Maybe she should stay in town and get her head checked. Boone and Richard’s handsome faces floated in her mind, adding to her uncertainty. She pictured herself with Kendall, Boone, and Richard in that scenario.
They were all so different from each other. Boone was dark-eyed and handsome, mysterious, and tattooed. Richard was larger than life, rugged, a quiet, immensely deep person, with beautiful pale blue eyes she swore could see into a person’s soul.
She didn’t know anybody who had the kind of committed relationship she’d always fantasized about. She didn’t even know if it would’ve worked. What if this was a disastrous idea and she lost Kendall’s friendship as well as his love?
“Babydoll, I’ll never regret being there for you, but I don’t want to be your ‘go-to’ guy anymore. I want to be the man you go to. I would’ve been there if that’s what you and Morgan had wanted.”
Questions and confusion swirled in her mind, but one fact remained. He knew the truth and still wanted her.
Chapter Three
Kendall watched as Maya debated. Her cheeks were rosy with a blush that made her even more beautiful to him. She was no calculating manipulator, and she’d obviously never voiced her desires to Morgan to get what she wanted. He wanted to give it to her now. He hoped once she arrived at their place, she would feel something for Boone and Richard as well. In order to know, she had to come home with him. He didn’t push, wanting it to be her decision.
“Boone and Richard won’t mind?”
Kendall pictured the approval in his brothers’ eyes as he’d risen from the couch three hours earlier and told them he was going to get her.
“They were very clear about welcoming you. You can call them if you need the reassurance. When I left they were making the second bedroom ready for you to stay in.”
“But you’re cramped as it is. You told me that house only has two bedrooms.”
“And two comfortable couches.”
Maya was thoughtful for a few seconds before saying, “I’ll pack enough for a week. After that, we’ll see.”
She looked into his eyes, seeming to need his understanding, and he gave her a big, wide smile. Startling her, he grasped her in a bear hug and lifted her warm, curvaceous body off the floor and twirled around with her. Her gasp of surprise ended in a merry giggle when he set her on her feet.
“You’re not going to be disappointed, babydoll.” His heart pounded with relief that was echoed in his groin at the thought of having her so close. A lot could happen in a week. Maybe she could fall for all three of them.
“Make yourself at home. I’ll get ready and pack.” She pecked him on the cheek and went down the hall.
He got comfortable on the couch and took out his phone to text Boone and let him and Richard know she was coming home.
A minute later he heard her shower come on and couldn’t help the fantasies his mind conjured of her under the hot spray. He could picture her head tilted back and soap suds slithering down her gorgeous, full breasts, her nipples peeking out. He imagined the suds sliding over the sexy tattoo he knew adorned her left hip. The only reason he knew about it was because she’d asked for his input on the design. His cock felt hard enough to break concrete as he imagined sliding his hands around her sweetly curved hips and thrusting every inch of his cock into what would probably feel like the closest thing to heaven on earth.
His fantasy was interrupted by a loud knock at the front door, which was rudely repeated a few seconds later. Kendall frowned and wondered who had the nerve to pound on Maya’s door so late at night. He peeked through the peephole and recognized the asshole’s ruddy features and blond hair.
Opening the door, Kendall enjoyed the look of surprise on Frank Reeves’s face. Frank squinted, and recognition registered in his eyes as his lip curled.
“Warner. What are you doing here?”
The self-important asshole moved forward as though he expected Kendall to back away and allow him to enter, but Kendall didn’t budge. Reeves’s days of horning in where he didn’t belong were over.
“I should ask you the same question, Reeves.”
“I need to talk to Maya. Where is she?” Frank demanded, attempting once again to enter Maya’s home, but Kendall wouldn’t allow it.
If Maya had already broken it off with Frank, then his presence in her house would be a trespass on her wishes to see him again. If she’d forgotten to call him, then she had not resolved the issues between them and definitely would not want him in the house while she was showering. Kendall could hear the water still running.
