by Luxie Ryder
Both men were facing her and two pairs of adoring eyes — one set gray, the other green—watched her closely, probably waiting until they thought she’d recovered enough to continue. Kimber leaned over, kissing first Wade and then Brandon, her breasts brushing over Wade’s chest and causing him to shudder below her. Kimber turned her full attention on him, acutely aware of his strange mood. She’d rarely seen him so tense, and it worried her a little. Once she and Brandon had done their bit to take his mind off whatever was eating at him, she was gonna make Wade ’fess up and tell her what was going on.
Leaning into him, she pushed him onto his back as Brandon slid out of the way to make space for him to lay flat. Wade’s gaze flicked from Kimber to Brandon and back again, a small frown creasing his brow as if he wondered what they were waiting for. Kimber crawled on top of him and pressed her body into his, enjoying the hard jerk he gave when she grazed her wet pussy along the length of his prick.
“Get the condoms and lube,” she whispered to Brandon, who was watching the pair of them with such a look of envy on his face she knew she couldn’t make him wait too much longer. Kimber let her clitoris glide over Wade’s cock again, smiling with satisfaction as he convulsed beneath her. She did it once more, and he let out an almost feral growl, his hands suddenly closing around her hips. Wade lifted her up in one smooth move and thrust her down onto his waiting cock as his pelvis surged upward to meet her.
“Wade!” Kimber meant to give him hell for not allowing her to set the pace for a change, but the hot, dark look he gave her as he bit down on his lip and thrust into her again stole her breath and her ability to think straight. Brandon crawled up behind her and nibbled the back of her neck, his hands caressing first her breasts, then her waist, and coming to rest on her hips. He lifted her gently, then pushed her downward, almost forcing her to ride the cock buried inside her. Wade slotted his upturned fingers between the wet folds of her pussy and pressed on her clit as Brandon increased the tempo, driving her down on to Wade’s prick, harder and faster.
“Brandon, I want you inside me when I come. Please hurry...I want...”
The words died in her throat as Brandon pushed her forward to lie on top of Wade and spread the cheeks of her ass. Kimber held her breath, her face pressed against Wade’s chest, the sound of his racing heartbeat almost drowning out his ragged panting. She heard the crinkle of a wrapper, felt the cold shock of the lube, and then gasped at a delicious stretching sensation as the head of Brandon’s penis penetrated her ass. Once the tip of him was inside, he leaned forward to rest his hands on the mattress on either side of her and Wade and gave her the first, gentle thrust. Kimber shuddered as Wade began to move his fingers over her clit and drive his cock inside her so hard that he tossed her and Brandon around where they lay on top of him. All three of them groaned, swore and shuddered in response and, when Kimber’s orgasm started, so did theirs. Wade roared out his release below her as Brandon grunted in her ear, while Kimber barely made a sound as she struggled to keep breathing while her pussy convulsed so fast and hard.
Eventually the mind-blowing spasms gave way and she collapsed on top of Wade. A few seconds later, Brandon pulled out of her, groaning as he did so, and rolled away, pulling Kimber down into the space between him and Wade. She lay in the semidarkness, holding their hands and waiting for their breathing to return to normal. After a few minutes, she turned to Wade, giving him a nudge in case he’d fallen asleep.
“So are you gonna tell me what’s on your mind?”
Wade rubbed a hand across his eyes, yawning widely before answering. “Just a few money worries, nothing too serious though. I just hate dealing with banks. Those bastards won’t be happy until they’ve ruined every rancher in the state.” He smiled, and rolled over to face her, propping his head up with his hand. “What about you—did you and the girls have a good day?”
“The receptionist at the medical center thinks I’m a whore,” Kimber said, to the surprise of all three people in the bed, and promptly burst into tears.
Chapter Two
“So, you’re just not gonna mention it?”
