How to Rope a Loyal Cowboy by Anya Summers

3

Weekday mornings in Noah’s house were akin to attempting to corral a runaway stampede. It was messy, dangerous, and someone typically ended up hurt. And that was just the first hour of Noah’s day. From there he tended to run on coffee and chaos, moving from one thing to the next, until he returned from the stables each night, and got the boys into bed. Rinse and repeat, every day, into infinity and beyond.

Dressed for the day, Noah yawned as he left his bedroom. There were some enticing aromas wafting from the kitchen, one of them was coffee. If Morgan had already gotten the coffee going for him, he was going to give her a raise. He noticed the boys’ bedroom door was already wide open and the room empty of the wild hellions he was raising. But then he detected the sound of their enthusiastic chatter coming from the kitchen too.

Curious, he ambled down the hall as he buttoned up his lightweight plaid. It was late August, and going to be another scorcher outside today. Most likely, he would end up stripping off his shirt and white tank beneath to his skin before the day was done. But as horse master for Silver Springs Ranch, he tried to look respectable most days.

In the kitchen, Morgan stood at the stove wearing a baby pink tank top and cut off jean shorts, giving him a view of her stellar legs. She’d fastened her dark chestnut hair into two braids that fell over her slim shoulders. The tank top clung to her lithe form and cupped the swell of her pert breasts. Unexpected lust punched through Noah with such force, he almost staggered at the image of taking her bent over the counter, those long braids in his hand as he fucked her from behind.

Where the fuck had that come from?

Morgan turned with a spatula in her hand and a smile on her beguiling face. “Morning. Coffee?”

“Yes.” He nodded, his mouth dry as he tried to corral his raging hormones. But then she went up on her tiptoes, stretching to reach a coffee mug, and the hem of her tank top rose to reveal creamy, smooth skin, and a dainty butterfly tattoo on her lower back that was sexy as hell.

“Here, let me get that.” Instead of having her struggle and continuing to stare at her like she was his breakfast, he stepped into her space and reached over her head. Their fingers brushed. Sensual energy zapped through him, even as he fought the rising tide in his groin.

Noah looked down the same moment she glanced up. The air between them sizzled with erotic undercurrents. The pulse at the base of her neck beat rapidly, like fluttering hummingbird wings. Her pink tongue darted out and wet her bottom lip. It would be so easy to dip his head down for a taste.

But sanity and control prevailed. He grabbed a mug and backed away from her far too enticing body. He had to, otherwise he would do something epically dumb, like kiss the new nanny. The one who was twelve years his junior, and made him feel like a dirty old man for even considering her in a sexualized way for a single second.

“Thanks for getting them up and ready.”

“It’s my pleasure.” Morgan had this sultry alto that made him think of jazz singers.

And the way she replied made him wonder what she sounded like when she came. Not that he would ever find that out.

Jesus Christ! Apparently, he had lost his mind this morning. He averted his gaze when he noticed her nipples pressing against her tank top in response to their innocuous touch, and tried to think about all the tasks facing him at the stables the moment he arrived.

Needing to break the influx of lust humming in his veins and hopefully deflate the rising wood in his pants, he headed to the coffeemaker and poured himself a cup, inhaling a deep, steadying breath.

It had been far too long since he had had sex, that was all. Being a single parent to a pair of hooligans bent on giving him gray hair and a heart attack, Noah rarely had the opportunity to make it to the local watering hole to find female company.

Not that he would be interested, because he’d not been interested in anyone since Sara.

While he might one day have a relationship, return to his status as a Dom and find a submissive to meet his physical needs, he would never marry again.

Noah prayed his boys would behave with Morgan. But he was out of hope in that regard. It wasn’t their fault. They were growing up without a mother. And he was trying to fill both roles while at the same time overseeing the care for all the horses on Silver Springs.

“Why don’t you have a seat, and I can bring a plate over to you?”

Jolted from his thoughts, he grunted and took a seat by his boys. They were plowing through the French toast with unrepentant glee. Morgan set a plate full of fluffy French toast and sausage links in front of Noah. “Looks fabulous,” he said.

Morgan gave him a smile and headed back over to the stove.

“Aren’t you going to eat with us?” He watched her retreat, his gut tightening with need.

“I already ate before I got Wade and Zack up and dressed,” she explained over her shoulder as she moved efficiently around his kitchen.

