by Marla Monroe
Travis leaned behind her and said something to Randy that she couldn’t hear. Then they were both filling her plate with food. A few minutes later, Randy leaned closer to her.
“We’re going to have a talk later, honey.” It sounded more like a warning than a promise to her. What was going on?
All through the meal, she noticed how they kept touching her and squeezing her shoulder or her thigh. It was making her very uncomfortable. No one seemed to think it was anything out of the ordinary. Maybe it wasn’t and she was making a big deal out of it. Maybe the men around Riverbend tended to be the touchy-feely type and she was reading more into it than they actually meant by it.
After everyone had finished eating, they all got up and began clearing away the dishes. The women helped her put everything away while the men gathered up the trash and disposed of it. In almost no time at all the patio and kitchen were clean. She had never experienced anything like it before. Sure, at family get-togethers back home, most of the women tended to help the family clean up, but the men rarely did much more than make sure the grill was taken care of. This was nice.
Just when she had finally relaxed enough to actually enjoy herself with the other threesomes, she looked up to see the blonde from the grocery store walk through the gate onto the patio. She made a beeline for Randy and immediately wrapped herself around him.
“Randy. I’m so sorry I’m late. I got tied up, but I’m here now, baby.”
To his credit, he looked a little ill as he tried to disentangle himself from the woman’s octopus-like arms.
“What are you doing here, Belinda?” Travis asked as he walked over.
“I’m here with Randy. Didn’t he tell you I’m back?” She grinned at Randy. “Shame on you, baby. You didn’t tell your brother that we were seeing each other again.”
Angela couldn’t stop the quick breath she took. Suddenly it was too hot for her out there in the crowd of people. She started to walk toward the kitchen when Tish and Bethany stopped her.
“Don’t go. Show her that she has no hold on him, Angela. She’s a bitch that nearly tore the brothers apart with her games.” Tish stroked her hand up and down Angela’s back.
“They aren’t my men. I’m their office manager and sometimes cook. I’m not their woman.”
“Screw that, Angela. They look at you as if they could eat you up,” Bethany said.
“That’s just their hormones. You know how men are. I’d be a quick roll in the sack and then I’d be out of a job when they finished with me. I can’t afford that.”
She started to walk away again but something stopped her. She turned and looked back at Randy. Something in his eyes seemed almost desperate. Maybe she wasn’t their woman, but it was obvious that Randy didn’t want to have anything to do with this Bethany either. She wouldn’t abandon him to the crazy woman.
Angela walked back over to where the blonde bitch was clinging to Randy while Travis argued with her. The men all stood around them, but it was obvious that they didn’t know what to do with her without getting physical. Mac Tidwell was the closest and seemed ready to grab her if an opportunity arose. Well, she was going to give him that opportunity. She eyed him and he nodded at her when she lifted any eyebrow. She could count on him.
“Excuse me, but you have your hands on my man. Let go of him.”
The other woman looked at her and laughed. “Where in the world did you come from? You sound like some backwoods hillbilly. Go away, little girl.”
“You’re ignorant as well as rude and stupid. I’m not a hillbilly. They hail from Kentucky and Tennessee. I’m a redneck, and we don’t let blonde bimbos manhandle our men where I come from. Let. Go. Of. Him. Now.” She stepped closer to the woman despite how much taller she was to Angela’s short stature.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Randy. Really? You had to go trolling for trailer trash when I left?”
Randy’s face finally changed from uncomfortable and a little bit scared to pure angry, but it was too late. Angela had had enough. She grabbed the woman by her hair and jerked her back before punching her in the nose.
Chapter Thirteen
“Fuck!” Mac, who was the sheriff in Riverbend, grabbed Belinda as soon as she let go of Randy to hold her nose even as he laughed.
“She hit me! Arrest her. I want to file charges.” Despite her muffled voice it was clear what she was saying.
“I think not, Belinda. Number one, you were trespassing on private property and had been asked to leave several times. Number two, you should know better than to try and take another woman’s man. No way am I stepping into Angela’s space right now.” Mac continued laughing as he and his brother along with Bethany escorted the woman through the gate.
The other women all crowded around Angela telling her how much they admired her for standing up to the bitch. All she felt now was anger that she’d probably lost her job and made the guys mad. Randy walked over to her and pulled her out of the huddle and thanked everyone for coming. He wrapped his arm around her waist and walked with her inside while Travis saw to everyone leaving. It was more than obvious to her how angry Randy was. He was almost shaking with it. She couldn’t tell anything from the careful mask he’d donned since she’d hit Belinda. She fought the tears that built behind her eyes. She refused to cry in front of him. Even when he fired her, she wouldn’t allow herself the luxury of crying.
Randy didn’t stop walking until they had reached the living area. Then he stopped and pointed at the couch.
“Sit. I’ll be right back. Don’t move from that spot.”
