Special Cowboy Menage Collection

by Morgan Ashbury

  No one in Jim’s family came to visit her, either. How they’d managed to get that memorial service done and the bastard buried without her was something she’d never know. But it had been the first kind thing they’d ever done for her.

  Of course, his brother had still been in jail, thank God. If he’d shown up to visit her, she would have had hospital security throw him out.

  Annie shivered, the image of the car that had driven slowly past her store just as she flipped the sign coming front and center in her thoughts. That’s why she’d been unnerved. Something about that driver’s profile reminded her of her former brother-in-law.

  Grant must have felt her shiver because he tightened his embrace of her. “We’re sorry you went through that, sweetheart. But we’re very glad you survived, that you’re here.”

  Jesse’s warm hand caressed her back, stroking gently.

  Annie pushed to sit up and Grant eased his hold of her. Jesse handed her one of the unused napkins left over from their pizza feast. She used it to wipe her eyes.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall apart like that.”

  “Hell, don’t apologize, Annie.” Grant stroked her leg. They each had a hand on her and she found she liked it a hell of a lot.

  “Did you completely burn your bridges moving here?” Jesse asked.

  “Yeah.” Because of the comfort they gave, she found a small smile to offer them. “My mom and I pretty much don’t communicate. Haven’t for a long while. As for Jim’s family, he only had a mother and a brother. His mom thought he walked on water. As for his brother, if I never see him again, it will be too soon. He’s in prison. It’s where he belongs.”

  “You don’t need anyone else. You have the town of Branchton, if the number of bunches of flowers lining your shelves the week before last was any indication. And you have us.”

  Annie rested her head on Grant’s shoulder. Her hand found Jesse’s and she linked fingers with him.

  “Good thing. Actually, it’s kind of funny now. But earlier today, just for a split second, I thought I saw Rick Rutherford.” And saying that out loud coursed another shiver down her spine.

  “Really?” Jesse asked.

  “Yeah, but it couldn’t have been him. As I said, he’s in prison. And the car had Wyoming plates. Must have just been my imagination playing tricks on me.”

  “Did he hurt you in the past? The brother?”

  Trust Grant to ask that. How could she answer?

  “Don’t edit it for us, Annie. Give it to us straight.” Jesse’s tone, though gentle, sounded lined with steel.

  “You guys aren’t going to let me get away with even a shred of my dignity intact, are you?”

  “From where I’m sitting, sweetheart, you haven’t lost so much as an ounce of that. Spill it.”

  “It only happened once. I was at home, alone. A Friday night. Waiting for Jim to get home from work. Rick showed up. He…he made a pass at me and when I pushed him away, he tried to force himself on me. If Jim hadn’t come home when he did….” She would not finish the sentence, or even the thought.

  Jesse hissed in a breath. Beneath her, Grant tensed.

  “You’re sure it wasn’t him you saw this afternoon?”

  “Just my mind playing funny games. Besides, the car did have a Wyoming license plate.” This was so not where she wanted to be right now. She turned on Grant’s lap, so that she straddled him. Her gaze went from him—he moved his chair back just slightly from the table to accommodate her action—to Jesse, who’s dark gaze met hers.

  “Could we change the subject now?” she asked. And decided the matter by whipping off her t-shirt.

  “Feeling a little frisky, are you?” Jesse asked.

  “I am. Question is, what are you two studly cowboys going to do about it?” She felt brazen and more than a little frisky. Jesse and Grant could turn her on with just a look—and wasn’t that a marvel?

  “Whatever you like,” Grant murmured. He reached around her with a lazy kind of nonchalance and unfastened her bra. Jesse plucked it from her body.

  “See, now that’s just it. I’m not really sure yet what all I like.” Annie let the coquette in her emerge. Her arousal needed no more than the heated looks being sent her way to fan it into flames.

  “Is that a fact?” Grant’s tone, half teasing, half distracted as he used one finger to trace around her left breast, put a smile on her face and moisture on her panties.

  “That is a fact. Any suggestions?”

