Her Three Liberators [The Hot Millionaires #6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
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The Hot Millionaires #6
Her Three Liberators
Brit Steffi Darwin travels to Virginia with Marius, the stallion she's looked after since his birth, and finishes up staying. Daniel Malone, the stallion's new owner, worries that Steffi is losing out on life because she seldom sets foot off his ranch. Seriously ill himself, Daniel tasks his three sons, Jonny, Harry, and Brad, with bringing out the sensual side of Steffi's character.
Steffi doesn't have time for sex. She's more concerned about Marius. Someone is spreading rumours about his virility, and the supply of mares being sent to him is drying up. The guys help her get to the bottom of things, forcing Steffi to face up to some startling facts about her life back in England that have followed her across the pond.
Steffi, impressed by the guys' ability to get results, seriously considers having a fling with them. Except it won't do her any good because she's frigid, isn't she…
Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings.
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 45,265 words
HER THREE LIBERATORS
The Hot Millionaires #6
Zara Chase
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
HER THREE LIBERATORS
Copyright © 2012 by Zara Chase
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62241-577-9
First E-book Publication: October 2012
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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HER THREE LIBERATORS
The Hot Millionaires #6
ZARA CHASE
Copyright © 2012
Chapter One
“Why are they coming?” Steffi asked.
Daniel smiled wistfully. “I can’t hanker after a cozy family reunion without exciting your suspicions?”
She wagged a finger at him. “You know that’s not what I mean.”
“Yes, I do.” Daniel sighed. “It’s no reflection upon your abilities. My affairs have never been in better order, thanks to you. I bless my impulsive suggestion that you accompany that damned stallion across the pond.”
“As do I,” Steffi said, and not only because it would have broken her heart to be separated from the horse. She looked upon him as her best friend and main male—no, make that the only male—in her life.
“However, my sons deserve to know that their aged father won’t be around for much longer.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Steffi swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “You’re not dying. I absolutely refuse to allow it.”
“Then I wish the final decision rested with you.” Daniel sighed, which brought on a rattling cough. Steffi held a glass of water to his lips and he took a short sip. “Thank you, my dear.”
“I’m sorry, Daniel, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Nor I you, but facts must be faced. I have less than a year to live, according to those overpaid vampires who now own more of my blood than I do.”
Steffi gasped. “So little?”
“Which is why I can’t hide from reality any longer. The boys need time to prepare so that the company stock doesn’t die with me.”
“There must be something that can be done,” she said stubbornly. “I can’t accept that it’s hopeless. Another opinion, perhaps?”
“It won’t do any good. Besides, I’m fed up with all the intrusive tests.”
“When you came to England to look at Marius I thought you were one of the strongest, most dynamic men I’d ever met.” Fresh tears threatened. “That was less than two years ago. Besides, you’re only in your fifties so you can’t possibly die. It’s not your time yet.”
Steffi’s twisted logic caused Daniel to smile. “Unfortunately, cancer is no respecter of age.”
“Cancer is an evil little sod that only targets the nice people.” Steffi scowled. “Ever heard of an axe murderer falling victim to the big C?”
Daniel flashed another wan smile. “If it only targets for the good guys then it made an exception in my case.”
“Nonsense! You’re the nicest person I know.”
Daniel regarded her with open affection. “Then you don’t know me as well as you think you do, Steffi. Being successful in business requires nerves of steel and a totally ruthless streak.”
“That doesn’t make you a bad guy.”
Daniel winced as he eased himself into a more comfortable position, or tried to. Steffi knew he’d be hard-pressed to succeed. Comfort was one of the many things now denied to him. The brain tumour made him tired all the time and the side effects of the drugs played havoc on the body they were supposed to help. His chair was state of the art, the most comfortable money could buy, adjustable at the touch of a button. Daniel had overseen his business empire from it for the past six weeks, ever since he’d abandoned his spacious office downstairs and turned the sitting
area in his bedroom into the centre of his universe. He kept track of the financial markets, his information communication technology company, his winery, and all his other interests via the array of computer screens and electronic gadgets he so adored. Steffi knew he’d invented half of them back when ICT had been in its infancy.
