Cowboy Double-Decker (16 page)

Though it was cold outside, the room was warm. A massive stone fireplace took up most of one wall. The front face was mostly purple amethyst, but white crystals sparkled when the light caught it right. It was beautiful, but Kaela was far too hot to enjoy it. A heat that came
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from inside.

She had a quick tour, admiring Candy’s landscape paintings, proudly displayed in frames made by Adam. Candy pointedly said both bedroom suites were totally sound insulated. She shared the left-hand suite at the end of the long upstairs hall with Adam, while Bryan’s was on the right. Two sets of large bedrooms, each sharing a bath between them, plus another door, completed the upstairs. Candy said the door led to a playroom and didn’t offer to open it.

That must be where they’d taken the Sultan and Slave Girl photos.

Kaela pushed erotic possibilities out of her mind and placed her few bags in the room closest to the stairs. Candy said the window faced northwest, providing wonderful sunset views of the white-topped Beaverhead Mountains. Kaela had never slept in a more restful room.

The duvet and curtains had a muted plaid of blue, lavender, pale pink, and dove. The floor was covered by a matching grey carpet so thick she could curl her toes into it. In addition to the queen-size bed against one wall, a rocking chair with side table and lamp made her want to hide away with a good book.

Scotty joined the girls in the room the other side of the bathroom.

It held a full tub with shower, toilet, and sink, and enough floor space to kneel to bathe children. Adam and Bryan found an extra crib from somewhere and set it up for Scotty. After the full day, he zonked out at the same time as the girls.

Kaela didn’t want them to think she was hiding out, so she followed the adults downstairs after putting the kids to sleep. Before they settled on the couch, both Bryan and Adam kissed Candy thoroughly, as if Kaela wasn’t there. They even slid hands under her clothes, fingers slipping into places that made Candy’s eyes gleam and Kaela twitch.

She didn’t understand why she wasn’t jealous of Bryan touching Candy when the women in the hotel lobby had made her want to slap their faces. She itched to get the same deep kisses and touches from both men. At the same time, she wanted to disappear. They were so
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comfortable in their bodies and with each other. She couldn’t imagine ever being so relaxed, but the only tension she felt was sexual.

Adam lounged in a dark green leather chair, the squashy kind with wide arms to sit on. It looked a lot like the one he’d bent Candy over in the photos on the laptop. That didn’t help Kaela’s heat problem.

Nor did the fact both men wore only loose sweat pants. With, she easily noticed, very large erections.

Even worse, Adam watched her like a wolf deciding how he’d feast on her. When his eyes trailed over her, a line of heat followed.

Bryan knew her well enough to notice her reaction but did nothing to stop Adam’s stares or the way he absently rubbed his palm against what swelled his fleece pants.

Bryan smirked at her discomfort, daring her to complain while he snuggled with Candy into a deep couch, one of two bracing the fireplace. Candy leaned her back against his bare chest. One of his hands had crept under her T-shirt, cupping her. He held a glass of his favorite single malt in the other, sipping quietly.

Kaela hadn’t known he drank the stuff, much less that he had a favorite. She knew so little about him. The immensity of it all—the people, the ranch, the huge house—had her wishing she never agreed to visit.

They were the Ewings from
Dallas
and she was from
Trailer Park
Boys
.

She’d only had sex with Freddie and Bryan. She experienced her first orgasm less than a week ago, while Candy had played wild erotic games with two men for years. The woman had had things done to her that sent Kaela’s libido soaring like a hot air balloon.

Her deep, dark fantasies swirled into form, demanding to know why she wasn’t already in Adam’s lap, riding what his hand caressed while someone else licked her—

“I’m off to bed. Anyone else interested?”

Candy stood and stretched her arms high over her head. Her loose pink sweatpants drooped, and her short T-shirt rode up to display her
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belly. Her nipples poked through the thin fabric.

Both men reacted as if her baggy sweats were from Fredericks of Hollywood, jumping to their feet. Bryan stood behind her and slid one hand under her shirt to cup her breast while the other slid down the front of her sweats. She moaned and spread her legs.

