Reined In: Lone Star Lovers, Book 7 (2 page)

Okay, so she’d been seventeen. Just maybe he’d had some scruples about messing around with her when she’d been so young. She hoped that was the case, because she was ready to get busy making up for lost time. If she was ever going to get them out of her system for good, it had to be now. And she had to have them both. One at a time, two at a time, she really didn’t care. This weekend was it. Her last chance to explore her forbidden fantasies.

Joe strode into her bedroom and started to lift the first case onto her bed.

“Uh-uh,” she said quickly. “They need to be wiped down before you put them on my duvet.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Then I guess you better get busy.”

She raised her chin. “You dirtied ’em. You clean ’em.”

Joe narrowed his eyes.

Her breath held for a long moment, hoping he wouldn’t notice her breaths were coming faster. But he set the cases on the floor and turned to walk into the bathroom.

A sigh pulled her gaze toward the door. Cam stood there, his arms braced on both sides of the doorframe, his steady gaze studying her. “Do you know what you’re doin’, little girl?”

The
little girl
rankled. “What do you mean?”

“You know dang well what I’m talkin’ about.”

Joe walked back into the room, his glance going from Cam to her. “I interrupt somethin’?”

Cam straightened. “’Course not, bro. Just seein’ if Peaches here needed any more help.”

Stormy narrowed her eyes and turned to Joe. “When you’re done, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave the cases on the mattress. They’re heavy and I’d like to unpack.”

Joe muttered a curse and curled his fingers around the cloth in his hand. But he knelt beside her suitcases and washed away the dust.

Her grin stretched.

Cam shook his head. “Playin’ with fire there,” he whispered.

She cocked her head and her hands went to her blouse. She undid the first button, then the second while his gaze followed her motions. “Guess I’ll see you both later. Unless one of you wants to scrub my back.” Then she sauntered into the bathroom, leaving the door cracked a couple of inches, her ears straining to hear the men in the other room. But silence followed.

Staring into the glass at her own reflection, she hoped the seed she’d planted took root because she was tired of playing games.

Later, the men settled on the porch again, as they often did in the evening, listening to the crickets chirp as the sky darkened.

“She didn’t ask once about her daddy,” Cam mused. His mind was still stuck on the image of Stormy unbuttoning her blouse. “Think she already knew he wouldn’t be here?”

Joe took a long pull on his beer. “Why come if Daddy isn’t here to spoil her?” he asked, swinging his gaze to Cam, blue eyes twinkling. “Maybe she didn’t need a new car. Maybe she just missed the place.”

Ever since she’d arrived, Cam had felt uneasy, like the winds were changing. “She seem different to you?”

“Different how?”

Joe may have sounded uninterested, but Cam didn’t believe for a second that his buddy was indifferent. “Meaner, maybe.”

“She’s always been a handful,” Joe said, a slight smile curving his mouth.

“But didn’t it seem like she was askin’ for it?”

Joe shot him a sharp glance. “Askin’ for what?”

Cam grunted. “For one of us to break.” And maybe that was only wishful thinking on his part.

Joe played with a button on the clean chambray shirt he’d donned after he’d stopped perspiring. “I think about it, you know. That day.”

Cam didn’t need any more prompting to know precisely which day Joe was referring to. “Me too. We were all worked up. She shouldn’t have climbed into the pen with that horse when it wasn’t broke.”

“She didn’t do it until she was sure we’d both see. That’s what made me so damn mad. But I’m not sorry for turnin’ her over my knee.”

“She cried.”

“But she was hot for it.” The men shared a glance, and Joe looked away first, his lips twitching. “You thinkin’ she wanted some more of that today?”

Cam rubbed the back of his neck. “It was the way she said it. About one of us scrubbin’ her back. Like she knows we’d both be there in a heartbeat.”

“She’s yankin’ our chain. She wants us to pant after her, but if we did, she’d slam that door in our faces so quick she’d break both our noses.”

