Valentine, Laura - Plenty to Come [Plenty, FL] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Laura Valentine

  Plenty, FL

  Plenty to Come

  Giving up on the big city, Cassie moves to the tiny town of Plenty, Florida. Falling in love with Zachary and Chase Harper was easy. They ignite a fire inside her hotter and brighter than the Florida sun.

  Intense and dominating Zachary Harper and his brother, charming and playful Chase, are tired of casual relationships and one-night stands. They’re looking for a woman they can share their life with, together. When they meet Cassie, they immediately feel that this woman just might be the one. Cassie is just as drawn to them, feeling safe and loved in their strong arms.

  But not everyone is glad about Cassie’s newfound safety and happiness. Can Zachary and Chase keep Cassie safe when her past shows up and wants her dead?

  Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre

  Length: 58,237 words

  PLENTY TO COME

  Plenty, FL

  Lara Valentine

  MENAGE AMOUR

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

  PLENTY TO COME

  Copyright © 2012 by Lara Valentine

  E-book ISBN: 1-61926-420-X

  First E-book Publication: March 2012

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Plenty to Come by Lara Valentine from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Lara Valentine’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Valentine’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  To my handsome husband, who always believed I could write a book, and Jill, the best beta reader I could ask for.

  PLENTY TO COME

  Plenty, FL

  LARA VALENTINE

  Copyright © 2012

  Chapter 1

  Cassie Ames smiled as she walked through the tiny but picturesque town of Plenty, Florida. She looked around the serene streets of a town with barely six thousand people and felt at peace. Jillian had been right. It was Jillian Miller, Cassie’s best friend, that had come up with the idea of leaving their lives in Chicago far behind and starting over a thousand miles away. They were looking to make a drastic change in their life. Of course, drastic just didn’t happen overnight. It had taken a few months for everything to come together.

  Jillian had contacted the Teachers for Small Towns nonprofit group and set things in motion. Apparently, small towns had a hard time keeping qualified teachers. With Cassie’s minor in mathematics and Jillian’s degree in history, they were surprised to find out they were not only qualified to teach school but highly recruited by several small towns. They had chosen this one, sight unseen, on the basis of its proximity to Orlando and Tampa and the warm, inviting letter they had received from the town council.

  They had been in Plenty less than a week but were enchanted with their new home. Stepping into downtown Plenty was a little like stepping back in time. The two-lane Main Street ran through the center of town with a speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour. The downtown boasted neat, well-kept stores with friendly merchants. The old-fashioned diner had outdoor seating allowing customers a front row seat of small town life.

  The town sprawled out with the park at one end and the historic district at the other. On the corner of Main Street, near the park, was the sheriff’s office. Across the street was the hair salon, the grocery store, and the hardware store.

  Palm trees lined the streets, along with brightly colored benches for weary shoppers and discreetly placed trash cans and recycling containers. There were no excuses for not recycling.

  There was no excuse for not being friendly either. Cassie was used to the big city where eye contact was rare and actual conversation with a stranger unheard of, unless that stranger was yelling in traffic and flipping the bird. Here, people waved, smiled, and stopped to chat. It would take some getting used to, but she already loved the slower pace and the friendly people of Plenty. She should have made this drastic change a hell of a lot sooner.

  “So, this pizza place must be just down the street.” Jillian’s voice brought Cassie out of her daydream. She peered at the signs along one side and then the other side of the street. It couldn’t be too far. The downtown just wasn’t that big. “There it is! I’m starving!” Jillian exclaimed and began dragging Cassie across the street.

  Cassie chuckled and followed her enthusiastic, best friend through the front door of the town’s one and only pizza parlor. They both stopped inside the front door and looked around for an empty table. The place was packed and a little noisy. There was a jukebox in the corner playing the latest country tune and waitresses bustling about. It was then that Cassie realized that most of the people in the place were staring, at them.

  “Y’all must be the new teachers in town.”

  Cassie turned toward the friendly voice with quite the twang and found herself looking up. Way up. Cassie knew she was tiny. Heck, she looked up to pretty much everyone, but this was one tall woman. Gorgeous, too. Cassie was speechless staring at this woman who could have been a model, and apparently Jillian
was, too, as she was uncharacteristically silent.

  “Y’all just follow me, and we’ll get you a table.”

  Cassie cast a glance at Jillian, who shrugged. So they followed the hostess to a back table away from the jukebox with what felt like every set of eyes in the place following them.

