Shared By the Cowboys by Cassie Cole

Epilogue

Mason

I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, trying unsuccessfully to tie a necktie. It had been a very long time since I had done it, and I was rusty.

Blake poked his head in the bathroom. “My suit doesn’t fit the way it did at the tailor.”

I glanced over at him. “You look fine to me.”

“I don’t like it. I’d rather wear jeans. No one will care.”

The old me would have snapped at Blake and told him to stop complaining. But I was a different man, now. At least, I was trying to be. I knew that I needed to treat Blake like my brother, and not like an annoyance.

“This is important to Rebecca,” I said calmly. “She doesn’t ask for much. Tonight is for her, and agreeing to what she wants is the least we can do.”

Blake grimaced and stepped up to the mirror next to me. “Yeah, you’re right. Fuck, ties are dumb.”

Cody appeared in the doorway. “Having problems?”

“Fucking hell. How’d you figure out your tie?” Blake asked.

“I’ve always known how to tie one, because I’m a man of culture.”

“Yeah right,” Blake grumbled. He reached out and grabbed the tie. “It’s probably a…”

He yanked, and the tie came free.

“…clip-on.”

I laughed at Cody’s horrified look. “Nice try, brother!”

He snatched the clip-on tie from Blake. “Blake’s right: ties are stupid. Nobody’s gonna know if I cheat.”

“Rebecca would know,” I said.

Cody sighed deeply. “Damnit. All right. Show me how to do this.”

It took the three of us half an hour to get our neckties close to presentable. When we exited the bathroom, Rebecca was waiting in the hallway.

“Who are you three dashing men,” she said, “and what have you done with my rugged cowboys?”

“Forget us,” I said. “Look at you.”

I didn’t know much about dresses, but I knew hers was fancy. It was a shade somewhere between pink and salmon, floor-length with frills on one side and a neckline that showed a lot of cleavage. Her hair hung down her shoulders in silky waves, and there was a touch of red lipstick on her puckered lips.

Cody whistled. “Damn, Becca. You clean up real nice.”

“I’m throwing away all your other clothes,” Blake said. “We’re gonna make you wear that around the ranch from now on.”

She put her hands on her hips. “It would be tough to ride Wildfire in this.”

“You won’t need to ride your horse. Your job from now on is to give us a show, from sun-up to sun-down.”

“I already do that.” She turned around and gave us a glimpse of her ass, which looked amazing in the dress. My cock pulsed, and I wondered if we had time before we had to leave.

“We leave in five,” Rebecca said, dashing my hopes of a quickie. But I resolved myself to put my hands on her later tonight, when we were alone.

It was a three-hour drive from the ranch to Great Falls. It was strange watching the mountains slowly disappear and the view in front of us change to the rolling hills and plains of central Montana. I couldn’t remember the last time we had left the valley. Back before we had met Penny, probably.

Thinking of her still made me smile. It always would. But her memory no longer brought with it crippling sadness. For better or for worse, we had truly moved on. Rebecca had not only filled the hole in my heart, she had crawled inside and stretched her legs. I felt stronger than I did before, thanks to her.

I felt like more of a man.

The event was at a country club on the Missouri River. “Holy shit, valet parking,” Blake said. “This is fancy.”

My eyes popped as we got out of the car and walked inside. This place was much nicer than I was used to. Crystal chandeliers and white tablecloths and serving men holding trays of champagne. The crowd was fancier than I expected, too. There were at least a dozen men wearing tuxedos.

“I bet a bow-tie is easier to put on than a regular tie,” Blake grumbled.

“Trust me: it’s not,” Rebecca replied. She patted his back. “You got off easy by wearing a normal suit.”

At one end of the room was a table full of copies of Rebecca’s newest book, and a banner with her name on it in large letters.

“Why don’t you have your book launches in New York?” Cody asked. “Seems like a more appropriate place than Great Falls, Montana…”

“We usually do have them in New York,” she explained. “But since this book takes place on a ranch, I convinced the publisher to host it here. Okay, I threw my weight around and demanded the event take place here. I didn’t want to leave the ranch for very long. Besides, I’m big enough that I can make people come to me for once.”

“There’s the woman of the night!” Terry, Rebecca’s agent, was wearing a black cocktail dress with silver jewelry that matched her silver-streaked hair. “And look at who she brought? I knew the three of you were brimming with class.”

“We fake it well,” I replied with a smirk. “Good to see you again, Terry.”

“And under happier circumstances, too! I promise I’m not going to reveal any of Rebecca’s dirty secrets.”

