Tara's Revenge [Cattleman's Club 9] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jenny Penn

  After all, she’d just gotten divorced from one player. Tara wasn’t looking to fall for a second one. While she was far from in love with Travis, the orgasms he treated her to were quite addictive. Too addictive. Addictive enough that the situation was getting out of hand.

  It was time to take some control back.

  “I think it’s time for you to leave,” she stated bluntly and knew that she’d shocked him.

  Tara could feel the bed shift as he rolled to his side to stare down at her. “So, it’s like that, huh? You gonna throw me out without so much as a thank-you?”

  His words portrayed an offense that his tone simply didn’t match. Neither did the grin tugging at his lips. Tara couldn’t help but roll her eyes, knowing he was trying to avoid her point. Travis wouldn’t escape hearing her out this time, though.

  “Well, the sun is setting. We’ve been fucking all afternoon, so if you don’t get out of here soon, this one-night stand is going to turn into something more. I don’t think either one of us wants that.”

  She expected an instant agreement from Travis, but what she got was a frown and heady silence that he finally broke with an admission that sounded like it puzzled him as much as it bothered her.

  “Normally I’d say see you, but…I’m cool with something more. Something like, maybe, a fling.”

  “A fling?” Tara paused to consider that. “I hadn’t actually been looking for anything long term, but⎯“

  “Flings are not long term,” Travis assured her with a snicker.

  “They’re longer than I was thinking.”

  “And just what were you thinking?”

  “That I was horny,” Tara admitted bluntly. “It’s been over a year since I got laid.”

  Travis’s smirk grew all the more suggestive as he glanced down her naked body. His hand followed, swooping over her breasts to skim across her quivering stomach and settle over her still-pulsing pussy. She couldn’t help but twist slightly and whimper as his thick fingers pressed through her swollen folds to find her clit and begin to tease the sensitive nub.

  “And are you satisfied now?” Travis asked as he began rubbing her throbbing bud faster and faster. “Or don’t you want a little more?”

  Tara didn’t answer. She just spread her legs and let him have her as he wanted her. They’d pick up the argument later.

  Chapter 7

  Sunday, June 22nd

  Later came the next morning after the sun had set and risen again. Tara and Travis were sleeping soundly, still snuggled up on top of the bed sheets when the shrill ring of the house phone cut into the quiet air.

  Tara bolted upright as if she’d been shot by electricity, everything crystalizing perfectly before the phone let out another wail. Beside her, Travis groaned and rolled in the opposite direction. Tara helped him along, giving him a good shove right off the bed. He hit the floor with a thump and came up frowning.

  “Get up!” Tara snapped, unconcerned about Travis’s scowl. She was too much in a rush to grab the phone before whoever gave up and decided to come out to the pool house and check on her personally.

  “Hello?” she fairly shouted into the phone as she ripped the cordless off its base. “Hello?”

  “Tara?” her uncle barked back into the other end. “I was wondering where you were. We haven’t seen you in days, and now it’s time to go to church, and you’re not even dressed, are you?”

  Tara’s face flamed at that question, her mind quickly fumbling for an answer that hid the truth. “I’m sorry, uncle. I should have called, but I’ve been…feeling a little under the weather, and I didn’t want you to catch anything.”

  “Oh, is that right?” He didn’t sound like he really believed her, but her uncle went along with the lie. “Well then, maybe you better just sleep in. We wouldn’t want it developing into anything serious, would we?”

  “No. No. Nothing serious.” Tara couldn’t have agreed more. Neither could she stop frowning at Travis, who had crawled back into bed and looked like he was getting comfortable. “I’m sure it will pass soon enough.”

  Travis lifted a brow at that, appearing to understand that her comment had been directed at him.

  “Well, you go on back to bed, honey,” her uncle advised her. “And I’ll check on you when we get back from church. Okay?”

  “Okay. Enjoy yourself.” Tara hung up the phone and crossed her arms over her breasts as glared down pointedly at Travis. “Aren’t you getting out of that bed?”

