by Em Ashcroft
They were dressed and downstairs before the coffee had dripped through the filter. Rachel served it, and they sat around the big table.
“What’s up?” Mason said baldly.
“We found dead rats by the feed bin last night.”
“And? Surely you set poison for them?”
CJ raised a brow. “You seem to take rats in your stride, city boy.”
Mason barked a laugh. “You think we don’t get rats in the city?”
“Point taken.” CJ gave a reluctant grin. “But no, we don’t put rat poison down. We have traps. Those rats had been in the feed bin.”
Silence fell for a brief moment.
“The feed was poisoned?” Rachel said, her throat choked.
“Yes, it was. We’re cleaning out the whole stable and changing all the feed. I’m setting a watch so the horses won’t be alone, and we’re fitting locks to the feed bin.”
“That’s deliberate,” Mason said. “Someone…what? Wants your horses hurt?”
“That poison would have killed them,” Sam said. Rachel had never seen him so grim. “It’s not the first time something’s happened, either.”
He proceeded to tell Mason about their suspicions and the incidents that had happened so far, including the one last year. “It’s only happened when the magazine staff are here.”
“So why tell me?” Mason demanded.
The men exchanged a glance. “You weren’t here last year.”
“So I’m out of the running?”
“Could be.” CJ folded his arms over his chest. “But you’re the boss, so you need to hear this. You probably need to give up, take what you’ve got, and go. We plan to take this place apart.” He glanced at Rachel but said nothing. His expression softened.
She smiled at him. How could she help it when he looked at her with his heart in his eyes? “At least you found the rats before the horses were fed.”
Sam nodded. When he looked at her, a flash crossed his eyes, and she knew he was remembering, as she was, what else had happened in the stables yesterday.
“You’ve been straight with me,” Mason said. “I appreciate that, so I’ll return the favor. We need this shoot. We hired the two top models around today and the best photographer available. We can’t cut it short.”
“You can’t shoot anywhere else?” Sam said.
Mason shook his head. “I’d rather not. How about you guys giving us a bit extra?”
Here it comes, thought Rachel.
Sam cocked a brow. “In what way?”
“You agreed to pose with the models, yes?”
The men nodded.
CJ put his coffee mug down. “We did. We’ve made ourselves available for it.” He grinned. “Even showered. Maybe a picture of us covered in muck and horseshit wouldn’t be what you’re looking for.”
“I don’t know,” Mason said. “That depends on Gary, but somehow I don’t think he wants to go that far. Okay, how do you feel about shape-shifting?”
CJ sucked in a breath, and Sam ran his hands through his damp hair, making spikes of red. “You’re kidding, right?”
“The shape-shifting community keeps saying it wants closer ties with humans. Here’s your chance.”
CJ frowned. “That’s a bit low, appealing to our sense of community.”
“It’s the truth. Style magazine has a great circulation and profile. You couldn’t do better. We’d like a picture of you with the models as working cowboys and one with you as tigers.”
At least Mason put his request straight and didn’t leave it to Rachel to ask them. She’d been feeling increasingly uncomfortable about that, especially after what Mason had said to her last night.
Sam and CJ flicked glances at each other then at her. They were communicating telepathically. She could tell even though she couldn’t tell what they were saying.
“Okay,” Sam said eventually. “You get us shifted for an hour this afternoon. That’s it. And we get to approve the pictures.”
“Do you need that in writing?”
When the men nodded, CJ got up and fetched a piece of paper and a pen. They set up a simple agreement, and they all signed. That was it. She’d get to see the men in tiger form. That had to be exciting.
So was the kiss Sam laid on her as soon as Mason left the kitchen. He smiled down at her.
“We missed you last night.”
“Bianca’s leaving after the shoot today.”
CJ put his hands on her shoulders and turned her. “Does that mean you’re staying over?”
How could she refuse now? Especially when she didn’t want to. “You make me sound like a schoolgirl.”
