Wrangle Me, Cowboys_A Reverse Harem Forbidden Romance Read online

  Table of Contents

  Book Two

  Excerpt of Book 3

  Wrangle Me, Cowboys

  Coyote Ranch

  Alexa B. James

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  A Note From the Author

  Wrangle Me, Cowboys

  Coyote Ranch

  Book Two

  Alexa B. James

  Wrangle Me, Cowboys

  Copyright © 2018 Alexa B. James

  First Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher, except in cases of a reviewer quoting brief passages in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are used factiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, and events are entirely coincidental. Use of any copyrighted, trademarked, or brand names in this work of fiction does not imply endorsement of that brand.

  Published in the United States by Alexa B. James and Speak Now.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-945780-22-6

  Cover design by Ally Hastings of Starcrossed Covers.

  Contents

  Wrangle Me, Cowboys

  Coyote Ranch

  Book Two

  Alexa B. James

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  A Note From the Author

  Excerpt of Book 3

  2

  1

  Amber

  The day after I kissed my stepbrother, I woke up to the bright light of a Wyoming morning. The room was a bit chilly, but I snuggled down under the comforter and smiled to myself, remembering that kiss. Remembering the sensation of Holden’s huge, muscular body pressing against mine. Remembering his cock hardening against me.

  I rolled over and pulled open the drawer of the nightstand, reaching for my vibrator. I’d gotten used to being sexually frustrated after three years of dating a hold-out who turned out to be a cheating piece of shit—who was only holding out on me.

  To my even greater frustration, as my hand brushed the bottom of the empty drawer, I realized I’d left my vibrator back in New York. After all, I’d thought I was coming here to babysit, not fall into paroxysms of lust over three sexy cowboys. With a groan, I fell back on my pillow, my arm across my eyes. What a craptastic way to ruin the good feeling I’d had when I woke.

  On the nightstand, my phone buzzed, taunting me.

  I picked it up and looked at it, an idea forming in my mind. My phone vibrated….

  Five minutes later, I called my best friend Haley back. “I need an intervention,” I blurted when she answered.

  “Aww, Amber. Are you drinking yourself into a coma every night thinking of how much you miss me?”

  “I do miss you,” I said. “But no. I’m pretty sure I just violated my phone in ways no one has ever done before. I can’t even believe I’m holding it against my face right now.”

  “Did you put it inside your underwear?” Haley asked.

  “What? How did you even know what I was talking about?”

  “Emergency vibe,” she said, as if it were obvious.

  I tried not to think about how many times I’d used her phone.

  “So, did you?” she asked. “Because yeah, that’s like sexual assault of a mobile device. But otherwise, you’re good.”

  “Then I’m good,” I said, relieved that I wasn’t the first woman to get desperate enough to hump her iPhone.

  “And hey, no pussy juice on your face,” Haley added.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Did you just call it pussy juice?”

  “Well, I could have said come, but you’d probably enjoy getting come on your face.”

  “You’d know.”

  “It’s like a warm facial,” she said. “But seriously, Am. Just go buy a vibrator.”

  “There are no cabs here,” I said. “No buses. No subway. Basically, I’m trapped and at the mercy of my stepbrothers.”

  “Ahhh,” she said. “So that’s why you need to masturbate with your phone. The sexy stepbrother. Which one are you lusting after this time?”

  “All of them,” I wailed. “I can’t decide. And honestly, Haley, I don’t think they want me to.”

  “Don’t tell me they’re putting you in a nunnery like Cheating Charlie.”

  That was the name Haley had given my ex after we walked in on him having a threesome. For years, I’d let him know I’d be open to sex or other things, but he’d been insistent on preserving my virginity. Like it was something to put in a freaking museum.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “They definitely aren’t trying to shut me up in a nunnery, but we are related…”

  “Uh…no? To be related, they’d have to be your actual brothers.”

  “So you’d be cool sleeping with your stepbrothers?”

  “Ew, no, because they’re little kids, and I was there when they were born,” Haley said. “You just met these guys. And if they want you and you want them… No judgment.”

  “But there’s three of them. What if they get jealous and weird?”

  “So they all want you, together, at the same time?”

  “I think so,” I squeaked.

  “Well, I guess you won the breakup. A foursome beats a threesome.”

  “Four mouths are better than three,” I said, paraphrasing the evil ex, and we both dissolved into laughter. But under the laughter, it still hurt. The sting of rejection hadn’t quite worn off yet.

  But I did wonder about my stepbrothers, which meant I was moving on. The question was, which one of them would I move on with? Holden had told me I didn’t have to choose. Maybe he hadn’t meant it the way I’d taken it. Maybe he’d meant it like, I didn’t have to worry about choosing because they would never hook up with their stepsister, no matter how perfect that kiss had been.

