by Kaliana Cole
“I’m sorry, Emma. Some dirtbag keeps damaging my equipment. It is downright sabotage. My insurance company coughed up last time, but they won’t be so forthcoming this time. I wish they would leave me alone.”
“Whoa! Back up. What is going on, Case?” Emma was stumped at the lack of fight in her half sister’s voice. Casey was a fighter. She didn’t give in to anything.
“Someone keeps damaging my equipment. It was small things at first, but it has really blown out now. There has been over fifteen grand’s worth of damage this month, Em. I can’t cope with this.” She heard the rough intake of breath, a telltale catch. “I’m about ready to get out of contracting and go be a secretary somewhere.”
“That requires typing skills, hon, and those you don’t have.” Casey’s emails were dreadful. She had no idea of punctuation, and her spelling was creative at best. “Why do you stay in Carson City? It’s a big country out there.”
“This is where I was raised, Emma. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“You could always come and live with me.”
Casey laughed weakly. “Yeah, and that’s going to work, too.”
“Well, not with me. In Liberty Springs anyway. I would really enjoy spending some time with you.”
“I’ve heard about that place recently, some nuckin’ futzo got his ass shot or something. Isn’t it a town full of sexual deviants?”
“Yeah, about that…”
Twenty minutes later Casey was dumbfounded. “Jesus, Em! I’m not sure what’s the biggest shock, that you nailed that crazy bastard or that you’re living with three hot studs. Jesus, I remember you used to blush if I even talked about sex. Those guys need a medal for removing the stick from your ass.” A big bold laugh brought a smile to Em’s face. “They’ve turned you into a wild child and you want me to move there?”
She chuckled. She could see now why Casey had always seen her as stuffy. “Only if you want to.” Emma picked up the ring. It was the first time she had allowed herself to touch it with her hands. “I know of a house on a couple of acres that will be coming up for rent soon. It would have enough room to store all your equipment. There are some rather gorgeous-looking neighbors, too. Don’t tell any of my lot I said that, though.”
“Too late, sweetheart.”
“Fuck!” Emma fell off the stool and landed on her ass as Colby spoke from where he lounged against the door frame. She shot him a dirty look as she struggled to her feet, retrieving the phone from the floor.
Laughter greeted her on the other end. “Oh, Em. I wish I had been there to see that. I am laughing my ass off just listening to it. Tell me, does he look as good as that voice sounds?”
“Better, but he is going to end up with a swollen lip if he sneaks up on me again.” She still scowled at Colby, who had an unrepentant grin on his face, a grin that held the promise of retribution. “Think about it anyway, Casey. And I hope your day gets better.”
“If you were looking at the mess I am now, you’d know it could only get better, and that your offer looks pretty damn good right now. I think you will be hearing from me, sis.” The phone disconnected before Emma could act on the shock she felt. Casey had never before acknowledged the blood bond between them.
“Well, well, well. Miss Emma has some ‘splaining to do.” Blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “Those dickwad Marshalls are gorgeous, are they? I suppose I could overlook that since you’re offering our house out, ‘cause that means we’re staying right here.” He stalked toward her, a smugness tingeing his predator’s smile. “Nice to see that it fits.”
Emma followed his gaze to where the ring sat on her third finger. She quickly stripped it off and put it back on the peg. She didn’t even remember sliding it on.
“That’s a shame. It suits you, Em.” He pinned her to the bench with his body, sealing off all routes of escape with his arms. “When are you going to give in? Ty’s not going to cave. Over a week of the sweetest begging I have ever heard has not got you anywhere. He’s even more stubborn than you, Em. You know you want this to be permanent. I just heard you tell your sister the same thing. When are you planning on letting us know?”
Emma let her hips snug against his, trying to distract him. “That won’t work, sweet. I’ll bend you over this bench and take you right now, but you’ll still be in the same predicament when we’re done.” He rocked his erection against her to substantiate the claim.
