Single In The Saddle Read online

  “Teach me about pleasure, Stony.”

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Copyright

  “Teach me about pleasure, Stony.”

  Stroking her nipples with his thumbs, Stony kissed the hollow of her throat. “You’re bewitching me, lady.”

  “You forget. I don’t know how to bewitch a man,” Daphne said, her voice catching.

  His laughter had a ragged edge to it. “Right.”

  He kissed his way downward until he reached the tip of her breast. As he drew it slowly into his mouth, she moaned and her knees threatened to buckle. And it truly seemed like the first time a man had caressed her in this way, as if she had never known the swift tug of desire that traveled downward, settling in the deepest part of her. Her body tightened, preparing for the welcome invasion to come. The lovemaking would be incredibly powerful, she knew, because Stony wasn’t interested in a plaything to amuse himself with for a few hours. He wanted a wife.

  He kissed his way back to her mouth. “I’m taking you to bed, little darlin’.”

  “Just remember,” she whispered between kisses, “that this...is my first time.”

  Stony chuckled and swung her up in his arms. “Yeah...mine, too.”

  Dear Reader,

  Choosing a hero from the hunks in Texas Men magazine was so much fun the first time around that I’m tickled pink to be part of the series again! Just imagine—a catalog of gorgeous men searching for commitment, men who—

  But wait. Stony Arnett doesn’t know his wranglers have put him in Texas Men magazine. He has no idea that a woman is headed for the Roughstock Ranch who will demolish his comfortable routine and rearrange his life, including the placement of his well-worn furniture. Change is about to trip up this cowboy, both literally and figuratively, and Stony would rather ride a bad bull than consider such an unsettling prospect.

  I’ve had some experience with a man’s aversion to change. Like Stony Arnett, my husband’s a creature of habit. When Larry married me almost thirty years ago, he knew his life wouldn’t stay the same, but I doubt if he realized his dwelling wouldn’t stay the same. Ever. I move furniture. I move it often, and in secret. I love the “Ta, da!” effect.

  So here’s Single in the Saddle. Ta, da!

  Fondly,

  Vicki Lewis Thompson

  P.S. I’ve recently been on the receiving end of the “Ta, da!” effect myself. Not long ago, I discovered my 25th book, Mr. Valentine, was nominated for the prestigious RITA award by the Romance Writers of America. You’ve got to like those kinds of surprises!

  Vicki Lewis Thompson

  SINGLE IN THE SADDLE

  TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON

  AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG

  STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID

  PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

  For Bonnie Tucker,

  in gratitude for friendship and laughter.

  Prologue

  “STONY’S GONNA fire us for this, if he don’t kill us first.” Ty Eames looked at the cowpokes gathered around the bunkhouse table. “Am I right?”

  “No, you ain’t. You’re just playing Chicken Little, as usual.” Officially, Jasper Ingram was foreman of the Roughstock Ranch and rode herd on its four wranglers. Unofficially, he’d become a father figure for all of them, including his boss, Stony Arnett. Jasper held both positions with pride. “Fact is, Stony’s gonna thank us. Eventually. This is no time to panic.”

  Glancing at the watch he seldom wore, Jasper pushed back his chair. “I gotta leave if I’m going to make San Antonio by the time Daphne’s plane lands. You boys do like we planned, and take Stony into town later for a couple of beers. Then tell him.”

  “I still say all hell is gonna break loose,” Ty grumbled.

  “Not if you present it right.” Jasper had expected this from Ty, who never failed to spot a dark cloud in every silver lining. “Let Ramon explain it to Stony,” Jasper said, gesturing to a short Hispanic man on his left. “He’s the slickest talker we’ve got.”

  Ramon preened. “I’ll handle it, Ty. Just leave it to me, amigo.”

  “What I don’t understand is why you didn’t tell him before this, Jasper?” Big Clyde asked. “Sending his picture to that magazine was your idea.”

  Jasper smoothed his mustache as he searched for a good excuse. Big Clyde had a way of putting his finger on the most sensitive part of an issue. “I just haven’t found the right moment, is all,” he hedged, knowing Big Clyde was right. “And as I recollect, y‘all thought advertising for a wife was a fine idea. Y’all helped me cut Daphne out of the herd and we answered her letters together.”

  “Mostly Ramon did,” said Andy, the youngest wrangler and the biggest prankster of the bunch. “Ooh-la-la, what a Romeo.”

  “You might want to pay attention and learn a few things,” Ramon said.

  Ty shifted in his chair. “Letters don’t mean all that much. She’s probably all wrong for ol’ Stony.”

  “She fits all the specifications I’ve ever been able to worm out of him,” Jasper said. “Reddish hair, nice figure, pretty smile, likes horses.”

  “It’s mighty suspicious that she left Texas and moved to Hawaii,” Ty said. “Why would anyone leave Texas? We should’ve asked her about that.”

  “It’s probably because of that interior decorating she does,” Jasper said. “There’s more call for that kind of stuff in Hawaii. Besides, Stony might want her to give that up, once the babies come.”

