by Becca Van
Cal felt like a bastard for snapping at Jewel. He’d been filled with possessiveness and jealousy the moment she mentioned Benjy and hadn’t thought about what he was saying before the words flew from his mouth. But what bothered him was the look he’d seen in her eyes. There’d been fear, and for a moment he was worried she was about to leap up out of her seat and run from him, but then he’d seen anger, and she’d held her ground like she was trying to show him she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her. He admired her for that and for her response, but he wanted to know why she’d reacted the way she had. Of course, he didn’t ask, because he had a feeling the best way to get Jewel to open up with him and his brothers was a bit at a time.
When he walked into the kitchen earlier and saw Ash kissing her passionately, his heart had soared and filled with hope. Since he hadn’t wanted her to feel embarrassed at being caught in a passionate clinch with his brother, he’d quietly backed out and waited in the living room until he’d heard her and Ash moving about again.
His cock had been at attention from nearly the moment she’d gotten out of Matt’s ute, but after that kiss, it was aching and throbbing. Cal wanted to be able to take her into his own arms and taste her mouth. He wanted to tangle his tongue with hers and run his hands all over that delectable, curvy little body.
“Apology accepted.”
Jewel’s voice drew him back from his lascivious thoughts, and after giving her a smile, he set to work wiping the table down, but he glanced at her often from the corner of his eye. She finished off her glass of water, took it to the sink and then headed to the door.
“I’m going to bed. I’ll see you all in the morning.”
“‘Night, honey,” Cal called and watched as she waved before she disappeared from sight.
He and his brothers rinsed the dishes and then put the dishwasher on. When everything was clean and away, Finch handed out four beers.
“What’s going on?” Finch asked.
Ash sighed as he met Cal’s gaze, and he knew his brother was aware of him seeing him kiss Jewel, and nodded his head.
“Ash kissed Jewel.”
“Oh man,” Heath groaned as he leaned against the counter. “Is she as sweet as I’ve imagined?”
“Sweeter.”
“Did you touch her?” Finch asked.
“Not the way you mean,” Ash replied. “I had an arm around her waist.”
“Did you tell her about the ménage relationships in town?” Cal asked.
“Nope. I didn’t get that far.”
“So, what? You just walked into the kitchen and kissed her?” Heath took a slug of beer.
“Pretty much.”
“And what was your problem, Cal?” Finch crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at him.
“Uh…I don’t know. I just sorta lost it when she mentioned that Benjy guy.”
“Benjy isn’t a guy.” Ash smirked at him.
“He’s not?”
Heath chuckled and slapped him on the back. “Nah, man, he’s a car.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you hear Tiffany telling Jewel that she’d have her Kombi van up and running again as soon as she could?” Ash smiled.
“She named a Kombi van Benjy?” Cal felt a rumble of amusement bubbling up in his chest.
“Apparently,” Finch said. “And she had a moustache painted on the front of it.”
“You’re kidding?”
Ash shook his head and started laughing. Cal didn’t realise how tense he’d been until he started laughing, too. The tautness dissipated and he felt a whole lot better now that he knew Jewel hadn’t been talking about another man. Finch and Heath joined in the laughter and then they all quietened down.
“I sent an email off to her previous employer,” Ash stated.
“What the fuck for?” Heath snarled.
“Because I want to know who the hell hurt her,” Ash snapped out his reply. “Look, I don’t like checking up on her either, but we have to know what we’re dealing with.”
“Ash is right,” Finch interjected. “If she has someone after her, we need to know so we can protect her.”
“I agree,” Cal said. “But we have to keep it quiet. If she knows that we contacted her last employer, she’ll take off as soon as she has her car back.”
“She’ll blow her stack if she ever finds out.” Heath crossed his arms over his chest and clenched his jaw.
“Yeah, but hopefully by then we’ll have established a relationship with her. Plus, her safety is more important than her being pissed at us,” Ash said.
“It is.” Cal sighed. “So how do we get her to meet us halfway in the relationship stakes?”
“We touch her casually as often as we can,” Heath said.
“And when she lets down some of that wall she has hidden her heart behind, we tell her about the other polyandrous relationships.” Finch picked up the empty bottles of beer from the table and carried them to the recycle bin to dispose.
“She’s already met people in a ménage and it didn’t seem to bother her.” Ash rose to his feet.
Cal smiled. He was so used to the unconventional marriages that he hadn’t thought much about her meeting Tiffany and her men. Hope filled his heart and his cock filled with blood. He shifted in his seat to relieve the tightness of his jeans at his groin as he thought of all the time he and his brothers would be spending with their woman. He was going to do everything within his power to make her theirs.
* * * *
Jewel had spent the last four days working with the Handley men branding and tagging some of the new calves and found that she kept watching for them as she worked. It didn’t matter who was around, Ash, Cal, Heath or Finch, whenever one or more of them were within her vicinity, she couldn’t help but follow them with her eyes. They were very tactile and handsome men, and the more time she spent with them, the more time she wanted to be near them. It didn’t matter how often she told herself to keep her gaze to herself, she just couldn’t manage to drag her eyes from them as they moved. Plus, she couldn’t get that damn kiss out of her head. Every time she thought about Ash’s mouth on hers, his tongue rubbing against hers, her body quivered with desire.
