Vaughn's Pride: California Cowboys Read online

  Vaughn’s Pride

  California Cowboys 2

  Selena Laurence

  Golden Age Press

  Copyright 2017 © Selena Laurence

  All Rights Reserved

  Copy Editing by LindaEdits.com

  Cover by Sweet and Spicy Design

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, sorted in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. This contemporary romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.

  For permission to use any portion of this material, please contact the author at: [email protected]

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  Contents

  About Vaughn’s Pride

  Praise For Selena Laurence

  Books by Selena Laurence

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  A Special Excerpt from The Kingmaker

  About the Author

  About Vaughn’s Pride

  She's waited a lifetime. Can she stop him from wasting one?

  Vaughn Jenkins is the youngest in a long line of proud men. But he was only seventeen when his parents were killed during a storm on a California highway. Seven years later, another stormy night nearly took Vaughn's life. Now he's half a leg lighter, full of shame and doubt, and taking it out on everyone around him, even the woman he's loved most of his life.

  T.J. Brisco is the girl next door. She and Vaughn grew up together, inseparable friends, then high school sweethearts. But when tragedy strikes, Vaughn retreats and this time is no different. She's determined to help him recover from his devastating amputation. But Vaughn's not going to make it easy. When his anger becomes too much for T.J.'s shattered heart, she decides that their story is over for good.

  Now Vaughn is faced with the rest of his life--as an amputee, as a brother, as a man--and as T.J. moves on, Vaughn falls farther and farther behind. Can he learn to run fast enough to catch up to the only woman he'll ever love? Or will his pride stand in their way forever?

  Praise For Selena Laurence

  "Laurence’s tightly woven story is a superb mix of sexual and political tension that’s certain to please fans of both." — Publisher's Weekly review of THE KINGMAKER

  "Delicious and Intriguing." — Lauren Blakely, NYT Bestselling Author on A LUSH BETRAYAL

  “Selena Laurence has the ability to bring to life complex characters you instantly start rooting for from page one. Passion, humor, and a sexy hero all make for one read you don’t want to miss.” — Ilsa Madden-Mills, Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author on PLAYING WITH FIRE

  "I totally fell in love with Nico and Tess’s story." — Cindi Madden, USA TODAY Bestselling Author on THE HEIR

  "The plot is deftly written and readers will be totally engrossed in the story" — InD'Tale Magazine review of A LUSH BETRAYAL

  “Selena Laurence delivers on the promise of heat, and love with her sexy romances!” — Nana Malone, USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Books by Selena Laurence

  The Lush Rockstar Series

  A Lush Betrayal (Lush 1)

  Loving a Lush (Lush 2)

  Lowdown and Lush (Lush 3)

  A Lush Reunion (Lush 4)

  The Rhapsody Rockstar Series

  A Lush Rhapsody (A Rhapsody Novel)

  Racing to Rhapsody (A Rhapsody Novel)

  Dreaming of Rhapsody (A Rhapsody Novella)

  Addicted to Rhapsody (A Rhapsody Novel)

  The Powerplay Series

  Prince of the Press (A Powerplay Novella)

  The Kingmaker (A Powerplay Novel)

  POTUS (A Powerplay Novel)

  SCOTUS (A Powerplay Novel)

  The California Cowboys Series

  Cade’s Loss (California Cowboys One)

  Vaughn’s Pride (California Cowboys Two)

  Ty’s Heart (California Cowboys Three) coming September 2017

  Standalones

  The Heir: A Standalone Greek Billionaire Romance

  Pax (Lush the Next Gen)

  The Czar: A Standalone Hockey Billionaire Romance

  The Hiding From Love Series

  Falling for Trouble

  Secrets in a Kiss

  Concealed by a Kiss

  Playing with Fire

  1

  The rain streamed over Vaughn’s face, running into his eyes, flowing up his nose, burning the insides of his sinuses. But that was nothing compared to the pain that was shooting up and down his leg. Sharp, piercing pain that intensified at his knee.

  His heart pounded, and he coughed, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain and the water. Gritting his teeth, he pressed his palms into the sloppy soil beneath him, clenched every muscle in his body, and pulled.

  Vaughn’s own screams woke him. He gasped, sweat dripping along his hairline as his hands clenched the smooth sheets and his leg throbbed.

  He struggled to keep more cries from escaping his lips as tears leaked from the corners of his tightly shut eyes. He could feel the crushing pain that banded around his leg from knee to ankle. And even though he knew better, he reached down underneath the sheets, running his hand along his thigh, then lower, to his knee joint, touching the round, hard mass of bone—femur, kneecap—then lower still, to flesh—tight, rough—and then, nothing. No shin. No ankle. No foot.

  Because no matter how much he thought it hurt, it wasn’t there. And Vaughn Jenkins might never be able to accept that.

