Cowboy Double-Decker (29 page)

He groaned, wanting to do it all now. But he held back, having learned patience was worth the reward.

Candy hugged him tight, grinding her clit against his groin. He slid his longest finger between their bodies and drew her fluids up.

She knew what he intended and thrust her bottom out. He drilled her ass, twisting in and out. She shuddered and gasped, held still for a moment, then collapsed. He wrapped both arms around her and hugged tight.

Tonight when they fucked—that was the only word that described the frantic action he had planned—she’d explode even wilder under
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him.

Damn, he loved his wife. He’d almost lost her before admitting how much he needed her. Bryan was even more of a fool to fear loving Kaela. Unless Bryan proved his love, they’d lose her forever.

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“Kaela doesn’t want me.”

Bryan snarled the words as he rode behind Adam. He let his gelding find its own path between the snow drifts. Late March might be spring in a southern city, but not on the north slope of a Montana mountain.

“You finally asked her to marry you and she turned you down?”

Adam’s horse skittered sideways in reaction to the man’s startle. He calmed the horse with a pat.

“I didn’t ask her yet.” Bryan closed the gap between them on a straight patch.

“What?” Adam groaned and shook his head. “You’re a damn fool.”

“I’m not asking until I know she’ll say ‘yes.’”

“Then how do you know what she thinks?”

“I knew she’s turning twenty-five, but she just dropped a bombshell. She gets access to everything her parents left her, plus interest, on her birthday. That’s why she jumped at Candy’s offer in November. Free room and board until she gets a wackload of cash.”

“Jeez, that changes the situation,” said Adam. “She’ll be able to move off the Double R, buy her own place if she wants. Won’t need you at all.”

“Uh, yeah.”

Bryan looked at Adam to see if he’d meant it as sarcasm, but his partner was in front with his hat too low to see. Bryan shrugged and continued.

“She wants to buy a house and start an environmental consulting
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business over the Internet. That and designing web pages for small businesses.” He ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch. “In a warm city.” He looked off into the distance. Far below, the ranch house rose over the numerous outbuildings. He stretched in the saddle, shrugging his shoulders back.

“And you said what?”

Bryan shrugged. “Nothing. She has this thing about owning her own home.”

After a few moments of silence, Adam looked over at Bryan, a knowing eyebrow raised.

“What?” Bryan frowned back.

Adam stared forward again, a smile twitching. He shook his head and pursed his lips to hold back words. They rode for a while longer, Bryan’s irritation percolating.

“What the hell are you laughing at?”

“Me? I’m not laughing.” Adam finally let his grin explode.

“Okay, I am. But you’re asking for it. The two of you are so alike and neither of you will admit it.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Just like I said,” said Adam. “Kaela’s aunt and uncle didn’t want her, and Grant sure as hell didn’t want you. Both you and Kaela could have been thrown out at any moment. So you both need the security of control. That means owning your own place. You love her, but won’t admit it. You won’t risk your security for a chance at what Candy and I’ve got.”

Bryan grunted in disgust. They rode side by side, unspeaking, for some time.

“I gave Candy half of my half of the ranch as a wedding present,”

reminded Adam. “And she put her divorce settlement into the Double R. I fought her on it because I wanted to take care of her, but she insisted.”

He looked out at the herd below them.

“We bought that prime Red Angus bull.” He looked sideways at
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his partner, eyes crinkling. “Candy says that, unlike her ex, that bull has a decent-size cock and knows what to do with it. Of course,” he gave Bryan a superior look, “so do I.”

Bryan snorted his disgust. The horse did the same, and he patted it approvingly. “Didn’t we also get the super-king bed for the playroom with that money? You wanted Candy to get something special as well.”

They rode for a few minutes as Bryan simmered.

“What happens if I sign over half of my stake in the ranch, then Kaela leaves?” complained Bryan. “Or Candy does? Either of them could sell their part out from under us. Or get a divorce and come back with an asshole boyfriend, demanding to live here.”

Adam snorted his reply, sure of his wife’s enduring love. Bryan stewed.

