Her Bareback Cowboys (16 page)

His male and musk smell, tempered with something spicy, drifted up her nostrils. When his hand closed warmly over hers, reality kicked in. Wade and Maverick were in her apartment, not thousands of kilometers away in the USA. They hadn’t forgotten about her.

Maverick pulled her up from the couch and drew his mouth in a mock pout. “Shame on you. You’re not even glad to see us.”

“Marie?” Adrian squeaked.

“Yes, I knew about them and yes, that’s part of the reason I offered you the job. I’d rather you still worked for us than lose you as both employee and friend.” She headed toward the door. “I’ll leave you guys to sort out the details. There’s enough food to last you until tomorrow morning which is when I want an answer.”

The door clicked shut behind her and Adrian closed her gaping mouth.

This was too much to take in. Suddenly all her dreams and fantasies were within reach. But only if the men felt the same. What if Marie had talked them into this and they didn’t really want to be here?

“Stop it. I can see your mind working overtime trying to avoid the truth.” Wade sat on the couch and drew her into his arms. “Damn, I’ve missed you.” He hugged her tight but didn’t attempt to kiss her.

“What are you doing here? I thought you’d be in the USA by now.”

Wade stroked her hair. “We tried to leave. We really did, but a blonde, blue-eyed witch refused to let us go.”

Hope blossomed in her chest and her throat constricted, making speech impossible so she nodded. She was too afraid she’d wake up and find this was just a dream.

His hand stilled on her hair. “I need you in my life like I need oxygen to breathe. Knowing you’re not there at the end of the day took all the fun out of living.”

Maverick moved the ice bucket out of the way and perched on the coffee table. “I love everything about you. The way your eyes light up when you smile, the way you wipe the hair from your face when the breeze teases it out of the clips holding it, the way you pull your shoulders back to increase your height when you’re agitated. But most of all, I love
you
and I don’t want to live another day without you in my life.” Maverick inhaled deeply after his long speech.

Wade lifted her chin to seek her eyes. “We know it’s not fair to expect you to up and leave everything you know behind and follow us to America. It’s a big move and we’ve racked our brains to find a solution, but couldn’t. We couldn’t return to the States without you and with Marie refusing to give us your address or telephone number, we had no way to contact you. Only when Maverick’s dad pulled some strings with the Groundhog Saddle Company did Marie admit she planned to open a branch in America. We simply convinced them Texas was the best place to do so and that you’d make an excellent permanent addition to the company. The board agreed—hence Marie’s offer.”

Adrian snapped her mouth closed. They went through all that trouble to be with her? Maybe they did love her. It still didn’t solve her problem of loving the both of them. “I don’t know if a relationship between three people can ever work.”

Wade sighed. “Neither do we, but we’re willing to give it a try. We don’t want just sex, we want the whole package—lock, stock and barrel with lots of loving and probably lots of arguments as well.” Uncertainty shone in his eyes. “We love you, Adrian. If you can’t love both of us, one of us will stand aside as long as you are still in our lives.”

Adrian disentangled herself from Wade’s embrace, then strode to the kitchen. She needed time to think. “I’ll put the percolator on.”

Loving the men she could handle, but packing up her whole life and starting over in another country…? The thought scared the daylights out of her. The cupboard door banged as she retrieved the ground coffee beans and prepared the brew on automatic pilot. They’d offered her a chance to see if things could work out between them. It was what she’d longed for the past couple of months, but she hadn’t really thought it through—hadn’t needed to as it hadn’t even been a possibility. Now the cowboys were in her living room, waiting for her answer. Happiness fizzed through her veins. She’d never been a coward and she wouldn’t start being one now. Time to give her boys their answer.

When the water started filtering through the machine, Adrian leaned against the kitchen frame. “You guys sure you’d be able to handle me on the long term?”

“Hell yeah!” they chorused.

“Then I would be honored to accompany you to the USA as I am sick of moping around because I love two men so much it hurts.”