  Moaning quietly, he rubbed the stump below his knee joint, the sharp pain fading to a dull ache. Slowly his heart rate returned to normal and he tried to relax, erase the image of that dark, flooded hillside where his life had changed forever.

  He remembered what his therapist had told him about visualization, going to his “happy place”—fuck, he hated that term, but he was desperate enough to try anything at this point, so he took a deep breath and thought about light. Sunshine, azure-blue skies, the grasses on the open fields of his family’s ranch. And then he saw her—long black hair flying behind her as the horse she rode galloped toward him. He couldn’t help but grin as he watched her breasts bounce up and down with the motion of the horse. He remembered what those soft warm mounds felt like in his hands, hard little nipples jutting out, begging to be licked and sucked.

  He could hear her voice as she giggled, her eyes sparkling when she reached him. She grinned and slid from the horse’s back in one smooth motion. He took a handful of easy steps
toward her, until they were mere inches apart.

  “I found you,” she whispered, looking up at him with those gorgeous brown eyes of hers, all silky and warm like the very best chocolate.

  “I didn’t know I was lost,” he teased, reaching up and capturing a strand of her hair before tucking it behind her ear.

  Her expression grew somber, and she gently laid her palms on his chest sending waves of heat rolling through him straight to his dick.

  “You were—for so long. I thought I’d lost you for always.”

  He shook his head, lowering his face toward hers. “Never, baby. You could never lose me.”

  “You promise?” she whispered, their lips nearly brushing.

  “I promise,” he answered. “I love you too much to get lost, T.J.” Then he kissed her, and his heart exploded into a million tiny pieces of joy.

  2

  “Vaughn! T.J.! Dinner!”

  “I swear your mom has yelled that same thing the same way every time I’ve been at your house since we were five years old.”

  “Yeah, I think Cade and my dad can hear her clear down at the beach. It’s incredible how they always show up within five minutes of her hollering.”

  “Did you hear that Dave invited Krissy Love to homecoming?”

  “No. What the hell? Dave was hanging out with us at lunch. He never said anything to me.”

  “I didn’t hear it from him, I heard it from Krissy’s new BFF, Teal Monroe.”

  “Teal? The girl who moved from Oakland?”

  “Yeah… You ever think about going to homecoming?”

  “I don’t know. Guys don’t really think about that shit, T.”

  “Well, some guys do, because they ask dates and get a suit and go.”

  “That doesn’t mean they thought about it ahead of time. They just see some girl whose pants they want to get in and realize that homecoming might be the golden ticket.”

  “Gross. I’m glad you’re not like that.”

  “Vaughn!” his older brother Ty yelled from outside Vaughn’s bedroom door. “You ready for PT?”

  Vaughn stood from his bed, his prosthetic leg giving just slightly as he initially put weight on it.

  Hell, no, he wasn’t ready for PT. He hadn’t been ready for it yesterday or last week, or anytime in the two months since he’d had the accident either.

  And he especially wasn’t ready to have T.J. see him looking weak and damaged yet again.

  But if there was one thing he’d learned since the accident, it was that the people around him—his brothers, his aunt, T.J.—they were really fucking stubborn, and they weren’t going to leave him alone until he’d proven that he was the world’s best little amputee.

  “Coming,” he snapped through the door before he pulled on a T-shirt with Big Sur Organics printed on the front. He looked down at the shorts he was required to wear so that T.J. could see how he was maneuvering with his prosthetic limb. As if just the fact that she knew he had it wasn’t humiliating enough. Nope. He had to do things in front of her with it. Squats, stairs, leg lifts, twists and turns. The one thing he’d drawn the line at was her seeing his stump without the prosthesis. Other than that, she’d been privy to nearly every horror since he checked out of the hospital.

  That meant she’d seen him struggling to walk across a room. She’d seen him wipe out on the driveway when the gravel gave more than he’d anticipated. She’d seen the awkward way he moved when trying out his running blade. She’d witnessed it when he’d developed a rash from the lining of the prosthesis and it crawled halfway up his thigh before they were able to treat it and get him a different fake leg.

  Yes, T.J. had seen every disgusting, weak, humiliating thing about him—in the last few months as well as the six years before that. Nothing like the only woman you’d ever loved knowing what a fuckup you were.

  He sighed as he swung the door open and faced not only Ty but also his oldest brother, Cade. They both looked at him with those expressions that said while they pitied him, they were also prepared to take his ass down if they had to. And unfortunately, as he’d learned more than once recently, he might be a big guy, but they were just as big, and there were two of them.

  “You ever going to shave that mess?” Cade asked as he appraised Vaughn’s new beard.

  “Why do you care?” Vaughn grunted as he moved past them, focusing on smoothing out his gait.

