by Jenny Penn
It was time and Cooper didn’t hesitate. It took less than thirty seconds undo the cuffs and less than half that time to rip the ropes binding his ankles free. He didn’t bother to assist Nick or even yank on pants. Blind to everything but the hunt and the need to fuck, Cooper didn’t even bother with boxers as he tore out of the bedroom.
Clothes would just get in the way. Whenever he caught up with Lindsay, wherever he caught her, she was going to bend over and give it to him right then and there. Once he’d blown the full load of need swelling his balls so painfully, he was going to drag that wench back to the bedroom and get down to the business of revenge.
It didn’t take a genius to track Lindsay. Cooper caught a glimpse of her sundress as she turned to flee down the back steps. Without hesitation he raced after her. The thunder of his footsteps quickly overtaking the rapid slaps of hers as she flew down the stairs. Lindsay hesitated at the base, coming to a stop and giving Cooper all the time he needed to catch her.
“I got you now, lil’ bit, you better get ready for—Dad? Mom?”
* * * *
Lindsay knew that for the rest of her life she’d remember that moment. From Dona’s bulged gaze to the eat-shitting grin growing across her husband’s face to Sally’s unhinged jaw, it was too pricelessly sweet to forget. It only got better when Cooper let out a feminine shriek and went racing back up the stairs, giving them all a view of his naked ass. Best of all, though, was the twinkle in Thomas’s gaze that assured her every ranch hand for over a hundred miles would know about his incident by the time the sun set.
It didn’t even matter what this scene cost her. Whatever price Cooper made her pay later, it would be worth it. Even knowing he was up there plotting her doom couldn’t dent Lindsay’s smile. Just like Allen and Thomas, she wore hers from ear to ear.
Chapter 38
Nick had a hard time controlling his chuckles as he listened to Cooper rant and rave. In all his years he’d never seen his big brother more outraged than he was right then, not that he didn’t have reason to be pushed to the edges of his control. The story he told between slamming dresser drawers and jerking on clothes was so outlandish that Nick couldn’t even picture it. He tried, though.
“And I’ll tell you this.” Cooper paused with his shirt clenched in his fist. “That woman knew what she was doing. She must have heard Mom and Dad return from church and decided to set me up. Well…she’s going to pay.”
Cooper laughed to himself as he wrenched his shirt over his head. The deep, dark rumbles of mirth held a dangerous note that made it even harder for Nick to hold back his own grin. His brother was on a tear, and he wasn’t wrong. Nick didn’t doubt for a moment that Lindsay had staged everything just perfectly to humiliate his brother in front of their parents.
That was just the wonderfully, wicked kind of mind she had. Even as Cooper huffed and puffed and stormed out of the room to go work on the RV, Cooper knew he wouldn’t love Lindsay half as much if she weren’t capable of driving him that crazy. She really was perfect for them. Now, hopefully, Cooper wouldn’t worry so much over the renovations they were having done to the RV.
Despite the fact that they’d been Cooper’s idea, Nick knew his brother worried that their plans were too extreme. They were taking bondage and domination well past a few toys and neither brother knew how Lindsay would react. It didn’t matter in the end to Nick if she objected to what they’d done, but he knew his brother would take such a rejection personally.
Those needs, they were a part of Cooper, and now he knew they were a part of Lindsay. There was no way she could complain about their intentions given what she’d just done. Whether she meant to or not, Lindsay had just given Cooper a free pass to indulge his most wild fantasies, fantasies that Nick would be joining in. That was more than enough a reason to smile like a loon.
His mother’s glare as he came down the back steps was good enough reason to stop. Tucking his chin into his chest, Nick kept his eyes down and quickly escaped outside, following Cooper’s lead and dedicating his day to pushing the renovations forward. They had to get the bus ready for whenever their parents decided to head home. Until then Nick vowed to spend as much time out of his mother’s path.
