“She’s fine,” I said. “She’ll sleep it off and have a headache when she wakes up. No one ever died of a hangover.”
I thought it strange that a self-professed party girl could get sloppy from a few glasses of wine, but seeing Amber swaying on her feet was proof enough.
“I wasn’t trying to stab you,” she said for the hundredth time. “I swear!”
Lidia narrowed her eyes at our stepsister. “I don’t know about you living out here,” she said. “It may not be New York, but looks like you’ve found new ways to go wild. I don’t know what my ex was thinking, sending you out here. But I think it would be best if you came back to town with me.”
“Why?” Amber’s blue eyes widened. Damn, she looked innocent. Too damn innocent to be living with the likes of us.
“To live with me,” Lidia said. “It’s far more proper than you living out here, doing as you please. My sons have plenty of work on the ranch without having to keep an eye on your questionable behavior all day.”
“But…but we’re not even related,” Amber protested. “I mean, not that I’m related to your sons, but at least legally, I’m their sister. I don’t even know you.”
“I think what she’s saying, Ma, is that she’d like a chance to get to know us a little better,” Sawyer said, draping an arm around Amber’s shoulder. I could see it was to steady her on her feet more than anything, and I gave him a slight nod to thank him.
“I’m not asking what she’d like,” Lidia said. “She’s in no state to make decisions, and even if she was, her judgment obviously leaves something to be desired.”
“You’re making a big deal out of nothing,” Sawyer said.
“Her judgment is fine,” I added, though I tended to agree with Lidia on that one. It was something else altogether that we desired, something that relied on her lack of good judgment. For the hundredth time, I cursed the shit luck that had made her our stepsister. We’d been looking for a woman with her kind of questionable judgment for years. A woman who wouldn’t pass judgment on us, who might think this insane lifestyle we were after was something desirable. If only we could find someone openminded enough to give it a shot, someone who didn’t give a fuck what people in town thought.
In short, the opposite of Amber fucking Durant.
“It would be good for her to be under a more watchful eye,” Lidia said. “She’ll learn a thing or two from living with a parent who sets her straight when she makes mistakes instead of letting it get to the point where she has to be hidden away across the country.”
“We don’t mind looking out for her,” Holden said quietly. “We like having her around.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do,” Lidia said, giving Amber a critical look. “Honey, you aren’t pregnant, are you? Because I know a thing or two about babies, too.”
“I’m not pregnant,” Amber snapped. “For your information, I’ve never even had sex. So I guess I’m not the spawn of Satan after all, just a regular old lush.”
She was a virgin? Fucking hell. How much worse could this get?
Sawyer choked on the v-bomb, covering it with a forced cough. Holden’s face blanched.
“All the more reason not to let the gossip tarnish your reputation,” Ma said. “Come on, honey. I’ll take good care of you and keep you out of trouble.”
“What’s she going to do at your place?” Sawyer asked. “Go to bridge club and bingo night? She’s eighteen, Ma, not eighty.”
I looked at that girl, standing there so innocently, swaying after only a couple glasses of wine. And I knew if she went to live with our mother, we’d never get to know her. We’d never know if she was all talk or if she’d meant what she said to Holden about being interested in all of us.
That was a good thing. We couldn’t have her, even if we wanted her, so there was no point in finding out, only to have her ripped away in two months’ time.
I knew exactly how my mother’s controlling style had stifled and smothered us all our lives. Hell, we were grown men and she was still here meddling, trying to make decisions for us and Amber both. If we let her take Amber, Amber would never forgive us. More than that, Dad wouldn’t. We’d promised to take care of her, and now, as I thought of the tedium of her days with our mother, I knew that would break her wild spirit.
But what we wanted to do to her would wreck her, body and soul.
8
Amber
I looked from one of my stepbrothers to the next. Sawyer was going to fight for me to stay, as evidenced by our united stand. He had wrapped a protective arm around me, and I could have kissed him for it. Well, if I hadn’t already kissed him. Oops.
