Page 70 of Cowboy Daddies

“No. No, there is not.” She laughed as she craned to try and catch a glimpse of her husband, but he was too far ahead. “I’m beginning to really enjoy this trip.”

“Same, but if you tell my husband I’ll deny it,” Jim’s tone was dead serious.

Sammie, her horse, flicked her ears in irritation at the way they cackled.

Chapter Nine

It felt like coming home.

He remembered the sullen angry kid he’d been when he’d arrived on the bus with other delinquents who had been sent to work off their anger. And he remembered when it stopped feeling like a punishment and started feeling like a place he could belong. The work was hard, but there was something cleansing about it.

The good honest sweat of his labor seemed to wash the negativity out of his system over time, and he’d settled in like he was meant to be there. They didn’t get the same results from every other kid. Some left with the same rage they’d brought, but for Carter, it was exactly what he needed.

The ranch had changed a lot over the years, but he quickly noticed that most were cosmetic, or changes needed for having adult guests. The hot tub, saunas, and the big screen tv in the bunkhouse were probably necessary to keep the paying guests happy. And of course, there was a different energy about the place now, which made sense.

But underneath it all … it was the same. And now that he was back, he was happy to realize it still felt like he belonged. Ma and Pa certainly thought so too.

After dinner one night, Pa pulled him aside. “I know you’re a paying guest, son, but I’m thinking ranch lessons are going to bore you, since you already know what we’ll be teaching. And I’m not one to turn down an experienced hand if you’re interested in doing some honest work while you’re here.”

“I…” He hesitated, not because he wasn’t itching to work, but because that wasn’t why he was there. “I’m not sure how Allegra will take that. The couple bonding stuff is really important, and I kind of surprised her with this whole thing. If I go off and abandon her…”

Pa thumped him on the back. “Don’t be silly. I’d never take you away from your beautiful wife. Just thinking you don’t need a hand following the two of you around and showing you the ropes. You can teach her instead. That is, if you don’t mind bossing her around, of course.”

Carter was made for bossing her and his mouth twitched up at one side. “I think I can handle that. To be honest, I’ve missed working with my hands.”

Pa laughed. “That’s right … you’re a big city slicker now, ain’tcha? Got you one of them office jobs?” The way he switched from professional business owner, to country bumpkin had always amused Carter. Mostly because he could never figure out if it was an affectation or not.

“I’ve got my own business actually, so I mostly work from home.” He shrugged, looking down at his dusty boots for a moment, and then sent Pa a sideways glance. “I went to college like you wanted, got really into computers. Now I do web design, front-end development, write code.”

Pa’s look turned serious. The humor left his eyes. “Sounds fancy. Do you like what you do?”

He hadn’t really thought about that much. He enjoyed writing code, but building websites tended to be boring. “It pays well and I can do it from wherever,” he said finally.

It wasn’t what Pa had asked, and they both knew it. “Hmm. Well, they say you’re never too old for a change. If it’s not hitting the right spots … maybe it’s time to look around. Ma and I … we never planned to own a ranch, but it was the best choice we could have made.”

“You help people. It’s important work and I’m grateful I was one of the people you helped.”

Pa just looked at him for a long moment. “You know, Carter, we wanted you to go to college because you were smart as a whip, and we thought you should have choices. Your life getting derailed so young… that was a tragedy and we were glad to give you some stability for a while.”

Carter looked up and nodded slowly.

“But we weren’t sending you away because we didn’t want you. We sent you away so you could be sure that this place was where you needed to be, and not just the first safe harbor you’d stumbled into. We wanted you to have the best life, even if it wasn’t here, but I have to admit I always thought you’d come back after school. I’m glad you’re here now anyway, but I hope you won’t be such a stranger in the future.” Pa patted him on the shoulder and walked away before he saw the shock his words had caused.

As he watched the older man vanish out the door, he realized his mouth was hanging open. “They wanted me to come back.” The words were barely a whisper but just saying them unlocked something that had been twisted up tight for years.

He’d thought … helping him apply for scholarships and encouraging him to go off to school was their way of saying he’d used up enough of their generosity. They’d asked him to call and write, and he’d done both for a very short time, but the longer he was away the more he convinced himself that they’d done enough for him.

So, he cut ties and made his own life like he was supposed to, but now … now, it was like the floor had dropped out from under him. He stood there like a mannequin, staring into space with a blank expression, while he tried to rewire his brain to accept this new information.

Despite the long day, the conversation kept him awake, tossing and turning in the comfortable bed long after the bunkhouse had gone quiet. It didn’t help that when he finally managed to turn his brain to a new topic, it settled on Ally and how much he wanted to hold her. No matter how hard he tried to keep his thoughts pure … it didn’t exactly work.

The new Daddy thing was electric. The way she responded to it was driving him crazy. And she wasn’t holding back just because they were on a weeklong sex ban either. If anything she’d turned up the heat; brushing against him every chance she got, whispering naughty things in his ear.

The switch had lent a new excitement to everything. Every time he thought about her calling him ‘Daddy’ in that sultry voice of hers, his cock twitched. Maybe this was just some new honeymoon period, but he had a feeling it was more than that. Daddy Carter seemed like a good fit for them both.

He ached to touch her, but she was yards away in a different bunkhouse. His hand slid down to stroke his half-hard erection, and he had to stifle the groan. The temptation to jerk himself off so he could sleep was nearly overwhelming. But he wasn’t a teenage boy in the dark. He wanted his wife, not a quick, unsatisfying hand job.

The rules said no and he was ‘trusting the process’, but it was a real bitch, especially since his wife wasn’t interested in keeping those rules. Daddy felt obligated to make sure they didn’t mess up, but it wasn’t easy.