  “Since you ask,” Grant said. He leaned forward and captured her nipple into his moist, hot mouth and suckled strongly. Annie arched her back, a zing of heat zipping through her body, gathering low in her belly and tickling her pussy.

  Her gasp came involuntarily. She felt Grant’s smile against her flesh.

  He stood, wrapping his arms around her. Her legs dangled just off the ground. Jesse came up behind her, reached around and opened the snap on her jeans. The slide of the zipper sent a shiver across her skin. One strong tug and she was naked.

  “Let’s move this party to the bedroom.”

  Annie wrapped her legs around Grant’s hips. “Yes, let’s.”

  * * * *

  A sense of wonder filled Grant as his hands trailed down Annie’s body, mapping her. Soft and silky, lovely and lush, the sensation of her flesh under his fingers filled him with so many emotions. Hunger. Lust. Love.

  “Let me look at you, baby. Let me look and touch and taste.” He made his words soft, his tone reverent because anything else would be wrong.

  He loved the way she blushed when he adored her, when he let her see what being with her like this did to him, meant to him. Propped on his elbow, naked on the bed beside her, he stroked and caressed and set about arousing them both.

  They were alone in the bedroom. Jesse would join them, but after. This was their first time alone together. Tomorrow, Jesse would experience the privilege of having their woman all to himself.

  Grant enjoyed the time the three of them had spent together in love play. He looked forward to many more sessions in this big bed, or wherever else they happened to be when the need overwhelmed them. But he rejoiced that there could be times like this, too. Times when it would be just him and his lady. Together and alone.

  “You make me feel so special,” Annie said. The pink decorating her cheeks warmed his heart and infuriated him at the same time. She deserved to be cherished. That she hadn’t been, that she’d been abused, wounded him. He wouldn’t think about that now. Thinking about all that she’d shared with them earlier would just make him angry. It wasn’t his anger Annie needed right now. One thing was certain, though.

  No one would ever hurt her again.

  Grant pushed all else aside. Only Annie mattered. One response came to mind, and he needed her to know the truth. “You are special. You’re wonderful.”

  Leaning over her, he traced a line from just under her eye to just below the sweet little bow of her mouth. Her lips parted slightly and her tongue, glistening wet, stroked her bottom lip.

  Drawn, he kissed her. Light, tasting, his lips sipped, his tongue caressed the trail hers had left. When she inhaled, when she opened, he drank in all of her. Warm, wet, her flavor burst in his mouth, a sexy-sweet confection he wanted to gorge himself on again and again.

  Heat shot up in him, waves of sexual heat that whispered demands, curled in sensual images so that he could do nothing else but touch her, love her. Annie responded to his touch, her nipple peaking, her back arching. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers playing through his hair as she returned his kiss. She knew just how to taste him now, understood that she could demand as much as he, and he found her slight aggression very arousing.

  Needing more, he broke the kiss. Rising up on his knees, he maneuvered so that he knelt before her. He lifted her legs, parted them, and splayed them on either side of him.

  He saw the moment she realized how open she was to him. For one instant, her legs tensed, as if she wou
ld close them, shield herself from his sight.

  “It’s all right, Annie. You’re safe. And this is so pretty.” He reached down, drew one finger from just above her clit, downward, stroking her pussy. He grinned as her labia convulsed in response to the teasing touch, those luscious lower lips seeming as if they would suck his finger right inside.

  “No one has ever said that,” Annie said. “No one has ever looked or touched the way you do. It gets me so hot.”

  “Yeah?” He’d been stroking his finger up and down in a light caress. He felt her moisture increase as it gathered, preparing her.

  He pushed forward, his finger going in, going deep. Sleek and sultry, her flesh closed around him, the ripple of inner muscles a siren call to his cock. Looking down, he caught sight of the bead of moisture on its tip, his own body’s way of preparing to plunge into female flesh.

  “Grant!” Annie bowed off the bed, her hips pushing forward, her sex chasing his finger when he withdrew it. When he pushed it into her again, she made a needy sound at the back of her throat.

  “Yes, Annie?”