CJ kissed her in response, plunging his tongue deep and cupping her breast, massaging it gently. “You don’t feel like one.”
“Felt many, have you?” Her reception was making her so lighthearted, despite the trouble that had landed on the guys last night.
“Not one. Not likely to, either. I’ll just have to make do with you, won’t I?”
This was a new side of CJ, a lighthearted side she could love.
There was that word again. She couldn’t afford to think that way. After this week, she’d be back in New York. She had to keep reminding herself of that. This was a fling, no more.
CJ took his hand off her breast and cupped her cheek. “You’re thinking too much.”
“I need to,” she responded. “We don’t have many more days.”
“We’ll see about that,” Sam said, moving behind her and sliding his arms around her waist. “Don’t we get some say in this?”
“We decided to indulge for this week. We can’t do more.”
“Then we’d better make the most of this, hadn’t we?”
CJ bent his head again and growled into her mouth in the way that drove her nuts. She adored the two men caressing and kissing her. She could spend days just doing that, if she had the chance.
Not that she would.
While she still could, she pulled away from the men, but not before she’d tasted CJ in all his minty goodness. He must have just brushed his teeth. They snapped at her as she moved away in instinctive protest.
“I have a job to do,” she said as she straightened her T-shirt. She’d come prepared today in loose-fitting jeans, a T-shirt, and a shirt over the top. When she paused at the door to collect her straw hat from the pegs by the door, it occurred to her how right it looked there, perched between two Stetsons.
Not to be thought of. With the men watching her silently, she went out of the kitchen, barely noting the blast of heat as she left the air-conditioned space and made her way to the lodge to discover Gary’s plans for the day.
Although she’d expected to be hot and frustrated by the end of the day, it happened much earlier today. The reason was the guys. With the hands clearing out the stables, they worked in the lodge, by the corral, and in the fields before heading for the cabin they’d been assigned.
It was the cabin she’d used when she’d stayed here last year. The one she’d hoped to share with Brooke but ended up having all to herself. It looked the same as she remembered, the bed covered with a rustic throw, the coffeemaker in a plain pine cupboard, and the linen press for her clothes. She’d played house here for a week, and despite not landing the men she’d wanted, she’d still had a great time. Plus discovering her love of riding.
CJ came up behind her. She sensed him before he touched her, bending to murmur in her ear. “You’d look better than they do.”
With a gentle touch to her hand, he walked past her to where Bianca was waiting impatiently, tapping her foot. She wore an elegant evening gown, the kind rarely seen outside the most exclusive ballrooms. Made of pure white silk, it fitted her like a glove, darker shadows indicating her nipples and her pussy, but never revealing them completely. Not that Bianca would have minded. Long white gloves and a stunning diamond necklace finished the look. Her hair was loose, cascading down her back as straight as rain.
As if they were posing with
a normal person, CJ and Sam took their places on either side of her. They followed Gary’s instructions. Gary let Bianca extemporise poses with them, and she did magnificently, posing with one and then the other and then both until Rachel wanted to scream, “They’re mine! Fuck off and leave them alone!”
The situation only got worse. They posed on the bed, and then Bianca went off to change and Susie took over, wearing delicate lingerie. If anything, CJ and Sam looked bored. Sam smiled when he draped his arm around Susie, but Susie could be funny, and this session was a helluva lot more relaxed than the one with Bianca.
As she watched, the temperature around Susie and the guys went up, and so did the heat around Rachel, but for entirely different reasons. Susie liked to work in a happy atmosphere, or so she said in her interviews. Actually, her game was subtler than Bianca’s. That was all. Bianca had been in the game for a long time, and she didn’t have to try anymore. She turned up, made everybody miserable, and turned out poses that magically sold whatever she was employed to sell. That equaled big bucks. Susie was younger, had come up the hard way by pleasing people and posing for cheap chain stores, and she’d been at the top for only a couple of years. It was obvious she was going to stay there for a while, though, from her flirtatious series of shoots with Sam and CJ.
