Protecting Lexi (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (4 page)

“Nice to meet you, Billy, and you, too, Buddy.” She smiled.

“Billy here has worked for us ever since we bought this land. Billy also keeps an eye on things around here for us,” Kane said.

“Yes, ma’am, I do. I heard about the situation that you are in, and I’m real sorry. Don’t worry about a thing while you’re here. You’ll be safe. We’ll all make sure of it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, that horse you bought is still giving me a hard time. She’s still skittish. I need to go work with her some more before I head into town.” Billy turned and walked toward the barn with Buddy following behind him.

“Buddy is well trained. He used to be a K-9 dog. We rescued him when we found out they were going to retire him. They said he was getting too old for the officer he worked with. He’s a great guard dog for us.” Max turned toward Alexis and said, “Billy’s real good with the livestock. We have this new horse we just bought in an auction, and she won’t let any one of us anywhere near her.”

“Maybe she’s just scared of her new environment and doesn’t think she can fit in yet. Give her time. I’m sure she’ll adjust.” Alexis smiled then averted her eyes to the barn.

“Come on inside. Let’s show you to your room. Maria should have dinner ready for us in about an hour.”

“Who’s Maria?” Alexis said, a little too snippily. She winced at her tone.

Kane snickered then said, “Maria is our housekeeper and cook. Actually she’s like a second mom to us. She picks up after us and has dinner ready for us after we come in for the day. Max and I can’t cook worth shit!” Kane and Max laughed.

“I love to cook. That’s one of my best qualities. However, I don’t get to do it very often. There’s only me, and it’s not very fun to cook for just myself.”

Max, Kane, and Alexis walked to the back porch and made their way inside the house.

“We would love to taste your cooking. We’ll let you cook for us anytime you want, sugar. Maria only cooks dinners for us. She always makes extra and takes a plate out to Billy. Most of the time, Billy goes into town. He has a lady friend he visits sometimes in the evening.”

As they entered the kitchen, a small Hispanic woman entered from the hallway carrying a laundry basket full of clothes. She set the basket down on the table and extended her hand to Alexis. “Oh, hello, dear, you must be the woman my boys have been telling me about. Alexis is it? My name is Maria, pleased to meet you.”

“Thank you, ma’am, same to you. It’s nice to meet you as well,” Alexis said with a smile.

Maria eyed her up and down before saying to her, “Oh my, you are a pretty little thing aren’t you, my dear? Don’t worry, Max and Kane will take very good care of you. Now, I have to be leaving. The chili is in the pot, and the corn bread is cooling on the stove. I have a hair appointment and don’t want to be late.” Maria put the basket in the laundry room and returned with her sweater and purse in hand. “I will see you in the morning.”

Alexis watched as the cute, little woman exited out the back door.

“She seems real sweet. Has she been with you both long?”

Kane addressed her question, “Maria has been with us as long as Billy. We don’t have her come on the weekends. We usually just go into town to have dinner and hit the bar on the weekends.”

“Peter told me you weren’t married. Do either of you have a girlfriend? I don’t mean to be nosy, but I wouldn’t want to upset your girlfriends by staying here, either.” She watched as Kane and Max exchanged looks.

Max was the one to say, “No, sugar. No girlfriend or someone special in our lives for you to worry about. Kane and I are as single as can be.” He smiled and winked.

“Let’s show Alexis to her room now, little brother.” Kane led her down the hallway and showed her their office that was located off the kitchen. They walked up the stairs, passing what he said were their bedrooms on the way to her room.

Alexis was surprised to see the room that she would be sleeping in. Her suitcase was on the bed. She stepped around Kane and looked around the room. It was huge. There was a larger-than-life bed in the middle of the room and sturdy dark wood furniture surrounding it. The floors upstairs were also dark hardwood. There was a large, plush rug in front of the bed. The walls were a neutral-tan color, and there was crown molding throughout the room. Alexis walked into the bathroom and gasped.

