Lucas seemed perfectly satisfied to take her by the arm and start to lead her away.
She wasn’t happy though. “Hey, I was enjoying that.”
Lucas slipped his fingers through hers. He leaned over and kissed her firmly on the lips. “Yes, I know. Now stop causing trouble, or we’ll both get spanked again.”
“Unfair! I’m not the one who hid my identity. And that whole shooting thing was not my fault.” She was arguing, but she didn’t put any heat behind it. Despite what she said, she did feel safer now that they were leaving town. Someone had shot at her. She was putting on a brave front, but she was scared. And she couldn’t go to her mom’s place. She wouldn’t put her sister and brother in harm’s way.
And she could figure out why Aidan had come back. That was the worst reason of all to want to go. That way led to danger.
“And the drinking?”
Lexi shrugged. She had no excuse for that. She leaned into Lucas’s strength. As they walked away, it struck her that Karen smelled like she smoked.
Maybe Deer Run wouldn’t be so safe. Either way, she was going to find out.
Chapter Nine
Lucas pushed through the double doors of the ranch house with a slightly reinvigorated lease on life. Lexi was sleeping peacefully in the ridiculously oversized bed Aidan had set up in the master bedroom. Lucas had never been to Aidan’s Central Texas ranch, and last night’s 4:00 a.m. arrival hadn’t told him much. However, he seriously doubted that the master bedroom had been in this elegant and oversized condition when Aidan’s father had been alive. As far as Lucas knew, the elder O’Malley hadn’t been a ladies’ man, so he doubted he’d required a custom-made bed with a delicate white quilt and three dressers. That room had been remodeled to fit a ménage.
Aidan was thinking positively.
Aidan would need a dose of positivity after the way his night had ended. The man had been mulishly quiet during the long drive from Dallas to the ranch. He’d apparently had some form of conversation with the woman named Karen that put him in a mood. When Lucas asked about her, Aidan had simply said that she wasn’t his fiancée or his girlfriend, and Lucas wasn’t to worry about her.
But Karen had that look, that psycho “I’ll cut you” look under all the sugary sweetness she’d laid on Aidan. He knew the type all too well. One of those had tried to kill Lexi just a year ago. He wasn’t taking any chances. He’d already emailed the Dawson brothers with Karen Wilcox’s name and cc’d Taggart on that bit of information. He wanted a full report. It was a long shot. She hadn’t seemed to know Lexi was involved with Aidan, but he couldn’t leave that stone unturned.
Lucas shook off the thought and started to look around for a coffee mug. His darling was a bit of a nightmare before she had her coffee. He often set the coffee down on the nightstand in front of her, shook her gently awake, and ran before she was in angry-badger mode.
The kitchen looked worn, with old appliances and faded curtains. Now that Lucas really looked around, the whole place had a slightly dilapidated air to it as though he knew it had once been prosperous. Those days were now gone. It surprised him because the bedroom he and Lexi had been taken to last night had been polished to perfection.
“If you’re looking for the mugs, they’re in the cupboard on the left.”
He turned and smiled at the slightly younger man who could only be Aidan’s brother, Bo. He was the spitting image of Aidan from four years before. “Thank you. I’m Lucas.”
“Yeah, I know who you are. You’re my brother’s…buddy.”
And he knew about Lucas’s relationship with Aidan. That one word “buddy” held an edge of distaste. Some of his friendliness was whisked away. He poured Lexi’s coffee in the mug. “I was at one point. Thank you for your help.”
He turned to go back toward the room he and Lexi had stayed in the night before.
“Wait.”
He glanced back at Bo. The young man looked like he was in his early twenties, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. His hair was still wet, probably from a shower. The sun had come up hours before. Aidan had been out working with the dawn, despite only a few hours of sleep. Lucas knew that because he’d heard him moving around and then glimpsed him on horseback through the window. He waited patiently for Aidan’s brother to further castigate him for his sexual proclivities.
“Is Lexi all right?” Bo asked, staring down at his feet.
