Training Summer [Passion Peak, Colorado 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Tara Rose

  “One of two. There’s another one on the western end of the property. Half live in one, half in the other.”

  “Wow. How much land is there?”

  “Two hundred acres.”

  “Two hundred acres. Sir, that’s like the whole town and then some.”

  He laughed easily. “Well, I don’t know about that, but it’s not as large as Mystic Ridge Enterprises. They have more land than we do.”

  “I haven’t been there, so I’ll take your word for it.”

  Wes told Dalton to drive around to the barn he’d just pointed out. “Some of them are inside today. You can see what they look like up close.”

  “Aren’t they like camels?”

  “Yes and no. They’re more like llamas than camels.”

  “Oh, that helps.” Summer didn’t know shit about llamas or camels, so there was not much to compare, in her mind. She didn’t know what to expect as they exited the car and walked inside the barn, but she instantly felt at ease in there. It smelled acrid, like hay and wet wool mixed together, but it wasn’t an unpleasant scent. Rather, it evoked images of Wes and Dalton in jeans and chaps, baling hay or riding horses. She’d love to see them both in cowboy hats and shirtless, a fine sheen of sweat covering their muscled torsos as they worked alongside the ranch hands she’d spotted.

  “This is Babs. She isn’t feeling well, so she’s isolated from the others for a while.”

  Summer stared into the face of the alpaca, struck by how beautiful and expressive her eyes were. Up close, she didn’t look that much like a camel. Of course, Summer had never been this close to a camel, either, but the animal didn’t look like she’d been picturing. “Is she going to be okay, Sir?” Summer asked, watching Wes pet her gently along the nose.

  “She will be now. The vet was here to see her two days ago, and I’m told she’s already almost back to herself.”

  “She’s so pretty. Sir, do you think she’d let me pet her?”

  Wes smiled at her. “Of course. Just approach her slowly and call her by name.”

  “Really?”

  “Summer, she can hear you. And animals respond to our emotions. They’re very attuned to us.”

  Summer held out her hand the way Gran had taught her to do when first approaching stray dogs. “Hi, Babs. I’m Summer. I love your eyes. Sir, you can see so much emotion in them.” Summer touched her on the nose the way Wes had done, and Babs started to hum. “Did I do something wrong, Sir? Is she supposed to make that noise?”

  “That just means she likes you. You’re doing fine, Summer.”

  Dalton chuckled. “You have a cat. I assumed you had animals growing up as well.”

  “No, Sir. We didn’t.”

  She caught the look that passed between Wes and Dalton, and Summer withdrew her hand. She had to talk about this eventually. It might as well be now, but then she remembered what Wes had said about the alpacas being attuned to human emotions. She didn’t want to upset the animal.

  “Want to go up to the main house?” asked Wes. “It’s raining pretty hard outside. I’m sorry I can’t show you more of the ranch right now.”

  “That’s okay, Sir. Maybe I can see the rest of it another time. Thanks for bringing me here to meet Babs.”

  As they drove toward the main house, Summer gathered all her courage. She could do this. Wes hadn’t judged Dalton for his family’s past, so she had no reason to believe he’d judge her either. Neither of them would. It would be all right.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I have my own mini apartment on the second floor.” Wes led them toward a staircase. “This is the quickest way up there.”

  Summer followed Wes up a set of dark wooden stairs, admiring the clean smell of wood and furniture polish. The walls were knotty and covered in pine, but it wasn’t the cheap paneling that they’d had in their basement when she was a kid. This was like something you might find in a well-built log cabin. She touched it, not surprised to find the texture was rough.

  “Here we are.” Wes opened the door and Summer stepped across the threshold, smiling. It was so Wes. Posters of characters in video games graced the room, and there was an impressive big screen TV and gaming system that took up one entire wall.

  “Dude…” Dalton starred at it, and then he strolled over and started flipping through the games. “Is there any game you don’t have?”

