The Unbreakable Trio (2 page)

“It’s either a yes or a no,” Shane said, sounding angry.

Claire sighed and glanced up. Her dark-brown eyes glared back at him. “This isn’t your business. If I move out of town—”

“You’ll be in for a mighty big spanking, that’s what,” Shane said. Liam stayed out of the conversation.

“Don’t threaten me, Shane. I’m a big girl, and if I want to leave, then I can. It’s not like anything is stopping me from going.”

Her comment cut him deep.

“You’ve got me and Liam.”

She scoffed. “I’m sure your wives, when you get them, would love that.”

“We’re not getting married.” Shane knew Liam felt the same way about Claire. Neither of them wanted any other woman. They both wanted her.

“You don’t know that.”

“You’re not leaving Long Mead,” he said.

“Don’t even think of telling me what to do, Shane Cook,” Claire yelled.

Liam stood between them, even with the counter dividing them. “Stop. Claire isn’t leaving town yet. Let’s calm down and talk about it.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. When a decent job comes up, I’m leaving town.”

Shane went to say something else, but Liam cut him off. “We’ll talk later.” He mouthed the words.

He nodded his head and glanced back at Claire. Her chest was heaving, and even after arguing with her, his body responded to her heaving chest. Shane wanted to see her naked, to be able to look at, suck, and kiss every part of her body.

“I’m sorry I yelled,” he said.

“Accepted, and I’m sorry I did, too.” She leaned over the counter and kissed Shane.

For once he wanted to feel her lips against his for longer than a split second. He wanted to know what it would be like to have her melt with pleasure under his hands.

Shane, Liam, and Claire kept talking for the remainder of the staff lunch break and left as the first lot of workers began to drift in.

Shane nodded at a few people and followed Liam out to the truck. He slammed the door harder than usual.

“Shane,” Liam said.

“Don’t.” Shane cut him off.

Shane started the truck and raced toward their ranch. The window was rolled down, and he let the breeze calm him.

After the thirty-minute drive, he pulled up to the ranch.

“We’ve got to talk about Claire,” Liam said the moment the ignition turned off.

“What’s to talk about? She’s going to find a job, leave town, get a man, and never remember us again.” There he went sounding all soppy.

“It doesn’t have to be that way.”

Shane turned to his other best friend. “Why? We can’t make her stay. She deserves to have a life. To have a family and a man who can care about her.”

“I care about her, Shane. Fuck me. I love her. Always have. Nothing’s going to change the way I feel,” Liam argued. Shane paused as the other ranch hands walked toward the car.

“We’ll talk later.” Shane got out and helped unload the truck. Liam went and did his chores while Shane took care of his. Working with his hands helped Shane to not think about Claire.

He loved her, too. Ever since they were young kids, they’d been together. Liam didn’t know about the times he used to crawl into her bedroom. When his daddy had hit the whisky a little too heavy, Shane would lock his bedroom door, climb out of his window, and run to Claire’s house. She slept at the back of the house. He’d climb into the backyard and up the tree.

No matter the time, she never turned him away. Even when he used to visit her bedroom late at night, she would welcome him with open arms,
except on his last
appearance in her room. No, he wouldn’t think of that last occasion in her bedroom. Shane closed down. He couldn’t think of that one instant when he’d almost ruined their friendship forever.

In no time at all, night hit. The ranch hands had some dinner, a burned stew that Shane had cooked before they left. Liam and Shane were all alone in their big old house. Liam grabbed a beer from the fridge while Shane stuck with water. He never drank alcohol.

“What are we going to do about her?” Shane asked. Liam sat across from him.

“We need a cook.”

“So? How’s that going to help our situation with Claire?” Shane didn’t have time for the head games he liked to play.

“I think we should put an advertisement in the local paper and wait for her to call on it,” Liam said with a smile.

“And you think a girl like Claire will answer the ad for a housekeeping position?”

“Claire is a real smart girl, but she wants a family. She wants to feel wanted. We want her, so why don’t we just fucking have what we want?” Liam knocked back his beer. Shane thought about what he said.

Shane and Liam had shared women before. Being with the same woman had helped them deal, in some weird kind of way, with the desire they had for Claire.

“What if she doesn’t want us?”

“We’ve got nothing to lose. For too long we’ve not acted on our feelings for Claire. Some guy is going to take her away from us, and I’m not willing to let that happen. I know she’ll struggle to adapt, and we’ll have to prove to her being with two men isn’t a bad thing.”

They had some friends who shared a woman and had lived together in complete happiness. Two men who shared one woman in a loving relationship was possible.

Could he and Liam do the same with Claire?

The thought of her leaving was more than he could bear. Shane was willing to take the risk.

With a heavy heart, Claire watched her two friends leave. Something was wrong with her. After reading so many books on romance and love, she’d started to feel like a freak. She had a secret. She was in love with both of her friends. Liam and Shane had been a part of her life for as long as she could remember. Nothing had kept them apart.

They’d been friends since they were toddlers. They didn’t look down on her or view her as a pest. Most of her life she’d been left feeling like an outsider, the youngest member of her family who didn’t belong with them. While they talked and reminisced about the good times, she stood on the outskirts never knowing what it meant to be part of it all.

Sighing, she went back to her order form. Working at the decorating and supply store wasn’t the best job. At least she could afford a small apartment for herself and get out of her parents’ house. She did love her family, but whenever possible, she tried to stay clear of the family events.

