Christmas with the Stallions (3 page)

“That feels nice,” she said, her defenses shattering, and startling him all the more.

He lowered his head to hers. “I want you to feel nice all over.”

The tingling sensation in his hands and limbs shot through his body and headed straight for his balls when she faced him. “This is wrong,” she whispered. “This is the house I shared with my husband.

This is so wrong.”

Colt didn’t feel guilt, but he carried some of hers. He saw the mix of lust and longing in her expression, right along with the heartache.

He wanted to take away her pain, kiss away her apprehension, and right then and there, he wanted nothing more than to love her.

Gripping her head between his palms, he said, “I have to tell you something.”

She shook her head and then kissed his lips, closing her eyes when she moved forward. Damn it to all fucking hell, he thought. And sure enough, hell was indeed about to break loose.

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Christmas With the Stallions

19

A loud bang outside stopped the kiss from gaining substance.

Haley stared out the window and immediately saw her dilapidated fences. The palomino must’ve plowed through the side rails and ran for those mares. “What the hell?”

“Damn it, Seth!” Colt exclaimed, running for the door.

Snatching the jacket she’d only just discarded, Haley followed him to the barn. “Seth? How is any of this Seth’s fault?”

She heard a skirmish between horses and quickly rounded the corner to find the palomino and another horse she’d never seen, in a massive fight. Hooves clanged together so loud they sounded like pots and pans.

“Colt!” she screamed over her shoulder, searching the barn for her employees. “Seth!” she yelled, louder. The horses continued to battle for ground there.

Think, Haley, think
.

She groaned, turning toward the stalls. She had no idea which mare was in heat. She rushed down the barn and grabbed a pitchfork.

“Stop this!” she screamed, shaking the large, long-handled fork in their direction. Where were those dang college boys when she needed them?

The two wild horses fought hard. Nipping at one another, they angrily butted heads like two bulls might do and then continued to rear and strike, buck and kick.

A soft tumble of hay landed at her feet and a few buckets of grain spilled on top of the mess they’d already made. “Shoo!” she said, trying her best to get the two untamed horses out of her barn.

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20

Addison Avery

“Damn it! If I knew which mare you wanted, I’d fucking let you have her!”

As if she said the magic words, the horses stopped their aggressive behavior and both of them looked at her with heated eyes.

“Oh shit,” she said, dropping the barnyard tool and placing her palms forward.

They were going to run straight over her just because she interrupted their dispute. She bit back fear. “I was just teasing. You two go ahead and play.”

Oh, great. She’d truly lost her mind. She spoke to the horses like they fully understood her.

“Easy,” she said, backing down the breezeway. “Easy, boys.”

The horses started walking. Nostrils flared. The sweat rolled off their backs and steam rose from their beautiful, sleek coats. They marched forward reminding her of the Budweiser horses and how they used to lead long city parades. They walked with precision, beating out their pursuit with heavy hooves clopping against the ground.

“Good, boys,” she said. “Easy now,” she added, trying to inch away from danger.

A few more backward steps and she’d bolt for the office. Then, she’d lock herself there until Seth and Colt came back from wherever they disappeared. Her nerve endings were on red alert. These horses were vicious animals, the kind of studs waiting to breed.

She blinked and tried to think again. What kind of mare caused this kind of commotion?

Another step back and then another. “Shit!” she exclaimed when they cornered her, almost like they knew she planned to dart left and head for the confines of the grain room and office.

Neighing softly, the black horse nuzzled her arm. The palomino, the horse with attitude, snorted.

Haley petted the black horse’s silky coat. She smiled when she thought about Colt. Funny, but his hair was almost the same color.

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Christmas With the Stallions

21

As suddenly as she thought about Colt, he appeared right before her eyes. A few seconds later, another man stepped out of his palomino shell. And he was raging mad.

* * * *

“We agreed no stunts!” Seth exclaimed, giving Colt a shove.

Haley’s eyes widened. She looked from one man to the next.

“What the—”

“If I waited on you,” Colt said, “she’d never know the whole story!”

“You didn’t have to show her the truth! It was your choice here.

There’s nothing written anywhere that says the male shifters have to explain the transformation to their human mates. She can’t refuse you even if she wants to, so why bother showing her what we are? Huh?

Christmas is two days away. Everything would’ve worked itself out!”

“What are you talking about? Mates? Shifters?” she asked, clearly dumbfounded. “What would work itself out?”

Colt glared at Seth. “I believe in forming honest relationships.”

She shook her head. “Wait a minute here. What is all this? I just saw two hors—”

“Damn it, Colt! Listen to me. She can’t resist a Stallion-mate! She didn’t have to know! On Christmas morning, if we hadn’t claimed her she would’ve shifted all on her own and the instinctive tug would’ve made us impossible to refuse. Your way only complicates things,”

Seth continued, making a profound point to avoid Haley at all costs.

Colt trotted into this mess and he didn’t mind to gallop out of the barn and leave Colt parked in front of her, explaining himself.

Haley coughed. She held her chest and asked calmly, “Where did those beautiful horses go?”

Seth chuckled. “Damn, Colt, where did those handsome studs go?”

“I got your stud right here,” he said, smacking his cheek playfully.

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22

Addison Avery

Seth seethed. Colt’s attempt to lighten the mood didn’t work. He was furious.

“What the hell is going on here?” Haley demanded.

“You don’t know yet?” Seth asked. “Damn, it’s taking her a little longer than—” He couldn’t think about Sydney now. Sydney left him when she found a few wild stallions she claimed were her real mates.

Maybe she was right. He’d felt the true magnetic draw from Haley, something similar to what he’d once felt with Sydney only much, much stronger. He just wanted to stand at stud for the first time and get the initial mating process behind them.