“Why don’t you come sit for a minute, and drink your coffee before it gets cold?” He couldn’t help that it came across as an order. He was a Dom—albeit a non-practicing one at the moment. And she seemed bent on pleasing him. She stirred latent longings up inside him.

But then Morgan did as he asked without question. Pleasure suffused him, filling the dark needs inside him that had lingered without sustenance for far too long. What else would she do if he asked? If he told her to sit on his lap and feed him, would she do it? If he ordered that she sashay her cute butt into his bedroom, strip, and wait for him with her thighs spread, would she? A myriad number of possibilities left him shaking with need—and for more than simply French toast.

In the chair beside him, Morgan glanced into her mug and her brows rose. “Huh. I wonder where that came from?”

She tilted her coffee mug and eyed his boys drolly. Like she knew exactly who had pulled the prank.

Oh, fuck!

Day one, and Wade and Zack were already up to their old tricks with the new nanny. Noah had no damn idea where they had found the worm to put into Morgan’s coffee. They had likely found it the day before, and stashed it in their bedroom. The two of them together were sneaky little buggers.

Well, it was nice having had her for a nanny. He figured they would end up setting a new world record for shortest nanny position ever held.

But she surprised the hell out of him and his boys. Morgan eyed the worm in her coffee and then his boys, before taking a sip of it. She didn’t grimace or anything and said, “Definitely not my favorite flavor of coffee.”

“Ewww!” Wade and Zack exclaimed with sick glee.

She held the cup out to his boys. “Want to try it?”

They clamped hands over their mouths and vigorously shook their heads.

Huh. Noah had never figured that Morgan would call their bluff. But she hadn’t wilted under their curious stares or blatant attempt to scare her off. Granted, they had done worse to previous nannies, so they weren’t in the clear just yet.

But she did set the mug down and didn’t pick it up again. “I should get the comedy duo off to school.”

“Give me just a minute, and I’ll put the car seats in the back of your truck.”

“No worries.” She shoved away from the table, grabbed their empty plates and placed them in the sink, along with her coffee cup. “Wade, Zack, let’s go brush your teeth and get your shoes on while your daddy gets your seats in my truck.”

She corralled them down the hall and didn’t look back. He had to give her credit. He doubted he could have taken a drink of coffee with a dead worm in it with a straight face.

Noah finished his breakfast quickly, and made sure to put his dishes in the sink. He checked that his wallet was in his back pocket, shoved his phone in his front jeans pocket, and grabbed his keys from the hook near the front door before he donned his boots and his hat. Then he headed into the garage and grabbed the two seats for Wade and Zack. They were nothing more than a booster seat nowadays, thank goodness.

He shuddered at the memory of that first year on his own as a solo parent.

Noah installed the booster seats in the back seat of Morgan’s truck. Damn thing was older than he was. He made a mental note to have Lincoln take a look under the hood to make sure everything was running properly. He wouldn’t want her to break down on the side of the road with his boys. He was not just worried for their safety but also for hers, considering how much of a handful they tended to be under normal circumstances.

Morgan ushered them out the door with their backpacks, a purse slung crosswise over her body and wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses that for some damn reason made him think of sex.

Sex and Morgan seemed to go hand in hand.

“Zack, Wade, be good for Morgan today.” He shot both boys a commanding look. They waved at him, all smiles as they clambered into Morgan’s truck.

But he knew better. They liked being all sweet in front of him. Then, the moment he was gone, they turned into little hell beasts, bent on destruction. He knew because he had a nanny cam installed in the playroom at the house.

After they left with Morgan honking her horn on the way, he climbed into his truck and drove the short distance to the stables. As Horse Master for Silver Springs Ranch, it was his job to monitor and care for all the horses on the ranch. With the number of horses in both stables, it was beyond a full-time job.

He headed to stable number two, where they gave horses a rest in their rotation from ferrying riders on trail rides. They had six weeks on at stable one, and three weeks off at stable two. Stable two was where they were able to relax and graze in the pasture all day. It was where the staff made sure their vaccinations were up to speed, where they reshod hooves and adjusted feed if it was needed. It was where they had the vet come out and give them checkups.

It was also where some of their stud horses had semen withdrawn, frozen, and shipped to other horse farms for breeding purposes.

Stable Two was identical in appearance to number one. The only difference was that here, there were no tourists clamoring for rides throughout the day.

He parked and headed inside. Kate, his assistant and his deceased wife’s best friend, was already in her small office at her computer.

