Free The Cowboy's Saving Grace, an erotic western novella (Taming the Cowboy) by Emma Jay

face raised to Liam’s so that when he looked up, he’d be clear on just how pissed she was.
    “Mommy! I’m riding!”
    Noah’s clear little voice rang out and wrapped around her heart, and her attention wavered from Liam’s long enough to take in the joy on her son’s face. When Noah turned back to the horse, she looked up at Liam, at the proud smile on his handsome face.
    “Hey, sweetheart. Nice shirt.”
    She glanced down and felt her face heat. She hadn’t looked at the words—”Save a horse, ride a cowboy.” Naturally. Ignoring the other cowboys who were snickering, she looked back at Liam.
    “You should have told me you were taking him.”
    “You saw the note. We thought we’d let you sleep.”
    He guided the horse to the rail and dismounted, his hand still holding Noah steady on the horse. He hefted the child out of the saddle, not a popular move. Noah sent up a wail that spooked not only that horse, but every horse in the place.
    “Hush, now,” Liam said in his same calm tone. “Cowboys don’t cry.”
    Grace gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to have this conversation in front of all these men. She reached for her son.
    “You’re not used to having a three-year-old around.”
    Liam leveled a look at her, the humor in his eyes fading. “Why is that, Grace?”
    She refused to let herself flinch. “You don’t know what he needs, what he’s used to, the kind of attention it takes.”
    “We did fine, and he told me what he needed. You’re all worked up over nothing.”
    That pissed her off. "You leave with my son without telling me and I'm not supposed to be worried?"
    "He's my son, too, and I told you where we were. I was being nice."
    His words, bitten off so they hit her like bullets, came through his teeth, his eyes iced over. Huh, she'd succeeded in pissing him off. She hugged Noah a little tighter, and the boy squirmed, twisting toward his daddy, sensing the tension.
    "I have an appointment with a lawyer tomorrow," Liam said. "Everything will be on its way to being nice and legal then."
    And if the lawyer saw her as being unfit, would he take her son away? Her throat tightened, so she couldn't ask, couldn't plead. Instead, she turned away. Noah started to cry. But she needed to get home, get away from Liam, get time to think.
     
    ***
     
    By the time Teresa got home from her job as teacher's assistant, Grace was halfway ready to pack up everything they both owned and move them where Liam couldn't find them.
    "What's going on?" Teresa set her purse on top of the refrigerator and walked into the kitchen where Grace was madly scrubbing the stovetop. They'd never get their deposit back with the stove looking like this.
    "Liam hired a lawyer. He wants me to go with him tomorrow. He's going to tell them I work in a strip club and they're going to take Noah away." She snapped her gaze to her friend’s, horrified. She’d spoken without thinking about what Teresa was enduring, trying to get her own daughter back from the system.
    "They are not. A lawyer can't do that, anyway. Only a judge can."
    Grace dragged her hands through her hair. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be bringing all this back. I just...Liam took Noah today while I was sleeping and I was so scared and we fought and he said Noah is his kid, and...God, why did I let myself fall for him again?"
    Teresa closed the refrigerator door slowly and leaned against it. "If you're in love with him, why do you think he's going to take Noah away?"
    "Because my judgment has never been the best, has it? Especially where he’s concerned. Just because I love him doesn't mean he can't hurt me. It just means he can hurt me more."
    "If he wants you to go with him to a lawyer, he's trying to work it out, don't you think? I mean, he may be mad that you kept Noah from him for three years, but he doesn't seem vicious about it."
    And Teresa knew vicious. When her abusive husband had been arrested and put in jail based on her testimony, her mother-in-law had