They rode homeward, watching out for cattle, carcasses, newly snagged trees fallen during winter windstorms, signs of predators, and Mother Nature’s changing weather. Just another day.

“Spit it out, bro. This is me you’re talkin’ to,” said Adam finally.

“I can’t sign the Double R over to Kaela. It’s all I have.”

“Bryan, you’re my brother of another mother.” Adam sighed from the bottom of his lungs. He spoke to the air, not looking at his partner.

“You took beatings beside me when you could have run away. You shared my room after your ma died, keeping nightmares away just by being there.”

“Yeah, but I left you alone with Grant for too many years.”

“The bastard threw you off the ranch when you were seventeen,”

said Adam, staring at Bryan. “What the hell could you do about it at that point? You got your college degree, used your brain instead of smashing it against a rock falling from a horse—”

“I never fall!”

“—and, when Grant died, you came back to bail me out of debt.

We’re partners, bro. But I faced my demons, thanks to Candy’s love, and moved on. You’re still stuck in the past.”

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He rode a while, waiting until his partner’s jaw muscles relaxed a bit before he continued.

“This place ain’t goin’ nowhere, Bry. If you give Kaela a portion, you, me, and Candy will still own seventy-five percent. Worst case, we buy her out. No biggie.”

“Yeah, well, your family’s owned this land for over a hundred and fifty years. Your great-whatever-ma took in mine as hired help. My family’s lived here ever since, but only as servants. I can’t take a chance on losing what my family’s fought for all this time.”

“That’s in the past.”

“Past?” Bryan turned to Adam, his face mottled red and white but not from cold. “Do you know how often that bastard father of yours threatened to throw me and Ma off the ranch?” He shook his head. “I need to
own
my land. Otherwise I’m nothing.”

“Grant’s roasting in hell, Bry. Let it go.”

“Let it go?” He grabbed Adam’s reins for a moment to force the man to look him in the eye. “Did you know Ma kept a packed suitcase hidden in the laundry room closet? Every moment of every single day we lived with the terror of losing everything.
Ev-ry-thing
. How can I throw half of my heritage away after that?”

His agitation passed on to his horse, who danced sideways. Bryan took a moment to settle both of them.

Adam looked at his partner with regret. “You won’t believe me any more than I did you two years ago. Not until you realize what life would be like without Kaela. Candy and I see how you look at each other. Your love is strong, but your will is stronger. And neither of you will bend.” He shook his head, radiating sympathy. “Make peace with your demons, Bry. Forgive them—and yourself—and move on.”

Adam turned his horse and trotted a few steps, then paused. He looked back at Bryan. “One more thing. Candy says if Kaela goes, you’re cut off. She’s serious, too.” He paused for a moment. “If I’ve got a pissed-off wife, I will make your life hell. And what use is land without family? Chew on that for a while. I’m heading home to my
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warm, sexy wife.”

Adam urged his horse into a canter. Bryan continued to walk his horse, though the bay’s ears perked up and he strained to follow his herd-mate.

No sex? Hunh!
Except for the mind-blowing weekend in Missoula and the recent fantastic four-way, they’d been like celibate hermits, working from before dark to way after and then crashing into bed.

Adam swore he and Candy didn’t do much more than cuddle, even when she was home. Kaela slept in her own bed to be near the kids because of their frequent colds. But was it an excuse to stay from his bed?

The whole time, she’d known she had money coming. Yet she’d said nothing. And she spoke of trust?

When she finally leaked the secret, he’d been furious. He complained to Candy, but she asked what he offered Kaela that would make her want to tell him.

Maybe Candy was right. Work took up all his time now that the women took care of the home front. Was he pushing himself, working long hours just to avoid talking with Kaela?

At night, did Kaela lie awake, lonely and aching like him? Or did she count the days until she got her money and ran away, out of his life forever?

What would Scotty do without his two best buddies? Without a father figure? Scotty loved their wrestling matches. He couldn’t see Kaela teaching him about the innards of a tractor or how to rope a calf and shoot a weapon, things every boy should learn. If she wanted to go, then to hell with her. He’d miss Scotty, but Evie wasn’t far behind him in attitude and strength.