“Mention what?” Wade shot Brandon a sideways glance, dragging his attention away from the engine of the truck he was working on just long enough to lose his grip and take a chunk out of his finger with a wrench. He straightened up, clutching his hand as he grimaced, and caught his head on the hood. “For fuck’s sake, Brandon! Can’t this wait?”
Brandon held his tongue and fought back the urge to laugh, knowing from experience it was best to give Wade a wide berth when he was pissed about something. When the other man had wrapped a dirty rag around the cut and stop prowling back and forth across the barn like a caged panther, Brandon tried again. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Wade grinned. “Although I think you’d better just tell me what’s on your mind, before I end up in traction.”
“I’m worried about Kimber. She was real upset by what that woman said to her.”
Wade shrugged, and turned to look down into the engine bay again. “I know, but I figure it’s something we’re just gonna have to live with. People in small towns gossip too much.”
“That simple, huh?”
Brandon crossed the barn to stand over Wade. God, but he pissed him off sometimes. Pragmatism was an admirable quality but not what was needed right now. The woman he loved—the woman they both loved—was in pain.
“Well it ain’t any more complicated than that. We can’t stop folks talking, and we’d be damned foolish to try.”
“That’s fine for you, and I could care less what others think, but what about Kimber? Okay, so it turned out in the end that she wasn’t actually called a whore, but she might as well have been. Hell, you know what that woman was getting at. And what worries me is that what happened at the medical center was nothing compared to what her family might say if they find out about me.”
Wade eased out of the gap over the engine bay, finally giving Brandon and the topic at hand his full attention. He slung an arm over Brandon’s shoulder. “You gotta learn to relax. Nobody is going to find out and if they do, we’ll tell them it’s none of their damn business, okay?”
Brandon shoved Wade away from him, wishing that, just for once, he wouldn’t treat him like he was some whiny little kid who needed constant reassurance. “This isn’t about me. This is about Kimber. That receptionist really did no more than ask if Kimber was married to the kids’ father. Sure, she was being nosy, but it was a legit question.”
Wade picked the wrench up from where he’d thrown it to the floor. “It was the first time she’s been asked straight out like that. She’ll be ready when it happens again.” He moved back toward the engine of the truck, about to dive under the hood again, but Brandon grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.
“And what about the kids? Don’t you care they might face a lifetime of the same thing?”
“Of course I care.” Wade shrugged off Brandon’s touch, his anger surfacing again. “What the hell kind of thing is that to say to me?”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just...I don’t know. It’s just, I get this feeling that you think everything’s gonna work out okay purely because you want it to.” Brandon wrapped his hand around the back of Wade’s neck, trying to rub away the tension he could see tying Wade in knots. “If your love for me, Kimber, and the kids was all it took to solve our problems then I wouldn’t have anything to worry about. But the world doesn’t work that way.”
“No fair, buddy. I just don’t feel the need to worry as much as you do. I mean, if we survived Travers and Costanza, we’ll survive this. Right?”
A cold, savage desire to kill those who had threatened his family assaulted Brandon once more. He didn’t like the fact that it was on Wade’s mind, but given that he knew the trial was due to start any day now, it was only to be expected.
Brandon hadn’t told Kimber or Wade that he might have to testify and, if he got his way, they’d never find out
. He sure as hell wasn’t gonna let them worry about it unless he had to. With both he and Travers being ex-Special Forces, their evidence and testimony would be classified and nobody outside of the court room would ever get to hear it.
Travers had been a member of Brandon’s unit but had gone rogue not long after Brandon retired. Manuel “Manny” Costanza, the Miami drug lord who’d taken out the hit on Brandon in revenge for the death of his only son in a drugs bust five years earlier, was due to be executed sometime last year but his sentence had been pushed back so he could stand trial with Travers. The irony of a legal system that would waste money on the trial of a man already sentenced to death wasn’t lost on Brandon. Only when Manny was gone and Travers was locked up would Brandon know for sure that he and his family were safe.
