Special Cowboy Menage Collection

by Morgan Ashbury

  Annie blinked, her gaze going from one smiling hunk to the other. Mentally replaying her words, she realized she had said that. More, she understood that she was going to take these two cowboys up on their outrageous offer. How were they going to make that happen, exactly? They couldn’t mean…her gaze wandered down to the soft, pretty blanket she was perched on.

  “Here? Now?”

  “Well, if you insist on here and now, God knows we’re both ready,” Grant said, popping the last of his sandwich in his mouth.

  “But we’d actually prefer our first time with you to be in a more private place, like a bedroom. And on a more comfortable surface, like a bed.” Jesse’s voice dropped down to an almost reverent whisper. “Say yes, Annie. Say yes, then come and lay with us.”

  Chapter Four

  Annie couldn’t think, she could barely breathe. She knew if she said no to these men and what they offered, there would be no repercussions. She knew beyond a doubt that if she shied away, if she refused, they would treat her the same way they’d always done, with kindness and respect and friendship. She knew she could say no and that would be the end of it.

  God help her, she didn’t want to say no.

  “Come on, sweetheart.” Jesse’s breath warmed her lips as he leaned closer, almost but not quite kissing her. “Just one word. All you have to do is say one word and we’ll take care of the rest.”

  Oh, how tempting that sounded! How many times had she longed for someone to step in and ‘take care of the rest’? She’d done every hard thing, and done it on her own. She’d lived with an abusive father, an abusive husband, and survived. But there’d been a tiny part of her, a Cinderella part longing for Prince Charming, and a fairy godmother or two, and the luxury of being taken care of.

  She wasn’t absolutely certain, but she thought that maybe she’d healed enough in the last year to send that Cinderella dream packing. There were possible consequences to the choice she was about to make. She would face those consequences, whatever they turned out to be. She didn’t want shielding anymore, at least not from this. “I’ll say the word, but I’ll play an equal role in this, in whatever it is we make between us.”

  Jesse leaned in closer, his scent so potent her mouth watered. Beside her, Grant stroked the back of her hand, his thumb strong yet gentle, the heat of his body so close, filling hers with longing.

  “Say it, Annie.”

  Annie met Jesse’s gaze. Needing to taste him, needing to sample the heat and the passion she read in his eyes, she licked suddenly dry lips and said softly, “Yes.”

  He moved slowly as if he would give her one more chance to change her mind. She didn’t, of course, change her mind. Instead, she stretched up to meet his lips with her own.

  She expected a gentle kiss, a first kiss like the kiss-and-run she got from Pete Barton in tenth grade when he cornered her in the gym after the spring dance. This was no questing foray. This kiss was full blown, open-mouthed, go-for-the-gold splendor.

  Annie sank into Jesse’s kiss, into a world of oral pleasure. Hot and wet, his mouth mated with hers, his tongue stroking her lips then plunging when she opened to him. For just one instant, she felt overwhelmed. She’d never been kissed like this, with heat and passion, as if the taste of her was vital. Then Jesse’s hands cupped her face, their fine tremor oddly soothing. She relaxed into the caress, into him, blocking the rest of the world from her mind.

  He tasted like heat and heaven, delight and danger. His tongue didn’t coax, it demanded. Smitten, lured by the promise of ecstasy, she leaned into him, offering more, offering everything.

  If he’d laid her down, stripped her naked, and taken her then and there, she would have given him a wet welcome and begged for more.

  He lifted his lips from hers, his hands still on her face, his thumbs stroking her cheeks with restrained passion. She opened her eyes and felt her excitement climb at the look of glittering arousal in his. No man had ever looked at her that way, as if she was the sun and the moon and all the stars combined.

  A hand stroked her back, down, then up and around to cup her shoulder. Jesse relinquished her and Grant used a single finger to turn her head, bring her attention to him.

  The fire of need burned no less brightly in his eyes. Drawn, she placed her left hand on his face and moved closer, moved in.

