Love Under Two Wranglers [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  The word courting echoed within him, and he waited to feel the kind of masculine unease he’d experienced in the past. A bachelor learned to pay attention when any word related to marriage was spoken or thought. His heart thudded when he realized that he was indeed embarking on a courtship hoping for marriage, and he was not only okay with that, he was damned excited about it.

  “There are forms to be filled out. There’s no charge for your library cards, of course, nor for using any of the resources of the Lusty Library.”

  Alan pulled his mind back to the moment. Holly handed them each a form and a pen. The ledge on her desk was wide enough that he and Duncan were able to easily fill out the document right there in front of her.

  He kept his gaze on the application he was filling out, for the most part, but was able to see her at the top of his vision.

  If he hadn’t been looking so closely, he would have missed it. As Holly clasped her hands together, he could see her fingers trembling. An unexpected thought had him looking at her full on. He felt his brow crease. “You’re not afraid of us, are you, Miss Bethune?”

  The startled look that crossed her face couldn’t be an act. If he were to interpret the expression she wore right then, he’d say that it had never even occurred to her that she perhaps should be afraid of being alone with two men she didn’t really know.

  “Oh! Oh, no, of course not.” Her cheeks flushed again, and Alan looked over at Duncan. His best friend gave him an almost imperceptible nod. They were definitely of one mind when it came to the brunette Southern beauty.

  It wasn’t fear that had pretty Holly Bethune trembling. It was awareness of them as men—and maybe even a little bit of arousal.

  Alan returned his attention to the application, and finished filling it out. He needed to remember those words he’d chosen as his mantra, and think them over and over again. Slow, gentle, yet determined.

  He finished filling out the library card application. She hadn’t asked for any identification, but he figured he’d show her his driver’s license anyway.

  Duncan apparently had a similar idea. They each handed her the paperwork, and their licenses.

  “Thank you. It will only take me a moment to process these.”

  Alan would have thought that the woman had forgotten their presence if it wasn’t for that continued blush and the way her fingers seemed to tremble just a little as she transferred information from the forms they’d filled out to her computer. Standing there, he was grateful for the high desk ledge that hid his lower body from Holly’s view.

  He figured by the speed she was typing, he had about four minutes to get his randy cock to behave itself.

  She turned and slid a piece of paper into her printer. In moments she retrieved the finished sheet. Just a minute later she was handing them their library cards.

  “There you go, gentlemen. Welcome to your library.” Holly looked at each of them in turn.

  Alan thought she had the prettiest brown eyes he’d ever seen.

  “So, you wanted me to show you how the library works. I presume you meant how to find a book to read?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Duncan said. “We’re both really interested in expanding our intellectual horizons.”

  Holly gave Duncan an approving smile. “Excellent. What kind of books do you like to read?”

  “Good ones.” Alan knew the smile he gave her was one of his teasing grins, and her laughter told him he’d hit the mark.

  “Well, the definition of what makes a book good is actually very subjective, don’t you think?”

  “I do indeed,” Alan said. “Actually, there is a genre of book neither of us have ever read. But like Duncan said, we want to expand our intellectual horizons.”

  “And what genre is that?” Holly came out from behind her desk. “We have a computerized system, of course. It’s very simple to use…you know how to use computers?”

  “Of course.” Although he knew some older wranglers who saw no use for anything modern except for a cell phone—and would only use that to call for emergency help.

  “All you have to do is type in the key word—the name of the genre you’re interested in, for example—and the search function will bring up every book we have that fits the search criteria. You can narrow it down, of course. The system here is very user friendly.”

  She’d led the way to a bank of four computers and then turned to face them. “So…what genre is it you want to investigate?”

  Alan met her gaze. “Romance.” He could see his answer took her aback. “Do you like to read romance, Miss Holly?”

  Her deepening blush gave her away. He slid a sly glance to his friend and recognized the pleased smile Duncan wore. They’d discussed this at length the night before.

  The smart man setting out to court a woman did his best to learn all he could about her. Since the woman they wanted to court was a librarian, they meant to try and discover just what it was she liked to read. How better to get an insight into what she liked?

  “Um…yes. I do like to read romance.”

  “Perfect. That means we don’t have to look anything up.” Alan nodded, and lowered his voice. It wasn’t hard to find an intimate tone. Standing so close to Holly, looking at the way her tongue moistened her pretty pink lips, it was hard to stop himself from bending down and tasting them. “Miss Holly, please lead us to your favorite books.”

  Chapter 2

  What on earth had ever made her admit to these two men that she read romance? No way am I going to let them know what my favorite books are. Not happening. She really did like to read ménage—and although she’d never had a boyfriend, never made love, or never even danced the man-woman let alone man-woman-man tango, Holly knew beyond a doubt that telling them about her favorite books would be a serious mistake.

  Leading them to the books she loved to read would be akin to offering….candy to a baby or…or….whiskey to a drunk or….herself, naked, vulnerable, a sacrificial virgin to their lustful, manly desires. She blinked, and before she could stop it, her mind pulled up a scene from one of her favorite novels, deftly putting herself and these two hot wranglers in the starring roles.

