The McGilley Trilogy (40 page)

“Do you believe him?” Colin asked.

“He sure as hell didn’t look good, whether it was alcohol related or something else, I don’t know. None of them were too happy that I left the cleanup to them.”

“Then all we can do is wait and see if the asshole tries to pawn the computer, since I doubt there’s anything of value on it as far as information.” Brett kept all the personal records for not only their farm business but their personal records on his computer in his office, precisely because they were too easily accessed at the stables. “At least the livestock are okay. That Friesian filly alone is worth a mint. What’re you going to name her?” By the look on Donovan’s face, Brett thought it best if they moved on to another topic.

Donovan was more than ready to change the subject. As much as he appreciated his brothers and Mitch’s support, he wasn’t in the mood for lectures or concerned criticism. They knew they had a problem, but since there was nothing right now that could be done about it, he wanted to put it aside and concentrate on other matters, matters he had some semblance of control over. Besides, he was beginning to have his suspicions about who was responsible and he didn’t like where they were leading him. “I haven’t given it much thought. The guys are all pretty taken with her, especially Ethan. I thought I’d give them the honor.”

“Just don’t let them come up with anything lame like Black Beauty,” Mitch drawled.

“We already have a Beauty in the stables, so that’s out.” Donovan dealt the cards, then, when conversation switched to good natured teasing, he casually brought up the next subject that was sure to get their attention, damn it. “By the way, I’ll be bringing a guest to the club next week. I need a third if one of you is interested.”

Stunned silenced reigned around the table for all of ten seconds. Donovan actually felt his lips lift in a smile as the three of them stared at him as if he’d grown two heads. He wasn’t about to tell them he had Anna at his house all night last night. That might give them heart attacks. “What?”

“
You’re
bringing someone to the club? As in a woman?”

Colin’s look was almost comical, Donovan thought with a resigned sigh to the inevitable questions he knew were coming. “Since when do I swing the other way?” he demanded. “Yes, a woman, and one you’ve met before, according to her.”

“She’s a member?”

“No, as a matter of fact she’s about as green as Kayla was a few weeks ago. Apparently, you allowed her and a friend to come up for about thirty minutes just to watch. Some special occasion or other.”

“I don’t remember that, but if she’s got your attention enough that you’re willing to introduce her to the lifestyle, I can’t wait to meet her. But, I’m out on being a third. I’m a one woman man now.”

“Me too,” Brett added then looked over at Mitch. “I guess that leaves you to do the honors.”

“You guys aren’t nearly as much fun since you’ve gotten hooked,” Mitch said with a smile. “I’m game, Donovan. Anything I need to know?”

“Yeah,” Donovan admitted, reluctant to tell them about Anna’s abuse, but he knew Mitch needed to know. “She has a past history of abuse, severe abuse.” At the scowls on the other three men’s faces, he held his hand up to forestall any questions. “She’s pretty closed mouthed about the details, you just need to know that we have to keep it low key.”

The three of them were well aware of his occasional need for rough sex and now knew why he wanted a third for next week. Sometimes it was nice being as close to them as he was, nice knowing they’d have his back without any questions.

“Bring her around, Donovan. We’ll see she’s taken care of,” Brett said, the anger on his face reflective of his personal dealings with abused women and children.

“It’s a one-time thing,” he warned them lest they get any match making ideas into their heads.

“Yeah, right. Seems to me that’s what I told Kayla too.”

“Bite me,” Donovan grumbled at Brett’s comparison and concentrated on the cards dealt to him, much like he spent most of his time dealing with the hand life had dealt him since his capture seven years ago and the abuse he had taken that was responsible for his limitations now.

