The Cowboys and the English Teacher [Hot Off The Ranch] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  Hot Off The Ranch

  The Cowboys and the English Teacher

  The teacher becomes the pupil when twins Wyler and Jack Farmer set out to teach Betsy Perkins a lesson in love and seduction she won't soon forget.

  Obsessed with the slightly younger pair, Betsy tries to fight her attraction to them, sure she would be nothing but an easy conquest if she gave them what they asked for. But after a magical night spent together, she discovers the kind of knowledge the sexy Texans want to share with her can't be learned in a classroom.

  Their ménage in Mexico leads to much more than just sexual bliss, and Betsy finds it hard to deal with the aftermath. Can their improbable liaison ever lead to love?

  Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre/Western/Cowboys

  Length: 20,058 words

  THE COWBOYS AND THE ENGLISH TEACHER

  Hot Off The Ranch

  Luxie Ryder

  MENAGE AMOUR

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

  THE COWBOYS AND THE ENGLISH TEACER

  Copyright © 2009 by Luxie Ryder

  E-book ISBN: 1-60601-617-2

  First E-book Publication: September 2009

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  THE COWBOYS AND THE ENGLISH TEACHER

  Hot Off The Ranch

  LUXIE RYDER

  Copyright © 2009

  Chapter 1

  Betsy woke up and looked around, half expecting to find the men she had been dreaming of lying beside her. She knew that she was stuck inside of a sexual fantasy she couldn’t shake off, but her stomach still contracted as a memory of the erotic torture she’d been subjected to raced through her brain. She closed her eyes again and suppressed the groan that rose in her throat as heat flooded her groin.

  The last remnants of the dream slipped away, leaving her a little stunned. The fact it had been about both Jack and Wyler didn’t surprise her. Until a few minutes earlier, her senses had been totally convinced the tall, handsome Texan brothers had been in her bed.

  If they had their way, she wouldn’t need to be dreaming of them at all. They had both made it clear, at a party the locals had thrown for the volunteers a couple of weeks after they’d arrived in Las Colinas del Mar, that they wanted her sexually. The prospect intrigued her at first, but she just couldn’t allow it to happen. Betsy had too much self respect than to fall for the attentions of a pair of young men who seemed to want nothing more than a convenient fling with an available woman.

  They’d gotten on well from the very beginning and their easy friendship had meant they spent lots of time together. But when they’d cornered her at the party and made it clear that, for their part at least, their interest was not purely platonic, she just laughed it off and dismissed it as the booze talking.

  Sure, she’d caught them looking at her from time to time, she got used to that kind of attention long ago. God made her short but curvy. Few men could resist a glimpse of an ample cleavage or the appeal of a full bottom and the Farmer twins seemed no exception. Still, taking and wanting were very different things.

  Catching herself wasting her morning as she sat thinking back on that night, she jumped out from the tangle of sheets. Putting her thick, curly black hair into a messy bun, she leapt in and out of the shower and sacrificed her early morning cuppa in order to save a little time. A peasant blouse matched with one of her collections of loose, floaty skirts would be her outfit for the day, any day in fact. She stuck to the same style, loving the way it made her look little like a gypsy, in her own mind at least. Besides, she couldn’t bear to have very much next to her skin in the sticky climate.

  Rushing across the yard to the makeshift school house ten minutes later, she saw one of the subjects of her hot dream reattaching the tarp that acted as a temporary roof to the classroom. ‘Hi Betsy,’ Jack called as he stopped working and came over to her.

  The way he looked did nothing to calm down her raging libido. It looked set to be another steaming hot day in Las Colinas del Mar. Sweat coursed down his naked, tanned torso and plastered his thick, dark blond hair to his head under his straw Stetson. His cut off jeans hung low on his hips, exposing a little shock of white skin. The sun hadn’t touched him there, but she longed to. The frayed denim of his shorts gave way to hard brown thighs covered in springy blond hair that rippled as he moved, the massive muscles shifting fluidly under his skin.

  ‘H…hi,’ she stuttered. She felt a blush creep to the roots of her hair. She had trouble dealing with Jack under normal circumstances due to the way her body reacted with either him or his brother around. And that was before the damned dreams that had plagued her for the whole night. Now, she had a sense of what it felt like to have their hands on her and how they would taste.

  Fantasizing about guys ten years younger than her wasn’t unheard of, although she wasn’t usually given to such uninhibited lust. A huge part of her wanted to be brave enough simply to act on her desires without fear. But with so many lithe and beautiful young Mexican women flirting with them since they arrived, she had trouble believing that their interest in her was genuine.

