Wreck Me, Cowboys_A Reverse Harem Forbidden Romance

by Alexa B. James

  I nearly snorted tea out my nose. “What?” I squealed.

  “It’s the only way you could have gotten them to agree to that,” she said. “I thought Sawyer at first, but now I know. It’s gotta be Waylon.”

  I set my mug down, my hand suddenly unsteady. “I never said it wasn’t.”

  “More power to you, that’s what I say,” Natalie said. “I don’t really see it—I guess I like the talkers. Don’t think I could have a conversation with that man if I tried.”

  “Don’t feel like you have to try,” I blurted out.

  Natalie laughed again, that easy laugh she had. At least there was one of them she hadn’t slept with. That made a little swell of love for Waylon build in my chest, and somehow, it made me like Natalie more, too. It made me feel safe and comfortable that I could see something in him that she couldn’t. But then a little protective instinct flared in my chest, and I wanted to scratch her eyes out for looking at my other stepbrothers the way I did. The way all women probably did.

  I calmed myself down with a reminder that they only had eyes—and other parts—for me.

  “So what is it about him?” Natalie asked. “He got a golden cock, too? I don’t know what else could make two girls fall for him—never could figure out Maria, either.”

  “Um…so I guess that means we’re friends,” I said. “Since we’re discussing penises.”

  “I reckon we could be,” Natalie said cheerfully.

  “Okay, cool,” I said. “That makes this next part easy. I was wondering, since you said something about going dancing when we were in town last time, if you might want to get together sometime. Not like, get together in a lesbian way, because I’m totally into guys, golden cock or not. Not that I mind if you’re into girls, that seriously does not bother me at all.”

  “New Yorker and all,” Natalie said. “I’d imagine not.”

  “But I figured since you’d hooked up with my stepbrothers that you probably weren’t,” I said. “I just wanted to clear the air. And say that it might be nice to get off the ranch and let loose sometime. If you wanted to have a glass of wine… You can borrow the guys, too. For dancing purposes only. Maybe you could even teach me to line dance.”

  “I’m sure I could,” Natalie said. “That sounds great. How about Friday night?”

  And just like that, I had my first girls’ night in Wyoming planned—with guys.

  14

  Holden

  When Friday night rolled around, the four of us were more than ready to get out and let off steam. It had been a long week with a lot of changes. Amber was here to stay, and she’d let us know. We’d taken her virginity. A part of me felt a little shame in that—I couldn’t help it, it was my upbringing.

  But most of me wasn’t sorry we’d done it. Amber had wanted it, and that was what mattered most. I tried like hell to be patient as I waited until she was ready to share herself completely with me. After watching both my brothers have their way with her, I was anxious to be that close to her, too. I had to remind myself that a week ago, she’d been a virgin, and now she’d slept with two men. I’d spent plenty of time waiting for this woman, and I could wait a few more days for her to get comfortable with things before she went further.

  Still, when she started down the stairs in a tight red dress that hugged her every curve, I wanted to rip it right off her. Instead, I turned my attention to the radiant smile on her face as she descended the stairs with a bounce in her step. She’d done up her hair and makeup, too. Spiked heels completed the outfit.

  The three of us stood at the bottom of the stairs, speechless for the moment. With every step she took, her narrow hips swayed, and her blonde hair bounced over her bare shoulders and collarbones. Her scant cleavage was on display, and nearly every inch of those long, long legs was shown off to full advantage. I watched the muscles in her calves flex as she took another step down, then another. My eyes raked up from her calves to her knees to the apex of her thighs, barely covered by the stretchy fabric. I could see the swell of her mound just inches above the hem, tantalizingly close to being visible.

  If I hooked a finger under that hem and curled it up, and I’d be touching that sweet cunt.

  My mouth opened and a breath came out, but when I tried to speak, my throat got all ticklish.

  Sawyer whistled. “Guess you got a package from New York,” he said.

  “You got a pretty nice package of your own,” Amber said, grinning as she reached out to give his cock a little squeeze through his jeans.