“She’s unavailable at the moment.”
“I’ve been trying to reach her all evening. Why hasn’t she been answering her phone? How long have you been here?”
“Like I said, she’s unavailable.” Permanently, you stupid prick. “Why I am here is none of your business.” Kendall wanted to kick this aging, jock, preppy throwback off of Maya’s porch but wondered if it might be better to get this confrontation over with. The decision wasn’t his to make. “Wait here.”
He shut the door in Frank’s face and slid the bolt home because if this guy was taking liberties with Maya he’d think nothing of walking into the house while Kendall checked with her.
He grinned at the muffled expletives he heard through the door as he walked away from it, down the hall. He tapped on her bathroom door and heard her faint response.
He cracked the door open and said, “Frank Reeves is on your front porch. May I kick his ass off of it, or should I let him in?”
She peeked from behind the shower curtain and appeared to debate for a moment. “Shoot. He called and left several text messages while I was asleep. I didn’t check the messages. It might be best to let him in and keep him in the living room. I’ll finish up and be out in a minute.” She held the curtain back for a moment, and her brows knitted together as she added, “Kendall, I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“Sorry you have to deal with him.” Relief filled him because for a second he was afraid she’d changed her mind about coming with him.
Kendall grinned and winked at her. “You sure I can’t kick his ass off your front steps? Because I’m up for that.”
A faint chuckle came from behind the shower curtain. “No, you big He-Man. I’ll deal with him.”
Kendall returned to the door and allowed Frank to come in the house. “Maya said to have a seat in the living room and she’ll be out in a few minutes.”
Reeves and Kendall spent the next few minutes in a staring match that Reeves lost. He took out his cell phone and toyed with the screen, probably trying to appear as though he had pressing business at eleven o’clock at night.
Maya emerged from her bedroom with damp hair and a fresh face. She was dressed for the trip home in soft, form-fitting pants and a snug white T-shirt. Kendall rose when she walked in the room as she looked at Frank, who remained seated on the couch. Ill-mannered asshole.
Kendall drew near and murmured, “You okay?”
“Yes. It’s fine. Could you give me a few minutes to talk to him?”
Quietly, so Frank wouldn’t hear him, Kendall said, “I’m not leaving you alone with him, Maya. Not after what you told me.” He had no intention of giving Frank an opportunity to get physical with her again.
“You can wait in the kitchen,” she whispered as she caressed his forearm. Her eyes showed appreciation for his concern.
Kendall cast a black look at Reeves, who returned it. He walked into the kitchen and sat at her table. He kept an ear open for any change in the tone of their faint conversation as he took out his phone and sent a series of text messages to Boone. Richard didn’t like to text, and Kendall knew Boone would relay the messages to him. He grinned as he heard the whiny tone in Reeves’s voice. She must’ve delivered the bad news.
* * * *
Boone did a mental fist pump as he slipped his phone back in his shirt pocket. Richard held the shopping basket as they perused the women’s beaut
y products department of the local drug store. It was the only place open late that sold “girlie” stuff, as Richard had recently called it.
“Tell me again why this is a good idea?” Richard inquired as Boone opened and sniffed at a bottle of bubble bath.
“It will please her that we’re trying to make her stay comfortable.”
Richard gave him the stink-eye. “Wonder if she’d be comfortable about the economy-size box of condoms and tubes of K-Y you’re also buying.”
“I think we should be prepared, that’s all. Kendall would say I’m being positively assumptive.”
“Whatever.”
Boone slipped a bottle of bubble bath in the shopping basket before picking out other body products that were of the same scent.
Richard rubbed his hand over his bearded chin. “You’re not the least bit worried she’ll think all this stuff belonged to some other woman?”
Boone knew this line of questioning was leading up to what Richard needed to know, which was if there really was a place for him in the relationship.
