“Be sure, Maddy.” Chase’s words nearly shook with passion. His eyes glittered brightly, and she understood in that moment how very much he wanted to accept her offer.
“Be very sure. Because when word gets out that the three of us are living together as lovers—as a family—you may find life outside of the ranch changes, and not for the better.”
Maddy’s gaze met Chase’s for a long moment. She reached for his hand, and he gave it. Then she stretched her other hand out, linked fingers with Lucas. She’d said it only once, and she planned to say it again and again until they really believed it. Until they understood that nothing, nothing in her life would ever be more important than the two of them. “I love you both, and I really don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone has to say about it. I love you, Chase. I love you, Lucas. And that’s forever.”
“Yeah, about that.”
Maddy’s heart jumped to her throat when Lucas said those three words. She turned her attention to him, and nearly smiled at the look of discomfort on his face. She knew that look, and it had nothing to do with his recent minor injuries.
“I’m not good with words. Never had to be. I’ve made my living with my hands and the strength of my back. And until recently, I never had a reason to want to be good with words.”
Maddy nearly jumped when Lucas pushed himself up. She wanted to stop him, to make him stay lying down. He maneuvered himself until he could sit, with his legs dangling. The position must have been uncomfortable. But she sat there, and let him be his own boss.
“I never thought I’d be able to say this without reservation. I’m in love with you. Both of you. It’s not traditional, and hell, more than likely not even socially acceptable anywhere. Doesn’t matter, I’ve never been much of a social animal, anyway. But you suit me. You both suit me. And that’s that.”
“You’re both braver than I am.” Chase got to his feet, paced halfway to the door and back. “Hell, I came home because of the two of you. But I was afraid to say it first. I intentionally manipulated us together, took absolute advantage of your attractions to each other and to me to get my way without even considering actually laying my heart on the line like you two have just done.”
Maddy’s attention never left Chase. He flushed, and no one said anything for a long moment.
“Pussy.”
Maddy laughed so hard she thought she’d fall out of her chair when Lucas said that.
“Well, yeah, kind of, when you think about it,” Chase agreed, trying not to laugh.
“You still haven’t said it, cowboy,” Maddy pointed out.
“I haven’t?”
“Come on, lover, swallow it down and spit it out,” Lucas said. “No pun intended.”
They all laughed for a moment. Then Chase’s expression sobered as he looked at her and Lucas for a long moment. The he looked away briefly, and let his gaze wander out the window. When he turned back, his expression had turned more serious than Maddy had ever seen it.
“I love you, Maddy. I love you, Lucas. And that’s for keeps. And in about an hour, I’m going to show you both exactly how much.”
“Why in an hour?” Lucas asked.
“Because the truck carrying our new bed is coming down the driveway. I figure it’ll take us at least that long to get it in and set it up.”
* * * *
He meant to show them how much he loved them, and they turned the tables on him. He’d patted himself on the back for thinking to order sheets and blankets with the bed. It hadn’t taken very long to get things done. Charlie and Pat had lent a hand, and they’d put the old bed in the extra bedroom that Maddy had left empty for years, setting up the new king-sized one in Maddy’s room.
Three bedrooms, three beds. Each of them could have their own space, when they needed it. Two could have private time, when they wanted it. But now, because they could, they would spend this night wrapped in each other’s arms, all three of them.
He turned to say something to them, and found speech deserted him. They wore equal expressions—more than passion, more than love.
Lucas reached out to him first. With a hand that trembled, he stroked Chase’s face with a touch so tender, it nearly brought tears to his eyes.
“You saved my life. You put yourself in danger to save my life.”
Chase saw gratitude, of course, but he realized Lucas was expressing more than that. His tone held wonder—maybe a wonder that encompassed all they had become to each other, the three of them. That they had found each other, and real happiness and love when really, the odds had been against that ever happening.
Chase felt that sense of wonder, too.
“How could I not? I can’t do without you. I love you.”
