Rough Ryder Read online

  The pilot emerged from the cockpit and opened the outside door, lowering the steps.

  “Your bodyguard is deeper than you realize.” She squinted. “Deeper than he lets on.”

  The way Ryder looked at her—as if he was tempted to ask how she knew this—encouraged her for a moment. No, her guy wouldn’t go there. Her sixth sense stuff was probably too much for him, but she’d ease him into it. “He sees a lot, doesn’t say much. Schmiddy may be psychic. I’ll see if Mom will give him a test someday.”

  Ryder shook his head as he motioned for her to go ahead of him down the steps. “No way. I’d be minus one bodyguard, and I rely on him far too heavily.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to lose him.” But she’d work on the bodyguard, bring him out of his shell. Someday. As she descended the steps, she breathed in the humid, warm, earthy air of a Louisiana night.

  An unmarked white pickup truck sat near the hangars. “That’s us.” He gestured toward it and shook the pilot’s hand. “Thanks, Captain. I’ll call if I need you.”

  “Yes, sir. Thank you, and have a good vacation.”

  Brooke smiled at him and walked with Ryder toward the truck. Funny, to most of the world, this was considered his vacation from his music superstar life, but she knew Ryder considered it his real life, and his music career was his side job. No wonder the guy couldn’t find a way to let anyone special into his life. Until now.

  And thank heavens she’d been tenacious in following where her heart told her to go.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It surprised Brooke when Ryder helped her into the passenger seat then jumped in the driver’s side and started the truck. Of course, since this was his “real life”, he’d drive himself around. “I didn’t picture you driving a truck like this.”

  A muscle in his cheek jumped. “You mean you think I’d drive some big, red, lift-kit truck with a loud exhaust and lights across the top?”

  Had she offended him with stereotyping? “No, it’s not that. I don’t think—”

  “Got that parked in the garage at the ranch.” He winked at her. “I don’t like to leave it out here since people know it’s mine, and some kid might just decide to grab a mirror, or something, and sell it.”

  “I’d buy a used Ryder Landry truck mirror, for sure.” She rubbed her hands together and they laughed.

  Ryder took a slight detour so he could cruise through town, show her all his favorite spots.

  A few people stood out in front of a bar, and some of them waved, and he waved back, but there was no mad rush of photographers or autograph seekers. She loved it.

  From there he headed to his ranch, explaining how it had been a farm when he and his mother had worked it, but when he started making money from his music, he’d converted the tired farmland to pasture and, with Chase’s help, started breeding bucking broncos. He wasn’t at the point of selling any horses, or bringing them to rodeos, but he was having fun just learning about them and helping his wranglers train them.

  She spotted buildings up ahead. “Is that the ranch?”

  “Yep, we’ve been on my land since that last turn.”

  She looked out the back window. “That was miles ago. This is a big place.”

  “Yep. Grow ‘em big in Lou-zi-anna!”

  “Thank heavens.” She gave him a wink.

  He returned it with a wicked grin. They talked about the ranch as he did a quick drive-by of the buildings, past the paddocks where horses grazed. He greeted a few men who came out to see who was driving through.

  She couldn’t wait to meet the foreman, Buck, and see what had made Hope go crazy over him.

  Ryder pulled up to the house. A two-story relic that spoke of many years of long, hot summers and chilly winters. The huge screened porch along the front of the house would be her new hangout for writing songs. If…she was here that long.

  Then she asked about his mother.

  He gripped the steering wheel with both hands. “She was a musician, a singer. She would front Angus’s…Dad’s band when he came through Louisiana and eastern Texas. It was at a point when Dad and his wife—Val and Steele’s mother—were considering splitting.”

  Brooke could hear the stress in Ryder’s voice. This had to be difficult, but it was part of being a couple. A couple? She wanted that, but did Ryder? She hoped he did, wanted to infer that from what he’d said, but with him, she wasn’t sure.

  “I don’t know the whole story because Mom never said anything. Even in her final documents, she just named Angus as my father without any additional explanation.” He turned onto a narrow paved road.

