by Vanessa Vale
He stepped forward, shook my hand, then King’s. “Of course. Been awhile.”
He was a lawyer and a few years ahead of us in school. We’d played in a summer league softball team together a while back.
“Let’s um…get out of the cold,” Sarah prompted.
“I’ll say goodbye then. They’ll see you to the ranch, I assume,” Riley said, glancing down at Sarah.
The ranch?
“Oh, um…” She flicked her gaze to us, then back at Riley. “Yes. I hope the addition of two more won’t be a problem. Can I bring something?”
Riley grinned. “No problem at all. Kady and the other women are going to be thrilled. As for bringing something, just bring them.” He pointed at us.
With a small wave, he turned and headed back to his truck, most likely eager to get back to the heater.
“Are we headed somewhere, princess?” I asked.
She gave a slight shiver, then pulled out her house key. We moved out of the way to let her open the door, then followed her inside.
She tugged off her boots and I stared at her ass in her jeans as she did so, remembering what it looked like bare and all pink from our palms.
“Want something to drink?” she asked as we toed off our boots in her wake.
“What’s the matter?” King asked. “You look nervous.”
She did. Her hands slid up and down her thighs, as if they were damp with sweat. She bit her lip and her breathing was different. Definitely nervous. She couldn’t hide anything from us.
She took a deep breath, let it out, then blurted, “Aiden Steele is my father.”
What.
The.
Fuck?
Okay, I’d been wrong. She could definitely hide something from us.
“What?” King asked after a long, long pause as we processed her words.
She sighed, went into her small living room and paced, ran her hand over her hair. “I hadn’t meant for it to come out like that, but you guys have this death stare thing going on and I can’t not tell you things when you look at me like that.”
We followed her into the room, but we remained just inside the doorway.
“That’s good to remember, but you missed the important part,” King continued.
She turned and looked up at us. Tilting up her chin, she said, “Aiden Steele is my father.”
Yeah, that was what she’d said the first time.
“How long have you known this?” I asked.
“All my life.”
All her life?
“Your mother—”
“Yeah, she’s my mother all right,” she grumbled. “You’re well aware she likes to collect rich husbands. I guess Aiden Steele was her target about twenty-four years ago. While she hasn’t admitted this, I’m thinking she tried to trap him, but he never took the bait.”
“And Riley’s your lawyer,” I said, putting some of the pieces together. I was friendly with Townsend, but not close. Knew he was a lawyer, even knew he was the executor of the Steele estate. Hell, everyone in town knew it. I worked with Archer Wade, the town sheriff, and he’d told me he’d fallen for Cricket, one of the daughters who’d come to Barlow because of the inheritance.
I didn’t know too much about Aiden Steele. I’d seen him in town a few times over the years, but we’d never spoken. From the Barlow gossip mill, I knew he’d never married and up until he died, no one knew of any kids to inherit his ranch. It had been a Steele property for generations. But that same gossip mill had tons of fodder after his death when it was discovered he had five daughters to whom he’d left the ranch. Three of them had been found. Riley, along with Cord Connolly, had married the first heiress to arrive. Kady.
I didn’t remember her maiden name, but I knew she’d married them. Yup, both of them. She was also very pregnant with their first child. The other two women, Penny and Cricket, had also come to Barlow last summer. I’d met Penny once as she’d married Jamison, who was the foreman at Steele Ranch, and Boone. As for Cricket, we’d yet to meet, but she’d hooked up with three guys—one of them being Archer—and lived on the ranch.
Maybe claiming Sarah together wasn’t as rare as we’d first thought, especially now that she was a Steele. No, she’d always been a Steele.
“How come he didn’t claim you as his daughter? I mean, you lived in the same town,” King asked, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. “You’re not bothered by that?”
Yeah, this was heavy shit.
She shrugged. “I always knew who he was to me. My mother never hesitated to bash him, but she did it quietly, at home. She still does,” she grumbled. “She didn’t want anyone to know. Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “He paid child support, gave me money for college. I think he did all he could.”
“He could have loved you,” King tossed back. While his parents were dead now, they’d loved him. No doubt about it. When he had kids—no, when we had kids with Sarah—he’d be as hands-on as his dad had been.
“True, but I don’t know if he was capable of it. I mean, he had five daughters. Claimed none of them until he died. I think the money for college was proof he cared about me in his own way. I’m fine. Really,” she added. She looked okay, but shit like this could fester. And since her mother was a bitch, I was still surprised she didn’t need counseling.
I was mad. Really mad. How could a father not want Sarah?
“I’m angry for you then,” I told her.
She came up to me, lifted her hand and cupped my jaw. “I love that about you.” Her tongue flicked out, licked her lips. “I love you.”
Those words. Fuck. I’d been hoping to hear those from her for years.
“Don’t distract me from wanting to kill your father.”
She smiled and that dimple popped out. “Good thing he’s already dead. I’m sure there’s a big line ahead of you anyway. I mean, Kady, Penny and Cricket all have men who probably hate Aiden Steele, too, for the same reason.”
“Yeah, but from what I hear, they never met him, never knew he even existed,” King added. He was pissed, too.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” I asked.
