Kansas Flame [Kansas Heat 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jenny Penn

  She couldn’t have said more clearly how much she cared. As touched as Nick was by her concerned, it didn’t sway him from his position.

  “If you think I’m going to walk away and leave you to fight this battle on your own, you are crazier than everybody says. I’m staying. Get used to the idea.”

  The mixture of hope and fear that crossed through Lindsay’s expression brought Nick away from the door. Unable to help himself, he wrapped her back up in his arms, allowing the scent of apples and cinnamons to fill him with a potent mix of both lust and contentment. He didn’t ever want to lose this, couldn’t even stand the idea of letting go.

  “You don’t know what you’re saying.” Mumbled against his shirt, Lindsay’s complaint held such sadness that Nick felt his heart clench and his hold tighten.”

  “Tell me,” he whispered against her hair, soothed by the feel of her gentle curves pressing against his in soft surrender. “Tell me why you’re scared. Let me help you.”

  “No.” Lindsay pulled back as she stiffened up. “You can’t help, not without the risk of getting hurt. I won’t allow that.”

  “You’re so sweet.” Nick smiled, touched by her earnest expression. She looked so grimly serious and so damn cute he just wanted to eat her up. “And you are going to tell me what I want to know.”

  “Or?”

  “Or nothing.” Nick shrugged. “There is no ‘or’ because there is no alternative. You are going to tell me what I want. The only question is whether or not you’ll be explaining everything clothed or stripped.”

  Chapter 19

  Dennis eyed Cooper as he considered the door that had just slammed shut in the other man’s face. Cooper looked ready to rip through the wood with his bare hands. Pumped and primed for violence, the tension holding the big man stiff spoke for itself. So did the injuries on the man the paramedics had hauled away in the ambulance.

  Andrew Cooper, the biggest player in the county, had finally settled on a honey. It was just a piece of luck that the woman he’d chosen happened to be Lindsay Bryne. Whether it was bad luck or good had yet to be determined.

  While Cooper’s growing attachment to the girl could become a very serious problem if he ever figured out what Dennis and his boys had buried in her barn, it also meant he wasn’t likely to leave the girl out here unattended. That might just be the opportunity Dennis needed to get the money moved.

  Of course it wouldn’t hurt to put a little pressure on Cooper and make sure he made the right decision.

  “Even if she doesn’t want to come down and swear out a complaint, somebody has to make a statement.” Keeping his thoughts to himself, Dennis played the role of concerned sheriff well. “Otherwise, when that man recovers enough to tell his side of the story I won’t have any choice but to believe him, and I’m assuming here that’s not what you want.”

  “Don’t worry.” Cooper’s tone held the hard assurance of a man who knew what battle lay ahead but didn’t doubt his victory. “We’ll both be there tomorrow morning, ready to answer any and all of your questions.”

  “I guess that will have to work.” Dennis paused to pointedly measure Cooper with his gaze. Leaning in close to the other man, he dropped his tone to a low whisper. “You realize I’m not going to be able to hold him for long, not with all his injuries and you and the girl without any. If he’d at least landed one punch, I could up the charges to a felony, but as things are…”

  Dennis didn’t finish that thought, but let his voice trail off as he straightened back up to offer Cooper a shrug. “He’s going to be free and I don’t have the manpower to sit around and watch the girl all day.”

  “That’s not a problem. Between Nick and me, we’ll keep an eye on her,” Cooper assured him, giving Dennis only half of what he sought and leaving him to press for the rest.

  “You moving out here?” he asked, letting a smirk lift his lips as he quirked a brow up.

  “Yeah, right.” Cooper snorted, sharing Dennis’s smile. “Not in this lifetime. Lindsay will be moving in with us, so if you need to get in touch with her, you know where to find her.”

  “Good.” That’s all Dennis wanted to hear. Cooper could manage Lindsay, leaving him to handle his deputies. Glancing down at the men gathered around the porch steps, Dennis caught Travis’s eye and knew he had the more difficult task.

  “Don’t be late,” Dennis warned Cooper.

  “We won’t. I promise,” Cooper swore, following Dennis to the top of the steps before stalling out to watch him descend.

