Cowboys for Christmas

by Jan Springer

  There was no way they were going back to what they had before. He’d branded her, and she belonged to him now.

  * * * * *

  Brady grit his teeth as his shaft jerked against the tight restraint of his jeans. JJ’s sweet little cries were drifting all the way down the stairs and into the living room where he and Rafe had remained, playing a game of solitaire after Dan had gone upstairs to be with JJ.

  “Man, this is killing me,” Rafe grumbled as he stared at the stairwell.

  “You, me and my cock. But we all agreed to stick with the plan and break her in gently,” Brady replied.

  “Doesn’t sound like Dan’s breaking her in gently.” Rafe retorted. He swore beneath his breath as another erotic cry swept through the room.

  Brady closed his eyes and counted to five. He needed to steady his breathing. Needed to get out of the house and into the cold air so he could think.

  “I’m going out,” he said between gritted teeth. If he stuck around and listened to any more, he would lose it, go up those stairs four at a time and take JJ himself.

  “Better check on the new calves. Maybe throw down some more hay for their bedding. It’s going to be a cold night,” Rafe said thickly.

  Yeah, and a cold shower for Brady.

  “Whose fucking stupid idea was this to take her one at a time?” Brady grumbled as he stood. He winced at the tightness between his thighs.

  “Yours,” Rafe hissed in a not-so-friendly tone.

  “Next time I come up with a stupid idea like that, shoot me, will you?”

  “It’ll be my pleasure.”

  Another sultry moan from JJ echoed down the stairs and through the room.

  “I’m going out to check on the cattle in the north pasture,” Rafe said as he stood and followed Brady into the mudroom. They began donning their winter gear.

  Surprise made Brady frown. “Now? You know it’s dangerous to ride out after dark,” Brady warned.

  “It’s a hell of a lot more dangerous staying in here listening to her. I need to get out of here or our plan is going to crumble. Comprendez?”

  Brady nodded and slipped on his wool hat.

  “Understood.” And he wasn’t kidding. The last thing he wanted to do was scare JJ right out of their lives. If she discovered all three of them wanted to fuck her, she’d probably dial her parole officer herself and ask to be flown back to prison. Having her out of his life was the last thing he wanted. They would take it slow. They had to.

  He couldn’t get out the door fast enough.

  * * * * *

  JJ awoke on a moan. She’d slept so deeply and so soundly that when she blinked her eyes open, she didn’t even know where she was or why her pussy, lips and nipples were so…pleasantly sore.

  And in one wild wave it all came tumbling back. She’d slept with Dan! Was he still in bed beside her? Had he stayed all night? Early morning sunshine sparkled through the bedroom window panes illuminating her cozy room. Her tummy dropped. She’d always gotten up at the crack of dawn to prepare breakfast for the guys. It was late.

  Yet she didn’t want to move. She’d never felt so comfortable. Never had wanted so badly to just lie in bed and enjoy the memories of what had happened last night.

  Dan had been perfect. He’d wrenched orgasms out of her so easily that she doubted she would ever go back to masturbating. She silenced her breathing and listened. No sounds. Not even a breath from Dan. Tentatively, she reached out behind her. Her hand landed on cold emptiness.

  A frisson of disappointment made her frown. Dan was gone. How long had he stayed? The last thing she remembered was him spooning his naked body against her backside. Had she not been exhausted from all those cries and shudders and tossing around, she would have told him to slide his cock into her vagina so she could sleep with his shaft buried inside of her.

  JJ closed her eyes and blew out a tense breath. Just thinking about what had happened last night was tensing her up again. The only thing she wanted to do right now was to have sex. She opened her eyes and stared at the fireplace. A couple of split birch logs crackled as flames licked around them. The sounds were loud. Her cries while she’d come last night had been a heck of a lot louder.

  Heat fused into her cheeks. No doubt that Brady and Rafe had heard. How could they not? How could she face them? Maybe she didn’t have to. The house was too quiet. They must have made their own breakfasts and left for the day. Running a ranch was a full-time job, and she needed to get her ass out of bed.

