by SJD Peterson
While Kegan had a happy, almost childlike look to his smile, Trevor had his Stetson pulled low over his dark eyes, and a devilish smirk pulled at the corners of his full lips.
Charlie had to give herself a mental shake as the image of them naked and wrapped around her filled her vision and she felt her insides spasm.
Shit! So not good! You can’t even look at them without losing control. Good luck!
After telling that pesky little voice inside her head to shut the hell up, she had stepped out of the truck with a confident set to her head and shoulders and greeted them professionally. She’d refused to let her hand tremble even slightly as she’d shaken their hands.
She’d looked up into each one of those way-too-sexy gazes with her best detached look and thanked them for the opportunity to work with their amazing animals, blah blah blah…
Kegan’s hand had lingered just a moment on hers, his thumb caressing her skin. The sensation had rippled straight along her arm and back down her chest to explode between her legs.
Well, at least her control had lasted for five minutes. Not good enough. She definitely needed to work on that if she was going to survive the next thirty days and come out of it in one piece. Charlie groaned at the enormity of the battle she faced.
Kegan stepped into the foyer and reached for her suitcase. “I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”
She snatched back on the handle and refused to let him take the case. “I can carry my own belongings, thank you very much.”
Kegan shook his head, chuckling. “I’m sorry. I forgot how independent you are. It won’t happen again.” He held out his arm, allowing her to precede him up the stairs.
Her head jerked up as she heard Trevor bound through the front door and make his way up the stairs behind them.
“Kegan, you damn country bumpkin, why the hell is she carrying her own bag?”
“Piss off,” Kegan grumbled. “Why don’t you come up here and try to take it from her? I could use a good show.”
Trevor pushed past Kegan as they reached the top of the stairs, elbowed him out of the way, then grabbed her suitcase from her before she could protest or tighten her hand around the handle.
He ducked his head close to her face, placed a soft kiss to her gaping mouth, and with his gaze locked with hers, said, “Sometimes you have to show a woman what she needs.”
His eyes roamed over her body slowly, and his tongue darted out to lick across his bottom lip as he returned his gaze to hers. He had the look of a man starved preparing to devour a feast. She shuddered.
“You have to listen to what she’s saying, not just the words she’s using.” He winked as he brushed past her, then went down the hall, opened a door and waited.
Charlie’s face heated with a combination of outrage at his pushy attitude and a powerful kick of arousal.
Bastard.
Charlie stormed toward him and refused to acknowledge his cocky smirk or Kegan’s belt of laughter behind her.
She stepped into a large suite. Unlike the rest of the house, this room had a distinctly feminine feel. It was pretty obvious what they used it for.
A large four-poster bed sat as a focal point, covered with luxurious fabrics in hues of royal purple and shimmering silver. Large vases of flowers filled the space with the pleasing scent of jasmine and heather.
Trevor set her suitcase on the bed and opened a door to a large walk-in closet. “You can put your things in here.”
Kegan walked to a set of ornately carved double doors and pulled one open. “This is your private bath.”
Charlie stepped closer and couldn’t help but whistle. A large Jacuzzi tub sat directly in the center of the room surrounded by candles and fresh-cut flowers. The tub was clearly large enough for more than just a private bath. Ornate mirrors decorated three of the walls, while a fourth had an enclosed shower that encompassed the entire length. Like the bath, it looked like it could accommodate a small sports team, rather than just one.
Oh yeah! This just proves what they use this room for.
Charlie ignored the twinge of jealousy as well as the two heated looks she was getting from Kegan and Trevor. She needed to stay focused for the battle.
“It’s beautiful and far more than I’ll need as I plan to spend most of my time in the stables.” She shot Trevor a look that dared him to object. “If you and Kegan would excuse me, I’d like to unpack and get a look at the mare requiring my immediate attention.”
* * * *
The temperature for early April was in the mid-seventies, a rarity for this part of the country this time of year, and Charlie took full advantage of it.
Not only was she enjoying the gorgeous sunny day, but it also allowed her to set one of her plots into action. She dressed in light khaki pants made of a stretch material that hugged her ass and hips. The black thong she had chosen was barely visible beneath the thin fabric, but hinted just enough to roaming eyes at the lack of material.
A tight red tank top completed her ensemble. She rarely wore it in public as it had an irritating way of riding up to expose her stomach and back, but today it was perfect. She left her long hair down, allowing it to gently tickle the exposed flesh of her lower back as she walked. Her hair appeared to be a weakness for Trevor, since he couldn’t seem to stop himself from reaching out and touching it whenever he got the chance.
On the way to the barn, she had to tighten her lips and restrain her smile, as more than one stable hand’s head turned in her direction as she walked by. She nearly laughed outright when she entered the barn and Kegan looked up with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
She could just picture his tongue rolling out the side of his mouth and him drooling like a big hound dog. He strode quickly to her side and scanned the area around him to see if anyone had noticed her. He stopped inches away from her in a male dominant stance of possession.
First shot, direct hit. Yay me.
She giggled to herself and glanced at him, her expression neutral and her voice professional when she said, “I would like to examine my patient if you would be so kind as to point me in her direction.”
