Page 69 of Cowboy Daddies

As Ma had promised, they spent plenty of time together. Probably more than the other couples even, since Carter was fully capable of teaching her everything she needed to know about a ranch, without needing a cowboy assigned to them. In fact, her husband fit in so well with the other cowboys that she began to wonder if she’d ever known him at all.

Sure, he’d told her about his years working on a ranch, and yes, he did show that rough working man attitude sometimes—she adored that side of him. But Carter had always seemed to enjoy the city. Now… seeing him here, it was obvious he was made for this life and he loved it. He had a way of making her love it too, despite herself.

She hadn’t wanted to enjoy the trip. It wasn’t what she was used to, and it certainly wasn’t what she’d expected. There were some definite downsides that took getting used to, like the big metal bell that woke them at five with its loud, echoing clangs, and the way her whole body ached at the end of the day. It was hard work.

But the hot tub helped. The food continued to be fantastic; easily as good as anything they had in the city. And she really enjoyed seeing this new, or rather old, Carter. Because of his experience, he often took on harder jobs with the real ranch hands, leaving her to trail along behind and watch. It forced her to learn a little faster than the other guests, just because she didn’t want to be useless.

And to her surprise, she found out she was good at some things. The horses were terrifying at first; they were so huge, but once she got used to them, she fell in love. She had more trouble figuring out how to get all the tack on than she did with the actual riding.

“You’re a natural,” Pa commented, when he saw her trotting around the ring. “Most of our guests don’t take to riding quite that fast. You sure you’ve never ridden before?”

She could only shake her head, and as with most praise, she didn’t take it seriously. He’s just being nice. But Carter assured her that Pa was correct. “Nope, you picked up riding a damn sight faster than I did. I sure wasn’t up for galloping on day three.”

“Oh. Well, I guess being married to a cowboy rubbed off on me.” She sent him a sideways under-the-eyelashes look and grinned as she brushed against him.

“Don’t look at me like that, Ally. You know the rules,” he warned her.

She leaned in. “Not a rule-breaker, Daddy?” Her voice was low so people wouldn’t hear, but the sultry tone was a deliberate tease.

“Damn it,” he growled. He snagged her wrist and yanked her into his arms. His mouth came down on hers hard, demanding. His tongue pried her lips apart and darted between them to taste⁠—

“Ahem.”

Carter broke the kiss and they both turned to see Pa shaking a finger at them. “None of that now. Remember the rules.” But the old man’s eyes were twinkling and before he walked away, Allegra could see the smirk he didn’t bother to hide.

Her eyes narrowed and her hands settled on her hips as she watched him walk away whistling. “What’s he so happy about?”

Her husband shook his head. “I don’t know but this week is starting to feel long already. You need to behave yourself.” He used his stern Daddy tone to back it up.

“And if I don’t?” She tilted her head. “I mean… it’s not like we have any privacy for you to do anything about it.” She was almost surprised that she’d said it out loud. The old submissive Allegra would never have said such a thing.

As Carter had changed to fit this new Daddy role, she had noticed herself changing as well. She wasn’t sure who she was going to be yet, but honestly, she was loving this new sassy vibe. She’d never thought of herself as a brat, but there was definitely some brattiness happening and it was fun.

“You know, there’s more than a couple woodsheds around here. And finding privacy on a ranch isn’t as hard as you’d think. You haven’t seen the whole spread yet. It goes on for miles and miles.” There was a warning in the tone.

“So, what I’m hearing is that there are plenty of places to break the rules, and we can⁠—”

“No, Allegra. Now get the wheelbarrow and get back to work.” He turned her around and sent her toward the barn with a solid whack on the back of her jeans.

Her yelp caught the attention of a couple who were raking an outdoor paddock nearby. At least one of them had seen the reason for the yelp, because she heard an amused laugh as she hurried off to the barn, with the barrow rattling in front of her. She could feel her cheeks going red, but there was honestly something so hot about the whole cowboy thing, that she couldn’t even be mad about it.

“New fantasy unlocked,” she muttered to herself. Knowing her husband had been a cowboy wasn’t the same as seeing her husband as a cowboy, and she was definitely into it. Her interest grew later that afternoon, when he went with some of the ranch men to move a herd of cattle to a new field.

It was a long ride for someone new to horses, and only a few guests had been cleared to go. They all followed at a good distance, watching the real experts from their horses. To her surprise, Jim was one of them. It was nice to see a semi-familiar face, so she nudged her horse over to say hello. “You look like you know what you’re doing on that thing,” she said.

He glanced over. “My parents used to send me to camp every summer, to get me out of the city. It was a different place each year, and when I was twelve it turned out to be cowboy camp. Yee Haw.” He made a circular gesture over his head, which she thought was meant to be a lasso, but wasn’t sure.

“Did you like it?” She would have loved to go away to camp, but her parents could never afford it.

“No,” he said shortly. And then after a second, he sighed. “Parts of it, I guess. My parents were … very concerned that I be doing manly things.” The way he stressed the word made her feel like his parents probably hadn’t reacted well to him being gay—if they even knew.

She hesitated, then said, “Parents don’t always know best. My mother always wanted me to love pink. The more I told her I hated it, the more she pushed it on me. I ended up wearing nothing but dark clothes for years, just because she made me hate pastels.”

Jim looked at her, one eyebrow raised. “I’m pretty sure my love of dick isn’t because my parents sent me to cowboy camp.”

Her mouth dropped and she frantically scrambled for a response. “I didn’t mean … that’s not what I…”

Suddenly a smile broke across his face, and he laughed at her expression. “Relax. I’m just kidding. And you’re not wrong. The more they pushed me to be manly, the more I wanted to be anything else, but they messed up with cowboy camp. I mean, is there anything hotter than a guy with muscles, three-day stubble, and rope?”