Siren Unleashed [Texas Sirens 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (21 page)

“Tate, she’s made her choice. Back off.” Cal had come in after all. Nat tried to look up, but Chase held her close. She was sure he still had that blasé, the-world-is-so-boring expression on his face, but his heart told a different story. It was beating against his chest.

He wasn’t nearly as calm as he wanted the world to think, and that made her want to soothe him. He hid so much of himself. What would he be like with the woman he finally opened up to?

“I was unaware that Natalie had a boyfriend, much less a Dom,” Ben said.

Chase finally let her look up. “Baby brother needs some affection, too, sweetness.” He dropped the sweetest little kiss on her upturned nose.

Fuck, she was in such trouble. Chase released her and she turned to Ben, giving him the same bear hug she’d given Chase. Ben didn’t hesitate. He immediately wrapped his arms around her and then did his brother one better. He leaned over and picked her up.

Chase frowned his way. “Show-off.”

Ben shrugged. “She might call us barbarians from time to time, but she likes to be picked up. And since she doesn’t stay where we told her to, I will simply have to manhandle her when she disobeys.”

When had she thought he was the sweet one?

Before she had a chance to say a thing, though, Tate was making trouble again. “Cal, what the hell is going on? Are you going to let two asshole guests come in and treat Nat like a toy?”

“I haven’t gotten to play with her yet,” Chase drawled. “If you’re going to get mad at someone, look at Ben. He didn’t even fully unwrap our toy before he was playing with her.”

Heat flashed through Nat. “Chase Dawson!”

“Well, it’s true. When I play with you, sweetness, you’ll be fully out of your packaging. I promise you.”

Cal bit back a smile as he put a hand on Tate’s shoulder. “Calm down. We’ve talked about this. And they aren’t exactly guests. Julian Lodge sent them to help Natalie out.”

Tate’s face was red with anger, his fists at his side. “They aren’t helping her. They’re fucking with her.”

Chase couldn’t let it go. “Again, baby brother got there first.”

Nat was satisfied that she and Ben turned at the same moment, both barking out Chase’s name.

Chase’s lips turned up. “Stereo. I like it.”

Ben just frowned his brother’s way. “Can you be serious for two seconds?”

“I am very serious about getting my turn, Ben. I should have gotten it this morning. Now my brain won’t work because I’m thinking about Nat’s boobs and her other parts. I felt a piercing.”

A slow smile slid across Ben’s face. “Yeah, brother, she has a piercing all right. A sweet little diamond.”

Chase rolled his baby blues. “You are so unobservant, Benjamin. Her tongue piercing is a silver stud.”

“Yes, Chase, she has a tongue piercing,” Ben shot back. “And no, I haven’t had a chance to be on the receiving end of that sweet thing yet, so you can stop being jealous. Now the other piercing is more interesting.”

God, he was not talking about her tongue piercing. And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. And it was kind of funny. She was completely trapped in Ben’s arms and they were being utter douchebags intent on embarrassing her, and she couldn’t stop laughing.

This was what a relationship with them would be like. She would often be embarrassed, and she would never ever be bored.

If they really wanted her.

Chase looked down at her, his eyebrow arching. “Seriously? You have more than one piercing?”

“I went through a phase. I didn’t do the tattoo thing so I pierced a couple of places.” And no one had ever actually played with it before Ben. She’d had the tongue piercing before the incident. She’d pierced her hood after Kitten dared her.

“I’m surprised you didn’t notice it when you got her naked. I guess you got stuck on her tits. I didn’t get a really good look at those, but I definitely saw the other.” Ben winked at her. “That little gem I saw wasn’t on her nipples, but we can schedule those. I know a master body modifier in Dallas.”

“Holy shit, Nat. You pierced your clit?” Chase nearly shouted the question. “I’m getting fucking old. My eyes should have gone directly there, but I did get stuck on your tits, baby. They’re so pretty.”

She was still stuck in Ben’s arms. They tightened around her so she just gave up and laughed.