Holden was watching me and his mother with a troubled expression, as if it hurt him to go against his mother’s wishes and vote for me to stay. But he’d been the one to hint at a relationship, hint at something more than a lusty kiss. And he’d defended me to his mother, whom he clearly loved. My heart warmed at the thought.
Only Waylon hadn’t spoken up in my defense. When I turned to him, his hard, dark eyes glowered back at me. I gulped, quaking in my Ugg boots. There was no way he was going to agree, and they’d already told me, nothing happened around here without a unanimous decision. Which meant I was fucked, but not in the good way.
Although something in his eyes hinted at a dark desire. Under that steely exterior he must have formed when his fiancé ran off with his brother, I was sure that there was a storm of passion that I could unleash. The thought made me shiver in more ways than one.
I tore my eyes away from Waylon, focusing instead of Lidia. She was looking at me like she couldn’t wait to get me away from her precious sons. But surely they wouldn’t send me off to live with this horrid woman. I’d die. I had enough conflict with my own mother, and she let me do pretty much anything I wanted, as long as I didn’t end up in a gossip column. Or, you know, the police station.
This woman was looking at me like she was already making plans to lock me up in a nunnery because I was still young and God forbid, had a sexual thought in my head about her undeniably sexy sons. And frankly, I’d had quite enough of being locked away from who I was. Yes, I wanted to have sex. I wanted to have so much sex that if she could’ve read my mind, she’d have dropped dead from shock.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t control myself. If I had to hole up in my room and order vibrators online for the next two months, that’s what I’d do. But I was not going with her.
“Well,” Lidia said to Holden after a long silence. “I’m glad you boys have your opinions, but your oldest brother has the most say in this ranch, and he knows you don’t have time for all this nonsense on top of running the place. The last thing you need is the headache of raising a teenage girl with wild ways. Isn’t that right, Waylon?”
His jaw tensed, and his eyes settled on mine, piercing through me. Suddenly I felt like I was standing in front of him stripped naked again, frozen and at his mercy. But this time, it felt completely different.
“I want to stay,” I said before he could answer. “I’ll help with the horses, and decorate the house when you’re out, and when you’re in the house, I’ll stay in my room and be so quiet you won’t even know I’m there.”
“We’ll know you’re there,” Sawyer murmured.
“You don’t have to,” I said, pulling away from him and focusing on staying steady and sounding reasonable, sober, and responsible, just like everyone wanted me to be. “I came out here to get away, and I admit, drinking today was obviously a mistake. But I don’t want to make anyone’s life harder. No one is responsible for me except me. And I’m going to do better from now on. If I mess up again, I’ll come live with you, Lidia. Does that sound fair?”
She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Waylon did. “That’s fair.”
I gaped at him. He was the last one I expected to speak up for me. I figured I’d have to fight it out with Sawyer, and maybe Holden, though he’d probably cave to his brother and mother after a couple minutes. Instead
, Waylon had shut his mother down with two words.
She huffed and puffed for a minute, but when Waylon stepped up beside me and put a hand on my shoulder, she shut her mouth and glared. Sawyer reclaimed his spot at my other side, this time setting a hand on my shoulder like Waylon had. Holden stepped up on Waylon’s other side, and we all faced Lidia together, an impenetrable wall of stepsiblingly love. If that was a thing.
“She stays,” Waylon said.
Lidia nodded, her mouth tight. “You’re going to regret this. Mark my words.”
“They won’t,” I assured her. “I’m not going to do a single thing that could get me into trouble. Before you know it, I’ll be gone, and you’ll all go on like I was never here at all.”
“The first I hear about you in town, I’m coming right back up here,” she said. “You can either come live with me, or go on home to New York and your own mother can figure out what to do with you besides saddling someone else with your behavior. You’ll be her problem then. And don’t you go thinking I’ve forgotten you’re up here. I’ll be keeping an eye out, be keeping my ears open for any gossip. You can’t hide anything in a place this small. If anything happens, I’ll hear about it.”
