The Triple Threat (Love In Dayton Valley Book 1)

by Nikki Ashton

  “How will you get home?” I asked standing with him.

  “Not sure. I’ll try an Uber and hope someone is working tonight.”

  I looked up at the stars and knew I’d probably regret it, but I couldn’t see him struggle to get home when his dad needed him.

  “I’ll take you. I’ve barely had anything to drink and I have my car here.”

  Hunter ruffled his hair. “You sure?”

  “Yeah, come on. Let’s get you home. We’ll just slip out through the side gate, otherwise if we walk through that lot, you’ll get sidetracked with Mindy Larkins nipples.”

  He nodded in agreement, which kind of pissed me off, and then led the way. As I followed him through the yard, I couldn’t help but ogle his ass and feel jealous of the horse he rode every damn day.

  Hunter

  I hadn’t expected to be riding in Ellie’s car so soon after our last disastrous journey. Being honest, this trip managed to be even more uncomfortable than the last—my fucking dick refused to go down.

  Ellie not only looked spectacular, but I could still feel her soft, plump lips on mine. As for her tits, shit they were like two perky, comfy pillows. If my phone hadn’t rung out, I wouldn’t like to say where we might have ended up. In my head it was my bed, shit, any bed, but I was pretty sure Ellie would have put a stop to that. She seemed sober and thinking straight, whereas I had a little buzz and thought; ‘I can’t wait to be balls deep inside of you.’

  Glancing at her as she concentrated on the road, with her glasses on this time. I half expected her to tell me that she fucking hated me, and that the kiss should never have happened. She stayed silent though, except for humming along to Yellow Hearts by Ant Saunders, which weirdly reminded me of her.

  “No singing tonight?”

  She gave a little grunt. “Not after you were so rude about my voice, no.”

  I grinned but decided to keep it at that. If she flung a hand in my direction, she’d be likely to catch my dick that thankfully had started to stand at ease. Well that was until she shifted in her seat and gave me a bit more leg to look at.

  Fuck, they were tanned, smooth and toned. The thought that they led up to white lace panties just added to my dick’s excitement and had him at full attention once again. She sure was beautiful. How could I only now be just noticing? Damn, I must have been walking around with my eyes closed for years. Not only hadn’t it registered with me how hot she was, but I hadn’t even known about the cow thing, and I’d known her all her life. I really was self-absorbed dick.

  “You can drop me at the top of the track if you like,” I offered, pulling at the loose fabric of my shorts as my thoughts helped junior deflate a little. “I can run from here.”

  Ellie waved me away. “It’s fine. Those things will be in their shed thing, won’t they?” Her head shot around and she looked at me panic stricken. “They will, won’t they?”

  “Yeah.” I laughed. “They will. So, what made you so scared of them? And why did your brother never tell me?” I asked, determined to pay more attention in the future.

  “That’ll be because he’s a weasel.” She shrugged. “I remember being about three or four and Dad brought me with him to see your dad and I ended up screaming the rooks from the trees. Dad couldn’t get me to stop and Mom was convinced he’d smacked my butt or something. I couldn’t stop crying to tell her he hadn’t, but just kept making a mooing noise.”

  I leaned my head back against the rest. “How come I don’t remember that?”

  “You’d gone to Dallas with your mom and Carter to see Disney on Ice.” She snorted and indicated to turn onto the track that led up to our property.

  “I fucking did not,” I protested. “You liar.”

  “I’m not lying,” she said, her tone matter of fact. “Carter had a thing for Aurora, and you were madly in love with Belle. On your eighth birthday you told our moms that you’d marry her one day.”

  “Fuck off.” I snorted out a laugh. “No way I said that when I was eight.”

  “Oh yes you did. And you must have had it bad, because you’d carried that torch for her for two years.”

  She had a smirk twitching her lips, which still looked kiss swollen to me. I really wanted to lean over the console and take her mouth again. Unfortunately, we had the argument over a Disney Princess to finish.

  “You’re such a liar.”

  “I’m honestly not,” she retorted. “I can’t believe you’ve forgotten it.”

