Cowboy Rescue [Men for Hire 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (14 page)

“Jack? Is something wrong?” She smoothed her skirt and checked to see if she’d missed a stain or tear. It’d been a long time since she’d last worn it.

“Nope.” He lifted his eyes to hers.

“Then why did you stop smiling?”

“Did I? I didn’t notice. I think my heart stopped when I saw you.” His smile came back. “It’s just that I’ve never seen anything prettier.”

She wasn’t the type to blush, but she did then. “Thank you. But is this okay for dinner? I know Brad said jeans, but I thought maybe, since it’s my first night here and all, that I’d dress up a little. But I can change if you think I should.”

He slid his hands behind her neck and made her look directly into his eyes. “Don’t you dare. You’re hot as hell in jeans, but, baby, you are smokin’ in that dress.”

She hadn’t expected him to kiss her. She’d wanted him to, but she hadn’t expected it. When he did, she closed her eyes and let her emotions run away with her. It didn’t matter that they wanted her to stay in her room. It didn’t matter that an obsessed freak was after her. All that was important was the way his mouth felt on hers. And the way he nibbled on her lower lip. And the way he tracked his tongue along her lips to part them. And…oh, hell, everything.

Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him closer. His kiss intensified as his tongue swept into her mouth. He tasted better than she remembered, and the plain white T-shirt he wore couldn’t hide his muscles. She pressed her body closer and felt his erection growing. A soft smile came to her lips.

“Damn, Maria, you’ve taken hold of me good and hard.”

Her smile widened.
That’s exactly what I want to do. Take hold of him while he’s good and hard.

His hands slid over her body then under her dress. She mewled and leaned against the wall. Her knees felt wobbly as he slid his hand underneath the lacy trim of her panties and found her folds.

“Jack. Oh, Jack.”

He slipped a finger into her pussy and pressed the ball of his hand against her clit. “I’ve gone out of my mind thinking about you. And then when we almost lost you, I thought I was sure to go crazy.”

She gripped his shoulders, holding him hard as he skimmed his teeth along the curve of her shoulder. His warm breath tickled her ear and turned her on as he nibbled her lobe. She lifted a leg and wrapped it around his, then thrust her pelvis forward, urging him to exchange his hand for his cock.

He rubbed her clit harder and added a finger to her pussy. The whirl of her need spiraled outward, tightening her pussy as she clamped onto his fingers. She moaned as he kissed her again, harder, more possessive than before. His tongue swept into her mouth, giving her a reminder of how he’d swept his tongue into her pussy.

“Jack, I need you.”

He broke the kiss, leaving her breathless. “Do you? I hope so because I need you more than life itself. You mean everything to me. Do you know that?”

If she hadn’t known before, she did now. She nodded, her throat clogged with emotion fighting to get out. But he didn’t give her the time to tell him.

He thrust his fingers into her pussy again and circled her clit with his thumb. A small climax broke free, and she cried out as the wave of desire rushed free. She closed her eyes.

“No. Open your eyes. I need to see you come.”

She did, and he watched, fascination playing across his face. “You’re so quick to respond.”

“Because it’s you.”

He kissed her again, fast and hard, and she reached for his belt buckle.

He groaned, then took her arms and pulled them off away before leaning back to stare at her. “God, woman, I want you so much.”

“Then take me. Why are you stopping?” Confused, she tugged on his arms, but he resisted.

“We’re in the hallway.”

She tried again to free his cock bulging against his jeans. “I don’t care.”

“But you care about me, right? Tell me you do. I have to know.” Torment mixed with hope in his eyes.

“I–I do. Can’t you see that I do? Please, Jack, take me. I need to feel you inside me.”

He moaned and fell away from her, putting his back to her as he tunneled his fingers through his hair. “Damn it, if I could, I would.”

“Why can’t you? It’s not like you haven’t already done so.”

“First, because my brothers and Gabriel are seated at the dinner table right now and waiting for me to bring you there. If we don’t show up pretty soon, they’re going to come and find us.”

“So? I don’t care.” She lifted her chin. “I wouldn’t mind your brothers finding us, but I’m not taking Gabriel to bed. Didn’t you say you wanted to share with Mike and Brad?”