  Jillian, as usual, found her voice first. “How did you know who we were?”

  “Honey, this is one small town, and not much goes on that everyone doesn’t know about. Everyone’s talking about the two pretty school teachers that moved into the condos on the edge of town. My name is Charlie, by the way. Short for Charlotte, but I’ve never been short in my life.” Charlie smiled, and Cassie couldn’t help but like the woman. She seemed so open and friendly and so different from the tense, almost hostile people she was used to meeting in Chicago. She handed them two menus and continued talking in her soft drawl. “Don’t let all these people starin’ at you make you uncomfortable. They’ll get back to their own business pretty quick. It’s just, everyone wants to see the new town residents, that’s all. What can I bring you to drink?”

  Cassie and Jillian had developed a taste for sweet iced tea in a very short time, and they each ordered one. Charlie turned to get them with a glance and a wink at all the people still looking at them. Cassie could see they were trying to be sly about checking them out, but she almost laughed out loud at how terrible they were at being sneaky.

  Jillian, an exuberant redhead with sparkling, green eyes and dimpled smile, was not nearly as reserved as Cassie and simply turned toward the room, gave a huge smile, and waved at them all. Grins and laughs from the patrons followed. Cassie relaxed and also smiled at them. These were her new neighbors, and she wanted to be as friendly as possible.

  As she chatted away to Jillian excitedly about the upcoming first day of school, Cassie felt someone staring. She could literally feel a set of eyes that seemed to pull her attention. This wasn’t the casual, friendly eyes they had felt earlier but something different, more intense. She turned toward the entrance and stared into the most handsome face she had ever seen. Her eyes went wide as she took in the man whose stare seemed to bore a hole in her.

  He was tall, very tall. He had to be six-two or six-three, at least, with broad shoulders that tapered down to a slim waist and powerful legs. His hair was a dark brown, almost black, which made his topaz-blue eyes all the more startling. His face was masculine, with a square jaw and a nose that looked like it had been broken once. He wasn’t quite handsome in a classic sense, but he screamed “man” in a way that made her stomach flutter and her heart pound.

  Geez, they grow them big and fine looking in this town. This is a man’s man.

  Her palms started to sweat, and the man gave her a slow smile. The smile reached all the way to his blue eyes and seemed to soften them a little. He had dimples on each side of his mouth, and Cassie fought down the urge to kiss each one of them and run her tongue in the grooves. What was she thinking? She had never had a reaction to a man like this, and honestly, it was really the last thing she needed. A man would just be a complication, and she had enough complications in Chicago to last a lifetime. Two lifetimes, really.

  She closed her eyes briefly to get control of herself, and when she opened them, he was still looking at her and obviously amused. Could he possibly have realized the effect he was having on her? She shifted under his gaze, and it was then she realized her panties had gone quite damp, and she was pressing her thighs together to control the moisture starting to pool there.

  Get a hold of yourself, girl! He probably has a wife, six kids, a mortgage, and a minivan.

  She forced herself to turn back to Jillian, who was looking at her strangely. It was clear Jillian had noticed her reaction to the man, and Cassie knew she was going to hear about this from her friend. Jillian was always trying to get her to go out, but after Danny Trent in Chicago, Cassie wasn’t looking for a man. Especially, a man that looked as good as this gorgeous guy did.

  * * * *

  “Here’s your pizza, Zach. One extra-large with everything.” Charlie handed him the steaming-hot pizza box and gave him a big smile. “I see you’re hungry for more than pizza, though. She sure is cute. I bet Chase would think so, too.” Charlie gave him a knowing look.

  Zach Harper had known Charlie for years and had a great affection for her and her three husbands. Charlie had come to town years ago for a photo shoot and stayed after the three Johnson brothers swept her off her feet. She had given up a budding modeling career to open this restaurant with her men and raise a couple of great kids.

  “Okay, you caught me looking. She is cute. I guess she’s one of the new teachers in town. Sure doesn’t look like any of my teachers when I went to school,” Zach said, trying to sound a hell of a lot more casual and nonchalant than he actually felt.

  Zach couldn’t help but sneak another look at the tiny blonde, and his heart seemed to pound a little harder and faster. She was way more than cute, but Zach wasn’t in the mood for girly confidences with Charlie. He wanted to stand there all night and stare at the new teacher.

