How to Rope a Loyal Cowboy by Anya Summers

14

By midday on Saturday, Noah had worked up a fine sweat cleaning stalls out. They were a man down, given one of their workers had left to return to college. It meant he was spread thin. It happened like this every year in late August and early September. They lost all their summer help, with the college kids heading back to campus.

It made him think about Morgan. She was about their age.

But in some respects, she seemed older. And that wasn’t just him trying to absolve himself, considering he had been availing himself of her delectable charms nightly.

Noah had forgotten the thrill of introducing a woman to submission. Of watching her enter realms of pleasure never before attained with vanilla sex. Morgan was beyond enthusiastic about trying anything he could dream up, and given his years of forced abstinence, he had fantasies by the plenty stored up.

Hell, he was even thinking about taking his boys to his parents for a weekend soon to give him time alone with her. He could take her to Cabin X, test her boundaries strapped to custom-made furniture, and witness her sweet surrender.

He had to tamp down the tidal wave of instantaneous lust that flooded him every time he thought about Morgan. He thought of her, and wanted her. It was that simple, and that complicated. She made him happy in so many ways. He had never met anyone so full of life.

And yeah, they were blurring the lines between employer and employee, and were doing the one thing he’d sworn he would never do again: have a relationship. Because it was more than just sex. It had been more than sex with her from the beginning.

Last night, racing with her and the boys through the obstacle course they had made, he had looked at her and felt his heart turn over. He cared for her, more than he’d ever thought possible. Granted, he would never marry again, but Morgan was young, and wouldn’t be up for something like that anyway. That didn’t mean he wasn’t considering collaring her. For him, that was a big commitment—more than he had thought of making ever again.

Possession suffused him at the thought of seeing her wear his collar.

“It’s nice to see you smiling all the time. You don’t do it often enough,” Kate stated at the entrance to the stall, in jeans and a tank top. Her ivory Stetson sat at a jaunty angle on her head.

Noah cast a cock-eyed grin in her direction. “I’m not that much of a miserable bastard, am I?”

“No. But you’ve been different these last few weeks,” Kate said, studying him. “Ever since Morgan Davies came to work for you.”

They hadn’t taken their relationship public. But Kate had known him most of his life. They had gone to school together. She’d been the maid of honor at his and Sara’s wedding six years ago. Was his relationship with Morgan that obvious? “She’s been a good fit for us.”

But it was more than that. Morgan had straightened his life out. Ever since Sara died, he and the boys had been managing as best they could. The never-ending parade of nannies continued to upend their lives, making it so that they were never settled, never able to achieve a true workable routine.

And it had taken Morgan no time at all to put his house in order. Wade and Zack adored her. They were all Morgan this, and Morgan that when it was the three of them.

“Isn’t she a bit young for you, Noah? I’m glad that you’re happy. Really, I am. But it worries me too. At least, when you were with Sara, you were contemporaries,” Kate stated.

“I appreciate the concern. But it’s not up to you. I know Sara was your best friend. But she’s gone, and has been for more than three years. I loved Sara with everything I had in me. I have grieved for her, and raised our boys on my own. Do I not deserve to be happy? Because the thing is, Morgan makes me happy. And if I learned anything from losing Sara the way I did, it’s that nothing lasts forever, and sometimes you’ve got to take your happiness where you find it. So she’s a bit younger. Who cares?”

“I didn’t mean to make you angry. I’m happy for you. Truly,” Kate replied with a friendly smile.

He nodded. Then he heard Wade and Zack’s excited chatter, followed by Morgan’s low alto. “Is there something else you needed?”

“No. Just stopping by on my way out the door today,” Kate said.

Noah gripped her shoulder in a friendly manner as he passed her. Then all his attention was focused on the woman sashaying his way in a pair of jean shorts that should be indecent, holding his boys’ hands. They made quite the picture, with Wade and Zack laughing up at something Morgan had just said, and Morgan smiling down at them. It was a look infused with mischief and love.

It staggered Noah, because she had looked at him in that manner when she had ridden him like a cowgirl last night. Did Morgan love him?

