by Vivian Arend
The sound of running water met his ears and Blake stepped into the dimly lit room, wondering why his brothers had turned on only half the lights. Splashing noises echoed. Leaving his kit on the sink counter, he rounded the corner to the showers.
And froze.
The three showerheads in the open room were separated by nothing but space. Steam filtered the dim lighting into a moonshine glow.
All he saw was wet, naked skin. Jaxi’s skin. Every inch of her bare to his gaze as water poured from the middle shower, streaming in waves over her body. She faced away from him, head thrown back as she shifted to allow the water to slip over her face and down her chest. Blake, his body hot and needy, watched in a daze as the shampoo rinsed from her hair and undulated down her back, tiny bubbles racing over the curve of her waist. His gaze followed the bubbles along the gentle swell of her hips and the full curves of her ass. Her skin was pale pink from the heat of the water, faint tan lines showing on her thighs and arms.
His mouth went completely dry. Retreat. It had to happen—he had to turn and leave before she spotted him. Yet, no matter how loud his brain screamed at him, his feet remained glued in place as she slid the soap over her body. As she lifted her hands to brush her hair back from where it clung to her shoulders in white ribbons.
Blake’s cock tented his boxers as Jaxi rotated under the showerhead, turning the front of her body to his sight. Her nipples were soft. Tender, juicy pink berries crowning full, taut curves. The perfect size to fill his hands and still allow him to take her into his mouth. Water slid in rivulets over her belly and through the pale blonde curls visible at the junction of the long legs he’d fantasized about so many times. Jaxi’s eyes were closed, and she swayed as she washed, her hands slipping over her body in a way that made Blake heat to near boiling just from watching her. She hummed, quiet and low, her hips moving to the faint tune.
Guilt shot through him. He had no right to watch her, no right to invade her privacy and treat her like anything but the beautiful, caring person he knew her to be. She wasn’t his to admire.
God help him, he wanted her to be.
He swallowed hard and tried to peel his gaze away. Tried to not watch as her hands covered her breasts, then slicked over her belly in slow circles. Tried to glance away as she slipped her fingers gently through the curls covering her pussy, over her ass, washing every inch of her luscious body clean.
Blake watched, motionless and noiseless for so long he felt like a statue, every bit of his body gone as hard and rigid as his aching shaft. Indecision held him, immobilized him. The rush of blood through his veins drowned out the part of his common sense saying he needed to leave. The pounding faded everything logical and rational away in him and stripped him bare to need and desire.
His eyes needed him to stay here, to fill his brain with the vision of her glowing skin, her seductive movements. His hands needed to touch her, run over her curves in imitation of the water caressing in endless sweeps. His mouth needed to taste—not only her lips, but her breasts and the spot on her back where the skin dimpled above her ass.
He desired her. Every fiber of his being wanted to show her how much, but his conscience kept kicking his feet from under him before he could cross the room.
This was Jaxi.
He wished he had never walked down the hallway.
Jaxi opened her eyes, her gaze unfocused for a second before she noticed him standing in the steamy room like some ghostly Peeping Tom. Her quick intake of breath showed clearly enough she didn’t expect anyone, hadn’t realized she’d been putting on a show.
Now was a perfect time for him to drop his head and slip away. He couldn’t do it. She stared back at him through the mist hanging in the air, her eyes as big as silver dollars. She bit her bottom lip, and he fought a mental battle to leave, fought to stay quiet.
Then he noticed her nipples change. Tightening even as he looked at her. Electric pulses shot through him, and his hands itched to touch her, to lift the weight of her breasts and lap at those gems that had grown erect beneath his gaze.
Jaxi turned off the water and stepped slowly toward him, head held high. She sauntered up, slippery and wet, naked as a jaybird. Her skin glowed with heat as she stopped inches away, staring unendingly with those mesmerizing grey eyes. She reached out, her naked skin brushing his shoulder. She drew back, her arm clasping a towel she’d grasped from the hook beside his head.