  “Aren’t you getting back in it?”

  “No!” Tara shot back. “And let’s not start that again.”

  Travis blinked innocently up at her. “What again?”

  Tara was not about to be sucked into that argument or getting anywhere near the bed. Instead, she turned to march toward the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower. I suggest you be gone when I get out, or I’ll call the cops.”

  “I am the cops, sunshine,” Travis hollered back as she slammed the door behind her.

  * * * *

  Travis whistled his way into the station house, bearing a box of donuts and a grin the size of the Grand Canyon. He’d come to gloat, and from the darkness of Bryant’s scowl, his buddy already knew it. That wasn’t going to stop Travis from rubbing it in.

  Tossing a nod to Brandon, who was stationed at the front desk looking through a college catalogue, Travis sauntered back to where Bryant sat amongst a pile of old, dusty files.

  “Alex got you doing housework, Nancy?”

  “Screw you,” Bryant muttered. “This is all your fault.”

  Travis couldn’t possibly see how that was true. “My fault? What did I do?”

  “Tara,” Bryant shot back instantly. “All night long and I’m the one getting blamed. Here, while I was stuck doing time, you were out there committing the crime. Am I right?”

  “I plead the fifth.”

  Travis didn’t know, but he did suspect they’d broken some kind of law with all the positions he and Tara had tried in the last twenty-four hours. That woman had given him hell of a workout. Now he was hungry.

  “I brought donuts.” Travis pointed out the obvious as he waved the box in front of Bryant. “Cream filled just like you like.”

  Bryant hesitated before snatching the box out of Travis’s hands as he shoved out of his seat. “All is not forgiven, but we’re headed in the right direction.”

  Travis laughed at that. Bryant didn’t really hold grudges. He just grumbled a lot, but that didn’t bother Travis. Of course, right then, he could have gotten run over by a semi and still not have cared. He felt that good…even if Tara had all but thrown him out of her house.

  He hadn’t pushed his luck, clearing out before she got out of the shower, but that didn’t mean he intended to stay away. A little distance and time was in order. A plan wouldn’t hurt either. Travis wasn’t the planner, though. That was Bryant’s roll. So he followed his buddy back to the break room to share an early dinner and discuss the matter at hand.

  “Tell me,” Bryant began before Travis could as he dropped the pizza onto the table and turned to get plates. “Did you spend all day fucking that girl?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” There was no point in denying it or anything else. “I’d still be there doing more of the same if she hadn’t thrown me out.”

  “Thrown you out?” Bryant paused, sounding honestly surprised by that. “That’s a first.”

  “You’re telling me.” Travis pulled two sodas out of the fridge and passed one across the table to Bryant as he settled down in his seat. “The woman got downright feisty. Threatened to call the police on me and everything.”

  That had Bryant eyeing him with a twinkle and twitch of his lips. “You must not have been any good then.”

  “Don’t even go there, or I’ll take the donuts back,” Travis warned him. “You know I’m more than good enough to keep any woman happy.”

  “Apparently not Tara,” Bryant taunted him with a quick grin as he pulled a powder-covered, cream-filled
donut out of the box.

  “Trust me, she wasn’t objecting to the sex.” Travis hesitated to help himself to a jelly donut as he replayed the last few hours and came up as confused as ever. “She just seemed to be objecting. I don’t know what her deal is.”

  Bryant didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. There was just something so strangely smug about the way he sat there eating his sugary breakfast that warned Travis the man knew more than he was admitting. Beyond that, Bryant knew that Travis knew that he knew something and was just waiting for Travis to ask what it was, which was just why he didn’t…until five minutes later when his patience finally broke.

  “Okay, spill it!” Travis snapped, tired of pretending to enjoy eating his donut. “Just tell me what you know.”

  “All you had to do was ask,” Bryant shot back with a smug grin, his gaze darting toward the door before he leaned in and dropped his tone to a more conspiratorial whisper. “She’s rich.”

  Travis blinked that in, not certain what to make of it. “So?”

