Gavin (Cowboy Wolf Series Book 1) Read online

  Copyright © 2020 by BJ Wane

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Gavin (The Cowboy Wolf Series, #1)

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Epilogue

  BJ Wane

  More books by BJ Wane

  GAVIN

  Book 1

  Cowboy Wolf series

  BY

  BJ WANE

  A shorter version of this title was previously published in the Cowboys for a Cause anthology under the title, Trusting Her Cowboy

  Disclaimer

  This contemporary romantic suspense contains adult themes such as power exchange and sexual scenes. Please do not read if these offend you.

  Dedication

  I would like to thank my cover designer, Joe Dugdale, who worked with me to get the cover I wanted and to Sylv, my PA who keeps me sane, I view her as my personal publisher but I have complete control.

  You can contact them yourself at Sylv.net www.sylv.net

  Prologue

  Pulling into the gravel parking lot of the log-structured private club, Gavin McCullough wondered why he had agreed to assist with newbie night. Given his discontent with, well, everything of late, the last thing he wanted to do was spend an evening with a young woman who was struggling to find herself through an alternative lifestyle. Okay, maybe that was unfair, he admitted, cutting the engine and sliding out of his truck. There were those who gravitated toward BDSM to find the answers to what was lacking in their lives, and he could not, in good conscience blame them for that. Wasn’t he waking every morning to face the day with less and less enthusiasm? For the life of him, he couldn’t pinpoint when dissatisfaction with his life had begun to plague him. At thirty-four, he should be too young to suffer such restlessness.

  The plans to move his office from Boise to the small town of Brooksville, located just thirty miles from the McCullough ranch, were on track. He looked forward to living on the ranch again, having the opportunity to indulge his wolf with daily runs instead of the once-a-month trips he made to the ranch now. Maybe, when he was closer to his family, his mood would improve.

  He entered the club and hung his coat in the Dom’s closet but left his Stetson on as he turned toward the double doors leading into the main gathering space. No sense in scaring off the newbie he would get paired with by letting her see his heart wasn’t in helping her decide if this club and practices were for her. Nodding to Randy behind the bar in the far corner, Gavin crossed the otherwise empty room to take a seat on a bar stool.

  “Are they about done in there?” Gavin asked Randy, jerking his head toward the closed door off to the side. The two owners of the club were giving the four sign-ups verbal instructions before bringing them into the play room where they would pair off.

  Randy slid a beer over to him with a nod. “Yes, they’re coming out now. Try to look welcoming,” he drawled.

  “I’m just tired. It’s been a long...” he paused, a sudden tenseness settling between his shoulders when he heard the door open, “week,” he finished before turning his head.

  Frissons of prickly heat raced across his skin as his gaze zeroed in on one woman. His wolf stirred with uncomfortable aggression Gavin quickly tamped down as every one of his senses went on high alert. Without thinking, he slid off the stool and strode over to her. Heat spread in a slow volcanic flow as he neared her, his heart thumping in a rapid rhythm that was almost painful. A surge of possessiveness gripped him as her golden eyes widened, her hands clenching before she accepted the silent outstretch of his hand.

  As soon as he touched her, realization slammed into him with startling clarity. My mate. Just like he had been told growing up, he would know when he met her she was the one woman meant to be his in every way.

  Ignoring the surprised looks from his friends, it was all he could do to keep from crushing his mouth on hers in a show of possession even as he realized she was human, and what that meant. “Let’s go through the buffet and then we can talk,” he suggested, tugging her toward the small table laden with a variety of appetizers.

  “Okay.” That ready acceptance pleased him, as did her long hair the color of summer wheat and her round body. “Oh, wow, it all looks good.”

  Gavin handed her a plate, noting how her head barely reached his shoulder in her bare feet. He liked her petite stature as much as her enthusiasm for the food. Cocking his head, he watched her pile the plate with an appealing lack of self-consciousness over her enjoyment of eating. “It’s refreshing to see a woman with a healthy appetite, little one.”

  Her eyes swung up to his and he could tell she was trying to see if the compliment was sincere. A rueful grin tugged those soft lips up and his cock stirred as she glanced down at her body. The knee-length skirt and stretchy knit top could not hide her soft curves.

  “And it shows. I’m afraid I lack discipline when it comes to food.”

  She colored, and he assumed she thought he would attach a double meaning to the word ‘discipline’. Amused, he shook his head and cupped her elbow. “If you discover discipline is something you need, it won’t be meted out over your appetite, I can assure you of that.”

  Gavin chose a corner table for two, far away from the other three couples. The ramifications of discovering his mate wasn’t a shifter were intruding on his pleasure of getting to know her. As he watched her eat, her eyes constantly shifting around the room and lighting with interest as she took in the different apparatus, he shoved aside his concerns to deal with later. There was no way he would walk away from her tonight.

  “My name is Master Gavin. And yours?”