Mason came up to stand by Rachel. “Keep tabs on those photos,” he murmured. “They’re black-market material, so I want every one accounted for.”
Shocked, Rachel realized she’d been automatically counting the shots Gary fired off. But was it because of her job or because she wanted Susie to get her greedy hands off Rachel’s men? She wanted it to be the first, but she suspected the second.
Susie was on her back now, lying on a bench covered with a rustic cloth and the men over her, CJ between her legs and Sam kneeling at her head. The pose was blatant, on the edge of decency, and to use an analogy with the porn industry, it was the money shot. For all Bianca’s sophisticated perfection, this was the pose the magazine would sell on.
And Rachel hated it. That was until CJ’s voice came in her head.
Tonight, baby, this is you. Only we’ll all be naked.
Just like that, her veins heated and her pussy dampened, quickly soaking her panties. Those words increased in intimacy because they were in her head, for her alone. Fuck, she had it bad. Had the simmering passion of last year matured into something more than an outpouring of lust? The thought terrified her because they had no future. They were… What did people call it? Something about ships passing in the night? Whatever. They were right. She had to hold on to that, had to remember it, because if she didn’t, she’d find herself worse off than before.
Brooke’s men had offered to move to New York to be with her. Once that thought had popped into her mind, it refused to leave her alone. Would Sam and CJ do that for her? She doubted it. They were so settled here, so at home that she found it hard to imagine them anywhere else. They hadn’t even suggested visiting her. It was clear to her that they regarded this as a fling, nothing else, fulfilling their mutual desires.
Would one man ever be enough again? She might find herself in a new world of ménages, but somehow, she couldn’t see herself doing this with anyone else.
Right now, Susie was murmuring to the men, making them laugh. While Susie was only doing her job, enticing and teasing to get better photographs, Rachel’s green-eyed goddess rose up to slap her in the face. She carried on counting the clicks as Gary took pictures, the only thing that was keeping her from striding to that bench and ripping the men away from the model.
At last the lingerie shoot ended, and Susie disappeared inside the cabin to change for the next set of pictures. The guys glanced at her and went into a different cabin, the one next door. At least they weren’t changing in the same place, although “changing” meant something entirely different to shape-shifters.
A low growl came from the depths of the cabin, but the sun was too bright for anyone to see inside the shadows. Then a huge paw came into vision, followed by another.
Everyone fell silent. The tawny-and-black-striped beast with blue eyes stepped out of the cabin, picking his way delicately down the steps. He moved with sinuous grace, fluidly and silently easing his way over the gravel surrounding the cabins. He fixed his eyes on Rachel.
She smiled. Sam. She’d know those eyes, that tilt of the head anywhere.
CJ followed. He was leaner than Sam but slightly bigger, and his coloring was a bit darker. Rachel didn’t know enough about tigers to know if they were different breeds or even if shape-shifters had breeds at all.
We follow the animal breeds, but we’re different. We tend to be bigger.
No kidding. Rachel couldn’t believe she’d just joked with a tiger. This creature could kill her with one stroke of its paw.
Hey, more respect, baby! the other tiger said, but she heard the humor in CJ’s voice. Kings of the jungle, we are.
You are indeed. How could she deny that when the evidence was standing before her?
Moving carefully, they walked through the throng. Gary, Kevin, and Susie’s two assistants moved aside, as if afraid to touch the great creatures, but Rachel stood her ground. So did Mason, who stood still, as if frozen into place. The tigers reached her and took their stance, one on either side of her. She put her hands on their heads and felt the thick, soft fur. When she dared to scratch Sam’s head between his tufted ears, he pushed gently back, indicating that he liked it. She scratched CJ, too, and got the same response. CJ’s low growl gained a squeal from Susie’s assistants, but Rachel knew it was appreciation.
Do tigers purr?
No, honey, they don’t, Sam said, but we sure would if we could. You have a magic touch.
You’re amazing, Rachel said.