  “So, she found her husband was banging his way through a field of sluts, divorced his ass, and moved here to…have a little fun.” Bryant leaned back as he straightened up in his seat and smiled. “That’s where we come in.”

  “Obviously.” Travis snorted. Having fun was his whole theory to life, and if it was Tara’s now, then he still didn’t understand why she’d kicked him out. “But that doesn’t explain her attitude this afternoon.”

  “Of course it does,” Bryant countered, sounding superior in the moment. “She’s not looking for a thing. She was looking for what she got. Now we’ve got to upsell her.”

  Travis blinked that in, translating into plain English what Bryant had said. He could see the wisdom there. Recently divorced, Tara had just been looking for a one-night stand to get over old dick with a new dick session. The trick was to convince her to have a fling. Something that lasted several nights, if not several weeks, because he was still hard and hurting.

  “So, come on.” Travis waved a hand at himself. “Give me your best pitch.”

  Bryant shot him a dirty look as if he were crazy. “There is no pitch. You don’t argue with women. We’ll just simply show up and keep seducing her. After all, there is no reason to commit to anything more than another one-night stand.”

  “That’s genius, man.” Travis nodded, impressed with Bryant’s logic and all for avoiding any serious subject. “It’ll just be sex, sex, and more sex.”

  “And no sleepovers,” Bryant tacked on with a pointed look. “Skittish women get unnerved by them, which is probably why she threw your ass to the curb finally.”

  “That she did.” Travis sighed, unable to deny that but glad to see Duncan shuffle into the break room. He was the perfect distraction. “Hey, man, what’s up?”

  Duncan shrugged, looking grumpy and sounding put out. “Nothing. Getting off shift. What are you doing here?”

  “I brought donuts!”

  That energetic declaration didn’t budge Duncan’s scowl one bit as he glanced over at the table and wrinkled his nose. “It’s Sunday morning. Don’t you have anything better to do?”

  “Don’t you?” Bryant shot back, stepping in to defend Travis and taunt Duncan all at the same time. “Or don’t you think the rest of us know you’ve been volunteering for the weekend night shifts.”

  “What?” Duncan snorted. “You’re off your rocker, Bryant. I’m stuck here because of that stupid Deputy’s challenge we came up with a few weeks ago.”

  A few weeks ago they’d all been taunting Brandon and Dylan as they tried to chase down the virginal Miss Kristen. That had been fun, but it had worn thin when it became obvious they weren’t just obsessed. The two idiots had fallen in love. There wasn’t anything funny about that.

  “Bullshit.” Bryant snickered. “You are a bold-faced liar.”

  “And you’re a dick,” Duncan shot back.

  “Maybe, but I’m a dick with a girl to warm my bed and pizza to warm my tummy,” Bryant retorted with an obnoxious level of amusement lightening his tone.

  Duncan’s gaze was anything but amused as he shot Bryant a dirty look and stormed out of the break room. Travis watched him go, thinking to himself that the other deputy had been sour of late. If what Bryant said was true, that Duncan had been volunteering for the shit shifts, then something was definitely up.

  Not that he really cared.

  “Okay.” Travis turned back to pin Bryant with a pointed look. “What’s our next move?”

  “Move?” Bryant blinked as if confused, making Travis huff and remind his friend with a one-word explanation.

  “Tara.”

  “Oh yeah.” Bryant broke out into a big grin and shot a quick wink at Travis. “Don’t you worry. I’ve got something planned.”

  * * * *

  Tara sat through yet another tense and nearly silent dinner with her aunt and uncle. They barely spoke a word to each other but seemed engaged in a silent battle of wills that consisted of pointed looks and various sour expressions. To say that their marriage was not happy was an understatement, but like so many people in her family’s social circle, they stuck together.

  Marriage wasn’t about love in her family. It was about necessity and economic benefit. In that regard her uncle and his wife were well matched. They both came from money. They both held family names that were weighted by a prestigious past. They were both miserable.