  I wasn’t jealous. I couldn’t let that poisonous feeling creep into my heart again, turn me against my brothers. But damn, I wanted her hands on me, too.

  As if reading my mind, she turned and slid her arms around my neck, pulling me down for a kiss. When she pulled away, she toyed with the pearl snaps on my shirt. “You clean up nice.”

  “You look beautiful,” I said, and I meant every word. I’d never seen something I wanted more, something I loved more than I loved this woman. It was like she’d erased every doubt, every thought of another woman from my mind.

  She looked up at me through her lashes, leaning back and letting me hold her weight with my big hands around slender waist. “Beautiful enough to crawl into your bed again tonight?”

  “Tonight and every night,” I promised her.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Waylon said behind her.

  “Aww, don’t be such a stick in the mud,” Amber said, slipping from my arms and into his. She pressed her red lips to his, and a twist of heat flared in my groin. Damn if seeing her kissing my brothers didn’t make me go even more mad with lust for her.

  “Come on, boys,” she said, pulling away and taking Waylon’s hand. “Let’s dance.”

  15

  Amber

  The bar was the cutest little thing I’d ever seen, and also the dingiest. Twinkling lights lined the front of the building and twisted around a set of longhorns above the doors. The words BOOTS & SPURS was spelled out overhead with letters that looked like rope, if rope could be filled with neon and blink on and off.

  “Wow,” I said. “They’re not catering to cowboys at all.”

  Waylon scowled in response, and I linked my arm through his. Maybe, before the night was through, I could get the man to loosen up and have a little fun.

  We stepped inside, onto a strip of carpet that ran along the edge of the bar, separating the seating area from the dance floor. It looked like it hadn’t been replaced in half a century or so—all of it. Tin signs with cowboy sayings hung on the walls, and behind the bar, there was a board tacked with hundreds of overlapping photos…and one of Holden’s paintings.

  “Nice work,” I told him, elbowing his side. “Am I going to meet that one tonight?”

  Even in the dim light of the bar, I could tell he was blushing. He shook his head and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer so he could talk without yelling over the twangy country music playing through the speakers. “I don’t even know who that is,” he said. “You’re the only woman I remember.”

  Apparently, the feeling was not mutual. A second later, someone tugged at his elbow. An annoying mosquito who had once served us burgers at the diner down the street peered up at him. “Hey, Holden,” she said, batting her eyes.

  “Oh, hi,” I said, tossing my hair back over my shoulder. “I’m Amber, if you don’t remember. Was it Minnie?”

  “Millie,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to steal your dance partner away. I’m looking for Sawyer. Is he here?”

  “Yeah, he’s right—” I broke off when I turned and found only Waylon behind me. He nodded at the dance floor, where a couple were whirling and twirling in some complicated, choreographed routine as they made their way along the edge of the floor.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “Don’t be sore, Sawyer loves dancing,” Holden said, his hands gently resting on my hips. “He hasn’t gotten out much lately.”

  “Si
nce I came along,” I said.

  No one answered—they didn’t have to. I was glad the guys hadn’t ditched me to come down here one night, but I felt bad that he’d given up something he loved for me. I vowed to make sure we came down more often, especially when Sawyer came off the dance floor with an enormous grin on his face. He’d been dancing with a middle aged lady who joined an older guy with a cowboy hat, leaving Sawyer to us.

  Millie instantly made a beeline for him, slipping her arms around his waist and smiling up at him. She was barely up to his nipples, and her outfit rivaled mine in the slutty department. A sparkly purple sweater clung to her top, highlighting her perky boobs that were definitely a size or two up from mine, and her tiny jean skirt flounced above a pair of purple cowboy boots.

  Sawyer’s eyes met mine over her head, and I shrugged helplessly. It sucked, but we couldn’t be open about our relationship here. It was a small price to pay for dating my stepbrothers, and one I was more than willing to pay. I’d done plenty of making out on the dance floor back in New York, but it was out of the question here. I probably couldn’t even grind on my guys. Not that it looked like people did that kind of dancing to this music.

