Romance: Cowboy Way of Love by Undiscloseddesires2015

Cowboy Way of
Love
    Hunter Shipman looked like
he was asleep. He was clearly very comfortable, seated on the front
porch of his sprawling ranch home with his boots propped up on the
railing. His well-muscled arms were crossed over his chest, which
steadily rose and fell slowly, in time with his deep, regular
breaths. A khaki-colored Stetson angled down over his face,
perfectly positioned to keep the early morning sun out of his
eyes.
    But
Hunter’s blue eyes weren’t closed, and the cowboy was most
definitely not sleeping. He was wide awake – wide awake and
watching. From beneath the brim of his hat, Hunter had his gaze
fixed on every move Peony Washington made as she went through her
morning workout routine.
    Peony was the younger
sister of Petunia, a stunning woman who had, for some reason Hunter
couldn’t fathom, agreed to marry Hunter’s brother Seth. There were
three more sisters besides, all named for flowers: Pansy, Poppy and
Primrose. Their mother was an avid gardener, but Hunter was sure
there was nothing she grew in a flowerpot that was half as gorgeous
as her five daughters.
    Peony had come down from
Virginia for the wedding a week ago, and Hunter had been instantly
smitten. Peony was beautiful, a tall, dark girl with a lush, curvy
body that made him weak in the knees. She was graceful, too, moving
with an exotic ease that Hunter found intensely erotic.
    Most of the women Hunter
knew in Texas moved with a purpose. They had things to do, people
to see, places to be, and their every motion revealed they were
driven by an agenda. They hurried even when they were sitting
still.
    Peony was different. She
took her time always, easing her way through life with gentle
gestures; smooth, fluid and almost arbitrary; it was sometimes as
if Penny had no will of her own and that instead an external force
determined that she’d wave with her right hand and not her left;
that she’d walk this way, rather than that.
    Her exercise routine
consisted largely of stretches; Hunter thought he recognized both
yoga and ballet poses. His eyes widened when she stood on one foot
and pulled the other up behind her, leaning forward to balance
herself with an outstretched arm. It wasn’t a move she’d seen many
big women do, but she eased into the position as if it were the
most natural thing in the world.
    Studying her silhouette,
Hunter became convinced of two things. The first was that Peony was
the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. The second, judging by the
swelling he’d seen in the lower part of her stomach, was that the
beautiful girl who’d captured his heart without even trying was
undoubtedly pregnant.
     
    He’d done a little
questioning, trying to find out what he could about Petunia’s
gorgeous sister. Poppy, the most vivacious of the bunch, happily
volunteered the fact that her older sister was single, and appeared
to be on the verge of sharing more on that topic when the girls’
mother, Mama Rose, had shushed her forcefully.
    “ If you’re curious about
my daughter,” the short black woman had said, looking Hunter up and
down with an appraising eye, “go and talk to her yourself. I’m sure
she’d be happy to answer your questions.”
     
    “ That’s not all she’d be
happy to do…” Poppy started, falling silent again when her mother
gave her a look.
    Seth wasn’t much more
help. “I know she works in costume design,” he said. “Off-off
Broadway kind of stuff. There was a play in Norfolk she did;
Petunia and I were supposed to drive down, but we couldn’t get
away.”
    That’s as far as Hunter
had gotten in his inquiries. That didn’t mean the conversation had
stopped. Petunia had wasted no time in letting their sister now he
future brother in law had been making inquiries; she’d pulled her
sister aside to discuss this vital development.
    “ Seth says he’s a good
man,” Petunia said. “He’s got this ranch. He’s good looking. And
he’s interested in you.” Petunia embraced her