by Paige Warren
Grizzly Pines
Mastering Elodie
Elodie Mitchell has struggled her whole life, not only with her weight but also with feelings of being a misfit in the only home she’s ever known. She may not have ever been with a man, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t dreamed about it. When Beau and Beck Davidson enter her life, she thinks they’re too good to be true. Then she finds out there aren’t two brothers—there are three! What’s a woman to do with all of that hard, muscular, sun-kissed flesh just beckoning to be stroked? Try everything she’s ever read about!
But things are not all sunshine and roses in Elodie’s life. As she learns to explore her sexuality with the brothers, there’s a darkness hanging over her. She’s survived so much already, but there is more yet to come. Will the brothers be able to save her in time, or will they lose the only woman they’ve ever loved?
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Rubenesque, Western/Cowboys
Length: 64,656 words
MASTERING ELODIE
Grizzly Pines
Paige Warren
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
MASTERING ELODIE
Copyright © 2014 by Paige Warren
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-934-5
First E-book Publication: July 2014
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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DEDICATION
First, I would like to dedicate this book to my husband, who always supports me no matter the challenge. He’s my rock!
But there are a few ladies without whom Elodie would not have been possible. Deb, Tiff, Ilse and Tomi – thank you for your words of encouragement and your support! You ladies are amazing and I couldn’t have done this without you!
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
About the Author
MASTERING ELODIE
Grizzly Pines 1
PAIGE WARREN
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
Elodie Mitchell cursed her rotten luck. If she believed in God, she’d think He had it out for her. First, the refrigerator had gone out, ruining the groceries she’d just bought with the last of her money. Then the light in her bedroom had blown out, and she was out of bulbs. You’d think that would be bad enough, but, no, obviously not. She stared at the paper in her hand, the red stamp glaring at her. Eviction Notice. She had one week to pay the rent she owed, or she would be out on the street. Where was she going to come up with eight hundred dollars in one week? She didn’t make much more than that in a whole month! So much for a thirty-day notice.
She pressed the phone closer to her ear.
“Eight hundred dollars?” She snorted. “Might as well be eight thousand. How do they expect people to survive in this economy?”
“You can do so much more with your life than work at that stupid diner,” her somewhat friend, Jasmine, said. “When are you going to get off your ass and go look for an office job? Something cushy with decent pay and benefits?”
She’d made friends with Jasmine Archer in the first grade, but her friend had moved away two years later. They’d kept in touch via phone, but seldom talked these days. Elodie felt more alone than she ever had, as she realized that she really didn’t have any friends or family in her life.
“I’ll get around to it, Jas.”
She looked around the tiny apartment and sighed. On the plus side, she’d rented the place furnished, so she didn’t have to worry about moving anything heavy. She had just enough clothes to fill a suitcase, and enough odds and ends for maybe two or three boxes. Everything she owned would fit into the trunk of her car. How sad was that? She’d never had much though. She couldn’t miss what she’d never had. At least, that’s what she told herself. It didn’t stop her from wondering though.
“Pathetic. That’s what it is. My life is pathetic. A joke, really.”
“Elodie, you’re life is not a joke! Don’t talk like that. You sound so…I don’t know. Defeated.”
“I feel defeated, Jas. Where am I supposed to come up with that kind of money in such a short amount of time?”
“You’ll think of something. You always do. Listen, I have to run, but call me if you need to talk. Okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll ring you sometime later in the week. If you don’t hear from me, it means life overwhelmed me. Or I ran out of minutes on
my phone. I’ll be in touch sooner or later though.”
“Chin up, El. Things will turn around. You’ll see.”
Elodie refrained from rolling her eyes at her chipper friend and ended the call.
Setting the paper down on the kitchen counter, she checked on the ramen noodles cooking on the stove. This would be the fifth day she’d had them for dinner, but she couldn’t be picky. The way she looked at it was that she had food to eat. Things could be worse. If she hadn’t picked up a bunch of the cheap fare when she went shopping, she’d be stuck with peanut butter sandwiches for every lunch and dinner. At least she could mix things up a bit.