Kegan stared at her, a confused and befuddled look on his face. This was exactly what she wanted, to see both men off balance. Over the last couple of days, since she had become their live-in vet, they had used every excuse they could think of to spend as much time with her as possible.
She had kept them both at bay for the most part, refusing to talk about anything personal with them and keeping their conversations to a strictly professional level. She was proud that she was able to keep enough control over herself to hide the fact that they had driven her mind-numbingly insane with lust most days. She was grateful to hide behind the locked door of her room and relieve herself. Her only consolation was that she had driven them just as insane.
Kegan placed his hand at the small of her back and led her toward a large foaling stall. It was empty. “Well?” she asked.
Kegan shrugged his shoulders. “Cade has her out back to groom her.” His voice was deep and husky, which could only be described as being barely controlled sexual frustration.
How do you like it?
“You can wait here, and I’ll bring her in to you.”
“No, I’ll head out there since she’s the reason I’m here.” She flashed him a brilliant smile then turned away in the direction of the back door. It didn’t surprise her in the least when he fell in step directly behind her. She could feel his eyes boring into her backside and fought the urge to wiggle her ass just a little more wantonly. In the end, logic won out. It was one thing to bait a bear but another entirely to poke a stick at it.
Stepping out behind the barn, she spotted Trevor speaking to a devilishly handsome man with sun-darkened skin and wide eyes that reminded her of the dark blue of twilight. He was much smaller than Kegan and Trevor, standing about five foot eight. Then again, most men were small compared to them.
As they approached, he waved in their dire
ction and drawled, “Afternoon, boss.”
She recognized the voice as Cade’s, though she hadn’t actually seen the man’s face the first time she had been here. She snuck a peek in Trevor’s direction and ignored his dark, brooding expression. Charlie reached out to shake Cade’s hand.
“Hello, I’m Dr. McCarty, but you can call me Charlie. We seem to keep missing each other. I’m very glad I finally got the chance to meet you in the flesh. I look forward to working with you.”
Flirting? Who her? Nah.
As he took her hand, she could practically feel the simultaneous snorts that came from the two men now flanking her. Cade didn’t seem intimidated at all by the scowling cowboys behind her.
“Welcome to the ranch, Charlie.” His smile was bright and there was a hint of amusement to his tone. He bent and placed a kiss to the top of her knuckles as he bowed. “I think you and I will get on right nicely.”
She was impressed as hell and instantly liked the man. He hadn’t even flinched when Trevor had let out a low growl as his lips had touched her skin.
Trevor leaned in closer to her. “Charlie, can I have a word with you?”
“Sure. Right after I’m done with my patient, I’ll be sure to give you a full report.” She gave Cade a wink and could swear he was holding back his laughter.
“Now, Charlie.” Trevor’s voice was nearly a grunt as he tried to control his frustration.
She was done taking orders from him or allowing him to command her to his will. She spun around and glared up at him, hands on her hips. “And I said when I am done with my patient.” She turned her back on him before he could respond and, in a syrupy sweet voice, asked Cade, “Do you have her chart? I’d like to review it before examining her.”
Cade’s broad smile grew even bigger, if that was possible, and he motioned her toward the barn. “Right this way, ma’am.”
She didn’t even glance back, but she could feel their stares and let her own smile broaden.
Kegan stood beside Trevor, stunned as Charlie moved toward the barn with Cade.
“I am going to paddle that stubborn little ass but good.”
Kegan huffed at Trevor’s barely controlled anger. “I do believe we have been challenged.”
“Duh! We’re going to have to rethink this. She’s stubborn as hell. Has she always been like this?”
Kegan remembered the time when she was sixteen and had shown up at the drive-in with Johnnie Carroll. It hadn’t mattered that he knew she was doing it simply because he had told her to stay away from Johnnie. The boy was just bad news and Kegan had been pissed to see her in the same car as that loser, not to mention that she’d seemed to find perverse pleasure in defying him. He had snatched the door open, pulled her from the car and warned her, “Time to go home, bichito.”
She had glared at him, anger burning in her brilliant green eyes. “Kegan Colburn. You take your hands off me this instant. You have no right to manhandle me.”
When he had tried to pull her away from the car, she had dug her heels in and slapped at him, growling, “You take your hands off me right this instant or I swear you’ll pay for this.”
Kegan had done the only thing he’d been able to think of at the time. He’d picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, put her in his car and taken her home. She’d screamed the entire drive. After he’d deposited her on her front porch, she’d stomped off madder than a drenched cat and had refused to speak to him for over a month. Instead, she’d kept showing up at the lake whenever he was there and had pranced around in her damn string-thing of a bikini, giggling and laughing at the fool boys chasing after her. She’d stopped every so often to send a nasty glare in his direction.
Kegan shook his head and brought his thoughts back to the present. “You have no idea, Trev.”
He watched as Trevor’s eyes darkened, a dangerous glint shining in them. He recognized that look and knew things were going to get very interesting around here. Trevor never backed down from a challenge, and this time the stakes were higher than they ever had been.