  Reluctantly, JJ whipped aside her covers and rolled out of bed. As she grabbed the towel she’d dropped on the floor last night, she spied something light brown hanging on the post by the foot of her bed. She grinned. She had her first cowboy hat on her bed post.

  Suddenly she couldn’t wait until all three cowboys hats were there.

  * * * * *

  After a quick shower, JJ slipped into a pair of jeans and a red blouse. When she opened her bedroom door and stepped into the hallway, the aromatic scent of coffee had her hurrying down the stairs.

  Coffee. That’s exactly what she needed. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she skidded to a halt. The table had been set for her. A couple of candles flickered in candle holders and a red poinsettia plant had been set there as well.

  Where in the world had that plant come from? How had they been able to keep it hidden from her? She laughed as she strolled to the table and picked up the plant. Tears bubbled into her eyes. She hadn’t seen a real poinsettia plant since she was a kid.

  This plant was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She stared at it for the longest time, admiring the red and green leaves, committing it to memory. Finally, the scent of coffee urged her to place the plant back onto the table. A couple of minutes later, she was sitting in front of the poinsettia plant, a cup of steaming coffee in hand and with a note she’d found by the machine.

  The note was from Dan.

  JJ,

  Blizzard coming. Driving the pregnant cows in. We won’t be back until supper. Enjoy your breakfast. Last night was great. Rafe will be with you tonight.

  Dan

  JJ worried her bottom lip as she read the last line. Last night was great. Had Rafe and Brady seen the note?

  She slapped the paper onto the table, rolled her eyes and laughed. Even if they hadn’t read it, they would have heard her last night.

  Heat flushed her cheeks. How embarrassing. Why couldn’t she just act casually about what had happened? Why did she feel shy about sex? She’d enjoyed it so much. Yet, she just couldn’t get comfortable with the idea of facing Brady and Rafe, or even Dan, tonight.

  Goodness, even her hands were shaking. She held them out in front of her and sure enough, they were trembling. Her pussy was clenching too as she thought about Dan’s big body coming over her, his thick, hard shaft penetrating her and his mouth claiming hers.

  Oh dear. It was going to be a very long day.

  * * * * *

  “Heard you come in really late last night,” Dan said as the three of them tied off their horses on a couple of saplings in the north meadow. There was a teasing tone to Dan’s voice and Rafe wasn’t in the mood for his taunting today. They’d worked hard to separate the pregnant cattle from the rest of the wild herd and then led them into the corrals near the barn so they could keep an eye on them during the blizzard.

  “Your turn to listen tonight,” Rafe grumbled. He’d been dying since hearing JJ’s sexy little mews, and he couldn’t wait to see her when they got back to the ranch house.

  “Let’s not talk about our nights. We agreed to stick to business talks during the days.” Brady replied curtly.

  He looked as grumpy as Rafe felt as he dragged out their lunch from his saddlebags and trudged to a nearby fallen log. He kicked off a good amount of snow so they could all sit.

  Dan grabbed a couple of Thermos of coffee out of his saddlebag and winked at Rafe.

  “She’s well worth the wait.”

  “Good to know. N
ow shut up. I’m hungry,” Rafe said. He didn’t meant to be curt with Dan but he always got in a sour mood when he was tired. He knew this one-on-one sex with JJ was a temporary thing, but his cock was aching and he just wanted to be with her. Knowing that she was wearing a butt plug didn’t help any either. He was an butt man and he couldn’t wait to take her tight, sweet ass.

  “How many more cows do we need to round up?” Brady asked as they sat down on the log on either side of him.

  “Twenty-one. Then the afternoon chores need doing,” Dan said. “I’ll do Rafe’s for him, since he came in so late last night. I’m assuming that’s my fault.”

