Ecstasy in Elk's Crossing (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (11 page)

He saw a handful of men in their twenties, wearing jeans and cowboy hats, standing around the billiard table. He looked toward the bar, but Katie wasn’t there. Movement to his left drew his attention. He hesitated, not wanting to step more directly in front of the window, knowing instinctively that for now he needed to keep his presence a secret from Katie.

Katie was talking to a tall cowboy with a mane of sandy hair and a downturned mustache. David didn’t like the way she looked up at him. There was open affection in her expression. Soon, he’d have a talk with her about that. David realized he had a lot of teaching to do. He wouldn’t give her a black eye like he had in San Francisco. Too many people noticed a black eye. But if he put the bruises on her arms or legs or ribs, bruises that would be hidden by her clothing, then she’d learn her lesson, and he wouldn’t have a bunch of nosy bastards and prissy bitches asking questions that were none of their goddamned business.

He watched as Katie took the cowboy by the hand and walked him over to the billiard table then gave him a firm push. The rest of the men moved closer to Katie. For a few seconds, as she was talking to the men, David’s view of her was blocked by one of the men, but after a few seconds he took a step to the side. After that, though, David didn’t have a full view of what was happening.

What the hell is she saying? She looks nervous. She also looks more friendly with those clod-hopping cowboys than she should. Damn, her tits look good. So do her legs and ass. I wonder if she’s lost some weight.
He smiled at the thought.
Probably went on a diet to get me back. I always said she needed to lose some weight if she wanted to keep me.

He was looking at her profile, and the plump fullness of her breasts brought back memories of when he’d first set eyes on her at the steak house, and how he’d promised himself that the day would come when he’d fuck her. As with most of the goals he’d ever set for himself, he’d accomplished it. Fucking Katie had required more time, dinners, and sweet talk than he would have liked, but she eventually relented, and that was the important thing.

Standing in the darkness outside the saloon, he wondered when next he’d fuck her. Soon, he decided. He deserved a good fucking, and she was just the bitch to give it to him. He was certain she’d come around to his way of thinking. She always did, except for that bit of foolishness when she called the police.

David’s mind wandered a bit, thinking back on the police and what a crime it was that scumbags in blue uniforms should wrestle him to the ground and put handcuffs on him, so he didn’t at first notice that Katie was getting more than just a little “friendly” with the big cowboy. His jaw literally dropped when he watched her sink slowly to her knees as she opened his jeans and brought them down. The cowboy’s cock sprang out, and David could hardly believe his eyes.

Was that really Katie on her knees, about to give some stinking cowboy a blow job? And she was going to do it with more cowboys standing around watching her!

He watched, thunderstruck, as Katie starting licking the cowboy’s cock. Then she took him in her mouth, and David knew with all his heart and soul that he’d never seen a more disgusting thing in his life. There was the woman he had been about to bring back into his life, fully clothed but on her knees, slowly bobbing back and forth to perform what appeared to be a willingly given, sensual blow job.

A thousand conflicting thoughts rocketed through David’s consciousness. The injustice of it was nearly enough to make him retch. Back in San Francisco, Katie had never shown much zeal in giving him head. She’d done it, but it was clear to David that it wasn’t an activity she much enjoyed. And now she was on her knees in the middle of a saloon, sucking some worthless cowboy’s cock while a bunch of other cowboys watched?

That cunt has got a lot of lessons to learn!

It was the sweep of headlights from a big Chevrolet Suburban that pulled David’s attention away from the saloon’s interior and back toward the highway. Suddenly illuminated the by headlights’ glare, his instinct for survival kicked in. Moving at an undignified run, he headed for the nearby trees, moving away from the headlights and the saloon, certain only that Katie had committed crimes against him. When he took his justifiable revenge for what she’d done, she might not live through her punishment.

* * * *

Katie was behind the bar and ready to grab beers out of the cooler by the time the men from the Square-B Ranch walked through the front door of the Mountain View Saloon. Garrett and Flynn were pretending to be in the middle of a game of eight-ball. The others had taken stools at the bar, and though they all gave a greeting to the men who entered, none of them stood.

They’ve all got erections they’re trying to hide
. She smiled her greeting to the four men from the Square-B Ranch.
Was I really just giving Aaron a blow job while all his brothers watched me? Was I really doing that just a minute ago?

