by D. L. Roan
She didn’t know where this was leading, or if it was the right thing, but then and there she decided she couldn’t push aside her feelings for them any longer. They were all proud, good, respectable men and fathers. More honorable than any man she’d ever met in her previous life. In truth, she never knew such men existed outside of romance novels, which she rarely read. Who was she to turn down three, well, make that two, cowboy princes?
She needed them; needed to trust them and believe that everything would work out. Since she’d come to the ranch, the calls had stopped and she no longer felt as though someone was watching her. Lucien didn’t know where she was, Claira was almost certain of it. She would just have to have faith in Matt and Mason, and their faith that Grey would come around. She hoped.
“Daddy Matt?” Con called again as he passed through the kitchen once more, still searching for the man wrapped around her, making her blood sizzle.
“Say yes, darlin’. I need you.” Matt’s arms constricted around her, pulling her against his work-hardened frame. “If you don’t say yes, Con’s gonna’ find us makin’ out in here. I’m not lettin’ you go until you agree,” he chuckled.
Claira nodded, afraid that Con would hear her if she tried to speak. With one more fierce but quick kiss, Matt left her in the dark pantry, her heart still beating a mile a minute.
Chapter Twenty-Three
An hour later Claira snuck out to the barn, the light within calling her to join her new lover, or lovers. Would Matt ask Mason to join them as well? God she hoped so. It felt like a lifetime since she’d felt Mason’s brand of passion envelop her in a cocoon that only he could spin around her.
When the heavy barn door closed behind her, she peered down the dark aisle between the stalls to the far end of the barn.
“Matt?” She waited, but didn’t hear anything except the rustling of a few of the horses.
They’re not here. Had they changed their minds? The boys had been particularly rambunctious after dinner. Maybe they were reading an extra story to get them settled.
A shuffling noise from one of the stalls caught Claira’s attention. One of the puppies snarled and yelped. Such a fierce sound from the small, innocent creature made her giggle. “What a little bully you are.” She peeked over the stall door in time to see the little black fur ball pounce on one of its unsuspecting siblings.
“He’s the alpha.”
Claira jumped back from the stall, her gasp echoing through the dank, cool air. “Grey, you scared me.” She noticed the still, somber expression on his face and hugged her arms around herself to keep out the chill of his glare.
“So I gathered.” Grey’s insides churned as he looked at the petite, slip of a woman that had turned him inside out. He’d made up his mind. He wasn’t going down this road again. Seeing Claira cooking in Sarah’s kitchen every goddamn day was pure torture. Between the ache in his chest and constant throbbing in his groin, he was done for. Something had to give.
Claira saw the ghosts in Grey’s eyes and her heart broke. Matt and Mason’s plans for them all would never work. She had to leave. The past weeks had shown her what a dynamic family they were. Car and Con would never want for anything and the love that flowed between them all was something she could only dream of sharing one day. Their family was a tight-knit unit she would never fit into no matter how much Matt and Mason wanted her. Without Grey the entire idea was hopeless.
Grey would never love her as he once loved Sarah. She was only hurting him. She wished she could comfort him somehow, let him know that she would never want to erase Sarah from their lives. She couldn’t stay and torture him any longer. All the feelings she’d resolved within herself no more than an hour ago in Matt’s arms, suddenly became so small and unimportant. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t, come between Grey and his family.
“I...I should go.” Claira turned to leave him to his ghosts. She would find someplace else to stay. Maybe it was time to move on from Grassland. She wasn’t sure she wanted to keep working at a small private school that stifled the personalities of children the way Grassland Academy did. Other than the McLendon brothers, well, Matt and Mason anyway, her temporary job, which was now officially over, was all that held her there.
“Don’t go.” Grey’s voice was as rough as sandpaper and flittered up Claira’s spine as she turned back to face him.
Grey took a step in her direction but froze as she took a step back. “We...” Grey’s voice crackled and he cleared his throat. “Claira, we need to talk.”
