Breaking the Cowboy's Rules (Wildhorse Ranch Brothers Book 1) Read online

  His hands slid down her body, reverent in their exploration. He took this new knowledge of what she felt for him and relearned everything he knew about her: her trim waist, her taut abdomen, the dimple of her belly button and the smooth, velvet plane leading to heaven below. He laid his lips upon her stomach as his finger caught in the front of her pants and inched them down her hips. He could have sworn he heard Sabrina purr.

  "Mmm." Her suppressed moan was delicious, and with every inch of her that was revealed he pressed a subsequent kiss to her skin. She arched her hips off the ground as he tugged her jeans, her underwear, all the way down her slender legs. She kicked them away as he dragged his lips along her inner thigh. "Trevor." The way she hissed his name as he savored her was sweet, sensual music to his ears.

  His kisses carried him back up between Sabrina's legs, and he darted his tongue out to taste her wet, pink center. God, there was nothing better than listening to the way her breath hitched and her hips bucked hard into the floor when he did that. He licked and sucked and nibbled her until her thighs quaked on either side of his head; then he grasped her legs and continued a minute more for good measure.

  "Oh, God," she moaned. "You're good at everything. It's not fair."

  "Are you about to come already?" he murmured, lifting his eyes from between her legs to look at her. Judging by the wanton way she had her own eyes fixed upon him and the way she gasped and panted, he thought he had his answer. Before she could claim something contrary, he grabbed her hips and pulled her upright with him. He crossed his legs beneath them and settled her onto his lap.

  The next few seconds were a blur as Sabrina fought his fervent, unrelenting kisses, laughing as she struggled to get her hands between them. His belt slithered free, and she practically ripped the front of his jeans open, aided by the fact that he was already straining to be free of them anyway. She encased his erection in her fist, and Trevor's breath caught at the firm pressure.

  "You really want this," he noted as he yanked his shirt up over his head.

  "I'm not the one so obviously bursting at the seams for it," Sabrina retorted. As soon as he had dispensed with his T-shirt, Trevor snatched her face in his hands and thrust his tongue into her gasping mouth—just to show her there were better things to do in that instant than sass him. Sabrina pushed into him eagerly, releasing his cock only long enough to shed her own shirt. Her bare skin felt on fire against his.

  Trevor dropped his hands, grasping either side of her ass as he pulled her in closer. Her legs clenched around his waist as he raised then lowered her onto his rigid cock. Sabrina, already slick between the legs from his earlier attentions, undulated her hips just once, and he slid inside her without resistance.

  A shared, explosive groan rocked them both. Trevor buried his face in her shoulder as Sabrina threw her head back, but his body wouldn't let him pause to catch his breath now. He jounced Sabrina in his lap; his fingers grasped and worked her waist as she rode him. The sensation of her breasts pressed hard against his chest drove him wild. She took over the rhythm, and his hands slid up the small of her back, skimming beads of perspiration as they went.

  "You're so goddamned beautiful," he whispered. A tangled, sweat-soaked lock of hair fell across her face as she glanced down at him, her cries mounting. She was beyond response, but she had heard him. That was all that mattered.

  Trevor tensed beneath her, but Sabrina's hips kept their course, circling and stirring him around inside her. His abdominals tightened, and heat flooded him in a rush; he banded his arms around her back and held her close as he shuddered to completion. His hips gave a few more questing thrusts, and Sabrina's voice broke on a cry of ecstasy. Her slight frame trembled in his arms as an orgasm took her, and Trevor groaned at the beautiful sight. He carried her down with him, kissing her fervently and relishing the astonished, bell-like clarity of her laugh.

  "Still think I'm good at everything?" he asked in a spent whisper. He pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes as she smiled sleepily at him.

  "Good at everything," she repeated, "but great at one thing in particular. Feel free to check 'getting laid' off your list for the day."

  It wasn't on his list for the day. But, Trevor reflected, I wouldn't mind making it a recurring item.

  "Boss!"

