Her Cowboy Knight Page 10

  Releasing her breast, Cooper leaned down and circled her nipple with his tongue, causing Gabby to moan and writhe against him. He teased one nipple at his leisure, then scraped it with his teeth. Gabby froze completely. Cooper chuckled, moving to the next nipple to repeat the procedure. This time when he scraped the nipple with his teeth, Gabby didn’t respond. He moved slightly and bit down on her breast, hard. Gabby’s whole body tensed up and she yelled, “Oww! Cooper, ow!”

  Cooper released her and rolled over to the side. She raised her head to watch him, a question in her eyes. He kept eye contact as he moved to her feet and grabbed her ankles. Wariness entered her eyes as he spread her legs and crawled between them.

  He laid his hand on her pubic bone, letting the weight and warmth soak into her. Slowly, he moved his other hand down her body between her legs. He parted her outer lips and felt the warmth and wetness that welcomed him there. Gabby wiggled then, and he murmured, “You just settle in, darlin’. You aren’t going anyplace anytime soon.”

  He continued his ministrations, looking back up to check her expressions, noting what she liked, what caused her body to shift and what caused her toes to curl.

  When he dropped his head, she thought he was going to use his tongue again, but instead he just kissed her once.

  When he raised his head this time, he had a different look in his eye, darker. “We’re going to do something a little different this time, baby.”

  She didn’t protest when he flipped her over and propped her hips up with two pillows. He started rubbing her back and bottom, but soon, his fingers found the cleft in her bottom and ran down the length of it, sending shivers up her spine.

  Cooper nudged one leg. “Spread your legs, darlin’.”

  Gabby moved slowly, imagining what she must look like. Cooper dipped his fingers between her lips and found the wetness there, and Gabby moaned. He pulled his fingers back and slapped her sex lightly. He then he reached over to the nightstand and grabbed something. Gabby heard some rustling around and then felt his fingers again, this time at the entrance to her bottom. She covered her face and groaned even more deeply.

  Cooper’s seeking finger swept over her sensitive back opening, then passed over it again, each time eliciting little movements from her hips and small sounds in her throat. Cooper finally added more lubricant to his finger and rested it right on her opening. Gabby stilled completely, tensing the lower half of her body.

  Cooper pressed slightly. “Gabriella, that’s not allowed. Open up and let me in, sweetheart.”

  He reached over with his other hand, spread her bottom cheeks with his fingers, and pressed. Gabby felt her body finally relax and allow him entry.

  Her body responded to the penetration and the recognition of his domination. He allowed her to get used to the feel of his finger, then he inched it further into her until it was as far as it could go. He held it there for a moment. “Whose bottom is this?”

  Gabby felt her face turn bright red, and couldn’t bring herself to answer. She felt Cooper pump his finger in and out a time or two. “Whose bottom is this?” he repeated.

  Gabby could hardly think for the feelings his fingers were producing, but she answered, “Yours. It’s yours!”

  Cooper released her cheeks and patted one. He pulled his finger out and pressed again for entry. This time, he slid in easily. “That’s the way, baby, no resistance.” He pumped his finger a few times, causing Gabby to flex her hips and whimper. “Now, we’re going to have an understanding about one other thing. When you feel your temper starting to get out of control, you’re going to remember that you are my woman, and you are my little girl, is that clear?”

  Gabby nodded, then folded her arms and laid her head on them. Cooper smoothed her hair back from her face and placed a kiss on her cheek. He then reached over to the drawer again. Gabby looked up to see what he had grabbed and gasped as she recognized the small pink object as a butt plug. She turned her face back forward. Cooper coated the plug in lubrication, then set the tip of it at the entrance to her bottom. “Press back and seat yourself.”

  Gabby looked back over her shoulder at him. Cooper just held the plug there and met her eyes. His look said it all; he wouldn’t demand this of her, she had to offer it herself. She faced forward again and dropped her head. Then, in the next few moments, she shifted her hips back, pushing out to accept the plug. When she reached the widest part, she paused, not sure she could handle pushing herself that much. “Help me, please?” It felt so much bigger than it had looked a few minutes ago.