  There was that teasing tone in Dan’s voice again. Rafe stifled his irritation. “I’d appreciate it,” he said. He accepted a Thermos from Dan, unscrewed the lid and poured some coffee into his tin cup. The warm steam from the coffee felt good as it wafted against his cold cheeks. Doing his chores was the least Dan could do after chasing him out of the warm house into the frigid weather last night.

  They ate in silence amidst white puffs of steam uncurling from their cups and their noses. The air was colder than usual, despite the clear blue skies. The blizzard was still a couple of days away, but they would need all that time to get the at-risk cows settled, some more firewood dragged in and piled against the mudroom walls and near the several fireplaces in the house. Plus the generators had to be checked and ready to go at a moment’s notice. This would be on top of their regular chores of getting feed out to the wild cattle and checking fence lines and other things.

  Rafe smiled as he chewed on the delicious roast beef sandwich Brady had whipped up for them. It was going to be a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day blizzard. He always liked it when it snowed on Christmas. Up until his late teens, he’d never seen snow. He’d lived in southern Florida and it rarely got below freezing in the area where he’d lived with his parents and siblings.

  The minute he’d graduated high school he’d left home, wanting to travel the world. He didn’t get far on the money he’d saved from his after school and summer jobs, so he’d gotten a job working on the shipping docks in Boston. Then, when he’d gotten bored, he’d done gigs on lobster and fishing boats in the Maritimes and New England states.

  Over the past twelve years, he’d worked in several states as well as a few provinces and couple of territories in Canada. He’d plowed farmers’ fields in the Saskatchewan prairies, heli-logged in the British Columbia interior and then cattle ranched in Wyoming and Montana.

  He’d been in Toronto, visiting his sister who’d moved there with her Canadian husband, when he’d gone to a downtown bar for a drink and had overheard Brady and Dan chatting about plans to create a cattle ranch up in Northern Ontario. Brady had been bored with his lawyer job and Dan had been going nuts as a chiropractor.

  The idea of cattle ranching in the secluded Northern Ontario wilderness had struck him as adventurous so he’d introduced himself and offered his manual labor services. He’d been having a great time since then. But then JJ had come along, and he’d begun to feel as if something had been missing in his life. He’d finally realized he needed JJ to fill his ache. Dan and Brady had realized the same thing.

  When Brady had mentioned he was falling for her, and Dan had expressed the same feelings, Rafe had quickly come to the conclusion that he didn’t want to leave this place. Nor did he want to lose his friendship with Rafe or Dan—or with JJ, for that matter. The idea of sharing her had been met with enthusiasm by all three of them.

  She just fit. All four of them fit. He wouldn’t dream of ruining it. He would stick with the plan. One-on-one sexual relationships until she was comfortable, and then they would up it to ménages. He inhaled a deep breath of the cold air and accepted a second roast beef sandwich from Brady.

  Was he being a selfish asshole in wanting to share her? Didn’t she deserve the traditional one guy who would put her on a pedestal and worship her?

  He shook his head. No, she deserved three guys who would do that.

  Chapter Eight

  JJ blew out a tense breath as she stepped into the shower. It had been a very long day, especially with anticipating sex tonight as well as waiting to face the three guys again. Thankfully, they’d been gentlemen tonight. She’d expected some sort of kidding regarding her cries of pleasure last night, but they’d barely deviated from their routine of discussing what needed to be done regarding the ranch.

  But their heated looks when they watched her approach the table with their food, or their lingering gazes when they thought she wasn’t looking as she’d cooked, brought intense awareness about them. She’d found herself gazing into the shiny stainless-steel pots and catching them studying her.

  Wild excitement roared through her every time she thought about one of them coming up behind her, and undressing her right there in front of the other two. But it hadn’t happened.

  Whew! Have mercy! She was getting too hot thinking about it. She needed to grab a shower and not think about Rafe joining her in bed tonight. But she couldn’t stop fantasizing as she undressed and then leaned in and turned on the shower.

  What kind of lover would Rafe be? When she’d shared that kiss with him, sitting on his lap, she’d instinctively known he would be attentive. Would he be as intense and bold like Dan? She sensed he would be.