He thought she’d wrap herself up quick. Instead she rotated her fingers and let the towel hang as she held the fluffy fabric to him. He glanced down, saw the way her hand trembled even as she put on a bold face and kept her body motionless under his heated gaze. He reached for her, his hand moving of its own accord before his brain fully engaged.
What brain? All the blood he needed for thinking had pooled in his groin.
This was the second time she’d taken him by surprise, and he couldn’t make the same mistake. He’d been haunted since the first incident.
He couldn’t let anything happen. It wasn’t right for them to be together.
Blake withdrew his hand.
And fled.
7
The morning passed in a blur of activity. Jaxi cooked and cleaned with a vengeance, but deep inside a huge lump sat and burned at her innards. Blake hadn’t said good morning to her. He’d avoided her gaze at breakfast and hightailed it from the house as quick as a jackrabbit. She wasn’t sure what to do next because after she’d crawled into her bed last night she realized she’d been way out of line.
Apologize? That would be smooth. She could hear herself now. “Sorry for getting naked and hoping you’d ravish me in your parents’ house with your brothers just down the hall.”
Damn. How was she supposed to get him to make a move when they lived in the same house? With the whole family always around or popping up unexpectedly? As much as she loved his family, it was Blake she wanted.
This wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d first imagined.
After dinner Matt tugged her aside. “You want to go to the children’s summer theater performance at the community hall this Wednesday?”
She hesitated, panic flooding her. Not Matt too. Sweet, considerate, usually insightful Matt. He excited her about as much as a bouquet of dandelions. The expression on her face must have shown her fear because he chuckled and quickly reassured her. “I don’t mean with me, Jaxi. Hell if you need that kind of complication in your life right now. Not to mention you know Helen would have my balls if I stepped out on her.”
Her muscles unclenched slowly as he patted her shoulder. A pat from him felt proper, caring and supportive. It wasn’t a cop-out like the treatment from Blake the other day. If any of the Colemans was a big-brother figure to her, it would be Matt.
“I’m already going to the hall on Wednesday,” Jaxi said. “I promised to seat people and sell tickets for the raffle. Plus do cleanup after.”
“Maybe you should have someone help you. I hear Blake is free on Wednesday, and I bet he would give you a hand if you asked.”
Jaxi snorted. “You here on his behalf? I don’t think your brothers are too shy to ask me if they want to do something with me, Matt. They’re grown men, they’ve got tongues in their heads.”
He stopped and stared out the window for a minute before he answered. “Well…yeah, we might be all grown, but that doesn’t mean we can all see what’s right in front of our noses. Some of us don’t make the best decisions for ourselves because we try too hard to do what we think is proper for everyone else.”
Cryptic, even for Matt. Jaxi leaned a hip on the counter. “Okay…”
He smiled before reaching to tweak her nose. “As for not being shy, you never know. Sometimes it’s the biggest and seemingly boldest animals you’ve got to gentle along real slow and easy to get the right results. Too fast and they spook.”
Her face flushed with heat, and she busied herself wiping the sink to avoid looking him in the eye. Oh lordy, did Matt know what had happened
last night? How shockingly she’d behaved?
“If you have a little extra time this afternoon, you can switch your stuff into the far basement bedroom. Blake told me this morning he’s taking the guest cabin so you can have a real bed, and we’ll be able to use the office again.”
Jaxi’s heart choked off her throat. What had she done?
Matt watched her walk away, her expression of dismay showing all too clearly something had gone down sideways.
He stepped outside and sucked in a deep breath of the late August air. He didn’t know if he should be happy that he wasn’t the only one who had a setback last night or not. He didn’t wish Jaxi and Blake anything but the best, even if it pissed him off royally that Blake had someone willing to show at every turn how much she admired him and the bastard kept pushing her away. Whereas he had someone he loved who simply wouldn’t admit it back.
And then last night…
Fuck.