Claira shook her head, pulling her arms tighter around herself, hoping it would keep her wayward emotions from overwhelming her resolve. “That’s not necessary, Grey. I see the pain I’m causing. I’ll leave first thing in the morning, after I say goodbye to Con and Car, if that’s...” she swallowed back the tight knot in her throat. “If that’s alright with you.”
Grey heard the pain in her voice, saw the sadness and fear in her big brown eyes. He’d never understood the saying quite as clearly as he did at that moment, but wild horses could not have kept him from her, not even ghostly ones. Before he’d completed the thought, his feet had taken the half dozen steps toward her and his whole body folded around her tiny frame.
“I don’t want you to go.”
Claira fought the unyielding need to melt against him. He felt so strong and warm. His clean, woodsy scent filled her senses. Mixed with the musty smell of the barn, she knew she would never forget it. No matter where she went, she would never forget Grey and his brothers.
“But...you don’t want me to stay, either.” When he didn’t respond, she clenched the back of his shirt into her fists and took one last deep breath to pocket away a little more of his scent for her memories before she released him. She forced herself to look up into his sparkling green eyes and cradled his chiseled face in her hands. “You’re a good man, Grey McLendon. Thank you for allowing me even this short time with your amazing family.”
Grey wrapped his long fingers around her wrists. Claira flinched at his touch. She didn’t think she could stand another moment of the brokenness she saw in his eyes or the feel of him against her skin.
She turned to leave, but his fingers tightened around her wrists. “Don’t go,” Grey choked out.
Claira’s heartbeat filled her ears and her chest felt as though it would burst from aching. She couldn’t breathe. She had to go. “Please let me go. There’s nothing more to say.”
“Just wait a minute. Please.” Grey firmed his grip on her wrist and threw his head back, taking in a deep, shuddering breath. He didn’t know what the hell he was doing, but he couldn’t let her walk out of their lives.
“Please, let me go, Grey.” Claira twisted her wrist against his grip, but he wouldn’t release her. Tears sprang unwanted to her eyes. She was losing the tenuous grip on her emotions with every second that he held her there.
Grey released her and she stumbled backwards. Before she could catch her balance, she found herself crushed against his chest, enveloped in his strong arms. A possessive rumble rolled through his chest as he reached out and pulled her into his embrace, capturing her lips in a searing kiss that stole her wits and her breath.
His hand smoothed a path up her spine and burrowed under her hair at the nape of her neck, stroking her scalp with such tenderness it made her knees buckle. When she swayed in his arms, he groaned and loosened his grip around her, his hands stroking up and down her back, her arm, everywhere he could touch.
The empty chill that had invaded her bones vanished, replaced by a warm, languid feeling that she’d never experienced before. Her head lolled against his chest, her thoughts drifting along a whispering current of surrender. How could such a guarded man possess such commanding passion and gentleness?
He pulled away a little, taking her chin and tilting her face up toward his. When she opened her eyes, she was stunned at the raw emotions swirling in there green depths.
~*~*~*~*~
“You’re not leaving,” he said
and crushed his lips to hers in another bruising kiss, his tongue sliding long and deep alongside hers. Her mewling whimper set a fever loose in his blood that burned up every other thought but Claira. Her rich taste, her hot mouth, her soft skin and sweet smelling aroma that was only Claira filled every pore of his being. He had to have her. Now.
Buttons flew in every direction as he ripped her shirt open from top to bottom. He groaned when his knuckles grazed her bare nipples. No bra! How had he not noticed that before? When she reached up and began to unbutton his own shirt, he stilled her efforts to undress him, imprisoning her wrists in a firm grip. He lowered her hands and pinned them behind her back. “Leave them there.”
When she opened her mouth to protest he filled it again with another invading kiss. If she so much as touched him he’d go off like a roman candle on the fourth of July. After six years of emotionally enforced abstinence, he wasn’t about to fire his load into his pants. He wanted to be buried to the hilt inside her. Needed it like he needed air to breathe.