  As a rule, he wasn’t much of a kidder the way Jesse could be, but he could certainly see the appeal in playing coy.

  “More. Give me more.”

  “You want two fingers? You’ve got it, sweetheart.”

  She was hot enough and wet enough that two fingers slid into her easily. Once inside, he spread them, stroking the walls of her canal. Annie whimpered and panted, pushing harder against him in her need for even more stimulation.

  This kind of love play had one drawback. Grant didn’t know how much longer he could resist what he needed most—sinking balls-deep into her.

  He used his thumb to stroke her clit. The light abrasion coaxed the small bud out of hiding, until it stood erect and swollen. Annie pistoned her hips, her breathing ragged as she neared her climax.

  Grant leaned forward, his left hand snagging the plastic packet on the bedside table. His fingers continued to work her as he used his teeth to open the package. He rolled the latex on with one hand.

  “Do you want more, baby?”

  Annie focused on him, then reached for his cock. Her hand sliding against the condom sent shivers through him. His cock twitched, needy and greedy, and ready.

  “Inside me. Now.”

  Grant needed no further urging. Pulling his fingers from her hot, slick pussy, he leaned forward. Her hand guided him to her opening.

  He rode one long silky glide to heaven.

  “Oh, yes,” Annie cried out. She wrapped arms and legs around him, her limbs holding him as surely as her velvety tunnel throbbed and held his cock. He rode her orgasm, pulling out and sinking home, again and again as the waves of rapture drenched her. He felt that moment when her climax began to ebb. Sliding an arm under her bottom, he lifted her to him as his lips found hers and his hips began to thrust in rapid rhythm.

  Grant wanted a long slow climb. Instead, he came hard and fast, the explosion of his orgasm so fierce, it put stars behind his closed eyelids and made his ears ring. Nothing else mattered but the electrifying ride, the amazing sensation of being inside his woman, of coming inside her. All restraint left him, all control shattered. For this moment, for right now, he allowed his inner beast free rein and gave himself up to ecstasy.

  * * * *

  Annie lay on the bed, half-dozing when the right side of the bed dipped. A strong masculine hand found her feminine folds and stroked.

  “Jesse.”

  On the other side of her, Grant stirred, rolling to his side so he could watch. The moon sent dazzling silver to play against their flesh. The night had a surreal quality to it.

  “I need you, Annie.”

  The honesty of Jesse’s words touched her heart. “Then take me.”

  He rolled on top of her, gently, holding the bulk of his weight on his own arms. When his cock slid into her, she wrapped around him, arms and legs, and pulled him fully onto her.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered.

  The feral sound he made stirred her juices, a primitive part of the mating ritual that hid beneath the veneer of civilization. Hot and hard, his latex-covered cock filled her completely.

  Jesse usually waited for her, but this night, he seemed unable to control his thrusts, his paces. That pleased her. She wanted to just give to him, let him take what he needed to have, however he wanted to have it. When he stiffened inside her, when she felt the perspiration break out on his skin, when that deep groan tickled the skin under her ear, she felt filled with satisfaction. She had made him lose control. She had given him release.

  When he rolled to the side, he brought her with him. He withdrew from her, gently, then moved her leg atop his hip.

  Why became clear a moment later when she felt Grant move in behind her, felt him stroke gently against her anus.

  “Will you let me take you here, Annie? I’ll be gentle.”

  “Yes.” She hissed with pleasure when he spread a chilly, silky lubricant on her, working his finger back and forth and then in and out.

  Then his finger left her. His cock was there, gentle but persistent. He pressed forward, one hand on her hip, holding her still, bracing her.

  Annie moaned, the sensation of this profoundly personal touch arousing and painful at the same time. Burning, stretching, her body slowly opened to allow his invasion.

  Jesse pulled her leg just a bit higher on his hip, the motion spreading the cheeks of her ass just a bit more, but it was enough.

  “Oh God,” Grant swore.

  Annie felt his cock go deeper, slowly, and the arousal was different, not better but different and keener and centered lower in her body.

