Rough, Raw and Ready (22 page)

Edgard grinned. “I did good in picking her?”

“Very good. I can’t believe I actually have a goat.”

“Have you checked cattle yet?”

Chassie shook her head and stood.

“I’d be happy to help since I don’t have anything else to do.”

She reached for the coffee pot, refilling both their cups. She stopped behind him and studied the sweep of his dark hair. Edgard’s words from last night had haunted her after she’d woken up in Trevor’s arms and found Edgard gone. On impulse, she set her chin on his head, wrapping her arms around his neck. Damn he smelled good. Felt good too.

“Last night was great. Thank you for…”

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Shoot. Were there words to explain? Thank you for offering reassurance you weren’t trying to steal my man? Thank you for fucking my husband right in front of me and not behind my back? Thank you for making me feel sexy and like you really wanted me there and I wasn’t an annoying byproduct of getting it on with Trevor?

“Thank you for what, Chassie?” he asked hoarsely.

“Thank you for everything. Especially when you were so sweet when I was worried, you know, me having a personal crisis, freaking out last night…”
Take a deep breath.

“Dammit. I’m so bad at this.”

“It’s okay. I oughta be thanking you.”

“Maybe we oughta talk about something else.” Chassie kissed his crown and squeezed his body one last time before she returned to her own seat. “So you goin’ into town to see if your truck is done?”

His coffee cup stopped midair. When Edgard looked at her she realized he’d misunderstood. She covered his hand on the table with hers, which had clenched into a fist at her thoughtless blathering. “I’m not tryin’ to get rid of you, Ed.”

“You’re not?”

“No, in fact, I’d like it if you stuck around for a while. Trevor never wants to admit we need help, but with calvin’ startin’ in the next couple weeks, and we can’t afford to hire a hand, even temporarily…well, we’d—
I’d
—like it if you stayed.” It clicked he had a ranch of his own to run half a world away and she amended, “Unless of course you can’t and you need to get back to Brazil.”

Edgard drained his coffee. “No place I need to be, so if you want me to stick around, I will.” He scrambled to his feet, giving her his back. “Does Trevor know you asked me to stay?”

“No. But do you really think he’s gonna complain after last night?”

He spun and gave her a smug smile. “Nope.”

After they’d let the ritual of pouring coffee settle the unease between them, Chassie said, “I’m sorry you slept alone.”

Edgard shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

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“Even when you were traveling with Trevor?”

He expelled an exasperated sigh. “Chassie, is this something you really wanna hear?”

“It’s something I need to hear if you’re in our life.”

Our life
seemed to jar him. “You are just as damn curious as Greta, aren’t you?”

“Worse. And I’ll warn you I’m stubborn as a mule and tenacious as a bulldog. I’ll keep pesterin’ you until your answers suit me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve got nothin’ to lose if I ask these questions and everything to lose if I don’t.”

A considering look crossed Edgard’s face. “You are wise beyond your years, aren’t you?”

“I feel much older than twenty-five, that’s for damn sure.”

“Yet, you don’t look a day over eighteen,” he murmured.

Chassie rolled her eyes. “You don’t need extra sugar in your coffee this mornin’, your mouth is already so damn sweet, so start spillin’ your guts.”

He smiled. “Most nights on the road, after Trevor and I hooked up, Trevor and I slept in the same bed. Unless he and Colby were out or if they were entertaining buckle bunnies in our motel room. Then I crashed in the horse trailer.”

“Were you jealous? When he was with women?”

“Sometimes.” Edgard dumped another spoonful of sugar in his coffee. “Mostly I was accustomed to it.”

“Did you ever, oh, go fuck another guy and rub it in his face afterward?”

He didn’t seem surprised by the question. “Once.”

When Edgard didn’t elaborate, Chassie waved her hand in front of his face to snag his attention. “Come on, Ed. This is juicy stuff. You can’t stop now.”

“We were at the Denver Stock Show. Somehow I ended up going to dinner with Trevor and his family. His brother Brent started talking shit about a hired hand who’d recently come out. Brent spewed all these dumb gay jokes. Normally, I ignore that kinda 172

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behavior, consider the source and all that. But Trevor drank too much—like he always does when he’s forced to deal with his family—and he joined in, acting like a homophobic prick because that’s what his family expected.”