“Do you need me to call Trevor?” she asked, referring to Daniel’s live-in nurse.
“No, my dear, I need you to stop fussing and listen to what I have to say to you.”
“Me? Fuss over you?” Steffi dredged up a disingenuous smile. Smiling was the last thing she felt like doing, given Daniel’s terrible revelation, but if he could face this conversation, then she could, too. “I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”
Daniel had led everyone to believe the treatment for his brain tumour had been successful and that it was shrinking. Only when it was no longer possible to conceal the truth from those closest to him did he confess to the dismal prognosis.
His three sons were still in ignorance, but not for much longer. They would be here later today and Steffi would meet them for the first time. Selfishly, she couldn’t help wondering what it would mean for her when Daniel passed. Presumably, the job she’d created for herself here in the heart of the Virginian horse country would disappear and she’d have to take herself back to her native England, leaving Marius in his new home. Her heart lurched at the prospect, even as she shook her head, marvelling at her selfishness. Daniel was dying and she was all choked up at the thought of abandoning a wretched horse.
“I haven’t asked my sons to visit because I doubt your ability, Steffi. Far from it.”
“I know that.” Steffi stared out the full-length window at the neatly railed paddocks immediately beyond it. Seeing the mares and foals peacefully grazing there usually soothed her. Not this time. “Ignore me, I’m just feeling grouchy today.” Steffi sniffed, determined not to show how upset she was at the dramatic deterioration in her employer’s health. If he could remain unemotionally focused on the short future left to him, then she could do the same. “Of course you want to see your sons here at the place where they were born.”
Daniel smiled. “Two of them don’t remember it very well.”
“That’s what comes of having three sons by three different wives in such quick succession,” Steffi scolded.
“Ah, but Steffi, if you could have seen those ladies in their prime, then you would understand how that came about.” Daniel closed his eyes and smiled. “They were all quite lovely, and irresistible.”
Steffi shook her head. “You’re incorrigible.”
He chuckled. “That’s not the worst accusation ever to be thrown at me.”
“I’m sure it isn’t.”
He took Steffi’s hand in his and squeezed it. He grip was so weak that Steffi barely felt it. “Ah, if I was a few years younger and still had my health you would definitely become wife number four.”
Steffi laughed aloud. “What makes me think I’d be interested? No offence, Daniel, but you’re old enough to be my father.”
“But you’re not interested in men, regardless of age, are you, darling? All you care about is that wicked horse.”
“I date sometimes,” Steffi said defensively.
Daniel gave a weak flap of the hand not holding hers. “Bah, only safe men with no backbone—ones you can control.”
“I do not control them!”
Daniel’s eyes softened. “Don’t you?”
“I haven’t met anyone who excites me, that’s all.”
“You’re a stranger in America. You’re young and lovely and don’t lack for invitations. I just want to see you have some fun instead of being stuck out here with an old fogy like me. No one deserves that fate.” Daniel’s chortle turned into another coughing fit. “Ask any one of my ex-wives if you don’t believe me,” he said when he recovered from it.
“All of your ex-wives still adore you.”
Daniel elevated his brows and shot her a knowing look. “Now that they don’t have to live with me and my philandering ways, perhaps they do.”
“I don’t believe we’re having this conversation,” Steffi said, the affection she felt for Daniel tempered by the urge to tell him to butt out of her personal life. “I have everything I could possibly want here on Porlock. Why would I want to go gadding about town with people who don’t interest me, fending off wandering hands, hot breath, and goodness knows what else?”
“Why fend them off?” Daniel asked, a sparkle in his eye.
“Daniel!”
“Just asking.”
“Unlike some people I could name, I don’t happen to be sexually liberated.”
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
“What makes you think I haven’t?”
“Trust me, darling, I’m an expert on the subject. There’s something inside you that hasn’t been released yet. I should hate you not to experience it.”
Steffi rolled her eyes. “That’s certainly true, about you being an expert on relationships, I mean.”
