Maddy’s jaw dropped, the vehemence in Lucas’ voice so uncharacteristic she still wasn’t certain she’d heard him correctly. If appearances counted for anything, Chase looked just as shocked by Luc’s boldness. He looked for one moment as if he might say something more. Instead he nodded, tossed the photograph and envelope onto the table, and followed the older man out.
The kitchen door slammed behind them. The sudden silence after the roar of raised voices felt barren. The quiet wrapped around Maddy but brought no real comfort. She lowered herself to her chair and reached for the discarded photograph.
Not until the image in front of her blurred did she realize she was crying.
Chapter Ten
“I’d like to toss her over my knee and spank the living daylights out of her. How can she be so thick headed? It has nothing to do with us! How can she say that? What the hell is the matter with that woman?” Lucas paced the parlor in his house. He knew he was ranting, but he couldn’t seem to help it. He’d wanted to reach over and give Maddy a good shake.
He knew she cared for them more than she wanted to let on, but she didn’t seem to know how to bridge the gap between self-sufficiency and self-confidence.
“I’ve never see you so manly and so pissed. Makes me hot.”
Lucas stopped and spun around to look at Chase. The expression on the younger man’s face was pure devilry. When he raised his eyebrows suggestively, Lucas gave in to the moment and chuckled. He walked over to Chase and hugged him.
“Hopefully the shock of our anger and exit will be the jolt Maddy needs,” Chase said as he returned the hug. “If not, spanking is still an option.”
“Hmm. Now that I think about it, that idea is getting me hot.”
“Oh yeah? How hot? And hot to do? Or to get?”
In answer, Lucas took Chase’s hand and placed it on the front of his pants. “Both.”
Chase fairly purred, closing his fingers around the denim covered hardness in a way that never failed to arouse Lucas even more.
“I’m hot,” he confessed to the younger man now. “I’m hot for you. I don’t need any more time. I’m ready. I want to feel you inside me.”
“Luc.” Chase gathered him in and placed a string of kisses on the side of his face, his neck. Then he took his hand, intertwined their fingers, and led him to the bedroom.
The window stood open just a bit, a soft late spring breeze just stirring the closed curtains. It occurred to Lucas that since Chase had returned, it felt as if a fresh breeze had swept out the staleness of his life. The world had become one brilliant new and exciting horizon after another to explore. He felt as if he’d gone through his whole life before now, just going through the motions, but not fully alive.
He was alive now, and didn’t know if he could hold any more joy inside him. For the most part, he’d let Chase take the lead in setting the parameters to their relationship and in their lovemaking. When it came to the two of them, Chase was the man of experience, Lucas the eager if unsure virgin.
That would change tonight.
He remembered telling Chase that first time that he didn’t know how—didn’t know the rules or the etiquette or, quite frankly, the mechanics.
Tonight, his heart showed him how.
“No, let me,” he said when Chase reached for the buttons of his shirt. With gentle motions, Lucas undressed them both. Each new bit of Chase’s skin he uncovered, he stroked and kissed. With hands and lips and tongue he tried to tell this sexy younger man what he didn’t have the words yet to say. He lavished attention on chest and arms, neck and navel. When he knew his own knees would buckle, he guided them to the bed.
Kisses slid from light and flirty to full open-mouthed splendor. Hot and wet and carnal, they stoked the flames of passion. Chest to chest, Lucas reveled in the feel of Chase’s hard muscled body against his own. Their cocks brushed and danced, and the velvety heat of those silky touches nearly made Luc come. For long minutes they kissed and petted, allowing their bodies to brush and rub against each other. There burned such passion here, such emotion, that Lucas really felt as if this would be a first time in more than just the physical.
When Chase’s arms wrapped around him, when his hands splayed over his back and across his ass, Lucas’s pulse spiked.