  Pete was shouting and running down the driveway waving his arms. Trevor raised himself off his outside work bench in alarm. Pete was his most laid-back ranch hand—any show of panic from him meant that either something vital was on fire, or it was about to be.

  "Sabrina sent me to get you!" Pete pulled his hat off and pointed off toward the bunkhouses. "You better come quick!"

  Trevor dropped the tack he was cleaning. He didn't ask questions or demand elaboration; he heard Sabrina's name and came, leaving his own hat and gloves behind him and throwing up clouds of dirt as he sprinted ahead of Pete. "She's in the west bunkhouse!" Pete called after him.

  It should have struck him as suspicious that his ranch hand didn't follow.

  When he got to the bunkhouse, he mounted the steps in a single leap and threw the door open. "Sabrina?" he hollered into the house. He didn't smell fire, didn't see smoke, didn't hear screaming, only—

  "D-don't come in here!" Sabrina called back to him. Her muffled voice came from the direction of the bathroom; what's more, it sounded panicked. Trevor strode across the length of the front room. He stopped only when his boot sloshed into the carpet.

  He stared down in horror. Half of the living room was soggy with water.

  Sabrina.

  He didn't say the culprit's name out loud. He couldn't. He didn't want to wrap his head around the fact that the woman he…the woman…that Sabrina could cause this much damage.

  Trevor completed his line to the bathroom and threw the door open. Sabrina glanced up from where she crouched beneath the sink. She was completely drenched from head to toe; her blonde hair was dark with saturation, and her white shirt was plastered to her chest. A memory flashed across Trevor's mind, and he recalled the time she had accidentally sprayed herself down with the hose.

  But this…this was much, much worse. The bathroom was in absolute chaos. The shower curtain rod was pulled down, and water was gushing out of the cabinet Sabrina knelt partway inside. Even from here he could see that she had tried—and failed—to staunch the flow of water with her shirt.

  "I…I was just trying to install the new basin," she stammered. "I had the YouTube video keyed up and everything." She gestured to her laptop, which was perched precariously on the back of the toilet.

  "Jesus," Trevor cursed. "Hand that thing to me and let me put it in the kitchen before it shorts."

  Sabrina complied, and he had the short walk to the kitchen and back to master his temper and think of what to say to her.

  When he returned, he exploded.

  10

  Sabrina

  "Where the hell am I supposed to find the extra couple thousand dollars to fix this?" Trevor bellowed.

  Tears stung the corners of Sabrina's eyes. She thought she had seen Trevor lose his temper plenty of times before on account of her; now, she could see how awfully mistaken she had been. Even when she had done something to frustrate him in the past, he had never raised his voice to anything resembling this decibel level. For the first time since meeting him, she saw the man that everyone else in Lockhart Bend found so formidable.

  "Calm down, Trevor. I'm…it was an accident!" she exclaimed. "This should be an easy enough thing to fix, if you'll let me—"

  "Where am I supposed to come up with the money, Sabrina?" he shouted. "Sell a horse? Because that's what it's going to take—you know that, right?"

  "Apparently I don't know anything," she whispered dangerously. "So why don't you go ahead and tell me?"

  Trevor was so angry his hands shook. He pointed a finger at her, just to give it something to do, a task to complete. "I can't afford to part with a horse right now, Sabrina. Not a single one. The bank payment on the ranch is due to
morrow. Tomorrow. There’s no money left to fix this."

  She could fix this. She knew she could, if only he'd give her a chance. She tried to fold her hands over his finger in a mollifying gesture, but Trevor yanked his hand back as if her touch burned. Anxiety radiated off him more powerfully than his anger, and she realized the depths of what her attempts to remodel had just cost him.

  Trevor ran a desperate hand over his close-cropped hair and exhaled deeply through his nose. "I'm not sure how this is supposed to work."

  He appeared to be muttering to himself, but Sabrina heard his words loud and clear. Sharp as any knife, they cut to the heart of her. She felt as if she had been unceremoniously drenched by another round of freezing cold water.