  Cooper grabbed the plug and spread her cheeks wider. He backed it out a little, then eased it in more. “That’s it, baby, relax and push out.”

  It sounded so dirty, but Gabby did as he said and the last bit of the plug slid in with only a little pain. She flexed her muscles around the plug and felt it moving as she did. Cooper grabbed the base and twisted it. Gabby curled her toes and squealed.

  Cooper tapped the end and said, “While you have this in, I want you to remember that you are mine, do you understand?”

  He patted Gabby on the bottom and said, “Now get dressed.”

  Gabby whirled around. “With this in?”

  Cooper nodded. “Yes. I want you to wear it for a couple of hours to help you remember.”

  Gabby stood up and looked at him incredulously. “You can’t… I can’t… Cooper?”

  Cooper crossed over and hugged her. “It serves a two-fold purpose.” He reached back and twirled the plug. “Pretty soon, a plug won’t be the only thing back here, baby. This will help you learn to relax back here.”

  He leaned down and kissed her neck. He turned her by the shoulders and patted her bottom. “Now quit stalling and get dressed.”

  * * *

  A few days later, Michael ran into the shed. “Gabby, you gotta come quick. Dad says we are goin’ on a ride.”

  Gabby replaced her tools quickly and followed the boy, trying not to run as he had. When she got to the barn, she found Kwan and Cooper saddling their mounts. Cooper looked up at her approach. “Saddle up. We’re going to take a ride to look for strays in the north end of the property.”

  Gabby blinked in surprise, then nodded and turned to saddle Mayflower. The first part of the day Gabby absorbed as much knowledge as she could, with Cooper and Kwan instructing. Gabby found some of Michael’s tips more useful because he had learned more recently, and he remembered a time when he hadn’t used these skills as easily as standing or sitting.

  Around one o’clock, they took a break to rest both themselves and their horses. They had finished eating a sack lunch, but the adults were still resting and talking. Michael got bored, so he started climbing a rocky hill near where they had stopped. Gabby, always up for a good climb, had just started to follow him when the rock he had used for a foothold gave way, and he fell to land on his stomach, banging his chin on the hard ground.

  When the rocks settled, a distinct rattle sent chills down every spine. Michael lay three feet from a coiled rattlesnake, right within strike range. Gabby didn’t even think; she drew the knife from her boot and threw, her aim deadly accurate. Michael scrambled backward to his knees, but Gabby had pinned the snake to the ground with one strike.

  Kwan rushed to his son, checking him over for damage. When he looked up to Gabby, he said only a simple, “Thank you.”

  She nodded her head. The adrenaline that had allowed her react so quickly had begun to wear off, and her hands had started to shake. She could hear Kwan scolding his son in the tone only a scared parent can use.

  Cooper pulled the knife out and walked over to her. He cupped her head and kissed her lips. “Baby, that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

  Gabby leaned into him. “What if I had missed? Oh, God, I could have gotten him killed.”

  Cooper circled her with his arms. “You saved his life. We are too far from a hospital, and a strike to the head could have killed him. You did what you had to do.”

  Gabby h
ugged him tight. “Thank God for Desdemona.”

  He kissed her. “I agree. Thank God for both you and Desdemona.”

  * * *

  Gabby drove down the road, enjoying her first real taste of freedom in weeks. Cooper had managed to get her car back from the mechanic the day before. Having her car back meant a lot to her, just to be able to run to the store for a needed item when she wanted without asking someone for a ride.

  Just as she passed the scene of her first unfortunate mishap in town, a brown streak ran in front of her car. She flinched, but held control of the vehicle. She squealed the tires, bringing the vehicle to a controlled stop by the side of the road and watched as the dagblasted goat—she’d taken to calling it that sometime in the last month—ran down into the field, then turned to look at her.

