Acres, Natalie - Pole Position [Country Roads 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (8 page)

“So you told her goodbye.”

“Something like that,” Brant admitted.

“So you’re done?”

“Just like that,” Brant said. “They’re easy when they come and difficult when they go.”

Colt shrugged. “You think she’s all right?”

“Who, Kelly? Psht! She’ll be in somebody else’s bed in a few weeks. She likes committed Doms, but she never has a hard time finding a replacement for one that doesn’t suit her. I swear, I don’t think that woman is a submissive. She plays the part well but overall, I think she’s the one who wants to hold the flogger and spank some tails.”

“I meant Princess.”

“Oh,” Brant said. “I overheard a few sports commentators mention fines for her profanity on some kind of radio, so maybe she’s in a meeting or something.”

“Looks to me like they’d excuse her fines considering how the end of that race played out.”

Brant snickered. “That was unbelievable, huh? She led most of the race and then some bastard puts her in the wall and she still comes across and collects a second place, sliding over the finish line on three wheels.”

“My heart stopped,” Colt said, looking down at his boots.

Brant frowned. “Colt, we need to have a talk, and you know what I’m going to say before I say it, but it still bears mention.”

“I guess I’ve got it coming to me, so go ahead.”

“If she’s not interested in you—or us for that matter—you have to let this go. You can’t push this. People back home will say we had this in mind from the very beginning.”

“I don’t give a damn what they say. I want her. I can’t explain it, and it doesn’t make a lick of sense to me, but from the moment I saw her yesterday, I made up my mind. I plan to pursue her. That is, if she’ll have me.”

“I will,” a small voice said, stepping out from behind the trailer.

Colt stared at the small form making her way toward them. Brant’s jaw dropped.

Colt didn’t know what to say, so he waited on Brant to speak, who for the first time in a long time, didn’t seem to have anything to add to the conversation now at a standstill.

Princess shook her head. “I’m sorry. I overheard a conversation that had nothing to do with me. You must think I’m—”

“The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life?” Colt stopped her from backing out of the door he’d opened.

“Me?” she asked, her cheeks burning a bright shade of red.

Brant looked at her and then cut his gaze toward Colt again.

“Yes, you,” Brant said, smiling. “I happen to agree with smart men who have a knack for saying the right thing at the right time.”

Colt held out his arms and she rushed him. “I’ve waited my whole life for you to come back to me!”

“I’m right here,” Colt said, stroking her hair.

“And I’m not going anywhere either,” Brant said, kissing the top of her head.

She stifled an outright cry and turned to face him. “Does this mean you’re both interested in me?”

Having been put on the spot, Brant shrugged. “I guess I have a few things to work out with someone back home, but yeah, I am, Princess. No matter what happens, I’ll always be interested in you.”

* * * *

Colt gripped that steering wheel as tight as possible all the way back to Morristown. Brant had pissed him off with the “I-told-you-so’s” and “Princess-tried-to-tell-you’s” until he was as angry as a man had a right to be. And as hard.

Princess hadn’t said much since they’d left Bristol. She’d slept in the backseat as they’d tried to stay awake themselves, fighting the race traffic all the way up Interstate 81. It took them about an hour to drive from Morristown to Bristol but the return trip home would take them at least three or four.

When he finally saw Exit 8 in the distance, he turned to Brant and said, “Home at last.”

“Five miles and then we’re home,” Brant grumbled, still pissed.

“Are you going to see her?”

“Who?”

“Kelly.”

“Yup,” Brant said. “I reckon I owe her that much. I think I may have been wrong before. She left me a series of messages on my voicemail and sent some texts that have me a little worried. I think she may be a little unstable.”

Colt thought so too. He’d seen the messages. The one that caught his eye and made him scratch his head was the one that said something about waiting for him to remove the dildo in her pussy like he’d sworn to do. “Did you, by chance, leave Kelly with a toy of some sort?”

Brant stared out the window. “You don’t want to know about that.”

“Try me.”

“It was a stupid idea, and I regret it now for a lot of reasons.”

“Like?”

“Well for starters, I don’t want to touch Kelly anymore until I explore whatever feelings I have for Princess.”

“But…”

“We made a deal when we first started seeing one another. If we ever went out of town, the first thing we’d do within an hour of returning home was go see the other one. That way, if we met someone while we were out of town and maybe had a fling or something, we could test whether or not the feelings between us still existed.”

“And she’s gonna be waiting for you with a dildo in her pussy?”

“I reckon,” he said, peering over the backseat to make sure Princess was still asleep. “She’s as kinky as I am. Truth is, Colt, based on what we like and what we’ve always said we wanted in a woman, Kelly was about as close to that as anything else that I’ve ever seen. She kept up with me. Thing is, she didn’t want to keep up with you.”

“I know and believe me”—he thumbed the air behind his shoulder—“I’m glad she didn’t want me, now.”

A few minutes later, Brant said, “Did you ever think she was attractive?”

“Uh, no.”

“Really?”

“No, sir,” Colt assured him.

“Are you just saying that because of…” He paused and thumbed the air behind his back this time.

“Nope. I thought she was a phony.”

“Really?”

“Yep, I thought she played the whole Dom-sub thing to the hilt because you and I already have the reputation out in town for wanting willing submissives. I think she pumped up the part, hoping you’d fall for her, and well, you might have except another opportunity came along.”

“Speaking of which,” Brant said. “Do you think she’s a virgin?”

“Where did that come from?” Colt asked.