Cooper and he managed to do a pretty good job that Sunday. They even had some help. Prior to Lindsay’s little stunt that morning, Cooper had tried to limit the number of men who had access to the RV and the modifications they were making. Nick knew his brother had kept things quiet out of consideration for Lindsay’s feelings. That restraint had been removed along with the cuffs she’d used to leash them to the bed.
Thanks to Thomas spreading the tale of Cooper’s humiliation far and wide, they had a steady stream of men stopping by to chip in their two cents on what kind of retribution they’d take. A number of them also had suggestions for improving the upgrades Cooper and him were making. While it may not have pleased Lindsay to know it, orchestrating her downfall was becoming a group effort.
The lecture they were avoiding, though, couldn’t be shared. Despite the fact that they managed to stay out until well after dinnertime, there mother was still waiting for them the moment they stepped in the back door.
“There our boys are.”
Nick and Cooper’s mom greeted them with a smile and an overly enthusiastic tone that had both of them flinching. Whenever she started in with calling them her boys or her sons, they knew they were in deep trouble. This time was no exception.
“Come on in and take a load off,” she ordered them a she gestured to the two seats waiting for them at the island counter. “I kept your dinner warm.”
“Come on boys, have a seat.” Their father, who had been lounging at the island counter, rose off his stool as he gestured for them to take his place. “Your mom wants to have some words with you.”
And their dad was there to make sure they listened. Feeling like he’d been transported back into time and was sixteen again, Nick removed his shoes and ambled over to the counter to take his place while his mom pulled out two tin-foil-wrapped plates from the oven. Cooper settled in beside him and together they watched their mother present two heaping plates full of boiled liver and cabbage, their traditional punishment meal. They weren’t even entitled a little salt or pepper.
“Well, go on and eat,” their mother encouraged them as Cooper and Nick exchanged a look. “I cooked that especially for you…my two boys.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Cooper and Nick’s begrudging compliance echoed between them as they both began to hesitantly pick up the utensils that had been left out for them. Only once they’d begun to actually eat the barely edible meal did their mother sigh and settle into their father’s side.
“We have such handsome boys.” Their mom beamed at them as their dad wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t we, Allen?”
“If you say so.” Their dad eyed them with less enthusiasm. “Personally I think they look like two dumbasses.”
“Allen,” their mother rebuked him, though Nick knew it was his choice of words and not the sentiment that she disapproved of.
“What?” Their dad grunted, not the least bit contrite. “What else are you going to call a grown man who can’t remember to put on any pants before he leaves his bedroom?”
“I didn’t know anybody was home.” Cooper snarled from the seat beside Nick, his tone strained with the forced need to be polite. “I’m sorry I embarrassed you.”
“Honey, we’re not the ones who should be embarrassed,” their mother corrected instantly.
“Well, I’m sorry to tell you, Mom, but I’m not embarrassed,” Cooper stated loud and boldly, causing Nick to freeze right along with their parents. “This is my house and I was having some fun with my fiancée, there isn’t anything wrong with that.”
The very air in the room seemed to still as the entire universe marveled at Cooper’s brazenness. Then in the next second it crushed him beneath the weight of reality. A man didn’t stand up to his mother. He’d ‘ye
s’ her to death and then did what he must, every idiot new that, but Cooper had dared to defy fate and it bit him back.
“Your fiancée?” Their mom pulled away from their father, her spine straightening as she puckered up with an indignation that had Nick shifting as far away from Cooper as he could get. “Yours? Are you sure about that? Are you sure she’s not Nick’s? Because you two seem to be either confused or taking sharing to a whole new level. So I’d like to know what is really going on around here, if you don’t mind.”
Cooper exchanged a look with Nick. They’d prepped for those questions and knew the answers. That didn’t make them any easier to give.
“I’m going to marry Lindsay.”
“I’m going to marry her, too,” Nick declared, forcing himself to match Cooper’s firm and steady tone. “But in a more quiet, just-the-three-of-us kind of way.”