Lucas’s grin flashed, a tad lopsided. “Gets easier the more you say it, huh?”
“Yeah, it does. Especially when you know you’re safe saying it.”
Chase looked from Lucas to Maddy. Their woman was waiting and watching, her smile soft.
“That’s the biggest treasure here. We’re all safe. We’re all…one.” Maddy’s whispered words settled in his heart.
Lucas stepped closer and kissed him. Gentle and tender, questing and seductive, Lucas’s lips courted and his tongue wooed. Smitten, seduced, Chase gave himself over to the sensual delight of exploring Lucas’s mouth, one hand resting on the side of his face, returning a caress filled with the love overflowing from his heart.
Fingers opened the buttons of his shirt, and Maddy’s hands sought his chest, her touch bold and demanding.
Between them, his lovers undressed him before they undressed themselves.
Soft sipping kisses and gentle caresses awakened and aroused not only his body, but his mind and his spirit. They urged him onto the surface of the bed, and God, how wonderful to be between them and be surrounded by their passion and their heat.
“No, let us,” Maddy whispered when he would have returned the caresses and the love. She took his hand and laid it beside his head. Then she licked and tasted him, his face and neck and chest. Lucas kissed the other side of his neck while his hand began to stroke his cock, the rhythm slow and sure.
Chase’s heart raced and his blood heated as his lovers moved down his body, sipping him with their lips and tongues. The feather-light brush of fingers across his abdomen, dipping into his navel; the callous roughened stroke on the inside of his thigh, down, then up again. Sweet sultry open-mouthed kisses on his collarbone and his pecs. Saucy nips of teeth on his nipples and his neck. Chase couldn’t hold back his groans, or the need to touch when Lucas’s brown hair brushed the edge of his hip just before he took Chase’s cock into his mouth. Maddy’s mouth was equally busy, and when she urged him to bend his right knee and move his leg to the side, he complied easily, groaning in bliss when she licked and teased his scrotum. His arousal grew languidly, a gentle rippling cascade of erotica swirling throughout his body, tempting, teasing. Warm, enticing, exciting, and slow.
In perfect sync, Lucas took his cock deep while Maddy sucked his balls into her mouth.
“Oh, God!” Chase cried out as he came, the orgasm exploding stronger and penetrating deeper than anything he’d ever experienced before. He bowed off the bed but hands—male and female—held him down, so all he could do was lie there and let it take him. Let them take him.
Wasted, empty, Chase closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath yet not wanting to fully release the amazing climax slowly ebbing away.
“He looks done.” Lucas’s voice.
“Mmm, he does, doesn’t he?” Maddy’s.
“Right here.” The least he could do was fire familiar words back. He only wished those words held more strength.
“Are you sure? Maybe we sent you to another plane of existence.”
Man, he loved that self-satisfied smirk in Maddy’s voice. He loved that her confidence as a woman had grown, and that he’d had a hand—not to mention a couple of other body parts—in helping her make that happen.
“I’m here, and
I’ve just had a fabulous orgasm. But unless I missed something, neither of you did.” He opened his eyes and grinned, his gaze meeting first one and then the other of his lovers.
“You didn’t miss anything,” Lucas said as he stroked a hand up and down Chase’s chest. “We just thought we’d wait until you recovered so you could tell us what to do.”
He knew his eyes gleamed brightly. “Did you, now?”
“Mm. We both know how much you love to play the dominant. And it does come as some surprise to us both that we love to let you.” Maddy’s response excited him, just when he believed he was totally replete.
“Oh, man, I have got to get me that paddle.” Chase looked to see what their reaction to that threat was. Lucas looked interested but Maddy’s eyes fairly crossed. Lucas noticed that, of course, and Chase could see his interest turn sharper.
“Maybe I’ll buy you one for your birthday,” Lucas said.
Chase gazed down at Lucas’s cock. Erect and proud, it awaited his command. Chase moved closer to Lucas, giving Maddy more room.