She tapped her fingers on the counter. What to do. She could always ask for another shift at the diner where she worked, but business had been sadly lacking these days. Her tips were few and far between. Everyone always asked to be seated in Carrie’s section, and she couldn’t really blame them. The young woman was every man’s wet dream. With her rounded figure, Elodie couldn’t compete. Hey, another thing to look forward to. Weight loss! She huffed. With her luck, she’d still manage to gain weight. At a size twenty-two, she was far from slim.
Elodie turned off the burner and stirred in the packet of seasoning before dumping the noodles into one of her last clean bowls. She really should get around to doing the dishes. And vacuuming. Maybe dusting a little. All right, she needed to clean the place from top to bottom, but dammit, she’d just been too tired. She knew it was from worrying so much. Her shift at the diner wasn’t any more taxing than it had been before things started falling apart around her.
“Come on, Elodie. Think! There has to be a way out of this,” she mumbled to herself.
Carrying her bowl to the rickety table in the middle of the kitchen, she sat on one of two remaining chairs. The other two had gone to chair heaven the month before. Not that these two were anything to brag about. The stuffing was pretty much gone in one and the vinyl was ripped on the other. The jagged tear in the seat scraped against the back of her thigh, pinching her a little. She winced and blew on a forkful of noodles before stuffing them in her mouth.
Her stomach rumbled, in appreciation or complaint of starvation she wasn’t sure. She’d been skipping breakfast in order to stretch out her food supplies and she’d missed lunch earlier because she’d spent her lunch hour trying to find a second job. No one was hiring, or at least no one had offered her a job. Whether that was because they really didn’t have work available for her or because she was the white trash from the wrong side of the tracks, she’d never know. Sometimes, living in a small town sucked.
She crammed the last bite of noodles into her mouth and carried her bowl to the sink, where she rinsed it and added it to the growing pile of dishes. Elodie pulled a glass out of the cupboard and filled it with water. She downed the contents and set the glass aside. Drumming her fingers on the countertop once more, she contemplated her options.
One thing was for certain, worrying about it wasn’t going to change anything. What she needed to do was relax. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed a bit of pampering. Maybe she’d take a hot bath, paint her nails, and curl up in bed with a good book. The only thing that would make the night better would be having a girls’ night out or having some hot, young stud in her bed. Maybe not too young. She didn’t think she was cut out to be a cougar.
She snickered to herself. Her? A cougar? “I suppose I’d have to go after the younger crowd to get a date in this town. They’re the only ones who don’t seem to have a problem with me.”
She began stripping off her clothes on the way to the bathroom. After tossing them in the overflowing hamper, she put the stopper in the tub and started the water. She was almost certain she still had some bubble bath and dug around under the sink to find it. When she located the bottle, she realized there was only a drop or two left, so she filled it halfway with water, shook the bottle then upended it into the tub. The scent of roses filled the room and she sighed in pleasure.
Elodie secured her hair with a ponytail holder then climbed into the porcelain tub, turned off the water and leaned back. At her size, she was rather cramped in the tiny tub, but the hot water was already working miracles. She felt her muscles begin to relax and she stretched her aching feet. She shifted and her lower back popped twice. God, what she would give for a massage! Being short of funds, and having no boyfriend, meant she was out of luck in that department. As if being single wasn’t bad enough, the batteries in her vibrator had died the other night and she couldn’t afford new ones. Now that was a crime! She could go without lights, she could make do without a fridge, but for her vibrator to die was just uncalled for.