Lucas sighed. Well, naturally. Lexi was stunning, with raven black hair and a figure that harkened back to a fifties pin-up. He knew she was always worried about her weight, but she was utterly perfect in his mind. Soft and sweet and so fuckable he was getting hard just thinking about her. It wasn’t a surprise that Aidan’s baby brother had a thing for Lexi. He would have been a teen when they’d been engaged. “She’s fine, but we all need to watch out for her. Someone took a shot at her. We don’t know everything yet, but if you notice anyone odd hanging around, let me or Aidan know.”
“Yeah, okay. I was real upset to hear someone tried to hurt her.” Bo paused, a flush heating his face. “So you’re my brother’s boyfriend?”
Lucas answered because the question had been asked with a modicum of civility. “No. I was your brother’s failed experiment. Now we’re involved in a short-term D/s relationship which means that for the time being, as long as it pleases me, I will do as he says.”
Bo’s eyes were back up and there was an unmistakable note of confusion in them. Lucas wondered exactly what Aidan had told him about their relationship. “But you slept with Lexi last night. Aidan slept in the guest bedroom.”
“He did, indeed. Lexi isn’t terribly happy with Aidan right now. We’ll see. I have some plans that might bring her around.” Now that he’d started down the path that led he and Lexi into a permanent sexual relationship, he was impatient. He’d played a very long game with her. Being with Lexi forever was far more important than immediate gratification, but now that the finish line was in sight, he was anxious. The D/s relationship they were exploring gave him exactly what he needed to move this along. And he knew he was fooling himself. Short-term wasn’t what he was interested in with Aidan.
Bo’s head shook. “I don’t understand a lick of this. If some guy was coming after my girl, I would kick his ass, not try to come up with a way to get her into bed with him.”
“Oh, my plan doesn’t involve a bed at all, so don’t worry about it.”
“What’s going on in here?” Aidan’s big, beautiful form suddenly filled the doorway. He walked in from the back porch into the kitchen. He wore a pair of faded Levi’s, cowboy boots, and a T-shirt that was already drenched in sweat and clinging to his chest. A cowboy hat sat on his head, pulled down over his brow. His brown eyes shifted suspiciously from his brother to Lucas and back.
“Not a thing,” Lucas said, watching the way Bo suddenly puffed up the minute his brother walked in the room. His demeanor went from slightly unsure to arrogant in a heartbeat.
Bo’s face tightened, and his lips became slightly cruel.
“I was talking to your butt buddy here. I think I’ll go into town, be around some real men.” Bo turned on his boot heels and started toward the front door.
Aidan’s face hardened, and he started to go after Bo.
“I would prefer you didn’t, Sir.” He kept his voice even and quiet, not argumentative. He really was making a request.
Aidan stopped, his hand on the door. “He’s being an ass, and I won’t allow it. He won’t be allowed to insult you or Lexi in my home.”
There really was something about another person protecting him that got Lucas’s juices flowing. Perhaps it was his crappy childhood, but Lucas was well aware he was a sucker for a protective man or woman. Lexi had made him her slave the day she defended him to some of the nastier people of her mother’s hometown. Of course, his crappy childhood had taught him other things, too. “First, it’s his home, too. And second, I seriously doubt Bo would ever hurt Lexi. He cares about her. Now, I’m another story.�
��
“He’s being a small-minded, homophobic prick, and I won’t stand for it.”
Sometimes siblings couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Lucas’s own full siblings saw him as a waste of flesh. Of course, his father had done nothing to help. But Lucas knew what it was like to want an older sibling’s attention. “No, Sir, he’s being your baby brother. Tell me something, Aidan. Were the two of you close when you were younger?”
Aidan’s head came up, turning to Lucas. “Yes. We were really close. That’s what makes me crazy. We had to survive our father. Dad was remote and unapproachable and exacting. We were never quite good enough for him. He was particularly hard on Bo. I had to take care of him, especially when Dad got to drinking.”
“Yes, and then you left him to go to college, and then the Army, and now you’re back and in control of the ranch with not one, but two potential lovers. He doesn’t understand where his brother went,” Lucas explained. “He misses his brother. You might consider not being so hard on him.”