“Because until last night, I didn’t think things were going to work between us.”
“And now?” King asked. “Legally, you’re marrying me tomorrow at the courthouse. You’ll be Wilder’s too, but you’ll get my name. Our kids will inherit the Barlow Ranch.”
“And part of the Steele Ranch, it seems,” I added, thinking of the huge ranch outside of town. It’s only rival for size was King’s. “That’s why you were talking to Riley?”
She cocked her head to the side. “Sort of. I’m going to get a Coke. You guys want one?” she asked, walking into the kitchen.
We followed.
“Princess,” I prodded as she took a can from the fridge.
“When I was younger, I kept who my father was a secret because of my mother. She’d made it a secret and it was difficult enough dealing with her.” She held out a second can and I took it from her, wanting to do something with my hands other than making a fist. I hated her mother.
“I really dislike your mother,” King said, voicing my thoughts, skipping the word hate, although I knew that’s what he wanted to say.
He shook his head when offered a can of his own.
I popped the top, took a swig.
Sarah closed the fridge, moved to her small dining table set in front of a bay window that overlooked her snow-covered backyard. “When I was older, I kept it a secret because, well, I thought I owed it to my father. He paid for all of my college, housing, books. All of it so I didn’t have to work at the same time. Since he hadn’t told anyone about me, I chose to do the same about him.”
“You mean he paid for your silence,” King added, dropping into the chair across from her, his long legs sticking out across the wood floor.
I leaned against the counter, set the can down and crossed my arms over my chest.
She shook her head. “He paid for my col
lege—not that my mother knows that. He lived a year past that. Let it go. That’s not the point here.”
King pinched his lips together when he realized she wasn’t going to budge. She might not hate him, but we could.
“Even after, what, seven or eight months, I haven’t told my mother that I inherited. She thinks I didn’t get a dime and I want it to stay that way. The minute she heard he died, she called me. Asked if I’d inherited the ranch since I was his daughter, that it was owed to me. At the time, she didn’t know about the other sisters, no one did. She started making all kinds of plans about the main house, what she was going to do to it, the furniture she was going to buy, how she was going to sell all the animals and then talk with a developer to build a golf course or something.”
Oh shit.
“I lied. I told her I hadn’t even been named in the will. Riley is the executor of the estate and I asked him to keep me a secret. Since he’s my lawyer, he has followed my wishes. While people know now there are five daughters, no one knows one of them is me. Until now, until you.”
She took a sip of her drink, used the back of her hand to wipe her mouth. So unladylike, but I doubted she even knew she’d done it.
“Riley has helped me set up a trust for the money so it’s not obvious that it’s mine. But now, I guess it will be out there.”
“Why?” King asked.
“Because I’m marrying you.”
“That’s right, you are,” he said, taking her hand in his, kissing the knuckles in a remarkably gentle gesture. “But that doesn’t change a thing. I don’t give a shit about that money. If you want Riley to write something up, a pre-nup or whatever that’s fine, but he better do it tonight because you’ll be legally mine come morning.”
“And mine,” I added. “I don’t have a ranch to give my wife like King does.”
I didn’t. My dad was a dentist and my mom was a homemaker. While they weren’t rich, they’d certainly never hurt for money. I’d had everything I could have ever wanted growing up. The important stuff like family. Love. The safety of belonging. Sarah never had that.
Sarah stood and came over to me, wrapped her arms about me. I pulled her close, put my chin on the top of her head. “I don’t want to be rich,” she told me. “I never did. I like this house, my quiet life. I knew going in that a library science degree wasn’t going to make me lots of money.”
“A quiet life we can give you. As for this house? We won’t all fit. We’ll live at King’s ranch if that suits you. Lots of room for a family.”
She tilted her head up, smiled. “All right.”
I kissed her. There was no way I could resist. She tasted sweet like her drink and beneath, just like her.
“Where are you taking us later, princess?” I murmured, staring into her dark eyes, which were now hazy with need from the kiss. “Riley mentioned you bringing us with you somewhere.”
“To Steele Ranch. Sunday dinner.”
King stood, turned Sarah to face him, cupped her jaw with his hand. “I thought you wanted it to remain a secret.”
“The trust is in place. That’s all set so my inheritance isn’t in my name. I’ve also had Riley list you both as beneficiaries, that way if something happened to me, it wouldn’t go to my mother. That’s what he drew up today because it would’ve otherwise. While I don’t know my half-sisters really at all, they’re probably really nice and I don’t want them to be stuck with my mother.”
I hated the idea of something happening to her, to have her even talk about that kind of eventuality, but she was smart. Realistic. Without stating a beneficiary or leaving a will stating otherwise, her mother would get Sarah’s estate, and that included one-fifth of Steele Ranch. And since we’d sprung the marriage thing on her last night, no wonder she’d had to rush and meet with Riley today.
“We don’t want your money, princess,” I said, making sure she understood. “We only want you.”
“That’s right,” King confirmed.
She smiled sweetly. “I know, but tomorrow you’re going to be my husbands. What’s mine will be yours, and I really don’t want any of it being my mother’s.”