  “I was obviously so traumatized I wiped it clean from my brain. I’m still going to check with Carter though.”

  Ellie shrugged and giggled. “Whatever, but he’ll tell you I’m being honest. He still has the brochure that you both bought. I think he still likes to throw one out over the picture of Aurora doing a spiral.”

  I eyed her warily, not at all sure whether she was telling the truth or not, but damn sure my best friend would be getting a call in the morning. As we fell into silence, with me contemplating that Ellie looked a little like Belle—something else, like a tool, I’d failed to notice before—we pulled up outside the house. As soon as we had, the door was flung open and my two aunts came rushing out. Auntie J holding a thick checkered shearling jacket and Auntie L a pair of jeans and boots.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re back.” Auntie L was breathless as she ran down the porch steps. “Your pop is really struggling.”

  “Has he called Lance?” I asked, toeing off my sneakers and pulling the jeans on.

  Lance was Carter’s boss at the veterinarian clinic, and as grouchy as a bear with a boil on its ass, but he was a damn good vet. There was no secret he was going to hand everything over to Carter when he finally retired, despite the fact that at twenty-six Carter had only been qualified a couple of years – the clever bastard had fast-tracked his last year at Veterinary School. However, Lance was currently making my best friend wait by still working, even though he was almost seventy.

  “Yes, but he’s doing an emergency operation on Muriel Steiner’s dog, Booboo because he’s swallowed a pair of her pantyhose.” Aunt J offered me the jacket as I pushed my feet into the boots. “You might be out there a while,” she added when she saw me roll my eyes.

  Zipping up the jeans, I looked over to Ellie who’d rolled her car window down.

  “Thanks for the lift, Ellie. Appreciate it.”

  “No problem. Hope you manage to save the…” she shuddered. “The thing and its baby.”

  God she was cute.

  Fuck. What the hell was going on in my head at the minute?

  “Oh, Ellie, honey,” Auntie J said, walking up to the car and laying a hand on Ellie’s arm. “You can’t ride back to the party without something warm to drink. Come on in and we’ll make you some cocoa.”

  “Oh, I’m not going back to the party,” she replied. “I’m going to get home and have an early night.”

  I looked at my watch; only just gone nine. It seemed like hours since I’d scared the shit out of her and then kissed the shit out of her.

  “Now you know your momma and daddy will be fooling around,” Auntie L added, sidling up next to her twin. “You don’t want to walk in on that, do you? No, you do as Janice-Ann says, come inside and let us make you some cocoa.”

  Lynn-Ann peered inside the car and then pulled back out, her eyes blinking rapidly.

  “I mean, you’re practically naked. You must be perished child.”

  And at the thought of Ellie naked, my dick jumped again, making me curse under my breath. It had to damn well stop. I’d known her for years, why was I suddenly getting all hot and bothered by her? It had to be the alcohol. Oh, and maybe the way she wore that tiny little cheerleader outfit with sass and style.

  “You should stay, El,” I said with a deep sigh. “They won’t give up until you say yes.”

  Ellie shot me a glare, but when her lips twitched, I knew she wasn’t really mad.

  “Okay, a cocoa would be nice, Auntie L.”

  Janice-Ann c
lapped her hands like Ellie had just told her George Clooney was coming to stay—yeah, my aunts had a bit of a thing for George—and pulled open the car door while Ellie turned the engine off.

  I watched a long, tanned leg appear and held my breath.

  “You shoo,” Auntie J said, waving her hands at me. “Go and help your pop before he busts a blood vessel.”

  With one last look at Ellie’s ass swinging in her skirt, I rushed off to help Pop, hoping that some physical work might just calm my testosterone down.

  After three hours and a lot of cussing, pushing and pulling we had a new cow to add to the herd. She was a big girl which was why the mother had struggled, but she battled to the end and finally birthed her calf. Thank God, both were fine, although we had one very tired momma.

  When Pop and I rounded the corner back to the house, Ellie’s car still sat outside surprised me.

  “Ellie stayed.” Pop scrubbed a hand down his stubble, but his voice seemed to lift a little with excitement.

