Carnal Compromise

by Robin L. Rotham

  Sending a confused look over her shoulder into the backseat, she did as she was told and scooted over beside Brent on the bench seat.

  “Buckle up,” Joe ordered as they pulled away from the curb, doing the same himself.

  It took some digging, but she finally came up with the lap belt and buckle for the middle seat and strapped herself in. Then she went straight to the point. “So what’s the other option?”

  “Well, let me back up a little bit and tell you why we were home earlier than you expected last night.”

  The wary look was back. “Okay.”

  “We were going to proposition you.”

  “You…” She shook her head. “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  She blinked rapidly. “But I thought you were…”

  “You thought we were what?”

  “Well…gay.”

  “Gay!” Brent slammed on the brakes and swore when he nearly swerved into a parked car.

  “Take it easy!” Joe barked.

  “Relax, Grandma. I haven’t killed anyone yet and I don’t intend to start today.”

  “No one ever intends to.”

  Brent grinned. “Believe me, Joe, if I ever kill you, it’ll be intentional.” Then AJ’s bemused face caught his eye and he frowned at her. “So what the hell made you think we were gay?”

  She squirmed, looking as if she’d rather be anywhere else. “Um, well, it’s hard to pinpoint any one thing. Mostly the way you look at each other, I guess.” Whatever she saw in his face made her quickly tack on, “But it’s only in the camper, not around the crew.”

  “We’re bi,” Joe said in a confidential tone.

  Brent shot him a stern look. “He’s bi. I’m not.”

  “The day is young.”

  “Unlike you.”

  Joe just smirked, and Brent sighed. It was a bad sign when he resorted to cheap shots, especially lame ones like that. He had to stop letting Joe get to him.

  AJ stared back and forth between them before saying, “Okay, now I’m really confused.”

  Brent’s gaze slid from Joe to her. “Nothing confusing about it. Joe wants to sleep with me, I said no. Happens all the time.”

  So she hadn’t been imagining the sexual tension between them. Even now it crackled in the air like static electricity on a dry winter day. If they touched their fingertips together, they’d probably both get a shock.

  But their relationship was puzzle she’d have to work out later.

  “Why me?” she asked. “Why now?”

  “Well, it didn’t hurt that we caught you in a…revealing position,” Brent said, his eyes twinkling. When she groaned, he continued. “And it doesn’t hurt that you’re pretty conveniently located.”

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she rolled her eyes. “God forbid you should be inconvenienced.”

  “Dammit!” Brent hit the brake again, though not quite as hard. Glancing into the rearview mirror, he pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway and put the truck in park. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. Hell, Joe’s been convenient for years and I haven’t taken advantage of him.”

  “Yet,” Joe added.

  Brent sent him a quelling look.

  “The real clincher,” he continued, focusing on her again, “was finding out that you read Amanda Garrity’s books. It made us think you had a few naughty fantasies that might be right up our alley. Fulfilling naughty fantasies happens to be something we both enjoy a great deal.”

  AJ stiffened. God, and she’d thought his first two reasons sucked!

  Feeling too exposed and humiliated to even blush, she smiled tightly. “Gee, that’s a lovely offer, but I can’t say that I’ve ever really fantasized about being anyone’s mercy lay.”

  “AJ, no! That’s not it at all.”

  Joe leaned forward and stared at Brent. “You do know you’re really screwing this up, right?”

  “You think you can do better?”

  “I sure as hell couldn’t do worse.” Joe turned to her. “Sweetheart, if anyone’s getting a mercy lay here, it’s me. I’ve wanted to fuck you since the minute you signed on, but you seemed like the type who’d expect a ring, so until now I’ve left you alone.”

  She didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended. “I’m thirty-four years old, guys. Credit me with a little sophistication.”

  “That’s exactly what we were trying to do by propositioning you,” Brent pointed out.

  He had her there.

  “Well good,” she said grudgingly, “because believe me, a ring is the last thing I’d ask any man for.”

