Monroe, Marla - Belonging to Them [Men of the Border Lands 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

It didn’t take her long to tidy up the bed and make her way downstairs to the kitchen. She rounded the corner and found the two men drinking their cups of coffee, talking. They fell silent as soon as they realized she was there.

“Morning, Heather,” Bolton said. “Want some coffee?”

“Um, no thanks. I don’t drink coffee.” She hovered in the doorway, unsure what to do.

“Come on in and have a seat. We were just trying to decide what we needed to do first. It’s already after nine.” Brandon pulled out a chair between them.

“Would you like me to cook something for breakfast?”

“There’s biscuits and gravy on the stove if you’re hungry. We’ve already eaten. You can fix something for lunch later,” Bolton said.

“Come on, have a seat.” Brandon patted the chair bottom he had pulled out.

Heather crossed the room and sat down, fiddling with her T-shirt. She hadn’t realized before just how big the two men appeared to be. They each dwarfed her.

“I figure you and Bolton can unpack the supplies here in the house, and I’ll work outside today. You can call me when lunch is ready.” Brandon turned up the cup and drained the last of his coffee. “Best get going. We’ve got a lot waiting on us.”

“Come on, Heather. I’ll fix you a plate. You’ve got to eat, or you’ll never last the morning.” Bolton stood up as Brandon walked out the back door.

“I’ll fix my own plate. You get to work, and then I’ll join you and you can tell me what to do.” She jumped up and hurried to the stove. “Uh, Bolton? Why is the gravy red?”

He laughed from the other side of the kitchen. “It’s tomato gravy. It’s good. Warm it up and pour it over your biscuits.”

She shrugged and followed his instructions. He was right, it was good. She cleaned her plate then cleaned up the kitchen. She found Bolton in a large pantry unpacking a box of dry goods.

“Why don’t you let me do that? I can figure out where to put stuff. I need to know, because I’ll probably be doing the cooking from now on.”

Bolton nodded and climbed off the ladder. “Be careful. Don’t fall and break your neck.”

As soon as he left her alone in the pantry, Heather could breathe again. He took up so much room. She spent the better part of the next hour putting away groceries. When she was finished, she wondered where Bolton had gone. She didn’t know what to do next. She dragged the empty boxes out of the pantry and stacked them by the back door. She was sure they would need to use them again.

“You finished?”

She nearly screamed when Bolton suddenly appeared behind her.

“God, don’t do that.”

“Do what?” He walked over to the sink and filled a glass with water.

“Sneak up on me.”

“I thought you heard me walk into the room. I wasn’t trying to be quiet.” He drained the glass and filled it up again.

Heather watched the muscles of his throat work and realized she was staring at him. She quickly looked away.

“What do I need to do next?”

“Come on upstairs and I’ll show you.” He left the glass by the sink and led the way to the stairs.

Here it comes, the sex. They’ll each corner me every chance they get and use me.
Heather sighed and followed him upstairs, wondering if she should start undressing, or if he wanted to do it.

He turned to say something, then frowned. “Hey, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. We can move our own clothes later.”

“What?” Totally confused, Heather jerked to a stop.

“Move our clothes. What did you think I wanted you to do?” Then it must have dawned on him because his brows knit together in anger.

“Fuck! You think I brought you up here to fuck you?”

“That’s why you kept me, isn’t it?”

“Hell, no. We
helped
you get away because you don’t deserve to be treated like a slave. There was no way we were going to leave you to some bastard that would abuse you.”

“I don’t understand. I belong to you now. Your brother said so.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, a little afraid of Bolton in the mood he was in now.

“Yes, but you belong to us because you have to belong to someone, or you’re free for anyone to grab. You’re our responsibility, but we’ll take good care of you. We aren’t going to attack you for sex.”

“You don’t want me?”

“Hell, females are so complicated,” Bolton said under his breath.

“I mean, last night, you were hard.”

“Yes, we want you, but not until you’re comfortable around us. We aren’t animals, Heather.”

“Okay.” She bit her lower lip and waited for him to tell her what to do.

When he groaned and turned away, she was confused again, but waited for him to say something. She didn’t want to make things any worse.

“What I wanted you to do was put your things up in here, and move our things out of the other two bedrooms into here as well. We’ll all stay in here from now on. It’s safer to be together.” He took her hand and pulled her out of the master bedroom, and showed her the other two rooms where their things were. “Can you do that?”

“Sure. I’ll do that. Where will you be?”

“I’m going to unload the rest of the stuff off the back porch that goes in the cellar. I’ll show that to you after lunch.”

“What do I fix for lunch? What do you normally eat?”

“There’s fresh-cut bread we picked up while we were in town. You can make peanut butter sandwiches for us. We’ve got to use up the peanut butter before it goes bad.” He walked toward the door, then stopped and turned around.

