had my kid. I have a kid.”

Luke dug his fork back into his salad. “Surprised you don’t have kids all over the damn country.”

Liam waved an impatient hand. “No. This is my first. A little boy. Three years old.”

Luke winced. “Paternity test?”

“Don’t need one. No lie, Luke, he looks just like me.”

Luke stopped shoveling food and frowned. “And you’re taking her word for it? After she hid it from you for three years?”

Liam blew out a long breath. “We haven’t worked out the whole bit about her hiding it from me, though she said she was afraid I’d make her have an abortion or something. But definitely my kid.”

Luke sat back and sipped his glass of water. “So what are you going to do? Move to Las Vegas? Marry the girl?”

Just the word “marry” had Liam’s stomach clenching. “Not sure yet. I’ve known for like, six hours.”

Luke sat forward again. “I’m telling you. Paternity test. Watch out for her. That was a big damned secret to keep.”

Liam thought about defending her once more. Asking her to do this was saying he didn’t trust her. But his brother was right. Grace should have told him. He didn’t know what his reaction would have been, before the kid had been born, but he should have had a right to be involved from the kid’s birth.

***

Liam was used to shutting down clubs, especially strip clubs, but he was generally feeling no pain. Tonight he’d had only two beers, hardly enough after the day of riding he’d had. Hell, he’d hit the dirt so many times, he hurt all over. All he wanted was a couple shots of whiskey and a hot bath. But he didn’t want Noah to smell whiskey on his breath. God knew, Liam had smelled it often enough on his old man’s. He didn’t want his kid to have the same memory.

“You’re quiet this evening,” Grace said as she placed a Coke in front of him. “Rough day?”

“Lot to think about.”

She slid him a wary look. “Made any decisions?”

“No more than I told you this morning. Luke is in town already. I told him.”

She opened her mouth to say something but another bartender called to her. Just as well. He didn’t want to tell her that his brother didn’t trust her.

“I want you and Noah to come to the rodeo tomorrow,” he said when she came back to his end of the bar.

She lifted her eyebrows. “Are you riding tomorrow?”

“No, not yet, but I’d like to take Noah down to the arena and show him the horses.”

“You know he’s only three. He doesn’t sit still very well.”

Liam grinned. “That might be genetic.” Because God knew he didn’t stay in one place long. How the hell could he be someone’s daddy if he didn’t know how to stay put?

***

“Come inside,” Grace invited when they reached her apartment.

Liam looked past her into the dark living room, with the small little night light near the kitchen. He hadn’t intended to come in, just to see her safely home and go back to his fifth wheel. “I don’t want to wake anybody up.”

“You didn’t wake him up last night, and you weren’t exactly quiet.” She tugged lightly on his hand. “Come on.”

He followed her into the bedroom, where she closed the door quietly. “Don’t you worry he’ll hear? That he’ll come in?”

“Teresa took him to the zoo today. I doubt he’d hear a train if it came through the apartment.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and lifted her face. “I thought about last night all day.”

Ordinarily, he would have, as well, but something bigger had taken control. When he didn’t kiss her, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the hollow of his throat. His cock jumped to immediate attention, and he brought his hands to her waist, his arms tensing to push himself away. But he couldn’t make himself do it.

“I feel weird.”

She looked at him through her lashes. “You can’t tell me you haven’t slept with women who have kids before.”

“Do we really want to talk about that?” Because he’d thought about whether she’d brought home men, had slept with them with his son in the next room. He’d be damned if he risked bringing that up.

She sobered. “No. Not now.”

She leaned forward and popped open the top button of his shirt and pressed a kiss to his chest, then the next, and the next, following the path she created. His objections fell by the wayside when she unhooked his belt buckle and blew a hot breath against the fly of his jeans. She maneuvered him so that he was sitting on the bed and she was kneeling between his legs.

Jesus, he was easy.

“Take off your shirt,” he murmured.

She sat back and made a show of stripping off the tight shirt and the flimsy bra. He’d seen guys at the bar staring at her nipples through the shirt and wanted to claw their eyes out, though God knew how many men had seen her tits—and more—when she’d been stripping. He tried to remember if he’d felt jealous when he’d watched her strip before, then taken her home to bed. He just couldn’t remember.

And then he couldn’t think, as she opened his jeans and gave his cock a long swipe with her tongue. He dug his fingers into the comforter as she rose over him, pressing light kisses over the head of his dick, suckling kisses down the length. He released the comforter to bury one hand in her hair, to guide her where he wanted her. She took a deep breath and gave a pleased hum around him, the vibration going straight to his balls. She lifted her head and used her teeth—holy shit—on the crown, which shot him from aroused to fucking crazy. Before he could react, she’d released him, only to lower her mouth to his balls, her fingers stroking while she gave him suckling little kisses. Then the teeth again.

“Jesus, Grace!” He’d never been so goddamned hard, so desperate to empty himself. “Let me fuck you.”

She ignored him, taking his dick back into her mouth, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked him in quick strokes that made his head fall back, his muscles quiver in anticipation. But no, he wanted to watch her, and lowered his gaze to meet hers as her lips wrapped around him, her hand stroked the base of him.

“I’m going to come,” he warned, feeling the sensation build from the backs of his thighs to his balls.

She squeezed the base of his shaft, holding him off, then released him, rising in the same fluid motion. She stripped off her shorts and panties together, grabbed a condom from the nightstand and handed it to him.

The idea that she kept condoms in the nightstand distracted him enough that she surprised him by straddling him. He sheathed himself quickly, control gone, and guided himself to her.

