by Tony Ramagos
“All right,” Seth said slowly. “Have you gotten everything you need from here for now?”
Tamara turned, her gaze scanning the room behind her. After a moment, she looked at him again. “I need to bag and tag the evidence I’ve found, and then I should be able to leave it for a while.”
“Colt and I will help you if you tell us what to do.”
She nodded. “I’ll follow you in my car. Once we leave the ranch, I need to find a place to stay for the night. Isn’t the town’s only hotel off the main road a few blocks from here?”
“It is,” Colt answered her before Seth could. “But you’re not staying there while you’re in town.”
“And exactly where do you think I’ll be staying?”
Seth easily answered that. “There are plenty of empty rooms at the Barlow house. I’m sure one of them will suit you just fine.”
Chapter Two
Tamara wasn’t so sure of that. She wasn’t even sure she made the right decision leaving her car behind in the parking lot of the Cowboy’s Den and climbing in between Seth and Colt on the bench seat of Seth’s truck. She did the second anyway and figured she would worry about where she would lay her head tonight later. For now, she needed to gather whatever information she could about the fire that had occurred at the Cowboy’s Den.
The drive to Rescue Ranch proved longer than she’d anticipated, most likely because she was sandwiched between two muscular men who couldn’t breathe without a part of their body grazing hers. She didn’t think it was intentional, but with Seth and Colt, a woman could never be too sure. She knew of only two things for certain. One, she never should’ve taken off the bulky firefighter gear that had added an extra level of protection against the onslaught of being so close to them. Two, every bit of contact she felt from either man, no matter how light, sent zings of awareness ricocheting through her body. Those zings seemed to make sure to hit on all her girly spots, too, and Seth didn’t hesitate to let her know it.
“Your pussy is wet.” His gaze didn’t waver from the windshield as he drove down a backwoods road, but he did take a deep, audible breath. “I can smell you.”
Tamara felt her cheeks heat. Damn it! He’d done it again. “That’s an observation I would’ve preferred you kept to yourself.”
In the passenger side next to her, Colt put a large hand on her upper thigh and grinned at her. “Do I get brownie points for not saying I’ve been smelling you since before we walked out of the Den?”
Tamara politely lifted his hand and shifted it to his thigh. “No, you do not. I’ll have both of you know that a woman sometimes has a scent and, just because she does, doesn’t mean she’s ready to fuck.”
That got her a soft chuckle from both of them.
Seth turned the truck onto a windy road beneath a wrought-iron sign that read, Rescue Ranch. “In our experience, sweetheart, when a woman’s scent is as potent as yours is right now, she’s definitely turned on, whether she’s ready to fuck or not.”
Tamara winced. “I would rather not hear about your experience, if it’s all the same to you.”
“It bothers you,” Colt said as if a lonely lightbulb had suddenly found power in his head. “You know we’ve been with women, trained them to be submissives, and it bothers you.”
In truth, it didn’t. Tamara couldn’t say why, but the knowledge that she was sitting between two well-practiced men didn’t bother her a bit. If anything, it turned her on even more. She hadn’t had many sex partners in her life, but she’d never been with a man who could truly satisfy her. Maybe it was because of the naughty demon she’d discovered inside herself after learning of the Barlow brothers’ reputations and meeting them face-to-face. That was when she’d started watching the BDSM movies and reading the books on the subject. Something had seemed to come to live inside her, even if only in her fantasies. She’d realized that was what had been lacking from the sexual encounters she’d had. She wanted to experience what the Barlow brothers could teach her behind closed doors.
Behind closed doors. That was the key, especially when it came to Seth. The second key, and the one that had prevented her from giving into their advances, was that she didn’t just want one or even two of them. She wanted all three. Darryl alone turned her on as much as Seth and Colt. She was certain the two older brothers could drive her hormones wild without the help of the other one, but they were a team, and together, they never failed to send every erogenous zone in her body flying to a heightened state of need the likes of which she’d never known.
