by Marla Monroe
“I’m sure it will be fine, but you really should have let me cook. It’s the least I can do after throwing myself on you like I have.”
“Put that out of your mind. You needed help, and we’re here. Stop worrying about it and relax.” Luke pulled her along behind him as he headed out the door and down the stairs.
They walked through the living room into the kitchen. Grant was standing at the stove, cooking.
“I figured you would be down soon. I’m fixing something to eat. I’ve already been out to check on the animals, Luke. We’ll need to add hay in a little while. I didn’t do that.” Grant handed him a plate of food.
Luke placed the plate of food in front of Valerie at the table. She sniffed and smiled. It was definitely not her cooking. She waited on the others before she began to eat. Grant frowned then nodded when she began eating. It wasn’t terrible, but there was definite room for improvement.
“I can cook. While I’m here, you should let me help with the kitchen things.”
“That would be good,” Grant said at the same time Luke disagreed.
“You’re our guest.”
The two men frowned at each other.
“She doesn’t have to cook if she doesn’t want to, but if she wants to, I say let her.” Grant took a bite of his food and stared at Luke.
Great, they were already at odds over her. No, this wouldn’t work out at all. Why couldn’t it be like with her friend’s men? They got along just fine. They weren’t brothers, though. Maybe that was the reason. As a rule brothers didn’t always get along.
“Stop thinking so hard over there and eat. You need the nourishment.” Grant pointed his fork toward her plate.
Valerie began to eat. She really was hungry. She finished most of what was on her plate. She stood up and gathered the men’s along with hers and carried them over to the sink. She started the dishwater only to have Luke pick up a drying towel and stand next to her.
“You don’t have to help, Luke. I can wash dishes by myself.”
“I want to help. Besides it’s my turn to do the dishes anyway. If Grant cooks, I clean up, and vise versa.”
She shrugged and began washing. They worked in companionable silence until the last dish was dried and put away. She began wiping down the stove and table. Luke watched her with a small smile. Then Grant was walking back in the room, grabbing his coat, and nodding his head toward the door.
“Luke, let’s go feed the cattle.” He pulled on gloves and opened the door to the early-morning chill.
Luke scrambled into his coat, gloves, and hat to follow his brother outside. This left Valerie all alone. She stood in the middle of the kitchen wondering what she needed to do next. Well, they could use some bread. She would make some, provided they had flour. To her delight, they had some of the rough, unprocessed kind. She quickly made up a couple of loaves and sat them out to rise.
With nothing more to do, she walked into the living room and looked around. The fire seemed to be fine, so she didn’t need to add a log. She curled up on the couch in front of it and leaned her head back against the cushion to contemplate her problem some more. So far, she hadn’t come up with a solution, though.
Although Grant had been perfectly civil to her this morning, he hadn’t appeared warm or welcoming. She knew he was sexually attracted to her by the bulge in his jeans. She imagined he was quite large, by the size of it. Even the addition of thermal underwear couldn’t account for all of the appearance of size. The fact that he could be aroused and still not warm up to her didn’t speak well of any sort of relationship that would last. The only possibility available to her outside of leaving was to stick around with Luke and live with the lack of intimacy between her and Grant. She still didn’t think that would work.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat on the couch, but when the men hadn’t returned by the time the fire had begun to die down, she decided to put another log on. Once she had done that, Valerie climbed the stairs and put the big bedroom to rights. She could tell that the room hadn’t been used before. She wondered why she hadn’t noticed before that the sheets smelled a bit musty. The room was in desperate need of a good cleaning. She decided it was something she could do. If she were going to stay there for any length of time, it would be a good thing to have a clean room.
With this thought in mind, Valerie located cleaning supplies and went to work on the bedroom. At some point, she heard the men return, stomping their feet and cursing the cold. She hurried downstairs to clean up the snow that was bound to be on the floor from their wet boots.
“Hey there, Valerie.” Luke acted as if he hadn’t thought she would still be there.
She had promised to talk to him before she left. She guessed he hadn’t really believed her.
“Hi, Luke. Are the animals all okay?”
“Doing fine. They’ve been fed and watered. We’ll have to check on them again tonight before bed, but they’re good for the rest of the day.”
Grant brushed by her then stopped. “You smell like furniture polish.”
“Oh, I’ve been cleaning the big bedroom. It was dusty.”
“You don’t have to do that, Valerie,” he said.
“I know, but I need something to keep me busy. I can’t just sit around all day with nothing to do. I’m bored.”
“Suit yourself. Just know that you don’t have to.”
“Is that bread I see on the stove?” Luke walked over to look underneath the cloth she had placed over the top of the two rising loaves.
“Yes, don’t mess with it. I want it to rise.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned and carefully replaced the cloth.
“You made bread?” Grant’s interested appeared piqued. “That’s great. Thanks, Valerie.”
She watched him walk off toward the living room.
“Don’t mind him. He doesn’t say a lot anyway.”
“I wish he didn’t dislike me so much.” She sighed.
“He likes you fine, Valerie. He’s normally quiet. Now he’s worried that you’ll leave because of him, and he doesn’t want you to.”