“What’d you do?”

“What could I do? I was beyond pissed off. Trevor not telling anyone about us was always a big issue between us. I understood his reasons and never pushed it. But when he made fun of guys who had the balls to come out of the closet? That was a line he shouldn’t’ve crossed. I hated he’d done it in front of me.” Edgard shoved a hand through his hair. “After dinner, the whole family loaded up and went to the big rodeo dance. I declined.

“I burned my bootheels getting to the gay cowboy bar in Denver and hooked up with a dentist who was in town for the rodeo. I spent the night in his hotel room and didn’t see Trevor until the following afternoon when we had to compete.”

Chassie figured she wouldn’t much care for Trevor’s jealous reaction, but she wouldn’t be surprised by it.

“We sucked in the arena. Lost our chance for points or purse. Soon as we were alone he lit into me. We fought. Not with words. With our fists. We beat the shit out of each other, Chass. It was ugly.”

“Where’d it happen? Since you were always so discreet?”

“In the living quarters of the horse trailer. Trev said something. I said something back. He took the first punch. I landed the last. Christ, we were rolling around on the floor, bleeding—”

“Whoa—bleeding?”

Edgard closed his eyes. “When we were shoving each other some beer bottles got broken and we just kept going, stomping all over them. Trevor slipped and fell and I didn’t help him up, I just kept beating on him. So he has a cut on his back and I have a gash on my arm as a memento.”

She didn’t comment since she couldn’t imagine the frustration they’d been dealing with
before
Edgard stepped out on Trevor.

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“Colby damn near had to break down the door. He threatened to find new traveling partners if we didn’t get a handle on the situation. Somehow we reassured him we’d deal with it, but that was the beginning of the end for us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Trevor wanted to be with me only on his terms. I was tired of the secret life and the lies it took to maintain it. At the time…I couldn’t see past my self-righteous streak that I wasn’t gonna hide who I was from anyone any more.”

At the time?
Strange way to phrase it. “The dentist reminded you of that?”

“He reminded me lots of men live together openly. Did I engage in a one-night stand to hurt Trevor? Probably. But it ended up hurting me too because it gave me a taste of what I could never have. At least not with Trevor. I’d never been into the multiple partner, circle jerk, meaningless fast encounters in the clubs or bathrooms. I’ve always been…”

“What?”

“Choosy.”

“And that’s bad?”

“No, that’s just not the norm.”

“Dag was so far in the closet he suffocated in there,” Chassie said. “I don’t know what normal is. I’d rather be hurt by upfront honesty than hurt by a long-standing lie.”

“I used to think that too.” Edgard picked at the plastic seam in the tablecloth.

Finally Chassie’s nerves couldn’t stand whatever he was hiding. She covered his hand with hers. “Tell me.”

“I saw Dag that night I was in the gay bar in Denver.”

Her stomach swirled her coffee into a frothy latte. “Who was he with? Shit. No, don’t tell me.” She inhaled. “Yes. Tell me. Please.”

“A skinny, young Goth looking kid. No one I knew. No one from the circuit. No one I’d ever seen, which wasn’t surprising. They were dancing…and dammit, Chassie. I don’t wanna—”

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“Tell me. He’s dead and I realized too late that I barely knew him or his life outside of here.”

Edgard locked his gaze to hers. “Dag looked happier than I’d ever seen him.

Comfortable in his own skin. After seeing him smiling and relaxed with that twinkie, I knew why he’d been so damn combative on the circuit.”

Hot tears sparked in her eyes. “The last year he was so angry. And drunk. God. He was always drunk and when he was home he and Daddy were always at each other’s throats. I’d’ve given anything to see him happy just one time. Did he recognize you?”

“No. Dag didn’t see me. And I was used to dealing with Trevor and his secrecy and denial so I never let on I saw him.” He sighed. “Hell. I never even told Trevor I saw Dag, Chass. But it stuck in my head and eight months later I returned to Brazil.”

“So there’s been no one since Trevor?”

