Corralled (4 page)

To be honest, she was interested in why they’d provided a unified front. “Fine. I’m listening.”

After Hank noticed Kyle hadn’t released her hand, he grabbed her other hand, throwing Kyle a pointed you’re-touching- her

look— which Kyle completely ignored.

Kyle’s eyes searched her face. “We never talked about an exclusive relationship, Mel— er, I mean, Lainie. Damn, I gotta get used to calling you that.” He sent her a soft smile. “You’re an attractive woman. I didn’t imagine you were sitting at home or in a hotel on the road, pining for me when we weren’t together.”

She opened her mouth to speak but Kyle shook his head.

“But I woulda been hard- pressed to guess you were whilin’

away the hours with my buddy Hank,” Kyle added.

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“Same goes for me,” Hank said. “Although I am sure I mentioned my friend Gilly a time or two.”

“You did. But I didn’t relate ‘Gilly’ with Kyle. No one else on the EBS circuit calls him that.”

“Point taken.” Hank kissed her knuckles.

Her belly fluttered at the sensation of his warm lips lingering on her skin.

“Why do you go by Mel on the EBS circuit anyway?” he asked.

“It was Dusty’s idea of a joke. Bryson Westfield prefers male med techs, but Dusty was shorthanded when he assigned me to the EBS. So he listed me as Mel instead of Lainie so Bryson wouldn’t bitch.”

“Anyone who mistakes you for a man is obviously blind.”

“Amen,” Kyle said.

Flustered, she let silence fill the uncomfortable void.

“Look, Lainie, we don’t want to say anything that’ll make you run out again, but the bottom line is, we both still wanna be with you.”

Her entire body froze. “You do?”

“Uh- huh. We understand part of the reason you were upset, besides the surprise factor of Hank and me bein’ good buddies, is that you didn’t want to choose between us.”

“I don’t. I won’t. So it’ll be easier if I—”

Kyle put his finger over her lips. “Do you want to walk away from this? From both of us?”

She didn’t need time to consider her answer. She shook her head.

The guys breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“Good. Very good.” Hank smiled. “ ’Cause neither of us wants that either.”

LORELEI JAMES 9

“So what do you propose we do?”

“Share you,” Kyle said.

“Share me?” Her gazed flicked between them. “I am not a hammer to be passed back and forth when you want to nail me!”

“That’s not what we meant.”

“Then what do you mean? How can you share me? You can’t saw me in half. And I know it’d drive a wedge in your friendship if I was switching off weeks between you guys, even with Kyle in the EBS and you in the CRA. Both of you are too . . . alpha and headstrong to take a backseat to the other for very long.”

“True. Which is why this sharing situation would work,”

Hank said.

“I don’t see how.”

Hank looked at Kyle with a hint of exasperation. “You have a better way to explain this?”

“Maybe I oughta point out that I fell in the standings from number fifty- eight to number seventy- nine and the EBS kicked my ass off the tour four weeks ago. Yeah, I know it’s standard procedure, and there are lots of younger bull riders eager to take those top sixty spots. I’ve been off my game and I need to get it back.

Nothin’ changed when I hit the secondary circuits, so tonight I’m starting in the CRA,” Kyle said. “That’ll give me a chance to compete a whole bunch during Cowboy Christmas.”

Lainie knew the annual ritual known as Cowboy Christmas was a three- week period when professional cowboys drove thousands of miles all across the country in sleep- deprived pursuit of prize money awarded in a string of rodeos leading up to— and directly following— the Fourth of July. “Why?”

“There’s potential for me to earn cash and rack up points. I won’t make it to American Finals Rodeo, but it’ll allow me to ride lots of bulls, figure out why my buck- off rate is so high, and position me for the new season next year.”

9 CORRALLED

“Then we’ll all be on the same circuit,” she said inanely.

“Ain’t that great? See why this’ll work?”

“No!” Lainie stepped back. Way back. “How can you think that’ll be better? That’s worse. What do you think people will say if they see me with both of you? We’ll be at sponsors’ events together.

I can’t be with one of you one week and then the other the next week.”

The guys swapped an indecipherable look.

Kyle crowded her first. “We ain’t talking about you switching off. We’re talking about you bein’ with
both
of us at the
same
time.”

Lainie let that sink in.