If so, they were entering dangerous territory. He had staunchly refused to examine his feelings for her. He had some. How could he not care about her? Maybe her love was the balm he and his boys had all needed to set them to rights. But that didn’t mean he was offering her his heart on a platter.

And then she lifted her head and met his gaze. In her eyes were warmth and desire, all rolled together. He wanted her, here and now, and figured he would make a call so that they could have a weekend together soon, just the two of them. His parents would be thrilled at having the boys spend a weekend with them.

“Hey dudes, ready for your riding lesson?”

“Yeah.” Wade pumped his fists in the air.

“Morgan said if we did a good job today, we can make chocolate chip cookies this afternoon,” Zack stated with excitement brimming in all three feet of his body.

Noah cocked a brow. “Is that right?”

“It is. I like rewarding my boys for a job well done.” Morgan laid the innuendo on thick.

His gut tightened at her words, thinking about the way she had given him a blow job this morning before he had risen for the day. In fact, every morning before she had left his bed, she had blown him, like she didn’t want to stop touching him.

His dick certainly liked her. And he did too. “As long as we all get a reward.”

“There will be enough for all my guys. I’ll make sure of it,” she stated. “You guys have a great lesson. I’ll be back in an hour to pick you up.”

Before she could leave, though, he did something he had never done at the stables in front of his employees, not since he’d buried his wife. He pulled Morgan into his arms and kissed her, marking her, claiming her, for all and sundry to see. He kissed her until she went pliant in his arms. Only then did he release her, enjoying the dazed, needy expression in her eyes. “See you in an hour.”

“Uh-huh,” she murmured, and strode away.

He liked everything about the woman. She was smart, beautiful, sexy, and tied him up in knots with need.

“Come on, boys, let’s go do your lesson,” he said, ushering his kids to the smaller ponies’ stalls.

Even though he was present with his boys, helping them learn to ride, there was never a moment that Morgan was not on his mind. Because he was worried that she wasn’t the only one in love.

* * *

Later that afternoon,Noah was finishing up in his office. He wanted to leave and head home to spend more time with his kids—and Morgan. It always seemed to come back to her. And as much as he adored his sons, he was looking forward to the moment they were in bed asleep. Because then, he got to have playtime with Morgan in his bed. Even the mere thought had need clawing at his gut.

At the knock on his open door, he glanced up. Amber stood, framed in the doorway, wearing, of all things, a pair of jeans, a blouse, and a pair of cowboy boots. Most days, she wore power suits and heels. It was a shock seeing her in regular clothing.

“Amber, what can I do for you? I wasn’t expecting you today.”

“Got a minute?” she asked. There was a hard gleam in her eyes. He had seen that look on her brother Colt’s face a time or two. It usually meant they were neck-deep in manure.

“For you, always. Have a seat.” He jerked his chin toward the empty wooden chair.

Amber entered, closing the door behind her. She moved deliberately, with confidence and control. Noah respected the hell out of her, and the job she was doing with the ranch.

Once she was seated, she said, “So, I had an interesting chat with the Lideman Ranch out in Kentucky today.”

“Oh, sure. The one we sent some of our prized stud sperm vials to last month. Do they need more?”

“No. I’ve been waiting on seeing those funds hit the accounts. We’ve got more repairs needed this fall before bad weather sets in.”

A chill ran down his spine. “We received the payment a month ago on that. They had to send the first half as a deposit, and then the moment the supplies were ready for shipping, they had to pay the second half.”

“Well, the thing is, they say the checks were deposited. I had them fax me copies of the checks, front and back.”

“And?” He wasn’t going to panic, but this was a fucking nightmare. He was in charge of this part of the operation.

“They’re stamped by the local bank in town. I plan to go up there on Monday and look into it some more. Might have to call in the sheriff when I discover who did it, or to help me investigate further.”

“You think it’s one of my people,” Noah stated with dread filling him, and leaned back in his chair. His mind whirred, trying to think who could have done something like this, but he came up blank. He liked and trusted each of his people. But if what Amber was saying was true, it meant one of those individuals was a thief.