  Conscious of the cowboy’s gaze, Dennis tried to get back to his car without any kind of scene, but Travis was impatient as always. At least the idiot had the good sense to wait until they were out of earshot but he just couldn’t let things rest.

  “Well?” Travis blocked Dennis’s path, crowding in close along with the rest of the deputies.

  “Well, what?” Dennis kept his voice low just as he tried to keep his stance relaxed when what he really wanted to do was smash Travis’s face in. Just the thought of his deputy lying bleeding on the ground gave Dennis enough satisfaction to hold onto his rage and face his men with an open expression and a steady gaze.

  “Well, this is too perfect.” Travis actually smiled, a rare event that betrayed his excitement. “Something bad happens to Lindsay…we already got our fall guy.”

  “There ain’t no reason to risk that kind of violence, especially not when there is a safer alternative.” Dennis left it at that, intentionally keeping his thoughts to himself.

  Travis wasn’t the only asshole who could be irritating. Neither was Travis the only one who knew how to set up a trap. He was, however, the idiot about to walk into Dennis’s.

  “Please.” Travis snorted, taking the bait. “We haven’t got time for alternatives. We need solutions. If the boss man thought that asshole they took to the hospital had killed Lindsay…well, we all know what he would do.”

  They certainly did, that was if it went down like that. The likelihood is it wouldn’t.

  “You’re messing with way too many variables. What did I teach you? All of you?” Dennis glanced around the group but not a man among them would answer him. That didn’t deter him. “Simplicity is the key to getting away with it.”

  “And it is simple. We frame that asshole they took to the hospital and Cooper will kill him, leaving us with no loose ends. We could even put the money back and continue on as planned.” Travis glanced around the gathered group and posed his question to them. “Agreed?”

  “No.” Dennis stepped up to challenge his deputy directly, unable to let this insult pass despite knowing Cooper still watched them. “This isn’t a democracy, deputy, and you’re not going to touch that girl. Got me?”

  “Yeah. I’m reading you loud and clear.”

  There was a threat lingering in Travis’s tone. It matched his blank stare as he glared back at Dennis. That wasn’t the acceptance he wanted but he’d take it for the moment.

  “Good. Now get the hell out of my way.”

  Chapter 20

  Cooper waited until the last patrol car disappeared down the lane before turning back to the cabin. Behind the battered surface of the door, Lindsay waited. He could well imagine that she had her curses prepped and her fists curled. She, no doubt, stood ready to blast him the moment he stepped inside.

  While a part of Cooper knew that her anger was completely justified, it didn’t matter. Lindsay could pitch as big a fit as she wanted. It wouldn’t change anything. She wasn’t staying here tonight. In fact, she wasn’t staying here any night.

  Cooper might not know the name of the man he’d just beat up or what that man wanted Lindsay for, but he knew that he couldn’t stand the thought of her in pain and wouldn’t be able to sleep at night unless he knew she was safe. There was no better place to keep her safe and protected than in his home and in his bed tucked between Nick and him. That’s where she belonged. Whatever it took, Cooper would convince her of that fact.

  Braced and re
ady for battle, he shoved open the door and stepped into the cabin, fully prepared to have it out with Lindsay right then and there. She wasn’t ready, though. Instead of greeting him with an insulting list of demands, Lindsay could only grunt up at him. Bound and gagged with her legs and arms tied together behind her back, she could do little more than squirm as she glared up at him from the air mattress. That didn’t stop her from fighting the ropes keeping her lassoed like a calf at a rodeo.

  It was a pointless struggle, but one Cooper knew Lindsay would never give up on. There was no quit in the girl, which just added to her appeal.

  “So, is this your idea of persuasion?” Cooper smirked, thinking there just might be hope for his brother.

  “No.” Nick paused in the act of packing up Lindsay’s bags to cast a quick glance over at Cooper. “This is my idea of necessary. The sheriff gone?”

  “Yeah,” Cooper answered, not even bothering to tear his eyes from Lindsay.