He licked his lips, and she attempted to kiss him again. Again, he moved away. “Yeah, I did. And I hope we get to do that real soon. But there’s another reason.”

“What’s that?” She whimpered, voicing her need. “Forget it. I don’t care what your reason is, I want you. Now.”

“The other reason is Brad.”

“Brad?” Were her hormones keeping her from understanding? She found it hard to concentrate with his hard chest, strong arms, and bulge in his jeans so close.

“Yeah. Brad hasn’t gotten into bed with you yet. It’s his turn.”

She was in midmotion to try and kiss him again when what he’d said made her step back. “What’s with the turn thing? I don’t have a problem with sleeping with Brad—I mean, I want to. But taking turns? Is this some kind of game you’re playing?”

Had she been so wrong? Had they told her they cared to get her to want them? Yet she couldn’t bring herself to believe that.

“Hell, no. But it makes Mike and me feel like we’re cheating him out of the best thing we’ve ever found.”

I’m the best thing? Wow.

She wouldn’t have believed it, but that just made her want him even more. “But that doesn’t mean I have to sleep with you guys in a certain order, does it? I don’t like being told who I can have sex with, much less when.”

“We’re not taking turns, but…Ah, hell. The first reason is enough.” He took her hand, pivoted on the heel of his boot, and led her down the long hallway.

“Slow down, Jack.”

But he acted as though he couldn’t hear her.

“Jack, come on.”

A couple of turns later and she found herself standing at the entrance to a dining room. Mike, Brad, and Gabriel sat at a long wooden table that, judging by the dents and gouges covering it, had seen better days. Eight mismatched chairs were covered in a variety of fabrics and colors, making no two the same. A sturdy wooden china hutch dominated the room while an old wagon-wheel chandelier provided light.

“Welcome, Miss Franklin. I’m Gabriel Cortez.” Gabriel stood and pulled out the chair next to him.

“Thank you.” She took her hand from Jack’s and let the huge man push in her seat for her. “Wow. I feel so pampered. I thought the meals weren’t formal.”

“They aren’t.” He chuckled. “And they won’t ever be. We’re not much on formalities here.”

Brad and Mike had come to their feet, too. Brad sat to her left as Jack joined Mike on the other side of the table. Her gaze dropped to Jack’s crotch to see if he still had a hard-on, but he was too quick to sit down. A simple platter held a slivered ham while several bowls offered mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and warm rolls.

“I know it’s nothing fancy, but it’ll fill your stomach.”

“It looks great. I haven’t eaten much more than microwave dinners and sandwiches since living on my own. If Sharron had one good quality, it was her cooking. Sharron’s my ex-roommate.”

“I’m aware.”

How much more did he know? She glanced at the others, but they were busy loading up on food.

Jack plopped two large slices of ham onto his plate then started piling on the mashed potatoes. If anyone else had exhibited such table manners, she might’ve been offended. But from him, from all the men, she wouldn’t have expected anything else. They were part dashing heroes and part wild animals, the kind of animals she wanted in the bedroom.

Gabriel popped the cork on a bottle of merlot and began filling goblets. “I hope you understand about keeping to your room.”

“Not really. Do you mean I can’t walk around the house unattended? Do you think King will try to get me here? With all of you around?” She had a run of questions that she couldn’t keep back.

“It’s not so much about your e-mail stalker, but because of the others on the ranch.”

“Others?” She hadn’t seen anyone, even after they’d removed the blindfold.

“Yes, there are quite a few people here. I have two cleaning women who come in once a week and about twenty or so hands on the ranch. The number varies, depending on who’s out on a job and whenever I bring someone else on. These boys as well as the Wright cousins stay in this house with me, but the rest of them are out in the bunkhouse.”

“You must have a lot of acres and livestock to need that many hands.” She wanted to push for more information, but something told her that Gabriel wasn’t the kind of man that could be pushed.

“I’m proud of what I have, and I hope to add more acreage later. Some of the men work the land and the animals, and some don’t. All of them, however, are part of the Cowboys for Hire team.”

Jack snorted. “Yeah, and just so you know, we didn’t come up with the name.”

Gabriel took a sip of his wine. “Never mind about that.”

“So you do this for others in trouble? Or just women?”

