Claiming Their Nanny: A Cowboy Ménage Romance (Montana Ménage Book 1)

by Lily Reynard

  But the late summer twilight had faded to a faint line of smoldering orange by the time Dan rode through the gates of the Pronghorn Springs Ranch. It took almost another hour for him to get Applejack settled in his new stall and to unsaddle and rub down Snowflake before giving her a measure of oats as a reward for her hard work.

  The house was dark when he quietly entered at last, and he thought everyone was fast asleep. Then, as he began heading in the direction of the kitchen to wash up and rummage in the icebox for some supper, he heard Jim's unmistakable groan of pleasure upstairs, followed by a soft feminine giggle.

  Oh, hell no! He couldn't believe that Jim had decided to disregard their agreement and worse yet, that he'd succeeded in seducing Abby.

  Oh, I'm gonna give Jim a piece of my mind! Along with a taste of my fist on his stupid, smirking mouth!

  The memory of Abby riding his hand rose vividly in his recollection. Her hot, slick entrance clenching around his fingers as she begged him for more…

  Dan took a half-step towards the stairs, determined to confront them.

  Then a wiser voice cut through the haze of angry jealously clouding his thoughts. Is this really what you want to do? Walk in on them in the middle of things and embarrass the hell out of Abby?

  Maybe yelling at Jim right now would blow off some steam, but Dan didn't want to make a scene that might upset Abby.

  Especially if she'd already chosen his brother.

  It's not fair, Dan thought, as he forced himself to continue on towards the kitchen. I wanted a chance to court her.

  ◆◆◆

  Dan encountered Abby just after dawn, as he emerged from his bedroom to start his daily chores.

  Chris was crying in the nursery, and she was standing next to his crib dressed in a long cotton nightgown with a shawl hastily wrapped around her shoulders, a clean diaper in her hands.

  "Good morning, Abby," he greeted her.

  Chris stopped crying as he caught sight of his uncle.

  Abby jumped, startled, and whirled to face him. "Dan! When did you return?"

  "Last night," he said, trying to sound casual. "After you and Jim had already gone to bed."

  Fascinated, he watched a wave of dark crimson color rise from the lace-trimmed neckline of her nightgown and wash over her cheeks.

  "Oh," she said in a subdued voice.

  "Yeah. I know you're sleeping with my brother."

  She flinched at his blunt words, and he tried to ignore the stab of guilt for upsetting her.

  "How long has this been going on, Abby? Were you already letting him have you when we went for that walk together?"

  And Jim never breathed a word to me?

  Her eyes widened. She shook her head. "No! It's only that…well, Jim has asked to court me."

  Courting? My brother is serious about wanting to marry Abby? Dan stared at her. Dismay mingled with disbelief at the news.

  He couldn't decide if it was better to learn that his brother wasn't just fooling around with Abby, or worse because Jim appeared to be serious about a woman for the first time in his life, and it was a woman that Dan had already set his sights on.

  Dammit. Huritt was right when he asked me if Jim wanted to marry Abby. I should have told her my intentions when I had the chance.

  "Are you angry? I know I shouldn't have done…that…with Jim, but please don't make me leave the ranch. I behaved unforgivably last night, but it would break my heart to leave Christopher at this point."

  The anguish on her face tore at his heart. Dan's jealous anger vanished like morning mists on a summer meadow, replaced with the urge to reassure and comfort her.

  What kind of man does she think I am, if she expects me to punish her for choosing my brother?

  "Abby," he said, gentling his tone with an effort. "I would never send you away just because you decided to let Jim court you." Even if it hurts like hell.

  "Thank you," she breathed.

  Dressed only in a nightgown and shawl, her hair hanging in a long, sleep-mussed braid down her back, she had never looked so beautiful.

  Dan imagined seeing her like this every morning. He swallowed hard and debated his next words. Well, hell. It's not like I have anything to lose at this point.

  "But I have to inform you that I'm interested in courting you too. And the other day, you, uh, gave me hope that you felt something for me, too."

  The color returned to her cheeks. "I—I do," she whispered.

  Joy followed on the heels of the sudden hope running through his veins.

  He dared to reach for her hand and raise it to his lips, brushing her smooth knuckles with a feather-light kiss. "Well, then, if you're going to give Jim a chance to court you, I'm asking you to give me the same chance."

  Abby gave him a shy smile and squeezed his hand. "I'll consider it. And I'm glad you know about Jim now…I didn't feel right keeping secrets from you."

  "But you're interested in me too? Will you give me a fair chance?" He asked insistently.

  She nodded and looked down at her bare feet. She bit her lower lip in the most appetizing way. "I—I like you both. I'm so confused!"

  Dan smiled with relief. Looks like I still have a fighting chance. "Maybe you don't have to choose—at least not right away. Jim and I share everything, if you catch my drift. You could have us both while you think it over."