Haley’s eyes softened then, which was unexpected, and Seth addressed Colt. “Give her a minute,” he whispered. Haley wobbled on her legs and Colt wrapped his arm around her waist.

“She’ll transform only after we take her,” Seth said. “Or on Christmas morning, which I would’ve preferred.”

“No,” Colt stated flatly. “She’s trying now.”

“She can’t,” Seth said. “And she’ll only get weaker when she has the urge. If we’re going to enjoy the joining, we take her now.”

Haley shook her head. “I don’t understand,” she said.

“I…don’t…”

She fainted. Colt and Seth caught her before she hit the sawdust.

“Get this place cleaned up, and I’ll take her up to the house,” Colt ordered.

“Hell, no,” Seth said, cradling her in his arms. “You made the mess when your big hooves kicked over those hay bales.” He strode toward the barn doors and looked over his shoulder. What the hell, he thought. Why not devil him some? “Haley here whispered she can’t wait to ride her stallion.”

“Ha,” Colt said, grabbing the first bale and tossing it aside. “If she said anything at all it was more along the lines of, ‘you surely don’t expect a grown woman to ride a pony?’”

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Christmas With the Stallions

23

Haley woke up drowning in desire. Her hands felt clammy and her nipples ached for some reason. Then there was the issue—a true problem since she didn’t have a way to solve it immediately—of moisture between her legs.

She stared into the fireplace and focused on what she saw there.

Two horses, beautiful stallions, ran with a chestnut-colored mare.

They frolicked in an open field, the mare leading the way with her tail high and her ears pricked forward.

She swallowed when she saw the next image materialize in the logs. Two men and one woman strolled toward her. She gasped when their faces became clearer. She saw herself in the middle. Colt and Seth were on each side holding her hands. They were smiling, relaxed, not nearly as tense as they’d been since they’d started working at the ranch.

Oh Lord, she thought, holding her palm to her forehead. She must have lost some time or something. She looked outside into complete darkness. She forced herself to sit up, and stared into the knowing eyes of Seth and Colt.

“Well, boys,” she said, pushing herself forward on the balls of her hands. “I guess we need to have a talk.”

Colt ran his open palm over the length of his face. He then locked his fingers in between his legs and that’s when she saw the clear evidence of a thick bulge in his denim pants.

Seth sat comfortably on the other end of the sofa. His left leg crossed over his right. He picked at a thread hanging from his pants, carefully studying the way it knotted at the end.

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24

Addison Avery

Colt stood. “We’re called The Stallions—and none of us are blood related by the way—we’re only connected by the common factor we all share,” he began. “We’re shifters, half human and half horse.”

Choking as she cleared her throat, she said, “You expect me to believe you’re part animal?”

Seth chuckled. “Oh, it’s true. Don’t you remember what you saw in the barn?”

No, she thought.
No. No. No.
She saw an image, her imagination playing tricks on her and nothing else. Now, she was simply having a dream. Why sure, that explained everything.

Colt stood over her. “We’re able to shift at any time consciously, and when anger is stronger than any other emotion, we shift without warning.”

She studied Seth. “So you’re telling me when that palomino—”

“You mean Seth,” Colt corrected.

“Whatever,” she continued. “You’re telling me the palomino was Seth, and he shifted because of the intensity of his anger?”

“It’s true,” Seth said. “I was mad as all hell.”

“I see,” she stated flatly. “And because of your fury, you became a horse?”

“Yes,” he said. “Something like that.”

She laughed. “Yeah, right, and when I’m quick to anger, I turn into a jackass.”

“Damn, I hope not,” Colt said, rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip. “I kind of dig the boobs.”

“I thought you preferred hooves,” she said.

“We’ll talk about that later,” Seth said, eyeing Colt.

“Oh, no,” she said, wagging her finger toward them. “If the two of you believe I’m turning into a horse, then you need to tell me what I can do to stop it.”

“You can’t,” Seth said, standing.

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Christmas With the Stallions

25

She saw evidence of his arousal, too. Good Lord, she had to get up. She couldn’t just sit there in front of a roaring fire, eye-level to a couple of hard cocks.

Colt helped her stand. “Haley, we’re yours. Like it or not, we’re all you’ll have for the rest of your natural life.”

She blinked then. Over and over again, she tried to focus on the men standing in front of her, taking into account she certainly found them desirable. In fact, she found them extremely attractive before they began all this weird shit.

“Explain natural life,” she said, moving to the bar and pouring a scotch on the rocks. No, on second thought, straight up sounded better. She took a swig straight from the bottle.

“We believe we shift through one life and begin the next one with the ability to choose whether or not we’ll continue to shift,” Colt explained.

“I see,” she said. “So when you shift into your death state or whatever, then you can choose to leave me behind?”

“No,” Colt said. “Shifters don’t choose their mates here or in the afterlife,” he told her. “We’re fated to stay together forever, even after this life.”

“But what if—”

“God, her scent is killing me here,” Seth said, licking his lips and running his large hand over the front of his pants.

She raised her arms and sniffed. “I don’t stink, thank you very much.”

Colt laughed. “He’s not talking armpits, doll.”

She gulped. “Oh, dear Lord,” she said. “In the barn…I’m the…oh my God. I’m the mare you two were looking for?”

“Yes and no,” Seth explained. “I knew where to find you, but technically, since Colt wanted you to know more about the shifting process, I couldn’t take you.”

“You wanted me to fuck you as a horse?” she asked, totally disgusted.

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26

Addison Avery

“No,” Seth said. “I wanted you to cleanse me.”

“You wanted what?”

Colt clarified. “Haven’t you ever been to a breeding facility?”