  Cade shrugged. “Just figured it might be a deterrent to all your women.”

  Vaughn huffed out a bitter laugh. “You think? ’Cause I’m figuring it’ll be the nasty-ass stump where my leg used to be that’ll do the trick. I don’t think they’ll even notice the beard.”

  “Dude,” Ty chastised. “You know that’s not true. There are plenty of women in the world who aren’t that shallow.”

  “I know of one who’s waiting for you in the gym,” Cade added with a wink.

  Vaughn scowled and sped up, opening the front door to the house he shared with his aunt, Ty, Ty’s daughter Katie, and sort of Cade and his girlfriend Nina. Truth was, Nina and Cade seemed to spend a lot more time in the guesthouse than the main house, and they were getting ready to build a place of their own a ways down the long driveway that wound from the PCH through the family’s expansive ranch lands.

  He didn’t bother holding the door open for his brothers as they followed him. If they insisted on following him around like he was a toddler, then they could hold the door open for themselves. One side of his mouth twisted up as he mulled over the analogy. He sort of was like a toddler—learning to use his legs, chafing against authority, wobbling around the family house while everyone bit their tongues and tried not to get too mad at him.

  Only difference was that no toddler he knew had ever had to figure out how to avoid an erection while he learned to walk. Because whenever he faced the sight he was looking at now as he stood in the doorway to the custom gym Cade had built for his rehab, his dick stood at attention like a disobedient puppy.

  He knew he was blocking the entrance, but he couldn’t move for a moment as he struggled to control his reactions to her. She was turned in profile to him, her shiny hair in a high ponytail, the ends still falling to her middle back, it was so long. The blue polo shirt she wore was fitted, covering the essentials, but still tight enough to show her magnificent rack. Vaughn was a breast man, and T.J. had the most beautiful pair he’d ever laid eyes on.

  He nearly groaned as his gaze dropped lower and he saw that she was wearing shorts today. Of the short-short variety. Her firm, toned legs stretched like the road to paradise from her ankles to her barely covered hips. And just as he was about to step into the room, she rotated, turning her back to him and bending over to position a large medicine ball in front of a bench.

  The sight of T.J.’s perfect little ass peeking out from those shorts was the final straw.

  He spun, ready to get the hell out of Dodge, only to find himself faced with both older brothers.

  “Going somewhere?” Cade asked, one eyebrow raised.

  Ty shifted to see around Vaughn, a glint entering his eyes. “Problem?” he asked with a smirk.

  Vaughn swallowed and cleared his throat. Fuckers. He hated his brothers.

  “Come on, cowboy,” Cade chided. “You can do it. She doesn’t bite.”

  Vaughn did groan out loud at that, images of her perfect pearly white teeth scraping over one of his nipples playing across his mind.

  Ty chuckled. “Stop making it worse for him. God knows her shorts are going to be enough of a problem.”

  Cade shook his head and nudged Vaughn on into the room. “I’m sure he could find a solution to that problem if he wasn’t so damn stubborn.”

  Vaughn shut his eyes, praying for some scrap of patience to endure this hell. Letting out a breath slowly, he drove his elbow back into Cade’s rib cage, smirking in triumph when he heard the grunt as he met the mark. Then he held his hand over his head, flipping off both brothers as he marched into the gym and gritted his
teeth for another session in how to be half the man he used to be.

  T.J. refused to look at the shenanigans going on between the Jenkins brothers. She’d known them her whole life. Growing up with them had been like growing up with a pack of tussling Labrador pups. Although by the time she and Vaughn were in high school, Ty and Cade had become too wrapped up in their own adolescent lives—dating, surfing, college—to pay much attention to the youngest Jenkins boy.

  And that had been just fine with T.J., because then she had become Vaughn’s number one in everything. She was already his best non-brother friend, but once Ty and Cade grew up, she became his favorite companion, the one he turned to for movie nights and drives to the beach after dark. The one he wanted to take camping out on the ranch in the summers, the one he called when there was a basketball or football game he wanted to go watch at the high school.

  But when they were sixteen Vaughn had gone and done something she’d never completely understood. Instead of inviting T.J. to homecoming—the first dance he’d ever wanted to attend—he’d asked Teal Monroe. And T.J. had thought her heart might break right in two.

  It was true they’d never kissed or held hands or done any of the typical boyfriend-girlfriend things, but she and Vaughn were a set, a pair—like salt and pepper, cake and icing, eggs and bacon. Everyone at school viewed them as one entity. “Are you and Vaughn coming to the party?” they’d ask. “Does Vaughn have Sturgis for Science?” “Do you think Vaughn would sign up for Student Council if we asked him?” T.J. was Vaughn’s other half until he went and asked another girl to homecoming.