Adam, eyes dark and nostrils flaring, raised his eyebrows at Kaela, his feral smile an easy-to-read invitation and challenge. She stood up, legs together, still dressed in what she put on that morning in Utah. Adam didn’t move, but the bulge in his sweats confirmed what he wanted.

“Well! I’ll see you all in the morning,” she said, forcing bright cheer into her words. She waved good night and scuttled up the stairs before she ran into trouble. Both Adam and Bryan belonged to Candy, not to her. Bryan had been away from his almost-wife for months. No way would she interfere.

No matter how hot and horny she was.

She heard a laughing shriek followed by deep male growls. She shut the sound out, closing her door, and leaned her forehead against it. A woman’s light quick steps ran past her door, followed by two sets of heavy thuds. Then the door at the far end of the hall closed her out.

Though Candy had sworn the rooms were totally soundproofed, Kaela put a pillow over her head and turned her face to the wall. The bed was comfortable, and she knew Scotty was safe with the girls on the other side of the bathroom. She left both interconnecting doors open and a night light in the bathroom, just in case.

Sometime later—half an hour? An hour?—the door to the hall opened. A thin stream of light cut across her bed. She didn’t move, fighting to keep her breath low and slow, faking sleep.

“I won’t do it, Kaela,” whispered a deep voice. “Not without you.”

She held her breath until the door softly shut again, then hot tears leaked onto the multi-hundred thread count pillowcase. She didn’t
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know whether she was glad or not. Only that she was all alone.

Again.

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Sunday, late afternoon

“Admit it. You’re useless, city boy!”

After making the loud and outrageous statement, Adam pushed his chair back and stood up, six-foot-four inches of angry male. He leaned over the table to poke Bryan in the chest with a callused finger, an ugly sneer curling up his mouth. Before he was touched, Bryan shot to his feet and glared back, two inches shorter but wider, with twenty pounds more muscle.

“Just keep it up, boyo, and I’ll make Candy a happy widow,” he growled.

The first full day at the ranch had been hard on everyone. Neither Kaela nor Bryan had slept well. The three children were over excited, refusing to nap. The two men growled and muttered all day as they worked, their hackles rising with each hour. The ranch hands kept busy far from their bosses, but the women couldn’t do much to escape when they stomped in to eat.

Kaela helped Candy make the usual Sunday breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, and hash browns—what Candy called a heart surgeon’s paycheck. The food seemed to rev up the men’s energy levels and their tempers. They’d stomped to the barn, worked all day, and now waited impatiently for supper.

“Still think you’re the best man, huh?” Adam sneered at Bryan.

“You take off for two months, do one lousy excuse of a day, and think you know what the hell’s going on?”

Kaela flicked her eyes from one big angry man to the other. She
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huddled on a stool in the corner holding a wide-eyed Scotty. She was trapped, unable to get past them to escape.

“It’s okay, Kaela,” said Candy quietly. She moved around the end of the table to stand beside her. “Even though they’re equal partners, Adam’s family have owned this land for generations while Bryan’s family were their servants. It still bugs Bryan sometimes. Because Bryan’s been away, they’ve got to re-establish who’s top dog.

They’ve growled around each other all day, doing the pissing higher on the pole thing. It’s come to a head and they’ve got to fight it out before they eat or there’ll be an explosion at the supper table.”

“Is this because of me?” Though Kaela’s heart pounded with fear and adrenaline, Scotty eagerly watched, chewing a finger as his eyes moved from one man to the other.

“Heck no, girl!” Candy picked up her sketchpad and pencil and sat, quick hands flashing to produce an amazing likeness of the men menacing each other. She did a caricature of them as bulldogs. Kaela snickered in spite of her tension.

“It’s the male pack mentality thing. Who’s up and who’s down.

Doc says it’s a perfectly normal guy thing. They’ve been doing this since they were kids and they still do it every now and then. A big fight seems to clear the air. As long as they do it outside, who am I to break a family tradition?”

Adam and Bryan now glared nose to chin. One pushed a shoulder, the other retaliated.

“Okay, boys, enough.” Candy slammed down her sketch pad and stood up. Hands on hips, she glared up at her husband. “Take it outside. Now!”