Time to find a wife over the Internet. He’d met a few Australians and they seemed pretty easy going. He could put out an ad, one like Adam’s great-whatever pa did when he had advertised in a Philadelphia newspaper. “Wanted: wife. Must be fertile and a hard worker. No money for fripperies but good food and a future. Love not
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required.”

The matriarch of the Richardson family replied. She refused the husband chosen by her father and had nowhere to go but the streets.

Instead she went West, her grandmother’s jewels sewn into her coat.

Jewels that Candy occasionally wore as a slave girl.

The sapphires would look stunning on Kaela. If he ever saw her naked again.

Damn! He stood in the saddle to adjust himself.

Maybe she’d agree to take only ten or fifteen percent ownership, leaving him with thirty-five. Naw, he’d offer her twenty percent, almost half. After all, he was born to the land, so should keep the majority. Their kids would inherit everything anyway.

It just might work. He had only two weeks before Candy finished her semester. No matter how tired, he wasn’t going to waste too many of those nights. A quickie would help both of them sleep.

He walked his horse into the barn, rewarding him with an extra good grooming and warm mash. As always, he did a good job cleaning the tack while he planned his next steps. Candy was home tonight. After dinner and the kids were in bed, he’d help Kaela with the dishes and let Adam and Candy head upstairs.

Then he’d give Kaela his counter-offer of twenty percent. Surely she’d understand he couldn’t give up everything. In fact, she’d be so delighted they might not make it past the kitchen counter. His legs were the perfect height to set her bottom down, lift up her skirt, and ram home.

Fighting the part of him that begged for her love, knowing he’d be trapped and maybe burned, he concentrated on the joys of her body.

Far safer territory.

* * * *

“So will you stay for twenty percent?” Bryan waited until they were mostly finished the dishes to pop the question.

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“What?” Kaela stopped drying her hands and faced him. She snorted. “Stay? For twenty percent while you keep thirty? What part of ‘equal relationship’ do you not understand?”

Bryan caught the damp dish towel aimed at his face. He draped it over his shoulder, picked up a pot, and crouched to put it away.

Instead of throwing the pot into the bottom cupboard as he felt like doing, he quietly stacked it inside the bigger one.

He rearranged the lids in the storage wire on the door. Satisfied they were in order by size, he looked around for something else to do.

Anything that kept him from standing up and facing Kaela.

A not-so-gentle nudge in his backside with her foot almost sent him sprawling.

“You listening, cowboy?”

Realizing he might do better looking down at her, he rose to his feet. His extra eight inches and muscle didn’t slow the furious woman one bit. She poked him in the stomach with her index finger. He grimaced and rubbed the spot. He wouldn’t have eaten third helpings of lemon pie if he’d known he’d get this grief.

“Not that you asked me to marry you or anything, but I don’t need a husband who won’t see me as an equal. In fact, I don’t need a man in my life at all. Scotty and me, we were doing fine before I met you.

And once I get my nest egg, we’ll do even better.”

She finished her lecture and using her sponge as a weapon, attacked the countertop. She wiped the spot he planned to settle her naked bottom on. His breath caught and his cock twitched.

Damn, he should get her riled up more often. Her face, flushed with anger, looked just like she did a moment before she screamed her release. Candy would rant at Adam like this and then they’d have hot make-up sex. Sometimes he thought Adam got her mad on purpose, just for afterwards. Seeing Kaela like this, he could understand why.

While Kaela ranted on about her future plans, a house with a fenced yard for Scotty to play in and the work she’d find over the Internet, he thought of what he’d do to make up. Neither she nor
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Candy bothered with a bra today, and he’d fantasized about her nipples all through dinner. How he’d nip and suckle her right through that hot pink T-shirt. Did she skip panties, as well?

When she finally slowed her frantic cleaning efforts, her voice faded as well. Bryan listened more closely, hoping she was ready to listen.