He was so fucked, Ethan thought as he drove slowly back to the McGilley farm from the dump where he had unloaded Donovan’s computer. What had possessed him to take it, he didn’t know. Upon returning from the party, he had every intention of going right to bed, but upon spotting Dr. Kingston’s truck in Donovan’s drive, he had seen red. What the hell did a nice woman like her, one who had suffered so much, see in a man like him? Since he found being with the horses soothing, he had walked into the stables to simply spend some time with them, but the anger that had been churning in his gut since his mother’s death and learning her secret had taken hold of him again and he had gone in the office just to vent by tossing a few things around. Spotting the computer had given him an idea that maybe he could find something on there he could pass on to Dr. Kingston, something she would find distasteful or questionable that would keep her from seeing Donovan again. But there hadn’t been anything of consequence which was why he was still baffling over why he had swiped the damn thing. The money he looked at as his due, a pittance of what was owed him after all this time, but the computer could lead the law to him, so he had made the hour long drive to the city dump, waiting until after dark to toss it.

Spending Thanksgiving with the three men he despised most, seeing how happy Brett was with Kayla and hearing about Colin’s budding relationship with Olivia as well as meeting the woman who had raised all three, despite the fact Colin and Donovan weren’t hers, just so they could be raised together as a family, hadn’t done anything to improve his attitude toward them. Ever since that day, he had fallen into a depression he couldn’t shake out of, questioned his actions and the motives behind them until he convinced himself to let go of his animosity, to hang on to the job he had slowly come to appreciate and love, and concentrate on school instead of his bitterness.

But somehow, just seeing Dr. Kingston at Donovan’s house so late last night, knowing what the two of them were doing and knowing Donovan never, ever had anyone but his brothers at his house, especially women, had tossed his emotions right back into a cauldron of swirling confusion, anger and despair. For some reason, he couldn’t stand to see the men who had everything he was denied his whole life find even more happiness with someone special when he was all alone.

Pulling up to the bunkhouse, he saw Keith, Jimmy and Tony were all in and he had no idea what he was going to tell them about where he had been. Hell, fuck it, he thought as he got out of his truck. He was tired of the bitterness as well as the subterfuge. Maybe, he considered as he headed inside to the only friends he had, he ought to just come clean with the McGilley’s and offer to work off the damages he had caused if they’d give him a chance before he lost the only thing in his life that had meaning, this job and the horses he had come to love. It was something worth thinking about anyway.

Chapter Twenty Four

Anna didn’t hear from Donovan all week, but that didn’t keep her from looking forward to Saturday night and seeing him again. She spent Sunday reliving every moment of the night before, her sore nipples, pussy and anus gentle reminders of the pleasure he had given her despite the fact he didn’t fuck her. She had felt the evidence of his arousal through his jeans numerous times, ached to feel that bulging hardness filling her, stretching her more than any toy or any other cock had. Of the three men she had had sex with, Donovan was definitely the most endowed, and if she could tell that by feeling the size and shape of his cock through denim, she could just imagine what the bare reality of him would feel like.

She suspected Donovan would be a hard, demanding partner and her excitement over his invitation and her anticipation of finally getting fucked the way she longed to, had shoved aside her initial discomfort of his touch on her marred skin. Exposing herself was the only thing she was hesitant about this next step. Ever since spending those thirty minutes viewing firsthand what she had only read about, seeing for herself that people did get pleasure, enormous pleasure from kinky, alternative sexual practices, she had wanted to experience them for herself. For years she had put her slow and less than fulfilling responses in bed down to the teachings of her overzealous father, believed his brainwashing sermons that a woman’s role, when it came to sex, was to please her husband and bear children. Her first lover had been a good friend and a kind and gentle lover, but other than enjoying the feel of lying naked with a man for the first time, he hadn’t set off any sparks. After a brief affair that started to interfere with their concentration on their schoolwork, they amicably went back to being friends and still kept in touch, often calling each other for advice or a second opinion on a case. Her second lover had been another fellow vet student, a man she now realized she was attracted to because of his no-nonsense take charge manner as well as his physical appeal. They had only gotten together five times, but he had managed to do what her previous lover hadn’t, give her first orgasms. Even though she found pleasure with a man for the first time, she still felt something was lacking, that there was more to be had from sex and if she hadn’t met Diane and let her much envied experience convince her of that, she might still be going through life unaware of the pleasures she was missing out on.

