The Claiming of Sasha [Panther Cove 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (19 page)

She hesitated as if she wanted to tell him she loved him. “I, um, really miss you.”

“Me, too. Gotta go.” He disconnected before his voice cracked.

Trace and he would have to do some serious thinking about how they were going to handle this situation. First, he needed a copy of the bills Chuck paid during their absence so Danny could reconcile the accounts. For that, he wanted to speak with him in person. Even though his parents’ house was a mile away, he decided to walk, thinking the cold air would calm him down.

When he entered the house, his mother’s wonderful cooking permeated as far as the living room. Not in the mood to be social, he headed toward the stairs to Chuck’s room but then spotted him in the home theater room playing a game.

“Hey, Chuck?” It took a lot of work to keep the edge off his voice.

Chuck held up a hand. “Give me a sec.”

Danny was the first to say he loved playing video games, but since they hadn’t seen each other in close to two weeks he would have thought the greeting would have been better. When Chuck played for another three minutes with no sign of stopping, Danny walked in front of the screen.

“Hey, move, man.”

“Hey, shut the TV off,
man
.”

Chuck pressed pause. “What’s your problem?”

Normally, Chuck wasn’t such a dick. “My problem is the spreadsheet you sent me. It makes no sense. Did you pay any bills?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think they were due for a while.”

Danny grabbed the remote out of Chuck’s hands, and his brother shot to his feet. “Sit down.”

Trace was the hothead, not Danny, but right now nothing mattered but getting back to Sasha.

Chuck sat down. “What is your fucking problem?”

“My
fucking
problem is that you and Sam didn’t do shit on the ranch while we were gone.” He wanted to state his peace. “What would happen if Trace and I moved to another state?”

Chuck crossed his arms. “You never would leave here.”

“We plan to. That means it would be up to you and Sam to run this place.”

“What would you do? This ranch is all you know.”

He didn’t want to discuss The Shield or anything about Panther Cove. “We found a woman we want to spend the rest of our life with.” Only because of this trip did he learn his life would be a very long one.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

Chuck propped his feet up on the coffee table. “I never thought Sam and I had a chance of being in charge. Mom and Dad assumed you two would always be here.”

“They thought wrong. I want you to think about your future.”

At the moment he wasn’t in the mood to listen to Chuck give excuses. He tossed Chuck back the remote, spun around, and walked out. He needed a plan if he had any hope of ever getting out of Texas.

“How long has it been since your men have been gone?” Tanya twirled her coffee cup in her hands.

“Two weeks.”

“That’s not long.”

Sasha laughed. “It is when what we had was so fantastic. I dream about them every night. I dream about them standing me up and never coming back. I’m a total mess.” She guzzled her coffee that she’d laced with cream and sugar.

Tanya’s good friend was manning the store, and Tanya had agreed to come over to the Drinking Emporium for a pick-me-up. Sasha had put the
Closed
sign on the door, not caring much about anything. Depression sucked.

“What do they say about when they can return?”

“Trace will barely talk on the phone, and Danny keeps apologizing. All he says is that Trace won’t leave until they can find someone to run the ranch properly.”

“When will that be?”

She shrugged.

“Well, at least you have men who want you.”

That stung. She had been whining a lot. Poor Tanya didn’t seem to have many prospects. Sasha had fixed her up with a few of the human men she knew, but so far, nothing worked. It was really Tanya’s fault. She was beautiful, but she thought she was too fat. Lingerie models were obscenely thin, and Tanya spent a large part of her day looking through catalogues for stuff to buy. It could give a girl a complex. Someday, the right man or men would come along.

The problem was that Tanya wanted to dominate her man. The only men she knew who could even handle someone so strong willed were shifters. Would her friend be open to being with someone not her kind?

Tanya pushed back her chair. “You need to come with me.”

“Where?”

“Just come.”

The thought of an adventure perked her up. When Tanya turned right out of the coffee shop, Sasha figured they were going to Tanya’s store.

“I think you should assume the men will come back. They love you, right?”

Sasha inhaled. “I thought they did.”

“Don’t doubt it for a minute. From what you described, these men will never find anyone as good as you.”

That was true. She was their mate—their one and only one mate. “I agree.”

“When they do return, you’ll need something really special for them.”

She wasn’t following. “Like what?”

“I remember your hunk coming in the store. He bought a paddle, a spreader, some rope, a—”

“Shh. You’re not supposed to know who they were or remember what they bought.”

Tanya laughed. “We don’t get too many cowboys through town. Especially not ones who are polite and are as gorgeous as yours.”

“That was Trace.”

“Nice name.” When they entered her store, she gave Georgiana a hug, asked her to wait another few minutes, and then dragged Sasha to the naughty section. “You like to get your ass hot?”

Sasha’s face heated up. “Shh.”

“What? This is a sex store. We’re supposed to talk about sex.”

She guessed that was probably true. “Okay. Then yes. Trace used a paddle, and I loved it.”

“Do you like to be constrained?”

“More than anything.”

“Then I have just the things for you. When your men come back, you should have a room ready to explore their dominant side.”

Just listening to Tanya describe some of the items had Sasha’s pussy dripping. She had two rooms in the house she never used. It would be fun to outfit one with a spanking bench and now a swing that she could attach to the ceiling. She liked the idea of having wrist cuffs attached to the floor, too. They definitely had possibilities.