CJ grunted, a kind of huffing sound. We’re just doing what comes naturally. You’re the amazing one. We were scared that you’d run away screaming.
You’re too beautiful for that.
Like Susie, who came out of the cabin, her makeup artist and dresser following her. She wore a gold gown so fine that it rippled every time she moved. Sequins edged the hem and formed the straps, and the fine, gold chain around her neck emphasized her cream-coffee skin.
Everyone held their breaths, as they were supposed to. Susie knew how to make an entrance. She stood on the cabin porch, beautifully incongruous, and posed, one hand up against the artfully weathered post.
The only sound was of Gary snapping and the low growls of the tigers. Susie didn’t appear the least disconcerted by the sight of the huge, lethal creatures on either side of Rachel but posed for Gary as if it was the only thing in life that mattered.
Gary cleared his throat and sent a glance their way. “I’m ready for you now…gentlemen.”
CJ grunted again, a tiger laugh, and curled his body briefly around Rachel.
“He says you can do what you want,” Rachel said.
“How do you know that?” Gary demanded.
Mason answered for her. “Shape-shifters are telepathic. They’ve chosen Rachel to communicate with.”
“Ah. Okay.” Tentatively at first, Gary made requests for the tigers to pose. Sam joined his breed partner after a rough lick of Rachel’s hand that made her squeal.
“They can skin animals with their tongues,” Mason remarked casually.
Rachel turned to confront him. “It just tickled.”
“He was very gentle with you.” Mason’s gaze was hard, almost challenging. “Is that what you want? Someone who can change into another creature?”
Again with the prejudice. “I’m disappointed in you, Mason. It’s like people who say they’re only animals. We’re all only animals, but shape-shifters have a special gift. And it is a gift.”
“Hey.” He touched her shoulder but removed it when Sam growled. That was definitely not a laugh, but a warning. “That’s not what I meant.” He cleared his throat and reddened, moving away. “Can we have a shot of Susie leaning on the tigers, in the same pose she use
d on the bench?” he called out to Gary.
Sam obliged, grumping to Rachel. Beast of burden, am I?
Would you like that, baby? CJ asked her.
Rachel swallowed, but she wouldn’t deny what she felt. Yes, I would. It’s amazing.
To ride on the back of a tiger? Hell, yes.
Then Sam added one wicked word. Naked.
Rachel melted. Her small “uh” could be heard by nobody but Mason. For his benefit, she cleared her throat. He grinned as if he knew, but there was no way he could, Rachel assured herself hastily.
They were teasing her beyond bearing. She longed to excuse herself and bring herself quick relief with her finger, but she would miss the amazing sight of the tigers. She stored up her arousal, vowing to make them good on their promises later.
At least Susie was dressed now. She was achingly beautiful like this. She’d hardly need any tweaking onscreen to make the pictures beautiful.
“Unretouched,” Mason murmured.
“Huh?”
“It’s a new policy. I want the models unretouched on the finished image. We can tweak for flaws in the other parts, or even make something completely different, but I want the girls unretouched. I’ll announce the policy, and if I catch anybody breaking it, they won’t work for us again.”
Genius. Recently pictures had appeared online of retouched and unretouched models, and people were beginning to laugh and post exaggerated retouched pictures of their own. But she recalled a flaw.
“What about the artistic ones that are meant to look messed with?”
He thought for a moment. “Okay, we’ll tell the public when a model has been altered for artistic effect. I want to be open. Now, when everybody can do their own versions, when it’s no longer exclusive, I’m going back to basics. We’re making a statement with the next issue and in public. Gary better get this right. We’ll attract the best photographers like that.”
Gary overheard that part. “I am the best,” he said, moving in front of them to kneel and take the shot from another angle.
“Yes you are,” Rachel agreed.
Mason shot her a grin, but she was no longer in sympathy with him, and she had to force her smile. The man had shown her blatant prejudice on two separate occasions. The first time she might have misunderstood, but the second? Not so much.