“Heather, we want you. Don’t think we don’t, but nothing is going to happen until you’re ready. We won’t force you.” Then he walked through the door and left her to sort out the bedrooms.

She sighed, and hoped he was telling her the truth. She liked what little she knew of them so far, and wanted to feel safe. So far they hadn’t done anything to harm her, and had fed her and let her bathe. She should feel grateful and offer to take care of their sexual needs without them asking, but she was nervous. Her life could be so much worse, and had been. Even before the year of catastrophes, she’d felt beholden to her foster parents since they always told her they took her in out of the kindness of their hearts. She felt like she had to be the very best girl she could be to make them love her.

She spent the next two hours combining the two bedrooms into the one master bedroom. There was plenty of room for everyone’s clothes, with plenty of room left in the closets. They each had three pair of boots and several pair of tennis shoes. She had only the one pair, and cursed that she hadn’t thought to get some more shoes while at the store the day before. Maybe they would go back before long, and she could get more shoes.

She decided it had to be close to time for lunch since her stomach began to growl. She hurried downstairs to make sandwiches. She made two for each of the men and one for herself, then walked outside the back and called Bolton. Both men walked up from what looked like a barn out back.

“Um, lunch is ready. Do you have a clock anywhere so I will know what time it is?”

Brandon pointed to one hanging over the kitchen sink. “You mean like that one?”

They all three laughed, and the mood lightened. The men talked about the garden and how they would enlarge it next spring. This year it was all they could handle with everything else they had to tend to.

“I’ll show you the garden when I show you the rest of the place,” Bolton told her.

“Do you have canning supplies?” she asked.

“Do you know how to put up vegetables?” Brandon asked, the unmistakable sound of hope in his voice.

“Yes. I was raised by my grandmother. Remember, I told you last night, but I’m sure you were tired. We put up all sorts of things all year long. If you have canning supplies, I can put it up.”

“Hot damn!” Brandon grabbed her and kissed her full on the lips.

She realized she liked it when he kissed her. But it was over with almost as fast as it began.

“We’ve got some, but we can get tons more,” Bolton told her. “Everything you should need is in the cellar. I’ll show you.”

“Go ahead and show her the rest of the place. I’ll take care of the animals while you do. You can finish up the chores later.” Brandon smiled at her for the first time since she’d met him. He actually had a dimple in the corner of his cheek when he smiled.

“Come on, Heather. Let me show you the cellar first.” He took her hand and pulled her toward another room behind the kitchen that housed a huge wash sink and clothesline.

He showed her the cellar door and opened it. He reached to the right and turned on a light. A set of stairs led downward. He started down the stairs. When she didn’t follow him, he looked back at her with a questioning look.

“I’m not sure I can go down there. I don’t like close places.”

“You got in our trailer easy enough,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, but I was more scared of where I’d been.” She shoved her hands in her pockets.

“Come on. You’ll be fine. I’m down here with you, and the light is on.” He took another step down.

Heather drew in a deep breath then took a step down. She swallowed and took another, and another, until she stood at the bottom of the stairs beside Bolton.

“Good girl.” He led her around and pointed out everything.

“You don’t have much in the way of vegetables put away.”

“We didn’t know how to do it, and didn’t have the time. What we have, we bartered for.”

“Show me the garden.” She shivered. Though it felt cool down there, she was ready to go back up.

“You first.” He pointed to the stairs and followed her as she scrambled up the steps.

She heard him chuckle behind her. She turned around and stuck her tongue out at him. He full-out laughed at that. She found she liked the sound of his laugh.

She followed him outside and behind the house to a large, open area. Here they had planted a garden that was in full bloom and stretched a good hundred yards long by fifty yards wide. She recognized tomatoes, corn, peppers, green beans, and purple hull peas. It looked as if there were some things that needed picking now.

“I think I need to work in the garden some today. Is that okay with you?” She turned to Bolton.

“Sure, if you want to, but don’t get too hot. Drink plenty of water. It’s nearly two in the afternoon. I don’t want you to get sick.”

“I’ll be fine.” She smiled and hurried back to the kitchen, where she grabbed a knife and a bucket. This she could handle.

Bolton watched her for a few minutes, then shrugged and walked off to tend to whatever needed his attention.

She gathered tomatoes, peppers, and enough beans to cook that night. She decided the purple hulls needed another day before they would be ready. After washing the bounty, she searched the kitchen to learn where everything was located. She found flour, cornmeal, sugar, and an assortment of spices. She searched for meat and found the fridge actually worked, though it didn’t freeze anything. It only kept things cold.

If the men were anything like her grandfather had been, they wouldn’t come in until dark. She spent the rest of the afternoon learning the house and where everything was kept. By the time the men returned, she had supper on the table. They praised her over the meal and offered to help clean up. She shook her head and they moved into the living area, where she heard them talking about the farm.