They slowly got to their feet and Maverick hooked his thumb in the loop on his jeans. “You love us both? Enough to work this out?”

She nodded. “I thought I’d lost my mind because I couldn’t stop thinking about you both. Every time I told myself I had to make up my mind which one of you I loved, it felt like my heart was being torn to pieces. If I couldn’t have you both, I’d rather have neither of you. I love you too much.”

* * * *

Three weeks later, Adrian sipped her coffee in the departures lounge at OR Tambo airport. Passengers scurried to have their baggage checked in and said goodbye to their loved ones.

How her life had changed since she’d waited for Maverick and Wade at the same airport months ago. Then she’d been a photographer struggling to rescue her flailing career and reputation and now…now she was waiting for the announcement that would call her flight to the USA. Marie had arranged all the visas and permits beforehand and when Adrian had given the go-ahead, it had been short work to finalize the details. Her passport contained a work visa for two years and her new address was filled out on the boarding form. Wade’s ranch would serve as a temporary base of operations for the Groundhog Saddle Company until Marie could secure a better location when she joined them in a couple of months.

“What are you smiling at, gorgeous?” Wade’s voice interrupted her musings. He rounded the table then planted a kiss on her cheek.

“I was thinking about the ranch.”

Maverick made a disappointed face. “And here I thought it was the memory of last night causing your satisfied expression.”

Adrian blushed and Wade grinned. He pointed to her mug. “Have you finished your coffee? We have to go.”

She nodded and rose, gathering her handbag and carry-on luggage. “I’m ready.”

A short while later, she watched the earth disappear from beneath the plane. Once above the clouds, Adrian looked at the men beside her. In less than forty-eight hours, she’d begin her new life as a Texas belle with the two men who’d stolen her heart. Until then, she’d be content watching and loving her bareback cowboys.

Also available from Totally Bound Publishing:

Brent’s Law

Ylette Pearson

Excerpt

Chapter One

Samantha Owen stared at the petite blonde woman seated opposite her. The woman sounded sincere enough, but something kept tinkering at the back of her mind. As an attorney, she’d learnt to heed those warnings and now the bells chimed like those on top of the church.

“Amber, are you sure you’ve told me everything? I don’t want any surprises during our meeting this afternoon.”

The blonde woman flicked her Barbie-doll hair over her shoulder and pouted. “I told you. The two-timing scum needs to pay. It’s not as if he can’t afford it, as you well know. He’s just being spiteful.”

Heavens, was she ever so young and arrogant? Samantha suppressed a sigh. Sometimes she wondered if her reputation of always being ethical and fair in divorce cases wasn’t too much of a burden to bear. Clients like Amber Russell would tempt the patience of a saint. Refusing the more than generous settlement offer the other party had made, reeked of spite on her side, not her estranged husband’s.

“Fine, but you know I will withdraw as your attorney if they spring any surprises on us today.”

“Whatever.”

Normally Samantha couldn’t care less about her client’s indifference, but she’d had a long day, with this particular client sauntering in from the streets of Sandton too many times during the past week. Right now, she’d rather be at home, barefoot and cooking for a bunch of students who only wanted their next warm meal from her.

She glanced at her watch. If the attorney for the defendant stayed true to form, he and his client should arrive within the next three minutes. Although Rob Bentley appeared flustered and absentminded, Samantha had quickly learnt that it was all a façade. The attorney had a razor-sharp mind that could sift through the muck in any divorce case to find the core of the dispute. It was always a pleasure to deal with him on the opposing side.

“Let’s move to the conference table, shall we?”

After gathering her documents, she walked around the large mahogany desk toward the round wooden table in the corner. She’d purposely placed the conference table far from the wall-to-wall windows so the view over the city couldn’t distract them. She chose the chairs facing the window for herself and her client, leaving her opponents looking at a painting of two wolves at loggerheads.

A discreet knock sounded on the outer door and Samantha flattened her palms over her tight fitting pencil skirt then buttoned her jacket. With a final glance at her client fiddling with her iPad, she reached for the door.