“Are you sure about that, Luke? I mean he really wasn’t happy about me when I got here last night.”
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. Then he pulled back and lifted her chin with one finger.
“I promise he doesn’t want you to leave at all. Give him a chance, Valerie. Please?”
“I’ll try.” She gently pulled from his embrace and wondered where to go.
If she went into the living room, she figured Grant was in there. Staying in the kitchen didn’t seem like a good idea either, since there was nothing for her to do in there right then. She decided to return upstairs and finish cleaning the bedroom. It seemed the safest thing to do at the moment.
She turned away from Luke and walked into the living room to find that Grant was nowhere to be seen. Great, did that mean he was upstairs? Valerie didn’t know what to do now.
“You look lost. What’s wrong?” Luke asked when he followed her into the room.
“Oh, I was trying to decide whether to finish the bedroom upstairs or just sit downstairs for a while. I don’t want to bother Grant. He must be up there.” Valerie clasped and unclasped her hands.
“Don’t worry about cleaning, but more than likely, Grant is in the office instead of upstairs.” He took her hand and pulled her toward the couch. “Sit with me and let’s get to know each other better.”
Valerie wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but she sat down anyway. If he seemed to be moving too fast, she would escape upstairs to finish cleaning. She wanted him—them—but still thought jumping into sex too soon would end up a disaster, relationship-wise. Still, she let him pull her down to sit next to him.
“Tell me about yourself.” He left his arm loosely over the back of the couch behind her but had turned to face her.
“Well, like I told you before, I’m originally from Tennessee.” She filled him in on her background up until she ended up
at their doorstep.
“Hell. You’ve been through it, Valerie. You deserve a little happiness.”
“Oh, I’ve been happy. I enjoyed taking care of my brothers and sisters. I hated watching my mother work herself to death, but for the most part, we had a good life. I don’t want you to feel sorry for me.”
“Still, you should never have been allowed to walk away from your second family. You were part of it. What you did was admirable, but foolish.”
She lifted her chin and frowned at him. “I did what I thought was best, and I would do it again.”
“No doubt you would.” Grant walked in from around a corner by the front door. “You’re a brave woman, Valerie.”
“Not really. I was scared to death the entire time.”
“Doesn’t make you any less brave. It just meant that you had a good head on your shoulders. Surviving like you did was nothing short of miraculous. It took brains to outwit the wolves, black market scum, and lack of food.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“Sure you did. You could have just sat down and given up, but you didn’t.”
She couldn’t believe that Grant was talking to her like this after the night before. It seemed like an abrupt change to her. Had he thought about it and changed his mind, or did he feel guilty and was trying to assuage his guilt?
“Um, okay. I’m going upstairs to finish cleaning the bedroom. I’ll be back down in time to fix something for lunch.” She stood up and started toward the stairs.
“I really meant it when I said you don’t have to do anything, Valerie.” Grant stopped her and looked down at her.
“I know, but I want to. I can’t just sit around. I’ll get bored.”
“Okay, as long as you understand that.”
“Want some company while you clean?” Luke had been quiet up until now.
“No thanks. I mean, unless you really want to.” She realized she sounded rude when she said no.
“Luke, let’s go shovel some snow instead,” Grant said.
Luke grumbled but followed Grant back into the kitchen. She listened to the low murmur of voices as they got ready to go out into the cold. Then the door opened and shut a few seconds later. With a renewed sense of interest, she climbed the stairs to tackle the bedroom once again. Maybe things were turning around after all. Maybe, just maybe, Grant would mellow out toward her. She really hoped so. She liked Luke a whole lot and despite Grant’s initial cold-shoulder treatment, she liked him. Her body really liked both of them, reacting like a dog in heat whenever they were close. Like now, she was sure her pants were soaked in the crotch.
Once she had finished the bedroom, she checked a windup alarm clock by the bed and found that it was nearing the lunch hour. The men would be inside before long needing a hot meal after being out in the cold winter air.
Looking in the pantry afforded several viable options. She chose another can of soup and a potato from the wire bin that held them. She boiled the potato then cut it up to add to the now-warming concoction. It added a little more substance to the sadly lacking canned variety. She’d put the bread in the oven and hoped it would be ready by the time the men were ready to eat. With everything ready, Valerie returned to the living room to sit and wait on the men once again.
Nearly thirty minutes later, she heard the kitchen door open and close with a swirl of cold air snaking around her ankles. She shivered and got up to check on the bread. The men were busy taking off their coats and fussing about the snow.
“You’d think it was ten below out there as cold as it feels,” Luke complained.
“It probably is with the windchill.”
“Fuck, I’m cold. I’m going to go stand by the fire.”
“Valerie, how long until lunch is ready?” Grant asked.
“Give me about ten minutes to warm the soup back up. The bread should be ready. It will be hot and fresh.”
“Fresh bread sounds really good.
Grant followed Luke into the other room. She smiled. He sounded sincere and he seemed to be trying to be kind. She didn’t want to leave them. She would stay as long as he seemed happy with her being there.