  There was no way to come back from this. This was the straw that had broken the cowboy's back. All those times she had tried and failed and thought that Trevor had forgiven her…she could see now that he had been building a mental checklist of her shortcomings. Even she had to admit to herself that when the pros and cons of keeping her here were weighed, she continued to tip the scales in her own disfavor.

  If Trevor decided to postpone the glamping program, it was likely Sabrina would lose her job. She wouldn't ask Trevor to lie for her and tell her boss she wasn't the problem. She would lose her job, and someone else would come in and finish the setup for her.

  But she wasn't concerned about her job right now. First and foremost, all Sabrina wanted to do in that instant was throw her arms around him. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was. Instead, the two of them stood in silence watching the water continue to trickle out of the busted hole in the wall.

  When she finally departed, she didn't think he noticed. Maybe it was better that way. She kept the memory of his bowed back with her as she crossed the lawn and locked herself inside her cabin. She thought about the anger, the disappointment, in his flaming black eyes, and she buried her face in her pillow and sobbed until her down feathers were drowning.

  She rose hours later to take her ruined makeup off and wash her face. She put a pot of coffee on and slumped over the bar at the kitchen.

  Her grandfather's star glinted over the cabin's doorway, but even that couldn't bring her any comfort tonight.

  She would make everything right. In the morning—she would make everything right.

  Sabrina hadn't expected a long wait at the Lockhart Bend Pawn Shop. He's doing a booming business, she thought as she studied the smiling, jovial broker behind the desk. And he's sure taking his sweet time.

  She tweaked her sunglasses down her nose a little to take in her surroundings. She liked to think she was incognito, but she probably wasn't fooling anybody who cared to look. She could already imagine the small-town gossip that might accompany sighting Wildhorse's glamping coordinator at a pawn shop. Then again, maybe she was being paranoid.

  The shop was large, but appeared smaller for its stacked shelves and controlled clutter. The atmosphere was surprisingly less morose than she had expected. Her neighbors sipped their take-out coffees and chatted with one another about the weather, their children's sporting events, and other minutia of everyday life.

  She wondered how many of the people standing in line in front of her were there because of one massive mistake.

  It was hard to keep what had happened with Trevor in perspective. On the one hand, she had tried her hardest and only ever operated with the best intentions. On the other, it seemed like everything she had attempted since arriving at the ranch had completely blown up in her face. She was a good adventure coordinator, maybe even a great one—but that didn't change the fact that almost nothing had gone right since her arrival here.

  She would make it right. But once she had done that, what came next for her? She couldn’t ask Trevor to keep her on after so many screw-ups. No way. Maybe she could find another ranch near the retirement home and stay near her grandparents, but again, Sabrina knew what the gossip was bound to be like. How many places would be willing to give her a chance after her complete and utter failure at Wildhorse?

  And what about her budding romance with Trevor? Somehow, the master upcycler in her couldn't imagine a world where she was able to salvage that. Maybe it was better to leave things like they had, cold and cordial-like, and pack her things and go. She didn't fit into his carefully-ordered world, and he…

  Sabrina shoved her sunglasses back up her nose. She had already cried more in the past twenty-four hours than she had when her parents' house burned down. Tears were one detail she could hide from any gossip-mongers.

  The person in front of her concluded his business and moved aside. She was up. She stepped to the desk and was reaching into her bag when the bell over the shop's door jingled. She turned in faint curiosity to see who else had business there, considering it felt as if the entire town was in attendance already, and blanched at who she saw. Her heart leapt into her throat in the same instant Trevor laid eyes on her and froze in the doorway.

  Once the initial shock had passed, she dropped her eyes to what he was carrying with him. His arms were loaded down with a gorgeous, chestnut-brown saddle. Not just any saddle, Sabrina realized. His father's rodeo saddle.

  What the hell was he doing here with that?

  Their shock at seeing one another had made them conspicuous to the other customers. It was as if the entire pawn shop had stopped to hold its breath. Finally, Trevor broke the silence. "Sabrina, can I talk to you outside?"

  "Want to leave that here with me?" the pawnshop owner asked her. He gestured to the small cloth-wrapped item in her hand. "I can appraise it for you while you're out."