  She dragged her gaze away from the St. Andrews Cross, swallowing a meatball before she answered, “Aislyn Lankford. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Sir, it’s nice to meet you, sir is the correct reply,” he stated, removing his hat and setting it on the table.

  Flustered, she said, “Oh, yes, I forgot.”

  “No problem, that’s what tonight is about, learning the ins and outs, and if they intrigue you enough to bring you back. Tell me about yourself. How old are you, do you work, go to school?”

  “I’m twenty-six and, yes to both. I work full-time and go to school at night. I’ll finally graduate at the end of this semester.” Aislyn sighed. “Other than that, I lead a boring life.”

  “And you think coming here will liven things up?”

  “No, I mean that’s not what prompted me to come. It’s hard to explain. There’s something missing; I just don’t know what it is.”

  Frustration colored her voice and he understood because it was the same for him. Only now, he had the answer to the dissatisfaction plaguing him, and it was one that would eventually bring him more grief than pleasure. From childhood, he and his siblings were given lessons on the history of their pack and the mistake two of their ancestors made in taking a human mate. No good had come of either relationship, and the importance of keeping their secret had been drilled into them over and over.

  Gavin knew that and, as next in line to take over as Alpha when his father retired, had always accepted it. Until now.

  “Then let’s see if we can find out what’s missing together.” As he clasped Aislyn’s hand and led her on a tour around the room, the interest reflected
on her face coupled with the strong demand to keep her to himself for as long as possible told him there was no way he could turn her education over to someone else, thus sealing his decision. He would put his move to Brooksville on hold. His father was ten years away from retiring, which left him more than enough time to come up with a solution.

  ****

  Aislyn shifted closer to the mountain of a man next to her, those tiny pinpricks of heat racing across her skin the moment he had approached her now taking up residence between her legs. Eying the padded bench she’d caught a glimpse of earlier, she pictured herself lying prone with straps holding her arms and legs immovable, Master Gavin standing behind her, slapping her bare butt. The fantasy caused her pussy to dampen and swell, her lust to soar to new heights for a man she’d just met.

  The tall, rugged cowboy with ink-black hair curling around his nape below his black Stetson had snagged her attention as soon as she’d exited the small room where she and the other new guests had been getting instructions. She’d never experienced such a strong reaction to a man, not even the few she’d invited to her bed. When he’d zeroed in on her like a predator stalking prey, she didn’t know which compulsion had been strongest – to run away or lay down, spread her legs and beg him to fuck her. Both urges had skyrocketed when she’d looked up and had been snared by the feral gleam in his vivid green eyes. Scared and excited at the same time, that hint of untamed wildness stirred something inside her she couldn’t name, didn’t understand, and yet, was drawn to nonetheless.

  And then he’d held out his hand, and she could no more refuse the silent invitation than she could fly to the moon.

  “What’s running through your head, little one?”

  The rich baritone of his deep voice washed through her, a soothing, balmy anecdote for her nervous tenseness. “I’m trying to grasp how I can be interested in trying this contraption out since I’ve never imagined yielding that much control to any man.”

  “I like your honesty, and it’s normal for you to question the abnormal, or I should say, what society dictates as abnormal. But the world has always revolved around the unexplainable, has it not? Tonight, concentrate on what your body is saying, not your head. Your heart will eventually choose which path is best for you.”

  Looking up at him, she got a better view of those intent, enigmatic eyes, and melted inside. No one had ever focused on her, just her, with such clear interest. Certainly no man had exhibited such attentiveness, not even during sex. Her nipples peaked and she squeezed her thighs together in a lame attempt to contain the spate of cream filling her sheath just from that look.

  Aislyn was in over her head with this man. She should back away now, before sinking too deeply under his spell. Instead, she smiled, determined to embrace whatever he was willing to teach her.

  “Right now, I’d like to hear more about the other things along this wall, and what you want from me.”

  “That’s easy, as all I want is one thing.” Gavin replied, leading her toward the large wooden X.

  “What?” she asked, holding her breath for his answer. When it came, surprise and elation erased the last of her reservations.

  “You.”

  Chapter One

  Six months later

  Gavin parked his truck and got out, taking a bracing, chest-rising deep inhale before making his way toward the front door of Spurs, the private club. His keen sense of smell picked up the earthy scents of Idaho’s forests filled with a variety of birch trees, pines and firs. He could hear the distant lonely wail of a coyote and the flutter of an owl’s wings, his muscles and bones aching with the need for a long, nighttime run among his fellow night creatures. Pushing back against his wolf’s clawing demands, he entered the rustic structure with the same sense of heart-pounding anticipation as every other time in the last six months, ever since he’d clapped eyes on his mate for the first time. The difference tonight was the tight clutch around his heart, that spasm of grief he had been experiencing in the four days since he received the phone call he had not been expecting for another ten years. His father’s untimely accident meant putting family and duty before Aislyn much sooner than he had hoped or prepared for.