“Uh-huh.” Far from shocked though definitely not amused, their mom studied them and him for a long, tense minute. “Forgive me for asking, but isn’t that a tiny bit illegal?”
“Only if somebody complains.” Cooper’s shrugged, not particularly concerned about that problem. Neither was Nick. Money could buy a lot of silence and even more tolerance.
“And nobody’s got anything to complain about around here,” Nick assured her.
“Nobody but somebody with an axe to grind. Jesus, boys, did I raise you to be complete morons?” Their dad shook his head in disgust as he stared down Cooper and Nick with a look of complete irritation. “Or have you forgotten our enemies.”
“And who are they going to complain to? The sheriff?” Cooper snorted and shook his head at that.
“Don’t laugh,” their mom immediately admonished him. “Eventually there will be a new sheriff and he—”
“Won’t care.” Nick risked cutting off his own mother only because he news worthy of such a daring maneuver. “I promise that personally given I plan on running for sheriff.”
He managed to catch both his mother and brother’s attention with that one. As was typical, they had opposite responses. While Cooper was instantly pleased, their mother was far less happy.
“Well, all right.” Cooper nodded. “That’s a good plan.”
“Are you nuts?” Their mom gaped at Cooper as if he’d just grown a second head. “Your brother has risked his life and suffered enough. He doesn’t need to be out there chasing bad guys? Especially ones that might shoot him.”
“It’s okay, mom.” Quickly evacuating his seat, Nick came around the counter to sweep his mother up in a hug.
It was the same one he’d given her the day he’d told her he’d enlisted. He might not be the same naïve boy he’d been then but Nick realized as he felt his mom’s arms tighten around him that he was looking forward to the future with the same optimism he’d had then. Lindsay had more than made him happy. She’d given him back hope.
“I promise. It’s going to be okay.” Nick leaned back to offer his mother a reassuring smile. “Really? How much trouble can I get into in the middle of Kansas?”
“Why don’t you go ask all those dead deputies,” his mom shot back, not the least bit mollified.
“Oh, yeah.” Nick winced. “I forgot about that.”
“Forgot?” His mother gaped at him for a second before jerking backward. “How can you forget?”
“Yes and I also know they’re dead because they’re criminals, not because they’re cops.” All traces of the plea in his tone hardened with that instant rebuttal.
“Oh, honey, I’m just worried about you.” Reaching out to cup his cheek, his mom looked up at Nick with a sad gaze that made him feel instantly guilty for having snapped at her. “Why can’t you just help your brother out on the ranch? I’m sure he has something for you to do.”
“No, I don’t,” Cooper muttered around a mouthful of liver, earning a dark look from their mom.
“Don’t you be smarting off to me, young man. I’m talking about your brother’s life here. You will make room, do you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cooper dutifully agreed, shooting Nick a dirty look almost the second their mom turned her back on him.
“It’s okay, Mom,” Nick soothed her. “I don’t want to work for Cooper. I want to make a difference.”
“Hey!” Cooper banged down his glace to glare incredulously at Nick. “I make a difference.”
“You herd cattle.”
“I employ people,” Cooper countered. “And trust me, paychecks make a difference in people’s lives.”
“Yeah, well, I want to save them.”
“Oh, God,” Cooper groaned as he rolled his eyes. “Save me from martyrs.”
“That’s enough!” Their mom broke up Nick and Cooper’s argument before it really getting rolling. “Why do you two always have to pick on each other? Huh? And how is that going to work when you’re sharing a wife?”
“Trust me, Lindsay can handle the insanity.” Nick smirked thinking of just how well she’d handled them that morning.
“Oh, for God’s sake.” His mom sighed and shook her head at him in total disgust. “Wipe that smile off your face. I’m not talking about that. I don’t even want to know about that. Got me?”
