by Robin Gideon
She imagined herself with all of the McGowans in a romantic and raunchy tangle of arms and legs. How did a single woman satisfy four lusty men? She wasn’t sure, but she suspected it was a skill she’d soon find necessary. Would one of them want her ass? Perhaps all of them? Probably. Katie had “gone Greek” as they called it in college, but it had been years earlier, and the boyfriend she’d lost the virginity of her ass to was embarrassingly unimpressive in stature. Even when fully erect, his cock wasn’t more in either length or thickness than a man’s middle finger. Katie had felt two McGowan cocks inside her pussy, and had felt with her fingers the erection that Aaron had for her, and she knew they were much greater in both length and girth than a man’s finger.
The climax prompted by the vibrator and her own fingers had pleased but hadn’t sated.
With a shake of her head, Katie forced the thoughts away. It would do no good to dwell on fantasies and memories of masturbation when she had very serious decisions in the here and now to deal with.
Today, whether she was thrilled about it or not, she had the Mountain View Saloon to herself and the handsome cowboys who frequented the saloon. It was clear to Katie that she couldn’t possibly do all that needed to be done alone. She’d need to hire someone to help her. But who? Whoever she chose would have to be discreet because at some time or another, she’d give one or all of the McGowans a come-hither look. She’d get caught giving that flirtatious look, and it wouldn’t be five hours before the gossipmongers of Elk’s Crossing had heard the rumor that she was sleeping with all four of the brothers.
Katie went to the front porch and sat down in the old wooden rocker. She looked out to the east toward the flatland, the prairies of North Dakota. Then she looked to the west to the mountains that seemed to go higher and higher until they finally ended in the snowcaps that never melted.
What the hell am I doing in North Dakota, halfway into the Badlands, surrounded by a thousand times more cattle than people? I’m a city girl. Most of the time I can’t even get my cell phone to work out here. I’m in the boonies and seriously considering telling the McGowans that I’ll be their lover as long as I’m the only lover they’ve got. How did this happen to me? I’m not the kind of woman who gets in gang bangs. I don’t do orgies.
When one of the customers haled Katie, asking for another beer, she was grateful her thoughts were interrupted.
* * * *
David awoke in his car with a severe pain in his neck. He’d slept behind the wheel, having pulled the car over in a restaurant’s parking lot. Though he’d put the seat back as far as he could, it was still uncomfortable. He’d slept with his head kinked to the side, so now he had a horrible crick in the neck.
Just one more thing that Katie had to answer for, he told himself. One more fault for which she had to pay.
If it hadn’t been for Katie, he wouldn’t be sleeping in a subcompact. He’d have money for luxury hotel suites. He’d have his Mercedes-Benz. He wouldn’t have to drive to some shit hole of a place called Elk’s Crossing. North Dakota was a place you flew over, not a place you drove to.
Soon enough, he’d teach Katie the full extent of her errors. He’d make her pay full price for every injustice she’d caused him to suffer.
* * * *
Katie’s heart skipped a beat when she watched the McGowan brothers step into the saloon a couple minutes before noon. She was at the grill, spatula in hand, dressed in faded jeans, Nikes, and red cotton blouse. Though there were a few customers already seated at the bar, for a moment every man in the saloon who wasn’t a McGowan seemed to disappear.
“Good afternoon, Katie,” the brothers said in unison as they took barstools.
“Hello, boys,” she replied, trying her best to sound merely friendly and not like she wanted to vault over the bar to throw herself into their arms. “I’ve got a beef stew special going today that’ll stick to your ribs.”
“That sounds perfect,” Aaron said.