“Lucas, you can’t expect me to let that go.”
“It was merely an observation.” Lucas started back out the door.
“Wait. I’ll think about what you said.” Aidan stood close. Lucas could feel the heat from his body, but he couldn’t give in to it. “Can you come out and help me in the barn? My foreman hasn’t come in to work, and obviously Bo isn’t going to be helpful. I need an extra set of hands.”
Ranch work. Yeah, he knew a bit about that. Some hard physical labor might calm his cock down. Between cuddling with Lexi and being so close to Aidan, he was pretty damn frustrated. He held up the coffee mug. “I can do that. Let me feed the beast and then I’ll go with you.”
Aidan’s lips quirked up as he looked at the mug in Lucas’s hands. “Be quick. She’s deadly before she has her coffee.”
Lucas’s heart seized a little. This was what he wanted. He wanted the camaraderie of a threesome. He was self-aware enough to know that he wanted to have his cake and eat it, too. There was a component of getting everything he wanted sexually in there, but it went beyond that. He wanted to not be alone. Even in a traditional relationship, there was a certain amount of loneliness. If he married Lexi, no one else would know what it meant to be her husband. Oh, but if they had Aidan, he would always be there, backing Lucas up and laughing over all of Lexi’s adorable quirks. When she confused him, he could lean on Aidan. When she was hurting, they could surround her.
“Lucas?” Aidan’s hand came out as though he realized Lucas was getting emotional.
Lucas stepped back. He couldn’t. Not yet. Sex was fine, but he wasn’t ready for that true, pure intimacy that came with comforting another human being. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”
He didn’t miss the way Aidan’s face fell.
* * * *
Aidan wanted to scream. Every time he thought he was getting close to making a breakthrough, Lucas pulled away. As for Lexi, well, she’d made herself plain the night before when he’d shown them to the room he’d renovated with every bit of savings he had. He’d taken the master bedroom and turned it into something comfortable for them.
And Lexi had slammed the door in his face.
“You can make me come out here, but you can’t make me sleep with you,” she had said.
He hadn’t expected to, but it rankled that Lucas was on the other side of that door and he wasn’t. Would they have sex now that he’d gotten them together? Aidan was well aware that they hadn’t had intercourse up to this point. Would they use the big bed he’d had made for the three of them to remedy that problem?
Jealousy had burned through his gut. He wanted to be with them. He had to be patient. Lucas was the smartest man he knew, and Lucas had been patient. It was time to take a cue from him.
Aidan watched Lucas walk away and promised himself he wouldn’t fuck up again. He’d lost them once because he’d been an idiot who couldn’t handle his own emotions. He’d been a slave to convention and terrified of what his father would have thought. His father, who had never once said he loved him. His father, who had told Aidan that playing the guitar was for wimps and real men ranched or went into the Army.
Patience. He had to believe he could win them back. Bringing them out here was the first step. He wished he had a nicer place to bring them to. Lucas had grown up rich, and Lexi’s stepfather was one of the wealthiest men in Texas. The ranch was falling apart around him. The land itself was worth a fortune, and he had a fine herd, but he was putting almost everything he had into changing his practices so he could go organic. He had gone into business with Barnes-Fleetwood, but it wouldn’t pay for a couple of years. What could he really offer them?
The back door banged open, and Dwight came in. “Hey, nice to have you back, buddy. I thought you were staying in Dallas for a while.”
“My plans changed. I brought Lucas and Lexi back here.”
Dwight’s eyes widened, and he whistled through his teeth. “I hope Deer Run is ready for that.”
“I don’t care if they are or not.” The town could go to hell for all he cared. This town was one of the reasons he’d walked out on the best thing he’d ever had. It was important to fit in. Small towns thrived on community, and flaunting one’s individuality didn’t work. He’d been horrified at the thought of bringing Lucas home with him, horrified that someone might find out he wasn’t “normal.”
Normality could rot. He wanted love.
Dwight put a hand on his back. “Well, I’ll stand behind you. You know I got your back.”