  Wes smiled. “I’m missing a few. I’ve been collecting them a long time. Help yourself, if you want to play anything.” He glanced at Summer. “Would you like a tour?”

  She nodded. “Sure. I mean, yes, Sir.”

  Wes cut his gaze toward Dalton. “You coming?”

  “In a minute.” Dalton wasn’t even paying attention to them. Wes took Summer’s hand and led her toward a curved archway. “Kitchen is in here. We have a main kitchen downstairs and a staff, but sometimes I like to do my own cooking.”

  “Wes, this is amazing. My entire apartment is no bigger than your great room.”

  He gave her a long, searching look. “Well, anytime you want to hang out here, you’re more than welcome to. I drive to and from Notus every day. I could easily take you to work.”

  Summer held her breath as she searched his face. He was dead serious. She didn’t know what to say. The idea of living here, in such an enormous place, with or without Wes, was completely foreign to her. What would it be like to wake up next to him every morning and make love to him every night? It was a beautiful fantasy, but she couldn't picture it happening to her. Especially once they found out what had happened to her parents. “Thank you, Sir. That’s sweet of you to offer.”

  “I mean it, Summer. I’m not trying to be sweet. I’m dead serious.”

  “I know you are. I’m just a bit overwhelmed right now and I don’t know what to say.” She gave his hand a squeeze because she didn’t want him to think she was blowing him off. “Will you show me the rest of your apartment, Sir?”

  “This way.”

  He led her down a short hallway, pointing out a closet and a half bath, and then took her through a set of double doors into a bedroom that was as large as her living room, bedroom and bath put together. Unlike the game room, this was decorated in warm earth colors, and looked more like the room they’d been in last night. She hadn’t pictured Wes as someone who would decorate with traditional furniture and heavy fabrics. “Wes, it’s beautiful. Very cozy and inviting. I’d never want to leave.”

  He pulled her into his arms and nuzzled her neck. “That was my secret plan. To make it so enticing you’d never want to leave.” When he kissed her, Summer wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close, parting her lips to let his tongue inside. She moaned as he brushed his hands down her back and over her ass cheeks, conjuring up images from the past two nights.

  Would he and Dalton spank her and flog her ass again, now that she’d had a day to recover from their play at Indulgence on the main floor? She hoped so. She wouldn’t have minded if they’d done so last night, but their concern at not giving her too much to handle within a short time was touching. They cared about her. This wasn’t just sex for them.

  Wes’s tongue and lips moved over hers with exquisite precision, forcing more tiny moans from her throat. She pushed closer to his body and nestled up against the bulge in his pants. It would be so easy to just say the hell with the rest of this day and stay here, making love to him and Dalton. What was stopping them, after all?

  “Hey…no fair.”

  Wes released the kiss at the sound of Dalton’s voice, but he didn’t take his arms from around Summer. “Tough shit. You were busy with the games.”

  Dalton glanced around. “Nice room.”

  “I was just telling Summer that she could move in here if she wanted.”

  Dalton gave him a hard look, and Summer moved out of Wes’s arms. The fantasy bubble had just burst. “Please. Not right now, you guys. Please? I mean, Sirs? Please don’t square off again. I have something I want to tell you.” She had to get t
his out of the way or nothing they did for the remainder of the day would feel right to her.

  “What is it?” asked Dalton.

  “I need to clear the air about my past.”

  Dalton nodded. “Does this have something to do with what your gran said at Shady Pines?”

  So, they hadn’t forgotten after all. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Let’s go in the other room, then,” said Wes. “It’s too distracting having you in here. Are you both hungry? I could have some food sent up. It’s been hours since we ate.”

  Summer followed Wes and Dalton back into the great room. “Now that you mention it, I am hungry, Sir.” Anything to put off telling them this.

  “What would you like?”

  She shrugged. “Anything you both want is fine with me.”