“Fuck, princess. I love you,” I growled, kissing her again. She was so unlike her mother. She didn’t have a selfish bone in her body.
When I let her up for air, she said, “I had to tell you about my father, about Steele Ranch before we married. A wedding meant the three of us would become a family and I realized I already had some. Kady, Penny and Cricket are my sisters and I’ve avoided them because of this secret. Really, because of my mother. I don’t want to miss out any longer.”
King pulled her up so she went on her tiptoes and he kissed her, too. Open mouthed. A touch desperately, as if we hadn’t kissed her or spanked her ass this morning.
When he pulled away, she was breathing hard, her cheeks were pink, this time definitely because of us.
“You said you had something for me?” she asked, her eyes excited for the idea of a gift.
King grinned. “You’ll never guess this present.”
“Jewelry?”
King’s pale eyes met mine. I shrugged. “You tell her.”
“You’re good, princess. Definitely jewelry. And you’re going to be gorgeous wearing it.”
8
SARAH
* * *
“This isn’t the jewelry I had in mind,” I said, glancing down at the reflection of my bare breasts in the mirror over my dresser. Dangling from each of the little gold hoops was a blood red stone. They were big, about a half an inch long and weren’t too heavy, but since I wasn’t used to any kind of weight, I definitely felt them. When I moved, they swung about, bumping into my skin.
“Oh, it’s definitely something we had in mind,” King said, staring, his usually pale eyes were dark and stormy. He liked what he saw.
When I glanced at Wilder, he, too, practically drooled at the sight of the gems.
“We’re not done, princess,” Wilder said, the dark glint in his gaze a sign that they were switching from eager men adorning their future wife to doms doing as they wished to their sub.
“Oh?” What else could there be? I couldn’t take any more weight on my nipples until I got used to it. As it was, they tingled, the constant slight tug went right to my clit and made me ache, made my inner walls clench.
Wilder stuck his hand in the bag King had gone to retrieve from his truck. Wilder had said that while he’d gotten some paperwork done at the Fish and Game office, he’d also taken the time today to stop by the adult store to pick up some…jewelry.
My eyes widened and I spun about to face him. I gasped at the feel of the gems swinging wildly, pulling on my nipples. I took a breath, let the tingles subside. “That’s huge!”
It was a metal butt plug with a jeweled base the same color as the nipple gems.
Wilder winked at me. “It’s the beginner size. Trust me, our dicks are much bigger than this. We’ll get you ready for them.”
The idea of them fucking me there, just like they had with their fingers the night before, had me clenching again. Whimpering.
“Tug down those jeans, princess, and let’s get you all decorated,” King said, leaning against the door to my closet. The bedroom wasn’t big and with the two of them looming, it felt tiny. I felt tiny, too.
They stared at me, waiting. Wilder held up the plug, King grabbed a small bottle of lube from the bag. God, I hoped there wasn’t much else in there. But this was my choice. All of it. Well, they were going to marry me even if I didn’t want a plug in my butt. I could say red and they’d respect that, perhaps just use their fingers and play like they had the night before. That would be the tame thing to do—in comparison. But did I want that? Hell, no. I didn’t want tame. I never had.
And the plug? It was big…to me, and I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to fit, but their dicks were bigger. I could tell from the impressive bulges that were obvious even now. They’d told me last night how they would eventually fuck m
e at the same time, one in my pussy, the other in my ass. They’d begun those preparations last night, ass training as they called it. The term was a little mortifying, but it had been fun. Besides, they wouldn’t push me past what I could take. And they’d only given me pleasure, and a spanking, which I’d never tell them I liked.
I took a deep breath, undid my jeans, pushed them down and over my hips.
“Turn around,” King said, his voice in that deep tone that had goose bumps rising on my arms. I complied. “Hands on the dresser. Good girl. Now down on your forearms. Yes, like that.”
I moved as he wanted, settling so I was leaning down, my butt out.
“Arch your back and show us that gorgeous ass,” Wilder added. “Fuck, princess, look how pretty those nipples look with the gems tugging them down.”
I felt how they were being pulled and that made me wet, which they’d be able to see in a matter of seconds.
Curving my spine, my butt thrust out. I’d always thought that part of me was too big since I’d always been considered the short and curvy girl, but the way King and Wilder grasped it, spanked it, stared at it, played with it, they liked it just fine.
I gasped when a cool drizzle of the lube slid down over me.
“Deep breath, princess,” Wilder said. Both men were behind me and I watched them in the mirror. I felt the cold press of the plug as it was worked in. Their gazes were on me there as the object was slowly pushed in. I squeaked when the broadest part stretched me wide, then it slid into place with a slick and silent plop.
“There,” Wilder said. “Gorgeous.”
King grabbed my arm and helped me stand, but with my pants just above my knees, I was a little off balance. He dropped down to his haunches. “Let’s get these off of you.”
I mechanically lifted one leg, then the other to help him. “We’re going to Steele Ranch soon.”
“That’s right. You’ll wear all your pretty jewelry to the dinner.”
I froze. “What? I can’t do that!”
King turned me about and his face was right in line with my pussy. “Yes, you can. And you will.”