Travers and Costanza had pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, with Travers also contesting the additional charge of kidnapping, forcing Brandon and other members of the squad to testify. Kimber and Wade weren’t needed, despite the fact Travers had held Kimber hostage until Brandon and Wade had managed to apprehend him. Brandon’s testimony, and the eye witness accounts of the other operatives, would be enough to convict him. There was still time for Travers to see sense and cop a plea, but maybe he figured he had nothing to lose. Costanza, on the other hand, had everything to gain from the delay.
Brandon checked the charge on his cell phone for the tenth time that morning. He might be called to testify with very little notice and he’d need to be ready to travel at the drop of a hat.
“Something up with your phone? You’ve been staring at it all day.”
“Needs a new battery, I guess.” Avoiding Wade’s gaze, Brandon slipped the cell phone back into his pocket and jerked his head toward the engine bay of the truck. “You want a hand changing that belt?”
“Nah, I’m pretty near done.”
“Okay, then I guess I’ll take a run over to Ma’s place. I haven’t checked in on Seth for a couple of days.” Brandon grimaced, ashamed that he’d done so little with the ranch he’d inherited from his mother when she passed away two years earlier. The Reed ranch bordered Wade’s, and the pair of them had spent as much time in each other’s houses while they were growing up as they had in their own.
“Okay. I’ll see you back at the house later,” Wade said, standing up and giving Brandon a smile that made his balls tighten. He looked around to check that none of the guys were near then reached over to grab a handful of Wade’s T-shirt to drag him closer. Brandon groaned as his mouth closed over Wade’s, knowing he was playing with fire doing even this much when they couldn’t risk taking things further. Brandon didn’t give a fuck if anyone knew, but Kimber was the one everyone would judge if the truth about the three of them got out, and that was enough of a reason to be careful when the work hands were around. Brandon felt the hot flick of Wade’s tongue as it tangled with his, then a gentle pull on his lip as Wade nibbled at his mouth before letting him go.
“You gotta leave right this minute?” Wade asked, his voice raw and his eyes burning with need.
Brandon took a step back, needing to put some space between him and Wade so he didn’t throw caution to the wind and drop to his knees to suck Wade’s dick, right there and then. “What about the truck? Have you finished?”
“Fuck the truck.”
“I’d rather fuck you in the truck.” Brandon laughed at his own joke, expecting Wade to laugh, too, but when his lips compressed into a hard line, Brandon could tell Wade thought he was serious. No Kimber, no sex. That was the rule these days. Not that Brandon, nor Kimber for that matter, wanted things that way. Still, this wasn’t the time for another fight about that. “Relax. I was kidding. Give me an hour then I’ll see you back at the house, okay?”
Wade smiled as he nodded and turned back to the truck, almost dismissing him. Brandon stormed from the barn, kicking the door shut with his heel, the urge to smack the shit out of Wade making his hands clench into fists.
Who the fuck did he think he was? Brandon’s mood soured further as he drove the couple of miles to his family ranch. Why Wade thought his was the only opinion that mattered regarding the relationship between the three of them, Brandon didn’t know. But it really pissed him off at times. Okay, so they had such a fulfilling sex life that Brandon couldn’t claim he was being deprived of anything, but that wasn’t the point. Why couldn’t Brandon have sex with the man or the woman he loved, whenever and wherever he wanted? He and Kimber could have sex alone but he and Wade couldn’t? Who the fuck decided that?
And why the hell was Wade being so damned stubborn about marriage all of a sudden? He’d wanted to marry Kimber for years before Brandon came back to Chelwood, and now that Kimber and Brandon both believed that marriage was the best thing for their family in general, and the kids in particular, Wade no longer wanted it. Hell, Brandon would marry Kimber himself in a heartbeat, but that would send the local gossip mill into overdrive and put Kimber in a real difficult position with her parents. Wade said he didn’t want that either. Not that anyone actually knew what the hell he did want—Wade had taken to either killing the conversation or storming away whenever the topic came up—and Brandon was getting pretty fucking sick of Wade deciding how they all lived their lives.