“My turn.” His lover whispered, and Lucas gladly surrendered. He turned onto his belly when urged, and groaned as Chase’s tongue lapped and tasted the flesh of his shoulders, the small of his back. Over and over Chase’s tongue paid tribute to Lucas’s body and Lucas shivered in response. Chase nearly lay atop him and the heat from the younger man’s body warmed him inside and out. Chase stroked him, neck to feet, lavishing attention on every inch of Lucas’s skin. The caress of those strong masculine hands over the curve of his ass aroused him tremendously. Responding to the gentle prodding, he raised his buttocks, spread his legs.
Lucas shivered as Chase’s fingers stroked over his opening, then down and around to tease and cup his scrotum. The slide of a drawer told Lucas that Chase would protect them both. Then he lost all thought as teeth sank gently into his ass, as hands reached around to stroke and glide over his cock. The strength of Chase’s grip, the firm pumping action thrilled Lucas, sending his arousal even higher, so that all he wanted to do was wallow in it. His hips rocked, nature urging him to reach for more. Chase’s gentle chuckle washed over him.
The moist heat of his lover’s tongue stroking back and forth over his anus excited him, and he felt the rosebud flesh flex as if to grab more of the wonderful wetness.
“Please,” he begged, knowing he could beg and be rewarded, knowing he was safe to beg or plead or demand. “Oh, please, Chase, fuck me.”
“Here, now sweetheart. I’m going to give you what you need. I’ve wanted to be inside you for so long.”
Lucas felt the bed dip, felt Chase move forward, then the hot, sheathed end of Chase’s cock pressed against his rosebud, opening him.
“Yes.” Lucas had never wanted anything more than he wanted to feel the slick glide of that man flesh into his ass. He pushed back as Chase leaned into him. The pressure was more intense than when he’d taken the plugs, but also more erotic. This was his lover. The burning increased as his anal opening stretched. Hot, full, the latex covered shaft entered him inch by hot, hard inch. Lucas groaned, the sensation so intense, so wondrous, he only wanted more.
“Easy, lover. Let yourself stretch a bit more. You feel so sweet around me, but I don’t want to hurt you. I never want to hurt you.”
“I don’t care. You can’t hurt me, Chase. Please, give me more,” Lucas begged, pushing back, flexing his inner ring.
“Lucas.”
It thrilled him that he could make this young stud nearly lose control. Braced on hands and knees, he could only push back, invite Chase to take more.
“More, then.”
Chase adjusted his position, and Lucas felt the heat of his body cover him. His lover trembled, and Lucas relished the power of their connection, that they would both shiver in need for each other. Lucas wanted everything this young man could give him. He pushed back and flexed.
Chase sank into him to the hilt.
“Hold still.” Chase’s voice strained as he fought to hang on to his control. Lucas didn’t want his lover’s restraint. He wanted his unfettered passion.
“Take more,” Lucas urged.
“Sweetheart.”
Lucas could almost hear the chains that had held Chase back snap. His lover pulled out nearly all the way then sank home again. The velvet cord of pain wrapped around the silken thread of lust, and Lucas reveled in the whole of it. Long, strong strokes in a rhythm that sang of passion, need and greed became the center of the world for him. Pounding, driven thrusts shook the bed, and Lucas released the last tiny hold on his inhibitions, spreading himself wide open, ready to take everything his lover gave him.
“Yes. Oh Chase, yes.” Lucas felt the stirring that told him he was on the verge of coming. When Chase reached around an
d stroked his cock again, Lucas cried out, his entire body rigid with rapture.
Chase’s thrusts surged, his words laced in locked-jaw passion. “Yeah, take me. Take it all. Come with me.”
The pounding orgasm shot out of him, long explosive streams of ecstasy that raced his heart and heated his blood. The spasms from Chase’s cock buried deep within him filled his heart with joy. He and no one else had given his lover that pleasure. On and on it soared until, sated, Lucas collapsed on the bed.
Sweat bathed him, his lover covered him. The breeze wafted through the open window, kissing them both.
* * * *
He crept away from the house, away from the open window so they wouldn’t hear him, wouldn’t know he’d seen them.