“I didn’t say that,” Edgard hedged. “I tried a couple random encounters in Sao Paulo and I felt…worse than when I was obsessed with getting laid. I met a guy, Reynaldo, who did some remodeling for me. We hooked up, we were out, but it was casual. Six months into it I took Rey home to meet my mother and the rest of my family. He knew my heart wasn’t in it, even when I never mentioned Trevor to him.”

Chassie frowned. “Never?”

Edgard shook his head.

“What happened when you took him home?”

“My mother didn’t like him.” His humor vanished. “Then she died and everything went to hell. Reynaldo…” He scrubbed his hands on his scalp. “Chassie, can we stop talking about this now? Please?”

“I think that’s probably smart,” Trevor said as he sidled into the kitchen. “I’m sorry about your ma, Ed. I know how close you were to her.”

“Thanks.”

Trevor poured the last of the coffee in his mug and shut off the pot. “Cattle been fed yet?”

“No. But Greta has.”

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He scowled, but it was playful, not mean. “Damn goat’s probably eatin’ better than us.” Trevor put his hand on Edgard’s shoulder; more loverly than friendly. “I’ll take care of the cattle. You comin’ along to help me?”

Edgard beamed from Trevor’s simple affectionate gesture. “Absolutely.”

They belong together. You can’t come between them.

Chassie’s inner vixen offered her jealous side a seductive dare,
Oh yeah? Stick
around and watch me because I plan on being between them a lot.

Yes, it was shaping up to be a very promising day.

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True to her mental promise, a couple hours after supper, as the three of them were watching TV, Chassie said casually, “Anyone hungry?”

She paused, waiting for them to look at her. When they did, she vamped, “For a Chassie sandwich?”

Silence.

Trevor said, “I’m famished. How about you, Ed?”

“I could eat again.”

The next thing Chassie knew, Trevor whooped, plucked her up and raced upstairs to the bedroom with Edgard hot on their heels.

“This ain’t gonna be a leisurely meal,” Trevor said as he set her down.

Edgard added, “More like fast food.” He whipped off his shirt, then went to work on his buckle.

Chassie noticed Trevor’s socks balled up and his jeans undone.

“Whatcha waitin’ for, darlin’? Strip.”

Her fine motor skills suffered when faced with the reality of these two hot, naked men. Her face heated. Her heart pounded. She just…froze. Yeah. Big talker. Taunting them and acting like petrified wood as she realized both those big cocks would be buried inside her.

“Lemme help.” Edgard unbuttoned her blouse, kissing each inch of skin he bared.

When he reached the last button, he fell to his knees and worked on her jeans.

Trevor moved in behind her and slid her shirt off. His lips trailed across the slope of her shoulder as he unhooked her bra, dragging the straps down her arms. Edgard tugged until the denim pooled around her ankles.

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Then three of them were buck-ass nekkid. Chassie was feeling unsure when Trevor spun her around.

“I’ll get the condiments,” Edgard said, causing Trevor’s sharp bark of laugher.

“Sexy as it is to see you bitin’ your lip, I know it’s a sign of nerves. You changin’

your mind?”

“No. Thinking about it is one thing; doing it is another.”

“This’ll give you something else to think about.” Trevor’s mouth came down on hers.

The fiery kiss and Trevor’s hands on her breasts spiked her desire, chasing away her anxiety. She arched closer and almost forgot about Edgard until she felt his hands caressing her ass and his moist breath on the back of her neck.

They were relentless in building her need quickly. She couldn’t think beyond roving hands and hot mouths and the sudden gush of wetness between her thighs.

“Baby, let us have you, just like this.”

“Standing up?”

“Mmm-hmm. Put your foot up on the bed so Ed can getcha as ready in the back as you are in the front.”

Slippery coolness brushed across her rectum as Edgard inserted a finger. With his left hand gripping her left hip, he methodically swept his thumb across the dimple above her butt causing goose bumps to tingle up and down her spine.

And Trevor kissed her in that single-minded manner that made it seem he was kissing her entire body, not just her mouth.

“One more, Chassie, don’t tighten up,” Edgard spoke near her ear and added another finger to her ass.

With four fingers stretching her, Chassie nipped Trevor’s bottom lip as she retreated from the kiss. “Then I’m ready for my drive-thru special.”