At last, I drew my hand away. Holden’s tight abs met my slick skin, and he laughed softly. “I made a mess.”
“Is it wrong that I kind of like it?” I asked, glad the darkness hid my face.
“Oh, baby,” he said. “That is anything but wrong.”
His lips brushed mine, softly now, and then traced over my chin and along my jawline to my ear. “I love you, Amber.”
“I love you, too,” I said, not a trace of doubt in my mind.
11
Amber
I was doing some of the ranch’s paperwork, warmed by a toasty fire, when an old green truck came bouncing up the driveway. I saved the spreadsheet, set my laptop aside, and hopped up to stretch. I was getting tired of sitting in front of a computer, anyway. Confident that it wasn’t Lidia inside the beat-up truck, I headed for the front door. Before I could get all bundled up, I heard the truck door slam and boots stomping up the steps.
From the sound of the footsteps, I figured it was a man. I hesitated, my mind immediately going to Mr. Grimes, when someone pounded three times. I reached for the nearest weapon I could find, which happened to be a shovel the guys had used to scrape snow off the step that morning. Before I’d even had a chance to ask who it was, the door swung open, and a figure tromped in, bundled up in snow pants and a parka with a hood. I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or woman until she yanked back her hood and bright red hair tumbled out.
“Hey there, Amber,” she said. “You goin’ out to clear off the drive? I can give you a hand if y’are.”
I hadn’t been planning on it, but now that I was standing there with a snow shovel in my hand, I figured I might as well. I couldn’t think of a better reason that I’d be holding it, and I didn’t exactly want to go blurting out the truth to her.
“Sure,” I said. “Let me just get bundled up.”
“It’s colder than a witch’s tit out there,” Natalie said cheerfully. “And it ain’t even December. This winter’s gonna be a doozy.”
She stood there silently while I pulled on the snow pants Sawyer had gotten me in town, along with my own parka and snow boots.
“Got a shovel for me?” Natalie asked when we stepped outside. I appreciated that she hadn’t gone out to the barn to get one herself. I bet that little sneak who’d served us burgers would have showed off how well she knew her way around the farm, even better than I did. But Natalie just followed me out and chose a snow shovel, and we headed for the back steps to shovel the path from the house to the barn.
“It’s nice of you to help,” I said after we’d been shoveling for five minutes. “But you really didn’t have to.”
“You’re wondering what I’m doing out here,” Natalie said. “I actually came to bring Holden some money for a painting he sold.”
“Does the gallery always hand-deliver when an artist sells a painting?”
Natalie laughed. “You know what, I like you,” she said. “So I’m going to tell ya something. I hear the talk around town. It’s been worse since the four of y’all came in together. Seems like maybe you made an enemy of a girl or two down there.”
“But not you?”
She shook her head. “I had my little fling with Sawyer back in the day, but who didn’t? Actually, I always favored his brother. Holden’s a real sweetie, as I’m sure you know. But nothing ever came of being with either of them, and I got better things to do than waste time sighing over some man who doesn’t sigh over me.”
“You seemed pretty friendly with Sawyer the other day.”
She shrugged. “I like dancing just like the next girl,” she said. “But I’m just good friends with them, like anyone else around here. I got no claim to them, never have and never will. I just wanted to give you a heads up, in case you didn’t know you’d stepped on some toes in town.”
I tossed a scoop of snow aside, trying to do it as quickly and efficiently as Natalie. Instead, the snow flew up into the air just as a gust of wind hit, and I ended up coated like the Abominable Snowman.
Natalie just shook her head and finished scraping off the last step.
“Thanks, I guess,” I said. “The boys’ mom told me as much.”
“You on good terms with her?” Natalie asked, eyeing me askance.
“Not really,” I admitted.
She nodded. “You should get that way. The boys may complain about her, but they’re loyal to their mama. She’s the way to their hearts. Don’t tell them I said that, though. They’d never admit it.”
“If you know the way to their hearts, how come you aren’t with Holden?” I asked.
“Their mama’s too much work,” Natalie said with a grin. She stopped and leaned on the handle of her shovel, and I was relieved to do the same. I was breathing so hard I thought I might keel over at any moment. It was one thing to feed the horses, but I wasn’t cut out for this shit. In New York, I just waited for the snow plows to move all the snow.
“Thanks for your help,” I said.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to quit on you yet,” Natalie said. “We’re just getting started.” With that, she dug back in.
I’d just started to catch my breath, but I couldn’t just stand around while a guest was working, so I dug back in, too.
“Let me give you a couple pointers,” Natalie said.
“About shoveling snow?” I asked, praying to baby Jesus that’s all it was. I sure as hell didn’t want her giving me sex advice just because she’d slept with two of my stepbrothers. And then I caught myself about to start judging her about that, and for the first time, I really understood what the talk in town was about. Here I was thinking what kind of girl sleeps with two brothers? And I was in the last position to judge!
So what would everyone else in town think? I wasn’t just going to sleep with two brothers, maybe a few years apart. I was living with all three of them. I was planning to let them all fuck me, hopefully at the same time. No wonder I’d gotten all those looks.