The curtain had blocked most of the view, but not all of it. Even now, the sounds of their rutting echoed in his mind. The flash of naked skin moving, sliding had taunted him, the unnatural lure of it compelling him to watch even as he condemned.
Filthy faggots. How dare they bring their sickness here?
When he’d seen them on Maddy’s porch the other day, he’d been repulsed. But then he’d had second thoughts. As he’d huddled down in his bed in the bunkhouse that night, he began to wonder if he’d really seen what he thought had. Maybe, just maybe, he’d been mistaken. He made himself think and think. Chase had grown up here, hadn’t he? Maybe what he’d seen had been more in the way of father-son affection.
So he’d awakened and known that he had to be sure. He needed to know for certain if what he’d already witnessed was sickness, or if it had only been his imagination.
Now he had no doubts. They were queer boys, the two of them. Playing their sick sex games right here where he lived!
Did Maddy know? Did she suspect? He’d heard them yelling earlier, and he wondered if she’d somehow found out her foreman and the prodigal son were poking each other in the night.
She couldn’t know. She wouldn’t let them stay if she knew, would she? Far as he’d ever been able to tell, Maddy was decent folk.
Maybe he should tell her. Maybe he should march right up to the house and tell her right now.
Of course, likely they had her so fooled that she would never believe him.
Anger and hatred burned in him as he thought about what those two were doing even now in the foreman’s bed. He pounded his fist into his hand, and imagined he pounded their faces instead.
He couldn’t just stand back and let them carry on like this, doing unnatural things to each other. He couldn’t just stand back and risk himself. What if one or the other of them came on to him? What if they both attacked him at the same time? Could he fight them both off? What if they grabbed him in the middle of the night?
Of course, he wasn’t alone in the bunkhouse. He felt pretty sure the others would come to help him if he cried out. But maybe it would be a good idea to sleep with his gun close at hand. Just in case.
In the meantime, he couldn’t just sit back and wait for them to make a move on him. How long until they got bored poking each other and wanted fresh meat? He knew how their kind operated. His father had warned him, hadn’t he? They trolled the streets, the highways and the byways, looking for those they could con into serving as their whores. They’d pretend to be your friend, but in the end all they wanted was to stick their filthy dicks in you. Yes, he knew how these sick bastards lured the unsuspecting.
But he wouldn’t be lured. He knew the truth now. And because he did, he couldn’t let things be. He couldn’t let them get away with this.
No, he would have to act. He would have to do something to make sure they got what they deserved. Filthy faggots deserved to roast in the fires of Hell.
Yes. That’s what he’d do. He would make sure they roasted in Hell.
* * * *
Maddy had lain awake most of the night.
In the aftermath of their fight, on the heels of her tears, came a waspish anger she’d never known before. How dare they make her feel guilty for wanting to keep some things to herself? Did Chase and Luc think they could just snap their fingers and she would jump through hoops for them? Or did they figure that poor little female Maddy needed the big brave men and take care of her? Fight her battles for her? As if she was too vapid to take care of herself, fight for herself.
Well, so what if she didn’t know what to do about Kevin just yet? She’d been doing for herself since she’d been a teenager, since her father’s first stroke. If she’d waited for someone to take care of her back then, she’d still be waiting. Life had taught her that she had two strong arms to carry her own load; and in her hands, the ball would be far less likely to get dropped. Her mother had left when she’d been barely five, and in all the years since there had never been anyone she could trust to be there for her.
But then as the hours of the night had crept passed, she recalled how she’d felt, thinking that something had upset Lucas and Chase. And she remembered that fierce need—the need to take care of them, to fix whatever was wrong, because she loved them.
Wasn’t that what Lucas had meant when he’d said that everything about her was their business? She had been ready to do battle to pull the secrets out of her lovers, to solve any problem, right any wrong. She wanted that, and yet had no doubt they could solve their own problems and fight their own battles. Wanting to do it for them, take care of them, didn’t mean she wanted to diminish them. So then, how could she resent the same desire in them?
