“You’d do that?” I asked, snuggling into his shoulder.
He made a noncommittal sound in response.
“Are you ever going to let me see what’s under that tough-guy act?” I asked, pinching his nose.
He jerked his head away and stood, looking down at me with a frown. “I guess now that you’re awake, you can make it to your room on your own.”
“I think I’ll sleep here,” I said, pulling the blanket from the back of the couch.
For a minute, he just stood watching me like he thought I was up to something. So I smiled innocently up at him, snuggling deeper under the blanket.
“I’ll throw a couple more logs on, then,” he said after a long moment.
While he went outside to get more wood, I shuffled over to the fire and sat on the bearskin rug, the blanket wrapped around me like a cocoon. Waylon’s boots tromped on the steps outside, and then the door blew open hard, a blast of icy air sweeping across the room. Little flakes of snow skittered across the floor before melting on the hardwood. Waylon reached behind him with one foot, caught the door with his cowboy boot, and kicked it closed.
When he knelt before the fire, I could see a slight flush on his stubbly cheeks from his short trip outside. Two minutes outside and his face looked frozen. He didn’t comment on my moving from the couch. He just concentrated on rekindling the coals to get the fire going, leaning down and blowing on them until flames licked up against the cold logs.
At last, when the flames were flickering along the logs, he sat back on his heels. “That’ll do you fine.”
“Will it?” I asked, reaching out one foot to poke his calf with my toe.
He looked down at my bare foot like it was an alien. After a long moment, he raised his head. “What are you doing?” he asked quietly.
“Nothing,” I said lightly.
“I’d better get to bed,” he said, staring at my foot again.
“Wait,” I said, gulping. If I wanted him to be real with me, I had to be willing to do the same with him. Which was a lot harder than I expected—it was easier when I was half-drunk and fully pissed.
He waited, watching my face with a bland, blank expression.
I swallowed again. “Do you want to stay with me…a little longer?”
He waited again, as if he expected me to answer the question for him. After a minute, I shifted and dropped my gaze from his. “I mean, you don’t have to. I know you get up early, and you’ll probably have to haul hay for the cows tomorrow, and do all kinds of stuff I don’t even know goes into running a ranch. It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I’m still going to sit down here, though. I’ll watch the fire until it dies down a little. Thanks for doing that, by the way. Getting the fire going for me. That was really nice of you. Oh my God, do you milk the cows? I just realized I’ve never seen you doing that. Do you think you could teach me?”
“All right,” he said.
“You’ll teach me to milk a cow?” I asked, pulling the blanket down around my waist. I could just imagine the great cow pictures I could send Haley if I milked one.
“I’ll stay a minute, if you need someone to talk to.” He sat on the bearskin rug, leaving a space between us big enough for another person to fit, and leaned back on his hands.
“Oh,” I said, laughing a little as I tried not to stare at his muscles. God, they all had the most gorgeous arms. It must be a family trait. “That’s just my rambling,” I said weakly.
“I noticed.”
“Be nice,” I said, opening the blanket. “You don’t make it easy, you know.”
“What?”
“Talking to you. You’re so quiet.”
“Doesn’t that make it easier?”
“You’d think.” When he didn’t move, I scooted over and draped the blanket around his shoulders, too.
“Did the others go to bed?”
He nodded.
“How come you’re still up?”
“Can’t sleep lately.”
“Because I’m here?” I blurted out.
To my surprise, he nodded again, not denying it.
A gust of wind howled by the house, rattling it like old bones. The fire crackled in the fireplace, and I leaned my head on his shoulder. He didn’t grab me up into a passionate embrace and kiss me like a cowboy who hadn’t seen a woman in months. But he didn’t tell me to fuck off, either.
“What do you want to do now?” I asked, my heart hammering. He was so close. I could smell him, an outdoorsy smell like freshly chopped wood and hay.
Waylon smirked and slid down under the blanket, pulling me down next to him. He lay on his side, propped up on one elbow. “You really want to know?”
Suddenly, I was shaking all over. “I really want to know.”
“You’ll know I’m a filthy animal if I tell you.”
“I already know you’re a filthy animal,” I teased, but inside, my heart was slamming.
“Okay.” Waylon licked his lips. “I want to see you kneeling on the rug in front of the fire.”
I swallowed hard. “Right now?”
“I’m just getting started,” he said, his eyes gleaming in the firelight. “Slow down there, Princess.”
“Oh,” I breathed.
“I want you on all fours,” he said. “Naked. And I want you to arch your back, and turn and look at me over your shoulder, in that sexy way you have, with your hair falling all around you, and your ass in the air. I want to see you reach back and touch yourself until your cunt is glistening wet. And then I want to crawl across the floor to you, spread it open, and taste you.”
I could feel myself getting wet just listening to him. His eyes were locked on mine, intense and burning with desire. My own face was hot, but I couldn’t look away.
“Is that all?” I whispered breathlessly.
“No,” he said. “Then I want to fuck you.”
His hand moved under the blanket, finding my breast and cupping it. His fingers grazed over my shirt until he found the edge of my bra. He tugged it down and pinched my nipple through my shirt.