  Grant’s kiss felt and tasted different from Jesse’s. Annie took one second to register that fact, and then became captivated by his softly wooing touch. Here she found the questing, the sampling, the gentle persuasion. Sweet and subtle, his tongue slid and stroked, touched and tasted, teaching hers the rhythm of the dance. The heat of his arm surrounded her, and the compelling scent of his woodsy cologne combined with the power of his kiss to seduce her completely. When he eased back, she leaned forward, reluctant to let him go. When the absence of his chest plastered against hers registered, she moaned in disappointment.

  “You taste good, Annie,” Grant said as he rested his forehead against hers. “But if I don’t stop right now, I’m going to have you naked and under me in the next two minutes.”

  Annie never believed herself capable of inspiring even mild passion, let alone the kind that could overwhelm a man’s best intentions. But obviously she could, here was proof in duplicate. Today repudiated years of insecurity. She couldn’t hold back her smile.

  “Look at that siren smile,” Jesse teased. Then, as if he couldn’t resist, he swooped in for another quick nibble and lick of her lips. Annie wanted more and fisted his tee-shirt.

  He gave in to her, but just for a moment. This time when he thrust his tongue into her mouth, hers met it with equal fervor. She blinked when he pulled back, then licked her lips to capture more of the taste of him.

  “You do taste good. The reality of being with you right now is better than my dreams, and I’ve enjoyed some pretty damn hot dreams lately.” He looked around, then put his focus back on her.

  “I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be interrupted here, honey. But Grant and I don’t want to take that chance. What we’re planning for the three of us is way outside of convention. But it’s our choice, and nobody else’s business. We want to be able to guarantee you privacy, behind closed doors.”

  “And if we put this stuff away and get a move on, that privacy can happen in about twenty minutes,” Grant added. “If you’re sure you want us both.”

  “If I’m sure?” Annie didn’t have to think about it very long or hard. She was going to be thirty-two on her next birthday and she’d lived up until today believing herself incapable of passion. To some extent, her past determined her future. She would never marry again, never have a family. There would be no hearts and flowers and happy endings for her. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy a physical relationship with two men—two men!—she both liked and respected. It didn’t mean she couldn’t grab whatever happiness life decided, at this late date, to hand her.

  “I’ve never been this sure of anything. I want you, both of you. I know it’s outside convention. We’ve known each other a year, and I’ve been attracted to you both from the beginning. I know this won’t be permanent, but it won’t be a one night stand, either. I can’t see any reason to wait any longer. So, yeah. Let’s get a move on.”

  The men had the remains of their picnic stowed in their backpacks in record time. Grant vaulted onto his horse. Jesse spun Annie into his arms and kissed her. Hot, hard, impassioned, he imprinted himself on her. A little taste of him to carry with her while she was riding with Grant, she thought. Her nipples peaked so hard, they pinched. Jesse broke the kiss, looked down at her breasts, and ran one hand over them.

  “No one night stand, Annie. That’s a fucking promise. You’ll have us. We’ll have you. Soon, baby. Very soon, and I’m hoping, very often. Now up you go.” He lifted her into the other man’s arms.

  Grant’s chest against her back felt as enticing, as hard as Jesse’s had been during the ride to this oasis, and the impression of his erection against her bottom felt
just as potent and appealing. Annie became so hot, so excited, the movement of the horse beneath her was no longer a cause for concern. Instead, the motion seemed to accelerate her arousal, the gentle back and forth swaying of her hips feeding the flames of sexual need these men had ignited within her.

  She closed her eyes, worked with that motion, but couldn’t quite take herself to the next level. She must have made some sort of sound, some kind of desperate whimper in frustration, because Grant wrapped one arm around her and pulled her tighter against him as he surged his hips forward. “I know, Annie. Just a bit longer. I’m going to bury my cock so deep inside of you, sweetheart, I swear you won’t know where you end and I begin.”

  Annie wondered if she could have an orgasm just from listening to them talking about it. Grant’s husky bedroom voice vibrated right through her to her sex, teasing her pussy with promises of attention to come. If she didn’t feel so desperate, so needy, she’d laugh. After a lifetime spent thinking sex the ultimate overrated experience, she was acting like a nymphomaniac!