“Good afternoon, Rob, Mister Russell.”

She shook hands with the attorney and waved him toward the conference table. “Please have a seat.” Then she craned her neck to greet her client’s husband and the bottom dropped out of her stomach. Vivid blue eyes stared straight through her and jet-black hair curled over the collar in his neck. The corners of his mouth tilted upwards as the same blue eyes glided like a caress over the length of her body. Like he’d just unwrapped a new present, he took his time inspecting her gray jacket, white silk blouse, pencil skirt, stockings and lastly her two-inch heels. His tongue moistened his lower lip as he focused on the traitorous tips of her breasts jutting through the thin material of her jacket. Under his scrutiny, they puckered to an almost painful hardness.

Who let this man out without a health warning?
Dressed in a dark sports jacket, which he filled to the brim, formal black pants that contributed nothing to hide the muscled thighs underneath and a navy shirt without a tie, he epitomized what Samantha thought a Greek god should look like. She wiped her palm on her skirt and swallowed at the sudden dryness in her throat.

When their eyes met, her body tingled and heat suffused her face. The unconcealed want in his gaze clamped her chest in a vice and sent her pulse rocking.
Breathe Samantha, this is no time for thirty-eight-year-old attorneys to consider playing cougar.
Besides, he is your client’s husband, for heaven’s sake.
She forced air into her lungs and her mind cleared a little.

He stuck out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Owen.”

The deep timbre in his voice unzipped her spine and resonated somewhere below her navel. Under her clothes, gooseflesh riddled her body.

“Ahem…pleased to meet you too.”

Her hand disappeared into his large one and the heat of the contact seared her all the way to her core. Her nervous system short-circuited and rational thought fled.
Get a grip on yourself. You want to fight with him here, not jump his bones
.

Right.

She extracted her hand while her heart threatened to climb out of her chest. The flames in her face could ignite a bonfire. Turning, she pointed a shaking finger at the table.

“Have a seat.”

While proud of the strength of her voice, she prayed her knees would carry her weight as she walked toward the rear of the office. The heat from his body warmed her as he followed much too close. She gritted her teeth as he pulled out her chair and waited for her to sit before rounding the table to his own seat.

Amber hadn’t lied. Brent Russell was a womanizer and, judging by her own struggle to regain her composure, an experienced one. For the first time since meeting Amber, she felt a sliver of sympathy toward the girl. Young Amber had never stood a chance against the sensual onslaught Brent packed.

Samantha flipped open the file and pulled out a settlement agreement. Carefully avoiding looking at his client, she addressed the other attorney.

“I trust you received the revised settlement agreement?”

Rob nodded and Samantha ignored the amusement flickering in his eyes.

“We have, but my client feels it is unreasonable. As you know, the prenuptial contract stipulated your client is entitled to claim for maintenance for her or any children born from the union. What your client demands, exceeds the bounds of the agreement.”

With a slight shrug of her shoulders, she folded her hands over the file in front of her. “My client is entitled to be kept at the standard of living she has become accustomed to during the marriage.”

“True, but she’s asking for a quarter of my client’s assets which amounts to much more than just maintaining the living standard.”

Samantha met the attorney’s eyes and a pebble of dread lodged in her stomach. She’d seen the same twinkle in Rob’s eyes before. He had ammunition that would put a different spin on things and was waiting for the right moment to pounce. Damn Amber for holding out on her.

Amber plonked her phone on the table and pointed toward Brent. “You owe me, you son of a bitch.”

“My client owes you what’s stated in the contract—nothing more.”

In the corner of her vision, Brent clamped his fingers together on the table, his expression impassive. At least he had the sense to ignore the bait thrown out by his hopefully soon to be ex-wife.

“Let’s be reasonable. We called this meeting to try and resolve these issues so the divorce could be finalized, not to go on a bout of mudslinging.” She concentrated on Rob again. “While your offer is generous, my client feels she would need more to maintain her lifestyle. She needs a new apartment and transport, which explains the amount requested in our revised agreement.”