Brant shook his head. “I don’t know. There was something she said back at the race that made me think about it. That’s all.”

Colt shrugged. “I don’t care either way.”

Brant arched a brow. “Well, I do, and you’ve got to swear something for me, will you?”

“Depends on what it is.”

“If she is, you don’t touch her unless I’m there, too.”

“I don’t know if I can swear that or not.”

“Try.”

“That’s all I can promise.”

Chapter Twelve

They entered the dark house and Colt turned on the lights. Brant carried Princess upstairs and bypassed the room they’d prepared for her as a child. Colt would wring his neck if he put her in bed there, especially since they were both having a hard time getting beyond the fact that she had been the child they’d once saved.

He stomped down the hallway and entered Colt’s room. Using his elbows to move back the comforter, he positioned Princess in the middle of the bed. He kissed her forehead and started to leave the room when she asked, “So this Kelly person…is she someone special?”

Brant sat down beside her. “I haven’t been seeing her long.”

Princess frowned. “Are you in love with her?”

“No,” he stated flatly. “We’ve enjoyed a few good times together, but that’s about it.”

“Do you think you could fall in love with her?”

He searched her beautiful face and in that moment, he lost himself to the woman staring back at him. He experienced what he imagined Colt must’ve felt when he first saw her dancing in the club. And he saw his destiny then. “I’m not in love with her, Princess, and I don’t think I could love anyone except maybe the woman I’m looking at now, the beautiful lady you’ve become.”

Her lips twitched and she acted as if she were trying to resist a smile. “You’re just saying that because you think that’s what I want to hear.”

“I’m saying it because it’s true.” He rose from the bed and added, “Hang on a second. I want to show you something.”

He left the room and returned with a large box. He opened the top and said, “Go on, take a look.”

Slowly, she sat up and peered inside. She picked up several news clippings from newspapers and magazines. She flipped through the various materials and said, “You’ve been following my career?”

“I have.”

There were pictures, too, numerous photographs. That struck her funny. She said, “You acted like you didn’t know what I looked like when you came into the bar the other night.”

He sighed. “I hate to admit it, but I didn’t look at the faces of the girls on the bar.”

She snickered. “I guess you had other things on your mind, huh?”

“I’m a man,” he said unashamedly. “I can’t help it.”

“So when did you realize I was there?”

“When the bartender said the women dancing there were stock car drivers. That’s when I knew.”

She patted his cheek and said, “Why did you keep all this stuff?”

“I don’t know. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought—no, I hoped—you’d come home to us.”

“Yes, but did you want the little girl to return here, or the woman you see now?”

“The little girl still lives within you, Princess. I know that same optimistic, sweet spirit still lingers inside of you, and that’s rare. That’s special. You’re special.”

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

He winked, kissed her on the cheek, and set the box aside. “You and Colt have a good time tonight, okay?”

He just about made a clean escape when she piped up and said, “Will you sleep with her tonight?”

Brant shook his head. “No, Princess. I won’t. My heart is already somewhere else.”

* * * *

Brant left and Colt went upstairs, entering the bedroom with a slow stride, cautious and deliberate.

“I’m not asleep,” she said, peering up at him.

Her hair was wet and her face was flushed. “Did you take a shower?’

“Yes,” she replied, yawning. “I just made myself at home.”

“This has always been your home,” he told her, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Did you find everything you need?”

She grinned. “Yes. I found everything just fine.”

“Good,” he said, somewhat nervous and unsure why she scared him to death.

She rose to her knees and knelt behind him. Her arms draped over his shoulders and she said, “Colt, tell me something. Why didn’t you come to another race? You could’ve tried to find me at any given time and you didn’t. Why?”

He thought about the question carefully before he answered. “Years ago, we dealt with losing you. Not having you in our lives was a hard thing to get over. There was something about you that took hold of my heart, and I couldn’t come to terms with it when you weren’t around anymore.

“I used to think I saw you everywhere after they took you away from us, and it was just too hard to think about seeing you again. Brant and I discussed it every now and again. We thought of you a lot and often wondered if you thought of us, too.”

She lowered her lips to his ear and said, “I thought of you every day and every night.”

Her hot breath licked at his skin and his lobe was numb where her lips had been. He held his breath and wondered what kind of man could look at a woman years earlier as a child in need and see her now as a woman who was the only woman capable of satisfying his insatiable desires.

Reaching across his body, he brought her around to his lap and brushed the golden locks away from her brow. “It’s now or never, I suppose.”

“Now seems like a fine time, if you ask me,” she said, a slow smile claiming her lips.

His lips met hers and he kissed her gently, his tongue wedging inside her mouth as he made an initial claiming and did his best to make the kiss their own.

She moaned as he pampered the full texture of her lips, dragging his mouth back and forth. When they parted ways, he said, “Now I know what I’ve been waiting for.”

“What’s that?” she asked, searching his eyes.

“This,” he said, kissing her again. He was going to love her for the rest of his life. There wasn’t a question in his mind. But he wasn’t ready to tell her about that, at least not yet.

Chapter Thirteen

Colt planned to love her until the day after tomorrow. Princess wouldn’t say no, because she wasn’t about to stop a good thing. She had become the kind of woman who knew what she wanted and had the brass behind her to go for it, just push and push until she ended up with precisely what she desired.

He’d seen that for himself as he watched her on the track. She never said die, and she was competitive enough to take and take until everyone out there on the track just moved out of her way. It was as if they feared and respected her. And why not? She was a force to be reckoned with, precisely the kind of woman Colt enjoyed.