Her Dirty Cowboys Read online

  Her Dirty Cowboys

  Men of Montana – Book Two

  Roma James

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Excerpt from Her Alpha Cowboys

  Also by Roma James

  Her Dirty Cowboys

  Copyright 2020 by Roma James

  All rights reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue were created from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual people or events is coincidental.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover by Cosmic Letterz

  (This book is suitable for 18+ readers only. All situations are consensual.)

  Chapter 1

  Daisy Lynn

  I looked out over the huge front lawn of the Triple J Ranch and almost had to pinch myself just to confirm we were really here. If I was being perfectly honest, I’d been a little nervous about spending a few days out on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, but I’d pushed my nerves aside for the sake of visiting and catching up with Janessa.

  We’d done our best to stay in touch over the past year since Janessa’s parents had passed away, but this was the first time Becca and I had actually been able to come visit. Looking at the place, it seemed just like Janessa had described it to us—a big, old farm house sitting on a perfectly manicured lawn with fields and pastures stretching out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Even the nearest road from town was at least a mile away down the long driveway.

  But even though it looked like a quiet, quaint, dull-as-dishwater place, it was apparently far from boring. Or maybe we’d just come at a particularly dramatic time. We’d learned from Janessa and from the bits and pieces of conversation we’d picked up over breakfast that there had been some trouble at the ranch lately.

  Vandalism.

  Burglary.

  Poisoned animals.

  And now Janessa, Becca, and I were standing on the front porch waiting for the sheriff to arrive and take a look around.

  I hated that my best friend was going through so much scary stuff all at once, but I had to admit it made the whole place seem a lot more exciting than I’d imagined. A lot more dangerous, too.

  And to think I’d been worried about bears and wolves before we got here.

  “They’re here,” Janessa said, squinting against the sun as she looked down the driveway.

  I followed her gaze but couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t even see the road from where we were standing on the porch. “Where?” I asked. “How do you know?”

  I looked over at Becca, wondering if I’d missed something, but she just shrugged.

  “Listen,” Janessa said, cocking her head to the side. “You can hear the engine in the sheriff’s patrol car from a mile away.”

  I couldn’t hear anything and still couldn’t see anything, either—which meant they were literally a mile away. Did living on a ranch give people some kind of hearing superpower? It really was quiet here, though. Like, really quiet. Maybe it was easier to hear when something out of the ordinary was happening once you got used to the normal ranch sounds.

  Or maybe my best friend was a mutant. With everything else I’d learned about this place in the past twenty-four hours, I wouldn’t have been totally shocked.

  But just as I was getting ready to question Janessa on her mutant origins, I saw the glint of sunlight from the lights on top of the police cruiser. And once I could see the car, I could finally start to hear the engine noise that she’d been talking about. God, how had I missed that? It really did sound like a race car coming up the driveway.

  “Told you.” Janessa grinned as my eyebrows shot up. “Anyone committing a crime in a five-mile radius knows when to start running from the sound of that engine.”

  I opened my mouth to reply but then closed it again when I saw the two men getting out of the police car.

  “Wow,” Becca whispered, clearly just as impressed as I was with the level of hotness we were witnessing. “They look like…”

  Her voice trailed off, but I was pretty sure I knew the direction her thoughts were heading.

  They looked like strippers.

  Like strippers pretending to be cops.

  Except way, way hotter than any strippers I’d ever seen. So much so that I was tempted to ask if there was a birthday or a bachelorette party going on that I didn’t know about.

  “Why didn’t you tell us you had such hot lawmen out here?” I asked instead.

  “What?” She gave me a surprised look and then started laughing. “Really?”

  I nodded absently, my mind going blank as I stared out at the uniformed officers, committing every detail I could to memory. It had been a while since I’d had a steady boyfriend, so the sight of these guys would probably keep me going for at least a few days. I mean… they really looked like they’d just stepped out of one of my fantasies.

  One of my best, hottest fantasies.

  “They’re both gorgeous,” I finally managed to answer. “Seriously. Makes me want to run out and commit some crimes.”

  Both of my friends laughed at that, but I wasn’t even joking.

  Frisk me.

  Arrest me.

  Lock me up and throw away the key as long as I get a good view of these two men from my jail cell.

  “I think there might be easier ways to get their attention,” Janessa said, still laughing a little. “But don’t let me stop you. I guess I’ve just never looked at them like that before.”

  Becca gave her a sideways glance. “No, I guess you probably haven’t…”

  It was my turn to stifle a laugh this time. If Janessa thought her crush on the two other houseguests—a couple of ranchers and family friends from a hundred miles away, apparently—had gone unnoticed, then she was crazy. Becca and I had picked up on their mutual attraction the first time we’d seen the three of them together.