  She made such a pretty picture, all flushed and sweaty…and at his mercy with the promise of vengeance glinting in her honeyed eyes. The raw, churning passion he saw reflected there had him throbbing with a need that simmered just beneath the boiling point. The things he could do to her…the things he ached to do…all those fantasies tormented him.

  “So, we’re all alone?”

  “Mmm-humm.”

  Lured in close by the visions dancing in his head, Cooper drew closer to Lindsay, who tensed beneath his gaze. He knew she could sense the dark desires churning within him, but there was no trace of fear darkening her eye. Neither did she flinch away from his touch as he reached out to brush a strand of hair back from her cheek.

  “We’re all alone now.”

  “Great. Then maybe you’d like to help out.” Nick straightened up. “Here take this out to the truck.”

  Lifting one of Lindsay’s bags, Nick chucked it in Cooper’s direction but he didn’t grab for it. Instead the satchel thumped into his chest and slid down his length to plop onto the floor. Cooper didn’t even spare it a glance as smiled down at Lindsay.

  “It looks like you got it all under control,” Cooper assured his brother. “Doesn’t it, lil’ bit?”

  That had Lindsay squirming and the scent of her arousal thickening. She could cuss all she wanted. There was no denying that sweet scent. All he had to do was slide his hands down her pants and he knew he’d be touching the creamy proof of her desire and the proof that Lindsay liked being tied up and at his mercy.

  “Hey, earth to Cooper!” Nick broke Cooper’s concentration as he stepped up to the other side of the mattress. “You ready to tell me what happened here tonight?”

  “I take it Lindsay didn’t fill you in.”

  “I couldn’t get squat out of her other than the fact that the lil’ bit doesn’t want us involved.” Nick paused to smirk down at the woman hog-tied between them. “Why do you think the ropes were necessary?”

  “And here I just thought they were for fun,” Cooper retorted, smiling over the dirty look Lindsay tried to shoot both of them. “But I get your point, because I couldn’t get any details out of the woman either. We’re just going to have to find a way to convince the lil’ bit to talk.”

  “Well then, I guess we better get going,” Nick suggested, ruining Cooper’s moment by bending down to hoist Lindsay up in his arms. His brother paused to glance pointedly at the bags at Cooper’s feet. “You going to get those?”

  “Maybe.” Cooper eyed Nick, knowing there was no way he could wrestle Lindsay from his brother. That didn’t mean he couldn’t ruin Nick’s victory. “She’s not going to fit in the truck like that.”

  “She will in the bed.”

  Cooper blinked, amazed that Nick would even suggest such a thing. “That’s not safe.”

  “It is if I sit back there with her and you drive really slowly.”

  “No. It isn’t and—”

  “And can you imagine what Lindsay’s going to do the moment we release her?”

  Yes, Cooper could. In fact he got hard just thinking what was to come. Now and here wasn’t the time to indulge those urges, not that they could be put on hold for long. They could wait, though, until there as a real bed available to roll around in.

  “I’ll drive slow.”

  “Yeah.” Nick snorted and turned for the door. “That’s what I thought.”

  Despite his promise, Cooper found it hard not to step down on the accelerator. It had been a long stressful night, one that had left him annoyed, horny, and starved. The last condition wasn’t helped by the delicious scents radiating out of the picnic basket Nick had left in the truck. Cooper’s stomach growled and churned, sending out a desperate plea almost as painful as the one boiling in his balls.

  Food or a fuck? He’d have to decide which one he wanted first. Maybe they could do both at the same time. That thought carried many possibilities, and without even thinking, his foot sank down against the gas pedal, sending the truck speeding down the lane.

  “Hey!” Nick hollered through the back window a second before his fist banged against it. “What are you trying to do? Kill us?”

  Cooper didn’t respond other than to lift his foot back off the accelerator. Forcing himself to focus on his driving, he managed to make it all the way back to the ranch without another slipup. He didn’t even rush up the back driveway as he wove his way around the barns and corrals towards the main house.

  Pulling the truck around to the front of the house, he parked deep in the shadows where nobody could catch a glimpse of them unloading Lindsay. Under the cloak of the moonless sky, he helped Nick cart her up the steps and into the rarely used formal living room. Cooper didn’t pause as he led the way up another flight of and straight to his bedroom.