“You’re looking sweet tonight, Miss Katie,” the Square-B foreman said as he straddled a barstool. “But then you look sweet every night. That must be why you had yourself a Peeping Tom when we pulled into the parking lot.”

Katie frowned. “Peeping Tom?”

“Yep. I pulled into the lot, and he was standing at that window over there, lookin’ on in.” The foreman shrugged his broad shoulders and tipped his straw Stetson back on his head with a forefinger. “I hit him with the headlights, and he run off like a scared jackrabbit. Don’t suppose you’d know who it is?”

“No,” Katie lied. Her first instinct was to do whatever was necessary to keep the McGowans and David separated. “How would I know?”

* * * *

“She’s not going to show up.”

Aaron looked at Garrett and replied, “Yes, she will. She’s only late because of work. Sometimes that takes a while.” He was standing near the fireplace at the ranch, a cold can of beer in hand, trying to pretend he wasn’t as anxious as the rest of his brothers. “Katie said she’d come here, so she will.”

Garrett, young and impetuous, shook his head emphatically. “No. When the boys from the Square-B showed up, she got spooked. Real spooked. She was going to be ours, and we were going to be hers, but now she’s spooked, and she’s not going to want anything to do with us.”

“You’re young and in love,” Aaron replied. “That clouds your thinking.”

“And you’re old and in love, so that makes you thickheaded.”

“Thirty-two,” Aaron said, a smile tugging at his lips, “isn’t really all that old.”

The look he received from his kid brother suggested otherwise.

A window-rattling crash of thunder followed a bright white bolt of lightning by a split-second, and all the men in the room flinched. The thick, black clouds had rolled in from the west as the sun had been setting. A few minutes before midnight, the rain had started, not too heavy at first, though the deluge soon followed. Thunder and lightning came with the downpour. Now the storm seemed to have settled over Elk’s Crossing, the rain coming in sheets.

“This storm’s a bad one,” Blair said. “Do you think that’s what’s keeping Katie home?”

Aaron walked to the window and looked out. The rain-streaked glass gave a distorted view of the land surrounding the homestead. Only the lightning cut through the fathomless darkness of the foothills. The Circle-Square-Circle Ranch was miles from anything that might be construed as a streetlight, so he did not at first realize that a vehicle had pulled up close to the house until the driver’s side door opened, and the dome light came on.

“She’s here!” Aaron exclaimed. “I knew she’d come!”

“Oh, she’ll come, all right,” Blair murmured ambiguously under his breath.

Aaron hurried to the front door of the ranch house, followed by all three of his brothers. He opened the door just in time to let Katie hurry inside. She wore a tan raincoat, which she had pulled up over her head. Her shapely legs were exposed to midthigh.

“Come in,” Aaron said, throwing the door open wide and stepping aside so that Katie could run in. “Let’s get you out of the rain.”

Blair added, “Welcome once again to the Circle-Square-Circle Ranch.”

Katie slid the trench coat properly down around her shoulders and smiled broadly as she patted her blonde hair into place. In her blue eyes, Aaron thought he saw happiness tinged with nervousness.

“This is my first North Dakota storm,” Katie said, stepping deeper into the ranch house, the stiletto heels of her shoes clicking softly against the polished wooden floor. “Are thunderstorms always this violent in the mountains?”

“The mountains don’t get it as bad as the foothills. We’re in the foothills.” Aaron was certain he’d never seen anything lovelier than Katie, standing at the entrance to the great room. Softly, he added, “I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”

Katie walked to the center of the room. She looked at the big, flat-screen television. Some sports-analysis program was on, though the volume had been muted. Aaron was annoyed at anything that diverted Katie’s attention away from him or his brothers.

She turned and looked straight into his eyes. “I’m not agreeing to move in with you.” The pink tip of her tongue moistened her lips, and her gaze darted from one brother to the next before returning to Aaron. “But I’m here now, and I’m staying for the night.”

Aaron heard a collective sigh of relief from his brothers. He felt like shouting out his joy but kept his nearly ungovernable emotions tightly leashed.

