Dark Desire in Elk's Crossing [Sequel to Ecstasy in Elk's Crossing] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (10 page)

She watched Joshua get into the saddle of his roan gelding. His movements were powerful and yet lithe, without any hitches. When he was in the saddle, wearing his Levi’s and a checked, cotton shirt, in his well-worn boots and his gray, felt Stetson, he was the personification of what Annika thought of as an American cowboy.

It doesn’t hurt that he’s gorgeous, rich, and provides multiorgasmic stud service.

The thought made a shiver work its way up Annika’s spine. Deliciously evocative memories of her behavior the previous evening were never far from her consciousness. Remembering how she had fucked two gorgeous men back-to-back made her clit tingle with wanton delight and her nipples to tighten.

“You’re sure you’re all right?” Joshua asked, pulling his horse alongside Old Buck. “Both of you?”

“I’ll be fine,” Annika replied.

“I think this fellow’s wishing he had Annika on his back instead of me,” Sven said, his grin utterly charming in the afternoon sunlight. “She’s not half my size.”

“That horse’s name is Diamond Jim because of the white on his forehead, and he’s about as strong as any horse I’ve ever ridden. Trust me, you are a big man, but Diamond Jim can run like the wind with you on his back.”

“I’d rather he didn’t run like the wind. Never having been in a saddle before, I’d much prefer a nice, calm walk.”

Joshua chuckled at that, and Annika felt her insides clench a little. All of his gestures seemed so carefree and genuine, and all of them made her warm up to him just a little bit more.

Careful, Annika. This is a short-term affair that ends when you fly back to Oslo. Fucking is fine, but falling in love will cause nothing but heartache.

Twenty minutes of slow travel later, the three riders crested a small ridge, and suddenly, spread out before her, were hundreds of squat, black cattle.

“My God, how many of them are there?” she asked, awed by the open space and the vast herd of cattle.

“Hundreds, but that’s just a portion of my population. I keep them segregated into different herds in different pastures depending upon their breed.” Joshua used a fingertip to push his cowboy hat a little further back on his forehead. Annika thought he looked as comfortable in a saddle as Sven looked in a tuxedo at a formal ball for the king of Norway. “Now you can see why I’m so concerned with safety. This is pristine country. No matter how profitable the oil is under the ground, if it jeopardizes this land in any way, it’s just not a worthy investment to me.”

Every time he opens his mouth, he says something that makes me respect him more.

Sven asked, “Where are the wells to be drilled?”

Joshua pointed to the cattle milling about, all with their heads down as they munched grass. “One of them about in the middle of that herd there. Another one to the north of that a quarter of a mile, and a third one to the west.”

“We’re a careful company,” Sven replied. “We’ll get the roads built and put the wells in, and those cows won’t be disturbed one bit.”

“Perhaps.” There was a tinge of suspicion in Joshua’s tone. “We’ll have to see. I’ll need all the facts before we can proceed.”

He’s a rich man who’s not a greedy man. Is it any wonder I succumbed to his charm?

Across the surface of her mind, Annika suddenly had the image of herself, naked, in a huge, comfortable bed with Sven and Joshua. In the mental picture she got, they weren’t making love. Rather, they were casually chatting about nonessential things, as though they had previously made sweet love and were now enjoying the golden glow that comes from sex that satisfies on a myriad of levels.

Don’t go there, Annika. This is a hot, sweaty, short-term affair. Concentrate on the fucking and forget about the making love part.

“Are either of you getting a little hungry?” Joshua asked.

Annika was glad for the question because it took her thoughts away from dangerous things like confusing making love with fucking.

“I could use a little something, but we’re out in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing to eat.”

Joshua shook his head. “You’re wrong on both counts. This isn’t the middle of nowhere. It’s the middle of my six-hundred acre pasture that’s been in my family for four generations, and it’s where you want to put three oil wells. And as for nothing to eat, you weren’t around when I packed my saddlebags.” He pointed to a low hill a hundred yards away. “We’ll set up a picnic over there.”

Sven looked at Annika and asked, “Picnic?”

“It’s a small meal eaten outdoors.”

Sven smiled and turned to Joshua. “Food…and perhaps something to drink?”