Of course, the occasional ache in her arm and the scars on her back were a constant, vivid reminder of the price she had paid for her attempt at seeking out what she thought she was missing. For the past two years, she had lived with the guilt of knowing she should never have married a man she didn’t love, especially as an attempt to please her parents. She didn’t know what she had been thinking, she had failed to please them her whole life and she should’ve remembered how good they were at piling on the guilt inducing comments to get her to comply with their wishes. After her father’s heart attack they had doubled their efforts to see the two of them wed, and between them, Todd and Todd’s parents she had simply given in as soon as she graduated from veterinary school and returned to Kentucky.

Diane, her best friend now for over eight years despite her living in Virginia, had been her only anchor in the storm of indecision and regret that had bombarded her since then. She had agreed to stand up for her even though she spent the week before the wedding with her trying to do her best to talk her out of going through with it. Even when she had succeeded in talking her into going out that night, into indulging in alcohol enough to lower her inhibitions and let her talk Anna into going up to that private club so she could show her her fantasies and desires weren’t just the stuff penned in romance novels, it hadn’t been enough for her to ignore her sense of obligation to her parents.

But reality has a way of rearing its ugly head and biting you on the ass when you least expected it, and when Todd discovered her surfing the internet for ways to spike up their sex life, then found her stash of erotica’s, his anger and sense of betrayal knew no bounds and a side of her husband she had no clue about came roaring to the surface. For over a week, he had attempted to beat her sins out of her, refusing to let her go to work by locking her in their closet when he was gone, the wounds on her back left to bleed and fester. When she had managed on the fifth day to pry open the lock on the door only to have him return before she could get out of the house, he had simply twisted her arm until it snapped, calmly stating that should take care of that before asking her if she was thirsty. She knew then she was going to have to take drastic measures to escape the fanatic she had married.

Her penance for her actions was seeing Todd lying in that bed at Shady Oaks for two years now, the coma she had put him in by smashing a lamp over his head three days later the price they both continued to pay for their actions.

As Anna contemplated what she should wear to the club that night, wondering how long she’d have it on, she was glad she wasn’t letting the past dictate to her any longer. For months after escaping Todd’s abuse, she had floundered in despair, her parents disowning her and Todd’s irreversible prognosis dragging her down until once again Diane had been the one to be there for her. Arriving on her door step unexpectedly one day, she had simply barged into her apartment, stating ‘I’m here for as long as you need me’. Right then Anna knew neither her parents nor Todd had ever cared for her as much as her friend did and it was that enlightening proof of unconditional support and true caring that enabled her to set the past aside and to embrace whatever her future had to hold. Right now, her immediate future held every desire, every dream she had ever fantasized about exploring and a man who could make them all come true.

Donovan tried to ignore the anticipation he felt upon seeing Anna enter Casey’s right on time. Although why he bothered, he didn’t know since he hadn’t been able to go more than two minutes all week without thinking of her and planning what to do with her tonight. It was because of that constant obsession he seemed to have for this woman that he had decided on giving her what she had been asking for, he just didn’t plan on giving it to her the way she might have wanted or thought of. Dressed in a calf length denim skirt and a button up, multi colored sweater, she definitely didn’t dress like most of the women who were regulars upstairs, he thought as he watched her make her way through the crowd towards him, but then, from the looks she was getting, she didn’t need sexy clothes to draw his or any other man’s attention.

“You’ve got some admirers, sugar,” he said as he put his hands on her hips and drew her between his legs as he sat on the bar stool. “And that’s with your clothes on.”

Anna didn’t care about other admirers, but she knew better than to say anything like that to Donovan. Even though she kept telling herself she was here, with him, for the sex like she knew that was all he was in this for, there was a small part of her that she was beginning to suspect wanted more from this man than he would ever be willing to give. Which was why she kept that part buried, denied it existed and concentrated solely on what he was willing to give her.