  The blonde was absolutely breathtaking, and Zach wasn’t able to help himself. She was a tiny thing with long hair and elfin features. Slim, but she still managed to have curves. Curves which looked spectacular in the simple, red sundress she wore. He chuckled to himself a little as he realized he was staring and obviously made her a little uncomfortable. A beautiful woman like her from the city probably got attention from men all the time, but unlike some women he had met, she didn’t seem to demand it. She had his attention, all of his attention, including his dick’s. His cock had given the blonde the approval right away, swelling against the zipper on his jeans.

  Zach shifted a little, trying to ease the pressure and distract his libido from the prettiest girl who had come to Plenty in probably decades. He wondered how he could introduce himself without looking like a complete ass. She would probably notice the tent he was making in his jeans, and he wasn’t sure his vocal chords were functioning properly anyway.

  Hell, he needed to get out of there before he did something embarrassing. Like walk over to her and beg her to let him kiss her. And it sure wouldn’t stop at kissing if his cock was in charge. He would have her bent over the table, taking her from behind, grabbing a handful of her long blonde hair as he drove each of them to their release.

  Since he was on the town council and a descendent of one of the town’s founding families, doing any of that was not an option. Okay, it wasn’t an option at all, no matter who his parents were. She would think he was a lunatic. He took one last look at her, sighed, and turned to walk out the door. A swift glance at Charlie showed her practically doubled over with laughter. He wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all himself.

  * * * *

  “Well, what did you think of the pizza, girls?” Charlie asked as she delivered their check and cleared the table.

  “That pizza was heaven,” Jillian said, closing her eyes in delight. “Pure heaven. Of course, Cassie ate most of it, as usual.”

  “I have a fast metabolism,” Cassie retorted, used to her friend’s teasing about the amount of food Cassie could eat. She could really pack it away, and sometimes it was a trifle embarrassing.

  “By the way,” Jillian said, “you introduced yourself, but we didn’t introduce ourselves. I’m Jillian Miller and this is Cassie Ames, your new customers for life.”

  “Nice to meet both of you, and welcome to Plenty. My, my, Cassie Ames, you sure got the attention of Zachary Harper. I thought his eyes were going to fall out of his head, he was staring at you so hard. Don’t know what spell you cast on him, but that is one smitten man,” Charlie said with a grin.

  “Ummm…which one was he?” Cassie asked nervously, her eyes looking everywhere but at Charlie.

  “You know perfectly well which one he was, missy. Tall, dark, handsome guy staring at you. I saw you lookin’ too. No sense denying it. Don’t worry. He’s one of the good ones. He and his brot
her, Chase. They belong to one of the founding families here in Plenty. Members of the town council, business owners, run a ranch, real pillar-of-the-community stuff. No woman could do much better than snagging those two. The woman that ends up with those two will be a lucky one. Of course, not as lucky as me. For the last twenty-five years, my husbands have made me the luckiest woman in Plenty. Yes, sir. Nothing like real love.” Charlie glanced back at the kitchen and counter where Cassie could see three very handsome men working. But, what did she say?

  Jillian, always the less reticent one, asked, “Charlie, what do you mean by husbands? You made it sound plural.”

  Charlie smiled and shook her head, tsking a little. “I guess they didn’t tell you when you took the job, huh?”

  “Tell us what?” Cassie asked carefully, a little afraid of the answer.

  “Let me put these dishes in the kitchen, and I’ll explain everything to you.”

  As Charlie turned back to the kitchen, Jillian and Cassie shared a look that clearly said, one to the other, “What the hell?”

  * * * *

  “So, let me get this right. This town has polygamy?” Cassie thought she was going to be dizzy. She had seen a documentary about polygamy. What had she and Jillian gotten into?

  “It’s not polygamy. It’s polyamory or ménageamous. And the men don’t take multiple wives. Only the women take multiple husbands. It started back a couple of hundred years ago. Florida was a dangerous, untamed place and it was to a woman’s advantage to have more than one husband to take care of her and the children. If something happened to one husband, well, she had a spare. Not to mention, unsettled territory like this didn’t have that many women to begin with, so men began sharing a wife. The tradition lives on in Plenty. Of course, not everyone has a plural marriage. Some have a regular monogamous marriage. But folks here are open-minded about things and people. We like it that way,” Charlie said. “We want people to live life on their own terms. The only thing different about a ménage marriage is the love. There is more of it.”