Ecstasy in Elk's Crossing (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (5 page)

“We’ll keep a very close eye on her, ma’am,” Aaron said. He waved a hand toward his brothers. “Speaking for all of us, you can rest assured that Katie means the world to us, and that we’ll never let anything bad happen to her.”

Katie found it absolutely impossible to look any of the McGowan men in the eyes. This was
not
what she had counted on when she had agreed to take over running the Mountain View Saloon.

* * * *

Katie was standing behind the bar at the cash register with her back toward the interior of the room, so he knew she hadn’t seen him step up to the bar. When she finished ringing up the order, she turned around and gasped softly in shock.

“Sorry,” Aaron said, keeping his voice low. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“You didn’t,” Katie replied in a blatant lie.

“Are you doing okay?” He watched as Katie tried to smile, though she wouldn’t make direct eye contact with him for more than a split second. After an uncomfortable silence, he said, “Should I apologize?”

He watched as her lips, always so plump and damnably kissable, compressed into a thin line. After a couple seconds, she gave her head an almost imperceptible shake.

“I’ve got to get back to work,” he explained quietly. “Back in the saddle, and all that sort of stuff. But we’ll be coming in tonight. I’d like—no,
we’d
like—the chance to talk privately with you.”

Katie turned huge blue eyes up to his. “Please, I can’t talk about what happened last night. I don’t know what came over me. I’m…I’m not really that kind of girl. I’m not the adventurous type. And I
certainly
am not the promiscuous type.”

“We’d never hurt you.” It was a flat, honest declaration from Aaron. “Ever. And we’ll protect you.” He smiled. “Though it was kind of nice to have your grandmother ask us to keep an eye on you.” He chuckled. “As easy on the eyes as you are, it’s a blessing to see you twice a day.”

“Aaron, you don’t know how confused I’ve felt since last night.” She nibbled on her lower lip for a moment, clearly deliberating how much she wanted to say. “One of your brothers kissed me—”

“Many of my brothers kissed you,” Aaron said quickly. “Including me.”

“But one of them kissed me…down
there
. You can’t imagine what it’s like for me to not know who did that.” She raised her gaze to his once again. “Who was it? I have to know.”

The foreman from the Square-B Ranch stepped up to the bar beside Aaron, holding the tickets for the meals he and his men had enjoyed. He smiled at Katie, gave Aaron only the faintest nod of acknowledgement, and said, “I understand you’re taking over here.”

Aaron looked at Katie, winked, and then turned and headed out of the saloon. What he had to say to Katie could only be heard by her and his brothers.

* * * *

“You must be completely out of your mind.” Katie stood behind the bar, and all four of the McGowan brothers were sitting on stools in front of her. “Please pay careful attention to the movie’s title. It is
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
, not
One Bride for Four Brothers.
You do understand that there’s a rather significant difference between those two titles and what they mean, don’t you?”

“Your reaction is a reasonable, though misguided, initial assessment,” Aaron replied in a perfectly calm voice, which greatly annoyed Katie. “And I’m not saying it’ll be easy. What I am saying is that my brothers and I think you’re someone special. We’d like the chance to prove to you just how special we think you are. And not just for a night.”

Katie felt her face getting warm and pink, the blush caused by a mixture of embarrassment and anger. “What happened last night was completely out of character for me. I’ve
never
done anything even remotely like that before.”

She took a moment to look at the men individually. One of them had tasted her intimate juices and had pleasured her with his lips and tongue until she’d climaxed. Had they laughed at her afterward behind her back? No, that didn’t seem likely. They were, after all, proposing a permanent romantic alliance between her and
all four of them
. Demeaning laughter wasn’t in keeping with what they were suggesting, especially not with the sincerity she now saw them displaying.

“It makes sense,” Aaron continued. “I don’t know if what I feel for you is love, but it damned sure is more than mere affection. The same holds true for my brothers. And every time one of us falls for a woman, that woman tries to break us up. You wouldn’t do that because you’d have all of us as your own. All of us. Exclusively yours. And we’d have you.” His voice dipped lower. “Body and soul. More pleasure than you can imagine. And security. We’d never hurt you in any way, never raise a hand in violence. Never. We’re McGowans, and we just don’t do that.”