A stab of desire shot straight from my nipple to my clit. “We could,” I breathed. “No one has to know.”
“Oh, but they will,” he said, rolling my nipple slowly between his thumb and finger. “I can’t do any of that, because our parents are married, which means by law, you’re my sister. And brothers aren’t allowed to watch their sisters touch themselves. Brothers aren’t allowed to suck their sister’s cunts. And brothers definitely aren’t allowed to fuck their sisters on a bearskin rug in front of a fireplace.”
I squirmed, warmth spreading between my legs at his words. “I don’t care,” I gasped. “We’re not related by blood. We didn’t grow up together. We just met. Pretend I’m someone you picked up at a bar.”
He smiled and squeezed my nipple between his thumb and forefinger until I whimpered with longing. “The problem with that,” he said slowly, “Is that you gotta pass muster with all three of us.”
“I can do that,” I said, fisting his t-shirt in my hand.
He pulled the cup of my bra back into place, then trailed his knuckles down my belly, drawing a slow circle around my bellybutton. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
His breath whispered across my cheek, and the woodsy smell of him intoxicated me. Nerves tingled all through my body, increasing the wetness pooling between my legs.
“I better go,” he whispered, his dark eyes fixed on my lips.
“Wait,” I whispered. “Not yet.”
He raised his eyebrows, waiting.
“Tell me more,” I said.
“You like it when I talk dirty?” he asked, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
I nodded, biting my lip but not looking away.
A soft whisper of a laugh escaped him. He reached up and rested his fingers under my chin, tugging my lip free of my teeth. “You really think you could handle all three of us?”
“I know I can.”
But I wasn’t s
o sure. I’d felt the size of both his brothers, and I didn’t think half of one of them could fit inside me.
His thumb caressed my lower lip, rolling it down and smearing the wetness from inside over both my lips. When my lips were wet, he rested his thumb against the center of my lower lip.
A shiver of longing coursed through me.
“I don’t think you could handle a single one of us,” he said. His thumb pressed harder, parting my lips, slipping between my teeth. He gripped my jaw and eased my mouth open, his thumb pinning my tongue down. I could do nothing but close my lips around his thumb. I bit down gently, trapping his thumb. When he didn’t pull back, I let my tongue curl around his thumb, wetting it as I began to suck gently. His eyes widened for half a second, then locked on my lips. I sucked harder, harder, imagining how hard his cock must be inside his jeans right now.
Suddenly, his grip clamped down on my jaw, his thumb crushing my tongue. My mouth opened automatically, and he drew his thumb out. He wiped it dry on his t-shirt, dark amusement in his eyes. “You do that to a guy, you’ll give him a second circumcision,” he said, patting my cheek. “But nice try, Princess.”
With that, he threw the blanket off, hopped to his feet, and strolled out of the room while I lay there, my face an inferno.
10
Amber
“What am I going to do?” I moaned over the phone to Haley after I told her the latest development with the guys—and their mother.
“I can send you another finger vibe,” she said.
“Seriously, though, what would you do?”
Haley laughed. “You’re talking to the girl who went around high school telling everyone that I was taking back the power of the word slut by proudly claiming it.”
“But what about their mother?” I asked.
“Fuck their mother,” she said. “She sounds like the kind of woman who thinks sex is a woman’s duty to her country so she can make more sons. That’s what she did, right?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t solve my problem, unless you think she wants me to get knocked up by all her sons.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Haley said. “If you want to stay in your room and hide from them for two months, I’ll email you some porn.”
“I might need some,” I said. “But strictly for instructional purposes. Waylon thought I was trying to circumcise his thumb when I sucked on it sexily.”
Haley howled with laughter. “I guess it’s good you started with a thumb,” she said at last.
“Yeah, I don’t really want to swallow a foreskin,” I said. “No matter how hot the owner is.”
“I just threw up in my mouth.”
This time, I nearly died laughing. Which was better than dying of shame, as I was pretty sure I’d almost done after Waylon’s comment. How dare that bastard make fun of my inexperience? It wasn’t like I was a virgin by choice. Okay, I’d chosen to stay with Charlie, but seriously, I’d have felt like the shallowest bitch on earth if I’d dumped a guy for not hooking up. After all, a guy couldn’t dump a girl for not hooking up, not without being called a disgusting pig.
Now, more than ever, I regretted those wasted years. I could have been out screwing my way through all the boys in Manhattan. I’d know exactly how to suck on a guy’s thumb to make him come in his pants and beg me to move on to his cock, instead of patting my cheek like I was his virginal little sister. And I’d probably be nice and loose so I could fit all three of their enormous penises inside me at the same time. Hell, babies would just drop out of me one after another, and their mother would be happy, too.
“Seriously, Amber, you can’t hide out in your room for the next two months.”
“Like hell I can’t,” I said. “They’re pigs and they don’t deserve me.”
“No one deserves you,” Haley said. “Except me, and I’m not really into eating pussy, no offense. But I do know you pretty well, and I don’t think hiding in shame is what you really want to do.”
“It’s not,” I said, throwing myself back on my pillows. “What I want is for my mom not to be married to their dad so they’ll stop trying to push me away. Do you think we can break them up?”