For some reason, I was sure she wasn’t just talking about getting tipsy. It was weird, because in New York, there were people all around me all the time. On the sidewalk, in stores and clubs and restaurants, even in our building, where people lived above and below us. Here, it seemed there was nothing but space, endless stretches of open land that went on for miles, and yet, I felt more watched, more claustrophobic.
In New York, no one really cared about anyone else’s business unless you literally murdered someone. Or, apparently, if you threw eggs at a spoiled rich boy and his car. But that was beside the point.
In Wyoming, it seemed everyone wanted to know exactly what I was doing at all times, and they all wanted to pass judgment. They’d go out of their way to find me and check on what I was doing, which was totally weird to me. I was used to people who were so busy that if I passed out on the sidewalk, they’d just walk around me…if that.
“I’m sure you’ll be the first to hear every tidbit of gossip that happens in this county,” Sawyer said. “And we appreciate your concern, Ma, but we’re grown men and we can take care of ourselves, and between the three of us, probably one teenage girl, too.”
“But you’re welcome to drop in for a visit anytime,” Holden hurried to add. “We love having you, Mama.”
With one last suspicious once-over, she turned to walk back to her car. Holden jogged to join her.
“I think I better go lie down, after all,” I said.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Sawyer said. “Can’t have you going after anyone else with a pitchfork.”
“You jerk,” I said, punching his arm. “You’re the one who gave me that third glass of wine. And you know the pitchfork was an accident.”
“I think we were all hoping you’d at least skewer her foot,” he said with a wink.
“Yeah, because then she’d be bedridden, and I’d have to wait on her as penance.”
“Let me walk you in,” Waylon said, nodding at the house. “Make sure you get there in one piece.”
I shot Sawyer a pleading look over my shoulder, but he didn’t seem concerned that his mean brother was leading me away. I guessed that was shitty—Waylon had saved me on more than one occasion. But while the others had warmed up to me, he’d been more surly as the days went on.
“Thanks for taking my side,” I said. “Even if it was just to nettle your mom.”
He grunted in response.
“I know you just want me here so your dad will send you a check,” I said. “But I meant what I said. You won’t even know I’m here.”
“We’ll know you’re here,” he growled, shooting me a dark look.
“Sorry, I’m not a magician, I can’t just make myself disappear. If I was, I’d send myself back in time and undo that stupid arrest.”
I felt cheap, somehow, and humiliated that I’d thought it was something more than it was. A job. To save their precious ranch. I should have known. He was all business. The ranch came first. No wonder he hadn’t liked my idea about renting out the four cabins that sat empty behind the house. He knew they had money coming their way if they kept me under lock and key.
But I was sick of being locked up. Charlie had practically put me in a museum. I wasn’t going to let anyone else do that to me. I would have my run of the ranch, even if I had to avoid my stepbrothers during the few hours in the evening when they were downstairs. We always ate dinner together, but otherwise, I often didn’t see them for most of the day.
When we reached my room, I stumbled in and threw myself face down on the bed. I expected the door to close behind me, but it didn’t. After a minute, I felt my boots being tugged off.
“I know you’d rather Sawyer have walked you up,” Waylon said flatly. “I thought it would be best for our mother not to see one of us take a special interest in you.”
“You think Sawyer takes a special interest in me?” I blurted out. Then I winced, thinking I probably should have said I didn’t like Sawyer more. I didn’t. It was just that Waylon could be a little…unpredictable. And scary.
“We all take an interest in you,” he said, setting my boots under the edge of the bed. “And I’m not trying to make you disappear. But it’s impossible not to know you’re in here, in this bedroom, every night. Your presence permeates the house. It’s impossible not to feel a woman in our house when we all go to bed alone.”
And with that, he strode out of the room and closed the door.