Noah knocked on the door. Kate was attractive, with her Nordic blonde looks. Tall for a woman, she was only an inch or so shorter than he. She had a big belly laugh that was infectious. And this place wouldn’t run smoothly without her.

“I’m surprised you’re here already. I wasn’t expecting you for another hour at least,” Kate said with a surprised smile as she closed a file on her desk.

“Yeah. I hired a new nanny this weekend. She got the boys off to school this morning instead of me.”

Kate snorted derisively. “Should I start the betting pool to see how long this one lasts?”

Internally, he winced. “I don’t know. I think my boys might have met their match with Morgan. They already pulled a stunt this morning, and she didn’t flinch.”

“Morgan? Why does that name sound familiar?” Kate tapped a pen in her hands, her brow scrunched as she thought through the people she knew.

“Her dad used to own the Gas’N’Sip Station.”

Light dawned in her eyes. “Ah, now I remember. Isn’t she rather young?”

“Early twenties. Likely the perfect age to be running after those two.” And, he had to remind himself, way too young for him.

“And she’s living in your house now?” Kate asked with a tinge of disdain. She was a lot of things, but she never hid her expressions, and right now she wore disapproval all over her face.

“It’s what the job calls for, Kate. What’s my schedule looking like today? I’d like to get started so I can finish and head home in time tonight to see if they have run her off yet.”

“Right. You’ve got a full slate today.”

“When don’t I? Hit me with it,” he stated, and took a seat across from her.

They did have a full day today. He had horses that needed to be reshod. Rotation schedules to update. They had to clean out the stalls and get the manure piles ready for pickup. Given the sheer volume of manure they produced on a daily basis—given each horse managed up to fifty pounds of manure every twenty-four hours—they had to have it hauled away every other day. They had three hundred horses in this stable on any given day. Which meant they had metric tons of shit to dispose of, quite literally.

Noah had to check on the pasture. They liked to have the horses graze on grass, especially during the summer months. Because during the winter, when there was two feet of snow on the ground, grazing became much harder, and they resorted to feed.

With his schedule in hand, he started going through each stable, checking the binder for each horse, updating any changes both there and in the computer system. They had the dual system in place in the event of a power outage during the winter, considering they would rather use the generators to keep the horses warm than to power the computer system.

The first rule he had established as the Horse Master on the ranch: the horses came first.

Managing a herd this large was a round the clock job, 365 days a year. It was why Noah had as many workers as he did. In stable one, Maverick and the wranglers oversaw the daily upkeep of all the horses there.

Here, Noah and his team managed their feeding times and turnout. Each day, the stalls were cleaned because it promoted a healthy and much happier living environment for the horses. They were creatures of habit just as much as humans were, and needed the structure.

But with this many horses to manage, Noah hit the ground running until that evening when the night crew arrived. They had a policy of having two stable workers on the night rotations. It was a rough gig, doing the overnights. It was why they always gave them three days off when they came off a week before starting them on the day shift again for a few weeks until it was their turn once more for overnight duty.

It was a safety deal more than anything, given the nocturnal predators in the area. It also ensured that if there was an emergency, someone was present to put the necessary protocols in place.

All day long, in the back of his mind as he worked, whether it was checking out a sprain or updating a vitamin regimen, Noah wondered how Morgan was handling his boys. Then there were those few times he caught himself thinking about Morgan in other ways.

Ways that he should be flogged for even considering, much less allowing them to continue in detail and surround sound.

On the other hand, he was a man—a single, healthy man in his mid-thirties with a healthy sex drive. So of course, he wondered how she would have responded if he had leaned in to her this morning and tasted her. Were her lips as soft as they looked? Would she sigh or gasp over the intrusion? And what plagued him the most: would she have returned his kiss, or shoved him away and called him a pervert?

Since Sara died, he’d only been with a few women. Those times had been more of a perfunctory release with a passing tourist or visitor to the ranch. But he hadn’t felt real lust or craved a woman in years.

Which made his current obsession with Morgan unique. Did he want her because she was like the forbidden apple in the garden? Or was it chemistry that had always been present, and he had just never noticed it until she was living in his house?

Not that it mattered. He didn’t intend on having another wife or submissive ever again.

No matter how beautiful he found Morgan, she was painfully young, and he wouldn’t take advantage of her. He thought too highly of her—and her deceased father—to act on the lust she evoked in him.