“I’m scared, that’s why, Colb. One day you lot are going to wake up and you’ll finally see little old me instead of the fantasy you’ve built up inside your thick skulls. Then I’ll be on my own again. I couldn’t cope with losing any of you.”
“Christ, Emma! You think we don’t see the real you? Hon, I think we see you better than you do. You deserve this happiness. It’s not going to end. We’ll still be chasing you around trying to get a bit when we’re all gray and old. We love your hot little body, but it’s what is in here that keeps us coming back.” He laid his palm between her breasts. “You are an incredibly strong woman with a heart big enough to love all of us. You love Ty even though he’s such a grumpy bastard. You love Zach even though he is the most annoying person to live with on earth. And you even love me, despite the fact that I am an absolute slob.”
“Ty’s not grumpy.” Emma defended the eldest Whelan.
“Not since you came along, sweet. I notice you’re not defending Zach or me.”
“Sorry, Colb, but you are a slob, and Zach is annoying.” She slid her hands around his taut waist. “But you’re right, I do love you anyway.”
“Say yes, Em.” His eyes begged.
The phone rang three times before Emma made any move to answer it. Colby watched as she spoke briefly before hanging up.
“I’d better say yes, because Casey wants to know when she can move into your house.” Colby’s smile made her legs weak and her heart glow.
“You’re never going to regret it, sweetheart.” His lips stole any chance of a reply.
* * * *
Ty got in late. His back ached, and one shoulder felt like it had a knot the size of his fist in it. Fifteen horses in one day were five more than he liked to do. But as he had driven all the way over to Jackson, the numbers had made it worthwhile. His body, however, was not in agreement with his wallet.
He had already called to let Em know he would be late and that he would get something to eat on the way. He entered through the laundry and made use of the shower there. The smell of horses’ hooves was not high on his list of favorite smells to bring inside.
The shower helped with his back but the knot still caught every time he moved his shoulder. He went to the kitchen in search of some painkillers. He was looking in the cabinet where Colby kept his tablets when he heard the sound of bare feet padding across the tile. Warm hands rested above the towel that wrapped his waist, and a head nuzzled sleepily against his back.
A smile grew on his face despite being tired and sore. “Hey, darlin’. What are you doing up?”
“Waiting for you. What are you looking for?” Her cheek rubbed against his back.
“Some painkillers or anti-inflammatories. My shoulder is all tight.”
“Want me to give it a rub for you?”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know. I want to.”
He could only follow when she took hold of his hand and led him into the sitting room that adjoined the main bedroom. She was wearing one of his shirts that hung down to her bare knees. “Lie down there. I’ll just grab some oil.”
Ty sank slowly to the thick rug in front of the empty hearth, lit dully by the dimmed standing lamp. The first time he had seen the room his head had been full of cozy winter nights by the fire, making love to Emma in front of the flames. Right now, he was just glad the rug was comfortable.
Emma padded back to his side, twirling the bottle of oil between her hands to warm it. She sank to her knees beside him, a little girl lost in the folds of his old shirt. The oil was a little cold as she pooled it in
the furrow of his spine, but her hands quickly warmed it, sliding slickly over his skin. It didn’t take her a minute to find the rock-hard lump in his trapezius.
He couldn’t hold back a groan when she worked the heel of her hand into it. “Tell me if I’m doing it too hard,” she warned, kneading into the lump.
“That feels unreal. Just keep doing that, Em.” It was a bittersweet agony, pain lancing up to his neck and then soothed away by her hands as she lined up for another pass over the knot.
“I’m going to have to sit on you. Your shoulders are too wide for me to lean over for long.” Her ass touched down on the towel that covered his, but her silky inner thighs pressed their heat against his sides. He wondered just what she was wearing beneath his shirt.
“God, I love your body, so big and strong.” Her hands swept the length of his back and fanned out to his arms before she returned to the problem spot. Ty’s cock hardened at her worshipful tone. She sounded like he felt when he got his hands on her.