Garrett stepped up to Katie. “The McGowan men all seem to have forgotten their manners. Can I take your coat? Would you like something to drink?”

Katie unbuckled the belt and unfastened the buttons, turned her back to Garrett, and let the moist raincoat slide off her shoulders and down her arms. That prompted the second collective gasp from the men in the room, though this time even Aaron added his voice to the chorus. Aside from her four-inch pumps, Katie wore only a red baby-doll nightie. The bottom hem of the lingerie was black lace that cut a horizontal line across the tops of her pale thighs. Aaron couldn’t tell if she was wearing panties beneath the lingerie, but the question alone was fascinating enough that his cock began to grow inside his jeans.

The deep V-neck of the baby-doll put on display the plump inner swells of Katie’s breasts, making them appear even more extravagantly rounded than if she wore nothing at all. Aaron felt an instantaneous tightening in his throat. He resisted the urge to tell Katie just how sexy she was. She had once before called him an “alpha male,” but with Katie standing in a lacy red baby-doll and his heart racing in his chest, he was feeling more like a besotted teenager inexperienced in the ways of the flesh.

Katie walked slowly over to the fireplace, where split pine logs crackled as the flames licked at them. With her back to the men, she asked, “What are my drink options?”

Aaron groaned. “Just beer or whiskey, I’m afraid.”

She turned slightly to look at him, and in doing so gave him a view of herself in profile. Aaron’s mouth went instantly dry. “Just so that you know, I like martinis with gin. Or a gin and tonic, if it’s hot out.”

“In the future, you can pretty much count on asking for anything you want, and having a one-hundred-percent chance of getting it,” Aaron replied.

“I’ll have a beer. A light beer, if you’ve got it. I’m going to start really watching my calories.” She smiled sheepishly. “For you men…
my
men…I’ve decided to go on a diet. I’m going to lose weight so that you’ll think me so sexy you won’t even look at another woman.”

“Trust me when I say you couldn’t get sexier if you tried,” Aaron said with conviction. The other men voiced their agreement with his assessment, drawing a sheepish smile from the object of their fascination. “Garrett, since you seem to be the only one of us with any manners at all, would you please get this lovely lady a beer?”

By the time Garrett returned with a Miller Lite, the television had been turned off, the whiskey-drinkers had refreshed their cocktails with ice, and others had gotten new beers. Some sat in the heavy, leather wingback chairs that bracketed the outside edge of the fireplace. Aaron was standing near the long leather sofa that faced the fireplace, though was further away from the flames than the chairs.

Katie took her beer, sipped it, and sighed. “I confess, I do like beer.” She stepped closer to Aaron, her hips swaying with her steps. He still couldn’t tell if she had panties on beneath the baby-doll. “In San Francisco, drinking beer is considered a boorish thing only for the lower classes. God, I was such a snob back then. You men have taught me so much. Sometimes I think back on the beliefs I used to hold dear, and I’m actually embarrassed.” She took another couple sips of cold beer. “Are you going to kiss me or not? The last time I was this close to you, our time together was…um…abruptly and unfortunately abbreviated, a fact which I’m sure frustrated you enormously, and stopped me from accomplishing something I’d struggled to find the courage to do.”

As the pulsing in his jeans grew stronger with each passing second, Aaron slipped his right arm around Katie’s waist and pulled her body in snugly against his own. While still holding a can of beer in his left hand, he slanted his mouth down over Katie’s, bending her backward as he did so. Her lips parted, the invitation unmistakable, and he danced his tongue with hers.

Blindly, Aaron extended his left arm straight out while continuing to kiss Katie. One of his brothers—he wasn’t certain which one—took the can of beer from him. With both hands now available, he pulled Katie’s voluptuous body in even tighter against his own then filled his hands with the globes of her ass. She wore panties beneath the baby-doll, and the smooth texture heightened Aaron’s excitement. He feasted on her lips, filling her mouth with his tongue as he pulled her pelvis in against his own so that she had no choice but to feel how big and hard his cock had gotten.

He felt her moving slightly, weaving her hips from side to side to rub against his rapidly growing erection. When her tongue slipped between his lips to explore his mouth, Aaron knew that he’d never kissed a woman who excited him so much and never touched a woman who triggered such an instantaneous and wildly lusty response from him.