  “We could use some interior decoratin’ around this place,” said Big Clyde, surveying the ragtag collection of bunks and scarred furniture. “The ranch house ain’t much to look at, either.”

  Andy leaned back in his chair, a mischievous grin on his face. “How do you figure she does interior decorating with that feng shui? We never did ask her to tell us what that was. Maybe she leaps into a room and starts breaking up the old furniture with karate chops. Stony might not go for that.”

  “I don’t know about Stony, but I sure ain’t messing with her,” Ty said. “I’ve seen those Steven Seagal movies, and I don’t hanker to get one of those fancy kicks aimed at me.”

  Jasper started toward the door. “Nobody’s messing with her, because she’s gonna be Stony’s wife.”

  “I still think you’re the one to tell him,” Big Clyde said. “You’ve known him the longest.”

  “Get a couple of beers in him and he’ll take it better,” Jasper said. “Ramon can explain that we all think he’s been working too hard—”

  “Just how drunk do you want us to get him?” asked Andy, who looked more than ready to party.

  “I don’t want him drunk.” Jasper sent a sternlance around the table. “Just loose. Happy. I don’t want any of you cowpokes drunk. Big Clyde’s gonna make sure of that and bring you boys home afterward, just like we’ve always done. Now I hafta go. It’s more’n an hour to the airport and I’m late.”

  1

  THROUGHOUT THE LONG flight from Honolulu, Daphne Proctor kept Texas Men magazine handy, so she could look at Stony Arnett’s smile whenever she felt nervous butterflies in her stomach. The rest of the time she studied her favorite reference book on feng
shui.

  The Oriental philosophy had already changed her life. After discovering feng shui, she’d experimented by redecorating the love-and-marriage corn of her Honolulu apartment. Boy, had that worked a miracle. With breathtaking speed she’d found a discarded Texas Men magazine on a bus, written to Stony and fallen in love, long distance.

  Flushed with success, she’d explained feng shui to her boss, hoping he’d let her use the principles with clients. He’d listened carefully to her description of how the right placement of furnishings could potentially affect health, happiness and prosperity, and then he’d appropriated her ideas, claiming them as his own. Daphne took his betrayal as a clear sign to start over in Texas with the man who was fast becoming the center of her world.

  Stony hadn’t actually proposed in his letters, but he’d come close as he described long, lonely nights and the desire to share his life with someone. No doubt he wanted to propose in person, which was the way she’d prefer accepting his proposal, anyway.

  Through his letters, she’d learned that his mother had died in a barrel-racing accident when he was only nine, and that he’d grown up on the rodeo circuit, learning bull riding from his rodeo clown father. He hadn’t complained about his rough-and-tumble childhood, but Daphne could read between the lines. He was thirsting for security and a deep, abiding love.

  He’d scrimped and saved to buy the Roughstock Ranch, and now he needed a good woman by his side. Daphne prayed that she’d be all that he wanted in a wife. He definitely was all she wanted in a husband. As the plane neared San Antonio, she abandoned her feng shui book and stared at Stony’s picture nonstop, because her stomach suddenly felt as if a whole flock of butterflies was loose in there.

  Daphne’s seatmate, a slim older woman, put aside the book she’d been reading most of the flight and glanced through her granny glasses at the magazine Daphne held. “Nice-looking cowboy. Someone you know?”

  “Yes.” Daphne smoothed the picture with her hand. Stony had sent the magazine a candid shot, which she liked better than a studio portrait any day. He was leaning against the top rail of a corral, probably watching something going on inside just as the photographer asked him to look around. His over-the-shoulder glance gave her a good view of those shoulders, the kind a girl could lean on. His dark Stetson hid most of his hair, but she knew from his letters that it was coffee brown and he liked wearing a hat because otherwise he was forever shoving his hair off his forehead.

  He was squinting slightly in the picture, but she could still make out the kindness in his blue eyes. Yet it was his easy grin that had captured her interest and made her decide to write to him. Well, that and his cute buns. A girl had to be excused for having some weaknesses.

  Daphne started to tuck the magazine away as the plane began its descent.

  “What’s that magazine? I’ve never seen it before.”

  “It’s...um...called Texas Men.”

  “You mean like pinups?”

  “Not really.” Daphne still felt self-conscious telling people she’d hooked up with a mail-order man, but at least these guys had all their cards on the table. “It advertises bachelors looking for a committed relationship.”

  “Really?” The woman perked up. “Anybody in there over sixty?”

  “I didn’t notice. Would you like to take a look?”

  “Absolutely! What a dynamite concept.” The woman adjusted her glasses more firmly on her nose and flipped through the pages. “I get so sick of these old farts who want to play footsie with every woman in the retirement village.”

  “The young guys are just as bad.” Daphne remembered walking into her apartment eighteen months ago and finding her steady guy in bed with her best friend.

  “So my granddaughter tells me. Whatever happened to monogamy, anyway?”

  “My thoughts, exactly,” Daphne said. “That’s why I decided to become a born-again virgin.”

  The woman put down the magazine and stared at Daphne over the top of her glasses. “Excuse me?”