“On your hands and knees, woman.” He smiled when she obeyed, treating him to the sight of her breasts hanging, nipples taut, nearly right over his hand.
“Lucas, hand me a condom out of the box.”
Chase took the proffered packet, tore it open. Then he reached down, stroked his lover’s flesh, and rolled the condom in place.
“On your knees behind Maddy. But don’t touch her. Not yet.”
When Lucas was in place, Chase knelt on the bed beside them. He reached a hand out, and gently stroked Maddy’s opening, back and forth, his fingers light.
“Oh, sweetheart, you’re so wet. Are you horny?”
“Yes, I am. Helping you come turned me on. I really want to come too, Chase.”
He took Lucas’s cock in hand, stroking gently, and when Lucas leaned into that stroke, urged him closer to their woman.
“Do only what I tell you,” he whispered.
He placed Lucas’ latex-covered penis at the very opening of Maddy’s pussy, and kept his hands there as he said, “In, Lucas. All the way in, then out slowly, and then once again. But do not come, either of you.”
Seeing, directing, feeling his lovers pleasure each other was a new high for him, something he’d never experienced. They both quivered, and when he told Maddy to hold still, she whimpered with need, but complied.
“Stop, Lucas. Withdraw from her.” Lucas groaned, but he, too, complied.
“Oh, yeah, got to have that paddle.” He took hold of Lucas, and brought him to Maddy’s anus. He rubbed Luc’s erection back and forth over the rosebud until both his lovers groaned with need.
“Maddy, baby? Tell Lucas what you want him to do, sweetheart.”
“Oh, please…Lucas please put your cock inside me. Right there.”
Lucas’s glittering gaze speared Chase, and Chase felt such heat, and such love, that he knew in that moment, finally, he was complete. Lucas wanted desperately to do just what Maddy had begged him to do, but he waited for Chase to give him permission.
“How do you want him to take you, Maddy?”
“Hard. Fast and hard. Oh, please!” Her plea sounded ragged and he knew she balanced on the edge of her climax, hovering just a few breaths away from it.
“Do it, Lucas. Give our woman what she wants.”
“Oh, damn!” Lucas’s guttural cry emerged as he sank his cock deep into Maddy’s ass. Hard and fast so that the bed shook, Lucas gave Maddy what she needed, what they both needed. Chase kissed Lucas, a fast hungry little kiss then leaned down to take Maddy’s mouth in turn.
And he watched, happy, satisfied, as his lovers both erupted in rapture.
Chapter Nineteen
Sean Paris wasn’t at all what Maddy had expected.
Since she’d entered her forties it seemed to her that all the people with whom she dealt on a regular basis—the bank teller, store clerks, and even her dentist—had to be getting younger. Sean Paris, an attorney with the Attorney General’s office, looked like a teenager.
Of course, she knew he wasn’t.
His ability to keep his cards close to his vest certainly seemed seasoned. Watching him she had no idea whatsoever whether he had come with good news for her, or bad.
When he’d gotten out of his car he’d taken one look at the blackened shell of Lucas’s house and immediately demanded to know what had happened. Then, of course, he’d had to get on the phone to Sheriff Barclay, insisting on being apprised as to the status of the investigation. She hadn’t characterized what had happened last night as a hate crime, but that’s exactly what it had been, and what Paris called it. Hate crimes, Mr. Paris had then informed her, were definitely the aegis of the Attorney General of Colorado.
By the time they’d all made it to Maddy’s kitchen table, Maddy felt a wreck, waiting to hear what Mr. Paris had to say with regard to the situation involving that damning photograph and the threat from Kevin Marsh.
“You sit, sweetheart. I’ll make coffee.”
Lucas’s hands on her shoulders, the soft tone and gentle squeeze helped settle her some. That all went out the window the moment Paris opened his attaché case, pulled out a tape recorder, set it on the kitchen table and turned it on.
He spoke by rote, reciting the date, time, and location, as well as noting the names of all present in the room. He must have seen something in Maddy’s expression when he looked up, for he immediately turned off the recorder.