  The headlights illuminated lush trees and green fields that fascinated her. So untouched and natural. “What did Angus tell you?”

  He shrugged. “He and Mom had a thing for a while, then she just stopped coming to shows, and he had no way of contacting her, since she used a stage name. She was a widow, no kids, which always raises the question of whether she intended to get pregnant or not.”

  Brooke laid her hand on his arm. “Whichever it was, from the way you talk about her, she loved you very much.”

  He nodded quickly, his jaw clenching for a moment. “She did. But she lied to me, told me my father had abandoned us. I think she said that because she didn’t want to share me with Angus.”

  “She may have been afraid he’d take you away from her.” Brooke looked forward to going through Ryder’s family photos, seeing the woman who raised him, and cooing over his baby pictures.

  “I think you’re right.” He took her hand and held it on the console between them. “But she wanted me to be part of the McLairn family after she was gone, so she left instructions in her will.”

  “But you mentioned you didn’t find out right away.”

  He told about the day months after his mom had died, when he was at a concert with Steele and Chase, and his mother’s lawyer contacted him with the news of his paternity. Steele had been as shocked as Ryder was, but then something had happened to make Steele think Ryder had known all along, and had wormed his way into Steele’s life because of it.

  “It’s taken us a lot of months, but I think we’re good now.” He smiled. “Especially considering my half-brother’s public announcement.”

  “I guess that would be the first clue.”

  “I need to…” He took a few deep breaths. “Need to go to Mom’s grave. I haven’t been there since I got the notice about Angus from her attorney.”

  Brooke squeezed his hand and remained silent.

  “I want to talk to her, make peace with her after all this was revealed.”

  “That would be healing for you.”

  They headed into the house, her with her messenger bag and red shopping bag, him with his suitcase and that mysterious black tube. He dropped his load in the entryway, turned to her, and grinned. “Upstairs first?”

  Her belly flipped and between her legs everything turned slick and warm. “Yes, please.”

  He took her hand and they ran up the long flight of wooden stairs, turned left, then stepped into a magnificent bedroom. Tall, arched windows took up most of the three white exterior walls, blue curtains matched the bedspread on the huge dark-wood four-poster bed. The mattress sat so high, she’d need a stool to get onto it. Under her feet, a colorful rug covered most of the dark hardwood floor, and a big couch in the same pattern as the rug sat in front of a fireplace.

  “This is beautiful.”

  “I opened up my old bedroom and the guest room and did this.” He watched her face for her reaction. “I guess the whole place should be torn down and replaced with something modern and—”

  “No.” She walked up to him and put her hands on his waist. “I love it. It’s beautiful and flawed and has memories for you.”

  “Brooke.” He leaned down, running his hands along her back to her butt. “That’s why you’re so perfect.” He kissed her neck, groaning softly.

  “I have flaws, too.” She tipped her head to give him access, hooked he
r index fingers in his belt loops, and pulled his hips against hers. “They’re just so hard to find.”

  He chuckled and hauled her up until her feet lifted off the floor, and the swollen shaft in his pants pressed into her belly. “They are. But I plan to spend long, hot hours looking for them.” He walked her backward to the bed and dropped her on it.

  She bounced a couple times, then lay on her back. “Start with my feet.” She held up one leg, pointing her boot at him.

  They got busy and in less than a minute had a pile of clothes and boots on the floor. She held up her arms to him. “Make love to me, Ryder.” She wanted him, body and soul.

  “My pleasure, cutie.” He lay over her, pressing her down, leaning on one elbow, and palmed her breast. “You are beautiful, exciting, and wild as all outdoors.”

  “Thank you. I think.” She could barely think with all his flesh available to touch. She ran her palms over his big, strong shoulders, his muscled arms, down his back to his narrow waist, then back up again to start the cycle over.