  “I know you may not believe me, but I don’t usually behave like this. You two have got me so aroused, I’m shaking with it.” She held her hands out in front of her so they could see she wasn’t joking.

  “Believe me, baby, we know,” Jesse said, guiding his horse closer. “It’s the same for us. Good thing we have most of the rest of the day to spend together, because I think it’s going to take us at least that long to quench the craving we have for you, and the one you apparently have for us.”

  “You don’t have to worry, either, about protection. Jesse and I have been stocking up on condoms the last few weeks. We got them over in Laramie, of course, so no one around here would know.”

  Annie nearly told them protection wasn’t necessary, but then she recalled that in this day and age there was more than unwanted pregnancy to guard against.

  Just then, the path they were on curved to the left and Jesse’s house came into view.

  Was she crazy? She’d just made a conscious decision to have sex with two men at the same time. Not even in her wildest dreams had this scenario ever surfaced. Even if she nurtured a cherished fantasy of having two men, she certainly never would have had the self-confidence to suggest acting on that fantasy.

  Yes, she’d been attracted to both men on sight. And as she’d gotten to know them, she understood that she’d come to care for them equally. She never would have been able to choose between them. How very lucky for her she wouldn’t have to.

  Two barns stood well back of the house. Jesse once told her that when he and Grant decided to merge their operations, they’d chosen Grant’s ranch as their headquarters. The Douglas spread had always been a bit bigger than the Conrad’s, and while Grant’s dad had done what he could to keep Jesse’s property viable after the death of Jesse’s parents, there’d been no capital improvements done during his stewardship. The year before Jesse turned twenty-one, Grant’s father erected a new barn and modern bunkhouse on his own property.

  “I’m almost tempted to leave the horses,” Jesse murmured as they neared the barn. “But it won’t take us long to see to them.”

  Annie thought they worked very quickly.

  “What are you doing that for?” she asked as each man set to lifting his horse’s legs, one at a time, and proceeded to use what looked like a pick of some sort on the hoofs.

  “Checking for stones. Anything gets lodged in here, a horse can go lame,” Jesse said.

  Despite their obvious desire to be alone with her, both men were patient and gentle with their animals. It was clear to Annie that they cared about their horses.

  She waited until the horses were in their stalls before she closed in on the men. She felt bold and sexy as hell. A novel feeling, she decided to take full advantage of it.

  “We smell of horse, honey,” Jesse warned as she put her arms around his neck.

  “I don’t care. Kiss me.”

  He did, his lips and tongue seeming eager to taste her again. Grant came up behind her and pressed close, his hands running up her sides, then into her hair.

  She never would have thought it would be a turn-on to kiss one man while being fondled by another. She gently pulled her lips from Jesse’s and stretched her neck back to find Grant’s lips.

  As she sucked Grant’s tongue into her mouth, she felt Jesse pulling her T-shirt out from under the waist band of her jeans. His hands fluttered across the front of her breasts, his fingers dipping down to tease and stroke her nipples beneath the light fabric of her bra.

  Grant pulled her shirt all the way to her neck, then used his right hand to cup and squeeze her right breast just as Jesse pressed a hand against the denim at the juncture of her thighs. It was a tease of the worst kind, drawing a moan from deep inside Annie as she surged her hips toward his touch. He obliged, rubbing back and forth.

  Grant reached into her bra and pulled at her nipple, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger. “Maybe the barn is private enough.” Grant’s words sounded as strained as his pants must have been, judging from the size of the erection he pressed against Annie’s bottom.

  “Yeah,” Jesse agreed, and yanked open the snap of Annie’s jeans. “Maybe it is.”

  Annie wasn’t particular—bedroom, barn, as long as they did something now. She needed to feel their hands on her flesh. She needed them to stoke the fires they’d lit inside her.

  “Shit!” Grant’s soft curse snapped the thread of her arousal. Both men went stock still. At first, Annie didn’t understand. And then she heard the unmistakable sound of gravel crunching under tires as a vehicle approached the barn.

