Free Courting Her Rebel: (Taken by Cowboys: Part 2) A Billionaire Western Romance by A.L. Loire

Chapter 1
    He didn’t want to leave her. Getting up and going went against every last fiber of Spencer’s being, against the flow of blood that ran through his veins and the air that rushed to his lungs. Stay with her. Never leave her side , some unknown voice beckoned him. It was a voice he’d never heard before, one that seemed to originate deep inside of him. It echoed still as he emerged from the grove of pine trees that hid that lake and started down the path towards the dining lodge.
    After making love to her, all he wanted to do was bury his face in her hair, still damp from the lake, and sleep on and on like that until the sun disappeared into evening. He couldn’t give in to his desires, though—at least, not any more than he already had. He had to attend to his nightly duties at the ranch. He was expected to be there for every meal to talk with the guests and organize the activities for the night and the following day. Nate would be waiting for him. Getaway Guest Ranch was half his, after all. He couldn’t leave his best friend and business partner hanging, especially without any warning.
    But the look in her eyes when he’d told her he had to leave, the late-afternoon sun drying the cool creek water and perspiration from their bodies as they lay on the soft grass on the bank, had been almost enough to make him say, “To hell with responsibilities.” It wasn’t just a look of disappointment, which he could have dealt with. It was a look that said, I knew it . She thought he was just like the rest of those greedy, soulless New York bastards just looking for a piece of ass. He grimaced into the red sunset that was bleeding down over a distant mountain.
    True, he used to be one of them, always running around with a different woman, seeking satisfaction but no real connection just to fill the emptiness he felt inside. But he had since changed since leaving his old life on in the East, as had Nate. He hadn’t done the “casual” thing since he’d moved out West. It simply didn’t interest him. Maybe that’s what happened when you hit thirty and were no longer a part of the testosterone-driven world of Wall Street.
    That was why this turn of events with Jess had rocked his world so completely. Part of him could hardly believe it had happened, but the other part of him felt like it was totally natural. It had felt so right. The memory of her beautiful, lush body wrapped around his in the cool mountain pool, her lips and tongue seeking his with passionate hunger, was almost too perfect to be true. And then it had gotten even more incredible when he’d laid her on the smooth, flat top of a sun-drenched boulder, tasted her sweetness and then sheathed himself to the hilt in her soft, wet folds. With each thrust into her, he had felt more and more alive.
    Almost too good to be true—but from the way he felt himself swell below the belt at the vividness of the memory, he knew it had really happened. And he knew that he wanted—no, needed—to feel that sensation again.
    Nate was already at the usual table by the time he showed up. The tables were piled high with platters of food, the hard work of their team of chefs, who specialized in high-quality home cooking. His mouth watered at the vinegary scent of ribs that met his nose as he approached the table. He had sure worked up an appetite.
    “Where’ve you been all afternoon?” he asked.
    Spencer scrambled to think of a story. He’d told Nate about the kiss he’d exchanged with Jess during the campfire the night before, and Nate had acted happy for him—at least, he’d seemed to. He thought he’d seen an unsettling glimmer of jealousy in his best friend’s eye.
    “I had to tend to a minor emergency after the hike. One of the older guys got a little too frisky scrambling over some rocks and sprained his ankle. I wrapped it up and put some ice on it,” he said, trying to sound as smooth and natural as possible. Luckily sprained ankles were a common