“The night in Chula Vista? You admitted interest in a threesome with two guys. You swore if given the chance, you’d grab it with both hands.” Kyle grinned. “Well, darlin’, Hank and I are here and ready to be grabbed.”

She gaped at him. She remembered that night clearly, stretched out on the bed at the cheap motel, trash- talking while watching porn. Kyle confessed being at the mercy of two women did it for him; Lainie retorted that it’d be hot with two men catering to her.

She never imagined that comment would come back to bite her in the ass.

But doesn’t having these two sexy, virile men offering a dream sexual
experience sound thrilling?

Yes. But Lainie wasn’t the type of woman to just go with the flow.

Yet, somehow you found the guts to screw two different men at every
opportunity and keep it a secret.

What would it be like to be with both men at the same time?

Delicious. Wanton. A chance few women were afforded.

Did she have the cojones to grab the opportunity with both greedy hands?

LORELEI JAMES 9

“Tell you what. We sprang this idea on you first thing this morning and we wanna give you time to think on it. But we also want to give you a little taste of what we have in store for you.”

Kyle curled his palm around the back of her neck, bringing her mouth to his. He let the kiss remain unhurried, a soft brush of lips on lips. Then he released her. She had about a split second before Hank invaded her space.

Hank’s lips were firmer, his kiss more intrusive as he swept his tongue into her mouth.

She loved the full- out way Hank kissed. No holding back.

Eating at her mouth like a starving man. His hand rested on her throat, allowing the jagged edge of his thumb to rub her jawline.

After a minute or five of scrambling her brain, Hank eased back to peer into her eyes.

The lust she saw wasn’t a surprise. But his next action was—passing her back to Kyle.

Kyle threaded his fingers into her hair, angling her head to take her mouth in a no- holds- barred kiss. A tongue- thrusting swamp ing of her senses that made her weak- kneed and weak- willed.

For a second, she forgot the divine decadence of Kyle’s kiss, unnerved by the knowledge that if Kyle’s hands were in her hair, whose hands were on her chest?

Hank murmured, “Relax, Lainie. Let us touch you.” He peeled the tiny elastic straps of her camisole down her biceps and past the tops of her breasts.

With the straps nestled in the bend of her elbows, her arms were immobilized. Not that she intended to push Kyle away when his lips followed the arc of her neck. Lainie’s eyes closed, her head fell back, and she momentarily lost her balance.

A big, warm hand steadied her. “Easy.”

The wet flick of a tongue on the very tip of her right nipple

9 CORRALLED

made her breath catch. She moaned when a hot mouth enclosed the peak and suckled.

Another mouth toyed with the left nipple, using teeth and firm- lipped bites. Then hot, wet suction. How incredibly bizarre, feeling two different mouths on her breasts at the same time. How incredibly arousing.

She knew Kyle had commandeered the left side, even without the rasp of his goatee on her skin. He didn’t tease. Hank, on the other hand, took foreplay seriously and worshiped her breast with single- minded concentration.

With both men seeing to her pleasure? No wonder her pulse was racing.

As she fought for breath, Hank’s lips landed gently on hers, drawing out the intimacy with lazy kisses he knew she craved.

She felt Kyle retreat, leaving her in Hank’s capable hands.

Hank straightened her clothes, smoothed her hair. He rested his forehead against hers. “Think about this today before you make any rash decisions, okay?”

Lainie inhaled slowly. Exhaled. Worked to get her crazed hormones under control. “Okay.”

“Good enough.” He stepped back.

But he didn’t depart fast enough; she noticed the bulge in his jeans. Whoa. Hank was turned on by what’d just happened.

Kyle sidled in front of her with that engaging devil- may- care grin and a serious hard- on. “You are one smokin’- hot woman.

Thanks for not bootin’ our sorry asses out.” Kyle’s kiss was flirty, fun, and Lainie was grateful.

“We’ll see you tonight. Hopefully not in an official capacity.”

He winked and followed Hank out of the room.

9

An hour later, when three solid raps sounded on her door, Lainie remembered to check the peephole first.

LORELEI JAMES 9

Tanna. Fully dressed in her barrel- racing cowgirl regalia.

Lainie unlatched the chains and Tanna burst in.

“You have to tell me what happened with Hank and Kyle right freakin’ now. It’s been driving me crazy.” Tanna whirled to balance on the tips of her ropers so she could loom over Lainie. “No holding anything back.”

“You mean . . . last night?”