Brad tilted his head. “I never thought of it much, but it seems we do stick with the female population.”

“And you keep your location and your mission a secret? If the lady at the police station in Tulsa hadn’t given me your card, I’d have never known about you.” A thought hit her, shaking her enough to make her look down at her plate. Were they taking care of her because it was their job? Or did they really care for her?

“Our location isn’t all that secret. Our neighbors and a few others know where to find us. And it’s getting harder to keep a low profile.” Mike’s chuckle was low and deep. “It’s not like anyone could hide a ranch this big.”

“Then why blindfold me?” She caught the glance between Brad and Jack.

Jack grinned at her and shifted in his seat. “The main reason was so you wouldn’t accidentally spill the beans about your location to anyone. Like a friend who might e-mail you.”

“Why am I getting the impression that there’s another reason?”

His grin grew a little wobbly. “A little part of why is that we thought it would be fun.”

Her mouth dropped open as the Granger brothers laughed. Gabriel shook his head. “I’m sorry about that, Miss Franklin. Sometimes these guys are nothing more than big kids. But you can trust them to do their job. You’re safe here.”

“I understand what you mean. And, please, call me Maria.”

“Maria it is.”

“Do you help a lot of women? Without making them pay?”

Gabriel drew in a deep breath then let it out. She could tell that he was giving his answer some thought. “We help as many as we can. I just wish they didn’t need us in the first place.”

“But why? I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but why do you do this kind of work? I’m sure it’s dangerous. When Brad flew off the top of that car, I thought for certain that he was…” She shook her head. “I don’t even want to think about what might have happened to him.”

Brad took her hand. “Then don’t think about it because I’m fine. We do this because it’s the right thing to do. All of us have seen women treated badly, and we’re tired of it. If we can help a woman escape a bad situation, then it’s all worth it.”

His brothers and Gabriel agreed, lifting their goblets in the air.

The rest of the dinner went smoothly as the men took the conversation back to more enjoyable topics. They entertained her with stories about their lives on the ranch. She laughed until her stomach hurt when Jack told her about the time he’d put a rattlesnake in Brad’s bed. The rattler was dead, but Brad didn’t realize that until after he’d jumped out of bed, hollering at the top of his lungs and waking everyone in the house. Brad retaliated by putting glue on the top of Jack’s toilet seat.

“So should I expect to get pranked?”

“Shoot no. We’d never do anything to upset you. It’s a brother thing.” Jack’s dark eyes met hers. “Unless you want me to sneak into your room in the middle of the night and put something long and hard in your bed.”

She choked on the sip she’d taken and couldn’t look at Gabriel. Did he know she’d already taken two of them to bed?

Gabriel cleared his throat and stood up. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a stack of papers in my office with my name on them. Miss Franklin, uh, Maria, I’m sure that after a day or so, you can get out and about. I need time to spread the news to the others about your arrival. And to explain that they can’t go bringing women to the ranch.”

The last statement was directed at the Grangers, who studiously kept their gazes averted. Once Gabriel left the room, Brad got up and offered her his hand. “How about you and me take a walk?”

“But didn’t Gabriel want me to stay inside?” She took his hand, noticing that his brothers stayed in their seats.

Brad chuckled as he led her in the opposite direction of her bedroom, down the hallway leading to the front door. “Haven’t you noticed that we don’t always do what Gabriel wants?”

Once outside, he lifted his fingers to his lips. “Keep as quiet as you can. If any of the others see you, they’ll set up a ruckus. Gabriel will be on us like a pig on slop.”

She smothered a giggle and, feeling like a teenager slipping out to meet her boyfriend, she followed Brad across the yard toward the large red barn. The cool night air lifted her hair off her shoulders and teased her nipples into growing hard. Lights from the house as well as the bunkhouse cast yellow splashes of brilliance on the ground as they hurried across the open area, but the full moon above gave them enough light to make their way. Somewhere in the night, an owl called to them. Brad pulled open the barn door then shut it behind them before flicking on only one of the overhead lights.

The nicker of horses and the smell of hay hit her, turning her around to walk down the wide lane in the middle of the barn. Stalls lined the walls on both sides of her, and a few horses stuck their heads over the gates, their nostrils flaring to take in her scent.