Amber lifted her hands in exasperation. “Noah, I have to look at everyone who had access to this office, or your assistant’s. And because of this major discrepancy, I want to conduct a full audit of the books. Those checks were for over two hundred thousand dollars. That is a substantial loss of income. If we can’t figure out who took those checks and recover the funds, I’m going to have to let some people go; possibly sell off one of our studs to recoup the loss.”

He sucked in a breath. “Not our studs, Amber. That would be suicide. We’ve got a fantastic crop of stud horses that breeders all over the world are paying top dollar for.”

It had been a program he and Colt had begun half a dozen years ago. It had paid off in spades. They sent frozen sperm supplies as far as Australia and Europe for breeding purposes. Their reproductive horse breeding program had become a great money maker for the ranch, particularly the stables. It helped them maintain the hundreds of horses under their care.

“What would you have me do? Do you think I want to have to take such drastic measures? The money to pay for things has to come from somewhere, and this is a significant loss.”

Noah removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. His mind scrambled for answers, because he had no clue who would think to do this. Not just to the ranch, but to him. It was a betrayal of the highest order.

“Has Morgan been in your office… alone?” Amber asked him with a cold expression.

Instantly, everything inside him rebelled at the idea. But then he had to think back over the last few weeks. In the time she had been the nanny for his boys, and then with him, she had laid it all on thick. There was the issue of her dad’s gambling debts. She had never said whether she was still paying them off or not. Could she have come in here on her way out after dropping the boys off? Frustrated beyond measure, he replied with a sigh, “I don’t know, and that’s the truth. I’ve not had anything missing from the house. I would think if she was stealing from me, there would be signs there.”

He intended to investigate her, as much as it would pain him to do it. He needed to check his personal accounts, just to be certain. He loathed that he had to consider everyone a suspect. “And I thought you were friends with Morgan. Didn’t you guys just have a girls’ night recently?”

“We did. I like Morgan, quite a bit, and I’m hoping that it’s not her. But if it is, I can’t allow my emotions to interfere, not with the damage those missing funds will cause.”

“Okay, I will start an internal investigation. Take the books home and review them… unless I’m under suspicion too?” He hadn’t thought of that until that moment.

“I wouldn’t have come to you if I thought you were the culprit. But one of your people is. And I need to know that you can be ruthless and objective as you go through the books. I want a copy of them myself to go over. I figure, between the two of us, we will discover who is behind this.”

“Thanks, Amber. I appreciate your faith in me.”

She nodded. “Now, get me a copy of those books, and I need a full list of your employees, including Morgan.”

Noah opened the accounting software, and got two copies of the last six months printed out. “Let me run next door to Kate’s office. She has the non-computerized ledger. I can make a copy of that, too. This way, we can cross check what has come in.”

Amber was putting the first batch together, and nodded. Noah left his office, his mind whirring. Who had taken the money?

He’d liquidate his stock shares in the ranch to keep his people working and not let any of their stud horses go. Those boys lived a charmed life. Every once in a while, they were permitted to cover a mare to keep them happy. But the ranch workers had perfected using a breeding phantom to collect the semen from the stallions. They worked with the local vet to properly freeze the semen that was shipped to the paying customers.

Noah and Amber made copies of everything they would need to examine the books and do an in-depth audit of the accounts. He would need to keep this from all his employees—the people he trusted, one of whom who had betrayed that trust.

“Once I talk to the bank on Monday, if I find out anything, I will give you a heads up. I do plan on talking to Sheriff Tate about this matter as well. I don’t want him on the ranch yet, though, in case we tip the culprit off. This matter must stay between us. I can’t even think of the PR nightmare this could cause.” Amber wiped a frustrated hand through her hair. In all his years knowing her, Noah had never seen her this aggravated.

“I agree. We don’t need to tip off whoever is behind the theft.” The theft—and having an embezzler in their midst—rankled Noah in every way imaginable.

“I’ll be in touch,” Amber stated. “And don’t say anything to my brother if you talk to him. I don’t need this calling into question whether I’m fit to run this place or not.”

“I understand. It’s between us.” And when Noah discovered who was behind it, he would wring their damn neck.