  Abby's blue eyes flew up to meet his. She looked shocked to her core…but also intrigued. And she didn't slap me or faint dead away. That's a good sign, right?

  "I—" she began.

  "Morning, Dan," Jim drawled from the nursery doorway. "Didn't expect you back so soon."

  His glance went to Abby, who suddenly looked nervous again.

  "He knows about us!" she blurted.

  Jim froze, and Dan saw the sudden worry in his brother's eyes before he masked it with one of his trademark insolent grins.

  "And I've told her I want to court her too," Dan declared. "Right, Abby?"

  She clutched the shawl tightly over her breasts, her glance darting between the two of them.

  "We've always shared and shared alike. So it's only fair that whatever you get to do with her, I get to do with her, too," Dan added, mostly to needle his brother.

  Chapter 16

  Abby gaped at them in astonishment. Just now, she had been bracing herself for Dan to explode with rage and kick her off the ranch.

  Jim looked surprised at his brother's suggestion but also relieved.

  "Good," he said. "I didn't want to be keeping any secrets from you. I guess it's up to Abby, though."

  He turned to her. "What do you think, sweetheart? Are you willing to give both of us a fair shake and see which one of us can be trained to harness?"

  She felt relief wash through her like a drink of cool water on a hot day. Perhaps this confrontation wouldn't end in disaster, after all.

  Mingled with the relief was excitement at the prospect of spending more pleasurable hours with both of them.

  Even if they decide that they don't really want to court me with the goal of marriage after they find out the truth.

  "How would we go about doing this?" she asked, intrigued but unsure of this highly unconventional proposal. "And, forgive my presumption…but aren't the two of you going to be jealous of each other?"

  She studied Dan warily. He had seemed so upset earlier by the discovery of her liaison with Jim.

  He still didn't look entirely happy, but at least he no longer looked angry.

  He shrugged. "We haven't had any difficulties like that in the past. But then, we weren't, uh, courting those particular ladies. Just passing time with them."

  His ears turned a dull red as he spoke. His admission should have appalled her. Instead, she found it oddly intriguing.

  "But how on earth is this ever going to work?" she asked.

  "Well, now," drawled Jim. "We each get to spend time with you like we do now, doing things like going for a ride and watching the sunset together."

  Hi
s smile reminded her of all the things that they had done together between riding out from the house and actually watching the sunset.

  "Anything you do with him, you do with me, too," Dan added in a firm tone.

  "And if you're up for it, maybe even with both of us at the same time," Jim said. His smirk challenged her..

  At the same time? Is that even possible? Shock, followed by heat, ran down Abby's spine straight down to the pit of her stomach at the fevered mental images that his suggestion evoked.

  She swallowed hard. She had been brought up as a respectable young woman. Everything she'd ever been taught told her that yielding to Jim's suggestion would plunge her into the depths of depravity.

  Bad enough that I'm already doing the things that I'm doing with one man at a time!

  But try as she might to summon enough guilt and outrage to refuse his offer, all she felt was deep excitement at the prospect of a three-way courtship with the Brody brothers.

  "Abby?" Dan asked quietly.

  He had scooped Chris up from his crib and was holding his nephew in the crook of his arm.

  "You can say no," Jim chimed in. "We won't hold it against you. Honest."

  She licked her lips and looked from one brother to another. If I say no, then I'll have to choose either Dan or Jim as my favored suitor. And I'm not ready to make that choice yet.

  "I—I like both of you, very much," she managed. It was very difficult to say the next words, perhaps because she wanted this strange bargain so badly. "I agree to your proposal."

  Both of the brothers' faces lit up with smiles that looked genuinely happy.

  She raised her hand in an admonitory gesture. "But you can't tell anyone. Not even a hint! We have to keep this a secret amongst the three of us." Abby sighed. "If anyone finds out that I'm having, er, premarital relations with either of you, not to mention both of you, I'll become a social pariah in town."

  As it is, it'll be difficult to look Emma in the eye and keep pretending that I'm the lady she considers me. I couldn't bear it if she found out and shunned me.

  Jim opened his mouth to protest, but she continued, desperately trying to make her case. "And if that happened, I would have to leave Twin Forks."

  Because she had already endured endless weeks of insult and ostracism back home in Philadelphia. She couldn't bear to undergo that ordeal a second time, even if it meant leaving behind all of the people that she had grown to care for in the short time that she'd been here.

  Christopher. Jim. Dan. Emma. Isaiah. Mukki. Huritt.

  "It would break my heart to go away," she finished, her voice breaking with emotion.

  "I'd never do anything to hurt you, Abby," Dan said fervently. "Your reputation is safe with me. I give you my word."

  "Same here," Jim said, his tone solemn. "My word on it, Abby. No one's gonna find out…or give you a hard time."