  Jack seemed out of sorts, too. He stopped in front of her and stared down into her eyes in the weirdest way, as if trying to see through her. ‘Is everything okay?’ she asked, unnerved and squirming under his scrutiny.

  Something in his light green eyes lifted and by the time he spoke again, the easy characteristic charm returned along with that sexy drawl. ‘Sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night. I am so out of it this morning.’

  ‘I see we had another storm,’ she nodded toward the classroom that he must have rebuilt a handful of times in the last month alone. Jack and his brother worked for the same charity as hers, but their work was
very different. As part of the construction team, they used their desperately needed skills to restore the main school house and erect and maintain the temporary buildings they held the classes in for the time being.

  He smiled. ‘Sure had a shock when I saw the state of this place.’

  Grabbing onto the distraction with both hands, she allowed him to show her the temporary repairs he had made, making her waste more time that she didn’t have. A bawdy laugh from behind drew her attention and she saw his friends nudging and whispering while gesturing their way. The idiots he worked with were part of the reason she’d never take things any further with him or his brother. The thought of them sharing her intimate details with their work mates if she ever gave in to their attempts at seduction mortified her. She told Jack she’d see him later and scurried away to the safety of the gathering children.

  ‘Buenos Dias, Senorita Perkins,’ they sang a few minutes later in their lovely, lilting accents after she’d gotten them calmed down and seated on the floor.

  Tables and chairs were a luxury the governing body could not afford yet. Rebuilding the school after a season of devastating hurricanes that had battered the country one after the other had to be the main priority. That and giving the shell shocked kids some semblance of normality. Many of their parents were homeless and still sleeping rough. All the charity Betsy worked for managed to do was to give them a place to send the kids everyday, where they would be taken care of and fed while their families tried to rebuild their lives.

  Sitting at home in the UK watching the news report on her TV a couple of months earlier, she’d known she had to do something to help. The change seemed such a huge one, but turning 40 recently had made her question what she’d been doing with her life. So she started a bucket list. The kind where people listed the things they wanted to do before they kicked it. One of those things had been to use her teaching skills for more than simply indulging middle class, spoiled brats at a private school just outside of London. So she’d taken a sabbatical.

  Betsy looked around the classroom at the enthusiastic, shining faces and knew she’d made the right decision. The children were bright, if a little cheeky, and soaked up every bit of information she gave them like a dry sponge.

  Another much older voice joined the general cacophony caused by 30 over excited children. ‘Morning, Miss Betsy.’ She turned to find one of the kid’s grandmothers standing right behind her. As usual, she hadn’t heard her come in.

  ‘Good morning, Perdita,’ she said as cheerfully as she could despite the fact the woman always scared the pants off her. As one of the voluntary helpers at the school, she was hardly a stranger and very welcome, yet Perdita always gave her the willies. She had no idea of her true age, but her guess would have been over seventy. She’d swathed her round body in a floral mu-mu type dress that made her impressive breasts seem even more large and welcoming. Betsy felt sure that many a small child had found comfort in her arms. Perdita had been built for mothering.

  ‘Sleep well?’ she asked. Her sudden interest seemed unusual and made Betsy even more wary. Just the previous day, she teased her about the way she’d caught her looking at Wyler, chuckling at the flustered excuses she had made before rushing off. Later, to make amends she guessed, Perdita had offered her some herbal tea, which politeness had forced her to accept despite her reservations. Secretly, she blamed the sweet but strong potion for her unsettled night, and the fact she now seemed interested in how well she had slept made her curious.

  ‘No, she didn’t sleep well at all. Maybe it was that tea you gave me?’ she probed, smiling broadly so as not to cause offence and to give her a chance to watch her reaction. Her wide, brown face maintained the beatific look she always seemed to wear, but she saw something knowing in her eyes for the briefest moment before she chased it away.

  She shook her head as she dropped her gaze with a sly smile. ‘That tea wouldn’t stop you sleeping, child. You must have something on your mind.’ Betsy heard the question in Perdita’s statement and chose to ignore it. Squirming under her scrutiny, Betsy searched for a distraction and her gaze landed on her hair. Perdita usually wore a headscarf but had chosen to go without it, displaying a beautifully intricate cane row pattern in her hair.

  ‘I did it myself. It’s for the party tonight,’ she told her when she asked. ‘You want me to do yours?’

  ‘God, no,’ she said with a little more force than necessary. She’d allowed someone to do her hair a couple of days after arriving on the island and the constant pulling on her scalp had near made her pass out. It had bloody well hurt. Betsy laughed as she explained her aversion, ‘Sorry. I’m not good with pain.’