  “Glad to hear it.” Joe leaned even closer to nuzzle her ear, and the tendril of warm, humid breath snaking down her neck made her shiver and scrunch up her shoulder. “Now that I’ve seen you come, I’ll never be able to keep my hands off you. I don’t want to let you out of this truck until I’ve felt you come on my cock.”

  AJ swallowed breathlessly. Maybe they were crediting her with a little more sophistication than she deserved because she felt compelled to offer every objection she could think of. “Just because a woman’s not looking for a ring doesn’t mean she wants to get it on with two guys.”

  “True,” he murmured, sucking at her earlobe, “which is why when we find one who does, especially one as cute as you, we try not to let her get away unfucked.”

  She smothered a moan of pure need and said weakly, “Just because a woman reads erotica doesn’t mean she’s the type who wants to get it on with two guys, either.”

  Joe pulled back and challenged her with his laser-blue eyes. “Are you saying you don’t?”

  She opened her mouth and then paused. Why was she even bothering? Brent and Joe were offering to fulfill every illicit fantasy she’d ever had. It was stupid to be hung up on the idea that all they wanted from her was sex when that was all she wanted from them. So what if they used her while she was handy and let her go when the season ended? She had plans for her future that didn’t include them either.

  Brent slid his fingers under her chin and pulled her around to drop a soft kiss on her parted lips. “We want you, AJ. You’re fucking gorgeous when you come, and we want to lay you down and hold you open and make you come. Over. And over. And over.”

  He punctuated his words with soft kisses down the side of her neck, and oh god, the scene he described was so vivid in her mind’s eye, so incredibly, unbearably tempting, she could barely breathe. Then Joe’s hot hand slid between her thighs and she started, jerking them together instinctively to keep him from feeling the dampness there.

  “Wait,” she gasped. “You’re going too fast.”

  “You have read Amanda Garrity’s books, haven’t you.” Brent stated it as if it was fact instead of asking, but she gave a jerky nod anyway.

  “The idea of fucking two men makes you horny as hell,” Joe growled.

  Mesmerized by the lust on his face, she started to nod again.

  The turbulent roar of a passing semi rocked the pickup, snapping her out of her trance like a bucket of cold water in the face. Jesus, they were parked on the side of the road, practically making out in front of god and everybody. What in the hell was she thinking?

  She pushed both of them away and crossed her arms over her chest. “Dammit, this is crazy. You guys can get away with being a man-ho—hell, it’s practically expected of you. If you do two women at once, the other guys’ll slap you on the back and buy you a beer. But if word gets around that I did both of you at once, I’ll never be able to get another farming job.”

  When Brent opened his mouth, she said, “Don’t try to deny it. It’s always different for women and you know it.”

  “I wasn’t going to deny it,” he said mildly. “I was going to say that it’s nobody else’s business what goes on in our camper. We’ll be discreet, like we always are. No matter what you think, I don’t really appreciate being labeled a man-ho.”

  “Sorry, but if this morning was Joe’s idea of discreet, you can f
orget about it.”

  “I can be more discreet than that,” Joe assured her with a grin. “I’ll be so discreet people won’t even realize we know each other.”

  “That might be going overboard,” she said wryly. Then she looked at Brent. “I really am sorry about calling you a man-ho. I was actually thinking more of him. For some reason he seems like more the man-ho type.”

  “He’s a card-carrying man-ho,” Brent agreed. “Maybe we should just leave him out of the equation. We could have plenty of fun by ourselves.”

  Joe stiffened. “Don’t push me, Brent, or I’m gonna push back. Hard.”

  AJ giggled nervously. He didn’t sound like he was joking, and the intense look they exchanged made her wonder just what the hell she’d be putting herself in the middle of.

  “Guess it’s all or nothing then, AJ,” Brent finally said, relaxing back into his seat. “I don’t want to push you, but we have to settle this. I need to know what we’re going to be dealing with at the end of the day or I’ll go crazy wondering. Are you coming home with us tonight or going with Seth and Tim?”