Closing her eyes, she tried to quiet the noise in her head, shut everything off and just drift. It was easier said than done, but eventually she succeeded. Perhaps a little too well. The next time she opened her eyes, the water had turned cold and her fingers and toes were pruning. Pulling the plug, she rose from the water and grabbed the towel hanging by the door. She dried off quickly, hung the towel back up, and hurried into her bedroom. There was just enough of a chill in the air that her skin erupted in goose bumps and her nipples hardened. She pulled out her favorite pajamas and a comfortable pair of white cotton briefs. Elodie slipped on her clothes and climbed under the covers.
Her favorite book was on the nightstand, along with her book light. She clipped the light to the back of her novel and turned it on. Opening to the dog-eared page, she began to read. It didn’t take her long to get lost in the tale. In her mind, she saw herself as the heroine, a curvy spitfire who had not one but two men chasing after her. What would that be like? Elodie had never had men running after her, had only been on a few dates, but she could dream. She would give anything to experience that once in a lifetime kind of love. Hell, she’d settle for a good case of lust right about now.
The downside of living in a small town was that everyone knew you. It also meant that when certain families in town decided you weren’t worth a damn, everyone else believed it, too. It wasn’t her fault her deadbeat dad had run off and left them, or that her mom had fallen into a downward spiral that ended in a life of prostitution and drugs. Just because her parents had been screw-ups, it didn’t mean she was, too. Elodie had worked hard in school, had tried to make something of herself, but when she was seventeen her mom had passed away. Elodie hadn’t had a choice but to go to work, either that or go into foster care. She’d managed to get a job at the diner and made just enough for her small apartment and the essentials.
She hadn’t expected to still be working at the diner ten years later, or that she’d still be living in the same rundown apartment. Things hadn’t turned out quite the way she’d hoped all those years ago. Before her mom’s death, she’d had big plans. She was going to graduate high school and put herself through college, taking out loans and doing whatever she had to in order to succeed. She’d wanted to make something of herself.
Elodie knew there were ways for her to turn her life around. She could get her GED and attend the community college nearby. But somehow, she’d never had time for something like that. She knew she should have made time, but instead, she’d allowed herself to be pigeonholed as a waitress trying to make ends meet. She’d always told herself that one day she’d get out of this small town and change her life, but it had never happened. Now, she was twenty-seven and nearly homeless.
She turned off her book light and set the novel down on the nightstand. Drawing the covers up to her chin, she sighed and closed her eyes. She’d worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Surely things would look better after a good night’s sleep.
* * * *
At the diner the next morning, Elodie was stuffing the napkin holders when their first customers walked in. She hadn’t seen them around town before, and she certainly would’ve remembered such handsome men. She’d heard the Sawyers had sold their ranch a week or two ago and she figured these must be the new owners. At a glance, she could tell the women in town were going to go nuts
over them. Both topping six feet, with broad shoulders and tapered waists, they were quite a sight. Elodie felt her panties dampen at the mere thought of such fine specimens holding her, caressing her, kissing her senseless. She gave herself a mental shake, blaming the countless romance novels she’d read, and her lack of a love life, on her wayward hormones.
She waved a hand. “Sit anywhere you like. I’ll be with you in just a moment.”
The blond flashed her a smile and moved further into the diner, selecting a booth near the window. His dark haired friend followed. Or were they brothers? The idea was intriguing. She’d read enough ménage romances to be curious as to what it would be like to be sandwiched between the two. Then again, no one said they shared. Just because they’d gone in together on the Sawyer place, which was still speculation on her part, didn’t mean they went in together on everything. Of course, there was always the possibility they were gay and in a relationship together. Now there was a depressing thought.
She made her way over to their table, two menus in her hand. She set them down in front of them and smiled.
“I’ll give you a few minutes with the menus. In the meantime, what can I get you to drink?” she asked.
“I’ll take water and a coffee,” the dark haired one answered.
“Same for me,” said the blond. He smiled at her once more, but she figured he was just being friendly. No way was he flirting with her. Men just didn’t flirt with Elodie. Ever.
She hurried away to get their drinks, returning a few minutes later.