  Wes picked up the receiver from a wall phone and spoke to someone on the other end while Summer walked over to his collection of games and read the titles. She’d never played many games, but she recognized most of them from listening to others talk.

  “This is really something, isn’t it?” asked Dalton.

  She nodded “It sure is. I have a laptop and a TV. That’s it. I don’t even have a Blu-ray player.” She cut her gaze toward Wes, but he was still on the phone. “Dalton, may I ask you a personal question about your grandfather?”

  “You may ask it, but I might not answer it.”

  “Fair enough, Sir. How well did he know my Gran? Because it looked like you became very uncomfortable when she asked if you were related to him.”

  Dalton averted his gaze, and then Wes was off the phone and walking toward them. Summer sighed. Whatever it was that Dalton might have told her, she wouldn’t find out right now. Once they were seated, Wes told them dinner would be up in about an hour. “So, Summer, what did you want to tell us?”

  She leaned forward and took a couple of deep breaths. There was no reason for her to be so nervous about this. Felicity knew. Her boss at work knew. It’s not like this was some tragic secret that no one in town couldn’t have discovered if they really wanted to.

  “I told you that Gran raised me but not why. I don’t know who my father was. I was never even told his name. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure that my mother knew. There was nothing in our house that I ever found to give me a clue. And when I tried to search for clues online by using my mother’s name as a jumping-off point, I kept hitting dead ends.”

  “Your gran doesn’t know?” asked Wes.

  “If she does, she never told me. She only said that he was a bum, and he left my mother when she was still pregnant with me.”

  “That’s rough,” said Dalton. “I’m sorry. It must have made you angry to listen to me talk about my father the way I did, not even having had the chance to know yours.”

  “What? No, Sir. Not at all. I don’t begrudge anyone knowing both their parents, believe me. And I certainly don’t envy what you must be going through right now, Dalton. You have your own demons to wrestle with where your family is concerned. We all do.”

  He almost looked relieved. She wondered when she’d have another chance to ask him again how well his grandfather had known Gran, but this certainly wasn’t the right time. She needed to finish her story. “I don’t remember how old I was the first time I realized that my mother was using drugs. Younger than kindergarten, because once I started going to school, Gran took me aside and cautioned me against telling my teachers about mom’s stash of pill bottles.”

  “Oh, Summer…” Wes looked at her with pity, but she shook her head again.

  “It’s all right, Wes. I mean Sir. I’m only telling you both this so that you know the truth. I should have told you yesterday, and I’m sorry I didn’t.”

  Wes stroked her arm. “Don’t be. Please don’t be. It’s painful to share things about our families we wish weren’t true.” He cut his gaze briefly toward Dalton. “We’re honored that you’re sharing it with us now.”

  “I agree with Wes.” Dalton squeezed her hand. “It’s all right, Summer. Just get it all out.”

  She was stunned into silence for a moment. They weren’t upset with her, and they weren’t going to judge her. It was too much to hope for, and yet it was true. “We lived with Gran, and most days Gran took care of my mother more than she took care of me. I had to learn to be independent at a young age. My mother took pain medication and I’m not sure what else. I was never sure why she was on so much medication, but Gran told me once, years later, that my mother had issues even when she was a teen. Gran raised her alone, you see.”

  Dalton frowned. “What happened to her husband?”

  “He died in a car accident when my mother was young.”

  A shiver ran down Summer’s spine at the faraway look that passed through Dalton’s eyes. But then it was gone just as quickly. “When I was eight, I got called to the office in school. I was in third grade, and I remember being afraid that I’d done something wrong like use paste instead of glue. But it was because Gran had come to the school to tell me…” Summer’s voice trailed off as the memories washed over her.

  Dalton moved next to her and placed an arm across her shoulder. On the other side, Wes sat closer and gently stroked her arm. “It’s all right,” he said. “We’re here.”

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  “Call us by our names, Summer. It’s okay to do that right now.” His voice was so gentle and loving that Summer had to fight back tears.