  When she still hesitated, he added, “Either way, I promise there’ll be no hard feelings. We like you, honey. You’re an excellent hand and we want you to stay on as long as you’re comfortable.”

  She should say no. If she had any brains at all, she would say no. As light and fun as they made a fling with them sound, the dark and dangerous undercurrents swirling between them promised to make things a lot more complicated than she was ready to handle.

  But it was no use—she’d never have another opportunity like this one. She’d just have to be careful to keep her heart out of it, no matter what happened. That was her one unbreakable rule—no falling in love. Ever.

  “Well?”

  She looked at Brent, then at Joe, and then back at Brent again, and smiled at their tight expressions. “I want to go home with you.”

  Chapter Four

  According to the calendar, June 21 was the longest day of the year, but Brent knew better. Today would go down in history as the longest day ever.

  Because the sky was clear, the humidity low and the harvesting still easy, and because farmers really do have to make hay while the sun—or the moon—shines, they’d had no reasonable excuse to leave the field at a decent hour. Especially since the three of them hadn’t made it there until after nine that morning.

  So here it was, almost ten o’clock at night and they were still hard at it.

  Hard being the operative word.

  Brent shifted restlessly on the well-sprung cushioned seat, eyeing the bright three-quarter moon with annoyance. Where was a storm when you needed one? Most days, he’d be impatient at a weather delay, but tonight he would have taken it with a smile and a prayer that it would last for a week at the very least. He had big plans for Miss AJ Pender, extensive plans that might require a very long time to carry out.

  What the hell did AJ stand for, anyway?

  He reached the end of the row and was just turning around when the tink-tink of the monitor let him know the tank was full.

  “Thank you, Lord,” he muttered in relief. “Nice timing.” It was close enough to ten and he was officially calling it a night. There was no point in risking lives, machinery or crops by working overtired. Farming was dangerous enough already without taking stupid chances.

  And he wasn’t even using that as an excuse to get busy with AJ. Worker safety was always priority one for him, and he’d made it a firing offense to remain working in the field after ten o’clock. No ifs, ands or buts.

  He headed over toward the last wagon and waved at AJ, who was plainly visible in the bright lamplight when he pulled up alongside. Unloading seemed to take forever, though it wasn’t even a full minute before the tank was empty. When he was done, he tapped his wrist in an exaggerated motion and she nodded, then waited for him to pull ahead of her.

  Joe and the other teams were already at Bixler’s, locking everything down for the night. When Seth and Tim headed for their truck, Brent called out for them to hold up.

  “I wanted to say thanks,” he said as he walked up, sticking out a hand to Seth. “It’s good to know you guys are looking out for each other, and for AJ in particular. Women can have a hard time fitting in on the crews sometimes, and I really appreciate you standing up to protect her.”

  After a short hesitation, Seth took his hand, looking both pleased and concerned. “So everything’s okay with her now? You guys have worked out whatever it was?”

  “We have, and she’s fine. You can ask her yourself. Here she comes.”

  “I’m fine,” AJ said, having been close enough to hear him. “Better than fine. Thanks for having my back.”

  Seth watched her carefully for a moment and then shrugged. “No problem, AJ.”

  The ride back to the camper was tense. All she wanted to do was grab one of them by the collar and stick her face inside the neck of his jacket, drink in the warm, metallic scent of skin and lick the dried perspiration of the day off. She could probably have an orgasm just from that. It had been so long since she’d tasted any part of a man, she almost cried thinking about it.

  They all sat stiffly in their seats, not saying a word until Brent asked, “Anyone want a bite to eat? The Shanty’s still open.”

  AJ and Joe answered simultaneously. “No.”

  He grinned. “Guess that’s settled.”

  Thank God the other guys had stopped in town for supper. Having witnesses as they walked together into the camper would have been excruciating. Seth and Tim had been sending her speculative looks all day, and AJ felt as if her face were a neon sign that said Three-way at our place tonight!

