Unbridled and Unbranded (16 page)

“Where’s Rafe?” Bo asked as Callie walked toward her office.

“Kitchen,” she said and picked up the handset on her desk.

He noticed her desk was all cleaned off, unlike last month when they’d taken turns fucking her on the paper-strewn surface.

She winked at him and continued talking on the phone. He pointed to the kitchen and she nodded. Bo was invigorated by her every time he saw her. These last several weeks had been the best of his life. Rafe was happier than he’d ever seen him.

He found Rafe in the old-fashioned country kitchen, seated at the table in the center and nursing a cup of coffee. His sleepy, just-been-fucked expression also looked quite gratified.

“You had sex today.” Bo stated a fact.

“Yes.” Rafe’s eyes lit up expressively.

“Not only that. You had
exceptional
sex today.”

“Yes,” he repeated. His tone, lazy and satisfied, made Bo wish he’d come here earlier instead of playing the
what if
game with his accountant all morning.

“Tell me all about it. What
awesome
thing did you want to share with me about fucking Callie today?”

Rafe leaned sideways to glance down the hall, where Bo had just come from, before whispering, “Callie did something amazing today. You are going to be so surprised and happy.”

Bo sank into the nearest kitchen chair and asked, “Tell me, what did she do?”

He looked down the hall again. “She seduced me in her office.”

Bo smiled indulgently. “Yeah. I noticed it was all cleaned off.” Good, but not really amazing.

Rafe nodded. His giddy grin widened. “But the best part of the day was when Clay showed up unexpectedly in Callie’s office while we were still on her desk.”

“Clay caught you with Callie?” A surprised smile shaped Bo’s lips, but he didn’t want to misunderstand. He hated to sound so stupid, but asked, “Why was he here?”

Rafe shrugged. “Don’t know exactly. But here’s the kicker. Callie knew he was coming in. She seduced me knowing Clay would show up eventually and catch us.” Rafe nodded once as if to put a physical period at the end of his amazing information.

The implication of her actions hit Bo like a ton of hay dropped square on his head. “She
planned
for Clay to see you two fucking on her desk?”

Rafe grinned. “Yep.”

Bo returned his grin. “My God. She’s so completely perfect for us. We can’t let her go.” Bo put a hand on his chest. “I can’t let her go.”

Rafe sobered. “I feel the same way, but I don’t see any way to let her have her dreams and keep her here in Colorado. She deserves her chance to go overseas.”

Bo nodded. “Yes. You’re absolutely right, but I might have an idea. That’s what I was talking to the accountant about earlier today.” Before he could elaborate, Callie stormed down the hall, stomping loudly all the way.

Her expression when she made it to the kitchen was a cross between anger and disappointment and frustration and a few other negative things thrown in for good measure. She was acutely unhappy.

“That was one of the buyers I had lined up. He’s backed completely out of the deal. Even after I told him about the amazing ratio numbers on the most recent cow inseminations to pregnancy rate.”

“Why did he back out? Did he say?”

“Not exactly. He was very good at avoiding all my direct questions. And that alone makes me wonder if Drew had something to do with his decision
not to pursue this property for purchase
.” She paused and frowned. “And I realize that I can’t blame everything on him, but the buyer was so hard to pin down whenever I asked anything. He acted like he had information that I obviously didn’t have which made the former offer and possible deal completely null and void.”

Rafe stood from the table. “I’m sorry, Callie.”

Bo also got up. “Me, too. Did you have more than one interested party?”

She crossed her arms and nodded. “I was about to call the second interested party, but now I’m afraid to.”

“Do you
need
to call them?”

She nodded. “I promised to call once I had the pregnancy ratio. Which is an astounding seventy-nine percent.”

Bo whistled. “Wow. That’s better than Delbert got for our ranch, isn’t it, Rafe?”

“Yep. I think he likes Callie better than he does us.”

“Undoubtedly.” Bo smiled. He was suddenly warmed that their foreman liked Callie.

Callie uncrossed her arms and recrossed them. “I need to cowboy up and make that call.”

Before she could move, the phone rang again. A sudden tension filled the room, but Bo wasn’t sure why. Surely it couldn’t be the other buyer.

Callie paused only a second before she then raced back to her office to catch the call.

They couldn’t hear her talking, but the phone stopped ringing. The door to her office closed quietly and left Bo and Rafe on their own.

“I hope that’s good news this time.”

“I don’t think it is.” Bo didn’t know why he had such a bad vibe, but he did. Seconds after he’d arrived, Callie got bad news. A second call so soon didn’t seem plausibly positive on some karmic level he didn’t really have an explanation for.

“Don’t be such a pessimist.” Rafe downed the rest of his coffee, or whatever was in his cup.

“I’m not. I just think Drew Kincaid has a hand in all of Callie’s problems. What if he’s poisoned her buyers against her in some way?”