  I was pretty sure the only person in the house who hadn’t guessed there was something going on between the three of them was Janessa’s uncle, Justin.

  Which, given the older man’s temper and protective nature, was probably for the best.

  “What does that mean?” Janessa asked.

  Her tone was more than a little defensive. Maybe she really did think she’d been doing a good job of fooling all of us. She’d been out here on this ranch, cut off from the rest of the world for so long that she’d apparently forgotten the cardinal rule of budding relationships: Your best friends can always tell.

  “Nothing, really…” Becca gave her a sweet-but-knowing smile. “Just… it’s pretty obvious you’ve had your eyes on a couple of other guys, that’s all.”

  I couldn’t even stifle my laugh this time. That had to have been the understatement of the decade. Maybe the century. Janessa practically drooled every time Cade and Boone—the cute rancher guys—walked by.

  Janessa’s look changed from defensive to worried in an instant. “Is it really that obvious?”

  I had two choices—lie to try and make her feel better or tell the truth and hope that she’d do
the same with us. So… not really a choice at all, right?

  “Come on, Janessa,” I said, trying to ease the truth with a smile, at least. “They couldn’t even let you out of their sight long enough for you to come pick us up from the bus station. Pretty sure it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that the three of you have something going on.”

  As if to prove my point, Cade and Boone appeared from around the side of the house with Janessa’s uncle to greet the sheriff.

  “You’re doing it again,” Becca snickered.

  “What?” Janessa’s eyes had locked onto her guys, and it was as if nothing else even existed in her world. “I’m not doing anything…”

  Becca and I exchanged a look and both shook our heads. Our girl had it bad for these guys.

  Which was understandable. They were good-looking guys, after all. Not as hot as my fantasy cops, of course, but still objectively good-looking.

  I just wondered how she was going to decide between the two of them, since it seemed pretty clear that they were both pretty interested in her, too.

  But that question would have to wait for another day. Right now, I was more concerned with finding a way to introduce myself to these hot cops.

  The lawmen were already talking to Cade, Boone, and Justin when we walked up to join the group. Still, I couldn’t help but notice the way the sheriff and his deputy both paused mid-sentence to look over at us.

  And okay, maybe I only noticed because I hadn’t taken my eyes off them since they’d pulled up in the driveway a few minutes before. And maybe I was also secretly hoping they were only focusing on me behind those mirrored sunglasses they were wearing.

  Not that I would have intentionally stood in the way if either of my friends had been interested in the officers, but Janessa already had her own guys, and I was pretty sure the policemen weren’t really Becca’s type.

  So as far as I was concerned, that meant they were both mine.

  Potentially mine.

  Hopefully mine.

  At least one of them.

  That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

  Becca elbowed me in the side and I flinched away, sucking in a sharp breath to ask her what the hell that was all about when I realized everyone was looking at me. Oh, God. They’d all been talking, but I’d been so busy fantasizing about the officers that I hadn’t really been paying attention.

  And now?

  “I’m sorry,” I said, hoping a sweet smile would save the day as I looked up at the sheriff and then over to the deputy. “I was just, um…” Daydreaming. Fantasizing. Undressing both of you with my eyes.

  “I know this is probably a traumatic time for all of you.” The sheriff gave me a concerned look. “It’s okay if you don’t remember much. Any details you could give us would be helpful, though.”

  I looked over to Becca, but she was just staring blankly back at me. Great. No help there. What was he even talking about? What was I supposed to remember? Him? His deputy? There was no way I could have forgotten either of them, so that couldn’t be it.

  “They weren’t here when the intruder came,” Janessa offered, saving me from myself and giving me a knowing eyeroll for good measure.

  Hey, at least I could admit it—to my friends, anyway—when I was distracted by a hot guy. Or two hot guys, in this case.

  “Oh, right, no…” I shook my head. “We just got here last night. Just bad timing, I guess.”

  “Sounds like perfect timing to me,” the deputy quirked an eyebrow as he looked me up and down. “At least the two of you weren’t in any danger. Can’t ask for more than that.”

  I could only nod. I could barely breathe. Everyone was still looking in my direction, but there was no way I could say anything else. I could actually feel the oxygen leaving my brain at the realization that these two hot guys had been concerned about me. About us. Me and Becca. But also me.

  And okay, so maybe it was sort of their job to be concerned. But still… it definitely wasn’t their job to look me up and down like that. That look—first from the sheriff and then from his deputy—had been all pleasure, no business.

  “Have you all met the guys who bought the old Foster ranch yet?” The sheriff turned his attention back to the other men and back to the conversation I’d been ignoring when we walked up.

  Which was fine.