“It’s all yours, darlin’,” he assured her. A smile grew when he felt her lean forward to reach his nape. The little vixen wasn’t wearing a damn thing under that shirt. And she was wet. He felt her lips stick to him as she straightened back up. The way she stilled said she had felt it too.
“Sorry, Ty, it’s just an automatic reaction to having you under me. Hell, I get like it whenever you’re around, you know that.”
“And love it,” he added.
“I know you’re tired and sore. I just want to make you feel better. I’m not going to molest you.”
“You’re not? That’s kind of disappointing.”
“Really? You wouldn’t mind?”
“Go for it, darlin’, do whatever you want.” He could tell she was itching to get her hands on him. The towel was stripped from him, jerked from beneath his hips. At least it gave his cock a chance to assume a more comfortable position than being stuck pointing at his feet while it swelled.
She pushed his thighs apart a bit further until she could kneel between them, and then her hands travelled the length of his spine once more. His first indication that her shirt had gone was the hard points of two warm breasts scraping along his back before she pressed to him in a full body caress. Lord, but she felt good against him! Soft and curvy, so giving.
Teeth nipped softly down his back, shivers of pleasure following in their wake. Ever downward she went until the hard curve of his ass lay beneath her hot mouth. She licked one cheek and then bit it like an apple, holding his flesh between her teeth. Ty sucked in a breath as fire lanced through him, but he couldn’t tell her to leave off. She was letting the hedonist reign, and he wondered where that was going to take her.
He didn’t have to wonder long. She licked over her teeth marks before kissing it tenderly. Her knees slid back and he felt her intentions with the sensitive hairs on the back of his balls before her finger stroked the flesh pressed against the deep pile rug. It felt like she was absorbing the fineness of his skin, mapping the textures, and if the speed-up of her breathing was any indication, liking what she found. Her hot breath bathed his balls before the devastating lash of her tongue.
Nuzzling into him, her nose teased the fine fuzz between his ass cheeks while hot, wet velvet made love to his balls. He couldn’t hold back the sounds that built under her ministrations. He tried to lift to give her better access, but she growled and grazed his sac with her teeth. Emma wanted him right where he was. He couldn’t help the rocking motion that stimulated his cock as it lay trapped between the luxury pile rug and his belly.
“You need to stop, darlin’. It’s too good, and there’s lots I want to do to you.”
“If you have to ask, you don’t want it bad enough.”
Ty knew a challenge when he heard it. He came to his knees and turned, pulling her close and kissing her soundly. “You are in so much trouble.” He gripped her ass cheeks and squeezed threateningly.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re all talk, Ty.”
He chuckled wickedly. “Won’t work, Em. Begging didn’t work, so now you’re trying to provoke me into it? There’s nothing you can do right now that is going to make me slip into that tight little ass, darlin’.”
“Nothing?” He felt her grin against his neck. “Not even this?” Her left hand rose to his mouth and rubbed the back of her knuckles over his lips. His heart skipped a beat as he realized his ring adorned her hand.
“Yeah, that’ll do the trick,” he amended, claiming her mouth in a deep, annihilating kiss. He rose to his feet, picking her up. Her thighs wrapped him instinctively, her hot, molten core pressed tight against his tight belly. He started walking.
“Where are you going?”
“To bed. I want a little comfort for this, love.”
“You’ll wake...”
“They’re awake, darlin’, I guarantee that.” There was no way either of his brothers would have slept through the noise he had made or the scent of her arousal that drifted through the rooms.
Sure enough, both waited in the huge bed, naked and aroused with the bed turned down and the lights on low. They were awake all right, and rearing to go.
“Mmm, where should I put you, Em?”
“Right here, brother.” Zach slid down the bed and turned, placing his head on the edge of the high bed. Ty peeled Emma off him and turned her, lowering her over Zach’s upturned face, her knees on the very edge of the bed.
Her hungry cry told Ty that Zach’s devilish tongue had found its mark. Zach would never pass up a chance for a midnight snack of the carnal type. Colby passed him a tube of lube and an anticipatory smile as he moved in at Zach’s hip. Colb’s hand was just as rough and demanding as Em liked it when he seized her hair and guided her mouth to the big-headed cock he fisted.