She sighed and sank onto the soft cushions, wishing they would swallow her up so that she could avoid the entire confrontation. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, but finally she couldn’t handle it anymore. With as much strength as she could gather, Angela stood up and walked to the office where she gathered up Harley D and all of his things. She looked around the office to see if she’d left anything before walking out the door and shuffling back to the cabin.
Once inside, Angela set about packing her things in the duffle bag and a couple of boxes she had accumulated and set it all by the front door. Then she made a phone call, leaving the phone on the counter, and waited. She cuddled Harley D to her chest and wondered what she was going to do now. Why had she punched the woman in the nose? She could have walked away or anything besides hitting her. She wasn’t normally a violent person. She’d never hit anyone in her life.
She saw a truck pull up outside the door. She sighed and bent to pick up her bag. When she opened the door, it was to find Randy and Travis standing outside the door. Evidently Homer had called them instead of coming to get her. She just stared at them. Finally, Travis took her bag from her and Randy bent and picked up one of the boxes. Then he returned and grabbed the other box. No one said a word. Travis returned and indicated that she should get into the truck.
She had intended to get in the backseat, but Travis shook his head and opened the front door. She climbed up and put on her seat belt while the men got in and fastened theirs. She stared straight ahead as they pulled out of the drive in front of the cabin and headed down the long drive that led to the road to town. She cuddled Harley D in her arms and tried to keep from touching either man.
No one said anything and after a while, staring out into the dark ahead slowly lulled her into sleep. When she woke up with a start, it was to find that they were stopped in front of the guys’ house and they were opening the doors. Harley D was in Travis’s arms as he guided her down out of the cab of the truck.
“What’s going on? I thought you were taking me to town.” Her raspy voice barely registered, but evidently Travis heard her.
“We had no intention of taking you to town and dropping you off somewhere. We were just waiting for you to fall asleep so we could bring you home.”
“I don’t understand. I thought…”
“That’s where you made your first mistake, Angel,” Travis said.
“What?” sh
e asked.
“You thought instead of talking to us,” Randy added.
“But I punched that bitch in the nose at your house.”
Randy cursed and stomped off after slamming the truck door. She jerked at the sound. Travis took her arm, cradling the kitten in his arms before leading her toward the door. When she stepped inside their house, Travis held on to her arm as he walked into the kitchen and then the laundry room where he checked to be sure the back door was locked before he set the kitten down and closed the door to the kitchen.
“Randy will set up Harley’s things for him before he comes to bed.”
“What?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand what is going on.”
“Your second mistake was jumping to conclusions when you had no idea what the real situation was.”
He started toward the stairs, pulling her behind him as he began to climb them. She’d never been upstairs before. Fear warred with curiosity as they stepped onto the landing.
“Where are you taking me?”
“We have a lot to talk about, Angel. Since we can’t trust you to stay put, you’re sleeping with us tonight.”
“What! I can’t sleep with you. I’m your office manager.”
“Well, as far as I can see, you quit when you walked out and called our foreman to take you to town. So technically, you’re not sleeping with your bosses now.”
He pulled her down the long hall past several doors to where a set of double doors opened into a massive bedroom. He flipped on some lights and the true beauty of the room emerged from the shadows. Warm, polished oak floors gleamed in the light with plush throw rugs on both sides of the huge bed that sat in the middle of the room. The bedcovers had already been thrown back on the bed as if waiting for someone to climb in.
Travis pulled her over to where a love seat with two plush chairs formed an intimate sitting area with side tables between the chairs. He pointed at the love seat.
“Sit down. We’ll wait for Randy. We need to get some things straight.”
Angela sat down on the love seat and looked around the room. Her attention was snagged from the sight of two chests of drawers sitting on either side of the room and the gorgeous dresser across from the bed to where Travis was pulling off his shirt.
She’d seen both men without their shirts on several occasions when they came in and stripped them off in the laundry room due to some mishap. Still, the sight of all that bare skin stretched tight over hard muscles took her breath. Her hands itched to explore his broad shoulders and trace each bulge. She wanted to lick her way from nipple to nipple and follow the path of light brown hair down to where it disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans.
His fingers unfastened the top button of his jeans before he sat in one of the chairs across from her. She looked away when his eyes caught her staring at where that button was open. Heat crept up her neck and face to have been caught looking.
Just when she thought she would go crazy with the silence, the sound of someone climbing the stairs caught her attention. Randy walked sock-footed into the room. He immediately removed his shirt, dropping it on the floor as he walked over to the empty chair next to his brother. He, too, unfastened the top button of his jeans before sitting down.
“Now that Randy is here, we need to talk, Angel. Why did you leave?”
“Because I couldn’t bear to have you fire me.” She didn’t look up from where she had her hands tightly clasped.
“Why did you think we were going to fire you?” Randy asked.
“Because I hit your…”
“Don’t you dare call that woman my girlfriend. She’s not my fucking girlfriend!” Randy yelled.
“I wasn’t going to say girlfriend. I assumed you invited her and that she was still a friend,” she said, quickly dropping her gaze once again.