  All three men were strong. They had to be to live in this solitude, driving their cattle from meadow to meadow when the snow melted. They’d carved a cattle ranch out of the wilderness. They’d done long cattle drives through forests and across rivers to a railroad many miles away where the animals were loaded into railcars. The guys were always working outdoors coming in only to eat and now…to have sex with her.

  JJ smiled as she stepped under the steamy spray of the shower. She could think of worse things a woman would have to endure.

  Christmas with her cowboys. Cowboys for Christmas. Two more days until the Christmas Day. She had a perfect holiday dinner planned for them. There were several frozen turkeys and hams in the freezers. She would make one of each. It would allow her to use the turkey and ham for sandwiches for several days afterward, too. She’d freeze the bones and make soup from them in January when the real cold hit.

  She couldn’t wait to make stuffing for the turkey. She’d seen canned cranberries in the basement pantry and she’d make mashed potatoes from the potato supply Dan had harvested from his garden and stashed in the cellar. She’d also made her first order for food supplies over the Internet, and ordered some Christmas presents for the guys with the money they’d deposited in an online bank account they’d set up for her.

  North Country Air had emailed her back and said they would confirm a delivery date. She doubted they would come before Christmas with the blizzard warning, but that was okay. All she wanted for Christmas this year were her sexy cowboys.

  She laughed as she angled her face beneath the spray. Who knew she would turn out to be the domestic type? But she loved it. She loved cooking for them. She treasured them. How could it be possible that she had such affection for three men in such a short time? Her heart melted whenever she looked at each one of them.

  The guys had said they could be snowed in here until May. If they were lucky, the weather would warm up by then and Dan could start his garden in June. But what in the world would they do until then? To her amazement, thinking about being trapped here with her three men and with no way out didn’t bring the familiar claustrophobia.

  It brought her happiness. If they were snowed in, she couldn’t be returned to prison if she did something wrong, right? And best of all, they would love her and make love to her. Gosh, what had she done right in her life to deserve such happiness? She’d endured her stepfather’s beatings and his abuse of her mother just to get to this point. It was almost worth the ten years behind bars to get to this point.

  A movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. As she turned, she spied Rafe stepping into the shower. Wicked shudders of anticipation scampered thro
ugh her and raced directly into her pussy, making it clench. The need for penetration was so intense she couldn’t stop the whimper from escaping her mouth.

  As he slid the shower door closed, muscles rippled all over him. His shoulders, his chest and his abdomen. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on the guy. He was lean and fit from hard physical work.

  Her breath caught as she dropped her gaze to between his thighs. His cock was fully erect and sheathed in a clear condom. His flesh was shaded an angry purple and his shaft was ultra-thick and about eight inches long.

  Oh dear. Oh my.

  When he reached down and stroked his swollen length, she watched in wonder as his shaft jerked.

  “I’ve been waiting too long to take you, JJ. Too long,” he said.

  She forced herself to lift her gaze and caught his heated look. He smiled and her heart skipped a beat. Any shyness at him seeing her naked totally vanished.

  “I couldn’t wait until you got out of the shower,” he confessed.

  “I guess I’m going to have to expect these unexpected visits.”

  Goodness, her legs felt weak and trembly at the intense way he studied at her. His eyes were darkening as he stepped toward her. Her pulse pounded with anticipation. Heated blood flowed through her veins.

  He stopped a couple of inches away. His body heat wrapped around her and she could smell an erotic spicy scent wafting off him. She really liked it.

  “You smell nice,” she whispered.

  “You do too.”. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. He seemed to drift away for a moment, but then his eyes popped open again. His gaze was intense as he stared at her with a fierceness she’d not seen in him before.

  ‘“Baby, I don’t know how long I can hold out. Listening to you and Dan last night…” His words trailed away.

  He had heard her cries. She blew out a tense breath.

  “I just want to make you cry out like that again. It was the sweetest sound.”