Ty waited until she had settled into a rhythm before dribbling the chilly gel down the valley between her cheeks. He let it run down the silken skin, watching her squirm as it reached her brown dot. Her sphincter tightened reflexively, the twitch of flesh visible.
Colby and Zach had both enjoyed her tight-fisted grip as she had relinquished control to them in the most submissive act a woman could gift her man. But with Em, submit wasn’t the right word. The little wench had been meek and subordinate only the first time. After that she had chased her pleasure shamelessly, wanting the seductively insidious sensation of one of them in her ass with a hunger that rivaled their own.
Ty had never been as close to capitulation as he had been over the last couple of nights. She had taunted him, shaking that curvy ass in his face, begging him to fill her, near crying when he had plunged into the hot, molten depths of her pussy instead. Zach and Colb had no such qualms, enjoying everything she offered and going back for more. Tonight it was his turn.
He rubbed the lube into her star, ignoring the way she pushed back into his touch for more. The moment his finger slipped through her ring she tightened alarmingly. “Back off, Zach, don’t let her come. Keep her right on the edge. I don’t want her any tighter than she is right now.”
Sweat beaded on his brow as he slipped a second digit into her. She took it greedily. Hot, satiny flesh gripped his fingers as muffled cries tore from her throat to tease Colby’s cock. Wet suckling sounds and appreciative humming assured him Zach was enjoying his feast.
Ty ran a big hand up her back, a reassuring touch for him as well as her. He had never before taken a woman he loved this way. He had never felt the pressure to perform the way he did right then. “Can you take three, darlin’? You know you have to before I’ll try.”
Colby raised her head so that she could answer, “Stop teasing me, Ty. I want you and I want you now.”
Colby laughed, but it was cut short as Emma dove for his cock again. “Doesn’t get more adamant than that, Ty. I’d be doing what the lady wants.”
The “now” had just the effect he was sure Emma had been looking for. His cock leapt to do her bidding, but he had enough sense left to scissor his fingers a few times to loosen her furth
er. A nice ring of pink showed when he withdrew his fingers. He squirted lube into his palm and coated the thick cock that was trembling like an eager hound in its need to bury inside her. “Let her go, Colb, I need to know if I’m hurting her.”
Ty dick-kissed her pucker a few times, teasing himself as well as her. He splayed one big hand on top of her ass and gripped his cock for control with the other. Zach spread her cheeks wide as he teased her clit. He tucked the broad head at her entrance and pressed gently. Her flesh spread welcomingly for him as she pressed back at him. He advanced until the pressure was so great he was sure he was hurting her.
“Burns.” Emma panted. He made to withdraw, but she stopped him. “No, don’t go, just give me a moment.”
Her hands disappeared between their bodies. He felt Zach lift her a little higher to give her room. He could sense the movement of her fingers, and Zach’s growl told him it was quite a show. Struck dumb, he watched her rock back to take him. She backed off when he felt that flesh-rending tightness but returned once more. He felt like he had run a marathon when the flare popped inside her inner ring. Her labored gasping told the same story.
“So tight, darlin’. Just stay still, let yourself loosen up a bit.”
But Emma was having none of it. She worked herself jerkily on the slick head, gasping and moaning. He ached to feel her flickering passage the full length of his shaft. “Hold still, Em.”
“Can’t.”
“Hold her, Zach.”
Ty pulled back, feeling her grip him tighter to stop him slipping from her body. Then he forged into her, watching her spine lengthen and then arch as he sank to the hilt in her ass. He couldn’t hold back the groan as her body gave way to his incursion. So hot, so deep. “Tell me it feels good, darlin’. Tell me I’m not hurting you.”
“Feel…better…when…you…move.” Her broken reply was more of a demand as she strived to move in Zach’s grip.
“Not yet, Em. I’ve been on the other side for a week now. There’s something I just gotta feel.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her flush against his body.