“To return to your personal life.” Daniel’s expression sobered. “What you have here on Porlock is a barn full of horses that you seem to prefer to people.”
“You blame me for that?”
“Not at all, but they’re perfectly well looked after without your being here every second of the day.”
“Yes, but—”
“I need to put my affairs in order, Steffi, while I still have my cognitive powers. Most people don’t get advance notice that they’re about to fall off this mortal coil. I ought to be grateful for that. It’s why I’ve asked the boys to stay for a while.”
“Yes.” Steffi closed her eyes, fighting back the pain. “I realize that. I just wish it wasn’t necessary.”
“You and me both, my dear. They don’t know about this yet,” he added, pointing to the chair. “I’ve played the illness down. If their mothers knew how bad it is, all three of them would probably descend upon me and stay for the duration. I love them all, but that’s the last thing I want.”
“I understand.”
“I expect you’re worried about your own future.”
“Daniel, how could I be? I’m not quite that shallow.” I’m not!
“I’ll admit I only asked you to accompany Marius because I thought he’d travel better with you. After all, he appears to adore you almost as much as I do.”
“Daniel!”
“As soon as you got here, I knew I wasn’t going to send you home again, and that had nothing to do with Marius. You just seemed to fit right in. Then I got ill, and before I knew it, I had an unpaid PA who knew what needed doing without being told.” He took her hand again. “I’ll make sure the boys look after you after I’m gone.”
“Don’t you dare!” She snatched her hand from his, belatedly realizing that her reaction had upset him. “I’m sorry, Daniel,” she said in a more even tone, “but I don’t need charity. I know I have to leave Marius sooner or later.” She couldn’t look at him. “I’ll survive.”
“I’m sorry if you think I was patronizing—”
“Time for your medication, Mr. Malone,” Trevor said, walking into the room on soft-soled shoes.
“When isn’t it?” Daniel responded, weary resignation in his tone.
Steffi used the opportunity to escape. The medication sometimes made Daniel nauseous and he wouldn’t want her to see him that way. She wandered back outside, wondering if a poultice had been applied to the Arab mare’s swollen fetlock.
“Stop fretting so,” she muttered to herself. “The guys know what they’re doing.”
Steffi’s mental perambulations were a defence mechanism to avoid confronting the subject that was bothering her the most—the arrival of Daniel’s three sons. Had she only been here on Porlock for just two years? It seemed like so much longer than that. The moment she’d set foot on the extensive estate it had felt like coming home, and the thought of leaving it upset her almost as much as losing Danie
l.
She wasn’t needed here—not really. The horse stud had run perfectly adequately before her arrival and would continue to do so once she was gone. She and Marius had a special bond, it was true, but he’d be fine without her. Her concern was that she didn’t know which of Daniel’s sons would inherit the stud and if he’d feel inclined to keep it going. They were supposedly all good horsemen. Steffi wouldn’t know because she hadn’t met any of them. Daniel preferred to invade their respective territories, just to keep them on their toes, and they seemed too busy to come here.
She knew all about them, by reputation and the things Daniel said about them. They were all highfliers, often pictured in the gossip columns attending some event or other, always with stunning women in tow. That was hardly surprising. Daniel was a handsome and charming man, even now when he was literally withering before her eyes. All three of the guys’ mothers had been gorgeous, so it followed that the kids would inherit their physical attributes.
Sighing, Steffi rebraided her rebellious curly hair and headed for the barns, suspecting that she wouldn’t even register on such sophisticated men’s radars.
* * * *
Jonny Malone touched his Piper Aztec down on the runway at Charlottesville Albermarle Airport with barely a bump. He taxied to his allotted parking space and cut the engines. Ground crew rushed up to put chocks beneath the tires while Jonny grabbed his luggage and headed for the door, curious to know why his father was so adamant that all three of them report to Porlock. It wasn’t like him to play the heavy parent.
His half brothers, Harry and Brad, were illegally parked outside the terminal building in a flashy Mercedes with its roof down.