  With that thought to comfort me, I watched Sawyer take Millie onto the dance floor and start twirling her around like he’d done the old lady. Waylon leaned over the bar and held up five fingers to the bartender, who delivered dripping mugs a minute later. I started to tell him I didn’t really care for beer, but I changed my mind when I saw that last mug. If little Millie could drink beer, I sure as hell wasn’t going to order some fruity little cocktail with an umbrella.

  Although, once I tasted the beer, I wished I had.

  “Not a beer drinker?” asked a voice beside me. I looked up, startled, trying to erase the grimace from my face.

  Natalie reached past me, snagging one of the beers. Something about her big, warm presence comforted me, even when she downed half the beer in one swallow and grinned at me with a foam mustache.

  “I take it you are,” I said.

  “Never been anything else,” she said. “Drink up and I’ll teach you the next line dance.”

  I was touched that she’d remembered, and I didn’t even mind when she toted Holden off to the dance floor. I turned to Waylon and smiled up at him. “You gonna teach me some of these fancy dances?”

  “I don’t dance.”

  I sighed and leaned my head on his shoulder for a second. “Why am I not surprised?”

  When the bartender glanced at us, I lifted my head. “What ever happened to Mrs. Grimes?” I asked. “You think she’ll alert the presses about us if we’re seen together like this? She doesn’t come in here, does she?”

  He shook his head and took a swallow of beer before answering. “Our ma took care of that. She may not always agree with us, but she’ll protect what’s hers. And to her, we’re always her boys.”

  “Really?” I asked, pulling back. When Waylon nodded, I shook my head in awe. Their mother really was something. Definitely not on the same page as my own mother.

  “People around here, they ain’t like that, anyway,” Waylon said. “They’ll gossip to each other, hell, they’ll remember the gossip for years. Keep digging it up every time something new happens. But they don’t spread it outside the community. This is as far as it goes.”

  “So everyone here will think I’m a slut, but she won’t actually call my mother? Oh, wait, you already did that.”

  “I apologized,” Waylon said, his eyes fierce.

  A shiver went through me when I remembered those eyes on my naked flesh. I squeezed my knees together.

  Waylon’s gaze caught the movement, and he swallowed hard. “You had to wear that dress out tonight,” he said. “When you know we can’t touch you.”

  “That’s not why.”

  “The hell it isn’t,” he said, his hand landing on my knee. His fingers bit into my flesh, and my breath caught. For a second, I thought he was going to run his hand straight up my thigh and push his fingers inside me, right here at the bar.

  Instead, he let go and turned back to his beer.

  “Does it bother you?” I asked, leaning close enough that my hair fell against his hand. “That I wore something sexy?”

  “Looks like something you want to be fucked in,” he said. “Every man in the place can see that. And they think we’re your brothers, so you’re fair game.”

  “Well,” I said, giving him my most inviting smile. “If you dance with me, maybe that will fend them off.”

  “I don’t dance.”

  “Not even to protect me from prying eyes?”

  Waylon turned and jerked his head at someone behind me, and a second later, Holden’s massive paw slid around me. “Amber needs tending,” Waylon said. “Teach her a few things.”

  I gave him a pout. “I was hoping you were going to teach me a lesson about wearing this short skirt out in public.”

  “Later,” he growled.

  “Hmm, we’ll see,” I said, sliding off the barstool. “I think it’s only fair that if Holden’s going to be my teacher, he gets the job for the whole night.”

  16

  Amber

  I’d managed to down my entire beer, but it wasn’t nearly enough. I felt clumsy and awkward as a stork as I stepped onto the polished dance floor. Couples strode by with intention, their boots clacking on the hardwood as they stepped and twirled, stepped and twirled.

  “Ever done a country two-step?” Holden asked, his brown furrowing.

  “Nope,” I said. “Do I need to do a few shots first?”

  He smiled and shook his head, showed me the basic step, and told me to follow his lead. Then we stepped out into traffic.