Katie walked over to the end of the bar where the McGowans sat. She turned her shoulders slightly so that her back was toward the other men in the saloon, and said quietly, “Last night I seemed to have misplaced my panties. I don’t suppose any of you boys would know where they are?” Aaron started to speak, but she immediately put her palm up, silencing him. “No, don’t tell me which one of you has them. I know that a McGowan man has them, and that’s all that matters, I suppose. Besides, it’s kind of exciting not knowing which one of you had me last night.” She sighed and shook her head in awed amazement. “You can’t imagine how bizarre it sounds to hear myself say that.” She gave the men a smiled that encompassed all of them. “Good thing the sheriff stopped by last night. Protect and serve and all that sort of stuff. It probably saved me from making a complete fool of myself.”
“He might have been protecting you, but he sure as hell wasn’t serving me,” Aaron growled.
Katie looked directly into his eyes. “I don’t know who had me last night. I know it wasn’t you. You were holding me. The leader of the virile McGowan clan, and yet you seem to have put yourself last in line.”
“That’s not the way I wanted it, I can promise you that. Those were just the cards that I got dealt.”
“But it proved you’ve got self-discipline. I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I am with that.” She closed her eyes for a moment, fighting to push away memories of the man she left in San Francisco. “I loathe men who can’t control themselves.”
An instant before Katie was about to tell Aaron and his brothers that she was quite willing to have an affair with them, but that she wouldn’t be naïve enough to believe that what they had going had anything to do with love on a permanent basis, the cowboys from the Square-B Ranch walked into the saloon.
“Hey there, Katie!” the foreman called out. “You’ve got that beef stew special going today, don’t you?”
“You know I do,” Katie replied. “I’ve made a double batch this week because I knew you and your men would be showing up.”
“I see you’ve got new hours. You’re closing from two ’til four-thirty?”
“I’m working all alone for a while, so the change is only temporary.”
“You’re all alone?” He put his hand over his heart. “Can I propose to you right now? Say ‘yes’ and you’ll never be alone again.”
Katie smiled when she replied, “You can propose, but I’ll say ‘no.’ At least for now.”
“As long as there’s still hope then I’ll stay and have lunch.”
She turned back to the McGowans and said sotto voce, “We’ll finish this later.”
* * * *
Elk’s Crossing, North Dakota, looked as miserable as David figured it would. A hick, small town off the highway consisting of little more than a collection of pathetic-looking buildings that had all seen better, more prosperous days. Most of the vehicles were SUVs or pickup trucks, and few of them looked like this year’s models.
“What a shit hole this is,” David grumbled as he got out of his car at the gas station.
He walked inside the gas station. A man in his late sixties sat behind the counter near a cash register that looked to be as old as he was. The man wore a straw cowboy hat with the front brim bent so low it was almost impossible to see his eyes.
“What can I help you with, young fella?” the old man asked.
David despised him instantly. But in a friendly tone, he asked, “I’m looking for someone new to town. A woman named Katie Sellers. Know where I can find her?”
“Yep. That’s the new girl. We don’t get those ’cept every once in a while. Most pretty girls leave Elk’s Crossing soon as they can.”
David bit his tongue to keep silent the insults he wanted to scream. Sounding only a little sarcastic, he asked, “Would you mind telling me where she is?”
“She’s over at the Mountain View Saloon. Serves up hot food and cold beer. Good, too.”
David got directions to the saloon. Soon enough, he’d look into
Katie’s eyes and explain that she’d made some very serious mistakes that had cost him grievously. She had to be punished for those mistakes—punished in a manner befitting the crime.
* * * *
“Keep an open mind,” Aaron said as he pulled the pickup into the long, gravel drive leading to the ranch house of Circle-Square-Circle Ranch. “We can make any changes you want, but we’ve made quite a few already. We want you to be comfortable.”
“Changes to how you live, and you don’t even know if I’ll accept?” Katie sat between Aaron and Blair, and the warmth and strength of their bodies so close to her own was doing disastrous things to her willpower. “You’re pretty confident in yourself.”
“If we weren’t, you wouldn’t be here now. A woman like you wouldn’t pay a man any mind at all if he wasn’t confident.”
But I did spend time with a man who lacked confidence. David had to beat me up to prove his masculinity.