“Ms. Dalton, the State of Colorado has no interest in, or any intention of bringing charges against you for anything.”
“Oh, thank God.” The air totally went out of her and she laid her head on the table for a long, quivering moment.
“Sweetheart, you didn’t really think he’d come here to arrest you?” Chase obviously felt bad he hadn’t realized the extent of her fears, and she supposed she had no one to blame for that but herself. She hadn’t really let her men know exactly how frightened she’d been when they’d got that call this morning informing them of the official’s impending visit.
Maddy hadn’t really let them in, so they hadn’t known to ease her mind. Reversing the habits of a lifetime wouldn’t be easy. She would have to do better if she wanted this relationship to work.
Chase rubbed her back, with Lucas standing beside her on her other side, his hand on her shoulder. Their solidarity felt wonderful, but more, it felt right.
“Actually, yes, I did think that.” She blushed as she made that confession then turned her attention to their guest. “I’m so pleased, Mr. Paris, that you’re not.”
“I’d have brought a state cop, Ms. Dalton, if that had been my intent. Our office is, however, interested in Mr. Marsh, and his connection to Frederick Barnes.” He looked up, including the men in his conversation. “The New York AG’s office has been interested in this person for some time, as has the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As near as anyone can tell, he’s usually very careful in his dealings, but he has raised a number of red flags in the last couple of years.”
So Maddy repeated for the benefit of Sean Paris and his recorder all that had happened between herself and Kevin Marsh. While she spoke, Chase got up and poured the coffee Lucas had made.
When she finished speaking, Lucas filled in the details of his encounter with the surveyors. Finally, after more than half an hour, Paris turned off the recorder.
“Not that you weren’t within your rights to be frightened, Ms. Dalton—”
“Maddy, please.”
“Maddy, then. But Kevin Marsh doesn’t sound like an overly intelligent man.”
“I don’t think it’s a lack of intelligence on his part,” Maddy said. “I think it’s more a case of the man being extremely narcissistic. As for the being frightened part, my fear began to abate once I told Chase and Luke what was going on.”
“We should discuss whether or not you intend to bring charges against him.”
“Charges? My goodness, for what?” It had never occurr
ed to Maddy that she could so easily turn the tables on Kevin.
“Oh, let’s see,” Chase said, his hostility toward Kevin barely leashed. “There’s extortion, for starters.”
“Threatening with a dead weapon,” Lucas dead-panned, which made Maddy snort and the other two men snicker.
“And if he gets nasty, we could throw in accessory after the fact, conspiracy to commit a felony since he did speak to drug dealers and received knowledge of drug deals.” That Sean Paris had chimed in told her as nothing else could have where he sat, ethically.
“We’ll talk, the three of us, about whether or not we want to bring charges and let you know in a couple of days, if that’s all right?” Maddy said. The look of pleasure on both Lucas and Chase filled her heart with contentment.
“That’s fine. I’d want to discuss things with my family, too, before making that kind of a decision.”
They walked Sean out to his car. Before they’d reached it, however, the sight of a large truck coming down the drive toward them captured all of their attention.
“Well, now, isn’t this special?” Chase said, rubbing his hands together, an expression of glee on his face.
It was Sunday, Maddy realized then. And just like clockwork, here came Kevin. She still couldn’t believe that he would think she’d actually give in to him.
The shiny new red Ford F-350 King Ranch pulled around Sean Paris’ little Nissan and glided to a smooth stop.
The driver’s door opened, and Kevin Marsh got out, his tan suit, white shirt, dark bolo tie and white Stetson all looking immaculate. Another man sat in the truck with him, and he got out too. This man was a stranger to Maddy. Dressed nattily in denim jeans and a blue buttoned shirt, his wide smile instantly sent shivers of dislike down her spine.
Kevin Marsh could be an irritant, to be sure. But in this other man Maddy sensed real danger.
Special Cowboy Menage Collection Page 17