Haley laughed. “Not in two months.”
“Hmm, okay. What about getting them used to the idea so they’ll give us their blessing? You think we could do that in two months?”
“Not even in two million years,” Haley said. “Look, Amber, if you start hooking up with even one of your stepbrothers, people are going to freak out. And if you’re hooking up with all of them, they’ll completely lose their shit. I’m not going to lie. That’s what’ll happen. So the question is, are you willing to risk that? Or not?”
11
Sawyer
“You were up late last night,” Holden said to Waylon at breakfast. His voice was bland, but I knew he was up to something, the way a brother just knows.
Waylon paused, then shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth. “Storm,” he muttered.
I took a long swig of coffee before wading it. “You could call her that.”
Waylon glanced up and then continued eating.
“Look, we’ve been waiting for the right woman for three goddamn years,” I said. “I’m tired of waiting. She’s the first woman who’s ever come close to what we’re looking for.”
“And here she is, delivered to our doorstep,” Holden said. “That’s gotta be a sign.”
Waylon grunted.
“I say we give her a chance,” I said. “If she wants to, of course.”
“Oh, she wants to,” Waylon said.
“And what other woman has wanted to, not run screaming from the idea, and not just treated it like one wild night?” I asked.
“Even if Dad did marry her mom, we’re all adults now,” Holden said. “It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped. That’s not our fault. And it’s not hers. And we never even lived together as stepsiblings. It’s not weird.”
Waylon snorted. “Tell that to the people in town,” he said. “Tell it to our parents.”
“They may not be thrilled, but they can’t do shit about it,” I reminded him. “When else will we have a woman like her? She’s perfect, she’s willing, she’s open-minded…” Not to mention she made my cock stiff every time she touched me. But I didn’t have to tell them that—I knew they felt it, too. I could see the strain of restraint on them every time she walked in the room, same as it was for me.
“I’ll agree with one thing,” Waylon said. “It’s time the old man learned he can’t control us anymore. He’s been doing it all our lives. Even now, dangling a loan over our heads. Making us take care of Amber. We’ll take care of her all right.”
“You in agreement, then?” Holden asked, watching our big brother intently.
“I didn’t say that,” Waylon said, setting down his fork and taking a gulp of coffee. “We can’t have it getting out that we’re all living up here and in a relationship. And it will get out. Eventually, it will. Just like it got out with Maria—and that time, it wasn’t even the truth.”
“We can protect her better if she’s on the inside with us,” I said. “She’s trouble, I’ll admit. But I always did like trouble.”
“She’s got more to lose than we do,” Waylon said. “She’s still a teenager, for Christ’s sake. She may not understand it now, but it could ruin her entire professional life, something like that getting into the news.”
“Protecting her comes first,” Holden agreed. “We’ll have to make sure nothing gets out that could tarnish her reputation. It should be her choice.”
“We gotta do what’s right for us, too,” I said. “And what I see in her, it’s right for you both. It’s about time we had a woman we could all love. And one who respects and cares for our needs, too.” All I could think about was how eager she’d been to kiss me at the table the other day, how willing she was. I didn’t think we’d get any hesitation on her part. If we put the question to her, we had to be pretty damn sure she�
�d accept. And it seemed we were.
Waylon got up and picked up his hat, pushing it low on his head. “I don’t think I can resist her much longer, anyway,” he growled. “She’s like a cat in heat.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” I said, standing and downing the rest of my coffee, chewing the stray grounds between my teeth as I grabbed my own hat and coat.
“We can’t just go in there cocks blazing,” Waylon said. “Not if she’s a damn virgin.”
“Fuck, I forgot about that,” I said. “She can’t be. She doesn’t act like one.”
“She acts like one to me,” Waylon said.
“I thought she was a party girl in New York,” Holden added. “And she was drunk when she said that. Surely she didn’t mean it…”
I set my cup in the sink and turned back to my brothers. “Only one way to find out for sure.”
12
Amber
November began white as Christmas. Snow fell during the night, piling up on what was left of the last one. I spent my days avoiding the Grimeses and taking care of the horses, and my nights chatting with Haley and ordering decorations for the house.
A few days after the wine debacle, as Holden was clearing the dinner dishes, Sawyer smiled across the table at me. “Feel like a nightcap?”
I didn’t, mostly because I was afraid I’d end up making an ass of myself again, but the mischievous light in his eyes made me hesitate. When he yawned hugely and stretched his arms over his head, I caved. Seriously, those arms would be my undoing.
“Maybe, for a minute,” I said, keenly aware of Waylon’s silent, watchful presence at the head of the table.
“We just want to talk,” Holden said, rinsing a plate and setting it in the dishwasher.
“It didn’t seem like dinner table conversation,” Sawyer said with that mischievous smile.
“What does that mean?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.
Instead of answering, he took a bottle of whiskey from atop the fridge and opened the cabinet to retrieve four whiskey glasses. “Can you handle whiskey?” he asked, a challenge in his voice.
Wrangle Me, Cowboys_A Reverse Harem Forbidden Romance Page 5