Looking for work outside of Long Mead was her last chance to finally get over her feelings for her two best friends. Liam and Shane didn’t need her drooling over them. The rest of her day went by without a hitch, and she managed to get everything up and running before closing time at five.

Claire walked the short distance to her
meager
apartment above one of the shops. The cost of living had gone up in the last few months, and she couldn’t afford anything else.

A message flashed on her cell phone. She ignored it. Her mother would be calling to tell her about another party where she could meet a partner and settle down to marry. Claire didn’t want anyone besides Liam and Shane.

Her feelings were getting harder and harder to ignore. When Shane had started ordering her around, she’d wanted to jump over the counter and fling herself into his arms. Being with her friends made her want to never part from their company. Claire went to her small kitchen and started heating up some leftover pasta. She should diet. The weight had been piling on her in recent years, and she was tired of having a spare tire around her stomach. Maybe if she dropped a few pounds, Liam and Shane would start to notice her.

God, she was pathetic.

She served her pasta and walked through to her sitting room to the only chair in the room. Once her dinner was finished, she took a cold shower—there wasn’t enough heating to heat the water—and settled into her single bed. Her place wasn’t much, but at least she was away from her parents, and that was the plus.

* * * *

A week later, Claire grabbed a newspaper and flicked straight to the job sections to see if anything new had come up. Work at the decorating and supply store was starting to grate on her nerves. There was only so much cleaning and ordering she could cope with. Why hadn’t she gone to college when she had the chance?

She knew the reason. There were two very male reasons, actually. Being away at college for any length of time would mean she wouldn’t see her best friends, which was a silly reason not to go. She was happy, though.

A glance over at the jobs showed her one new ad had been placed in the last week.

Needed: housekeeper to cook and clean for two men and ten ranch hands. No skills required other than the ability to make a decent stew. Turner and Cook.

She read through the advertisement a few more times. Claire had cooked regularly for the boys at the ranch. Her meals had always been welcomed by the men who worked for them. With nothing else to occupy her thoughts and the only other solution being to leave Long Mead, she decided to answer.

Claire walked over to a shaded part so the sun wouldn’t be in her face and dialed the number.

“Hello, Turner and Cook Ranch, how can I help you?” Liam said, answering on the first ring.

“Hi, Liam. It’s me. Claire.”

“Hi, babe. Why are you phoning the work line? Isn’t our regular line working?”

She had all their contact numbers in case of an emergency.

“Yes. I’ve just looked in the local paper, and the funny thing is, you didn’t tell me you were advertising for a housekeeper.”

He chuckled on the other line. “The decision was kind of last minute. Why? Are you applying?”

Her body came to life with the deep way he spoke. Just from hearing him talk, a bolt of heat went straight through her body, warming her from the inside out. Her nipples got hard, and her pussy creamed just from the sound of his voice. Shane had the same effect on her. If only her two best friends could see past the tomboy in her.

“You know I can cook. I get along with your ranch hands. I’d be brilliant for the position.” She wasn’t blowing her own horn. She was simply stating the facts as she saw them.

Good cook, check.

Gets along with ranch workers, check.

Completely bored with her own life and in need of a little more excitement, check.

Okay, being on a ranch cooking and cleaning wasn’t the best excitement in the world. However, a bunch of sexy muscled men to watch and serve food to had to be better than putting tins of paint on shelves. Surely.

“Could you handle Shane and me being your bosses? You’d have to do everything we said.
Everything.
”

Claire ignored his suggestive tone. She knew Liam liked to tease, and he never meant anything by it.

“Since the time we could go off and do our own stuff, I’ve been taking orders from the pair of you. Working for you won’t be much different.” She smiled as she heard him laughing on the phone.

“This won’t be the same, sweetheart. I can promise you that.”

She glanced around at the busy street and wondered how many other people would apply. “Has the job been filled?”

His laughter stopped instantly.

“Tell you what. Why don’t you come around and we’ll have a test run. You can cook for the workers and us and then we’ll let you know.” The laughter and humor had gone from the conversation. Claire missed it. Had it been something she said?

“I’d like that.”

“I’ll get Shane to drive into town and pick you up.” They arranged the details, and she phoned the shop to let them know she would be taking a personal day. Her fingers were crossed that it would be longer than a day.

She stood by the parking spot that she and Liam had agreed upon. About an hour later, Shane rolled up in his red truck with lots of mud down the sides. The window was rolled down, and she guessed it was from the massive heat. It looked like summer in Long Mead was going to be a harsh one.

“Get in,” he ordered.

Without questioning his attitude, Claire opened the door and climbed into the passenger seat. Her bag on the floor, she buckled her seat belt.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

She glanced over and saw the stern look on his face. Out of all of them, Shane had grown to become the most serious. She swallowed past the lump in her throat as she remembered he was so stern.

Cutting off the thought, she nodded her head. “I’m sure. Unless you’re not stocked up with the food needed to feed you guys?” she teased, and tried to make the conversation light.

“We’ve got a well-stocked fridge, freezer, and cupboards.”

Staring out the window seemed to be the best option. Ever since that disastrous night six years ago when she was seventeen, Shane had done everything to make sure he wasn’t alone with her. Being in the truck was the first time since then they’d been alone.

“Why have you decided to get a housekeeper? I thought you liked the bachelor freedom?” Claire didn’t want to bring up the events of that night, so taking the conversation to more neutral territory seemed the best idea.