  His brother didn’t object, probably because Nick’s room only had a twin bed. Cooper, on the other hand, had a king and an attached bathroom. That’s just where Cooper headed. He settled Lindsay’s bag onto the vanity’s long counter as Nick lowered her into the massive tub in the corner.

  “Watch out now,” Nick warned him as he reached for the rope binding Lindsay’s limbs. “We’re about to have a free woman on our hands.”

  The knot tucked between her wrists and ankles came undone with one good tug and almost instantly Lindsay was scrambling to her feet, her hands lifting to rip her gag away.

  “Before you say anything I just want to show you something,” Cooper warned her before turning toward the wardrobe built into the side of the bathroom. He pulled his key chain out and had the doors unlocked even as Lindsay began to light into him.

  “If you think I’m going to stand idly by and…and…” Lindsay stumbled over her words as Cooper pulled open the double doors to reveal his extensive toy collection. Her eyes rounded with the same shock that echoed in Nick’s stunned exclamation.

  “Holy shit.” Nick stepped up to admire Cooper’s collection with a grin that just kept on growing. “I knew you liked to play but this is something else. Is this leather? Are those glass?”

  “Yes and yes,” Cooper answered, not bothering to actually pay any attention to Nick’s questions.

  Instead his gaze remained locked on Lindsay as she stood there staring in stunned fascination at his toy chest. Cooper could almost feel the heat as she flushed with the telltale blush of arousal. That was just the response he’d hoped for and more than he’d dared to expect. Not that Cooper allowed his good fortune to humble him. Reaching around Nick, he pulled out one of his least favorite toys.

  “And this is a ball gag.” Holding it up for Lindsay to see he offered her the hard truth. “I don’t usually use it, preferring to hear my women beg and moan and scream, but if a lady doesn’t have anything nice to say…”

  Cooper let that trail off, leaving the threat implied and allowing her to stew over her own thoughts as he replaced the gag, confident it would not be needed in that moment. It wasn’t. Lindsay didn’t make a peep, didn’t even reject the hand Nick offered her.

  His brother
helped her out of the tub as he turned Lindsay to face him. They shared a look that ended with Nick offering her a smile that worried Cooper. His brother better not be thinking of backing down now. Not now. Not when Cooper’s dick was so swollen it felt ready to burst.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Lindsay breathed out in a husky whisper that betrayed her longing and made a mockery of her denial. “I’m not going to be intimidated by a couple of boys and their toys.”

  She might be wet and willing but Lindsay clearly didn’t intend on going down without a fight. White-hot need pulsed through Cooper as he rallied to her challenge. Moving in close enough to let her feel his heat, Cooper brushed the hair back from her face. The velvety feel of her cheek warmed beneath his palm as he tilted her chin up.

  Lindsay quivered and flushed as she stretched up to meet his lips as Cooper dipped his head, but he hesitated at the last second. Instead of granting her a kiss, he let his breath warm her lips along with his words.

  “I got more than a couple of toys and trust me, lil’ bit, I know how to use each and every one of them.”

  The flush tinting her cheeks darkened, spreading down her neck and disappearing into her shirt’s collar. His mouth went dry at the thought of following that trail all the way down to discover just how hot she actually was. He bet she was wet and soft and ready to be fucked. His cock pulsed, hungry for the feel of her slick, virginal channel clenching tight around him.

  “Plus, he’s got me.” Nick crowded into Lindsay from behind, forcing her tight against the throbbing length of Cooper’s erection. “And you know what they say.”

  “Two dicks make a woman come harder than one,” Cooper finished for his brother.

  If only they could prove that to Lindsay right then and there, but she was too innocent to be taken like that without preparing her first. She needed to be stretched first. Cooper eagerly anticipated how much fun it would be to train her to handle that kind of pleasure. One day, she’d beg for it.

  “No.” As if she read his very thoughts, Lindsay started with a hard jerk as she squirmed her way out from between them. “I will not let you play with me just because I amuse you.”