“Yes, I mean last night. You freaked out when you realized they were there together. And damn, girl, what was up with the cowardly way you snuck out the back door?”

“I warned you I’d run.”

Tanna’s left eyebrow winged up. “So Kyle followed you first, then Hank. Then what?”

“How many people saw them chasing me down last night?”

“Two, three maybe. But mostly the guys were mesmerized by my unique brand of entertainment. Jiggling my boobs as a distraction entitles me to all sorts of juicy details.”

Lainie hip- checked her. “I owe you, but you loved having them drool over what they’d never have.”

“That is true. But it don’t matter. Spill the deets.”

“Kyle and Hank grew up together.”

Tanna frowned. “You didn’t pick up on the fact that they’re both from the same hometown? Don’t, like, four people live in Wyoming?”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Tan.”

“Sorry. Go on.”

“Kyle’s bio said he’s from Rawlins. Hank’s says he’s from Muddy Gap. Without having a map in front of me, and knowing nothing about Wyoming, I had no clue the towns are thirty miles apart.

They went to the same school, where Hank called Kyle ‘Gilly’— an abbreviated form of Gilchrist. So yes, I’d heard Hank mention Gilly offhandedly, but the truth is, whenever he and I were alone

9 CORRALLED

together, because we saw each other only twice a month, we didn’t do a whole lot of talking.”

“And can I just point out how jealous I am of that fact?”

“Anyway, I made it halfway to my truck when Kyle stopped me. Then Hank showed up and saw Kyle holding my upper arms and warned Kyle to get his hands off. Kyle let me go and shoved Hank. Hank shoved Kyle back. . . .”

Lainie sat on the edge of the bed and shot Tanna a dark look.

“This is not where you insert, ‘That is so romantic.’ It was horrible.

These guys are really good friends. There’s no way I can choose one over the other. So I broke up with both of them and left.”

“That’s it?”

“I thought so until this morning. They showed up here. Together. To talk about me leaving last night. And Kyle told me he was kicked off the EBS tour and he’s competing in the CRA.”

“Oh, no.”

“Oh,
yes
. So I’ll be seeing both of them all the time. But that’s not all they wanted to discuss with me.” Lainie gnawed on her cheek. She trusted Tanna, but Kyle and Hank’s suggestion of sharing her sounded . . . outlandish.

“Come on. You cannot be seriously thinking about not telling me, Lainie.”

“Fine, but you have to promise on your championship AFR

belt buckle and your grandma’s secret noodle recipe that you will not tell another person. Ever.”

Tanna held up her hand in a scout’s- honor pose. “I swear by all that I hold holy, Granny’s noodles and my beloved gold buckle, that I will take this secret to my grave.”

Lainie blurted, “Hank and Kyle wanna share me. Like, at- the-same- time type of sharing me.”

“Holy freakin’ shit.” Tanna’s big gray eyes went comically wide.

“They’re offering you a threesome? With them?”

LORELEI JAMES 9

“Yes! Can you believe it?”

“Well? What did you say?”

How could she confess to losing the power of coherent thought once they’d started kissing her in tandem?

She couldn’t. Not yet anyway. But clearly they expected a lot from her. A lot of naughty sexual things she’d imagined, but never mustered the guts to try— or, more accurately, had never been offered the chance to try.

“Please tell me you said yes, Lainie.”

Her gaze flew to Tanna’s. “You’re not appalled?”

“Hell, no. I’m jealous.”

“So you’re telling me you’d do it?”

“If they’d asked me? Girl, I’da jumped ’em both so fast I might’ve knocked teeth out.” Tanna grinned cheekily. “Look, obviously they both think you’re hot in the sack. Since you’ve been nekkid with them, multiple times, they each know exactly how to push your buttons. Having two gorgeous guys willing to satisfy your every sexual craving?
Sign. Me. Up.
And since we’re being completely honest, for the record, it wouldn’t be the first time for me.”

Lainie stared at Tanna, half- amazed, half . . . not surprised at all. “You’ve been in a threesome?”

“Yep. Appalled?” she teased.

“No. Just . . . intrigued as to how it came about, I guess.”

“Happened on the spur of the moment. Got a little crazy one night with my boyfriend and his best buddy. We ended up spending the entire weekend in bed. It was awesome.” She gave Lainie a pointed look. “No, it’s not my current boy toy or anyone that you know. We broke up a couple of months afterward, but I don’t regret a damn thing.”