  I didn’t know anything about the Foster ranch or this ranch or any other ranch. I didn’t know anything about intruders or horses being poisoned. I didn’t really know what the sheriff and his deputy were even doing here today.

  And honestly?

  I didn’t really care.

  They were here. That was what mattered most. They were here and they were sexy.

  And best of all?

  I was pretty sure I’d just caught the deputy looking over at me again.

  What a day.

  We’d spent the morning drooling over the lawmen—okay, maybe I’d been the only one drooling. It had been enough to make me need a nap after they’d left the ranch, though.

  Now it was the middle of the afternoon, and we’d just been dropped off in town by Janessa’s uncle after Janessa had ditched us for a hair appointment.

  And since I wasn’t sure if hair appointment was actually some sort of secret code for meeting up with her cowboy crushes, Becca and I had pretended like we totally knew where Janessa was and that we just hadn’t been interested in going to the salon with her.

  It wasn’t easy keeping track of who knew what and what we should or shouldn’t say, but… girl code, right?

  Whatever Janessa was doing—and whatever her feelings were—I trusted her to tell us when the time was right. Until then, Becca and I were going to do some shopping in the tiny little town of Bliss.

  And okay, maybe our shopping was really limited to western wear, bait and tackle, and hunting licenses, but we could work with that. Everyone looked a little sexier in a cowboy hat and boots, right?

  That was what I was telling myself as I looked at my reflection in the full-length dressing room mirror. Yeah, the cowboy hat and boots were definitely worth keeping. The suede jacket with the fringe? Maybe not so much.

  “What do you think, Becca?” I asked, looking back at my butt in the mirror as I walked out of the fitting room. “Are these jeans too tight on my ass?”

  “They look good from where I’m standing,” a deep voice that definitely did not belong to Becca answered. “Really good, as a matter of fact.”

  I felt my face flush as I turned to see the cute deputy standing at the front counter. “Thanks,” I squeaked, wishing the floor would open up and swallow me right then and there. I wasn’t sure whether I should keep standing there like an idiot while I waited for Becca to come out of the neighboring dressing room or run back into mine and pretend like this whole embarrassing moment hadn’t just happened.

  “Nice boots, too.”

  I looked down. Oh, God. What did he just say? Nice… oh, boots. Right. Not boobs. Okay. Lord, please don’t let me say or do anything stupid right now.

  “Thanks,” I repeated, because apparently that was the only word my brain was capable of producing at the moment. “Where is your friend?”

  He cocked his head to the side and looked over at the shop owner behind the counter.

  Nope. Wrong friend. Wrong question. Why had I even asked? Friend? What if he and the sheriff weren’t actually even friends?

  “You mean the sheriff?” the hot deputy asked. “Prescott is around here somewhere.” He shrugged. “His loss.” He shot me a thousand-watt grin and closed the distance between us with just a few long strides. “I don’t think I had a chance to properly introduce myself earlier at the ranch. My name is Cole Wright, and I’m the deputy here in Bliss. The sheriff is Prescott Lane.”

  He held out his hand and I looked at it blankly for a moment before my brain kicked in and remembered how to function. “I’m Daisy Lynn, and my friend’s name is Becca. Pleasure to meet you, dep-uh, Cole.” Was I supposed to call him Deputy?
Mister? Mister Deputy Cole Wright? But if I was breaking some kind of police officer etiquette, he didn’t seem to mind.

  He didn’t seem to mind at all, actually. I was pretty sure he was holding onto my hand for way longer than a normal handshake would require. Not that I wasn’t one hundred thousand percent okay with that, though. He could hold my hand—or whatever else he wanted to hold—for as long as he wanted.

  “That’s a pretty name, Daisy Lynn. How do you and your friend know Janessa Thoreson?” he asked, still holding my hand.

  My brain threatened to short-circuit again after that little compliment. He likes my name. He thinks I’m pretty—well, he thinks my name is pretty. But oh, God. He’d asked me something else, too. What was it? Focus. Breathe. Keep it together. Oh, right. Janessa. “We lived in the dorms together in college,” I said, thanking my lucky stars that my voice actually sounded mostly normal, like I wasn’t totally freaking out on the inside. Thank God for small favors and halfway answered prayers, at least.

  “I figured it had to be something like that. I knew you weren’t from around here, anyway. Will you ladies be staying in town for very long?”

  I blinked, shook my head, then shrugged as I realized he wasn’t just asking me typical police questions. Or if he was, it didn’t feel typical. It felt like… flirting. “A few days, I think? Maybe longer?”

  My voice was getting higher with every syllable, and I finally had to pull my hand away to keep from having an actual medical emergency right there in the middle of the western wear bait and tackle shop.

  “You should let me show you around while you’re here,” he said, smiling and giving me another one of those up-and-down looks. “And maybe… take you to dinner?”