  Okay, so there were only three other couples, but they came charging down the dance floor like bulls at a rodeo. Millie smirked as she twirled by, her tiny figure dwarfed by Sawyer’s muscular, confident one. I wanted to scratch her eyes out, but I managed to offer her a magnanimous smile instead. I could be just as smug and graceful as a tiny bird, like she was.

  Holden started us forward, and I immediately got out of step, and he stepped on my toe, and I squawked just like the tiny bird I was aiming to emulate.

  “Sorry,” Holden said, pink sweeping over his cheeks. “My fault.”

  “This shuffling thing is going to kick my ass before the night is through,” I said, trying again.

  Natalie and some old cowboy swept past. She had a wide grin on her face and was singing along to the music, seemingly oblivious to the presence of anyone else on the dance floor…and the fact that her partner was about a head shorter than her, bowlegged, and missing a few teeth.

  I decided to take a page out of her book, not Millie’s. Who wanted to be like a desperate little bitch, anyway?

  I’d rather be like Nat, who just liked dancing and probably didn’t even care if she missed a step, though she seemed to know exactly what she was doing. She’d told me she didn’t see the point in thinking about men unless they were thinking about her, and she didn’t strike me as the type to fight over a guy. So I didn’t think I had anything to worry about there. And Millie, I just felt sorry for her. A little less sorry when the song ended and she threw herself into Sawyer’s arms and clung on like a barnacle, fluttering her lashes up at him. He just grinned and kept talking to the bitch like that was A-okay.

  I seriously needed to get my jealous streak under control. Turning my back, I marched off the dance floor, grabbed Waylon’s beer, and chugged the whole thing. I was tempted to throw my arms around his neck and stick my tongue down his throat right here in the bar, but I reigned myself in. Okay, not really. I was just trying not to puke as the beer sloshed in my stomach, threatening to come back up.

  Why had I thought this was a good idea? Being in public with them, denying that they were mine—it was torture.

  “You okay?” Waylon asked.

  “Never been better,” I said with a bright, fake smile.

  He shook his head. “You d
on’t have to dance. I don’t dance, either.”

  “You mentioned that.”

  “So sit here with me.”

  “I came out to have fun, and damn it, I’m going to have fun.”

  “Don’t let me stop you,” he said, pushing another beer towards me.

  I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I managed to guzzle the next beer in five or six tries. By the time the song was over, I was buzzing, and when I stood, I felt a little tippity on my feet.

  “Steady there, Princess,” Waylon said, his dark eyes on mine as he caught my elbow.

  I shivered with longing, though the edge of trepidation lingered even now, after he’d fucked me. He had a dangerous air about him, the look of a man who knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to take it.

  Another song started, and Natalie thundered over and grabbed my arm, interrupting our moment. “It’s the Electric Slide,” she said. “Come on, I’ll teach you.”

  Turned out, I was actually a total boss at country dancing. Well, at least the line dancing part. As soon as I got the hang of it, I was stepping back, turning and kicking along with everyone else. I looked over at Natalie, who had her hands on her hips and was electric sliding along the floor beside me. She even added a few extra fancy steps to her grapevine. When she saw me looking, she gave me a grin and a thumbs up.

  Suddenly, everything felt okay. I’d made a friend who didn’t want to jump my stepbrothers. And Millie wasn’t competition, either. She’d already lost. I had the love of all three Westling brothers. All she had was a job at a diner, childhood memories, and the torch she still carried for Sawyer.

  When the song ended, Natalie offered to buy me a beer, and we joined Waylon at the bar again. As I accepted the beer, my phone buzzed inside my bag, which I’d left on the bar. I slipped it out and saw Haley’s face flashing at me from an incoming Skype.

  “I’m going to take this,” I said, nodding to the door. Waylon stood, but I put my hand on his chest and pressed him back. “You don’t need to follow me out. This has got to be the safest state in the country. Unless a bear or a moose is going to run over me, I don’t think you need to worry.”