Cupid Cowboys (The Boot Knockers Ranch Book 7) Read online

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  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved

  Cupid Cowboys

  Copyright Em Petrova 2019

  Ebook Edition

  Electronic book publication 2019

  All rights reserved. Any violation of this will be prosecuted by the law.

  Other titles in this series:

  The Boot Knockers Ranch Series

  PUSHIN’ BUTTONS

  BODY LANGUAGE

  REINING MEN

  ROPIN’ HEARTS

  ROPE BURN

  COWBOY NOT INCLUDED

  The Boot Knockers Ranch Montana

  COWBOY BY CANDLELIGHT

  THE BOOT KNOCKER’S BABY

  ROPIN’ A ROMEO

  She has more than heart-shaped cakes on her mind this Valentine’s Day. And they can’t quit thinking about her heart-shaped buns.

  LeeLee has a secret—she has two lovers. Or at least she does in her very dirty fantasies about Jared and Brock, two of the sexiest men ever to walk the Boot Knockers Ranch. Each time one of them—or SWOON, both—walk into her kitchen, she has the urge to tear off her chef’s apron and paint her entire body with whipped cream.

  Jared and Brock are sick and tired of dancing around their favorite sweetheart, and this Valentine’s Day, they’ve got it all planned. A locked kitchen door, a curvy chef with a wicked sharp tongue… and enough chocolate to cover her from head to toe.

  Cupid Cowboys

  A Boot Knockers Ranch Novella

  by

  Em Petrova

  Chapter 1

  LeeLee ran a cloth along the edge of a platter of grilled chicken to clean up the drippings and then nodded to her assistant chef. “Hurry and get this out to all those hungry cowboys before they storm the kitchen demanding food.”

  Hillary nodded. “They’re out there making all kinds of jokes about where the meat is.”

  LeeLee threw her an amused look. “I can only imagine how the Boot Knockers would run with that topic.”

  She’d been head chef at the Boot Knockers Ranch almost nine months and every day was a new and wild experience. The cowboys and their guests didn’t just challenge her to come up with delicious and hearty meals with her own twist of farm-to-table delights, but working on this ranch had opened her eyes to… well, so much.

  A world of sexual pleasures.

  What went on here wasn’t only behind closed doors, and more than once she’d come into her kitchen well before dawn to begin the baking, only to discover lovers twisted up on one of her prep tables, playing their own version of hide the sausage.

  One thing about working on the ranch was she never got bored.

  As soon as Hillary stepped out of the kitchen into the main dining area the Boot Knockers called the grub hall, a cheer sounded. The buffet was stocked with more food than any of them could eat, but it seemed they all had been clamoring for her special marinated and grilled chicken breasts.

  LeeLee laughed and went back to work.

  Hillary came back into the kitchen, pink-cheeked and carrying the empty platter.

  LeeLee gaped at her. “Tell me they didn’t devour thirty pounds of chicken breasts already!”

  “No, this is the pork platter.”

  LeeLee straightened with a hit of pride. “Oh good. My new recipe was a hit then.”

  She nodded and bustled to the sink with the dirty platter. “Hugh told me to tell you he’ll be in to speak with you soon.”

  The boss? LeeLee glanced nervously at the door. Her new bosses Hugh and Riggs were the best she could ask for, but she still got anxious when one of them came into her domain. She loved this job—being head chef at a notorious—if not scandalous—ranch was an honor she hadn’t hoped to achieve before the age of forty, yet here she was at twenty-seven running her own kitchen.

  She wiped her palms on her chef’s whites attire and straightened her hat for when the boss came in to speak with her. Maybe he disliked the pork sauce. I might have been a little heavy on the Dijon.

  As she cleaned up the mess she’d made, stowing spices in their alphabetical order spots on the shelf and placing ingredients back into the huge refrigerator and on pantry shelves, she thought over the reasons for Hugh needing to talk to her.

  More than likely a special menu was requested for the upcoming Valentine’s Day event, a large affair on a ranch where romance was the main objective.

  When the kitchen door swung open, she looked up. Expecting the huge boss man Hugh or even his gorgeous dark-haired partner Riggs. Instead, LeeLee was hit smack in the face with a different brand of testosterone.

  Her top crush on the ranch stood before her.

  Or one of her top crushes.

  Jared had been tormenting her with his boyish crooked smiles for months now. What he didn’t know was a simple request for a breakfast tray from him could send LeeLee into a hormonal spiral.

  His coal black hair matched his equally dark eyes, which he used on her to full effect. A single look from the man could slay—and did. For hours after he walked out again, she was on more than a low simmer of want. Most times she was a full-blown rolling boil.

  “Jared.” Her mouth had dried out the moment she set eyes on the tall, rugged and muscled man standing before her in jeans with shreds in all the right places and a T-shirt that fit him like a second layer of flesh, highlighting pecs and the ridges of his abs equally. And that was without even turning around and presenting his broad back with powerful shoulders to her.

  Her fingers twitched to pull off her chef’s hat, which wasn’t exactly dowdy but not what he was used to seeing women wear.

  Which was their birthday suits.