Boone shook his head negatively as he took his vibrating phone from his pocket and looked at the new message. “Nuh-uh. We’ll tell her we bought it for her, and she’ll be even more impressed. Kendall says Maya is dealing with Frank Reeves right now.”
“Do you really believe this could work?”
Boone understood the conflict that went on inside his brother. Richard had lost the love of his life and had once said he didn’t know if he was capable of loving someone else that much ever again.
“I think it could. We’ll give her time to settle in, plant the idea in her mind, and see what happens. I think it’s worth a shot, anyway. Remember what Jack and the guys have.”
Boone’s first cousin Jack Warner and his distant cousins Ethan Grant and Adam Davis were married to a one-of-a-kind woman. Grace Warner made being married to three men look easy. At six months pregnant, Grace radiated happiness, and her men were positively goofy, they were so in love with her.
Boone and his brothers had grown bored with the singles scene and had been talking about the possibility of a life like Jack, Ethan, and Adam’s. Maybe this was their chance.
“I don’t know, Boone. I’m not that lucky. Not twice.”
Sometimes Boone still caught glimpses of the grief that had lingered in Richard’s eyes for years after Michelle’s death. They’d just gotten engaged the week before she was killed by crossfire in a robbery at the grocery store where she had worked.
“I can’t give guarantees, Richard. You know I’m the glass-is-half-empty guy, and I have my worries. Just because she comes doesn’t mean she’ll stay. And if she falls for Kendall there’s no assurance she’ll feel the same for us. But you know what gives me hope? I think of Grace and the happiness she obviously brings to the guys. Maybe Maya could feel the same way toward us. We’ll never know if we don’t try.”
Quietly, Richard nodded as he picked up a loofah body scrubber thingy and put it in the basket. “We’re all three so different, Boone. You don’t think that might be overwhelming for her?”
Boone picked out a multipack of electric toothbrushes, dropped them in the basket, and shrugged, replying, “We give her plenty of space in the beginning and allow her to get used to us. I’ve never had the impression she was the easily overwhelmed type.”
Boone and Richard had met Maya and Morgan when Kendall was in college with them, and Boone had always been impressed with her naughty wit and easygoing, soft-spoken manner.
Certain that Richard’s main worry was his sheer size and imposing presence, Boone said, “Maya’s not the flighty type. She’s never seemed intimidated by either of us when we’ve been around her.”
“Yeah, but it was under different circumstances. I don’t want her to be uncomfortable around me.”
Richard was tallest of them at six feet, six inches, topping both Boone and Kendall by three inches. Richard was by no means ugly, but his size was fairly intimidating. The moustache and beard he was currently growing added to that aura, and he had unusual pale blue eyes that Boone knew some people found disconcerting.
“I think you’re jumping to conclusions. Let’s not borrow trouble, okay? Just give it a chance.”
So he wouldn’t be overheard, Richard muttered, “I also have to worry about my lack of experience where threesomes are concerned. I know you two made quite a reputation for yourselves when we were on the road. The bunnies trailed after you in every town, fighting for the chance to be the filling in a cowboy sandwich.”
Boone chuckled and threw a package of bejeweled hair doo-dads in the basket as he whispered, “Can you handle vaginal and oral sex?” At Richard’s eye roll he continued. “Have you had anal sex before?”
“A couple times, yeah.” Richard looked a little like he didn’t want to contemplate the thought, but they had to get it out in the open.
“Then you can handle a ménage. Just go very slow and watch us for cues if you need to. You had a stellar reputation with the bunnies, too, by the way. That’s the reason I know it’ll be fine. You were raised right and know how to take good care of a woman.”
“But I’m not doing any of that crazy, kinky stuff you like to do.”
“What if she likes it, though?” That thought was pure fantasy for him. It had been a while since he’d delivered an erotic spanking. He missed that part of his former life.
“I don’t know.”
“Do what feels right to you. If the opportunity presents itself, ask her what she likes.” Damn, all this sex talk and thinking about Maya was getting him hard.
