My Cowboy Book 2

CORA

“Is that a yes?” Hael asked, his blue eyes wide with anticipation.

I smiled, pulling him in for another kiss while the fireworks continued to explode overhead.

I ran my fingers through his sandy hair and hitched my skirt up a little so I could straddle him.

He let out a deep groan as I ground into his lap. I could feel him getting hard.

I let my hand travel down until I’d reached inside his button fly.

I gave his manhood a tug.

That was all the encouragement he needed to flip me onto my back.

He reached one rough hand up my skirt, fingers teasing me over my underwear.

His other hand traveled under my shirt to squeeze my breasts.

I moaned loudly, but the fireworks consumed any noise I made.

“Baby,” I managed to get out.

I tried to grasp his shaft again, but he grabbed my hands in both of his and raised them over my head.

He held me there, just firmly enough that I couldn’t get them free without his permission.

“Uh-uh,” he teased.

He brought his mouth down to my exposed breasts, his tongue swirling in circles before lightly biting my hardened nipples.

I rocked my hips upward to meet his hard bulge, but I needed more, and I needed it soon.

“Hael…,” I whined.

Satisfied that I was putty in his hands, Hael pulled one hand off my wrists and used it to release his member.

He rubbed the tip against my moistened clit, and I tried to push him inside me but to no avail. He wouldn’t allow it yet.

“Is that a yes?” he repeated with a mischievous grin.

“What do I get if it is?”

Finally, he met my eyes and pushed himself into my welcoming entrance.

“Oh, God! Hael!” I let out, arching my back as his length filled me.

He was still solidly on his knees and I brought my pelvis up to meet his.

I tightened my legs around his hips as he slowly thrust into me, the hand that wasn’t holding my wrists gripping the flesh of my thigh.

He picked up his pace, and soon I was becoming desperate to use my hands—to run my nails down his broad back.

Finally, he allowed my hands to come free.

I grasped onto his shoulders and pulled my torso up to be flush with his as he slid in and out of me.

He held all of my weight in his strong arms effortlessly as he sat upright and continued to fuck me.

I was so close to cumming.

My cheeks hot, breathing ragged, I closed my eyes as euphoria flooded through my body.

As soon as he was sure I’d been satisfied, Hael let himself go.

He let out a fulfilled groan, and I felt his warm seed surge into me.

Finally, I collapsed back down onto the wooden floor of the balcony, with Hael breathing heavily on top of me.

He looked me in the eyes again.

“So that’s a yes, then?” he said for the third time, panting into my ear.

“No… That’s a fuck yes.”

HAEL

On a sunny Saturday the month after our engagement, Cora and I rolled up and parked in front of Bree-elle and Tobias’s new house around 6 p.m.

They had moved out of our family home—which was now back in my dad’s care—and into a starter home on the other side of town.

Tobias’s parents had offered to have a brand-new house built for them in Plainview, but they were happy with a fixer-upper.

That was Ellie’s idea. Took after me and Dad in that respect.

Once they’d gotten the place presentable enough, they decided to host a family dinner party.

Dad’s rusty truck was already parked in the driveway. Tobias’s parents’ Mercedes was there too.

It was the week before Thanksgiving, and I had so much to be thankful for, what with getting engaged and all.

It still didn’t seem real. The last few weeks felt like we’d been playing house. Content with our happy, simple life.

We didn’t go straight into wedding planning, not yet, which was fine with me.

There was so much more to a wedding than I ever expected—with save the dates, catering, rehearsal dinner, sending out the actual invitations, photographers, color schemes, flowers…

It made my head spin just thinking about it.

That said, it still didn’t change the fact that I was the happiest man in the world.

I was getting married to an incredible, smart, sexy woman who loved me just as much as I loved her.

What isn’t there to be happy about?

“Ready to do this?” Cora asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I leaned over and kissed her before we hopped out of my truck and headed for the front door.

Cora’d had her hands really full with her website lately. It was good to see her so active. She’d come a long way since that summer, and I was proud of everything she’d done.

Her online women’s magazine had finally had what she called a “soft launch” a few weeks before, though she was still courting investors.

The G-Spot, as she titled it, was an “open and safe place for women to read, learn, and share about sexuality, sexual identity, sexual pleasure, and mental and physical health.”

The pictures and graphics on the site looked real nice, as far as I could tell, but as Cora said, “It needs more content.”

Reviews and articles and stuff.

She said if she was going to make this thing a real business and not just some pet project, she needed others onboard.

Tobias had graduated from Trinity in May and was now working at his dad’s accounting firm.

They were really excited to have Cora as Tobias’s first big client.

Navigating the ins and outs of finance went way over Cora’s and my heads, but Tobias took care of enough so that Cora could focus on things like talking to potential investors.

She actually had her second investor ready to sign the next morning and she was asking the first batch of subscribers to write reviews so she could put them up on the homepage.

With all the craziness, having a quiet evening with family was a nice change of pace.

“Hey, come on in!” Tobias said as he answered the door.

Tobias’s parents, Doug and Rachel, greeted us too. Rachel immediately handed Cora a glass of white wine while Tobias hurried back into the kitchen.

The tiny home didn’t have a formal dining room, but after my dad had knocked out the wall separating the kitchen and living room, the space felt a lot bigger.

“Where’s Leroy?” Cora asked as she sat down at the table.

“Down here,” we heard Dad’s gravelly voice say.

When I looked over the kitchen island, I saw Dad lying on his back under the sink.

CORA

Ellie almost tripped over her father as she took the cheesy potatoes out of the oven.

“Dad, you can look at that later,” Ellie moaned.

“Nah, Bumblebee, I almost got it…,” he said, oblivious to the fact that he was in the way.

Tobias’s dad’s eye roll didn’t go unnoticed. “They could also just call a plumber,” Doug said, sipping his wine.