“I didn’t invite her! She just showed up. Someone must have mentioned that we were having a cookout and she invited herself.” Randy wiped both hands over his face. “She’s nothing to me, honey.”
“Then why did you let her hang all over you?” she asked.
“That’s on me, honey. I was being stupid. I never should have let her touch me, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I won’t lie to you. She used to be our girlfriend, but she tried to pit us against each other and we broke it off.”
Angela looked from him to Travis then back again. “You loved her?”
“I–I thought I did once. But I know it was purely lust and sex now. She means nothing to me, Angel. I promise.”
“It doesn’t matter. You don’t owe me anything. I was just your office manager. I had no right to interfere, and hitting her like I did was wrong.” She shook her head and returned her gaze to her hands once again.
“Angela, you mean more to us than just our office manager. Surely you know that.” Travis sounded as if he was choking.
She looked up. “Well, yeah. I cook for you, too. But I still shouldn’t have acted like I did.”
“I can’t believe it. We’re going to have to spell it out to her, Travis.” Randy stood up and paced beside the chairs. “She still doesn’t get it.”
“Get what?” she asked.
What where they trying to tell her? Nothing made sense anymore, and she was so tired. She just wanted to lie down somewhere and go to sleep. She had no doubt that depression over losing her job and any friendship with Randy and Travis was sinking in.
Randy stopped next to her and knelt down so that when she looked up, he was almost at eye level. He clasped her hands in his and squeezed them.
“Angela. We love you. We intended to court you until you fell in love with us as well, but things have changed. We don’t want to lose you, honey, so we’re just going to be honest with you. We want you to be our wife.”
Before she could say anything Travis knelt on the other side of her and held out a small box in his hand. Randy let go of her hands and turned them over so that Travis could place the box in them.
“What is this?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“Open it up, Angel,” Travis said.
She slowly opened the box and gasped. Inside was the most gorgeous ring she’d ever seen. A solitaire diamond that had to be two carats sat nestled between two sapphires that gave depth and color to the center stone. She’d never imagined anything so beautiful before. Looking up she tried to see what they were trying to tell her. Surely they didn’t mean what she thought this meant.
“The sapphires match your lovely eyes. We bought this ring the day we took you shopping that first time.” Travis took the box from her hands and pulled out the ring. “Angela, would you marry us? We promise to love you and take care of you forever.”
Randy touched her cheek with his hand. “I love you, honey. We will protect you and do everything in our power to make you happy. Please don’t say no.”
“We thought to give you some time to get to know us before we asked you, but the more we tried to get close to you, the harder you pushed us away. You were so set on not sleeping with your bosses that you refused to see that we loved you for you.” Travis held up the ring once more. “Please let us prove to you how much we love you. Wear our ring and be our woman.”
Angela couldn’t believe what they were saying. They really wanted her to be their wife. They weren’t just trying to get her to have sex with them. They were serious about her, serious about their feelings for her. She couldn’t speak around the tears clogging her throat. How could they love her? She was nobody, a Mississippi hick with nothing to her name.
Looking into their faces, she saw love in their eyes. She knew without a doubt that she loved them. She had been fighting it, but she knew she had failed. Now, seeing them on their knees before her asking her to marry them, Angela wanted that more than she wanted anything else. She nodded her head and smiled at them.
Travis quickly slipped the ring on her finger and kissed it before pulling her into his arms and mating her mouth with his. She melted in his arms and was thankful
that Randy stepped in behind her to help hold her up. Then he got in on the action and kissed her cheek and behind her ear before sucking on her earlobe.
“I’ve got to have you, Angel. Will you let us make love to you?” Travis asked.
“I want you, too. Both of you,” she said in a trembling voice.
Travis picked her up and carried her over to the bed. He carefully set her down, making sure she was steady on her feet before they began to strip her of her clothes. By the time she was standing in her bra and panties next to the bed, she was a melting mass of heat that needed them more than she needed her next breath.
“Fuck, her panties are soaked, Travis.” Randy was on his knees once more as he pulled her underwear down.
He had already removed her boot socks along with her boots earlier. Now he lifted her panties to his nose and inhaled before dropping them to the floor and burying his face between her legs. She shrieked and tried to close her legs even tighter.
“Don’t, Angel. Let him taste you. Randy loves eating pussy. There’s nothing he enjoys more than licking sweet pussy juice right from the source.” Travis’s dirty words turned her on more than she would have imagined.
Travis unfastened her bra and released her breasts that were heavy with need. Her nipples had hardened to the point of pain when he ran his thumbs over the tight peeks. When he leaned over and ran his tongue across first one and then the other, Angela nearly lost the ability to remain upright.
“Up on the bed, Travis. I want to spread her wide. I can’t get to her like this.” Randy pulled back and waited while his brother picked her up.
Angela clung to Travis, marveling at the sensation of skin against skin. She loved the feel of it beneath her hands. Then he settled her back in the middle of the bed and Randy climbed between her legs, pushing them as far apart as he could get them.