She grinned as she wrapped one arm around his shoulders but leaned back to look into his eyes as she rode him, slow and easy, her pussy hot and wet. Damn, he wished he could be naked inside her. Just the thought, and the sway of her breasts, the sultry little smile on the corners of her mouth—he was going to leave her behind.

He gave up the fight and gave into the orgasm, lifting his hips into her in rhythm with the pulses of his cock.

She laughed. “You used to have better control, cowboy.”

“Story of my day,” he groaned, falling back on the bed. “Couldn’t last on the horses today, either.”

With the last of his strength, he flipped her onto her back and pumped into her, staying inside as long as he dared before the condom came loose. She gasped with each thrust and moaned in frustration when he pulled out of her to deal with the condom.

“Don’t worry, I won’t leave you high and dry.” He stretched out beside her and circled her breast with his fingertips before sliding down her flat belly, outlining the landing strip of her pubic hair.

She parted her legs wider and lifted her hips toward his descending fingers. He stroked two fingers over her outer lips and grinned.

“Okay, so not dry.”

He angled his head so he could look at her pretty pussy, pink and slick. He pushed two fingers into her and hooked them, just a little, to caress the inside of her channel. This time the sound she made was pure pleasure as she bumped against his hand, inviting his touch deeper. He straightened his fingers and fucked her, loving the sound of her body gripping his hand, loving how wet she was, how much wetter she got with each thrust. She squirmed against him, and when he didn’t go for her clit, she did, parting her outer lips with two fingers and flicking her swollen bud with a third. He watched for a moment, because, damn. Sexy as hell. But then he nudged her hand away and replaced her fingers with his thumb, sweeping up in light strokes that made her tremble all over.

“So. Close,” she managed. “Liam. Please!”

He increased the pressure, just a bit, and watched her face as she flew over the edge, her nails scoring his shoulder. He didn’t let up until she was boneless, then he tucked her into bed before grabbing his shorts and pulling them on.

He didn’t want to be naked if Noah came into the room.

Grace shifted Noah on her hip as she walked into the arena. He was getting too big for her to carry, but she didn’t want to risk losing him in this crowd, and he’d recently acquired the skill of escaping her grasp if she was holding his hand. She cast her eyes about for Liam. He’d told her to meet him at this door, she was sure.

She had to admit, he hadn’t reacted at all the way she’d expected when he learned about Noah. She thought she’d probably seen the end of him when he walked out of the apartment yesterday morning. But no, he’d been at the bar last night, then spent the night. She’d awakened to find him gone, and figured, well, that was it, but he returned a short time later, bringing egg sandwiches from the fast food place down the street.

Noah had been beside himself when he saw the bag from the restaurant he loved, but that they could so rarely afford to visit. And Liam had been kind of adorable with him. She hadn’t thought Liam knew how to talk to kids, but he engaged Noah by talking about horses and cows and singing an off-key version of “Old MacDonald,” substituting “rodeo” for “farm.” She’d been absolutely charmed.

But all this was new for him. How long would he stay interested in her son? She’d thought, four years ago, that he’d been interested in her, but once he’d driven out of town, he hadn’t looked back.

“Grace! Noah!”

She turned to see Liam weaving through the crowd toward them, grinning. Her heart gave a little kick at the sight of him. He touched her arm and kissed her mouth, then reached for Noah. To her surprise, her son went to him. Liam adjusted the kid to ride his hip, as if he’d done it a hundred times before, then took Grace’s hand and led her down the concourse, like a regular little family.

Liam was so natural with Noah, who arched his back to look around, taking everything in. He’d never been to anyplace with so many people, and his eyes were huge.

“First thing, you need your own cowboy hat.”

Liam strode over to a booth that was crowded with weekend cowboys. He released Grace’s hand and edged through the crowd toward the little kid hats. Grace’s eyes bugged at the price tags of the hats that he placed on her three-year-old’s son’s head. She stepped forward and touched Liam’s arm.

“That’s a lot of money for something he’s going to outgrow in a couple of months.”

Liam shifted calm eyes to her. “It’s fine.” He turned back to Noah. “You like this one?”

“Yes!”

“All right, then.” With one hand, Liam tugged his wallet from his back pocket and flipped it open.

Grace rocked back on her heels, clicking her teeth together so she wouldn’t protest any more. But she couldn’t help glimpsing the wad of bills inside. Her stomach clenched. She remembered having that kind of money to spend when she was dancing.

But no, she wouldn’t be resentful. Noah was worth it. And it was her fault that Liam hadn’t been part of his son’s life. If he wanted to buy him a hat, she’d let him.

“You want one, too?” Liam asked her over his shoulder.

“I’ll just steal yours.”

He laughed, paid and edged out of the crowd.

“Where are we going?”

“Do y’all want something to eat?”

She shook her head. “Not a good idea for him to eat this late.”

“Gotcha. Okay, I want you to meet my brother.”

Her step faltered. “Liam. What are we doing here?”

“I want him to meet you.”

“We haven’t even, really, talked to Noah about this. Are you going to tell your brother who he is?”

“Yeah, of course. I already told Luke about him.”

“You really think the rodeo is the best place? I mean, this is a big deal.”

He stopped and cupped her face in one hand. “It is a big deal. But it will be good.”

So why was she shaking?

He led them to what was, she supposed was backstage for the rodeo. The smell of animals, so unfamiliar, hit her before they turned the corner. Holding pens were set up for the livestock, calves in one, horses in another, bulls farther away.