  The fire in both their glances left her in no doubt as to what they would do to her. She would stand naked before them, trembling, uncertain, but unable to look away from the throbbing light of passion burning in their eyes—or the stiff erections pressing against the fronts of their tight, well-worn jeans. They spared a glance between them, and then their gazes raked her. Their smiles, masculine, feral, telegraphed their intent even as they each took one step toward her…

  Holly pulled herself back to the present. She felt a tingling, a roller-coaster excitement swirling through her body. A sensation of dampness between her thighs made her heart beat hard and her blush deepen to the point that she felt searing heat on her cheeks.

  This was no time to lose herself in one of the hottest passages from one of her favorite books, Virgin Surrender. But the words melded with her current emotions, and in that moment Holly made a startling discovery.

  Oh, my goodness. I’m sexually aroused!

  Holly had never been so sexually aroused in her life. Keep your mind off the darn books. You’re supposed to be a professional! And whatever you do, do not lead them to the shelves that hold the very trade paperbacks you love to read.

  That was definitely her inner voice of reason this time, and Holly thought the wisest, safest thing she could do was to heed its very sound advice.

  Her mind gave a sigh of relief at the mental echo of those words. Her feet, however, chose that place and that time to commit mutiny.

  Alan’s and Duncan’s eyes widened as they took in the shelves on either side of the aisle, shelves that were crammed full of trade paperbacks, most of them the hottest ménage stories on the market today. “There sure are a lot to choose from,” Duncan said. “Do you have any particular favorites?”

  “Oh, um….I don’t…that is…” For the first time ever her mind le
ft her completely speechless. She turned to face them, and of course her gaze was drawn to a particular shelf. There were a few books there that she would pull out from time to time, and take to her desk. She had the pages of her favorite passages memorized. Just recently, as she’d been surfing the Internet, she’d come to understand that she had “book boyfriends.” Holly had been okay with that concept, but hadn’t until just this moment, connected the way she’d felt spending time with those fictional men with the notion of being sexually aroused.

  Holly had just finished reading two books, one each from two new-to-her authors, and those books were right there on the shelf that was at her eye level.

  The men proved to be more observant of her than she ever could have imagined. They reacted as if the books would disappear if they didn’t move fast enough. Each man pulled one of those two very books from the shelf.

  “Bound at the Bonfire by Veronica Benedict.” Alan raised his right eyebrow. “Veronica…isn’t that Cord and Jackson’s sister’s name?”

  Perhaps it was the name on the book spine that had drawn his attention and not my guilty eyes. Holly brought her attention back to the conversation. “Yes, it is. Miss Benedict has written a lot of ‘sweet’ romance novels. That was her first foray into the world of erotic romance. It’s a best-seller.”

  “The Rancher’s Lady by Caressa MacFarland.” Duncan met her gaze. “And look, both covers feature a pretty heroine with two very buff heroes.”

  Holly couldn’t believe that Duncan had chosen the other book she’d just recently read. As he held the book up, she couldn’t help but look at the stunning cover and the two hot hunks that were in that lucky heroine’s future. Nothing to do now but brazen her way through this situation. Figuratively holding on to her professional librarian’s cloak with both hands, she nodded. “Yes, both books are what are referred to as ménage à trois stories. Ménage is a very popular sub-genre of romance.”

  “Especially, I would imagine,” Duncan said, “in this town.”

  Well, duh. Maybe that was it. Maybe they would believe that the books were all here because this was, after all, Lusty. Alan and Duncan have been here longer than I have. Then she recalled that they not only worked for Chase and Brian Benedict, but they lived with them, too. They lived with them and their wife, Carrie.

  “Yes.” The sigh of relief in her voice was pretty obvious. “I imagine that under the circumstances, ménage books would be an obvious choice for this library.”

  “What about you, Miss Holly? Is that why you read them? To give you an insight into the town?” Alan tilted his head to one side and his voice took on a tone that seemed to stroke her on the inside. “Or do you have a much more personal reason for reading them? Perhaps…we can help you feed that very sexy curiosity of yours.”

  I am so in over my head. The two men were standing only a foot or so away from her. Yet enclosed together as they were between these two tall, heavily loaded bookstacks, she didn’t feel as if they were in a public library. It felt as if they were enfolded into a very private, very intimate bower.

  Stop! Do not go there! Do not revisit that scene from Virgin Surrender!

  Something of her struggle must have communicated to the men. Alan reached out and used his fingers to lift her chin. “What’s the matter, Miss Holly?”

  Logic and grace deserted her. It wasn’t that she was afraid, she was just…lost. “I don’t know what’s going on here.”

  “Don’t you?”

  The look on Alan’s face told her that he thought that maybe she understood just fine what was happening. And she did—at least from an intellectual point of view.

  “All right, I know—I think I know—that the two of you are flirting with me. But I’m not sure I know why—or what happens next.”