Brandon stopped at the house to check on Seth, then headed down to the bunkhouse to see who was playing hooky when they should be out working the field.
Old Seth Miller and his wife had worked for his family for years, and if keeping the ranch going did no more than provide the pair of them with a place to live out their old age, Brandon was happy to do it. But he couldn’t leave Seth to run things alone. The ranch hands were taking liberties with the old man, turning in late, leaving work half done. Brandon had held his tongue, unwilling to undermine Seth by stepping in, but things were getting worse and business was starting to drop off. A good reputation and the loyalty of its business connections was all a ranch had these days, and Brandon had been forced to slash a few dollars a head off the last shipment of cattle in order to stop his largest supplier going elsewhere, thanks to the guys not having the herd ready in time.
Walking through the trees at the edge of the property rather than use the lane, Brandon dropped to a crouch as he crossed the clearing at the back of the bunkhouse, careful not to let the guys he could hear inside see him coming. A hard kick on the door smashed it wide open, and the four guys inside playing poker damn near fell off the bunk they were using as a makeshift table.
Lopez, the biggest of the four, recovered first, getting to his feet, a cocky grin on his face. “Hey, boss. What’s up?”
“What’s up,” Brandon said, taking a step toward the guy who’d been wrangling at the ranch for only the last few months, “is that some of you think it’s okay to take advantage because I’m not here to keep an eye on you.”
Lopez shrugged and turned his back on Brandon. “Seth gave us the day off.” He turned to the other men who were standing around like a bunch of sullen teenagers waiting to be grounded. “Ain’t that right, guys?”
Brandon crossed the room and grabbed Lopez by the shirt. “I’d think long and hard before you lie to me again.”
The man was huge, at least four inches taller than his boss, and thought he could simply push Brandon away. So the look of surprise on his face when he suddenly found himself flat on his back with a knee across his throat gave Brandon a perverse satisfaction that had nothing to do with Lopez.
“We was just taking a break, okay?” Lopez’s words came out in a painful rasp as he clawed at Brandon’s knee, his face turning purple. Brandon got off him and dragged him to his feet, irritated at his loss of control. He wasn’t about to admit that to Lopez and his buddies though.
“I’ll forget about it this time, but you’re lucky we’re so busy around here at the moment or I’d fire the lot of you.” Brandon walked over to the door, pausing as he was about to leave. “And if Seth hears a word about this, I’ll fire your sorry asses anyway.
Got it?” He didn’t bother waiting around for an answer.
By the time Brandon got back to the Gardener ranch, his anger had eased a little but when he walked in to the house and found Kimber crying in Wade’s arms, rage coursed through him again. “What’s going on?”
Kimber turned her tear-stained face toward him, and Brandon had an almost painful reaction to the torment in her cornflower-blue eyes. “It’s nothing. I’m just being silly.”
Brandon held his arms out to her, and she eased out of Wade’s embrace and crossed to him without hesitation. Tremors wracked her slender frame and she started crying again as Brandon crushed her to him. “Honey, you’re worrying me sick here. What’s happened?”
Wade dragged a chair away from the kitchen table and sat down hard. “She’s still upset about what that woman said yesterday.”
“Is there more to the story than you’ve told us?” Brandon pulled Kimber’s face up toward his, searching her eyes for answers. “What else did she say?”
Kimber fished a hankie out of her pocket and blew her nose, then turned to sit beside Wade, gesturing that Brandon should come sit down, too. “Like I said, nothing really happened. In fact, she was quite nice to us.”
“So nice she made you cry like this?” Wade saved Brandon the trouble of pointing out the flaw in Kimber’s explanation. When she didn’t say anything else, Brandon asked how the kids got on at their appointment.
“The doctor said the girls look well loved, and they couldn’t ask for a better environment to grow up in.”
“Did she ask about the twins’ father?” When Kimber shook her head, Brandon realized there was something else going on. “Oh, God, are the girls okay? There’s nothing wrong, is there?”