“Fine, but I’m not getting my hopes up yet,” Richard said, picking up a box of chocolates and placing it in the basket as they made their way to the cashier. “Those are for her, not you, butthead.”
“But you’re not getting your hopes up,” Boone said sarcastically.
Chapter Four
Kendall listened with satisfaction to the sound of Frank Reeves’s tires as he peeled out in front of Maya’s house.
“That was not fun,” Maya muttered as she entered the kitchen and took a glass from the cabinet and filled it from the tap.
Kendall rose from his seat and went to her as she drank her water. He stroked her hips and asked, “You feel up to making the trip tonight?”
Maya gazed up at him, and her blue eyes took on a naughty gleam. “Yes. I’d rather spend what’s left of the night in your bed instead of mine.”
Kendall barely caught his jaw before it popped open. He’d known her long enough that he was used to her saying whatever sexy thing came to mind, but he’d never been on the receiving end quite like this before. She stood there grinning like a Cheshire cat as she looked him up and down, pausing at his groin and the bulge growing there. He’d missed that sexy, crooked grin and liked being on the receiving end of it very much.
“Now how am I supposed to drive three hours with you sitting next to me saying tempting things like that?” Normally, he was pretty good with a comeback. At the moment he was surprised he could put intelligent words together.
She met his gaze again and said, “Let me pack and we can get on the road. I’ll do my best to be a good girl.”
“Okay.”
As she left the room, he slipped his phone out and quickly typed.
“Forget about fixing the second bedroom for Maya. Put the girlie stuff in my bathroom. We’ll be on our way in less than an hour.”
Boone’s reply came back quickly. “Hell yeah! Good going, hotshot!”
Fifteen minutes later, Maya was ready to leave.
* * * *
Frank Reeves pounded his steering wheel furiously as he drove away from Maya’s house. Everything had been going well until that hick son of a bitch Kendall Warner had shown up. Frank was making amazing progress with Maya and had been ready to move forward with his plan that night. She’d been ignoring his calls and not answering his text messages trying to play hard to get. But he could see right through her act.
&
nbsp; Maya wanted to feel like she hadn’t given in to his charm and appeal too early because she was a widow. She’d needed to feign purity a little longer, but Frank had seen the interest burning in her eyes the other night before she’d stopped his advances. Frank was ready to make her his, and Warner had fucked up his plan.
Tonight she’d claimed he was moving too fast and she thought they should stop seeing each other. Fucking prick tease. Warner had obviously influenced her. It had taken all his self-control not to go out to the glove box, get his pistol, and shoot the damned redneck. The only reason he’d left peaceably was because she’d told him Warner was leaving as well. He’d return in the morning, and they’d cut through all the hard-to-get bullshit.
“Son of a bitch!” he shouted in rage, beating the heel of his hand mercilessly on the steering wheel of his Jaguar.
He looked over at the minivan pulled up to the stoplight next to him. The couple in the front seat observed him warily. The light turned green, and he flipped them the bird as he hit the accelerator, squealing the tires on the damp asphalt before finding traction. He shot across the intersection and headed toward home.
Frank needed to press his advantage while he still had one. She was right where he wanted her, and he needed to keep it that way, at least for a while. He had to get a ring on her finger and the massive zeroes in her bank account transferred into his. He had debts and very menacing debt collectors to pay. He also needed the key to that fucking safe-deposit box Morgan had kept. The contents of that box would make his life one big breeze.
It had been pure luck that he’d encountered Morgan’s attorney at an exclusive restaurant in Austin. Knowing he and Morgan were partners and that Frank was dating Maya, the chump had mentioned the by-chance finding of the safe-deposit key to him. The items he’d unsuccessfully searched her house and home safe for must be in that safe-deposit box. Maya didn’t know that he had a house key and knew her security password for the alarm.
Rainier, Heather - Maya's Triple Dare [Divine Creek Ranch 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 3