“Damn, girl, you’re in trouble.”
She leaned against the shovel and looked about the stable to make sure she’d scooped up all the soiled straw and horse manure. The men had two compost piles out back of the stable. One had already decomposed and half of it had been used on the vegetable garden, and the other pile was for the fresh manure.
She’d just finished up and was heading toward the water hose to fill the horse’s buckets. As she reached the entrance to the stables, she blinked to adjust her vision to the change in light and then gasped when she slammed into a hard male body. Jewel knew immediately by the spicy scent that she had bumped into Heath. “Sorry.”
Before she could step back, he grasped her upper arms. The heat of his hands on her cloth-covered skin sent a shiver racing up and down her spine.
“Don’t worry about it, darlin’. You can bump into me anytime. As long as you don’t hurt yourself.”
Jewel looked up and met his gaze. He had a shit-eatin’ grin on his face, but there was something in his eyes she couldn’t quite discern. She blinked, and in the next heartbeat, the look intensified and she gasped as she realised that he was hungry, but not for food.
Damn, just a look from him or his brothers and my pussy reacts. If this keeps up, I’ll be needing to change my undies every five minutes.
“Is there anything you need?” Heath asked.
She sucked in a breath and before she could temper her thoughts or her mouth, she said, “You.” When she realised what she’d just blurted out, her face felt instantly hot and she looked away, lowering her head as she tried to hide her face and her embarrassment from him.
Oh. My. God. I did not just say that. Please, tell me I didn’t say that?
Heath’s hands released her arms and then he was cupping her face an
d tilting her head up until she was looking into his brown eyes. “You did say it, darlin’, and I’m not letting you relinquish those words.”
I did not just say that out loud. Did I?
Jewel opened her mouth to say somethin’—what, she had no idea—but she didn’t get the chance to speak, because he slammed his mouth down onto hers. His tongue pushed into her mouth and caressed along and over hers before he swirled it around as if trying to taste everything she had to give, and even though she knew she shouldn’t be allowing this, she couldn’t seem to hold her response back and gather the wherewithal to move away.
She moaned as he ate at her hungrily, and the embers that had been simmering inside her for the last five days flared up and engulfed her. She was so hot and needy, she didn’t want to stop kissing him, and she melted into him as the fire inside her burned brighter.
His hands left her face, landed on her shoulders, and then caressed down her back to her arse. Then he squeezed her cheeks and she wiggled her hips for more contact with his warm, hard body, and whimpered when she felt his hard cock press into her stomach. She nearly groaned with frustration when he slowed the kiss and released her lips, but then she did groan when he started nibbling and licking the skin of her neck.
Nothing mattered to her right then, not the fact that she was in the doorway of the stables with Heath or that any of his brothers could see them. All of her concentration was on how his hands felt as he kneaded her arse and how good it was to have his lips on her skin.
“I want you, Jewel. All my brothers want you.”
She shivered as his breath caressed her ear, but when her brain finally engaged and she realised what he’d said, she tensed, shifted away and pushed against his chest. She slowly backed up until there were at least a few feet between them and stared at him with shock. When she noticed that her mouth was hanging open, she closed it and crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive, vulnerable move.
Although she wasn’t surprised about the polyandrous relationships, and really shouldn’t be surprised that Heath and his three brothers wanted her, she was. The thought of Ash’s kiss and then Heath’s sent her body into an uproar of desire, but the image of all four brothers touching and kissing her nearly sent her to her knees. She locked them and tried to keep her expression passive.
What the hell did he mean that he and his brothers wanted her? Did they want to fuck her? And when they were satisfied, would they ignore her, or worse, send her on her way? She had no idea what to say, to do, or think. Her body and mind had been warring with each other from the moment she’d set foot on the Handley Farm, and even though she would love to find out what all the fuss was about, she was scared.
“That was a mistake,” Jewel finally said after meeting his eyes, and continued as she turned away from him. “It won’t happen again.”
“Yes, it will.”
Ash’s voice rang in her ears. Jewel gasped and spun around. Her face got so hot she wondered if she looked like she was sunburnt and hoped the dim interior of the stables shadowed her face. She looked beyond Heath and saw all three of his brothers watching her, and from the hungry look in their eyes and the determination on their faces, they weren’t about to let her remain at arm’s length.
“That wasn’t a mistake, Jewel,” Heath said as he slowly moved toward her. She backed up slowly, warily keeping an eye on him and his brothers. Ash, Cal and Finch were all following Heath, and she wondered what the hell she had gotten herself into.
“Stop,” Ash commanded in a gentle voice, and she nearly sagged with relief when Heath froze in his tracks. Cal and Finch stood beside Heath, but Ash kept moving toward her.
Jewel gasped when her back hit the stable wall and hoped she didn’t look as intimidated as she felt. Ash raised his hands up in a placating gesture, but he didn’t stop walking until there were barely two feet between them. “We would never hurt you, baby. We don’t hit women or children. Surely you’re not afraid that we would?”