“Sorry, mom.” Nick bowed his head, trying to force the smile from his lips while Cooper gave his own instinctive answer.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You kids, all you think it’s all about sex, which is just why the divorce rate has gone up because marriage is not about the physical. It’s about the emotional. It’s about finding your best friend. Tell them, Allen.”
“It’s about finding your best friend,” Allen dutifully repeated at his wife’s command. “Preferably a best friend you want to have sex with.”
“Allen!”
“What?” their dad asked innocently. “Sex is important to marriage, Dona. And you know that—”
“Okay!” Nick held his hands up and backed away from his parents. “That’s enough of that. We get the picture.”
“Yeah,” Cooper agreed from the safety of the other side of the counter. “Please spare us the details. I just managed to finish swallowing that liver down.”
“Yeah, don’t gross us out any more than you have to, Dad,” Nick chipped in, joining Cooper at the island.
“Fine, but just promise me that when your brothers meet her…you’re not going to…well…you know.”
It was the first time in his entire life Nick had seen his father stutter. Later, he’d remember to tease the old man about the moment, but right then they needed to get things clear.
“Look, dad, I don’t want to share Lindsay with his ass.” Nick jerked a thumb in Cooper’s direction. “But what are we going to do? Fight over her?”
“That would settle the issue.”
“Allen!”
“No, it wouldn’t.” Cooper shook his head. “Lindsay loves us both. She’d be torn in two.”
“Isn’t that what love is really all about?” Nick asked. “It’s about sacrifice and putting her needs before ours.”
“No, it isn’t.” Their dad snorted, but neither brother paid him or his objection any mind.
“It’s about loving them even when they irritated you and forgiving them when they hurt you.” Cooper picked up Nick’s train of thought and ran with it. “It’s about acceptance and compassion.”
“Oh, my God, Dona, we raised two greeting cards.”
“Fine, you want to know the truth?” Cooper snapped. “She’s an obsession and addiction and I’m not letting her go.”
“And you thought he was allergic to commitment,” Allen whispered loudly to wife, who stood there glaring at her boys.
“I’m still allergic to committing to the wrong person,” Cooper assured him.
“And Lindsay is the right one?”
“Lindsay is the only one,” Cooper pledged. “She’s the only one that’s ever had the strength to argue with me. Maybe that’s why she’s so easy to talk to because I don’t have to worry about what I�
��m going to say. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be between best friends?”
Their mother’s frown fully blossomed at that slightly sarcastic edge to Cooper’s question but she didn’t reprimand him. Instead she attacked from another angle, one that was a hell of a lot harder to dismiss.
“And what about the kids? What are you going to tell them?”
“I’m going to tell them they can call Nick ‘Daddy’ and me ‘Father.’” Simple, concise, with no hesitation at all, Cooper’s retort might be flippant but Nick suspected it was also the truth.
“Don’t you get smart with your mom, boy.” Their dad issued that warning with just a slight hint of actual annoyance tensing his features. That was nothing compared to their mom’s scowl.
“You know what I’m talking about,” she pressed, giving them both a hard look. “Kids are curious…and mean. You wouldn’t want them to suffer because of gossip about your marriage, would you?”
“Actually, I don’t care.” Cooper shrugged. “They’re going to be teased for something. Whether they got big ears or big bellies or they speak funny—growing up is hard, and as for questions about what’s going on in the bedroom, I assure you they won’t ask. The last thing any child wants to know about is their parents’ sex life. You know that.”
Nick had to agree to with both those points but knew they wouldn’t appease their mother. “I think what Cooper is trying to say is that our kids will be loved and provided for. Really isn’t that what counts?”
“Yes, of course.” It took her a moment but their mother gave in with ill grace. “But you have to agree that the path you’ve chosen won’t be an easy one and it will have its difficulties.”
“As you pointed out, every marriage does,” Nick quickly reminded her. “That’s why it’s important to marry somebody who you can weather the storms with.”