“Nothing to worry about there. I’m an open book, so to speak,” Rebecca said with a clever smile.

Terry waved to a serving man, who brought over a tray of champagne flutes. “Drink up, drink up. A book launch is a celebration, and we have you three to thank for it!”

The champagne was chilled and filled my mouth and throat with tingling bubbles. Blake smacked his lips and said, “I like our hard cider better.”

Terry gawked at him. “This is Dom.”

“Never heard of him,” Blake replied. “It’s not bad. I just prefer our own stuff.”

Terry rolled her eyes and took Rebecca by the hand. “Come, let’s mingle. The director from Harper Collins is here, and I wasn’t expecting her. I think she’s going to ask for the film rights…”

We followed them out to the back patio, which could probably be called a garden based on all the plants and bushes scattered everywhere. We watched Rebecca make the rounds among the clusters of people at the party. Blake, Cody, and I felt out of place without someone to latch onto, and we stood around sipping our champagne.

“She’s good at it,” Cody said.

“Good at what?”

“All the fancy party stuff. Laughing at bad jokes and makin’ her own. She looks like she belongs in Manhattan, not on a Montana ranch.”

I nodded along while watching the woman I loved. She did look like she would be more at home in New York.

“It’s just fiction,” I heard her say to someone else. “Of course it’s not based on anything real.”

“Oh that’s too bad,” the other woman replied. “Three cowboys? Can you imagine? That would be heaven!”

“Yes, it would be.” She glanced over, smiling when she caught my gaze before turning back to the other woman. “Better than heaven. If only we were all so lucky.”

We’re the lucky ones, I thought with a smile. For finding someone like her.

After Rebecca had made the rounds, she excused herself to the bathroom. I casually followed her in that direction, down a hall adjacent to the golf locker rooms. When Rebecca came out of the bathroom I took her by the hand and sneaked into the women’s locker room.

“What are you doing!” she whispered.

I cupped her chin and tilted her head up so I could kiss her. “I wanted to do this before we left.”

She sighed as I nuzzled at her neck, pushing her back against one of the changing lockers. Her purse fell from her grasp and landed on the floor, but we were both too focused on each other to care.

“I have to get up in front of everyone in a few minutes,” she breathed while I hiked up her dress.

“Then we’d better hurry.”

I kissed her roughly, pulling her dress up until I could feel her smooth skin underneath. She moaned into my embrace and pushed her hips into me, unconsciously begging me to continue. As I lifted her into my arms she wrapped her legs around me tightly.

I reached down, fumbling at my zipper to release my throbbing hard-on with one hand while our lips grinded together with frenzied lust. When it was finally free I tugged her panties to the side and dropped her down, impaling her on my shaft.

I can never get over how she feels, I thought.

She tilted her head back and let out a silent moan, and I nuzzled at her exposed neck while slamming her against the locker with a metallic clang. Her pussy tightened around my hard length as I fucked her against the wall of the locker room, unknown to the launch party just outside, until both of us clung to each other with near-silent release.

“What brought that on?” she asked while touching up her lipstick in the mirror afterward. “Not that I mind, of course…”

I kissed her shoulder blade. “Just reminding you of what our ranch has to offer.”

She looked at me in the mirror. “Implying I need reminding?”

I shrugged. “There are a lot of fancy people out there from the big city. You look so comfortable with them…”

She put away her lipstick and turned around. “I’m just being polite with them. It’s fun for a night, I guess, but I’m only me when I’m with you, and Blake, and Cody. I’m never leaving Cassidy Ranch.”

I tried to kiss her again, but she stopped me with a finger. “You’ll ruin the lipstick. I have to speak in a minute!”

“I’ll save it for later, then.” I kissed my palm, then smacked her on the ass.

“Later on, you can kiss me wherever you want. And maybe I’ll repay the favor.”

I grinned as I followed her back into the country club dining room.

Terry waved Rebecca down and guided her to the podium at the back of the room. I carefully slipped through the room until I reached the table where Blake and Cody were sitting.

“Where’d you disappear to?” Cody asked.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“You see this?” Blake asked, hefting a hardcover copy of Rebecca’s book.

“She showed me the cover design.”

Blake made a face. “Not that. This.”

He opened the book and flipped to the dedication page.

To my three cowboys.

A book brought us together, but a book will never come between us.

I don’t know why the gesture meant so much to me, but my throat tightened and I found myself unable to speak. Cody patted me on the shoulder.

I closed the book and gestured. “She’s about to speak.”