Kegan had always known that Charlie could affect him like no one else. One touch of her fingertips against his skin made him damn near forget his own name. He had watched his only friend grow up, and as she’d matured, he had looked at her with different eyes and had ached for her.
She’d been fifteen the first time he’d realized that Charlie had moved beyond a friend. Since he’d been nineteen and considered an adult at the time and she had still been a kid, it had just proven to him that he was a sick bastard. Though he’d never acted on those feelings, even when she would teasingly run her fingers through his hair, blow pouty kisses at him with her full lush lips or bat her long thick lashes with a ‘you know you want me’ look in her eyes, he’d just watched and ached.
She was now twenty-five and Trevor was just learning the power that was Charlie.
The same power that she had always wielded over Kegan now captured his best friend.
* * * *
By the end of the first week, both men had been reduced to randy lads, ready to shoot in their jeans if the wind blew just right.
The little vixen had kept just out of their reach for days, swishing and swaying her hips at them as they followed behind her like a couple of horny tomcats chasing a scent.
She giggled and flirted with the ranch hands until Kegan and Trevor were ready to kill every damn man on the ranch that dared to look at her.
Kegan felt the reins he kept tightly bound around his control begin to fray. His possessive instincts screamed at him to claim her now. They needed to stake their territory, so that every man knew to whom she belonged.
“Trev, I can’t hold back much longer. She’s killing me,” he growled as he watched Charlie lean over the rail of the corral and laugh with one of the stable hands. Her pert little ass, raised high, just begged for a good spank. Trevor stood next to him, seething as he clearly tried to get hold of his own control. His body was wound so tight, the man was on the verge of exploding.
“It’s time Charlie learns just who in the hell she belongs to,” Kegan announced.
He knew Trevor was done waiting too. It had been nearly four weeks since either of them had first touched her, and Kegan had waited even longer to claim her. They needed to be inside her and hear her scream their name as they possessed her body and soul.
Kegan’s hunger darkened and burned through him. God help him, he knew he could wait no longer.
“C’mon, Trev, I’m done waiting.” He stalked off, not caring if his best friend followed or not.
He headed in Charlie’s direction, eager to claim their woman.
* * * *
Charlie knew the exact moment she had pushed Kegan and Trevor too far. She had felt their desire grow all week until they were ready to burst. She’d stoked that fire, let it wane slightly before pouring more gasoline on it, only to let it simmer down to embers before stirring it up again.
Instead of just baiting them, she’d poked at them with that damn stick over and over. Charlie felt the heat radiating off them as they moved up behind her.
“Are you finished for the day?” Trevor’s voice was dangerously smooth.
“Oh, I’m far from finished.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder.
Poke, poke.
The stable hand with her was not as brave as Cade. His eyes had gone wide with the approach of the two men and sweat appeared on his brow. He swallowed hard a couple of times and his eyes dilated further. A real look of terror distorted his face as Kegan and Trevor scowled at him.
“S’cuse me, Miss Charlie, I—I gotta get back to work,” he stuttered as he backed away.
Coward! She prepared to make a quick exit herself when a large arm wrapped around her waist, pulled her from the fence and she was carried in the direction of the house.
“What the hell are you doing?” she huffed. “Kegan Colburn, I’m not some stupid sixteen year old you can manhandle. Put me down this instant!”
�
��Oh, Charlie, I am very, very aware that you are no longer sixteen,” he growled into her ear as he tightened his grip.
She glanced over at Trevor. He wore the same expression of pure male arrogance as Kegan. “Dammit, Trevor, can’t you control him?” The hunger burning in his dark eyes told her he had lost his ability to control himself, let alone anyone else.
“You pushed us to this, sweetheart. Now we’re going to give you exactly what you’ve begged for all week.”
Had she intentionally pushed them too far? She had watched them slowly unravel all week, yet she had kept pushing. Had she actually begged them to take control away from her?
Charlie had only set out to put them off balance, yet she had to admit that as the week had gone on and she’d been able to see the fires of longing raging through them, it had begun to spark her own need. Their lust and desire bore into her through heated eyes and ignited her deep in her core. The power of unhinging these two powerful men had become like a drug. She had known she was pushing them to their breaking point and still couldn’t stop. She hadn’t realized until it was too late that in her greed, she had handed them the power on a silver platter. Was she ready to pay for that self-indulgence?
She had pushed them to this and now she’d have to surrender. The idea caused Charlie to grit her teeth. The hell she did. She squashed the little voice in her head that doubted her resolve. She could still control this. Couldn’t she?
Trevor held the door open as Kegan entered the massive living area with her still held tightly in his arms.
“Kegan, I mean it, put me down. This is ridiculous.”
He ignored her demand but let her slide down his body until he held her in his arms, her feet suspended off the floor. His heated gaze locked on hers as he lowered his head and took her mouth in a possessive kiss.
He slid his tongue into her mouth and mingled with hers. She opened up further, his taste making her lightheaded. He slid his tongue along hers, and she moaned softly as he pulled his lips from hers to kiss and lick his way across her jaw. He left a wet trail from his open-mouthed kisses and scraped his teeth across her sensitive skin.