“I don’t know,” Cam said slowly. “Like I said, somethin’s different. She had this look on her face when she sent you off for a washcloth, like she was wound tight, waitin’ for somethin’ to happen.”

“No one’s around but us. If she wants somethin’, she’s gonna have to be a helluva lot more specific. Her dad’s been good to us. I wouldn’t wanna spoil things just ’cause my dick’s happy she might want some.”

Cam sighed. “Guess she is out of our league.”

“Last thing she’d want on a full-time basis is some dusty cowboy. And even as pretty as she is, I don’t want a one-night stand. Not with her.”

Cam grunted. “Who’s talkin’ about you? She didn’t name names when she invited us to her shower.”

“Ya think, maybe…?” Joe shook his head. “I better call it a night. I’m thinkin’ crazy thoughts now.”

“Is it really that crazy?” Cam asked, unwilling to let the conversation drop. “She sparks like a wildfire every time you’re around, but I’d bet my paycheck she’d have let me watch if you’d rubbed her pussy.”

Joe’s gaze met his again, this time narrowed and calculating. “You’re the one she likes to talk to. Goes all soft whenever she looks at you. Maybe she’s into you and I just piss her off.”

“I don’t think so. Two Mule’s a small town. Think she’s been hearin’ rumors about threesomes and thinks she wants to try one of her own?”

A sparkle lit Joe’s gaze. “There’s only one way to find out.”

“Whatcha got in mind?”

“Let’s seed a cloud,” he said, a wicked grin stretching his mouth. “See if we get wet.”

Chapter Three

The sound of water rushing through pipes in a steady stream filled Stormy’s mind with images of tanned backs and buttocks, soapy rivulets sweeping down rock-hard chests and abs and large, work-roughened hands stroking turgid flesh.

She tossed back the covers and walked to the window, inching aside the curtains to peer outside. The rest of the hands had retired to their quarters on the far side of the barn. When Cam had assumed the foreman’s role, he’d moved into the main house. Her father had invited Joe along too, seeing as how the two were best friends and worked well as a team. He loved and respected both young men. Besides, she was sure he’d been lonely in the big house after she’d left for college.

And here his daughter was, lusting after his hired hands. Would he be disappointed? He hadn’t been crazy about her last boyfriend, and Derik had had the perfect pedigree. But her father wasn’t from money. He had no airs about him and didn’t tolerate them from anyone. She thought he liked the fact Cam and Joe treated him like a father, and that they didn’t hold him in awe.

She was pretty sure if she chose one of them her father wouldn’t mind so much. He’d like to see her settled. Somewhere safe with a man he knew and respected. He’d like grandkids to spoil since he’d already ruined her. Stormy never minded when he said that because he always added that a woman was meant to be spoiled.

Her mother had certainly lived like a queen.

She let the curtain drop and turned from the view outside to let her gaze roam her room. Her mom had helped her decorate after she’d become a teenager. Told her she wasn’t a child anymore and had let her loose, with supervision, to explore her own likes and desires. The cream and cloudy-blue palette, dark, heavy wood and hints of deep, passionate red still soothed her restless spirit. She picked up the unicorn figurine on her dresser, the one piece she’d kept from the attic where she’d stored her childhood treasures because her mom had given it to her.

She still missed her. Every day. Every room still felt infused with Priss Jordan’s warmth. Maybe that was why her dad was gone so much these days. And why he’d made the hard decision to let the ranch go, a decision that had fueled her last-minute whim to come here now.

“Lord, Mama, what must you be thinkin’ about me now?”

Her mama had been quick to laugh, even faster to hug. She’d expected her daughter to act like a lady. But Stormy wasn’t a little girl anymore. And she was running out of options. Her daddy had been leaning closer and closer to selling the ranch, and in fact had found a buyer, which would maroon her from the only home she’d ever known. She’d never tell her daddy not to, she understood why he needed to let go, but she had unfinished business. Too bad she’d let so much time pass, all those years of college where she’d only come home three or four times a year for an odd weekend. She’d been drifting, putting space between herself and temptation—actually, two completely different temptations.