  “Thank you. Okay. She was there that day to tell me that my mother was in the hospital. She’d overdosed. Two days later she died without ever having come out of the coma. I sat by her bed with Gran for as long as they’d let me each day, talking to her, because the nurses said she could hear me, but she never woke up.”

  “Summer, I’m so sorry.” Dalton’s voice trembled, as though he might cry also.

  “Thank you, Dalton. I am, too. The thing is that, while I remember that day vividly, I have trouble remembering her, you know? Does that make sense? I mean I have pictures of her, but I have trouble recalling her scent, or the expressions on her face, or even her voice. It’s as if she was never real. More like she was a character in a book or a movie, and because I have pictures of her I made her real. Does that make sense?”

  “Perfect sense,” said Wes. “People do that with characters in games all the time. You should read some of the comments on the message boards.”

  “So, that’s it. That’s what I didn’t tell you both yesterday. Gran raised me, and then when she fell we lost the house. She had to pay for medical bills that her insurance didn’t cover, and my mother had left behind all kinds of messes with her bad credit and her bills, and it was too much. I was only in high school when Gran fell and broke her leg. I worked two part-time jobs, but at minimum wage, you know? I couldn’t do enough to help.”

  “You worked at Nancy’s Novelties on Shoshone Road,” said Wes. “I remember you being there a few times when I came in.”

  “Yes, that’s right. I worked there on Saturdays, and after school three afternoons a week I worked at Taylor Drugstore on Juniper.”

  “Did you start at Notus after you graduated?” asked Dalton.

  “Right after, but I was lucky to get the job. Nancy Badea, who owns Nancy’s Novelties, heard about the receptionist opening because her cousin Maria works at Notus. She’s an account rep there. The woman I replaced was retiring and moving to Florida, and Nancy drove me to Notus one afternoon to put in my application before the job was even posted. Maria talked to Steve, my boss, and he hired me the next week. I graduated a few weeks later and started right away.”

  Dalton smiled. “It pays to know people.”

  “It sure does. But even after I was finally working full time, and for more than minimum wage, Gran still had to sell the house. And by that time, it was apparent that I couldn’t take care of her on my own, so she went to live at Shady Pines.”

  “How does she afford it?” asked Dalton.

  “I help.” Summer averted her gaze
. She didn’t want to tell them how broke she herself was, because she didn't want them thinking she was asking for money.

  “What do you mean you help?” asked Dalton quietly.

  “I mean I help pay for it. Her insurance doesn’t cover all of it and the money she got for the house is long gone.”

  She caught the look that passed between him and Wes, and shrugged away from Dalton’s arm to rise and pace the room. “No. Don’t do that. Don’t even say it.”

  “Summer—”

  She whirled to face them, cutting off Dalton’s words. “No. Please don’t even put it out there. I will not take charity from you two. I’m fine.”

  “No you’re not,” said Wes. His gaze roamed over her, and his expression held a clarity she hadn’t seen before. It was as if the simple act of telling them the truth about her past had shed new light on her, and Wes saw her for the first time in the harsh glare of reality. “That dress is probably the most expensive piece of clothing you own, isn’t it?”

  She crossed her arms and backed up against the wall, fighting the impending tears. She would not cry in front of them. His words weren’t meant to taunt her, and she knew that, but she didn’t want them knowing anymore about her life. It was too personal. She didn’t want them thinking she was trying to take advantage of their wealth.

  “You worked two jobs in high school, tried to take care of your gran, and now you give every spare dime you have toward her care. Summer, I have more fucking money than I could spend in three lifetimes.” He cut his gaze toward Dalton briefly. “And Dalton does, too. Why on earth won’t you let us help you?”

  “Because.” Fat tears spilled over her lids, and she swallowed against the lump in her throat. Her body trembled and the air in the room suddenly felt stuffy and too warm.

  “’Because’ is not an acceptable answer, hon.”