“Oh my goodness! This is the most spectacular bathroom I have ever seen. This is the way I would have decorated it, if it were mine.” She had the biggest smile on her face when they came to stand behind her at the doorway.

“We remodeled this room ourselves. Everything is new. We ripped out the old counters and put in new cabinets and the porcelain double sinks with the light granite countertops. The stand-up shower has a glass enclosure with three different height showerheads. We also tore out the old tub and put in a whirlpool tub,” Max said from behind her.

“It’s simply gorgeous. You did a great job.” She turned around and faced them. “I can’t put one of you out. I’ll sleep in one of the other rooms.”

“No, we insist. The other bedrooms are where we sleep. This is where you’ll be sleeping. Now, you have time to get unpacked, and then we can all sit down and talk during dinner.”

Alexis watched as they left her alone in the room. She felt like she was dreaming. This ranch was spectacular. The house she was going to be living in for the next month was so homey. Her bedroom was everything she would have done herself. The men she would be sleeping under the same roof with,
amazing.
She felt like she’d died and gone to heaven.

This was going to be harder for her to adjust to than she thought. Her body was drawn to them. They were so manly. They kept their bodies in fine tune. She was sexually attracted to them. She hoped she didn’t have to choose between them. She wanted them both.

At thirty-two, Max was the younger one of the two. He was the charmer. He had a playful sense of humor. He had jet-black hair, a little shaggy, like he was due for a trim. The thick hair touched his shirt collar. He kept brushing it off his forehead. He was rather handsome. He wasn’t as tall as Kane. Max was about six-foot to his brother’s six-foot-two frame. He had amazing bright silver eyes that she felt cut through her when he looked at her.

Kane was the oldest at thirty-four. He had these intense, vivid blue eyes and a strong jaw. It appeared he was the more serious of the two. Kane had black, short hair in a military style cut. It was long enough for him to run his fingers through when he was frustrated. She had a feeling he did that a lot. Alexis could tell it would take him a lot to unwind and even break a smile on his face. Kane looked the military type, strong willed along with his chest and arms.
All business and no play for Kane.
Alexis knew she would be in capable hands while here.

It had been over a year since she had been on a date. The last man she went out with was a guy she met in line at the coffeehouse she visited frequently. She had knocked over a display of coffee beans, and the man next to her had helped her put everything back. They ended up sitting down at one of the tables and talked for an hour. John was a handsome man that owned the insurance business down the street from her store. They ended up going out to dinner that night. John said he had to work late and asked her if they could just meet at the restaurant. Alexis saw nothing wrong with that. She didn’t particularly like a man she had just met knowing where she lived.

They had a nice dinner and decided to go to her house for a drink. Needless to say, that was the last time Alexis had sex. The sex was good but rather fast. John was a little too quick to pull the trigger in bed. Good thing Alexis had her own toys to tend to her needs later that night. Afterward, John kissed her good-bye and told her he would talk to her soon.

A few days later she hadn’t talked to John. He had inputted her cell number into his phone and told her he would be in touch. Since he hadn’t tried to contact her, she decided to go see John at his office and surprise him with some coffee. Well, needless to say, he was surprised to see her. Alexis was never so embarrassed in her entire life. John’s wife and children were there visiting him that day also. That was the last time she ever saw him. He never tried to contact her. And that was fine with her. She swore never to get involved with married men ever again. How could someone who is supposed to be in love betray their spouse like John did? She knew not all men were like him, and Alexis told herself to chalk it up to one of life’s learning experiences.

* * * *

Maria had made a delicious pot of chili, and her corn bread was fantastic, too. Alexis felt at home in their country kitchen. There were stainless steel appliances everywhere. The fridge was industrial size with enough food to feed an army.

“You have a beautiful home. I just love it here. It’s so warm and inviting,” she said as they sat at the table together after clearing the dishes.

Kane sat straight in his chair and said, “After we finished our second term in the Marines, we came back here to Wyoming. We always knew we wanted to live here. Our parents used to own this house and the ranch. They were getting older, and they didn’t want the responsibility of running a ranch anymore, so they sold it to us. Billy used to work for our parents when they lived here. And Maria used to work for them also.”