The hundred-plus-year-old ranch house was a rambling, single-story log structure that had been added to countless times over the years. Off to the north sat a large barn and a penned-in pasture with a white-painted, three-rail fence. A dozen horses were in the pasture munching grass and hay. To the south was the largest garage Katie had ever seen, and inside was an assortment of trucks, all-terrain vehicles, several tractors, and something she suspected had something to do with baling hay.
The place looked well groomed and orderly. Nothing appeared run-down or unkempt.
“Welcome to the Circle-Square-Circle Ranch,” Blair said as he extended a hand to help Katie out of the pickup’s cab. “Ask as many questions as you like.”
Aaron added, “Can you picture yourself calling this ranch your home?”
“I’m a city girl through and through,” Katie replied, not really answering the question. “I was born and raised in San Francisco.”
“But you’re in Elk’s Crossing now.” Aaron’s leonine gaze was warm, his voice a subtle caress. “Like I said, keep an open mind. We’ve got a lot to offer, and we’re offering it all to you.”
The McGowans had stayed at the saloon all through lunch, waiting around until Katie closed and locked the front door at two o’clock.
As Katie stepped into the bachelor ranch house, she had expected the place to be messy. Her notions of what four men would do when left to their own devices was decidedly negative. Instead, she found a ranch house that was masculine, rustic, and absolutely clean.
“Did you clean this place to within an inch of its life just for me?” she asked with a teasing smile.
“Mama never tolerated us making a mess,” Aaron replied. “Said it was her job to raise us up to be gentlemen, not slobs. It was Papa’s job to raise us to be cowboys.” He smiled, and Katie could tell that he missed his mother and was grateful for the way she’d brought him up. “She also said it wasn’t her job to pick up after us. We do our own laundry and things like that.”
“You’ve just never learned to cook.”
He nodded. “Mama always did that for us. And after she passed away, your grandma did most of our cooking.”
“The only meal we know how to make is breakfast,” Garrett piped in. “Eggs, bacon, and grilled potatoes washed down with milk and coffee starts our mornings.”
“Well, that’s something,” Katie replied. After a moment, she added comically, “I guess.”
Katie learned that the original log house had been built in the 1860s. It started out just a single-room structure built low and solid to withstand the rugged North Dakota winters and be easy to heat. Over the years, rooms had been added, then more rooms, and more rooms after that. With the advent of running water and electricity, and indoor toilets and showers, more additions and renovations had to be made. The end result was a rambling, sprawling log house that, even to Katie’s urbane sensibilities, was surprisingly warm, masculine, and inviting.
“If you want, this will be your room,” Aaron said, opening a bedroom door.
Katie’s heart skipped a beat. Her room. It implied a permanence that was much more than just being the lover to the McGowan men.
As the door swung on its hinges to reveal the room, Katie knew instantly that the bedroom had been their parents’ room. It was bigger than the other bedrooms that she’d seen, and there was a private bathroom off of it.
Her gaze went to the king-size bed, and instantly Katie’s imagination began conjuring the pleasures that would be hers to experience on that bed and with these four men.
“The bed’s brand-new. Never been slept in. The chest of drawers is an antique. I can’t remember exactly, but it was either my great-grandmother’s or my great-great-grandmother’s,” Aaron explained. “We figured you’d need a sanctum sanctorum to call your own. Over there’s a bathroom that’s exclusively yours.”
Katie managed to censor herself before commenting that she was surprised a cowboy like Aaron would know what a sanctum sanctorum was. Instantly, she became even more determined than ever to not put these surprising McGowan men into neat little groups that they didn’t fit in. They just couldn’t be so easily categorized.
“Very kind,” she said. “Very considerate. You’ve obviously gone through a great deal more thought than I had at first suspected.”
“This is your room, and we’ll stay out unless you invite us in.”
All four of you? One at a time or all at once? Oh, God, I’m starting to take this lunacy seriously.