The empty cup in his hand came down with a smack to the table. “What makes you think
that
?”

“I don’t know. Nothing concrete, just my gut.”

“Not to discount your gut, but let’s not start planning the funeral just yet, okay?” Rafe stood, went to the sink, and rinsed his cup out.

It wasn’t long before Callie came out of her office. Her woebegone expression was all he needed to see. It
was
bad news again.

She entered the kitchen, then looked up as if surprised to find she was there. “The second buyer has made it official. They also have declined to pursue any further possible offers to purchase this land.”

“Did they say why?” Bo stood up and moved a step in her direction.

“They are looking into other properties in the area and don’t feel mine satisfied their needs at this time. Or ever.”

“Do you think Kincaid has something to do with it?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I don’t know how he could even know that I had these particular offers. They were from out of state. They contacted me the first time. I didn’t exactly advertise that I had a couple of out-of-state buyers on the hook.”

“How could he have found out? Or did Kincaid set them up in the first place?”

She shrugged. “What do you mean?”

“Could he have called out-of-state buyers and told them about your ranch to get them excited only to tell them something deplorable to make them pull out of the deal at the last minute?”

“To what end? I’m still not selling my property to him.”

“Because he’s an evil bastard and he wants to make you think you can only sell to him and no one else, not even out-of-town buyers.”

“I don’t know. And I don’t know what to do about it anyway.”

Rafe walked over to her from the sink. “I think you should take a long, hot bath and forget about all business-related things. You have a good ranch. It’s a very lucrative business that will attract someone very soon. Now that you have great numbers on growing your herd for next season, you’ll still have others willing to tender offers. Those two buyers aren’t the only prospective investors left on earth.” He then slipped an arm around her shoulders.

“He’s right. Take a bath and forget everything about today.” Bo exchanged a look with Rafe. Now was not the time to talk about his farfetched plan with the two of them. He’d put it off until later. Much later.

She pushed out a long sigh. Then a small smile appeared on her weary face. “Well, I don’t want to forget everything about today.”

Bo moved closer and sandwiched her between the two of them. “Is that so? Tell me what it is you want to remember about today.”

She shrugged, but the devious smile widened. He took her face in his hands. “I heard a rumor that you were very naughty today. You invited Clay to watch you have sex on your desk.”

She sucked in a breath. “That’s not true. I wasn’t sure exactly when he was coming.”

“Please say it’s true. And would you ever consider a private date with us as Clay watched?”

“Would he be observing from a Stadium box or watching from a chair by our bed?”

“Lady’s choice,” Rafe whispered.

She blushed and looked down. Bo pushed closer and kissed her mouth hard and quick. “Do not even pretend that you aren’t the least bit turned on by even the thought of a planned liaison with Clay.”

“I just can’t believe how quickly you both have corrupted me.”

Rafe laughed out loud. “We just gave you some alternatives that maybe hadn’t quite occurred to you just yet.”

Her blush deepened.

“Why are you so embarrassed?”

“I didn’t think you’d be so okay with my wanting Clay to watch.”

“That’s just exactly what we like. We are voyeurs of the sexual arts, and exhibitionists for our own gratification. Do you have feelings for Clay?”

“I’m not
in
love with him, but he’s my good friend, and I’d be lying if I said he didn’t intrigue me a bit. I care deeply for him. Maybe I
do
love him, but only as a friend.”

Rafe nuzzled her neck. “Does that mean you’re in love with us?”

“Yes.” Her melancholy tone took Bo off guard. “Which complicates things, of course. I know it does.”

“I love you, Cal. That’s never going to change.” Bo caught her gaze with an intense look of his own to ensure she understood. “Never.”

“And I love you, too,” Rafe whispered as he kissed the back of her neck.

Bo took her face in his hands again. “But we can set up any level of sexual play time that you want with Clay. He can watch from another room. He can be in the room with us. He can help us bring you off.”

She startled at that final phrase. “How would that work? At what point is a line crossed?”

“The line is crossed if you go off with another man and don’t tell us. Like pretty much any other relationship. The three of us would be committed to only each other in any combination. However, there are many possibilities for adding another to our sexual playtime. Clay could join us for a one-time thing if you want to explore, or he could simply watch from close or far away on a regular basis. The line, or crossing it, is what the three of us decide it is on any given day.”

“And you won’t be upset if I want him to join us?”

“No. It’s like a sexual playdate. We would all understand the schedule of activities before we all got together.”

“Do you think Clay would even be interested?”

Bo shrugged. “I’ll ask him and find out. I would expect he’s got a really big hint as to your desires anyway after today.”

Callie blushed deeply once again. It was a beautiful rose shade all the way to the roots of her hair. “I’m not sure that I’m ready for anything physical just yet.”