  Jared flicked his gaze from her face down over her white uniform, then back up to linger somewhere around her lips.

  “Hugh sent me to talk to you.”

  Oh God, that drawl of his, all Texas with a hint of naughty. Warmth tingled low in her stomach.

  That’s too low for my stomach, she told herself.

  With the prep table several steps away, she had nothing to lean against, and right now her knees shook bad enough she needed something to hold on to.

  At that moment, the door opened behind him and another man walked through it.

  Oh God. Crush Number Two. The duo that had her panties melting onto her body each time she spotted them in the same place at the same time, which was pretty often, since they were best friends.

  And rumor had it, more than friends. Most of the guys found pleasure in many places.

  The times they prowled her kitchen together were still branded on her memory, probably because she used it as fantasy fodder almost nightly. On the off nights, she thought of one gorgeous, dirty Boot Knocker at a time. Jared then Brock. Brock then Jared. Both together, cornering her on her way back to her bungalow after a long day of work. Demanding she take off her clothes.

  Using all that rope she heard they were so good with.

  “Brock, you’re just in time.” Jared didn’t look away from her as he spoke to his buddy.

  Her stare shifted to the man standing behind Jared. Equally as tall, sexy as sin, with Wranglers that looked painted on. The bulge of his fly told her he was packing ten inches easy.

  Automatically, her gaze dropped.

  She suc
ked in sharply then lifted her gaze, face burning.

  His erection was snaking down his thigh, clearly unharnessed by underwear.

  Battling for composure, she found her voice. “What did you need to talk to me about?”

  Please tell me to take off my clothes. To drop to my knees and take one in my mouth and one from behind.

  Her master chef and mentor would be shocked if he could hear her thoughts right now. Thank God the little Frenchman couldn’t, because he’d keel over with a stroke. She hadn’t spent years training in France and the US to think of serving up herself as the main course.

  Jared followed the direction of her gaze to Brock’s groin and then a slow, easy smile spread across his handsome face.

  * * * * *

  “Damn, bro. You need to wrangle that snake. You’re scaring the little lady.” Jared watched LeeLee’s expression change from bold desire to shock. The pink in her cheeks amped up a notch to bright red.

  Fuck, she was gorgeous when she was flustered. He rarely caught her in this state, though—only once or twice when she was scrambling to finish some dish and felt she was behind schedule. Normally, she was as cool and poised as a schoolteacher.

  Which had his mind off on other tangents, thinking of popping buttons of a cardigan sweater and pulling off eyeglasses.

  She didn’t even wear glasses, or if she did, he hadn’t seen them.

  She darted out her tongue and ran it along her full lower lip, leaving a bead of wetness that had him stifling a groan. He and Brock both agreed she was the most sensual and untouched woman they’d come across. Untouched meaning she was clearly green about sex.

  By his guess, she’d had missionary sex in the dark. Brock laid bets on whether or not she’d ever seen a lover naked.

  And both of them had their sights set on her since the moment she came to work on the Boot Knockers Ranch.

  He thumbed his cowboy hat up a smidge so he could get a better look at her damp lips. With her hair up in that prim white hat, she gave off even more of an untouched vibe. He and Brock wanted to be the ones doing the touching. In general, employees were off limits to Boot Knockers. But that rule had been broken before and what the bosses didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.

  “Uh, what did Hugh want you to tell me?” she asked in her husky tone.

  At that moment, Brock stepped up beside him, so close that his thigh brushed his. Instant arousal shot through Jared. He and Brock had given each other the eye pretty much from the time they met, but it had taken them three months before one had made a move.

  What began as a game of tug of war in good fun had ended with Brock on top of Jared, big body pressing him into the dirt. What followed had been relived again and again in so many ways it was hard to count. Besides sharing women who visited the ranch, they flat out liked fucking each other.

  Jared widened his stance, pressing his thigh more firmly to his friend’s. Brock gave him a slow glance that promised things to come later and then looked to LeeLee.

  “Hugh wanted us to address the menu for Valentine’s Day,” Brock drawled.

  “Oh. Yes.” She said this as if she’d forgotten they were having a conversation. “Let me grab a pen and paper to take some notes.”

  They watched her turn and walk toward a small room off the kitchen they knew was her office.

  He nudged Brock. “You knew damn well what you were doing coming in here with that boner.”

  He glanced down at the front of his jeans, which still bulged with the beast of his erection. “That’s my normal state.”

  “I’m aware.” Jared reached over and cupped it, feeling it warm and live beneath his fingers.

  Brock groaned. “Keep that up and—”

  LeeLee returned in time to see Jared fondling his friend’s cock. Her steps tripped to a halt as her stare landed on them.

  Jared moved his hand, purposely looking into her eyes. Tell me you like seeing me touch him. He’d had so many fantasies of her tied to their bed, legs spread wide, getting wetter by the second as she watched them fool around.

  Her chest moved fast with her breathing and he thought of loosening those buttons at her throat and discovering each golden inch of skin with his lips and tongue while Brock ground his erection against her ass and whispered dirty things in her ear.

  She cradled the pad of paper and poised the pen over it. She was a lefty.