“Can we not talk about this anymore, gentlemen? I’m about to walk into a house full of men who are, or at least were, members of the Cowboy’s Den.” And, would no doubt realize the effect Seth and Colt had on her just as easily as Seth and Colt had themselves.
Whether the men of Rescue Ranch did or not, she wasn’t sure and didn’t want to know. Oddly enough, she realized she’d stopped worrying about it the instant she’d stepped over the threshold into the elaborate three-story main house on Rescue Ranch. They’d been greeted at the front door by a pretty woman with long brunette hair and a friendly smile who introduced herself to Tamara as Zoey Dickson-Wiggins. Now, they were seated at a small table in a kitchen flawlessly designed to accommodate the preparation of meals large enough to feed the U.S. Army.
May Hoskins was seated with them, and she gave Tamara a wide smile. “Your timing couldn’t be better. Zoey is putting the finishing touches on the sandwiches for lunch. The men and boys will be headed in soon, but there’s always extra room at the dining room table and plenty of food for company.”
Tamara returned the woman’s smile. She guessed the woman to be in her mid-sixties, though the beauty of her younger years was still very pronounced. Streaks of gray had all but taken over her chestnut hair, and her eyes were a sea blue that shined with kindness.
“Thank you, but we didn’t drop in on you to invade your lunch.”
“Tamara is an arson investigator from the city, May,” Seth told the woman.
The wrinkles in May’s face deepened as remorse filled her expression. “I heard about the fire last night at the Den. Terrible thing. Even worse if you’re telling me you believe someone intentionally started it.”
Tamara nodded. “I’ve already found substantiating evidence that points to arson.”
“Why would someone want to burn down the Cowboy’s Den?” Zoey asked from her place in front of the counter on the far side of the kitchen.
“That’s a question I can’t answer yet,” Tamara told her, “but I do intend to find out.”
“If this isn’t a social call, then why are you here?”
Tamara got the impression May wasn’t one to beat around the bush. The woman proved it with her question. “Seth and Colt told me your boys have been working on the renovations at the Den. I was hoping I could talk to them.”
May’s slender shoulders stiffened. “Because you want to know if they saw anything suspicious while they were working at the Den or because you think my boys were involved?”
“I need to know if they saw anything in the days prior to the fire. Maybe someone who shouldn’t have been on the property or someone who seemed to be scoping out the place. I’ll be questioning everyone who has had access to the property since the renovations started.”
“She needs to confirm that all the boys were here on the ranch last night, too, May,” Colt told the woman.
“It’s just a formality,” Seth added. “We know as well as you do that none of the boys had anything to do with that fire.”
May met Colt’s and Seth’s gazes, held each for a long moment, and then settled her attention on Tamara. “Did you know we have Seth and Colt to thank for bringing Dillon to us?”
Tamara didn’t know who Dillon was, but she assumed he was one of the boys living on the ranch. “No, I didn’t.”
But it explained how Seth and Colt could be so certain ten misfit teens with criminal activities in their backgrounds hadn’t been involved in l
ast night’s fire. They had a connection to at least one of those boys. Did it run deep enough that they would protect the boy, even if she determined he was the one who had set the fire?
“Dillon isn’t here today. He’s gone to the city with his sister. But I can assure you he and the other boys were inside this house at sundown yesterday and didn’t leave until sunrise. The rest of the adults will vouch for that.”
Tamara hadn’t thought for a moment they wouldn’t. She didn’t need to meet anyone else on this ranch to get the impression that family ran thicker than blood on this land. It didn’t bode well for her quest to find the truth if one of them had been involved.
“Do you mind if I talk to the boys and ask them a few questions?”
“I don’t mind a bit. You can do it while we all eat lunch.”
The woman’s determined tone told Tamara she wasn’t going to get out of sticking around. It made her laugh. “I thought it was the men in Pleasure who were dominant.”