“Where do your parents live now?”

“They bought a house on the lake the next county over. They wanted to be close to my sister. Amy is younger than us. She’s married and has two boys. Mom and Dads wanted to be closer to their grandchildren.”

Alexis thought she heard them wrong. “Did you say
dads
?”

Max chuckled. “Yes. We have one mom and two dads, sugar. We were raised in a ménage family. Although my sister is married to one husband, Kane and I want to find someone to share our life with. We intend on marrying one woman and sharing her between the both of us.” He could tell by the way her face flushed and her mouth opened in an O
shape that she was not expecting to hear that.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to overwhelm you with our lifestyle preferences on the first day here with us.”

“Um, hey, it’s your life. Who am I to judge you for your choices? I have my own issues in life. Hell, I don’t have any clue what I’m doing in life any further than working my ass off to make my business a success. Sometimes I don’t know where the time went. One day I’m in college and the next I’m a business owner with no social life outside of the shop. I’ve never had time to sit back and enjoy life. I don’t feel like I’ve had fun. I’ve always been so serious. All business and no fun for me, I guess.”

Kane could tell she was a bit sad and lonely. “Have you ever ridden a horse before?”

“No, I’ve never been outside of the city before.”

“What do you say Max and I get you on a horse tomorrow?” Kane watched as her face lit up with excitement.

“Oh! Really? I wouldn’t be in your way? I told Peter I didn’t want to be an imposition on your day-to-day living around here.”

Max looked at her and said, “Not at all, sugar. It’s best if we keep you close by us anyways. We need to keep an eye on you while you’re here.”

“That sounds like fun. I would love that.” Alexis got up from her chair and looked at them. “I wanted to thank you both again. I will try real hard to stay out of your way while I’m here. I appreciate your hospitality. I know you both have better things to do than to babysit a grown woman.”

Kane’s eyes grew heated and fierce. “We are not babysitting you. You are in our protection. It’s second nature for us to be so protective over things that are fragile and defenseless. A real man should never raise a hand to a woman or child or verbally abuse her. We as men are put on this earth to love and cherish beautiful things. We told Peter we will do anything to keep you out of harm’s way. As long as you are here, we intend to keep that promise, Lexi. If you’ll excuse me now, I have some work to do. Good night.” Kane got up and dumped the rest of his coffee into the sink before walking into their office and closing the door.

Alexis was kind of surprised at Kane’s change in attitude. She turned to look at the smirk Max had on his handsome face.

“Did I say something to insult him? He got real serious, and it seems I may have said something to make him mad.”

Max stood up and walked toward her. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, sugar. Kane is a difficult man to figure out. He’s been like that since we got out of the Marines. He has a rough exterior. We joined because we felt empty. We wanted to do something meaningful. We felt as though we wanted to push our limits. The Marines made us into the men we are today. Being in the Marines has made us better men and strong willed. But we still have bad memories and nightmares of what we saw and did. Kane seems to keep a lot of things bottled up. I’m hoping we meet someone one day that will uncover the real Kane and he’ll be able to relax and enjoy life. He just needs a woman to soften his spirits and allow him to open up and show the love he’s been keeping inside.”

She nodded, absorbing everything that had happened to her in the last forty-eight hours. Alexis and Max said their good nights, and she went off to bed.

She laid there in that big bed and just wondered what made Kane tick. They were both so strong and fierce looking. Any other man who looked the way they looked would make her feel so small and inferior. Something about their morals and values made her realize that she would be in good hands with these two. She felt an instant connection with them. Alexis was going to enjoy getting to know them. She knew they had a lot of things they had seen and done in their time in the Marines. Their home felt safe. She felt safe, and that’s all that mattered.

She hoped this whole thing with Lenny Cook would be over soon. She was starting to feel something for these two men she had just met. They had a powerful aura about them that she was drawn to. She needed to get a hold of her libido before she did something to jeopardize her stay there.