Page 38 of A Cowboy Holiday
Axel’s blank stare was the stuff of legends. No words required. But he waited till Phoebe was out of earshot and gave one anyway. Well, two words.
“Hell, no.”
I stacked a box on top of another on the living room floor and snickered. “So that’s a maybe?”
“No. I said I’d do the lights and the Christmas tree, but?—”
“Yay, Daddy!” A whirling, twirling dervish blur danced into the room.
“Whoa, pardner. Slow down,” he cautioned.
“I’m trying, but I can’t! Can we get a tree tomorrow? We can put it in my room. Did you see my room, Mr. Tanner?” Phoebe bounced and spun, unable to contain her excitement. “It’s so cute. I have horses on my bedspread. They’re not dancing, but they’re cute. Everything is so cute!”
“Cute is the theme of the day,” her dad drawled with a lazy grin.
I let Phoebe pull me into her bedroom, hmmed and ahhed as she showed me the books she’d organized on the built-in shelves, her favorite teddy bear her Aunt Kitty had sent from Vegas, and her brand-new ballet slippers.
“I love them!” she enthused, skipping back into the living room. Phee plopped onto the floor in front of the coffee table, and wiggled into the pink slippers. “I’ve been practicing, but I can’t do it outside or they’ll get too dirty. Abby likes to dance too. She’s my neighbor now, and my other best friend. I have two best friends. Daddy says I’m so lucky.”
“You certainly are.”
Phee grinned as she shoved a strand of hair from her eyes, jumped up again, and raced away.
Axel opened a box, shaking his head indulgently. “She’s a ball of nonstop energy, and she’s been like this since the moment I mentioned moving here.”
“She’s excited.”
“Over the moon.”
Axel set his hands on his hips and surveyed the mess. It wasn’t too bad. They didn’t have a lot of “things.” Just some clothes, books, toys, a computer, and a few photos. No big furniture. I guessed it was easier to move often if you didn’t have to drag beds and sofas from place to place. Supposedly, that was going to change in Texas.
“The ranch offered me a good salary and the housing is affordable,” he’d told me recently. “I’ll find us a three-bedroom house with a nice yard. Maybe build a swing set for Phee and buy real furniture. She can pick out her own bedding. My girl has big opinions about that sort of thing.”
I pushed aside the thought of him moving and studied the enigmatic cowboy-slash-vet. Axel didn’t give much away, butsharing what he had about Phoebe’s mother was significant. I bet less than a handful of people knew their story. It was unconventional for sure, and yet it revealed him as a truly good person. He’d changed the course of his life to become a parent, a role he’d never wanted.
Yet he was so good at it.
He was good at a lot of things, I mused, fussing with the collar I’d hiked slightly to hide the hickey Axel had left last night. My ass was still sore, but I didn’t mind the reminder of being pinned facedown on my desk with my jeans around my ankles while the Stetson-wearing giant wrecked my hole.
I’d caught the reflection of our shadows on the wall and burned it into my brain for future jerk-off material. I wasn’t usually the one being held and taken. I wasn’t the one who lay still in the aftermath, too strung out to care that I was completely vulnerable—spread and stretched open, cum dripping from my spent cock. I’d been on the receiving end, but…nothing like this.
The thing that got me was how attentive Axel was afterward. Last night, we’d been on the clock. He’d had ten minutes to spare before he’d needed to pick up Phoebe from her play date at Josh and Angie’s house, and though they certainly wouldn’t have cared if he’d been a few minutes late, Axel was a man of his word. If he said he’d be somewhere at six p.m., he’d be there. Yet he’d taken the time to help me clean up, redress, and then…he’d kissed me till my toes had curled in my boots.
A guy could get used to that kind of treatment.
I stole a peek at him and smiled. “You look…dare I say it—happy.”
Axel’s suspicious side-eye was spot on. “I’m a ray of fucking sunshine.”
I snickered. “That’s exactly what I was?—”
“What’s that noise?”
I sobered quickly and listened.
“Maa maa.”
“That would be a goat.”