Terry tapped the mic and welcomed everyone to the event. She spoke for a few minutes about her history working with Rebecca Winters, and how this is her best book yet. Then she was replaced by a bald man with a door-knocker beard who worked for the publisher, who was hosting the book launch event. He talked about how excited they were to be publishing Rebecca’s book, and yada yada yada. I sipped my water and listened to him drone on.

Finally Rebecca herself took the mic. When the applause died down she thanked everyone for coming to the event, and then talked a little bit about the book.

“I would especially like to thank the men of Cassidy Ranch,” she said. “Mason, Cody, and Blake Cassidy graciously allowed me to be a ranch hand while I brainstormed ideas. Without them, there is no book.”

The three of us smiled and nodded as the room applauded politely. A few women whispered and grinned at us.

Cody beamed back at everyone. Blake actually blushed, like he didn’t know how to handle all the attention.

A woman at the neighboring table tugged on my arm. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help but ask. Is the story…”

“It’s entirely fictional,” I replied smoothly. “It says so in the front of the book. Any resemblance to characters, real or fictional, is entirely coincidental.”

“Ah.” She looked disappointed, but kept stealing glances at the four of us.

Rebecca finished her speech and started to walk off the stage. Then Terry took the mic and asked, “What’s next for Rebecca Winter? Is there another book you’re brainstorming?”

Rebecca smiled out at me. “I have some ideas, but I’m going to wait a little while and see what bubbles to the surface. In the meantime, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to savor being at home.”

The way she said it, I knew she meant Cassidy Ranch. That was her home now.

She mingled some more, then the crowd began to leave. “That was a lot of talking,” she said when she finally made it back to us. “Time to head out? My condo’s lease doesn’t end for another month, and it’s just two miles from here.”

“Actually, we were thinking we would head home tonight,” I replied. “I know we packed overnight bags, but I only had one glass of champagne over two hours ago. I’m good to drive.”

“You want to drive all the way back? Tonight?” she asked.

“I like to sleep in my own bed,” I replied. “Besides, we have a lot of work to do in the morning. We need to take down the windbreak, and mend the section of the fence that blew down in the storm last week…”

“Don’t forget the chickens!” Cody chimed in. “Those baby chicks are brittle little things. Have to keep an eye on them.”

“It’s too loud here in the big city,” Blake said.

“Great Falls is hardly a big city,” Rebecca said dryly.

“I still prefer the quiet of the ranch. Except for all the noises you make.”

“You know what? I prefer the quiet of the ranch too.” Rebecca wove an arm around my waist. “Going back tonight does sound nice. There’s no place like home.”

The drive back wasn’t too bad. Blake kept me company in the front seat, while Rebecca slept on Cody’s shoulder in the back. I smiled as my headlights swept across the Cassidy Ranch arch above the driveway. Like Rebecca said, there was no place like home.

I gently lifted her out of the back seat and carried her inside. The two of us crashed in the master bedroom while Blake and Cody went to their own rooms. Sometimes we all slept together, but usually that was after some group activities. Tonight, I wanted Rebecca all to myself.

I spooned her body against mine and listened to her wheezing breath long into the night.

I never knew I could be so happy.

We woke in each other’s arms to the smell of bacon and eggs and pancakes. Blake was in the kitchen, stirring a spatula over the stove.

“Nice of you to make breakfast,” I said.

He only grunted. Typical Blake.

“Thanks,” Rebecca told my brother, kissing him on the back of the neck. Blake actually smiled at that. She had way of touching his soul that nobody else ever had.

“So,” she said while sitting down. “What’s the breakdown of chores today?”

Cody sat up excitedly. “I figured the four of us would take a ride around the property, gauge the damage from the storm the other day. Might be a two-man job, or it might be four. Sound good to you, Becca?”

“Sounds like the perfect day,” she said with a smile while sipping coffee.

Rebecca, Blake, and I readied the horses while Cody packed lunch. Then we mounted up and rode out to the mountains while the sun rose on our backs, bright and warm. There were only a few stray clouds in the sky, which was the deepest shade of blue I had seen in a long time.

The perfect day, just like Rebecca said.

I smiled at her, and she smiled back. Then her grin turned mischievous.

“Race you to the tree line.”

Without waiting for a response, she urged Wildfire into a gallop, laughing as she shot away from us.

I shared a look with Cody and Blake. My two brothers shook their heads and chuckled.

“Last place has to fix the fence!” Blake suddenly blurted out.

Cody and I flicked the reins and tried to keep up as we chased Rebecca, our lover, up into the mountains.