  They got the kids settled then and the morning passed quickly. She put the conversation with Perdita behind her, scolding herself for being such a wimp. First, she’d questioned Perdita’s reasons for doing her a kindness with her gift of the tea the previous day and then Betsy had rudely refused her offer of help with her hair. Just as well the woman seemed to have the hide of a rhino and didn’t take offence easily. Still, Betsy resolved to be a little more considerate of her feelings in the future.

  Betsy’s resolve to be nicer to Perdita was tested quicker than she expected when the woman found her later, eating lunch on a patch of grass at the side of the school. ‘You wanna come to my party?’ she asked, making Betsy jump in surprise as she snuck up on her again.

  ‘When is it?’

  ‘Tonight.’

  She wanted to refuse, out of exhaustion rather than any personal reason. School had finished for the week and she knew she had the next couple of days off, but still, just the thought of getting ready for and then actually attending the party made her feel tired. Even so, when she looked up into Perdita’s open, friendly face, she knew she couldn’t refuse. ‘Where is it and what time should I arrive?’ She smiled as her reply made the woman exceedingly happy for some reason. ‘Do I need to bring anything like food or wine?’

  ‘No,’ Perdita scolded with a frown, and she reminded herself that taking food to a Mexican woman’s house was considered a huge insult because it implied that there would not be enough to eat.

  Betsy apologized quickly. Thankfully, Perdita’s smile didn’t disappear for long. ‘Don’t worry about that. I will provide all you need. You just bring yourself and those friends of yours.’

  ‘Friends?’ she said, like she didn’t know who Perdita could mean. The woman rolled her eyes and put her hands on her ample hips as if refusing to play along with the silly game. Betsy couldn’t keep up the façade. ‘Oh, you mean Jack and Wyler?’

  ‘They can drive you.’ Perdita ignored her attempt at acting nonchalant.

  ‘Hang on. We don’t even know if they want to come yet.’

  Perdita chuckled again. ‘I asked one of them already, although I don’t know which one. They look the same to me. He said to tell you he will pick you up at eight.’

  ‘Perdita!’ Betsy couldn’t resist smiling at the sheer glee in her expression. ‘What are you trying to do?’

  She shrugged and dropped her gaze, looking for the entire world like a naughty child. ‘Nothing, just thought it would be nice for you to have your friends with you. That’s all.’

  ‘As long as you understand that’s all Jack and Wyler are, just friends. I don’t want you matchmaking,’ Betsy warned, trying to look serious. Perdita nodded, her eyes dancing mischievously before she turned and made her way slowly across the grass back toward the school.

  ‘Hey,’ Betsy shouted to her retreating back, ‘you didn’t tell me where the party is.’

  ‘The boy knows,’ she called over her shoulder. The cynic in Betsy knew she had just been out maneuvered. Perdita had ensured there’d be no way she could sneak off to the party alone without at least speaking to the brothers first. Or maybe she was just being paranoid?

  Betsy got her answer as Perdita turned to her again with a throaty laugh. ‘I told them to dress nice so you be sure and wear something fancy, too.’

/>   * * * *

  ‘What’s up with Betsy this morning?’ Wyler asked his brother when he joined him on the site. He’d seen her with Jack a little earlier, looking even more nervous than usual. He hoped Jack hadn’t been pressuring her about going out with them again.

  ‘Don’t know. That woman confuses the hell out of me.’

  ‘You and me both.’ Wyler squinted at him. He looked innocent enough. Jack could hide nothing from him, and not just because he was the younger of the twins born ten minutes apart. They didn’t share that kind of psychic connection often heard about, but they did know each other very well. Wyler could tell how Jack felt just by looking at him. It wouldn’t hurt to double-check, though. ‘What were you talking about?’

  Jack regarded him for a moment before answering. ‘If it’s any of your business, we were talking about the weather.’

  ‘Okay. I just wanted to make sure. We agreed to back off, remember?’

  ‘I remember. But do you?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Wyler asked anyway, although he already knew.

  ‘Last night, when you were carrying her books back to her room for her.’ Jack threw the trowel down into a wet pile of cement, splashing some onto his well-worn boots. ‘Someone could think you were trying to sneak some time alone with her.’

  Wyler smiled at the sarcasm. ‘Someone?’

  ‘Not me of course. I know my brother would never try to shut me out.’ Jack’s words didn’t match the humor in his eyes. He punched Wyler in the shoulder.

  ‘I know how it looked, but this plan we had of staying away from her isn’t working. Betsy just gets to me. I don’t know why.’ Wyler kicked at the dirt. ‘I say to myself that she isn’t interested and we should just forget her, but then I see her again and my resolve flies out the window.’