Sasha picked up the flogger and waved it. “Have you tried this?” While she’d gotten to know Tanya, they mostly talked about their businesses and what they could do to make them more successful.

“Oh, honey, I’ve tried most of the merchandise.” She leaned closer. “I’ll let you in on a little secret now that I know how much you like being a submissive. My fetish is providing the pain.”

“Really? Like you spank the men?” She knew Tanya liked to dominate, but she was unaware of the extent of her kink.

“I do a lot more than spank them, honey. I’m a great whip-cracker.”

Sasha laughed in part because she didn’t know how else to respond. “I tried to cuff Trace once, and he wouldn’t have any part of it. How do you get your men to want to be subservient?”

In all honestly, she loved a dominant man. To have someone take care of her was the best feeling in the world. She did understand there had to be complete trust between them or it would never work.

“The men I date like to be ridden and spanked. It gets them off.”

As far as Sasha knew, Tanya didn’t have a steady boyfriend. “How’s that working for you?”

“Honestly? Not as well as I’d hoped. I think the men who like to serve or who are into role-playing get bored easily. I don’t know. So far I haven’t clicked with any of them.” She chuckled. “Or maybe I was too rough. Someday, I’ll find Mr. Right or rather Mr. Rights.” She winked, but Sasha could tell she did so to avoid her chin from trembling harder.

“Come on then. Show me more.” She wrapped an arm around Tanya who led them into a back room.

* * * *

Two weeks was too long to be away from Sasha. Trace wanted her in every way imaginable, but he couldn’t leave Texas. He’d tried to talk to Danny about why he had to stay, but his brother wanted nothing to do with remaining here.

“The best thing for Sam and Chuck is for us to leave.” Danny waved his hands.

“You know what will happen.” His stomach soured thinking about the new colt. If the ranch didn’t have someone to breed horses, there wouldn’t be enough money for the upkeep.

“Yes. The animals will suffer, the bills won’t get paid, and then Dad will have to go back to running everything.”

Their father had a heart attack two years ago, and he didn’t need another. “What Sam and Chuck need is a reality check, but that isn’t going to happen.”

“We need to talk with them.”

“And tell them what?” They’d been through this conversation.

Danny pulled up the kitchen chair and sat. “Tell me why you feel the need to give up your life to live here.” He waved his hand as if to erase a board. “I know you love animals, but you can breed horses in Delight.”

“I, or rather, we have a debt to our parents for adopting us.”

Danny leaned back. “When will that debt be paid off? In twenty-five years? When Mom and Dad die?”

“I never put a time on it.”

“Let me ask you this. Did you feel good about yourself in Delight?”

That was a no-brainer. “Yes. It was the first time I thought maybe I could contribute to something bigger than the family.”

Danny slapped the table. “Exactly. We can help the American people. You always said you wanted to enlist.”

“I know. I did, but I knew if I left here, that would put a burden on everyone.”

“How about if we talk to Sam and Chuck together and see if we can make them understand that with a little effort they can be the ones in charge.”

Trace shook his head. “We tried that, and it got us nowhere.”

“We’ll do it together.”

He had some chores to do right now. “Tonight, we’ll stop over after dinner.”

“Works for me.”

Trace headed out and decided to bring a pad of paper with him and write down everything he did during the day. That way, the running of the ranch might not seem so daunting to the Sanders’ sons.

The sky had turned dark before he’d finished with his chores. He headed back home and showered. When he came out, Danny had dinner on the table. If his brother ever decided to go back to Delight without him, he sure was going to miss everything they had.

“Eat up. I called Mom, and she said Sam and Chuck would be home. The problem is they invited some of their friends over.”

“Shit.”

“We can make nice and then talk with them.”

Trace dug in to the meal and groaned. “This is really good.”

Danny laughed. “You’re just hungry.”

That was true. As soon as they finished eating, he placed his dishes in the sink. He had his list of items that needed to be done to run the place. “Let’s go.”

When they knocked on their parents’ front door and went in, his mom was finishing clearing the dishes. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “We want to talk with the boys.”

“If you call them boys, how do you expect them to act like men?”

Trace grinned. His mom always did understand people better than he did. “You’re right.”

“I know. Mothers are always right. Never forget that.”

He laughed. “Your grown-up sons in the den?”

“They are, but play nice.” She glanced over at Danny. “Chuck said you were a little rough on him today.”

He waited for Danny to go off, but he smiled. “We’re good.”

When he and Danny got to the den, the two others were in uniform. His insides cracked. Sam and Chuck acted like nothing had happened and introduced their friends.

While he wanted to speak with his brothers, Trace was more interested to learn where the men would be stationed and what their goals were.

“We feel we can serve our country the best if we try for Special Forces.”

That was a tough road. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Once the group got talking some of his anger disappeared. As he sat and watched these young men dedicate their lives to the cause, he realized that’s what he needed to do, too. Enlisting wouldn’t be his thing, but serving in a different capacity could be just as valuable.

By the time he and Danny said their good-byes, he knew what he had to do. As soon as they climbed into the car, Danny faced him. “I thought you wanted to bring up some things with Sam and Danny.”

“I’m working on it.” He turned on the engine and set the heat to high. “When I saw those two friends, my mind started to think. What if we found a way that would allow Dad to remain retired and have the ranch run as well as we can run it without us being here?”