  Chapter Five

  Jesse reluctantly lifted his hands from Annie’s delectable breasts, his sigh enormous. But there was no help for it. His spread, his responsibility.

  “I guess the barn wasn’t a good idea after all. I’ll get rid of whoever it is.”

  He took some comfort from the fact that Grant wasn’t going to carry on without him, though he thought maybe he might have felt all right about it if he did.

  Watching the way Annie snuggled against his friend’s cock as they rode back to his ranch hadn’t produced the waves of jealousy he’d feared. It only made him hornier. Despite all their discussion and planning, it was good to know the green-eyed beast wasn’t going to rear its ugly head.

  With one last look over his shoulder at Annie and Grant, he headed out the door to give the bum’s rush to whoever had come to visit. At least he didn’t have to worry about hiding his erection. Threat of discovery had deflated it in a heartbeat.

  After the cool dimness of the barn’s interior, the bright sun of early afternoon made him blink. In the seconds it took him to focus his eyes, both the driver and front passenger’s doors of the white Cadillac opened.

  “Oh, goody, we hit pay dirt on the first stop!”

  Jesse looked into the delighted face of Maeve Bishop, one of the county’s leading citizens—and his late mother’s best friend—and he knew his plans for the afternoon had just undergone a major change.

  Outside the passenger’s side of the car, and looking just as delighted, stood Pam Gilchrest, the pastor’s wife.

  “I baked a cake and planned to surprise that sweet Annie Rutherford. She’s been with us a year today, can you imagine? And just as we were getting out in front of the store, Ned Foster told us that he’d seen you and Grant driving off with Annie earlier. I said to Pam, I’ll bet you those sweet boys decided to bring Annie out to one of their ranches for the day to celebrate her first year here in God’s country!”

  Before Jesse could think of something clever to say, Annie and Grant emerged from the barn. Jesse ran a panicked eye over them both, though he knew they wouldn’t have come out unless they put themselves together first.

  “Did I hear the word ‘cake’?” Grant asked, his smile wide enough, Jesse thought, to hide a multitude of sins.

  “You did indeed. I baked a lovely Cherry Delight cake, to celebrate Annie’s fi
rst anniversary as a member of our community.”

  Mrs. Bishop was well noted for her Cherry Delight cake. Though the confection was definitely delicious, it certainly wasn’t in the same class as tasting Annie would have been. Any protest Jesse might still have been harboring vanished at the look of pleased surprise on Annie’s face.

  “You baked a cake for me? No one has ever baked a cake for me. Thank you, Mrs. B!”

  “I’ve got tea and coffee up at the house if you ladies would like to come in? And the cake is invited, too, of course.”

  Both Mrs. Bishop and Mrs. Gilchrest giggled at Jesse’s invitation. Then they accepted, getting back into the car and driving it over to park it closer to the house, but not before they talked Annie into getting into the back seat so they could begin to have their ‘visit’ right away.

  “Hell,” Grant grumbled as he strode up to Jesse. “Looks like we’re not going to have the dessert we planned on. At least, not right away.”

  Jesse clapped his hand on Grant’s back. “Probably not today, period. Unless you can come up with a really good reason why those ladies should not save us the trouble of driving all the way into town to take Annie home when they have to go that way anyway.”

  “Oh, hell,” Grant repeated. “You’re right. I have a good reason, just not one I want to share with two ladies, one of whom is a pastor’s wife.”

  Jesse laughed, but only because he’d long ago discovered that misery really did love company. “Well, look on the bright side,” he said as they headed toward his house. “At least there’s cake.”

  * * * *

  “Hey, Billy. Hear you had yourself a good time Saturday night.”

  Billy Woods looked up from his morning paper, cup of coffee in hand. He beamed a smile at Harry Gray as the older man sat down on the stool beside him. Sadie’s Café was filling up as it always did at eight o’clock on a Monday morning. Most folks hereabouts seemed genuinely glad to see the beginning of another work week. Billy thought that a marvel.