She shivered at the thought of trying to sexually satisfy four big, strong, lusty men simultaneously. Was it even possible for one woman to do such a thing?
She was surprised to find that there were bookcases in nearly every room, and the one truly large room in the house—they called it the library—was dominated by floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases, and a large, flat-screen television.
“Earlier, when you invited me here, I thought I’d find some one-room log cabin with clothes and whatnot strewn everywhere.” She made a passing motion with her hand toward the packed bookcases and enormous TV. “I didn’t expect orderliness in the extreme, or a TV the size of Rhode Island.”
“Come on,” Aaron said. “I’ve saved the best for last.”
“We’ve saved the best for last,” Blair said quickly.
The “best” was waiting for her in a pen in the barn. It was a fourteen-year-old gelding quarter horse, sorrel in color with a white blaze on his forehead, and trained to perfection.
“We figured, you being a city girl your whole life, that you wouldn’t have much experience riding horses, so we picked out Buddy here for you. He’s got plenty of get-up-and-go in him, but he won’t bolt into a gallop with you in the saddle unless you want him to.” Aaron ran his hand affectionately over the horse’s nose. Buddy replied with a whinny. “He’s yours. Your saddle’s over there.”
“My own horse and saddle?”
What woman wouldn’t fall in love with men who’d do something like this?
“Your very own. We’ll teach you how to ride. We’ve got five high-country pastures we move the cattle between, and the best way to do that is from a saddle. The McGowans have been in this country for generations, and we’ve got pastureland spread all around.” He nodded toward the mountains to the west. “From high country to flatland prairie, we’ve got cattle grazing on our land. We’re all spread out, and that’s why it takes all four of us working it.”
Katie felt joyous tears stinging her eyes. She willed the tears away, averting her gaze so the men wouldn’t read her emotions. She stroked Buddy’s nose and neck and murmured softly, “You want to be my horse? I don’t think I’ve ever been in a saddle except for those Shetland ponies they have at the amusement park when I was just a little girl.”
These brothers have done more for me than all the previous men in my life combined. I feel precious with them. And protected.
“You don’t have to make your decision right now,” Aaron said, his words coming out a bit rushed. Katie suspected he had seen the unshed tears in her eyes,
and had misinterpreted them. “We just wanted to show you what’s yours at the Circle-Square-Circle. All you have to do is come and accept what we have for you.” He cleared his throat. “You’ll be ours, and we’ll be yours, and that’s the way that’ll be.”
“Unconventional in the extreme, don’t you think?” Katie had tried for lightness in her tone, but she hadn’t managed it.
“I can’t argue with that.”
Buddy was the trump card they had to play, and it worked. I’m not going to say ‘yes’ just yet. I’ve got to think this through. I’ve got to think with my head, not my heart, or I’ll get hurt.
“I’d better be getting back to Mountain View. It’s nearly four, and customers will be showing up. You’ve spent almost all day with me.”
Chapter Five
Katie was checking the amount of beer she had in the coolers when she heard the front door to the saloon open. The first of the evening’s customers had shown up, and that meant that she wouldn’t be alone with her thoughts any longer. She wasn’t at all certain whether it was good or bad to be thinking about having an affair with all of the McGowan brothers. Even thinking about making love to all four brothers made her shiver.
“You’re looking good, Katie. Better than you have any right to.”
The voice, masculine but high-pitched with tension, so startled Katie that she spun around too quickly and tripped. She hit the grill hard with her hip. She looked at David, hardly able to comprehend that he’d come all the way from San Francisco.
“How…how did you know where I’d gone?” she asked, her heart pounding. She felt fear, marrow-deep and terribly real, for the first time in many weeks.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” David looked around the saloon. The expression on his face said he didn’t like what he saw. “Quite a downgrade for you, isn’t it? Going from a fancy steak house in San Francisco to some stinking saloon in some shit hole of a town in North Dakota?”