Chapter Four
Luke pushed back from the table that night after a wonderful dinner of roast, carrots, and potatoes. He couldn’t fault her cooking one bit. He glanced over at Grant and found that he was smiling some as well. Grant hadn’t smiled a lot since his ex-wife’s betrayal. To see him smile meant a lot to Luke.
“That was an excellent meal, Valerie. Thank you.” Grant’s face seemed relaxed.
“It really was.”
“Thanks. It was just a simple one. We can have roast sandwiches tomorrow for lunch if you like.”
“Sounds good to me.” He began gathering the dishes.
He planned to wash. To his amazement, Grant gathered up some as well and headed for the sink. He even ran the dishwater.
“I’ll wash, Luke. You usually do. I don’t mind washing.”
“That’s only because she’s already cleaned up most of it.”
Grant smiled again. “You’ve got me there.”
Luke shook his head. The change in Grant was nothing short of amazing. He hoped it lasted. So far it seemed that Valerie was going to be good for his brother.
“Hey, what are you doing?” He caught her putting a log on the fire.
“The fire was dying down. I just added one.” She looked as if he’d chastised her.
“It’s okay to add wood, but you don’t need to do it. It’s too heavy for you. I would hate for you to hurt yourself, or worse, lose your balance and fall into the fire.”
“Oh, well. I’m used to doing things like this. I’m sturdier than I may look.”
“Doesn’t matter. If one of us is around, you let us do it for you. Let us pick up anything heavy. There’s no need for you to here, Valerie.”
* * * *
She shrugged and sat back on the couch. If they insisted on adding wood to the fire, she would let them. It was a novelty to her after having always taken care of everything in the past. Maybe she had done more than her share sometimes, but she appreciated that her friend’s family had taken her in after the world changed. Otherwise, she would have had nowhere to go and probably ended up in a much worse situation.
“I’m going to have to go help Grant with the animals in a few minutes. We’ll be a while with the snow. We might have to shovel some more if we’ve gotten much more of it. There are plenty of books if you want to try to read by the lamp.”
“I think I’ll just sit here and enjoy the fire before I head upstairs. I’ll probably take a quick shower. It will be too cold for a bath.”
“Good idea. We should be back inside before too late.”
Luke sat down next to her and slowly bent his head to kiss her. She knew it was coming. He gave her plenty of time to turn her head or push him away, but she wanted his kiss. Despite all her best intentions to hold off, she couldn’t stop her body’s response to him.
When his lips touched hers, Valerie opened to him at the touch of his tongue to her lips. He groaned and slid it inside to rub along hers. He sucked in her bottom lip and licked at it before releasing it and slowly pulling back. His eyes had gone dark and heavy lidded. She was sure hers were the same.
“We’ll be back later. Stay warm.” He stood up and disappeared into the kitchen.
She licked her lips and imagined she could still taste him. His kiss promised her of more even better things to come. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for that yet. Maybe. She didn’t know.
The fire crackled and danced as she stared into it without really seeing it. Instead, she imagined her naked body pressed tightly between the two men. She could remember the feel of Luke’s cock against her back that morning. She still saw the size of Grant’s as outlined by his pants. They were well-endowed men. She wanted to taste them, their cocks, their chests.
She closed her eyes and allowed her mind to wonder over the possibilities with them. Maybe, G
rant would grow to like her and she could become their wife. She would cook and clean for them during the day and warm their bed at night. Maybe eventually they would have children. She would finally have her own family to love and care for. She sighed. It was a nice dream, but one that probably wouldn’t come true.
She noticed that the fire had once again died down. The men would need a warm fire to chase away the chill when they returned. Since they weren’t around to add the log, she did it. Luke had said when they were there. They weren’t. She smiled and stirred the fire then lit a lamp. She would need it to go upstairs in a little while.
After about thirty minutes, she found herself nodding off. She decided if she didn’t want to still be sleeping on the couch when the men returned, she needed to hurry up and take her shower. They would want warm water for theirs later.
Considering that it was cold upstairs, her shower didn’t take long. Drying off took even less time. She pulled on the long-sleeve shirt of Grant’s from the night before and dove beneath the covers. Chills chased up and down her arms as she tried to warm up in a little ball beneath the covers. She was wide awake now, and with the cold, she didn’t think she would fall asleep anytime soon.
Before too long, she heard the slam of the kitchen door downstairs along with stomping feet. She hoped they cleaned up the floor so there wouldn’t be ice there when she went down to cook breakfast the next morning. Falling on her butt wouldn’t impress them one bit.
It wasn’t long before she heard the men tromping up the stairs. Grant walked into the room followed closely behind by Luke. They whispered to each other.
“I’m awake, guys.”
“Sorry, hope we didn’t wake you up making so much noise downstairs. Not used to there being someone else here.” Luke walked over to the bed and smiled down at her.
“No, I was still awake. It took a little while for me to warm up after my shower.”
“I’ll take a shower in the one down the hall, Luke. You use this one.” Grant walked out, leaving them there together.
“I’ll be out in a few minutes, Valerie.”