He drove to the north field to fix a pump that was acting up. Diving into a frustrated tussle with rusted pipes and broken water lines was preferable to the mental wrestling he’d been doing for the past twelve-plus hours.
A line of dust headed his direction, his cousin’s shiny new Toyota drawing closer. Matt wiped the sweat from his brow with his shirtsleeve and waited for Gabe to park on the far side of the gate.
“Uncle Mike called. Said you’ve got a seized pump?”
“She’s dead.”
Gabe handed forward the replacement part Matt needed. “Just so happens I’m doing the same sorry task as you today. Want to work together? It’ll save time.”
Matt nodded. “I’d enjoy the company.”
They worked easily together, slipping the new part into place and adjusting the attachments. Matt twisted the tap, and water filled the trough. “This one’s done.”
“You want to drop your truck at the main gate and use mine to work the fields?” Gabe asked. “I’ve got extra pumps with me, and tools.”
Matt followed his cousin back across the field. The whole time his dilemma with Helen repeated like a scratched CD. He jumped into the cab with Gabe, momentarily distracted by the new vehicle. “Damn nice in here. You win the lottery or something?”
Gabe shook his head. “Just don’t have to spend my money on keeping a woman happy, like you.”
Fuckdamnshit. “Solo as always, hey, Gabe?”
“Damn right. I know what to do with a woman, but it’s gonna take more than a sweet fuck to make me want to give up my freedom like you Six Pack boys seem bound and determined to do. I hear Blake’s being pursued by Jaxi again. When he gonna give up running and lay down in defeat?”
“Hell if I know.”
“Yeah, then there’s Daniel. He still sweet on Sierra?”
Matt held tight to the roll bars as Gabe cleared the cattle gate en route to the next pump. “She ditched him a couple of months back. In the spring.”
Gabe swore. “For serious? I hadn’t heard that. Thought she was aiming to get him to the altar before the year was out.”
Another woman Matt didn’t understand. “Remember last winter when the mumps went through town? Daniel never had them as a kid and caught them.”
“I remember.”
“She got worried about him not being ‘right’ afterward and told him to get checked at the doctor.”
Gabe snorted. “Not being right? What the hell was she worried about?”
Matt sighed. “Turns out Daniel’s shooting blanks, and Sierra wanted a big family. She dumped him right after the results came in.”
“That’s fucked up. I thought that was usually the guy’s deal breaker, not the girl’s.” Gabe shook his head, pausing the truck by another gate and waiting for Matt to hop out to open it. “Damn incredible the things some women get into their brain as to being important.”
The words impacted harder than his cousin intended. Matt popped the wire at the top of the gate and dragged open the fence, closing it after the truck and pacing slowly forward to rejoin Gabe. It was a perfect opportunity to approach a very awkward subject.
He sat heavily, staring at his cousin for a minute. Gabe’s side of the family was the blondest of all the Colemans. The girls in town were always raving about their angelic good looks. Yet, he knew without a doubt that Gabe had no interest in stealing his girl.
Matt dithered for another moment. There really was no way of saying this but straight out. “You ever done a threesome?”
Gabe hit the brakes a little too fast, jolting them both in their seats next to the pump. He frowned at Matt. “Where the fuck did that come from?”
“You mentioned the incredible things that women get into their heads. You won’t believe the one Helen dropped on me last night.”
“Threesomes? You guys got to talking about that?” Gabe undid his seat belt and whistled softly. “Hell, I figured with your family history you’d already been fooling around left, right and center with that woman.”
Matt banged his fist on the dash before cracking open the door and grabbing their supplies. “Don’t look at me for the freaky sex habits. Far as I know, it’s only Travis and the twins who get off on having more than one person in their bed.”
Gabe frowned. “Then if you’re not interested in trying it, why—?”
“Because she asked me. Told me she was curious. We ain’t…” Matt’s throat choked up tight. Damn, it was nearly impossible to have this talk. What was it going to be like if he actually got up the nerve to let someone into the bedroom with them? “We ain’t never been with anyone else, neither of us.”