  “Please tell me you’re not interested in her.”

  My heart must have been beating fast because I was so tired, and the sickness in my belly was definitely due to the beers I’d had and then all the hard work of delivering the calf. It had to be, right?

  Pop burst out laughing. “Jeez son, she’s young enough to be my daughter.”

  I let out a long breath and made a mental note to let Ellie know that we probably didn’t need to go ahead with ‘Operation Bronte’, not if that was Pop’s view.

  “I was thinking of you,” he said, nudging me.

  “Me?”

  When I stopped in my tracks, Pop carried on walking toward the house and chuckled to himself.

  “Pop, what did you mean, you were thinking of me?”

  “Use your brain, son,” he called and without breaking step beckoned me toward the house over his shoulder. “C’mon let’s get inside, I need a hot drink and my bed.”

  Frowning I followed him up the steps and into the house, almost barreling into his back.

  “What the he—”

  “Shush,” he whispered, putting his index finger to his lips and nodding toward the couch.

  I looked over his shoulder to see Ellie curled up with one of my hoodies on. It was so big it covered her thighs and almost reached her feet with the short, white socks on. One hand was under her cheek, while the other was clutching the loose fabric of the top.

  “She looks like an angel,” Pop said quietly. “Kinda reminds me of your mom when she was that age.”

  When I looked down at Ellie, she stirred and rubbed her nose. Pop was right she did look like an angel.

  “I’m going to get me a glass of milk and then go up to bed. Tell Ellie she can stay in the spare room if she wants.”

  Pop slapped my back and left me to it. With my hands on my hips, I looked down at her, wondering whether to wake her, or just cover her with the knitted blanket my aunts had made one winter. It lay over the back of Pop’s chair and more often than not after a long day, I ended up covering him with it after he fell asleep in front of the TV; or I had until he’d started his lady killing ways.

  I was still in two minds what to do when Ellie turned over, and as she did she showed me a good deal of a white lacy ass. Then the said white lacy ass let out a toot like a quick blast of a trumpet. It was so loud she jostled and sat bolt upright.

  “What was that?” she gasped, one eye open and one still closed with sleep.

  My laughter busted to burst out, but I reckoned she might be embarrassed. But, damn it was funny.

  “Oh my God, El,” I gasped, grinning. “You just passed enough gas to light your mom’s double oven.”

  She sat up straight, totally affronted. “I did not. I don’t do that.”

  “Sorry to disappoint, cutie pie, but you really did.”

  My laugh echoed loud until I heard Pop’s footsteps on the stairs. I quickly toned it down to a quiet chuckle.

  “You’re such a liar.” Ellie narrowed her eyes at me and dropped her legs to the floor and stood up.

  Disappointingly my hoodie dropped right down over the cute short skirt and her thighs, but I was not disappointed to see that even through the thick fabric, her nipples were hard.

  “I should go,” Ellie said, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “Your aunts must have put something in the cocoa because that’s the best sleep I’ve had in ages.”

  “Pop said you can stay in the spare room,” I replied trying not to ogle her too much as she stretched her arms and pushed her rack out. “It’s a forty-minute drive back home and it’s gone midnight.”

  Ellie hesitated for a few seconds, obviously thinking about it, but then shook her head.

  “I’d better go. I have an early start in the morning.”

  “You working?” I asked.

  “Nope, but I need to be up early to come up with a plan.” She padded toward the door and picked up her sneakers and pushed her feet inside of them.

  “Hey about that, I really don’t think we have much to worry about. Pop said something that made me think he’d never be interested in Bronte.”

  “What?” she asked, with a little shrug of her shoulder.

  What the fuck did I say? ’I thought he might be interested in you and it made me green with jealousy, so I called him out on it, and he told me you were young enough to be his daughter’ – fuck no.

  “Just that he’d never be interested in anyone under thirty.” A lie, but I didn’t plan on telling her the truth.

  “Well, that won’t stop Bronte. Anyway, that’s not what I’m planning.” She reached for the door handle and pulled it down. “I’m going to be planning on how I can kill Carter and get off scot free. That douche isn’t getting away with his little joke from tonight. In fact, my plan may not include murder, but will definitely include mutilation, his balls and possibly an eggplant.”