“Mr. McGowan, you are a man speaking foolishness.”

“So, I’m Mr. McGowan now, am I? That’s a little formal coming from a woman who last night kissed me with fire in her lips hot enough to burn the sun.”

Katie shivered at the comment. She might not have known which of the brothers had kissed or caressed her, but she always knew when it was Aaron because he had always held her captive from behind, and he had a mustache. But she hadn’t exactly been uninvolved while her arms were being held behind her back. In fact, Katie could remember with pussy-moistening detail the length and thickness of the cock that she’d caressed through a pair of tight-fitting jeans. And if she remembered it, she was quite certain her caresses hadn’t been forgotten by Aaron.

“I don’t sleep around.” The words came out softer and with more timidity than she would have liked. Things had progressed from the distantly theoretical to the suddenly plausible. Consequently, Katie was getting
very
frightened.

“We wouldn’t let you.” The possessiveness in his tone was crystal clear. “You’ll be with us, and we’ll be with you.”

“Just me for all of you? And you’d be satisfied with that.”

The instant the words were out of her mouth, Katie regretted them. The statement implicitly opened the door to additional negotiations—negotiations she was trying to end.

“The only woman for us would be you. There’d be no other women, romantically speaking, in our lives.”

Katie closed her eyes and turned her back on the men. As was often the case, she was alone with them in the saloon. What was different this time was that now she felt emotionally naked. Previously, the men had lifted her skirt and ripped off her panties. One of them had pleasured her with his lips and tongue to such an extent that she shivered through a climax that, at the time, she thought might never end. But now it was her heart and soul that were naked and vulnerable, and that frightened her to the bone.

The sound of the door opening, and male laughter, let Katie know that more customers had arrived. For that she was grateful, because her resolve had been weakening.

Turning, she stepped closer to Aaron so that she could keep her voice low. “Listen, I’ve never had sex with more than one man at a time. Furthermore, I haven’t had that many lovers in my life. What you’re proposing is lunacy. I simply cannot have four lovers simultaneously.”

“Why not?” It was Garrett who asked the simple question that had caught them all off guard.

Katie tried to respond to the young man, but she didn’t have an answer. She was speechless.

* * * *

Katie didn’t know the cowboy’s name, and she didn’t like the way he was looking at her. She also didn’t like the way he was pouring the whiskies with beer chasers down his throat like they were nothing more than ice tea. He was sitting with four of his friends, but he wasn’t laughing it up with them. He was sitting silently. His cowboy hat was pulled low on his brow, making it difficult for Katie to see his eyes to know exactly how intoxicated he was getting.

He lifted his head enough to look straight at her, and called out, “Hey, gorgeous, let’s have another round here.”

Katie knew that when she cut him off, when she finally told him that she wouldn’t serve him any more alcohol, he’d get angry about it. She’d been in the hospitality business long enough to spot an angry drunk when she saw one.

When she didn’t respond instantly, the cowboy said more loudly, “Come on, darlin’, let’s get another round over here!”

Katie walked over to the cowboy’s table. He and his friends were openly ogling her. She’d heard them talking about her looks earlier. It had been particularly galling to hear one of them say she had “big fuckin’ jugs.”

“You men can have another round,” she said, her voice calm despite her rising anger, “provided you convince me that he”—she pointed a finger directly at the annoying cowboy—“isn’t driving.”

They all laughed, except the overly intoxicated cowboy. Feral anger flashed in his eyes. Katie suspected he was the type of man who thought a woman should know where her place was, and it certainly wasn’t as an equal to men.

“He ain’t driving anywhere,” one of the others said. “Hell, he’s been pounding the drinks down since three this afternoon. Wouldn’t let him drive my truck. No way. Drunk or sober.”