“Are you going to let them talk about her that way?” Tate asked Cal, his voice tight with anger.

Cal was smiling at her. “I don’t think Nat is having a problem with it. Nat, you know you’re kind of accepting them, right?”

Nat needed to make one thing plain before she made a single decision. “Them? I thought Chase wasn’t sharing.”

“Chase rethought his position,” Ben replied. His eyes turned up toward Tate, darkening in an instant. “So tell whoever has a problem with our sub, that they’ll have two Doms to deal with.”

And just like that she froze.

They would want that. They would need it. Submissive. Slave. They could allow her a bit of power, but in the end they would need dominance, and she couldn’t give it. Not for the long term.

“Natalie?” Ben’s voice went serious.

“Please let me down. I need to see my apartment.” She should concentrate on the future. The future wasn’t going to include two hot überDoms. She would brutally disappoint them in the end because she couldn’t submit again.

Ben set her on her feet, his sadness visible.

Tate, on the other hand, looked deeply satisfied.

She turned and walked toward her place without saying another word.

Ben turned, looking at Natalie who sat beside him and wished he could take back the last three hours. There had been a great moment when Nat had laughed and completely accepted them and then she’d shut down. She hadn’t laughed or smiled since he’d set her on her feet.

He’d been trying to figure out what he’d done. Because it had been him. Chase hadn’t said a damn thing. Ben had been the one talking when her body had gone stiff and the day had gone to shit.

“What do you know about Juliet Kirkman?” Chase might not have been talking then, but he was controlling the conversation now.

Nat looked up from studying the menu. She hadn’t been happy about being forced to come into town, but they didn’t want to leave her behind. Not when she’d proven she could easily get away from Logan. Ben had been the one to sit with her while Chase had interviewed employees from the spa. He’d sat there while rerunning background checks, watching her while she pretended to flip through a magazine. “I know she married Stan about ten years ago, and she’s been spitting out kids ever since.”

Chase chuckled, but the last damn thing Ben needed was two Chases to deal with. If this was going to work, he needed to be able to take her places without others wanting to kill her. He frowned Nat’s way. Why was he always playing the bad guy with her? “That’s a bit rude.”

She flushed. “I’m sorry. You’re right. Honestly, I’ve met the oldest two and they’re actually really sweet kids. Juliet is a pain in my ass. Everyone’s really. She seems to think that a massage therapist is really just a whore with a fancy name. She told me I slept with all my clients.”

Chase’s brow furrowed, a sure sign he was getting pissed. “She said that to you?”

Nat shrugged. “She told the paper. I didn’t really know about it because I don’t read the
Willow Fork Gazette
, but one of the maids brought it into the locker room. Juliet wrote an editorial about how the spa was going to kill traditional marriage and we would all end up married to gays. I don’t think she understands much about the lifestyle. Or what gay marriage means. She literally thinks she’ll be forced to give up her husband and marry a lesbian. I think she might have been talking about Jack Barnes and Sam Fleetwood. She called her future wife her lesbian overlord. But she managed to mention me specifically. I’m a whore who’s attempting to lure all humans with muscular pain into my web. The muscular pain comes from Satan. And so do I, according to Juliet.”

“So she’s a scholar,” Chase mused. He looked up and smiled as his quarry walked out of the kitchens, an apron over her jeans and tight white T-shirt. Christa Wade looked damn good for a woman approaching fifty. She was Abigail Barnes’s best friend, and she owned the café they currently occupied.

She was also the epicenter of gossip in Willow Fork. It had been Chase’s idea to casually interview her. It was Ben’s job to make sure Christa Wade didn’t kill Chase because sometimes his version of casual was just plain rude.

“Hello, welcome to Christa’s Café. You’re Natalie, right? You work out at the spa?” Christa smiled down at Nat. There was nothing in her demeanor that made Ben worry, but the rest of the café he wasn’t so sure about. The minute they had walked in, murmurs started and several of the patrons had openly stared at Nat. Ben had made sure to take the booth in the back and to sit Nat where she couldn’t see that she was the center of attention. But she hadn’t let him herd her against the wall. She’d waited stubbornly until Ben had scooted in.