“As a matter of fact, in honor of my guest, I brought along Svedka vodka. It’s Swedish, not Norwegian, but it’s as Scandinavian as I could do on short notice.”

“Joshua, you are becoming a friend. Of that, I am certain.”

* * * *

Sven put his hands around Annika’s waist as she was getting out of the saddle, and the urge to pull her in close, and fill his hands with those glorious breasts, was overpowering. But putting a tight rein on his rather barbaric Viking instincts, Sven merely held her by the waist to ease her down to the ground and make sure she didn’t get her foot caught in the stirrup.

From his saddlebags, Joshua pulled out a small blanket then several sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil.

“It couldn’t be refrigerated, so I made smoked ham sandwiches and put packets of mustard in with each one for you. They were in the refrigerator until I took them out just before coming here.”

He handed Sven a corner of a blue blanket, and together they stretched it out on the ground. Joshua returned to his horse and, from the saddlebags, extracted three small bottles, one with clear liquid in it, one with amber liquid, one with wine.

“This is a Riesling wine, which the Internet told me is the best wine for ham. I’m hoping you’ll like it,” he said to Annika.

He goes out of his way to make everyone happy, to make sure Annika and I have what we need, what we might like. For an American, he’s an extraordinary man. I’ve underestimated this man as nothing more than a cowboy with too much land. He’s much more than my stereotypes.

Sven turned his attention toward Annika and once again felt that tightening in his throat that reminded him how, from the very beginning, he had to fight to keep from openly staring at her, gawking like a teenager. Her sensuality wasn’t the flaunting type. She didn’t wear revealing clothing that screamed she was a sexual being. Instead, despite her voluptuous, ostentatiously feminine curves, she downplayed her beauty, her physical charms. He remembered seeing her only once before wearing jeans, and that was when they’d bumped into each other at a coffee shop in Oslo on a Saturday morning. When she came to the office, she was always in a skirt suit or a pantsuit, tastefully tailored to look professional and sublimate the extravagance of her breasts.

“This seems so odd to me,” Annika said after the sandwiches had been dispensed and libations served. “There’s so much space. I can see for kilometers and kilometers out here. I split my time between Manhattan and Oslo, two rather densely populated cities. In either of those cities, if you want to look at something a long way away, you’ve got to be looking straight up at the sky.”

“Yes,” Joshua said, “but out here we measure distances in miles, not kilometers.” He took a bite of his sandwich then a sip of whiskey to wash it down. “This is beautiful country. It’s vast and powerful and the soil so rich the grass is thick as carpet. Out here, you could ride for days without seeing another person, provided you stayed away from what few roads there are.”

Sven took a bite of his sandwich, decided that Joshua served truly excellent smoked ham, then took a sip of vodka straight from the bottle.

“This is a business trip of many firsts,” he said then took another sip of vodka. “This is the first time I’ve drank vodka from the bottle, the first time I’ve ridden a horse, the first time I’ve ever allowed work and pleasure to mingle”—he ran his palm lightly over Annika’s calf and then inner thigh, touching her through her jeans—“and the first time I’ve wanted to fuck outdoors.”

* * * *

The lightning bolt of excitement that went through Annika was so shocking, so unanticipated, that it nearly made her come instantly. The emotions she harbored for her boss, she knew, held unflattering elements of a schoolgirl crush. But when she heard him say “fuck” and then boldly stroked his hand up the inside of her leg, all the way to the middle of her thigh, it had shocked her so thoroughly she inhaled sharply, as though she’d suddenly been dunked in icy cold water.

Annika’s head swiveled on her shoulders as she looked around. She was outside in broad daylight, and in the world that she understood, there were always dozens and dozens of people around. No intimacy outdoors when the sun was up was ever likely to go unnoticed, and in all likelihood, would be videotaped by security cameras.

The only animals likely to see Annika’s romantic tryst were the cattle, and they didn’t seem to be paying much attention. Still, Annika had kept a tight leash on her libido for years, and making love outdoors under the sun was sailing into waters entirely uncharted by her libido.