May’s lips unfolded in an ear-to-ear smile. “That’s only in matters of sex, hon. When that fun activity is taken out of the equation, it’s the women who take control. Most of the men would even tell you that.” Her gaze shifted to Seth, and she added, “Although there are a few of them who would beg to differ.”
* * * *
Colt knew he wasn’t in the few May had been referring to. Seth, however, was a different story. He also knew Tamara was craving to be dominated, but if she thought for one second that Seth would attempt to assume that same control outside of sex, they would never get her in their playroom.
He considered the various ways to tame his brother’s possessive side from the time they left Rescue Ranch all the way to the moment they pulled into the driveway of the Barlow house and came up with only one solution. They were going to have to have a heart-to-heart, and he hoped they could come to an agreement with words and not have to involve fists, too. He started to bring up the conversation while they had a few seconds alone, but Seth started a different one before he could as the man put the truck in park and cut the engine.
“Darryl’s home. I wonder how much shit he’s going to give us for bringing Tamara home with us.”
As if on cue, Colt heard the sound of gravel crunching under tires behind them. He glanced in the passenger’s side mirror and saw her car pulling to a stop. He’d half wondered if she would take a detour after leaving the parking lot of the Cowboy’s Den, make a beeline for the only hotel in town, or even hit the interstate back to the city. She’d tried to put up an argument about staying with them, but in Colt’s opinion, she really hadn’t put up much of a fight. Not that it would’ve done her any good. While she was in town, she would be resting her beautiful head on a pillow inside the Barlow house, plain and simple, and if he and Seth managed to get their way, that pillow would be in one of their beds with her between the two of them.
They would get their way, although he was willing to concede that it might not be tonight. Tamara Royce was going to take work. It was an effort they’d started months ago, but they were only just now really beginning to make their moves.
“He’ll be fine with the fact that we’ve brought her here,” Colt told Seth as he pulled on the handle and pushed the door open. “What he’ll give us shit about is working to get her into one of our beds instead of letting him take her to his.”
Darryl was the other one who needed a heart-to-heart conversation, but Colt didn’t have a fucking clue one how to make his youngest brother come around. He was as certain as he was of his own name that if the man would give in and share Tamara with him and Seth, their quest to win Tamara’s heart would be done. The trouble came in figuring out how to make Darryl cooperate.
“That’s not going to happen,” Seth told him over his shoulder as he slid out the driver’s side.
“Agreed.” Colt climbed out of the truck, shut the door, and paused. He smacked a palm on the roof, getting Seth’s attention. “We’re going to give her one of the guestrooms tonight. It needs to be decision whose bed she comes to when she does.”
“Why do you think I haven’t hogtied her sexy body and spanked her tight ass into submission? She’s got to accept things for what they are first.”
Satisfied they were in agreement, at least for now, Colt backstepped, closed the passenger door of the truck, and headed toward Tamara’s car. She was still sitting behind the wheel, the engine still running, and her gaze was shifting through the windshield from Seth to him and back again. Seth reached the car first and attempted to open the driver’s door, which was apparently locked if the exasperated look he gave her was any indication.
“Get out of the damn car, Tamara. We’re not going to jump you.”
Colt bit back a grin. They wouldn’t, at least not out here in the driveway. They wouldn’t once they got her inside the house either. At least, not until they were sure she’d come to terms with her fate.
He watched as she stared at Seth for a long moment before she finally turned off the car and opened the driver’s door. She didn’t say a word as she got out and walked to the trunk she’d apparently released the latch on from inside the car. He quickened his steps, meeting up with her on one side as Seth moved in on the other. She lifted the trunk and both of them reached in to gather her belongings before she could get a hand on them.
“I can carry my own suitcases.”
“Not around us you can’t,” Seth told her as he closed the trunk with his free hand.
“I hope you have a guestroom ready because I’m not sleeping with either of you.”
Because she intended to sleep with Darryl or because she refused to choose between him or Seth and Colt? Colt figured it wise not to ask.