“Not about snow shoveling,” Natalie said. “About being a woman. I just thought I’d let you know that there’s only one family practitioner in town. So if you need any…woman’s visits, you might want to head down to Cheyenne, so people won’t get to talking.”
I gulped. “Oh. Well…thank you.”
“No problem,” Natalie said. “Us women got to look out for each other.”
We shoveled in silence for a minute. My shoulders were already aching from the weight of the snow. “I’m sorry if people were ugly to you about dating Holden,” I said at last.
“I guess he’s not the one you’re sweet on,” Natalie said.
I didn’t know what to say to that, and thankfully, a shovel-full of snow blew up and smacked me in the face this time, so I had an excuse to spend the next minute spitting it out and wiping my eyes instead of answering.
“So which one is it?” Natalie asked after I was done.
“What?” I asked, stalling for time. What could I say to that?
“Which one of them boys you got your eye on? It’s Sawyer, ain’t it? He’s always been the charmer. Ladies just can’t resist him. Never could.”
I made a noncommittal sound, which was really just a grunt from effort. But Natalie let it go and didn’t press further. And she’d given me some good advice. I’d thought about trying to get on birth control, but I hadn’t thought about needing to go to another town. But now that I knew how nosy everyone was, I figured she was right. If I was going to make the guys go get tested, I should do the same thing, virgin or not.
I tried to think of some way to repay Natalie for her wise counsel as well as helping me shovel snow. There was no way I’d make it if she asked me to help shovel her driveway in return. And I wasn’t going to give up one of my men for her. I could offer to give her my recipe for avocado mayo, but somehow, I didn’t think that would be quite enough. Still, I vowed to think of something.
She was about as opposite Haley as a person could get, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a female friend arou
nd. Especially one who looked out for me the way she had, without any obligation to do so.
“Hey,” I said after a while. “Maybe I can get the boys to come downtown and go dancing sometime. Get you a good dancing partner.”
“Tonight?” she asked.
“Maybe sometime next week,” I suggested, trying not to whimper at the thought of moving my body. The second she left, I was planning to slip into a hot bath and stay there until dinnertime. Who knew farm work could kick my city ass so hard?
12
Amber
To my surprise, when I floated the idea of going to a doctor in Cheyenne, Waylon offered to drive me.
“Really?” I asked. “You won’t be mad about missing a day of work here?”
“It’s time to take the T-Bird out for her first real drive,” he said, not looking up from his plate.
Well, okay then. I had expected Holden to offer to hold my hand through it, but then, my test wasn’t exactly scary. I just needed to get on birth control. As Sawyer reminded me sourly, I wasn’t the one getting a Q-tip shoved up my junk.
“No, just a pair of metal forceps,” I said, pinching my fingers open and closed. That shut him up.
So the next day, we headed out in the T-Bird. It was a sunny day, but too cold to drive with the top down. I’d never ridden in a convertible before, and I hated that I didn’t get the full experience. My parents both had drivers so they didn’t have to stop working even on the commute, and they were far too practical for flashy orange cars like this, anyway.
None of my friends drove in the city, so we didn’t even bother to get drivers’ licenses. The only person I knew who had a license was Cheating Charlie, who used his car to drive out to the Hamptons and probably screw lots of other girls where no one would catch him. I figured it was time to change that. Not Charlie screwing around, because you couldn’t take the scum out of a scumbag, but the driving thing.
“Maybe I could get my license and drive this sometime,” I said, running my hand along the dash.
Waylon looked at me like I was stark raving mad. “You don’t have your license?”
“Nope,” I said. “Never needed it.”
“And you think you’re going to practice on this one?”
“I’ve never been into cars,” I said. “Never really thought about them before. But this is kinda hot.”
Waylon reached across the seat and slid his hand over my thigh. “Stick around and I’ll take you out in it with the top down.”
I lay my head back on the seat and imagined blowing down the highway with the wind whipping my hair into a mess. Walking around town with the guys, not even caring if anyone saw us or knew we were together. Holding hands with two of them at once.
Waylon’s thoughts must have been a little on the naughtier side, because he tugged my knee aside, parting my legs, and slid his hand between my thighs. I sucked in a breath as his fingers worked against my jeans, stroking my sensitive spot. Squirming in my seat, I opened my legs further, lifting up to give him better access.
By the time we pulled into Cheyenne, my jeans were damp and my panties soaked. If the last two trips to town were any indication, I was going to need to start carrying a pair of extra panties around in my purse. As he parked, I was panting with the need for his fingers to be inside me. Waylon pulled away to park the car at the clinic, then shut off the engine.
I grabbed his arm, squeezing his muscle. “Want to help me out before we go in?” I asked, unbuttoning my jeans.
Waylon gave me a little half smile. “Maybe later, Princess.”
I swatted his arm. “You better not leave me high and dry.”
“There’s nothing dry about you.” He smirked and pushed his cowboy hat lower on his head.
“Fine,” I said, unzipping my jeans and pushing a hand inside. “Then I’ll do it myself.”
Waylon’s hand shot out and clamped around my wrist. His eyes locked on mine as he drew my hand away. “No one touches your cunt unless I say so.”