  Daphne blushed but held her ground. This was a philosophy she believed in, after all, and the more people who heard about it, the better. “It just means that whatever experiences you’ve had with men in the past don’t count anymore. You make a decision to keep yourself pure, and so you’re a virgin from that moment on, until you find the man you intend to marry.”

  “This is fascinating. I wish now I’d spent the flight talking to you instead of keeping my nose in a book. For one thing, my granddaughter could use this information.”

  “You could become a born-again virgin, yourself.”

  The woman laughed. “I think I already am, by default. I require a romantic approach, and most of the men I meet in my age bracket are pretty clueless on that score.” She turned back to the picture of Stony. “Is he your guy, the one you’re going to marry?”

  “Well, we haven’t specifically talked about marriage because we haven’t met, but yes, I believe he is.”

  “And you’re going to meet him now? How exciting!”

  Daphne gazed at the picture. “I’m a wreck, to be honest. I’m sure I’ll be fine once we’re together, but in the meantime, I’m really stressed.”

  The woman held the magazine up and studied the picture more closely. “And how long have you been a... virgin?”

  “Seventeen months and twenty-six days.”

  The woman nodded, an appreciative smile on her face as she continued to look at Stony’s picture. “What a terrific way to break your fast.”

  RIDING IN THE FRONT passenger seat on the way back to the ranch, Stony wondered if he could have done anything to prevent the bar fight. Fine time for Jasper to be visiting a sick cousin in San Antonio, right when he could have helped Stony keep the wranglers in line. They should’ve celebrated Andy’s twenty-first birthday the following night, when Jasper could have been there, but Andy had acted like he’d die if they didn’t party tonight.

  Although Stony’s cheek throbbed from connecting with a chair leg, he felt he had to tend to his men first. He’d had plenty of practice with this routine after all the times he’d dragged his father away from similar drunken brawls. Opening the bag of ice between his feet, he pulled a plastic bag from the box on his lap. “Who needs an ice pack back there?”

  “Ramon needs one for his lip,” Ty said from the back seat. “He’s bleeding like a stuck pig. I’ll bet Elmer’s gonna soak us for the damage to his place.”

  “Oh, who cares?” Andy said, grinning despite a chipped tooth. “We whupped them boys! The Rough-stock Ranch rules! Did you see how Big Clyde held that cowboy over his head and just dropped him on the table? And then Stony punched that other guy just when he was swinging a chair at Ramon. And I got in a good right hook, but I’m not sure who I hit, so—”

  “You hit me, Rambo,” Ty said. “I need an ice pack for my eye, Stony. I doubt I’ll be able to see out of it by tomorrow. I warned y’all that Andy’s practical jokes would go too far one of these days.”

  “Aw, heck,” Andy said. “I was just having fun. A little mayo on that cowboy’s chair seat. So what?”

  “I guess you picked a cowboy with no sense of humor.” Stony hated fights, but once this one started, he’d had to help his men. He turned to Big Clyde, who as the only nondrinker was driving the ranch van. “You okay?”

  “Just my knuckles. They’ll heal. Put something on your cheek, there, boss, so it don’t swell up on you.”

  Stony filled another plastic bag and winced as he pressed the ice pack to his cheek. Now that the physical problems were under control, he felt as if he should say something to his cowhands. He tried to think of what wisdom Jasper might offer in this situation. “Well, Andy, this time you had some friends to wade in and help you out of a jam. Next time you try one of your tricks, you might not be so lucky.” There, that sounded like something Jasper would say.

  “I wouldn’t call Andy lucky,” Ty said. “Now Ramon can’t talk, and that’s a big ol’ problem, right, Andy?”
/>   “Uh, yeah. Guess so,” Andy said.

  “A hell of a problem,” Ty continued darkly. “Now I don’t know what we’re gonna do.”

  “I guess you’d better talk, then, Ty,” Big Clyde said.

  “I knew it would land on me to do the dirty work! Always does!”

  Stony gazed back at Ty. “What in blazes are you jabbering about, cowboy? Why does anybody have to talk?”

  “Just because. So here goes nothin’.” Ty cleared his throat. “Boss, we need to talk to you about somethin’.”

  “So it seems. Shoot.”

  “We think we need a woman around the ranch.”

  Stony frowned. “You mean a cook? I don’t know if I can afford one. I expect y’all must get tired of fixing your own meals down there at the bunkhouse, but—”

  “We don’t need no cook,” Andy said. “But you might.”

  “Me? You’re sick of me coming down there to eat with you? I can take a hint. I’ll buy a microwave.”

  “That’s not what Andy means, boss,” Ty said. “We all think...you’ve been working way too much.”

  “A cook won’t help my workload much, boys.”

  “Forget the cook thing,” Ty said. “We just think you need to relax, have some extracurricular activity. You never take no breaks.”

  “I thought that’s what tonight was all about, taking time out to have a few beers and celebrate Andy’s birthday,” Stony said.

  “You’re leading him off into a ditch, Ty.” Big Clyde took a deep breath and clenched the wheel tighter. “We think you need a...a girl to have some fun with once in a while.”

  Stony chuckled and pushed his hat back with his thumb. “You boys are concerned about my love life?”