His cousin snorted. “Okay, sorry. Not funny when you’re the one being jerked around, but from where I sit, this conversation is a ripper. You’re telling me you’ve only had sex with Helen? Ever?”
Matt nodded.
“Shit.”
They worked in silence for a couple of minutes, moving automatically to clear and repair the waterline. Matt rinsed off his hands and dried them on his shirt before standing and forcing the words out. “So, would you be interested?”
“For a piece of Helen?” Gabe nodded slowly. “Well, there’s the instant reaction of ‘hell yeah’, but I’ll be honest. The only way I’m willing to do this is if you’re sure you’re not going to want to kick my ass around for the next twenty years. You sure you want someone in her bed that you’ll see forever?”
Matt had thought this through a million different directions. “Having a stranger touch her would be worse. From the grapevine gossip I figure you know how to treat a woman.”
Gabe leaned back on his heels, his hat cocked to the side. His ever-present teasing grin had disappeared. “It must have rocked you hard to have her ask you for this.”
“You have no idea.”
“I don’t, so let’s say we make this conditional. You two think on it some more. If after you’ve had a chance to reconsider, she’s still keen, then let me know.” Gabe shuffled upright. “And Matt?”
“Yeah?”
“If this goes down? I promise I’ll treat her good. And I’ll never mention this conversation or what follows again, no matter what. Swear.”
Relief streaked through Matt. “Appreciate it. All of it.”
For the first time since Helen had made her request, he thought there might be something to look forward to. Making her fantasy come to life? Hell, he’d always thought he’d do anything for her.
Seems he was going to get the chance to prove it.
8
When Blake asked Jaxi if he could help her at the play, she wondered if Matt had manoeuvred the request. Still, by the time Wednesday rolled around and the performance was over, most of the awkwardness she’d caused by her boldness in the shower had faded. She wasn’t any closer to getting Blake to acknowledge he wanted her, but at least they were talking again.
They cleaned together, brooms in hand, sweeping the nearly empty hall. She was right in the middle of planning her next step, wondering what words to use to follow Matt’s suggestion of
“gentling the shy animal along” when Blake dropped a bombshell.
“I’ve been thinking about the other day.”
Lordy, so had she.
“This Royce fellow. How old did you say he is?”
She literally tripped over her own feet and landed on her butt. Did he just ask about Royce again? He wasn’t talking about the shower at all?
The man had gone mad.
“I don’t think I told you how old he is. What the hell does Royce have to do with anything?” She scrambled to her feet and brushed off her jeans. She’d spent the evening admiring how Blake capably dealt with last-minute disasters for the theater company. Admired the way he visited with the townsfolk during the intermission, chatting and laughing with people of all ages. Admired the way he looked in his well-worn jeans, all muscle and tightly bound energy.
And now he wanted to talk about someone she knew from college? Was he crazy?
“I figured you two must have a lot in common, if you were in the same classes and all. Maybe it would be good for you to select another class or two and spend time with the guy. If he lives in the area you could call and ask him to join us for supper.” Blake swept vigorously as he spoke, dust flying everywhere.
Jaxi dropped her broom and grabbed his with two hands, stilling his erratic motion. She jerked their bodies together so she could stare up into his face easier. He avoided her eyes for a moment before turning that ghastly smile on her, the one he’d worn ever since announcing he was going to be her big brother.
“Enough, Blake. You are seriously pissing me off and I want to know what your problem is.”
He shrugged and attempted to remove the broom from between them. “I thought it might be nice, if you like the guy, for you to spend time together.”
“I don’t want Royce.” Jaxi shook the handle violently before releasing the wooden shaft with a snap. She stepped back to glare at him, fists resting on her hips. “I want… Oh, damn it, do I have to spell it out for you? I thought it was pretty clear what I wanted the other night in the shower. I want you.”