“All right, then I’ll get you another round. But it’s the last one you men get. You’ve had enough.”

She went behind the bar to get their drinks, paying attention to the warning bells that were clanging in her head. Though she had earlier been uneasy with the fact that the McGowan brothers were still in the saloon, now she was grateful for their presence. They never failed to make her feel jittery inside, but she always felt safe with them.

She returned to the table and began setting the drinks down. That was when the drunk said, “You’d get bigger tips if you’d let us see those jugs of yours. You’ve got a big ass, but you’ve got really big fuckin’ jugs.”

“That’s it!” Katie snapped. “Get out of my bar! Don’t bother with your tab. Just get the hell out and never come back!”

The cowboy leaped to his feet, knocking over the table and spilling all the drinks. He was drunk, but he was used to being that way. His right hand shot out, and he grabbed Katie’s arm tightly, just above the elbow.

“You dumb cunt, I’ll teach you to not talk to me that way,” the cowboy said.

What happened next happened so quickly, and with such finality, that Katie wasn’t entirely certain she’d witnessed it. The McGowan men, all four of them acting in unison but without preplanning, descended upon the foursome with righteous fury. Only one punch was thrown by a McGowan—by Aaron, who apparently felt it was his right and duty as the head of the clan—and that was to besotted man’s chin. Knuckles connected with chin, and the cowboy slumped unconscious to the floor. The cowboy’s friends, now confronted with the remaining McGowans, who were clearly hoping for some excuse to use violence, began apologizing with sincerity generally reserved for drunkards while sitting in the confession box in church.

“Damn,” one of the friends said, “the way you McGowans act, you’d think she was sweet on all of you, and all of you sweet on her.”

It was
precisely
what Katie did not want to hear. “Just take your friend and get out of here.”

“And pay your tab before you leave,” Aaron said as the men picked up their groggy, staggering, slurring friend. “Just because he’s a fool doesn’t mean you get to drink for free.”

Several twenties came out of jean pockets with significant speed. It was clear that the men wanted no part of any altercation with the McGowans. As they left the saloon, the cowboy started saying something about wanting a rematch, and one of his friends replied, “Shut your mouth, or I swear I’ll punch you myself!”

Alone now with the four brothers, Katie experienced a strange mixture of feelings. Though she was never one for violence, she couldn’t help but feel relief that the men had reacted so swiftly, and so violently, to what had been a very real threat to her. But she was a woman who
loathed
violence. But if they hadn’t reacted violently, what would have happened to her? This was an uncomfortable question for Katie to ask herself.

The words the stranger had spoken about her being sweet on the McGowan clan, and they on her, rang in her ears as loudly as the bells of Notre Dame.

The awareness that she was in the presence of four men who were masculine in the extreme, men who acted instantly on their impulses, men who would defend her to the death if necessary, brought with it chaotic emotions. She was from San Francisco, and she couldn’t possibly imagine any of the McGowan men ever being comfortable in such a city. But San Francisco was where she intended to return someday.

No matter how she looked at her friendship, or whatever it was with Aaron and his brothers, she always suspected that over the horizon was anger, hurt, and heartache.

“Feisty lady, aren’t you?” Blair said.

Katie gave him a smile and breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad to be out of her own thoughts. “As a matter of fact, yes, I am. And since you and your brothers were so quick to defend me, how about I buy the beers for the rest of the evening?”

She had to walk past them to get behind the bar. She’d done it hundreds of times in the past month, so it shouldn’t have been something that would make her throat suddenly feel so tight that it was difficult to breathe. Only it did.

The tension that she’d experienced at being threatened was now completely forgotten. But the drunk had served a useful though entirely unintended purpose. He’d made it possible for the McGowan men to prove beyond question to Katie that they would fight to defend her honor. When they said they would protect Katie and keep her safe, it wasn’t an empty promise. These McGowan men weren’t the wealthy businessmen from San Francisco that Katie was accustomed to. They didn’t toss out promises cavalierly, knowing they would never actually have to make good on their word.