Her hands crept up to the back of his neck once more and he couldn’t hold back his frustrated growl. Pulling her arms from around his neck, he pushed her torn shirt over her shoulders and down her arms, tying the thin fabric in a sloppy knot around her wrists.
“Grey, I need....” Claira struggled to free her hands. Grey laid his forefinger over her lips to silence her protests.
“I know what you need, baby bird.” He leaned down and nuzzled her ear, sucking her earlobe between his lips. So tiny and soft. “I’ll let you touch me all you want, once I’m buried so deep inside you, you can taste me. Not one moment sooner.”
He dipped a hand beneath the hem of the short, little skirt that had driven him crazy all night. He gripped her panties and gave them a stiff yank, extracting a surprised squeak from her and exposing her soft curls to his probing touch. His finger slipped over her clit and slid unimpeded through her slick folds. Fuck! “You’re soaked.”
Claira whimpered as he pulled his finger back and circled her clit again, her eager response fueling his pride.
He gathered her in his arms and walked to the blanket covered bed of fresh hay Matt had set up for them. When Mason had asked him to check on their newly acquired stallion after dinner, he knew it was a set-up. His brothers had forced his hand and, despite his best efforts to resist their plot, he was helpless to the visceral pull Claira had on him.
He laid her out on the bed of hay and pinned her beneath him, his hand working between them to free his cock. When he lifted his head and peered down at her naked breasts, she chased his kiss, her lips leaving a trail of fire along his jaw and neck. He took one quick taste of her nipple before he was drawn back to her mouth. She kissed like a wet dream and he couldn’t get enough of her.
Her thighs parted and hugged his hips as he positioned his cock against her pussy. Before he could push inside, she dug her heels into his ass and pulled him inside her in one long thrust.
Grey couldn’t contain the animalistic need that roared through his veins. Mine! Ours! She was theirs and he would make sure she’d never doubt it again.
Something snapped loose inside his chest when he felt her body bow and arch beneath his. Her hot, tight pussy hugged his cock in an embrace that forever bonded him to her. Nothing had ever felt more right, more real than having her in his arms as he buried himself deep inside her.
“I need to touch you, please,” Claira begged and struggled beneath him.
“I’ve got you, baby bird.” He reached behind her and freed her hands from the knotted shirt. “Touch me, Claira.” He tucked his forearms beneath her shoulders and buried his hands in her hair.
With a firm grip, he pulled her head back and thrust his tongue into her hot mouth as he flexed his hips and buried his cock in her pussy again and again. He swallowed her whimpers of pleasure, biting and licking at her supple lips until his lungs screamed for air.
Sweat dripped from his chin. She licked the salty offering from his skin as her hands roamed down his shoulders, her tiny fingers curling around his thick bicep. The rasp of his bare chest against her sensitive nipples added another sensual layer to his torturous need. More sweat glued them together; her skirt hiked up to her waist the only barrier between them. His heart pounded against his chest as he looked down at the woman beneath him; the woman who had both broken and healed him.
“Look at me.” Grey stopped moving, waiting for her to open her eyes. “Claira, baby, open your eyes and look at me.” He needed to look into her eyes as he came inside her.
Claira sluggishly obeyed his command. Her brown eyes fluttered open and he was caught. He didn’t deserve her, but he was hers and he’d never let her go again.
He began to move, this time agonizingly slow as he stared down at her. His hips rolled against her as he pulled out slowly, almost completely, and then thrust hard against her, the tip of his cock bumping against her womb.
She whimpered at the jarring pressure. He stilled inside her, not wanting to cause her any more pain. “Please don’t stop,” she begged with a breathless whisper.
That was all Grey needed to stake his claim. He would mark her forever as his, as theirs. He’d been so wrong to deny his brothers this treasure. They all belonged to her, body and soul.