“Never met a plumber who could fix a problem I couldn’t take care of myself,” Leroy replied.

Hael cracked open a beer and took a seat next to me at the table.

“Well, dinner’s almost ready,” Ellie said.

Leroy eventually made his way out from under the sink and joined us at the table while Tobias and Ellie brought the pork chops, potatoes, and greens over.

“The damn water pressure,” Leroy said beside me. “All these city ordinances… Ya know, there used to be real falls in Flake Wood Falls.”

“What happened?” I asked. “A casualty of that big drought?”

“We wouldn’t have had a drought in the first place,” Leroy huffed, “if those rich bastards up in Plainview hadn’t leveed the water back in ninety-two.”

Doug went rigid and raised an eyebrow. “That so?”

Oh yeah, two of those ‘rich bastards’ are sitting across from him. By the look in Leroy’s eye, he realized it too.

He wasn’t exactly wrong—at least that’s what Hael had told me. The Plainview levee system had basically fucked Flake Wood Falls.

If it hadn’t been for my father all those years before, the whole town would have been a lot worse off.

“Well,” said Leroy, trying to backtrack, “I’m just sayin’ that Flake Wood Falls could have used some outside help, is all.”

Trying to change the subject, I said, “Ellie, Tobias, this all looks incredible!”

“It was all Ellie,” Tobias said. “I’ll have to learn all these recipes once she starts school next semester.”

“The first Gunners to go to college,” Hael said, raising his bottle.

“Are you excited?” I asked her. “To start school?”

“I am…,” Bree-elle began as she started passing plates around.

She didn’t take much food for herself; in fact, she looked a little green.

“Are you okay?” I whispered to her.

“I’m fine,” she snapped back unexpectedly.

“Oh my gosh!” Rachel interrupted.

She pointed to my ring finger. “I just realized I haven’t seen you two since the engagement! Show me that ring!”

I held out my left hand to some oohs and ahhs from the Frelts.

“Hael picked it out,” I said. “It’s perfect!”

“When’s the big day?” Rachel asked.

“We don’t have an exact date yet, but we’re thinking sometime in October, so a year-long engagement. Figured we’d get to the details a little later.”

“I told Hael I was actually fine going to city hall in a cute dress, signing the paperwork, and calling it a day,” I continued, “but Mr. Softy here wanted something a little more romantic.”

As I spoke, I took his hand.

“That’s wonderful!” Doug said. “Let’s toast to celebrate! Cora, do you need me to top you off?”

“Sure, thank you.” I held out my glass to be filled.

“Frelt Vineyard Riesling,” Rachel butted in. “The 2018. I brought a couple of bottles for you to take home too.”

“I never did get what people like so much about wine,” Leroy chimed in.

Here we go.

“I could never taste the difference between a five-dollar bottle or a fifty-dollar one,” he went on.

“Taste in wine is something you have to refine,” Doug said.

“Well, I guess it’s a little hard to be ‘refined’ when you have to break your back for a livin’.”

Dammit, Leroy…

“So, have you thought about kids?” Rachel asked, defusing another blowup while simultaneously starting another.

“Mom!” Tobias exclaimed.

“Now, honey,” Doug added, “that’s no one’s business but theirs.”

“Oh, I meant no harm…just curious that’s all.”

“Well, stop being so nosy.”

“It’s fine,” I said, trying to calm the rising tension. “Hael and I have talked about it. We think it’s in the cards for the future, but nothing definitive yet.”

That wasn’t true.

I would be over the moon to have children with Hael.

It warmed my heart just thinking about it, but I was keeping that to myself for now.

Around that time, I noticed Ellie acting in a very un-Ellie-like way, being very quiet.

Any other time the family got into a tizzy, she was usually in the thick of it.

But she just sat there poking at her food, not eating, looking at her phone.

“Well, I think you’d have beautiful children—smart, too, of course,” Rachel grinned, eyes glazed. The wine seemed to be having an effect. “I’d have more if I could…”

“Please, don’t,” Tobias said. “Oh!” He practically jumped out of his seat. “I almost forgot. Speaking of parenting…”

“Not now, Tobias,” Ellie scolded, but he was already in the other room. When he came back, he had something behind his back.

“Ellie and I got you two something.”

Ellie’s reaction was the embodiment of the face-palm emoji.

“So, as a sort of ‘Welcome to the family…’ happy wedding…thing, Ellie and I got to thinking and decided—”

“You decided,” Ellie cut in.

“We—umm, I went ahead and…well, here.” He handed me a framed photo with a picture of a…

“Is that a llama?” I asked.

“Congratulations! You’re now the proud owners—parents—of your very own alpaca!” Tobias was beaming.

“Are you serious?” I asked, staring at the photo of the cocked-headed little beast. It was actually kind of adorable.

Tobias nodded enthusiastically. “Thought it’d be a great addition to the farm.”

“We don’t want it,” Hael said.

“Oh, come on Hael,” I pleaded. “Look how cute it is.”

“It looks like an asshole. We don’t need a damn alpaca running around the ranch.”

He looked at Tobias. “Now un-adopt it and send it back.”

“I can’t un-adopt it…it’s already ‘in the mail’.”

“You already paid for it?” Hael said.

Ellie stood up, her face looking clammy and pale. “I told you to wait! If you’d’ve listened to me—” She pushed herself away from the table and rushed to the bathroom.

Tobias got up and went to check on her.

Good boy.

Though he did almost step on Ellie’s phone, which she’d dropped when she’d stood up. I quickly snatched it up before someone else smashed it.

Holy shit fucking-fuck! I thought to myself when I turned the phone screen over and saw what she’d been reading.

“Pregnancy Symptoms: 10 Early Signs.”

Is Ellie fucking preggo?