  He added that tidbit to his store of knowledge about her, along with the fact that she looked like she ate strawberries all day with those red lips of hers, and the pulse in her throat flickered faster when he and Brock came into her kitchen.

  “Hugh wants two hundred heart-shaped cakes ordered.”

  She blinked. “Okay. No problem.”

  “And all the aphrodisiac foods. Oysters—”

  She was nodding and taking notes. “Chocolate, watermelon…” She wrinkled her nose. “I think I’ll skip the asparagus.”

  He arched a brow. “Why is that?”

  “Um.” She nibbled her lower lip.

  Brock tipped his head, studying her. “What is it you know about that particular vegetable, sweetheart?”

  Her face reddened again, and she grew flustered enough to drop her pen.

  “Don’t tease the lady,” Jared said, scooping her pen off the floor. When he handed it to her, their fingertips brushed. Her gaze shot up to his.

  “No, I want to know. What’s the matter with asparagus?” Brock pressed.

  “It’s just that… you know…” She broke off, more flustered than he’d ever seen her.

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you educate me?” Brock moved closer to her as well, hemming her in alongside Jared.

  Damn, he just knew she was all curves beneath that shapeless garment she wore. The high crest of her breasts filled out the top and they’d fill his hands even better.

  “Most people find the smell of asparagus too strong.”

  Brock reached out and flicked a stray lock of hair that had fallen from her stark updo to skim across her cheekbone. Her lips opened on a sigh.

  Jared’s cock swelled just thinking of what he could do to her mouth. But only after he and Brock had pleasured her into at least a half dozen orgasms all for herself.

  If ever there was a beautiful woman who needed to be touched, it was LeeLee.

  “Are you suggesting Boot Knockers don’t like strong flavors?”

  “Not when it creates a strong smell on your skin or in your…”

  Jared took pity—well almost. “Cum?”

  LeeLee looked about to catch fire, her face was so brilliant. A light dew of perspiration broke out across her hairline, lending her a more sun-kissed look.

  Brock made a tsking noise. “You shouldn’t embarrass the lady, Jared.”

  “Oh sorry.” He grinned at her.

  “No asparagus then. Plenty of whipped cream.”

  She swallowed. “Uh, yes. I’ve got plenty of ideas. That should be all.”

  “There’s something else. Besides the cakes and special foods, Hugh is requesting a fruit sculpture.”

  She blinked. “A sculpture made of fruit?”

  “I think so, yeah,” Jared said with a nod.

  “Did he request what shape it should be in?”

  He and Brock looked at each other. “I think he said… the Venus? With a fountain of champagne,” Brock said.

  Jared nodded. “That’s it.”

  Before their eyes, LeeLee’s face paled considerably. “That seems like a tall order for an event twenty-four hours away. I’ve had the cakes prepped already but they need baked and then all frosted, and of course I have the meal all planned and the prepwork begun. But the fruit Venus with a champagne fountain will be a stretch.”

  “One I’m sure you’re up to.” The booming voice behind them made he and Brock turn to see Hugh walking in.

  She gave Hugh a quick smile. “Of course. I’ll start the produce order right away so I get it delivered by this evening.”

  Hugh looked to Ja
red and Brock. “You guys seem to have tormented the poor chef enough for one day. Riggs has some work for you with the horses this afternoon if you’re free.”

  Jared threw LeeLee a glance. I’m not finished with you, he wanted to say. But he gave her a nod of farewell and took his leave. Brock, more dramatic, sent her a sideways grin along with a hand over his heart as he backed out of the kitchen.

  “The pork was fabulous tonight, LeeLee,” Hugh said before ducking out after them.

  Jared’s mind worked over ways to sneak back into her workspace. He nudged Brock. “Damn, I want to stay and tease her into some more blushes.”

  “She sure is fun to tease, but the boss man’s got other plans for us. We’ve gotta set aside our urges and do another kind of hard work to get us all sweaty and out of breath.” He cocked a brow at Jared, who reached over to grab his package again.

  * * * * *

  “Keep that up and I won’t be able to walk,” Brock moaned out.

  They headed to the horse barn. The ranch sprawled before them, green and lush with all their hard work. When they weren’t pleasing the ladies, they busted their asses doing old-fashioned hard work—it was something Brock loved most about the ranch.

  Sure, the ladies were a real perk of working here, but more and more he’d been considering ways to get out of that end of the business and stay on for the other. He hadn’t brought it up to Jared because leaving him hanging wasn’t an option. They were closer than just buddies, work colleagues. They didn’t just share women—they shared a life.

  While emotions were never mentioned between them, it went without saying. They had an attachment—everyone knew it.

  As they approached the barn, Brock slowed and caught Jared by the arm. Jared looked into his eyes and arched a brow.

  “I want to ask you somethin’,” Brock said.

  Jared cocked his head. “Is this about LeeLee?”

  “No. Well, sorta. Maybe.”

  “That clears things up.”

  Brock gave a low chuckle and peered at his lover from beneath the brim of his hat. “You think you’ll ever get tired of taking on the clients? I mean, I love helping women see their true worth or overcome some hurdle in their sexual lives. But…”