“So...fucking...beautiful.” Grey thrust deep and hard, feeling the tip of his cock tap the end of her velvet channel with each stroke. He was drowning in her eyes, losing himself in her wet, hot depths.
“Grey! Oh-God!”
The sound of his name on her lips made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. His scalp began to tingle and his balls drew up tight. The muscles in his arms and legs bunched and burned with the force and speed he demanded from them.
His! Theirs! His! Mine!
When her teeth sank into the skin of his left bicep and her pussy pulsed around him with her release, he reached the end of his control. Over and over he plunged, emptying himself deep inside her as she marked him, claimed him as her own.
“Fuck, baby,” he panted, his hips still convulsing in response to her own residual spasms. His frantic breaths mingled with hers. Collapsing over her, his quivering arms gave out under his own weight. “That was—I—you feel so good.”
“Grey.” Claira whimpered against his sweat-slickened neck, her hands still clutching the tight muscles in his back.
“Hey, don’t cry.” Grey’s thumb wiped away a tear that had escaped. “Did I hurt you?”
Claira shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. She’d never felt this complete in her entire life. She loved him, with all her heart.
She was about to tell him that very thing when something shifted in his expression. With a muted curse, he rolled off her. “Fuck!” He jumped to his feet, his legs tangling in his Wranglers piled around his knees.
“Goddammit! I can’t believe I did that!” He pulled up his pants, not bothering to button them. “Claira, I’m so sorry.”
Claira froze, her heart taking a nose dive. He was rejecting her. She’d never felt more loved or happy in her entire life and he was sorry? How could she be so stupid?
His mouth kept moving, saying something in the way of an apology if his expression matched his words, but she didn’t hear anything over the pounding of her breaking heartbeat in her ears. She’d been stupid to think she could ever compete with a ghost.
She scrambled to her feet and pulled her skirt down. Reaching for her tattered shirt, she jerked away from Grey as he tried to take it from her grasping hand.
“Please, don’t touch me.” She clasped the tattered ribbons that were all that was left of her shirt to her chest, trying desperately to reclaim some small piece of her dignity.
“Claira?”
She turned to see Matt and Mason standing inside the barn, their faces marred by confusion and outrage. They took in her disheveled state and their eyes burned like lasers, cutting through the air as they turned their sights on Grey.
She couldn’t do this. She’d been
so selfish and stupid. This was never going to work. Falcon Ridge could never be her home. She could see that now. Everything was so clear. Grey must hate her to be so cruel. No, he hadn’t meant to be. His regret had been genuine. It was her fault for thinking she deserved a life with them. A sudden memory of her father’s henchmen carrying her dead brother away from her flashed through her mind. No. She didn’t deserve them.
Claira stifled a sob and ran past Matt and Mason, making a beeline for their house. She had everything she needed in her bag upstairs. She would hate not saying goodbye to Con and Car, but it was all she could do to make things right. She had to leave. Now.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What the fuck just happened?” Grey stood frozen in the cool barn as he watched their frantic woman run past his brothers.
“That’s exactly what we’d like to know.” Mason stalked up to him.
Grey shook his head, cursing his own stupidity. “I...I didn’t use a condom.”
He hadn’t even had the class to take off his boots before he fucked her senseless. And he forgot to wear a damn condom! How could he, of all people, forget something so vitally important? He wouldn’t survive having another child; losing his heart all over again. It would kill him. He was such a stupid, sorry ass!
He buttoned up his jeans and paced to the other end of the aisle. God, he hadn’t used a condom. He couldn’t be much more of an idiot if he’d tried, but damn if he could make sense of her running out like that.
“Surely she knows we’d take care of her if something happens.”
“If something happens?” Matt stalked up to stand next to Mason. “You mean if she gets pregnant?” He pushed Grey back a step. “Right, Grey? Because God forbid we go through that again.”