  “Don’t move,” he said as he rested his forehead against the back of her head. “If you move, I’ll lose it.”

  “Please.” She needed more, needed something.

  “Stop?” Grant asked, and Annie knew he would if she gave the word.

  “No. I need….”

  She never finished the sentence. Just then Jesse stroked her pussy, taking her clit between his fingers, caressing it, his touch light and fast.

  Annie screamed as she came.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Veronica killed the lights on her Caddy as she turned off Main Street. The moon shone bright enough for her to see her way as she edged her car onto Back Street. Within moments, she’d reached the parking area behind Annie’s store. She’d planned to walk over from her apartment, but at the last minute she’d been swamped by an overwhelming urge to be certain Annie was at the Conrad place, and not at home.

  It wasn’t much past eleven. Veronica had driven out of town, taking the county road that wound past the ranch. She’d seen Annie’s car parked by the porch, the yard light glinting off the creamy Pontiac. As she let her vehicle idle on the side of the road, trying to decide if she should stay or go, the lights in the house went dark.

  Barring anything unexpected, Annie should be staying put until morning. Which meant it would be as safe as it was ever going to get for a little innocuous break and enter.

  This was her first, and would likely be her only, opportunity to search Annie’s small apartment above the store. She’d been hoping for chance for the last six months, but, until very recently, Annie rarely left home.

  Not to discount the true-to-life maxim that timing was everything, but if anything was going to happen, it would be within the next few days.

  That moron is too stupid to play it safe and wait. No question about it. Things were about to break.

  The answer must be here. Everything had happened so suddenly back then that there had been no time for any kind of shrewd moves.

  Besides, the poor bastard hadn’t had a shrewd bone in his body.

  Fifty dollars paid to the landlord got Veronica into the three story walk-up the Rutherfords had occupied in Queens the day after Annie left town. She’d had a full day to search that cramped, two-bedroom apartment, and had come up completely empty-handed.

  Hopefully,
she’d have better luck tonight.

  She closed the car door softly, then stood still for a minute, looking around. The stores on Main Street each had a small back lot serviced by the narrow Back Street. Her eyes were drawn to the heavens. Another cloudless night—no surprise there. The climate was so damn dry here, there were rarely any clouds. Her gaze took in the carpet of stars. Even from the small town of Branchton, where some ambient light flickered into the dark, a million stars could be seen. She’d lived most of her life in large cities, the last dozen years before coming here in New York.

  She would have sworn that stars were only a myth.

  The cry of a coyote, somewhere north of town, sent a shiver down her spine. She listened, waiting. The answering howl came, a haunting sound that cried out to the primitive human within her. Shaking her head and shaking off the unwelcome sensations, she focused on listening for closer sounds. The wind whispered softly, of course. Rarely did the air remain still. But no sounds of man disturbed the night. The occasional car would drive down Main, but at this hour, most people here in Hicksville were tucked safely into their beds. Annie’s was the only occupied second floor on this side of Main Street.

  They really did roll the sidewalks up in Branchton. She couldn’t wait to put this town and this state behind her.

  Satisfied that no one would see her, she made her way across the dirt lot to the stairs leading up to Annie’s apartment. She climbed quietly, conscious that she was trespassing. She suppressed the twinge of guilt and stayed vigilant. She’d left her purse in the car so she tucked her keys into her left front jeans pocket. From the right one, she extracted a small tool and a keychain penlight.

  Inserting the pick into the lock, she had the door open in seconds. She closed it softly behind her.

  Veronica didn’t turn on the lights. Annie had left her curtains open—another indication the woman really had left Queens far behind, mentally—and the moon shone into the kitchen, illuminating the room.

  Veronica got right to work. Turning on the penlight, she clamped it between her teeth so that it lit only the immediate area. She began with the drawers under the counter, looking through each one, pulling each out, and looking underneath for anything that might be secreted there. Veronica really didn’t expect to find the goods, but she thought there might be some sort of key. She could imagine that a safety deposit box held what she was looking for, and she could even imagine Jimmy getting one, even though a thorough search of bank records had come up a big fat zilch.