  But I didn’t think so. I thought he meant it like, I didn’t have to choose because I could have them all. Which just seemed too good to be true, and also, I worried about the logistics of it. Would I rotate from one room to the next each night? Would we need to make a schedule? What if I needed a night off or I had my period? What if one of them got mad because I made more noise in the room next door with his brother? What if I just wanted to be held by big, cuddly Holden, but it was rough-and-ready Waylon’s night?

  Or would it be a foursome—all three of them at the same time? And if it was that, could I handle it?

  2

  Amber

  When I dragged myself out of bed at last, I did my usual morning routine at a leisurely pace—shower, get dressed, make myself a simple breakfast, and head out to take a walk. In the distance, I could see one of the tractors in the field, and a cowboy-hatted figure bending over the fence. The sun wa
s bright on the thin layer of snow that had fallen—the first snow of the year.

  I smiled as I approached the figure. I could tell by his massive barrel chest and towering treelike height that it was Holden, and that Sawyer was just beyond him, also working on the fence.

  “Hey,” I said, waving so they’d know I was nearby and not sneaking up on them to spy on their conversation. Which I kinda wanted to do, just to see if Holden had told Sawyer about kissing me yet.

  “Howdy, Princess,” Sawyer said, tipping his brown leather hat at me, dimples sinking into his tan cheeks.

  I seriously wanted to kiss him, too.

  God, I was terrible. But maybe understandable, considering what I’d recently been through.

  “What are you up to?” Holden asked, smiling from beneath the brim of his hat. He was wearing what I’d begun to think of as “the ranch uniform.” Canvas coveralls, work gloves, and boots.

  “Just walking,” I said with a shrug. “But I wouldn’t mind learning to something useful around here. If I’m going to be here for three months, I might as well become…I don’t know. A ranch hand?”

  Sawyer laughed, the corners of his blue eye crinkling as he squinted up at me from where he was crouched, holding a strand of barbed wire taut with one gloved hand while he twisted the end with a pair of pliers. “You want to be a ranch hand?”

  “Yeah, or something,” I said. “So I’m not just sitting around the house looking pretty.”

  “But you do that so well.”

  “Shut up,” I said. “I told you, I’m not here to be your Holly Housewife.”

  “Don’t tell our ma that,” Holden said. “That’s the only reason she’d find acceptable for you being here.”

  “Wow, your dad better not be expecting that from my mom,” I said. “She’s pretty much married to her seat on the senate, and the only thing she knows how to make is a gin-and-tonic.”

  “Can’t wait to meet her,” Sawyer said. “She sounds lovely.”

  I laughed and shook a finger at him. “Don’t insult my mother. Only I can do that.”

  “Ditto.”

  “If that was meant to distract me, it’s not going to work,” I said. “Come on, don’t make me sit around inside all winter. I’ll go nuts. In New York, there was a party pretty much every night of the week. Either at school, or a political dinner, or a photo opportunity for one of my parents that I had to attend, or a fundraiser, or a club opening…”

  “That sounds…exhausting,” Holden said. “I’m sorry.”

  I stared at him. “I think the word you’re looking for is exciting.”

  “Oh,” he said, ducking his head. “Sorry. I thought you were complaining.”

  “I’m complaining about not having anything to do,” I said. “Seriously, guys. I’ll get that cabin fever thing, like the guy in The Shining.”

  “We can’t have that,” Sawyer said seriously, but I could see the laughter glinting in his eyes as he stood and moved on to the next section of fence.

  “I know, right?” I said, tagging along. “I mean, I don’t even know what a boiler is, but if you have one, I’ll definitely blow it up.”

  “Good thing Waylon’s not out here,” Sawyer said. “He’d hate to hear you threatening our ranch that way.”

  “Okay, I admit, Waylon has seen me make a few small missteps,” I said. “But no one was hurt. And if you give me a job, what’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like I’m going to run around murdering all the cows, and that’s how you make your living, right? And there’s barely a tree on the ranch, so it’s not like I can burn it down.”

  “Grass fires are a very dangerous thing,” Holden said, frowning at me.

  “Okay, I promise not to light any fires,” I said, throwing up my hands. “And I’m not a cow-napper, so you don’t need to worry about that. I just need something to do so I’m not sitting around thinking about my ex-boyfriend.”

  “What about the horses?” Sawyer asked Holden. “Grimes is getting on in years, and he’s got a lot of other things to take care of.”

  “Sounds good,” Holden said. “How are you with horses, Amber?”

  I rolled my eyes and hid a grin. I should have started with the boyfriend thing. That got them looking for ways to distract me in a hurry. It was true, though. I hated thinking about Charlie, but when I had nothing else to do, sometimes I’d start sinking into despair at how many years I’d wasted on the bastard. But the distance had already given me perspective, and most of the time, I didn’t even wish he’d fall onto the subway tracks and be crushed to death.