“But, Sven…”

She would have said more, but his big hand slipped a little higher up her thigh, high enough so that the edge of his index finger brushed against the center seam of her jeans where the legs were joined. She felt the pressure, light but tantalizing nevertheless, against the lips of her pussy. Fresh cream lubricated her labia, and Annika felt her panties suddenly start to cling moistly to her slit.

“Joshua said we’re far, far away from civilization. Why not enjoy nature?” He moved closer to Annika, and she felt her heart accelerate. “Look around you. What could be more natural than making love under the sun?”

Cursing herself for responding so quickly to Sven’s caress, Annika replied, “Natural? One woman with two men? Does that seem natural to—”

Sven’s kiss put an end to Annika’s protests. She knew she shouldn’t succumb so quickly to her boss and lover. There was nothing in her background to prepare her for the romantic entanglements that came with having an affair with a coworker who, even more importantly, was also her employer.

As though from a distance, Annika heard Joshua say quietly, “Damn, it’s sexy to watch you kissing her.”

Annika felt herself being dominated by Sven’s size, strength, and determination. She started to push him away, but his hands quickly grabbed her by the wrists. A moment later he had her wrists together and was pinning them to the blanket with a single hand. With his free hand, he pinched lightly at her nipples for a moment but then reached low to caress her pussy through her jeans.

Don’t moan. Don’t let him know how easily he arouses you.

The thought did not translate into action. She moaned lustily as Sven’s tongue danced with hers and his hand rubbed up and down over the length of her pussy. It was shockingly erotic to be caressed through her jeans, and it heightened her passion to know that Joshua was very close and watching everything she was doing.

The kiss finally ended, but before it did, Annika could feel the heat in her cunt emanating outward, touching every nerve ending, sending her senses soaring. She loved it that Sven held her wrists together and trapped firmly to the ground, giving her a sense of domination and bondage, an awareness of her own desire to be submissive to an alpha male. Still, a lifetime of being defiant of authority could not be easily shunted aside, so she turned her face away.

“Can’t this wait until we’re back at the ranch?” Annika said, trying hard for a tone of sarcasm and failing slightly.

“No,” Sven replied, pinching Annika’s nipple through her blouse and bra, “it can’t. I need you now. Right…fucking…now.”

His words nearly made her climax.

“But—”

He captured her mouth again, and Annika felt herself sinking into a whirlwind of forbidden lust as Sven’s mouth claimed hers as his toy. She had Sven’s free hand on her breasts, pinching, tugging, and twisting on her nipples with just the right amount of force to dance along the tightrope separating pleasure and pain.

When did I become such a slut?

Annika flinched at the thought. She didn’t want to picture herself as a slut, but what decent woman would give herself to two men at the same time?

She felt Joshua tugging off her jogging shoes and then her white socks. As she sucked hungrily on Sven’s tongue as it moved erotically in her mouth, she felt her jeans getting unsnapped. A moment later, her zipper was tugged down.

A good woman wouldn’t find this so fucking exciting.

When she felt her jeans being opened and then tugged down, she raised her hips to assist the process.

Fuck it. I guess I’m not a good woman.

Sven’s fingers were adroit as he unbuttoned her blouse then tugged the cups of her bra beneath the swells of her breasts, doing it all without ever once taking his hand away from her wrists, which he kept trapped against the ground.

Annika felt her jeans getting pulled down her legs and then removed completely. She lifted her hips again, and her bikini panties were removed with alacrity.

I’m sooo going to get fucked.

Just the thought of it was nearly enough to make her climax.

Annika had just slipped her tongue between Sven’s lips when she felt Joshua’s strong hands on her naked thighs, spreading them. A moment later, she felt Joshua’s mouth on her pussy, his slick tongue separating her folds.

To have a hot, talented tongue moving up and down over the lips of her pussy while another man feasted on her mouth, kissing her with a fierce determination to please, was a dizzying experience for Annika. Trembling, moaning, her voluptuous body was squirming on the blanket as the men pleasured her.

Suddenly, Sven pulled at her wrists, forcing Annika to sit up. Disoriented by the explosion of sensuality flooding her system, Annika did not resist as Sven removed her blouse and bra. Now completely naked, Annika felt gloriously free but a little bewildered at what she was supposed to do, at what was or wasn’t expected of her.