  Sabrina glanced from the owner to Trevor and back again. "Um…give me one second." She hustled out the door after Trevor.

  His pickup was parked at the curb. He tossed the saddle down into the open bed, took a deep breath, and turned back to her. "What are you doing here?" he finally asked. He folded his arms expectantly when she didn't answer him. "I saw you left early this morning. I guess I just assumed…."

  He trailed off, and they both stood in uncomfortable silence. Sabrina realized he had thought exactly what she had been planning a half-second ago: that she had left the ranch for good without a word of goodbye.

  "I'm…" She steeled herself to continue before raising her chin defiantly. With her shades fixed over her eyes, there was no way he could see what she was really thinking in that moment. "I'm here to get the money I owe you. The money for repairs to the bunkhouse bathroom." She was proud of the way her voice didn't shake in the slightest.

  "With what?" he asked her pointedly. His eyes fell to the palm-sized, folded cloth in her hand. She would have liked to have kept him guessing, but his eyebrows shot up instantly, and he snatched her hand in his. "Are you crazy? Absolutely not! There is no way you're selling your grandfather's star. Besides, it’s not worth—"

  "Listen!" Sabrina jerked her hand back quickly. "I know what I'm doing, Trevor. I know it's my grandfather's star, but I don't need that broker to appraise it for me. I had it appraised a long time ago. I always thought it was a lot heavier than it looked." She paused, drew a deep breath, and continued. "It's made out of gold. My grandfather just painted it over with silver so it would look more like an Old West sheriff's star when I was a kid. It's worth more than it looks at first glance."

  "That star is priceless to you," Trevor whispered.

  Sabrina's lip quivered. Why was he being so nice to her? Didn't he see she was trying to do the right thing by him? "It's a trinket," she said. "Having it with me has gotten me through a lot, but maybe I don't need it like I think I do. Even though I…I know I have to leave Wildhorse." She drew in another quick breath. "I know that. But I guess a part of me wished that…if I brought you the money and asked you for forgiveness…you'd let me stay." She waved the ornament in the air. "And I wouldn't have to keep hanging this damn star over every new door of every new place that I lived. It's worth it, Trevor. Even if you don't want me to stay, let me do this."

  "Sabrina,
I want you to stay," he said firmly.

  Sabrina blinked. Wondering if he was taking one last opportunity to mess with her, she stared hard up into his grim face, but she couldn't see that he was getting any sort of sick, vengeful pleasure out of this exchange.

  "I…" She broke off and wheeled to wave both hands at the back of his truck. "What are you doing down here, anyway? What is this? Why do you have your father's saddle with you? You weren't actually thinking about pawning it to cover the repairs that were my fault to begin with, were you?"

  Trevor rubbed the stubble of his jaw. He shifted uncomfortably in front of her, and appeared to be weighing his words. Finally, he spoke:

  "I'm not gonna deny that what you said to me touches me," he said. "And…and that what you said just now ring true. I feel the exact same way you do, Sabrina." He gestured to the saddle. "I want to make a change. And maybe that change comes with letting go of something that I've thought valuable for all these years. The future—and a possible future with you—is more precious than any relic from my past."

  Sabrina felt a tear slip down her cheek. So much for hiding. Trevor's grimace softened, and he stepped to her to remove her sunglasses.

  "Let me do this," he whispered. "Let me be the hero who lets you keep your grandfather's star. Let me be the man who admits that maybe, all this time, he's been doing things wrong." He smoothed the pad of his thumb across her cheek and banished the tears. "Please don't let me be the man who loses the one thing that matters most to him."

  Despite his efforts to skim her tears away, his words opened the floodgates. Sabrina gasped in relief and threw her arms around him. He caught and steadied her, like she knew he would. Cupping the back of her head, she felt his chest shake in a relieved chuckle.

  "Sabrina, I love that you would give up something so precious for me," he whispered. His lips drifted along her hairline, and he cemented a kiss to her temple. "But what I love more is you and seeing you happy."