  Mostly I just hoped he’d get a venereal disease and his dick would slowly, painfully rot away to nothing.

  But the real danger wasn’t that I’d get depressed about why he hadn’t loved me enough to sleep with me, though he’d been happy to stick it to a couple random chicks at the same time. The real danger was that sometimes, in my darkest moments, I wondered if he was thinking about me. Because as sick as it made me to admit, I’d honestly loved him. Or at least I’d loved the boy I knew.

  But that boy wasn’t Charlie. That boy was a pretty lie. Nothing we’d had was real, and if I took him back, I’d never be able to trust him again. And worse, I’d never be able to trust myself again. I’d fully bought into his whole act, which just proved I had zero lie-detecting skills and was a complete sucker.

  “Amber?” Holden asked. “Have you ever ridden a horse?”

  “Sorry,” I said quickly. “See, thinking about my ex right now. You’ve got to help me.”

  “That asshole doesn’t deserve a second of your thoughts,” Sawyer said with a scowl.

  “And to answer your question, I took riding lessons for a while. So yes, I know how to ride.”

  “Great,” Sawyer said. “That’s something you can do.”

  I could think of two things I’d like to do. They were standing right in front of me. But it didn’t seem wise to say that out loud. I’d already freaked them out once. From now on, I was going to keep my head down, work on the ranch, and stay away from drama, the same way my stepbrothers did all day.

  And maybe order a vibrator online to get me through the nights.

  3

  Holden

  I was kind of nervous to teach Amber how to ride, but since I was the calmest, my brothers thought I would be the best choice. I wouldn’t start yelling and spook the horses—not that Van Gogh would spook. I’d named all the horses after artists, back when I’d had the stable job. We’d passed it on to Grimes, but he was getting along in years and would probably like a decrease in responsibilities.

  I showed Amber where the feed was, and how much to give them, and where to put it. “You’ll want to feed and water them twice a day,” I told her. “Here pretty soon, the water will freeze at night so you’ll need to check and make sure the heating element is doing its job. If there’s water, not ice, then they’ll be fine. We’ll bring them hay, so you just got to get them some feed. And then let them out so they can run and graze, when there’s not too much snow on the ground.” I showed her the door to let them out, and the field where they exercised, as well as the corral.

  “What if they don’t come back at night?”

  “They will,” I assured her. “If you’re not sure about anything, you can always shout for one of us. And Grimes is usually nearby, so he can check in on you and make sure everything’s going okay. He’ll take care of the larger maintenance, like getting the farrier in to trim their hooves and check their shoes, and getting their medications. He can also keep up with mucking the stalls, unless you’re just dying to throw horse shit.”

  Amber wrinkled her cute little nose. “I’m good, thanks.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said, squeezing her shoulder. She felt so slight under my big paws that I felt like an oaf touching her, like I was mauling her. “It’s really pretty easy, once you get the hang of it. And you can throw some fresh bedding in after Grimes cleans the stalls, or let him do it. Now, you ready to meet them?” />
  “Definitely,” Amber said, looking over at the stalls. Van Gogh had her head out and was watching us. The rest were still eating from their feeders.

  “Looks like Van Gogh agrees with me,” I said. “She’s the gentlest, so you’ll do fine on her.”

  I thought Amber might hold back, but she wasn’t a bit afraid. She walked right up and held her hand out, letting Van Gogh mouth her palm. Finding nothing there, Van Gogh snorted. Amber laughed and stepped closer, running her hand up the horses cheeks and scratching her forehead while Van Gogh sniffed at her neck. I could tell they’d make fast friends, and my riding lessons wouldn’t amount to more than one lesson.

  “We’ll take them out in a couple hours, after they’ve had time to digest,” I said. “I’ll show you a good trail to get some exercise on. The others will probably want to follow, but you don’t have to take them. They’ll get their exercise in the field.”

  By the time she’d loved on all the horses, and I’d shown her the blankets, how to check the horses over so if they were acting funny or had anything unusual going on, she’d be more likely to spot it, it had been over an hour. Amber wanted to brush them down, so we worked on that. I didn’t figure a city girl would be interested in horses, but maybe it was because she’d never been around them. Maria had been scared of horses and wouldn’t even ride unless one of us rode behind her. Now that I thought about it, that might have been just another part of her game.

  Amber wasn’t the sort who wanted to look helpless and scared, though. Sometimes she could be a little clueless, but I figured that was just the way she’d grown up. I couldn’t expect her to know more about horses or tractors than I knew about the New York subway. It was something I’d seen on TV, that was all. Same with her.

  When the horses got restless to go outside, I saddled up Van Gogh, showing Amber how to do it, too, but reminding her to ask Grimes for help if she wanted to ride when we weren’t around. Then I saddled up Picasso and put leads on the other two so they could get some exercise before the snows got too deep to ride the trails.