“Um, excuse me,” I said. “It’s mine to touch.”
He released my hand, but his eyes stayed fixed on mine, his jaw set in a hard, almost cruel line. “You can touch yourself when we get home,” he said slowly. “Until then, you’ll have to wait.”
“I don’t have to do what you say.”
“Go ahead and try me,” he growled. “See what happens.”
With that, he turned and got out of the car. I was still seething when he opened my door and held out a hand to me. Like he was suddenly a gentleman. Now I was going to have to go sit in a waiting room with soaked panties, my pussy throbbing and ready, desperately in need of release.
When the doctor finally came to get me from the waiting room, I was still horny as hell and just as mad. “Your partner can come in, too, if you’d like,” he said with a professional smile.
“Okay,” I said. “Come on, Waylon. Now you get to see what it’s like for girls.”
I got a bit too much satisfaction from his startled expression. But he quickly put on a poker face, crushed his hat lower on his head, and followed me to the exam room. “It says here you’d like to get on birth control,” the doctor said, looking at the forms I’d filled out. He was somewhere in his forties, still slim and kind of handsome in a geeky way. “What method are you currently using?”
“None.”
“Oh, I see here that you aren’t yet sexually active.” He asked a couple more questions and then told me to get undressed while he stepped out of the room.
I turned to face Waylon. This wasn’t the way I’d imagined stripping for him, but I wasn’t going to waste it, either. I slowly peeled my sweater off, then my shirt. Biting my lip, I reached behind me and slowly unhooked my bra, then slid it down one arm and then the other.
Waylon gulped, his eyes widening.
“Bet you wish you could touch me now,” I said, running my hands over my breasts, giving my nipples a little squeeze. “Or are you going to tell the doctor you want to give me the pelvic exam?”
I turned my back and undid my jeans, lowering them slowly. I bent over, drawing them all the way to my ankles before I looked back over my shoulder at Waylon. He was staring at me like a lion about to pounce on a sleeping gazelle.
“Hmm, too bad you wouldn’t help me out in the car,” I said. “I’m wound so tight I think I might come when the doctor puts his finger inside me.”
“It’ll be worth it to fuck you without a condom,” he said. “I want to feel your cherry pop all over my cock.”
My pussy clenched at his words, and I just about offered myself up right there on the exam table. Waylon picked up the flimsy gown the doctor had left and shoved it roughly at me. “Put this on before he comes back.”
“Are you going to tell him when he can touch my pussy?” I asked, giving him my most innocent smile.
“You’re asking for it now,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Asking for what?” I asked, widening my eyes like an innocent little lamb. I obediently put on the gown and hopped up on the table. The doctor came in a minute later, and Waylon stood at my shoulder, staring off into the middle distance with his jaw set.
“Now this might be a little cold,” the doctor said, sliding the metal contraption inside me. He slid his fingers up inside me, and I shifted around, making a slight moan.
“You comfortable?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” I sighed, trying not to laugh when Waylon’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he gulped.
“I’m just going to press on your abdomen a couple times. It’s almost over,” the doctor said. “Would you two like to discuss your options for birth control today? Or are you set on the pill?”
“Oh, we’re not together,” I said. “That’s my brother. He’s just very protective.”
I thought Waylon’s eyes would pop out of his head.
13
Waylon
When we finished up at the doctor’s, Amber wanted to get some bubble tea, whatever the hell that was.
But that’s what she wanted, so we parked the T-Bird downtown and got out.
“Nice ride,” said a hipster guy walking by.
“I think so,” Amber called back, slipping her hand around mine. When he’d walked off, she smiled up at me and added, “And I don’t just mean the car.”
My instinct was to pull away, but I tightened my grip on her hand instead. “Watch it there, Princess.”
“I’m already in trouble, right?” she asked, her smile growing wider. “I might as well make the most of it. So where’s this bubble tea place?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” I said. “But if you want me to take you out somewhere, I figure I could do that.”
“Could you now?” she asked, giving me that coy little smile that made me want to spin her around, bend her over the hood of the nearest truck, and fuck her senseless. I hadn’t forgotten her little stunt in the doctor’s office.
“I could eat,” I said, tucking her hand under my arm and pulling her along. I knew I shouldn’t spend the money to take her someplace nice, but fuck if I was taking her to anything less.
We ended up at a nice steakhouse, sitting next to each other at a table in the dimly lit place. It wasn’t like back home, where I couldn’t sit next to her because people would think we were on a date. Here, I could put an arm around her, watch her chew her lip as she decided what to order. Here, I didn’t have to worry that anyone was watching us.
I figured that’s how she felt in New York. That’s why she’d come out here, to get away from being watched. To compensate my brothers and I for looking after her, our father had offered us a loan on the ranch so we could hold onto it a little longer.
I didn’t think our old man would like seeing us like this now, with my arm around Amber’s shoulders and her warm hand creeping up my thigh under the edge of the tablecloth. If he found out, he’d withdraw the offer. Then we’d be fucked.
Ride Me, Cowboys: A Reverse Harem Forbidden Romance (Coyote Ranch Book 3) Page 5