  She gave me an evil grin which made me shudder.

  “Okay, I’d better go.” She opened the door, allowing the cool breeze inside.

  “If you won’t stay, at least text me when you get home.”

  Ellie rolled her eyes. “Hunter, I’ll be perfectly safe. Just like I am when I travel home from the hospital after a late shift; I don’t text you then.”

  “I just feel responsible, okay? So, do me a solid and send the damn text, El.”

  “Okay, okay, but don’t blame me if it wakes you from your beauty sleep.”

  “I might not be asleep.” If I carried on thinking about her legs and those panties, I’d likely be whacking one off.

  “Hunter, you look like shit. You’re dead on your feet. You’ll be asleep.”

  I followed her down the porch steps to her car and when she got inside, I wondered whether we should maybe talk about that kiss. Problem was she was back to being sassy Ellie, soft, kissy Ellie had well and truly up and left the building.

  Ah fuck it.

  “Hey,” I said as she turned the engine over. “About earlier—”

  “No need,” she said, stopping me with a hand up, palm toward me. “Forget it.”

  “Forget it?” Shit I felt kind of rejected, if not a little hurt.

  “Yeah,” she said, pulling slowly away. “Carter is the one to blame and he’ll pay don’t worry.”

  With a wave of her hand she was gone, driving off up the track leaving me feeling a little disjointed.

  When I got into my bed fifty minutes later, after as expected, whacking off in the shower with images of Ellie in my head, my phone buzzed on the nightstand.

  Ellie: I’m home. Don’t tell the Sherriff but I broke the speed limit. Now tucked up in bed. See ya soon x p.s. thanks for the hoody. I may just keep it

  And that was it, images of her tucked up in bed in a tiny pair of sleep shorts and maybe my hoody, had me hard again.

  “What the fuck?” I groaned and rolled over forcing images of Ellie right out of my head, because it was something that could never happen, no matter how hot she was

&nb
sp; Ellie

  Well, that was weird.

  That was my first thought when I woke up. I wasn’t sure whether the kiss with Hunter had really happened, or it’d been some sort of psychotic episode I’d had after seeing him dressed as one of those awful things.

  Shaking my head and then rubbing my eyes for good measure, I realized it was indeed true. I’d kissed Hunter Delaney and boy had it been good. Okay, so he’d been slightly inebriated, and I hadn’t, but this made me even more stupid. Hunter though, well he seemed to kind of like it too, if the hard on in his shorts all the way home was anything to go by.

  I’d always thought him hot, always wondered, but now, all of a sudden, thoughts of me underneath Hunter, or even on top of Hunter, were increasing. Not only were they increasing but they were getting hotter too. The lilac colored dildo wrapped up in my duvet was testament to that. Don’t judge me, don’t all girls enjoy a little me time and then have another forty winks when they have nothing to get out of bed for on a Sunday morning?

  Looking at my phone, I saw it was almost ten and I’d slept in a lot longer than I’d planned. I’d been telling the truth when I’d told Hunter I needed to plan Carter’s demise; I needed to come up with something good. What though, I had no clue. We were too old to be still playing tricks on one another, so I’d be the better person and chalk it down to his douchery. Anyhow, planning to get him and Bronte together was giving me enough of a headache.

  The idea of it had made me feel a little squeamish when I’d woken during the night. Why on earth would I want to land my best friend in the whole world, with my donkey head of a brother? Maybe there was someone else I could fix Bronte up with. The conclusion I’d quickly come to was that there wasn’t. Bronte liked a challenge and none of the other men in our town, or the next three towns along would be a challenge – they’d all give their right nut to spend a night with Bronte Jackson, she was that beautiful.

  It had struck me that maybe Hunter would be a good option instead, but two things made that a no go. One, if they did get together, she’d see Jefferson all the time and her crush could start up again at any time. Two, the idea of the two of them together made me even more squeamish than her with Carter; so, Carter it was.