  Dan extended his free hand to her, and she took it. Christopher made a happy sound and smiled at her. Jim took her other hand.

  "So, now that everything's settled, we got morning chores to tend to," he said. "We'll see you at breakfast." He squeezed her fingers reassuringly.

  "And I need to get dressed and tend to Christopher," Abby said, but neither brother released their hold on her.

  "You look mighty fine the way you are now," Dan said.

  He looked her up and down with heat in his dark eyes, and Abby was suddenly very conscious that she was still clad in her nightgown, with wisps of hair escaping her braid and bare toes digging into the rug.

  "Tonight," he said in a low voice filled with promises. "Tonight's my turn, Abby."

  ◆◆◆

  After dinner and evening chores, Dan drew himself a bath in the kitchen.

  The house was quiet. Isaiah had retired to his cabin. Christopher had been put down in his crib for the night, and Jim and Abby had both retreated upstairs to their bedrooms. Dan intended to wash up and shave before knocking on her door.

  Earlier in the day, he'd run into Abby while she was working in the garden, and they arranged to meet in her room once everyone else had gone to bed.

  He was sitting in the hot water, wiping the last bits of lather off his face with a washcloth, when he heard a quiet tap at the kitchen door, followed by Abby's soft voice an instant later. "Dan? May I come in?"

  Excitement and hope shot through him.

  "Sure, but I'm in the bath," he replied, keeping his voice low.

  "Good," came the reply.

  The door swung open, and Abby appeared in the doorway, carrying a lamp and a bath towel draped over her arm. She wore a long pale blue dressing gown trimmed with white lace ruffles. "I need a bath myself, and I was hoping I might join you."

  Her words were bold, but her tone was hesitant, and she averted her eyes shyly from his nakedness, instead studying the patterned linoleum of the kitchen floor with embarrassed intensity.

  Her glorious golden hair was still in its tightly braided bun, but Dan promised himself that he'd see it down and spread over her pillows before morning came.

  "I would love it if you joined me," he said. "I was hoping for someone to wash my back. And I'll wash yours."

  "You have a bargain, Mr. Brody." She chuckled softly and crossed the kitchen with swift steps.

  He couldn't take his eyes off her as she halted next to the tub.

  She hesitated, and he saw her take a deep breath before reaching for the tie at her waist.

  His own breath caught in his throat as she opened the gown and slid it off her shoulders. Hot damn, she's naked!

  The soft lamplight gilded her smooth skin and generous curves. He swallowed hard at the sight. Holy shit. I'm the luckiest bastard alive right now.

  "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on," he whispered.

  "Thank you." Her embarrassment at the compliment charmed him to the core as she folded her gown and set it next to the pile of his clothes on the floor.

  "Have a seat," he invited, lifting a round shaving mirror from the top of a stool placed right next to the tub.

  He set the mirror carefully aside before extending his hand to help her step into the tub, and gave her a long, lingering kiss before letting her sink to the stool.

  Once she was seated, her feet in the water, he knelt in the tub and lifted her right foot, holding it in his firm grasp. Then he worked a soapy washcloth over her sole and arch and between each toe.

  "Oh! That feels very nice." To his pleasure, she smiled with delight and relaxed in his grasp.

  Dan rinsed her foot with warm water scooped in his cupped hands and repeated his actions with her other foot.

  From there, he used the washcloth to stroke lather slowly up her legs, slowing and gentling his touch on the tender skin on the inside of her thighs, stopping just short of her groin.

  She opened her legs in a silent plea, but he rose to his feet and turned his attention to her gently rounded belly and hips. His touch was lighter here as he moved the washcloth in tight circles, teasing and cleansing at the same time.

  Abby arched eagerly into his touch as he ignored his own stiffening cock in favor of pleasing her. His hands moved upwards to her generous breasts, cupping them in the cloth.

  "Oh, yes, please," she whispered.

  Dan smiled with satisfaction and gently began scrubbing the sweet, rose-tipped weight, enjoying how she squeezed her eyes shut as he worked his way to her nipples. She gasped and stiffened as he moved the cloth moved over them and began to tease the sensitive tips.

  Abby inhaled a long, shaky breath, and he saw the delicate flush of arousal staining the skin of her throat and her cheeks.

  When she was arching and panting under his hands, he dipped the washcloth in the rub and rinsed her with the warm water, making sure to repeat his caresses with gentle thoroughness, lingering over her pebbled nipples, teasing the hardened buds until she was arching shamelessly into his touch, her fingers clutching his arms.

  He was fully hard now, and aching with desire
as he knelt once more and urged her legs apart.

  This time, he stroked the washcloth over the glistening pink folds between her thighs in a deliberate caress.

  "Oh!" Abby shivered at the touch of the cloth against her pussy. She stilled in anticipation.

  Dan put a steadying hand on her thigh and felt the wild pounding of her pulse as he spread her wide.