  He was late tonight, having spent way too much time contemplating taking the coward’s way out and walking out of Aislyn’s life without an explanation or a gut-wrenching good-bye. If only she weren’t too young, too city-bred, too human. The connection between them had been instantaneous, that rare occurrence of finding the one person you were meant to make yours in every way that worked to settle the restlessness inside him. He would never forget her unguarded expression of their first encounter, the way her eyes had widened, drinking him in as he approached her, still assimilating the discovery of his mate in a BDSM club. The moment he had held out his hand without a word and she had placed her trembling fingers in his grip would be forever ingrained in his memory

  They had been together every weekend since, six months of him teaching her the heightened pleasures she could attain through light pain, bondage and submission. In the last three months he had caved to the desire to see her more often, taking her out to dinner during the week and inviting her to his softball games.

  His parents didn’t know about Aislyn; how could he tell them his mate, the woman he was meant to spend his life with, wasn’t a shifter? Coming from a long line of wolf shifters there had been only two human mates of distant relatives, and neither spouse had stuck around after learning the truth about who they had married. Those failed marriages had led to rumors that brought unwanted attention on the families back then, though nothing could ever be proven, and eventually the nosy interlopers were forced to back off. The mistake his relatives made in trusting the wrong person accounted for the few numbers in their pack as those uncles never remarried or sired offspring.

  The foyer was empty as Gavin stepped inside, the low hum of voices, sharp snap of leather hitting bare skin and the soft, sultry tunes of a ballad reaching his acute hearing through the closed door of the large social room. He left his Stetson on, hoping the lowered brim hid the turmoil his grief was causing from showing on his face. His girl had gotten adept at reading his looks, and he couldn’t bear for their last night to be marred by the pain of their split before he enjoyed one more scene with her. As much as he was looking forward to returning to the ranch and taking over running their fifty-thousand-acre spread, he had prayed that time would come later rather than sooner. His father’s call put an end to that hope and his chance to bind Aislyn’s trust so securely, she would accept his heritage without fear. His mother had finally laid down the law and insisted they retire to their cabin in the mountains as soon as his father recovered from the broken hip he had sustained bronco riding.

  Gavin entered the gathering space, his eyes automatically shifting to the center sofas where he knew Aislyn waited. His pulse jumped as their gazes met and clung, his cock stirring as she slid to her knees upon his approach and clasped her hands behind her. She wore her long, wavy hair down, the ends falling over her shoulders to curl around her soft breasts hidden from his view and touch by a thin cream camisole that hung loose around her waist. The matching thong already clung with damp appeal to her denuded folds, molding the satin to her plump labia with mouthwatering enticement. He locked his jaw against the sadness tugging at him and held out his hand.

  “You please me, like always, little one. Come with me.”

  ****

  Aislyn’s heart tripped, her palm turning clammy as she took Master Gavin’s hand. Her eyes traveled from his booted feet, up his long, jean-clad legs and over the bulge pressing against his zipper that caused her pussy to flutter. The thick, wide black belt made her buttocks clench, his tight abs and hair-sprinkled broad chest revealed by the open leather vest turned her pouty nipples into stiff pinpoints. She swallowed hard as she took in his thick, corded neck and sun-kissed shadows of his lower face. She couldn’t make out his eyes but shivered as he tugged her up, picturing the bright green gleam as h
e yanked her against his hard frame.

  “Sir,” she breathed, a surge of excitement rushing through her veins. “You’re late.” The strange heated tingles that had ghosted across her skin the moment she’d set eyes on him the first time six months ago, and had erupted each time they’d met since, were now making their way between her legs.

  “I’m sorry. Something came up. I’ll make it up to you.”

  His clipped tone alerted her to something bothering him, but as he led her to the back of the cavernous room, ignoring the greetings from friends, she relished his urgency to get started and take-charge attitude. It had been that way from their first meeting. Something about his calm but strict demeanor had soothed her nerves, made it easier to get through her initiation into the lifestyle that had drawn her interest after her college roommate confessed about her membership here.

  He stopped at the new fuck bench, the apparatus she had shown interest in last weekend only to be denied the experience because he couldn’t watch her face. She loved that about him, the way he kept his eyes on her during a scene, his gaze focused on her and her responses regardless of what was going on around them. Flicking her eyes up, she couldn’t help asking, “You’ve changed your mind about letting me try this bench?” While she was all for new experiences as long as he tutored her, she wondered if his change of heart had to do with whatever was bothering him. A possible explanation popped into her head and her throat clogged as she took a hasty step back. “Are you trying to tell me something, Master Gavin? If you’re done with me, I’d rather...mmmf.”

  Gavin’s hard mouth cut her off, his hands coming up to cup her face and hold her head still for his possession. Aislyn melted inside every time he did that, took her over and erased her doubts with his controlling kiss and hands. She opened for his thrusting tongue, groaned as he ground his lips on hers and stroked her tongue and mouth. Lifting her hands, she gripped his corded forearms, his muscles rippling under her palms, his sigh sliding into her mouth, raising those delicious goosebumps of awareness.