“We thought you could stay in Jacqueline’s old room,” he told her. “It’s already set up. She still uses it now and then.” Or at least she had until she’d hooked up with Hunter and Casey Mills from Rescue Ranch.
Tamara shot him a puzzled look. “You have a sister?”
Colt shook his head. “She might as well be though. Our parents took her in when hers passed away. She’s with the FBI now.”
“Why didn’t I know that?”
“I reckon it’s because you’ve been too busy evading us almost since we met to bother to take the time to find out,” Seth commented as he started toward the house.
Tamara stared after him for a long moment before she turned her attention back to Colt. “What’s got his Fruit of the Looms in a wad?”
Colt chuckled. “Seth prefers to go commando, but as for what made him so grumpy all of a sudden…” He lifted a shoulder. “I couldn’t tell you, darlin’. Come on. I’ll show you to your room.”
The suitcase Seth had carried into the house was already sitting in the middle of the bedroom floor by the time Colt led her to it. Seth was nowhere in sight. Colt decided to worry about his brother after he saw Tamara was settled in. He set down the suitcase in his hand and turned to find her still standing in the open doorway.
“Seth told you we weren’t going to jump you,” he reminded her as he strode to her, took her hand, and pulled her inside the room. Maybe closing the door wasn’t the best way to prove his point, but he did it anyway, more out of reflex than thought. He saw her attention lock on it, watched her brow lift as her gaze landed on his, and grinned as he pointed to another closed door to her right. “That’s the private bathroom.” He moved his finger to the closed door behind her. “And that’s the closet. Jacqueline’s still got a few things in there, but you can push them aside to make room for yours.”
“Thank you. I’m not an unpacker when I know I won’t be in a place very long.”
Colt felt his feet start to move of their own accord. His steps brought him closer to her, his need for her stiffening his dick and making his balls throb. “You’ve got your apartment in the city. You’ll have to keep that for your job. But you’ll need space when you’re here. When you decide what’s available in this room isn’t enough anymore, you’ll find more in m
y closet or Seth’s.”
The sound she made was equal parts disbelieving laughter and breathy anticipation. “If you think Seth sees things the same way, you don’t know your oldest brother at all.”
“Seth wants you same as I do.”
She’d started backstepping, and he caught her with an arm around her waist, preventing her retreat. She wouldn’t have made it very far with the wall behind her, but he was tired of any bit of distance being between him and this woman.
The instant he got his arm locked around her, he knew he was in trouble. He felt the primal need to possess roll through him, the hunger to dominate and the deep-seated emotions she’d awakened in him from the start that no other woman had ever done.
“The question is, what do you want Tamara, us or Darryl?”
“I’m not answering that.”
She couldn’t. He saw that in her eyes. It confirmed what he’d already known. Her desires for all three of them were what had her in such turmoil.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to answer it now.” But, damn it, how much longer could this go on before he exploded!
He got his answer when his arms involuntarily tightened around her and he backed her against the wall. She took an audible, shaky breath when her back connected with the hard surface. He didn’t stop until his front was fully pressed against hers, until he had her caged between him and the wall with nowhere to go. He’d let her go, of course. If he sensed any indication in her whatsoever that she wanted to get away from him, he wouldn’t make a move to stop her. What he saw in her eyes as she stared up at him was an excited hope he would keep going, a plea that he wouldn’t stop.
“Tell me you don’t want me, Tamara. Tell me you don’t want Seth.”
She swallowed visibly, and his attention locked on her throat. The vein pulsed in her neck, beckoning his tongue and teeth. “I can’t.”
He moved his hands to her hips, dipped his head, and dragged the tip of his tongue over the line of her jaw. Her taste. Holy Mother of God. It sizzled on his tongue, made his mouth water for more, and had a growl forming in his throat. “Right now, it’s just you and me. Tell me you aren’t ready to strip for me, to spread your beautiful legs for me, and wait for me to tell you what to do next.”