Craptastic. Just when I thought I could be good and stay away from them, he had to tempt me with that image. I imagined them all in their beds, lonely, wanting to tiptoe down the hall and slip into my bed as badly as I wanted to visit each of theirs.
Fuck. I had it bad, and it showed no signs of going away.
9
Amber
Lying down made the world spin a bit too much, so I sat up. Waylon had gone, and the house was quiet. The boys would be out on the ranch now, checking on the cows, closing off one pasture and opening another, moving the herd…whatever they’d been doing when their mother arrived. I figured it hadn’t been moving the herd, since Waylon had been working on his car. It must be a slow day.
I went downstairs and finished the sandwich Waylon had made for me. I noticed his mother hadn’t eaten much of hers, either. Apparently, avocado-truffle oil mayo was too trendy for Wyomingites. When I’d finished my sandwich, I felt a little more stable. But then the humiliation set in. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten drunk again and screwed up my life even more. Well, I could, as that was pretty much the norm. Except for almost stabbing someone with a pitchfork. That was brand spanking new Amber behavior.
I plunked onto the couch and pulled the knit throw off the back, pulling it tight around me. The blanket was a new addition I thought livened up the place, and now it was coming in handy. I snuggled down into it, and finally fell asleep.
When I woke, it was to the smell of frying meat and the sound of music in the kitchen. With the blanket still clutched around me, I got up and trudged in.
“Hey, Princess,” Sawyer said, shooting me a smile. He was at the stove, where two pans steamed and sizzled. “Up for some cowboy tacos?”
“Ungh,” I managed.
Sawyer laughed and stepped over, kissing me on the forehead before turning to grab a bag of tortillas from the fridge. “I’ll take that as a hell yes.”
“Need some help?” I asked, trying to wet the inside of my mouth with my parched tongue.
“Nah, sit down, put your feet up, and enjoy watching the master.”
“Your humbleness always astounds me,” I muttered, flopping into a chair.
“Want a beer?”
“I think I’m good on the alcohol for today.”
Sawyer laughed as he threw a dash of pepper into each pan. “Three glasses of w
ine isn’t that bad.”
“Yeah, my glasses were more like doubles. So by the time I had yours, that was like my fifth glass. And it was, like…noon.”
“Wait until we get a real snow,” he said. “If we’re stuck in here, it’s whiskey time all the time.”
I imagined what would happen if we all got drunk together. It wasn’t exactly an unpleasant thought. But I’d promised to be good, and I was going to.
“Can I go ring the dinner bell?” I asked, standing.
“Sure thing, Princess,” he said. “Dinner’s about on.”
After eating and cleaning up the kitchen, we sat around the fire in the living room, though I declined the invitation to have a beer with them. My head was aching from all the red wine I’d consumed earlier.
“Should I go upstairs?” I asked. “I really will hang out in my room when you’re here if it bothers you to have me around. And you really don’t have to babysit me. I’m sorry about drinking your wine, too. It won’t happen again.”
“We don’t want you to hang out in your room,” Sawyer said, taking a swig of beer. “You’re a guest here, and you’re welcome to all the wine you can drink.”
“Just maybe not when our mother is around,” Holden said, offering me a small smile.
“Okay, in my defense, she wasn’t here when I started drinking,” I said. “And I blame you, Sawyer. If you hadn’t given me an extra glass…”
“You wouldn’t have gone after her with a pitchfork?” he asked.
They all laughed, but it was warm laughter, and I found myself joining them. A safe feeling of comradery filled the room. Was I part of this now? For the moment, I was one of them, accepted and embraced. I looked around at the three of them, my stepbrothers. Seeing them all laughing together, happy and relaxed, filled my chest with an unbearable sweetness.
We stayed up talking until it grew late, and I nodded off. I woke to find Waylon bending over me, sliding an arm under my legs and one under my back.
“What are you doing?” I asked sleepily, draping my arm over his shoulder.
Wrangle Me, Cowboys: A Reverse Harem Forbidden Romance (Coyote Ranch Book 2) Page 4