  This was the best chance she might ever get. She climbed out of the car and reached for the supplies she had stashed in the backseat after reviewing an Internet how-to she had recently read. She took a deep breath and set out to catch a goat.

  About an hour later, and a little more of a struggle than the Internet let on—she was beginning to distrust Google—she led a tired goat up Rufus’ driveway.

  “Rufus?”

  The older man came out of his shed, staring at her.

  “Gabby? What in the heck have you done?”

  Gabby offered the end of the rope in her hand. “I’ve returned your goat.”

  Rufus just stood there, stunned. He opened his mouth once, closed it, then turned. “Well, bring her into the pen. We’ll need to tie her up for a little bit while I shore up the fence, I reckon.”

  Gabby sat on the fence while Rufus worked.

  Rufus spoke around a nail in his mouth. “How on earth did you do it?”

  Gabby shrugged. “Anything is possible with the proper research.”

  Rufus shook his head. “Well, you caught her, so I guess that’s all that matters.”

  Gabby looked around and spied an apparatus behind the shed with a barrel suspended on four ropes. “What’s that?”

  Rufus kept his eyes on his work. “Oh, that. That’s an old bull riding trainer I used in my rodeo days.”

  Gabby asked, “You used to be a bull rider?”

  Rufus crinkled his eyes. “I sure did. Back in my day, I could go eight seconds with the best of them. Now I just help marshal the field at the local rodeos or keep score.”

  Remembering the dare Susan had issued, Gabby eyed the training apparatus. “Will you teach me?”

  Rufus shot her a glance from under his bushy eyebrows. “Say that again?”

  Gabby repeated her request. “Will you teach me? To ride a bull?”

  Rufus looked back down at his work. “Girls don’t ride bulls.”

  Gabby narrowed her eyes. “Why not?”

  Rufus shook his head. “Why not, she says.” He looked up at her. “They just don’t, that’s all.”

  Rufus moved to another spot in the fence.

  Gabby jumped down and followed him. “Well, that’s silly. Why can’t girls ride bulls? They can ride horses, can’t they, and they can do all sorts of other things that men thought they couldn’t do before. It’s silly to think they can’t ride bulls.”

  She pulled out her phone and entered a few keywords in the search engine. Sure enough, although there weren’t many, there were some women bull riders listed in the results. She read off their names.

  Rufus turned around and pinned her with a look. “Cooper wouldn’t like it.”

  Gabby looked away. “Well, Cooper doesn’t have much to say about it anyway.”

  Rufus made a sound somewhat similar to her father’s Scottish hmmph. He kept working. “What about yer daddy?”

  Gabby sensed that he was giving in. “Da has let me ride warhorses most of my life while carrying sharp objects. I hardly think he’s going to care about the gender appropriateness of the activity.”

  Rufus sighed and leaned his arms on the top rail. “You’d have to do everything I said. I mean it, missy. I won’t have you getting gored or gouged or hammered or stomped or dragged on my watch.”

  Gabby paled a little at the description of all the things that could happen to her, but nodded. “Anything. I promise. Oh, Rufus, thank you so much. I’ll work ever so hard. You’ll see.” She threw her arms around him in a huge hug.

  Rufus stiffened in her arms and shook a finger under her nose. “We’ll see how much you thank me when you are bruised and battered, and your man catches wind of what we’ve done.”

  Gabby twirled and came to a stop in front of him. “You’ll see, he’ll be so proud he won’t care. This is going to be so great. I just know it!”

  Chapter Eight

  Gabby’s life slipped into an uneasy rhythm. Her guilt over her trips to visit Rufus all but destroyed her former easiness with Cooper, despite the episode that day with Kwan and Michael. His work around the ranch kept him busy, so he didn’t ask any questions when she disappeared in the afternoon to train.