  It didn’t really bother her when the two men looked at each other as if they could read each other’s minds.

  “What happens next is you get to decide,” Alan said. “Yes, we are flirting with you—but beyond just flirting, we’re very interested in getting to know you better. This isn’t a game to us, honey. We’re both extremely attracted to you.”

  “If you’re not interested in getting to know us back—if you’re not a little bit attracted to us in return—then all you have to do is tell us to leave you alone, and we will.” Duncan’s expression was hope personified. “But we’re hoping that you’ll want to get to know us better, too. We’re hoping that you want to explore this attraction between us.”

  Alan met her gaze and she had to wonder, in that moment, if he didn’t understand her completely. He’d asked her if she was afraid of them earlier, and really, she wasn’t. She was attracted to them, but she had no idea what to do with that attraction.

  “What time are you done here today, Miss Holly?” Alan asked.

  “Just…just Holly.” She appreciated their respectful way of addressing her. For men not born in the South they seemed to take Southern sensibilities into account. “The library closes at two on Saturday.”

  “Would you let us treat you to a late lunch, then?” Alan asked. “We’ll meet you here at two, and walk with you over to Lusty Appetites. We can consider it our first date.” Then Alan’s expression turned sheepish. “It will be in front of everyone in town, almost. But you’ll be perfectly safe the entire time.”

  Something about that look on his face simply made her go all gooey inside. “Thank you. I would like very much to have lunch with you both. And I do feel safe with you already.” That was nothing less than the truth. No, she didn’t have any experience to go on, but both Miz Benedict and Miz Kendall had demonstrated ease around these two men the night before. Those two women likely had instincts, where people were concerned, that could be termed legendary.

  “Good.” Alan grinned.

  “Very good.” Duncan wore an identical smile.

  “Let’s check out these books, and then we’ll be out of your way. Well, until two, anyway.”

  “You don’t have to take those books,” Holly said. She had realized at some point over the last few minutes that the entire reason they’d come into the library was so that they could ask her to lunch.

  Knowing they’d done that—likely stepping out of their comfort zones just to ask her for a date—made her feel special. She smiled, and held out her hand for the books.

  “No, you’re right, we don’t have to,” Alan said.

  “But we’re going to.” Duncan nodded.

  “You’ve read these books,” Alan said. “So we’re going to read them, too.” He shrugged. “We’ve never felt about a woman the way we feel about you. Knowing what you like to read, and reading it, just makes sense to us.”

  For one long minute, Holly was completely speechless. Two men who had just asked her to lunch were determined to read books that she had read—books that had helped to foster her very new, but very real, personal sexual fantasies.

  Holly knew she was blushing but couldn’t help it. She was a very fair-skinned woman. I can either pray a hole opens up into the floor and swallows me whole, or I can pretend I’ve got moxie and act as if this is a normal occurrence.

  Holly straightened and smiled, and reached for the moxie. “Then follow me, please, gentlemen, and I’ll check those books out for you.”

  * * * *

  Duncan looked at his watch. He and Alan had headed back to the ranch, and had settled themselves on the front porch with coffee and their newly acquired books.

  They hadn’t lied to Holly. They didn’t frequent libraries. There were two reasons for that. The first, of course, was that they had spent the majority of their lives on ranches, some of them well and truly far removed from even small towns. The second was that they both had e-readers, each one containing hundreds of books.

  He and his best friend were voracious readers.

  “Sweet, merciful heavens,” Alan said. He looked up from his book. “It’s as if Miss Benedict tapped into some of my sexual fantasies.”

  “Miss MacFarland see
ms to have done the same for me.” Duncan was glad the Benedicts had taken the day to head into Waco. He didn’t often get an erection from reading.

  “You know it’s because we’re imagining these scenes with us and Holly that’s getting us so horny as we’re reading,” Alan said.

  “And recalling our own personal experiences,” Duncan said. He and his best friend had participated in two ménage encounters over the years. It was those experiences that had convinced them that sharing a woman on a permanent basis was what they wanted, eventually. Coming to Lusty, settling down and looking around gave them both hope that they’d accepted their old friend Ricoh Stone’s offer of work for a reason. Duncan looked over at Alan. “I’m thinking back and I can’t see either of those two women’s faces. I can only see Holly’s.”

  “I hear you.” Alan went back to reading, and Duncan did the same. He read the words on the page as if he was drinking in the most important information he could ever have. And really, in a way, wasn’t he?

  When he and Alan had discussed what they’d observed here in Lusty—even before they’d set eyes on Holly Bethune or imagined they’d meet the perfect woman for them—they’d noticed something so simple, and yet so important.

  The men of Lusty focused on pleasing their women, on learning what they liked and what they needed and wanted, and giving it to them. The result was a town full of very happy families.

  That wasn’t to say the triads or quads didn’t have disagreements from time to time. Of course they did, they were only human. But missing from the general atmosphere were the kind of deeply held grudges, and the signs of basic discontentment, unhappiness, and even despair that Duncan and Alan had seen everywhere else they had traveled.