  His shaft pressed along the cleft of her legs and he moved slowly, dragging his length over her clit. He opened his fingers on her breast and her nipple popped up between his knuckles, hard and sensitive. When he pinched his fingers together, electric charges ran from her breast all the way to her pussy. Hot and needy, she coordinated her hips to bring his shaft closer, faster, giving both of them more friction.

  She looked into his green eyes, watching the pupils expand as he became more aroused. “You’re one hunk of sexiness, yourself.”

  He smirked and leaned in for a kiss, slowly running his tongue over her lips, then tangling it with hers, sucking her tongue into his mouth. His spicy taste infused her entire body with heat.

  His fingers on her nipple played faster, and his hips worked harder. “We’ve got all night, but I don’t want to slow this down.” He spoke against her lips, then kissed her again, putting his whole being into it, telling her without words that he needed her immediately.

  Rolling to the side, he reached back and a condom packet magically appeared. She reached for it, and he flopped on his back, letting her sheathe him. Taking her time, she ran her hand down his thigh, then up until she cupped his sac. Hot and heavy, she inhaled his male scent, musky and clean.

  Glancing up at him, she saw the intense look in his eyes. “I like this, cowboy. I could tease and play with you all day.”

  “That’s on the agenda for tomorrow.” He sat up and took her shoulders, easing her down on the bed. “For now, I want to take you, brand you as mine, Brooke.”

  Shivers coursed across her skin. His unexpected words sent her heart skittering, and the tender flesh between her legs wet with her juices. “Yes, Ryder. That’s all I could ever want.”

  Ryder knelt between her legs, lifted her calves and set them on his shoulders, elevating her bottom up off the bed. He looked down at her pussy, spread wide for his pleasure.

  The beginnings of an orgasm clenched at her insides, rattled through her brain like marbles in a tin can.

  “I need to taste you, to explore you in the sunlight, in the firelight. Take days watching you climax in every way possible.”

  Her butt clenched and her hips tipped up, her body working all on its own to beg for him to enter her.

  “My cutie.” He ran his hands down her thighs, reached around and grabbed his shaft, positioning it at her opening.

  “Yes, please, right now.” She closed her eyes and rolled her head back and forth, wanting his hot cock deep inside her.

  “Right. Now.” With one strong push, he seated himself completely inside her, his balls slapping against her bottom. He groaned.

  She cried out and tightened around him, needing him right there, forever, so thick and long, she could feel every inch of him deep inside.

  “God, Brooke. So amazing.” His head dropped forward as he slid his shaft out of her, leaving her empty for just one second before pulsing back into her again.

  He leaned forward, stretching her legs up toward her body. Grasping her wrists, he pinned them at her shoulders, holding them with just enough pressure to make her feel bound, restrained, and so close to orgasm, she had to bite her lip to stop from sailing over. She needed to feel every second of this.

  As he rotated his hips from side to side, then up and down, sliding in and out of her at every angle possible, his gaze bore into hers, holding her captive with the passion in his eyes.

  She panted through her open mouth, worked her hips in rhythm with his thrusts, watching his face tense as he concentrated on pleasing both of them.

  And the pleasure grew intense. Despite his worry that they wouldn’t be able to last, he drove himself into her over and over, keeping their sexual tension right at the peak. The man had skills, changing his technique every few minutes, making her cry out as he found a new spot inside her to pleasure with his shaft.

  When he leaned over her further, pumping faster and deeper, the tight bliss in her core rode up her spine and sent her brain rolling from her body. “Ryder. Now.” She closed her eyes as her body tensed.

  He released one of her hands and reached for her clit, rubbing it, sending her revolving even faster, his hips jerking into hers, each thrust punctuated by a groan, growing louder each time.

  She screamed his name, while he jackhammered his heavy cock into her and roared like a beast.

  Tumbling slowly back to reality, she squeezed herself around his shaft as he slowed his pulsing hips, breathing heavily, punctuating his withdrawal from her with short, feral groans.

  He lowered her legs, then the whole bed shook as he flopped down on his back next to her, pulling her half on top of him.