No more stalling. She glanced in the mirror over the dresser. She’d dressed in a tank and Lycra boy shorts. Not too provocative, except that her body wasn’t slender and boyish anymore. She bent at the waist and shook her hair, then straightened and flipped it back. She looked tousled and her face was free of makeup. She wasn’t overstating her intent.

Stiffening her back, she walked to the door and then strode down the corridor toward the kitchen. If she waited there long enough, someone would want a late-night snack.

Joe struggled to pull blue jeans over wet skin and then quickly toweled his hair. He’d heard a door open. And was pretty sure it had been hers.

A chance to catch Stormy alone was too much temptation to ignore. He opened his bedroom door a crack, checked up and down the hallway and then slid out, walking barefoot, following the sounds of cabinet doors opening and closing.

Only when he stepped into the kitchen, Stormy wasn’t alone. Cam stood with his butt against the counter, wearing a faded T-shirt and Wranglers, watching Stormy, barely dressed, reach high into a cabinet for the peanut butter.

The stretch exposed her midriff. And Cam’s gaze trailed the bared skin, his expression hardening.

Well, damn. “Gonna fix me one too?”

Her hand dropped and her heels met the floor before she turned to aim a glare his way. “I changed my mind. I want a drink.”

Joe waggled his eyebrows. “Are you hungry? Cam here won’t mind fixin’ you something. Eliana always leaves leftovers in the fridge. Bet he could make you a roast beef sandwich.”

“I already told you. I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Could have fooled me,” he murmured, his glance trailing over her chest. Her nipples were hard little beads against the white tank she wore. Had she forgotten to wear a bra? Or had she done it on purpose?

Joe strode to the refrigerator beside her and opened it. He reached for a beer from the bottles lined up in the door. He handed one to Cam, twisted off a cap and handed another to Stormy, then snagged one for himself.

Cam gave him a glare but gentled his expression when he turned back to Stormy. “You didn’t call before you came. Seems like this trip was rushed. Why don’t you tell us what really brought you here, sweetheart?”

Joe nearly groaned at Cam’s direct approach. Stormy would shut down faster than a burger joint at midnight if dared to tell the truth without a little persuasion.

Stormy shrugged, a pout pushing out her lower lip. “I graduated a month ago. I’m considerin’ my options. Maybe I just needed a break to think.”

“The ranch is a long way from Austin,” Cam said softly. “What’s this really about?”

Stormy’s mouth dropped open and then snapped closed again. Her gaze narrowed.

Joe knew from that look that she was getting ready to let lose some smartass comment—out of habit—to protect her pride. But Joe didn’t want her to keep her armor in place or tell them a lie. She needed a little push. Something to cloud her mind before she thought of another lame excuse. He was pretty damn sure he knew exactly why she’d run straight to the ranch.

He leaned toward her, crowding her against the counter. He set his beer aside, plucked hers from her nerveless fingers and then bracketed her slender body as he clenched the edge of the counter. “I promise if you tell the truth, you might get what you’re after,” he drawled.

She swallowed hard, her gaze widening, clinging to his.

He slid a thigh between her bare legs. They clamped around him. But to keep him from raising it higher or to hold him there? He couldn’t tell.

Her lips parted and her breaths shortened.

“Am I botherin’ you?”

She swallowed hard and flashed him a glare. “When don’t you bother me, cowboy?”

Since she hadn’t shoved him away, he pressed harder, bending his neck so his face hovered over hers. She clenched her thighs tighter around his knee. “Disappointed I didn’t punish you on the spot when you ground your heel into my hand?”

She hesitated and then tossed back her silky hair. “I did wonder why you held back,” she said, sounding a little out of breath. “You’re always quick to jump down my throat.”

“Oh, I wanna come down your throat all right.”