  Inside the camper, Brent gave Joe a shove. “Go take a shower while I get things warmed up.”

  Then he swung AJ around. Humid heat gushed from the neck of his jacket as he crushed her against him and kissed her. The musky, wind-sharpened scent of him swamped her brain while his stubbly cheeks and peppermint tongue played havoc with her nerve endings. She moaned desperately, tearing at his zipper.

  “Hey, take it easy,” he said as he stepped back and pulled off the jacket. “We’ve got all night.”

  “I can’t,” she said desperately, stripping out of her own down vest. “Now. Do it now. We can take it easy later.”

  “You think I’m getting in the shower now, you can think again,” Joe declared, whipping his flannel overshirt off over his head without unbuttoning it.

  Together the two men undressed her, and her arms tangled with theirs more than once in her efforts to get some clothes off them. In short order, she was naked while they were both still almost fully clothed, and suddenly she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her body. How had she gotten here, with not just one but both of these gorgeous men? Her mind knew the mechanics of it, remembered exactly how it had happened, and yet it just didn’t quite all fit together in her head. She wasn’t the stuff of men’s wet dreams.

  But they were sure as hell the stuff of hers. Whenever she reread Amanda Garrity’s Carnal Deliverance, Brent and Joe replaced the two sexy male characters in her mind, and she was the intrepid heroine being ravished by two ruthless home invaders in a role-playing fantasy. She’d been replaying scenes from that book in her head all day, with Brent starring as the long, lean and blond Grant and Joe in the role of the dark, muscular and ruthless Isaiah. If she hadn’t carried a box of tissues in the tractor, her jeans would have been soaked by noon.

  “Don’t get shy on me now.” Brent drew her hands away, and she opened her eyes to find both of them looking at her breasts.

  AJ bit her lip, feeling more out of place than ever.

  “Sorry, they’re not very big,” she mumbled. In fact, she looked more like a boy than a woman, with her broad shoulders, long waist and narrow hips. Genetics and years of working outdoors had made her wiry, and especially in the summer, the berry-brown farmer tan on her face, neck and arms contrasted violently with the milky skin under her cloth
es, emphasizing her masculine appearance.

  “I’ll take quality over quantity every day of the week,” Joe said. “You have very pretty little tits.” He pulled her back against his naked chest, and the intensity of her arousal became almost painful.

  “I don’t know if I can do this with both of you the first time,” she said in a shaky voice.

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s… I’m just too ready. It feels like I’m going to explode all over the inside of the camper.”

  “Need a little relief first?” he murmured in her ear, sliding a hand down over her belly.

  She jumped when his fingertips tickled between the lips of her pussy, her nipples prickling sharply in the camper’s cool air. “No, I want you to fuck me!”

  Fire swept up her neck into her cheeks. Had she just said that out loud? To someone besides her vibrator? God, she must be on the freaking edge.

  Brent bent his head and licked one of her nipples, sending agonizing ripples through her abdomen. “But we’re just getting started.”

  AJ swallowed, reaching down to still Joe’s hand. “Let me see if I can explain this, guys. It’s kind of like when you put the cap back on the gas tank. You turn it until it locks, and you can keep turning it but it doesn’t get any more locked, you know?”

  “But sometimes it’s fun to just stand there and listen to it click for a while,” Joe said.

  AJ sighed. “Only you would think that. Okay then, think of me like my mama’s old key clock. When you overwound it, the spring got stuck and it wouldn’t run. When I get overwound, my spring gets stuck and my orgasm is like an aborted sneeze—if I can manage to work up another one later, it never feels as intense and satisfying as that first organic one would have. Get it?” she asked when neither of them said anything.

  “I think you’re just spoiled,” Brent finally commented.

  She gaped at him. “Spoiled!”

  “Yup.” He nodded as he licked her other nipple. “To your own touch, your own pace and rhythm. We’re not moving at the same pace you would, so it doesn’t feel right, but you have to trust that—”