  They both breathed hard, and gradually her pulse slowed, her mind regained focus, and she pressed her hand on his chest, feeling the rapid beat of his heart.

  “That was epic.” He tugged her closer. “Your face looked so beautiful, Brooke.”

  Every time with him had been the best ever for her, but if she said that out loud, she’d probably do something stupid like blurt out how much she loved him, too. And neither of them was ready for that. “Amazing.” The word barely covered how she felt, but it was a safe start.

  “Yeah.” He played with her hair. “Might take me a minute or two to recover from it.” His hips jerked under hers.

  She smiled. “Is this a sprint or a marathon?”

  He pulled back and tugged her hair until they looked into each other’s eyes. “What do you want it to be, cutie? Can you stay a while?”

  “A while, like a few days?” If she did, how would she ever be able to leave him?

  “No, I’m thinking more like a couple weeks.” His lips tightened, then he took a breath. “Stay with me so we can get to know each other.”

  A wash of pure ecstasy flowed through her, moistening her eyes and sending a chill through her, goosebumps rising on her skin. “Ryder, yes. I’d really love that.”

  “Good. ‘Cause I don’t know if I could let you go in just a few days.” His fingers ran over her pebbled skin and he reached for a remote on the bedside table. Pointing it toward the sitting area, he pressed a button.

  The fireplace roared to life.

  She smiled. “It’s gas? That’s so easy.”

  “I lazy-ed out. There’s a big woodburning fireplace downstairs, so I went with convenience up here.” He helped her sit up. “Should we go snuggle on the couch?”

  “Absolutely.”

  They spent a few moments in the bathroom together, the moments so intimate, it made her breath catch. From there they padded barefoot and naked to the couch. He held her on his lap. The warmth from his body plus the heat of the fire melted her tension, eased her mind.

  “Need anything?” He rubbed his big hand over her shoulder and down her arm, his other hand caressing her legs.

  There was something that had been niggling… “Yes, actually. If it’s none of my business, let me know, but what is in that black tube you brought on the airplane?”r />
  He looked away, and his cheeks actually pinked up a little. “You’re going to think I’m a softhearted fool, but it’s the signs.” He looked at her, his brow wrinkled. “I brought along the sign you held up at that concert in Pennsylvania.”

  “You mean you saved my sign?” She couldn’t reconcile the cocky, self-indulgent Ryder Landry he was then to a man who would save a paper sign that couldn’t have meant anything to him.

  “I had Schmiddy grab it that night.” He shrugged. “I don’t know why.” He looked off, as if considering his actions. Then he looked at her. “I brought it along last night in case you told me to go to hell, and refused to come away with me. I would have used it to prove what a nice guy I was, deep down inside.”

  She could barely pull in a full breath. “That’s probably the most romantic, unexpected, perfect thing I can imagine.” Cupping his cheek, she kissed him softly. “Thank you. You are truly the man I knew you were, deep down under all those issues of yours.”

  “Issues is right.” He kissed her. “But we’ll work on it.”

  She would, gladly, and with both of them dealing with family concerns, it might just take a lifetime. His words came back to her, then. “You said ‘signs,’ as in plural?”

  “Yep, I had Schmiddy recover the sign I held up.” He squeezed her thigh. “Figured if nothing else, it’d be another way for me to snag you and reel you in.”

  “Oh cowboy, I’m snagged, reeled in, and may just be a permanent fixture here.” She laughed. “Is that too presumptuous of me?”

  “Not at all. It’s one day at a time, but I think we’ve got a hell of a chance.” He looked into her eyes. “One thing bothers me, though.”

  She blinked back a little slice of panic. What had she done now?

  He smirked. “What did you say to ol’ Schmiddy to make him laugh?”

  Relief flowed through her. “I told him, ‘You know, Schmiddy, if things work out at the ranch, your new full-time job might be Official Brooke Davidson Transportation Manager.”

  Ryder laughed. “Miss Brooke, I swear, you work miracles.” He lay her back on the couch, leaning over her. “And this is one cowboy who can use all the miracles he can get.”