Dwight had proven a dependable friend. It was strange. They hadn’t really been close until that terrible day when Aidan had almost died in the sand, the sound of gunfire and barking dog filling his senses, the thought of Lexi and Lucas the only thing he could cling to. Since that day, Dwight had been by his side. Sometimes he worried it was all survivor guilt that made Dwight follow him back to Deer Run. They were the only two of their squad to survive that terrible day.
“Where did you get off to last night?” Aidan asked, remembering Bo’s complaint from the night before. Dwight lived in the foreman’s house behind the barn. He was a loner. He didn’t have many friends aside from Aidan.
“Oh, I went out for a beer and then, well, you know.”
Aidan grinned. “Which lovely young lady caught your eye?”
“One of the new waitresses at the Two Horse Saloon.”
“Ah,” Aidan said, happy Dwight was getting out a bit. The Two Horse Saloon was a bar on the edge of town. Deer Run was dry, but cowboys always found a way around things like the law when it came to getting a beer after a hard day’s work.
“And I am sorry about Karen. Did she find you?” Dwight asked, his mouth turning down. “She caught me in a weak moment. I was talking about you to Darla, the waitress I hooked up with. I was talking about The Club and how nice you said it was. I didn’t realize Karen was sitting next to me. That girl is psycho.”
Well, at least he understood how Karen had shown up. He’d tried to explain to her that he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t sure she’d gotten the message. But that wasn’t Dwight’s fault. “Don’t worry about it.”
Once Karen saw him around town with Lexi and Lucas, she would get the picture.
There was a scratching at the back door and a little whine. He walked across the kitchen and let in the only good thing he’d found in Iraq.
“Hey, Ike, how you doing, boy?” He got down on one knee, wincing at the pain, but he was used to it. The dog was a mutt, some odd mix of retriever and Great Dane. He was a huge monster, but sweet as the day was long after he’d settled in. He’d been adopted by Aidan’s squad. Though the Army banned pets on base, the truth was most officers looked the other way. He’d nearly cried the day his former platoon CO showed up on the ranch leading Ike by a leash.
Ike’s nub of a tail wagged, and he licked Aidan’s face frantically. It was like this every time he left. Though Ike didn’t mind Bo, he preferred Aidan to everyone else. Ike look
ed up and started to growl.
“Don’t,” Aidan commanded.
Ike growled at a lot of men. He’d done it in Iraq, growling and barking at everyone. It had taken Aidan a while to get the dog to come to him. He wasn’t sure why he’d tried. Maybe he’d seen something in the dog that called to him. Ike had obviously needed affection, but he’d been too scared to take it. Yeah, he and the dog had a lot in common. Eventually Ike had calmed down, but despite the fact that he’d been around Dwight during their time in Iraq, the dog still growled when he got too near. Aidan really hoped Ike and Lucas got along. The last thing he needed was for Ike to hate Lucas.
“Dumb dog,” Dwight said as he started out the back door. “I’ll be out in the south field. We’re going to have to replace that whole section of fence. I’ll take Clint with me.”
Dwight slammed out the back door, and Ike calmed down.
“Hey, boy,” Lucas said in that honey chocolate voice of his. Aidan looked back and he was on one knee with a hand held out.
“He doesn’t like a lot of people,” Aidan warned him.
“That’s okay,” Lucas replied. “He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to.”
But Ike was already moving toward the stranger. He sniffed Lucas’s hand warily, his nose poking and retreating as though he expected a slap at any moment. Lucas was patient, allowing the dog to become accustomed, to make his own judgment.
“That’s right, boy. We can be friends.” Lucas patted the dog’s head, and Ike’s stub started to wag again.
Just like that, Lucas made friends with a dog who took forever to get used to anyone. Aidan watched them with a great deal of pleasure.
“This coffee needs sugar,” Lexi groused as she walked into the room. There was a dour look on her pretty face, and her hair was tousled from sleep. She wasn’t a morning person, but Aidan had always thought she looked so damn cute when she was grumpy. She frowned at him, but her face lit up when she saw the dog. “Oh, hi, puppy!”
Siren_Beloved_Google Page 13