Nat flushed. “Yeah. I work out there.”

Christa’s smile widened. “Well, I knew it by the hair. You’re the only one in these parts with pink hair. I think it’s cute. You look like Katy Perry. I just love her. I thought about going blue, but my hairdresser shut that right down. Apparently eclectic hair colors are one of the signs of the apocalypse. Like that bright yellow she has on her head is natural looking. I don’t think so.” She stopped herself, her voice slowing down. “I was actually going to call you sometime next week. I have a horrible pain in my lower back. Abby says you’ve really helped Jack out. That man can be a real bear when he’s in pain. Apparently he twisted a couple of vertebrae trying to get Olivia out of a tree. She was rebelling against carrots. She doesn’t like carrots. Sorry. I tend to ramble.”

Ben was counting on her rambling. He needed some information the sheriff didn’t seem capable of giving them. “I’m sure Natalie would love another client.”

“Uhm, I think I’m on leave or something since the last dude died,” Nat whispered his way.

And then Christa just pulled up a chair and sat down, her eyes wide. Ben caught Chase’s self-satisfied smile. He hadn’t been forced to say a word, and the woman didn’t realize she was being interrogated.

“I heard about Stan. I always knew he would come to a bad end.” Her voice was just above a whisper.

“Why a bad end?” Ben asked. It was his job to be the innocent tourist, interested in a little gossip.

Christa took the time to look around. She seemed satisfied no one could hear her. “Well, you know there are rumors about old Stan.”

Ah, rumors. The lifeblood of the private investigator. “No. What kind of rumors?”

Even Nat seemed interested now. She put her menu down and turned toward Christa. “Are you talking about the rumor that he jacks up the prices of his sofas or the one where he’s actually selling stolen goods? Because I’ve heard both.”

So she listened to gossip. She didn’t just sit in her sad little apartment. She was still somewhat interested in what went on around her.

Christa shook her head. “No, hon. Stan put out the rumor about the stolen goods himself. He thought that if people around here believed they were really buying cheap, fell-off-a-truck designer furniture, then they would come in droves. No. His stuff came from just over the border, and let me tell you, he did charge too much for it. I bought a dining room set from him. It lasted two days before it started to wobble. How can a table be perfectly stable one day and then slightly wobbly the next? I don’t understand it. Now it takes two and a half
People
magazines to get it level.”

Chase growled a little, a sure sign that he was going to take over in a minute and then the whole interview thing would go straight to hell. Chase didn’t do bad cop. He was more like evil cop.

Christa looked at Chase, her brows rising. “Is there something wrong with him?”

Nat took a sip of her water. “I think that’s how he communicates.”

Eyes narrowed, Chase leaned toward Natalie. “I’ll show you how I communicate later, sweetness. Your backside will appreciate my version of Morse code. Benjamin?”

Yep. That was code for get this moving or the big bad wolf would take over. “So what are the rumors about Mr. Kirkman?”

Christa leaned back. “You’re from Julian Lodge, aren’t you?”

Well, she wasn’t a dummy. “Yes, ma’am. Julian prefers to investigate these things on his own rather than relying on local law enforcement entirely. We’re not trying to take over, simply enhance what I’m sure will be a thorough investigation of the matter.”

A booming laugh filled the café. “Well, aren’t you the politic one?” She turned to Chase. “I bet you aren’t. Tell me what you think of our sheriff, handsome.”

Chase didn’t hesitate. “I think he’s a lazy motherfucker who couldn’t find that enormous hat of his even if I shoved it straight up his ass.”

Christa smiled at Nat. “I like him. You should keep him, hon. Wait. Is this one of those crazy threesome things? It happens more often than you would think.”

“Ms. Wade,” Ben said, desperate to get this whole thing back on track. “The rumors?”