  As guilty as she felt, she looked forward to that training more and more and progressed rapidly under the old man’s tutelage. It felt good to train hard for something again and use her skills. As she and Rufus got more comfortable with each other, their talk moved from bulls to more personal things. He told her of his days with her father and Jedidiah and some of the antics they got up to when they were stationed together. Like the other two, he never mentioned the bad times during the war, but the clouds in his eyes spoke volumes.

  One day their conversation turned to Gabby’s current troubles with Cooper. “So what is it between you two anyway? I knew the minute you two met that there were sparks; what’s happened to make you so unhappy?”

  Gabby shoulders slumped, and she shook her head. “I don’t even really know. I mean, part of it is that girl… the one I had a fight with that day I had the wreck here.”

  “Susan Jacobs?” Rufus asked.

  Gabby nodded, and Rufus said, “She’s had a hard go, that one has.”

  Gabby’s head came up, and she sputtered, “She’s had a hard go? What about me? She’s attacked me every time I’ve turned around.”

  Rufus asked, “How much do you know about the history between Susan and Cooper?”

  Gabby said, “I know she’d sure like to get her hands on him. I know that much.”

  Rufus shook his head. “Not that. I mean from when they were kids, when Cooper’s parents and Susan’s brother died.”

  Gabby had a puzzled look on her face, so Rufus continued. “I was the first on the scene… going to the same rodeo, about an hour from here. I never will forget the sight.”

  Gabby had a feeling she didn’t want to hear anything else Rufus was about to say, but he kept going anyway. “Little Susan was standing on the side of the road; she was the first thing I saw, and knew something was very wrong. I stopped, and I looked down where she was pointing. I saw the truck and horse trailer, with Susan’s parents trying to pull her brother and Cooper out of the wreckage. It was a God-awful mess. I don’t know how Cooper survived it, to be honest, but he was the only one who did. His parents both died immediately in the crash, and Susan’s brother was riding with them; he died two days later in the hospital. I ended up bringing Susan home with me while her folks took Josh and Cooper to the hospital. I doubt she even remembers that. It was… well, she didn’t speak the whole two weeks.”

  Gabby felt nauseated by the end of Rufus’ story. “Oh, Rufus, I had no idea. I… I didn’t even know she’d had a brother.”

  “After that, Susan just kind of thought of Cooper as hers. I mean, their families had always been close… God knows, Josh and Cooper had been like brothers, but after that, Susan tagged along after Cooper like a little lamb. Everyone just assumed she and Cooper would get together when they got older, Susan included, but Cooper had other ideas, saw her as a kid sister, of course.”

  “How old was he when the crash happened?”

  Rufus looked up, thinking. “Let’s see, I reckon Josh an
d Cooper would have been about twelve or so. Jed came home then, to run the ranch until Coop was big enough to run it for himself.”

  “You mean Jed hadn’t always lived here?”

  “Jed? Shoot, no. Jed was a rambler. He was a Marine, like I’ve said, then followed the rodeo, and when that didn’t pay he worked on the oil rigs as a demolition man. Jed was always a thrill-seeker, but all that changed when we lost Charles and Sarah. Jed came back and raised the boy and held the ranch together, and never said a word about it. But it was a lonely time for both him and the boy, and the Jacobses helped them both through that time. All I’m saying is just keep it in mind when you’re dealing with her. She’s had a rough go, is all.”

  “Thank you for telling me, Rufus. I had no idea. It makes so much make sense.”

  Rufus cleared his throat and shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, well, don’t go letting on or anything. Anyway, it’s time to get back to work.”

  Gabby set back to work, but she kept picturing a notebook with boyish handwriting in that old house back at the ranch.

  * * *

  Gabby sought out Kwan, the quiet ranch foreman, finally finding him in equipment shed, welding a piece of equipment. She averted her eyes as the sparks flew and waited until he lifted his visor and smiled in greeting. “What can I do for you, Gabby?”

  Gabby took a deep breath. “Don’t say no.”

  Kwan frowned. “Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like this?”

  Gabby rushed on. “It’s about Josh.”

  Kwan set down his things and turned off the gas to his welder. “How do you know about Josh?”