Monroe, Marla - Their Border Lands Temptress [Men of the Border Lands 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

She heard the sounds of boots on the stairs. Garrett stuck his head around the corner of the door and grinned to find her awake.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, walking further into the room.

“My head hurts, and my wrist and ankle throb. I’m crying and can’t quit, and the deer needs processing and salting.”

“I was wondering how you preserved it. Tell me what to do, and I’ll try to handle it for you.”

“You’ve already done so much. I can’t ask you to do more work. It will be dark soon, and I know you will want to get back to wherever you were going.”

“I told you, I’m sticking around until you’re able to handle things on your own again. So tell me what to do about the deer meat.”

She swallowed and instructed him on salting and preserving the meat. “I have a cellar that stays cool. I hang the meat in there once I’ve finished with it.”

“I’ll take care of it before we come up to bed tonight.” Garrett smiled at her before turning and heading back downstairs.

* * * *

Several hours later, he finished the process and needed to clean up. The house had begun to cool down pretty rapidly now. They would have to sleep with Ronnie to keep her warm. Brice had said that with broken ribs she would be susceptible to pneumonia, and that would be dangerous without antibiotics to give her. She wasn’t going to like them sleeping with her, he was sure, he thought with a grin.

“Brice, I’m going to head upstairs and take a shower.”

“I’ll take one after you, and then we better get to bed. I have a feeling there’s more to do tomorrow. Plus, I’ll have to milk that stupid cow again.”

Garrett chuckled and took the stairs two at a time. He was eager to find out what she felt like up close, without clothes in the way. He carried his bag of things into the bathroom with him and noticed Ronnie was sleeping.

The water proved to be lukewarm at best, but helped to curb his raging dick from raring to go to mildly interested. No doubt that would change once he climbed into bed with her. He wondered how Brice was faring. Did his friend not feel anything for her? It would be the first time they had not felt the same intense arousal for the same woman. They’d shared women since back in college nearly ten years ago.

Once he was out of the shower and drying off, Brice walked in with his bag.

“She’s going to be pissed when we climb into bed with her,” Brice said.

“I know. Guard your nuts.”

Brice chuckled. “Don’t worry.”

“Should I hold off till you get out? Might make it easier if we double-team her.”

“Not a bad idea. I’ll hurry.”

Garrett walked into the bedroom in nothing but his thermal pants. He didn’t worry with the shirt. She didn’t rouse at all. He sat on the edge of the bed on her right side. He didn’t want to sleep on her left side with her ribs. Brice would be careful of them.

Twenty minutes later, Brice walked out in his thermals. It was obvious that his friend
was
affected by Ronnie. Brice’s thermals were tented just like his. They climbed into bed on either side of her. Ronnie roused with wide eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Going to bed,” Brice pointed out.

“In bed with me?”

“We’ll all stay warm better this way,” Garrett said.

“As long as you realize nothing is going to happen.” She seemed fine with sharing the bed.

“We aren’t going to hurt you,” Brice promised her.

“You’re fucking hard!” she all but yelled.

“Doesn’t mean anything.” Brice pulled the cover up higher and turned away from her, but scooted closer to her.

“Men can’t handle hard-ons without fucking someone. Are you going to fuck each other, then?”

“Not hardly, but we don’t have to have sex just because we got hard.” Garrett couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Maybe he could.

He curled up around her. “Go to sleep, Ronnie. I promise, we won’t do anything but sleep.”

She was stiff and unyielding for several minutes before she finally relaxed and fell asleep. Holding her felt so good. It felt right. It worried him that he felt that way. He wondered how Brice was feeling. He didn’t dare ask, for fear of waking Ronnie back up. She needed to rest. It would go a long way to helping her heal.

He worried she would develop pneumonia as Brice had warned. Garrett decided he didn’t need to borrow trouble. They already had plenty of that. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

* * * *

Brice lay awake for a long time. His dick was hard and throbbing. He couldn’t believe he was reacting to her like this. Sure, she was good-looking, and so much like what he and Garrett liked in a woman, but it was obvious she wanted to remain independent. Plus, they were scavengers and moved around a lot. It was how they made their living. They’d never even considered putting down roots.

He thought about milking the cow and nearly laughed aloud at his poor attempts. He’d never believed he would even try such a thing. He wasn’t the domestic type. He could admit the house was nice. If he were going to settle down, he would want something just like this, big and open and airy.

He couldn’t help but hope Ronnie would warm up to them and maybe let them love her while they were there. It had been a long time for them, and they didn’t like frequenting the brothels because the women had been sold on the black market. When they had, he and Garrett treated them really well. They never hurt them and made sure they were pleasured as well. Still, they always felt guilty and hadn’t been near one in over six months.

Brice had come by his own hand more in the last six months than he had in over six years. It was a temporary solution, but was hardly satisfying. He was sure Garrett felt the same way.