Did it mean they loved her? If they did, how could she love them and yet resent their loving her in return?
Now as dawn dusted the horizon, the depth of the chasm yawning between herself and her lovers seemed daunting. Lucas had said that she knew where she could find them when she figured it out. But as she began to feel the full weight of what her mulish pride had done to her relationship with both men, she wondered.
What if the chasm was too wide, too deep to breach? What if she’d already done too much damage to the relationship they’d been building together to mend the rift?
She still hadn’t come up with a solution to her own pressing dilemma. No way in hell she would marry Kevin. Did she doubt he would carry through with his threat?
There was a chance he wouldn’t, but she couldn’t be sure. She’d known the little bastard most of her life. He was a worm, in every respect. Completely selfish, he owned not one scruple when it came to doing someone dirt if it could get him ahead. But did that mean he would stoop so low as to see her thrown in jail? What could he possibly benefit from that?
Spite. Yes, the little prick could and likely would feed her to the lions simply out of spite.
Maddy felt the stress of her sleepless night and Kevin’s threat pushing down on her shoulders. She was tired. Truthfully, she felt far more exhausted than one sleepless night would allow.
Maybe Kevin wouldn’t carry through with his threat. Maybe he would. But with each passing minute she realized that Kevin and his threat really weren’t the biggest danger to her heart or her peace of mind. What she’d done to her relationship with her lovers by lying to them—even if that lie was one of omission—could cost her more than her ranch or her freedom.
It could cost her heart and her soul.
Maybe Lucas and Chase didn’t love her. And maybe, just maybe, if she turned to them for help they would let her down the way that everyone she’d ever let close had let her down all her life. Maybe.
And maybe not.
Grabbing her jeans off the bedroom floor where she’d tossed them the night before, she pulled them on. Tucking her nightshirt into them, she worked her bare feet into her slippers and headed for the kitchen door.
She counted the steps she took rather than allowing her distrusting brain to do any more thinking.
The morning air chilled her arms. Rubbing them, she kept on walking until she’d reached the small stoop at the front of Lucas’s house. The inner door had been opened a crack, and though it she could smell fresh coffee, hear the sound of quiet masculine con
versation. She reached for the door handle then pulled back.
After the way she’d behaved last night, after what she’d kept hidden from them, she had no right to just intrude on them. She had no right to assume she would be welcome.
Screwing up her nerve, she knocked. It didn’t take long for the inside door to be pulled open. She’d wondered which one of them would answer her summons. Somehow, she was unsurprised when they both did.
Neither man said anything, choosing instead to wait. To let her finish taking that first step. At least, please God, she hoped they were.
Did they have any idea the enormity of the chance she was about to take? Looking into first Luc’s eyes, and then Chase’s, she thought that maybe—just maybe—they did.
Maddy closed her eyes for one moment. Then she took a giant leap of faith.
“I’m in trouble. Serious trouble. And I don’t know what to do about it. Please help me.”
Chapter Eleven
“You look like hell, Maddy,” Lucas said as he set a cup of coffee in front of her.
“Gee, thanks.”
Chase chuckled. “You have a silver tongue, my love,” he said to Lucas.
His hand caressed Maddy’s head then he leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. When they’d heard the knock and seen her standing there, his first, somewhat cynical thought was that she’d come around awfully quickly. He’d wondered if she’d truly seen the light.
But when Lucas opened the door and pulled her into his arms, she’d burst into tears. And it occurred to Chase then that in all the years he’d known her, all those years he’d lived on the Circle D and followed her around like a faithful lap dog, he’d never once seen her cry. He’d been pissed because Maddy had refused to confide in them. Now he thought he could see the bigger picture. Her reticence really had nothing to do with either himself or Lucas. She was the way she was because she’d had to be, she’d had to protect herself over the years. He also understood that she’d been solitary in a very basic way for far too long.
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