  That was the fate that Tara was hoping to avoid in life. It had been a near miss with Richard. She’d really thought she’d found love, but what she’d actually married was the ultimate liar. Not that her parents cared. All that had mattered to them was Richard’s excellent pedigree and his phenomenal ability to invest money.

  Tara might not have had the same genius, but she did know how not to squander her trust. She’d do fine on her own, despite what everybody else said. More than that, she was finally going to experience a regular life, one with jobs and friends that she could trust and a happiness that came from accomplishing something with each and every day.

  That was what had been missing all these years. Truth be told, she didn’t think she’d ever actually been happy before. There was just something missing, something cold about her previous life. It was that elusive warmth that she hoped to find in the new life she was building.

  A new life where she didn’t have to sit through these torturous dinners. What Tara really needed to do was find herself a new home. The question was, what did she want in a house? She considered the answer as she chewed her way thoughtfully through the entire meal. Then she excused herself to go look up properties on the Internet. None of them seemed just right. She went to bed more confused than certain.

  Monday dawned, and Tara headed off to work, her thoughts still swirling about the houses she’d seen. She couldn’t help it and felt a slight bit obsessed as she went through the motions of her job without much thought for them. Her mind remained firmly stuck on the houses she’d looked at until finally Glenda came to stop by her cubicle and invite her to lunch with the rest of the girls.

  It was a tradition that all of the women working in the government offices grouped up into cliques and headed down to the Bread Box. Most of the cliques were defined by where people worked and who with, though there was a spin-off group of women who dressed a little inappropriately and flirted a little too much. Those were the availables, as Glenda called them, and they were the ones clustered around the tables packed full of deputies.

  Tara couldn’t help but notice that Dylan and Travis were amongst that group as she followed Glenda into the Bread Box. For a moment their eyes connected, but Tara quickly looked away. The weekend had been fun, but she was doing everything in her power to also forget about it.

  It was just as she’d feared. That kind of pleasure was addictive, and it lingered there in the back of her thoughts, leaving her tinged with a sense of anxiousness Tara knew would grow if she didn’t nip it in the bud now. That was just why she pointedly tu
rned her thoughts back to her house hunt. As she settled down with the ladies, she brought the subject up with the rest of the group, who were all too eager to give her all sorts of advice.

  Some of it was helpful, but most of it simply added to her confusion. Did she want an old house or a new house? Craftsman? Colonial? Southern with a wrap-around porch? Did she want land or to be in town? How many bedrooms? How many bathrooms? What kind of flooring? Was she planning on a future family? Was this a starter home or a forever one?

  It was all too much, and so was Travis’s and Bryant’s flirting. Whatever was going on at their table the laughter was loud and annoying. Tara couldn’t seem to stop glancing in their direction, which was a little humiliating, given they were never looking in hers. They might not have noticed the direction her thoughts kept pulling her in, but Glenda did. She smiled and shook her head at Tara.

  “I take it you had a little too much fun this weekend, huh?” Glenda murmured, keeping her voice low, as the rest of the ladies began trying to cheer up Betsy, whose husband was in the hospital.

  Apparently he was a dying alcoholic, a problem that Betsy had apparently been unaware of. Tara wasn’t sure how that worked, but she still felt sympathetic to the fear and pain she could see in the other woman. She’d been there with Richard, her whole life and future built on a man who was destined to destroy her dreams. It was a mistake Tara wouldn’t be repeating.

  “It was all right,” she finally answered Glenda, refusing to allow the memories to be anything but that.

  “Oh, honey.” Glenda sighed and shook her head at Tara. “You have got it bad, haven’t you?”

  Tara kind of feared she did but refused to admit it. “No. I’m over it. I got just what I wanted, just what I asked for. A little recreational fun.”

  “There is nothing little about Cattlemen,” Glenda corrected her with a knowing twinkle in her eyes. “So don’t even try to fool me. You’ve got it bad.”

  “I haven’t got anything,” Tara insisted, though she sensed the desperation in her words.