How long had Ronnie been out here on her own? As well as the farm seemed to be doing, it had to have been a while. He wondered if she lost all her family and friends in the hell that had fallen on the earth. He and Garrett had lost their entire family and their friends as well. Garrett had been serious about a woman, and she died in the plagues that followed the catastrophes. For a long time, he hadn’t spoken much. It was only in the last two years that he’d even been interested in sex.

Brice hoped that his being interested in Ronnie was a good sign, though how she would take their interest was anybody’s guess. Somehow they had to soften her up toward them. They would be there with her for a few weeks, with her in such bad shape. He still wasn’t sure if her wrist and ankle were broken or not. Without an X-ray, there was no way to tell.

He guessed they were going to learn some lessons on farm life over the next few weeks. It would be good practice for when they did settle down in one place. Right now, though, they were content traveling around gathering goods that people needed and trading them for food and gas. That was about all they needed in their life.

Well, maybe that was all they needed. Right now, he was wondering if they needed a certain feisty little female named Ronnie.

Chapter Three

Brice had set a mechanical alarm clock and woke her up every two hours. He wanted to be sure she was lucid and not suffering any further problems. She wasn’t at all happy when he did. Each time she woke up, Garrett woke, too. Around seven, Brice got up and dressed to start the day. It would be a long one, he was sure. He had never really worked on a farm, so this would be a true adventure for him. Well, he planned to look at it as an adventure.

Garrett made it down about the time he poured up the coffee. The big man looked a little worse for wear. He imagined he didn’t look much better, considering the lack of sleep they’d both suffered.

“Morning, Garrett.”

“Morning. How do you think she’s doing?”

“I think she’s fine as far as her head goes. Her wrist and ankle both look better. I’m leaning toward their being badly sprained, and not broken.”

“What about her ribs?” Garrett pulled out some deer meat that he’d cooked the night before and began making breakfast for them.

“I don’t have any way of knowing that. All we can do is hope for the best.” Brice took a sip of the bitter coffee.

“What are the plans for the day?” Garrett asked.

“Well, first off is milking that dang cow and gathering eggs. I’ll do that part. You might want to check with her on what else needs doing. I’ve never really been on a farm before.”

“Well, I’ve done a lot of hunting and been on horses some, but I’m not going to be much help, either. Let’s just hope there isn’t a lot to it.” Garrett served up breakfast.

As soon as they finished eating, Garrett cleaned up and they walked outside to figure out what was first. By the sound of the chickens and the cow, they were late.

“I’ll check on feeding the cows and the horse,” Garrett said.

Brice carried the bucket into the barn and noticed the cow was moving restlessly in her stall. “Sorry I’m late. Had a rough night.”

Shaking his head, he sat down to start the torturous process of squeezing milk from an ornery cow. After a good twenty minutes, he’d gotten about the same amount of milk as the night before, so he stopped and carried the milk to the house to come back out with a basket to gather the eggs.

The minute he opened the chicken coop, he was attacked by what felt like a hundred mad birds. In actuality, he realized later, there had only been about twelve. He scooped up the eggs and returned to the kitchen without having seen or heard from Garrett in all that time. He wondered what his friend had found to keep him busy.

He cleaned up in the laundry room sink before climbing the stairs to see about Ronnie. He hoped she would be in better spirits after resting more. They had been gone a good three hours.

He found her sitting up on the side of the bed, shaking all over.

“What in the hell are you doing up?”

“I need to go to the bathroom. I can’t walk, and I was going to try to crawl, but my side hurts too much to bend over.” There were tears in her eyes.

“Aw, damn, baby. Let me help you. Then we’ll get some clothes for you.” Brice scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bathroom.

He stood her on her good leg in front of the toilet and left her there to look for something for her to put on. He searched through the drawers and found little to nothing for clothing. He finally located a couple of pairs of jeans and work shirts, along with the bare minimum of underwear. Why didn’t she have more clothes?

He decided the best thing was to take her downstairs and sit her on the couch in front of the fireplace to keep her warm. He confiscated one of Garrett’s large shirts, since it would be bigger than his. It would cover her from neck to knees. He heard the toilet flush, so returned and knocked on the door.

“You ready in there?”

“Just about. Give me a minute.”

Brice heard the sink turn on then off. He figured she was washing her face and hands. She needed a shower, but he would need Garrett’s help with that. It would take one of them to hold her up and the other to bathe her. She would be fine until later that afternoon.

“Okay, I’m ready.”

He opened the door to find her leaning against the counter with a towel wrapped around her. Her face had gone pale and she was plumb white around her lips. She was in a lot of pain. Brice picked her up and carried her back to the bed, where he carefully sat her back down.

“I’ve got underwear for you to put on and a big shirt to cover you. You can’t wear jeans with your ankle like it is. We’d have a hell of a time getting them on and off.”