Jewel bit her lip and nodded, but then she changed it to a shake. She couldn’t let him and his brothers believe that she thought they would hurt her, because she knew deep down in her gut that they wouldn’t.
“Thank God,” Ash said. “It’s time for lunch. Why don’t we go up to the house and eat? We need to discuss a few things with you.”
Jewel looked at the offered hand and hesitated putting hers in his, worried that he would read more into her action than she was giving.
“Just lunch and conversation, Jewel.”
She wondered how these four men could read her so well. She’d tried so hard to keep her expression stoic most of the time. Was it because they were more perceptive than all the other people she’d met? Or was she somehow giving herself away? She would love to ask, but that would be telling how closed-off she usually was, so she remained silent. After taking a deep breath, she clasped his hand and let him lead her out of the stable and toward the house.
After they had all washed up, Ash directed her to a stool at the counter. While he and Heath started making sandwiches, Finch and Cal worked on the drinks. Finch sat next to her when he had the coffee pot brewing and nudged her arm.
“What’s your outlook on polyamorous marriages, baby?” Finch asked.
“I’d never really thought about it before.”
“Before?” Ash looked up and met her eyes before going back to making the roast beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, with a swipe of mayonnaise sandwiches.
“Before Tiffany, Todd and Matt came to my rescue.”
“And?” Cal asked.
“And what?”
“It doesn’t bother you that Tiffany has two men?” Heath questioned.
“Why should it?” She sighed and then met each of their eyes. “I don’t know what you’re getting at, but I don’t care how other people live their lives. If one woman is in love with ten men then she should be able to be, without malignancy from the general population, as long as everyone is agreeable and happy. Did you want me to rant and rave about how wrong it is? Did you want me to call Tiffany a slut and shun her?”
“Not at all, baby.” Finch tugged on her ponytail. “Just the complete opposite.”
“Then why all the questions?”
“You know why, Jewel,” Heath said.
She shook her head, slipped off the stool and started pacing. She hoped they weren’t waiting for a response, because she wasn’t sure of what to say. When Ash started talking again, and on a different subject, she nearly sighed with relief.
“Did you know the guys that attacked you outside of Passion?”
“No.”
“Did you get a license plate?”
Jewel didn’t want to answer that, but figured that if she didn’t, Ash would hound her until she did. As she turned to pace some more, she shook her head and wrung her hands together. She didn’t hear him come up behind her, but she smelled his manly scent and stilled when his hands landed on her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Look me in the eye when you answer me, sweetheart.”
Jewel was mesmerised by his hazel eyes. The brown and green flecks seemed to brighten as he stared into her eyes. Her gaze shifted to his lips when he started talking again, and as she watched them move, all she could think about was what they felt like against her own. And then the slight stubble on his chin drew her attention, and she found herself wondering what it would feel like underneath the tips of her fingers.
“Jewel, did you see the number plate?”
“Yes,” she whispered her reply.
“Then why the hell didn’t you call the police?” he asked her angrily.
“Because I’ve had enough of the police, thugs, judges and courtrooms to last me a lifetime,” she replied just as angrily, and then she pulled out of his hold and covered her mouth with her hand. She walked over to the sliding glass door off the dining room and stared out at nothing with her arms crossed defensively over her chest and her shoulders hunched.
“Oh, Jewel. What kind of hell h
ave you been through?” Ash wrapped his arms around her from behind.
She didn’t want to fight the offer of his comfort. She’d been holding herself back from other people for so long, and she was tired. Tired of being alone. Tired of being lonely and tired of keeping the wall around her heart and soul. She sighed and leaned her back against his front, absorbing the heat of his body, the security and comfort of having his warmth penetrating into her skin, and the contentment he and his brothers had been trying to offer her from day one.
Without any warning, he changed his hold on her and swept her off her feet before carrying her to the table and sitting down with her on his lap. His arms surrounded her again and she rested her cheek against his chest, listening to the every beat of his heart and relishing the solace the sound gave her.
He lifted an arm and stroked a hand over her head and down over her hair. She had woken up with a headache from another broken night’s sleep, and now it was turning into the headache from hell. Her eyes drifted closed and she rubbed her cheek over his pec and inhaled his clean, masculine aroma.
“Jewel?” He nudged her chin up and then placed a light, soothing kiss on her lips. Her lips clung to his and she wanted to drown in his touch, in his calm, bolstering security, but she decided that she should answer him.
Plates and glasses clunked lightly as they were placed on the table and chairs scraped as they were pulled back and again as the other men took their seats.
“I left my last job after one of the jackaroos beat me and tried to rape me.”
“Geezus fucking hell,” Cal snarled.
“Fucking bastard,” Heath growled.
“Motherfucking dickwad,” Finch rasped.
Ash didn’t say a word, but she felt every muscle in his body tense and he trembled as if he was trying to control his fury. The muscle in his jaw ticked and she heard his teeth grinding together. And even though she could see the rage in his eyes when he met her gaze, not once did he tighten his hold on her and hurt her. She felt another layer of the wall she surrounded herself in crumble and emotions she tried to keep at bay worked their way up from her gut and into her heart.