“Aw, Candy, we’re just—” Adam whined like a six-year-old.

“Just nothing. Both of you, outside.”

“We’re goin’,” said Bryan. “I’m gonna beat the sh—”

“Ahem!” called Candy.

“—stuffing out of you this time.” He grabbed the front of Adam’s work shirt. Adam did the same to Bryan.

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“Yeah?” Adam shoved Bryan. “You’ll need a steak the size of your hat to cover your black eye when I’m done with you.”

“You and who’s army?” Bryan shoved back. “You learn anything while I was gone or you just gonna talk me to death?”

“Out!”

Pushing and shoving, the two shuffled out the door and onto the wide porch. Candy, following, closed the front door behind them. She locked it, turned around, and gave Kaela a smile while making a big show of dusting her hands off. A loud crash against the wall was followed by a yell, then boots stomping off the front porch.

“Would you like another cup of coffee while the big kids sort things out, Kaela?”

“Let me put Scotty in the corral with the girls.” She hurried back to find Candy calmly stirring sugar into a fresh mug of coffee. “Is the fight for real?”

“Go look for yourself. I don’t like them to see me watching because it only stirs them up more. It encourages the beating on the chest he-man gorilla thing.” She shook her head and grimaced in resignation, pointing to where Kaela could watch unseen.

“They’re really hitting each other hard!”

“Uh-huh. I remember the first time I saw the two of them fight.”

Candy turned down the pot of stew, relaxed in her chair, and patted her lap. The marmalade cat lurking under the table needed no more encouragement. “It scared the heck out of me. I thought one would kill the other or at least maim him. Luckily, Doc was here. He just laughed and told me not to encourage them by trying to stop them.

That they had to get it out of their system.”

“A guy thing.” Kaela took her mug and went back to the window.

“Yep. All that testosterone has to go someplace. Better they take it out on each other than on me.”

Kaela choked mid-swallow. “Would they—”

“Oh, hon, not that way!” said Candy when she saw Kaela’s face turn white. “Those boys would die rather than have me hurt. Or you,
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come to think of it. No, when I say they ‘take it out on me,’ I mean they plan scenes where they spank me and force me to do all sorts of depraved things.” She winked. “I enjoy what they do, but I can’t let on or it spoils the fun.”

Kaela listened to her words, pretending to stare outside. This was what Bryan had told her about, what the pictures had shown. Candy fighting every minute until she won. Until they all got what they wanted.

“Did I lose you there, Kaela?”

“I, uh, heard you.”

“Yeah, but does what I said bother you?”

Kaela took a deep breath. She let it out and turned to Candy. The petite, dark haired woman watched her closely.

“Yes, as in hot and bothered.”

Candy’s smile started small, but widened to open up her whole mouth. Even her eyes got into it, crinkling at the corners.

“You have no idea how glad I am to hear that.”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to do any of that stuff,” Kaela quickly clarified. “I mean, I owe Bryan a session where he ties me up in return for what I did to him, but—”

“In return?” Candy’s voice went high at the question. “As in, you’ve already done it?”

Kaela nodded. “It was the last time we, uh, had sex. Last Sunday.”

“Oh my God!” Candy sat up straight. The cat, woken by Candy’s squeal, jumped down in a huff and went to find a quieter place. “I’ve wanted to tie him up forever, but he wouldn’t let me! He must be really into you.”

“It was the only way I’d let him do it to me. I don’t like losing control.”

“You and me both. But, when you trust them with your life, giving up control can be a wonderful thing. You don’t have to think, just enjoy.” She winked and relaxed again. “Not that I let them know how much I like their control in the bedroom. Wouldn’t want it to
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spread anywhere else, you know?”

Kaela, face heating, turned back to the window. Adam and Bryan rolled on the ground, fists flying. They lost a few buttons and likely gained bruises. The men gathered around shouted encouragement. A closer look at their faces suggested insults were more likely.

“Wait a minute,” said Candy abruptly. “Bryan slept with you all last week without having sex, just cuddling?”

Kaela nodded, eyes on her man. At the moment, he was on top.