by Lynn Stark
Loving in Silver 3
Butterfly Madness
After her sister dies, Marley Jacobson lets fate choose her new home by throwing a dart at a map. She and her sister had shared dreams of the kind of place they wanted to live. When the dart lands on Silver, she goes there to discover it’s the perfect place for her to both heal and to settle her sister’s affairs.
Marley doesn’t have plans for love and romance at this point in her life. Love will come later, when the grief and guilt lessen. What she hadn’t planned on was meeting two charming, sexy men. Grayson Evans is the sheriff. Roarke O’Malley is a businessman. They’re perfect for each other as longtime partners. She learns they’re searching for their third, a woman to love and live the rest of their lives with. As she gets to know them, she decides they would be perfect for her, too. Can she get beyond her grief and guilt to give them a chance?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 74,130 words
BUTTERFLY MADNESS
Loving in Silver 3
Lynn Stark
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
BUTTERFLY MADNESS
Copyright © 2013 by Lynn Stark
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-161-9
First E-book Publication: January 2013
Cover design by Christine Kirchoff
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 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,
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DEDICATION
I want to dedicate this book to the memory of my friend Martha B. She would have loved every word of it and was always supportive of my work. I named one of the harlequin Great Danes in the story after her. As much as she loved the Dalmatians she bred, raised, and showed, she always wanted one of the huge, magnificent dogs. Thank you, Martha. You were one fantastic lady, and I remember you with love.
BUTTERFLY MADNESS
Loving in Silver 3
LYNN STARK
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
Fabulous. The description ricocheted around in his head as Roarke stared in disbelief.
The woman, somewhere in her late twenties or early thirties, turned away from the shop window she had been looking in to continue down the sidewalk. Roarke tried to get his tongue back in his head as he made the decision to follow her. It wasn’t much of a decision. And if Gray was there he would say he was using his little head to do his thinking. There wasn’t a ring on her finger. He took that as a sign that he should investigate further. His gaze roamed over her, noting everything from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet.
She had lightly tanned skin, long, slender limbs, waist-length sable hair, and butterflies. Roarke had never given much thought to all those things combined, but now he thought they were all perfect together. He admired the short white top and flirty, peach-colored skirt she wore. Yeah, he could appreciate butterflies as they danced over the woman’s slender waist and up, he suspected, under the short shirt she was wearing.
As he followed her at a distance down the sidewalk, hoping he didn’t look too much like a stalker, he pulled out his phone to call his lover and partner Grayson Evans. Gray was the sheriff, but it was his day off. They were supposed to meet for lunch and plan what they were going to do that night. His eyes admired her long, tanned legs downward until he saw the string of small shells around her left ankle. Nice.
What the hell was Gray doing? he wondered as he listened to the phone ring. Roarke couldn’t follow the woman much longer before she started getting suspicious of his behavior.
He and the other man had been partners for years and, being citizens of Silver and following what seemed to be tradition for many men in the town, they were planning on finding the perfect woman to share for the rest of their lives. As he watched that flirty little skirt dance around fabulous thighs, Gray finally answered his phone.
“What’s up? I’m not late, am I?”
“No. But you might want to get moving. I’ve seen something you might be interested in.”
“A woman?” he guessed correctly. “Who is it?”
“Don’t know. I’ve never seen her before. Where are you?”
“I had to come into the office. I had to talk to Cherry. Let me know where you are and I’ll catch up with you.”
The sheriff’s office was only a few blocks away. It wouldn’t take long for Gray to catch up, a couple of minutes at most if he got his ass moving. “She just turned onto North Silver Street. When you see her, if she’s not the hottest thing you’ve ever seen, I’ll give you a blow job.”
Gray laughed huskily. “You’ll give me a blow job anyway.” There was a moment when Roarke could hear his lover and friend speaking to someone else. There was soft feminine laughter and he guessed Cherry Preston, Silver’s newest deputy, was there with him. Gray didn’t have a shy bone in his body, and he knew Cherry well enough to know she wouldn’t be shocked or horrified to hear him speaking as he was. “I’ll see you in two minutes.”
The sexy but
terfly woman stopped in front of another shop. This one was a leather goods store which had been around since the nineteen thirties. He loved going in. The first thing he always did was breathe in the scent of leather. Harry, the grandson of the founder, was an artist, and his products, everything from belts to custom handbags for women, were always in high demand by the residents of Silver as well as the many tourists who visited their charming town.
Roarke tried to look inconspicuous as he stood there, about twenty feet away, but it was damned hard. He was feeling very conspicuous, as if he had a flashing red light attached to his hat. Where the hell was Gray?
The woman turned suddenly to pin him where he stood when Gray appeared at his side. A strong arm slid around his waist, pulling him close to a very hard, muscular body. A shiver of pleasure ran over his skin. It always did. Gray’s touch was something he eagerly welcomed or sought out.
“Hey, babe,” Gray murmured next to his ear, nipping his earlobe before pulling back.
The woman looked from Roarke to Gray, seeming to examine them both for a moment. He saw her visibly relax. Then she was smiling, nodding in a fairly friendly manner, then turning back to continue her self-guided tour along the sidewalk.
“That was close,” Roarke said, relieved she hadn’t started screaming for help. “Isn’t she gorgeous?”
Gray nodded as they watched her walk along, her hips twitching enough to make the skirt dance back and forth across the backs of her thighs. They waited until she was a couple blocks ahead before they started following again.
“Do we ask her out or what?”
Roarke laughed at Gray’s eagerness. “I think we should ask her name first, don’t you?”
“If we have to,” the other man grumbled. “I’m the sheriff. I should do it.”
“Well, we better think of something before she gets away.”
“I feel like we’re back in high school. I definitely remember having this conversation with you before.”
They’d had the conversation more times than they could remember in their teens. It had been a hideous time for them. Pimples, weird growing spurts, and hair sprouting from strange places had contributed absolutely nothing to their confidence in dealing with the opposite sex. Girls had giggled and laughed at them. Girls were like that. Teasing one moment and spiteful the next. They hadn’t had sex with a girl until they were out of high school, and that enlightening moment had been with a college girl in the area with her family on a skiing vacation. She had made a point of helping them catch up on everything they had missed out on.
“One good thing, we’re not as ugly as we were back then.” Gray hugged him close as they stopped again, giving the woman ahead of them more space. If she looked back, she would see just what they were, two men in love. There was nothing the least suspicious about that. “I love you, you know.”
Roarke looked up at him and smiled. “I know. I love you, too. I could have sworn you told me just this morning.”
“I did. But I don’t mind saying it again.”
Neither man was afraid to show their love for one another in public. It was Silver, after all. They had been born and raised here. It was one place in the world where people could be who they were. Every once in a while someone was an asshole about the varied relationships to be found in town, but fortunately they were outnumbered and rarely tolerated. It was hard to be a cat in a room full of dogs.
“Good because I don’t mind hearing it again.”
The kiss which followed these declarations was brief, but conveyed everything. Gray lifted his head, giving Roarke a smile which sent his pulse racing and his cock hardening. It always had the same effect on him.
“I think our little lady is far enough down the street we can follow without looking too suspicious.”
They walked down the street, Gray’s arm around his waist. Roarke tried to think of something to get rid of his hard cock, but even thoughts of his fifth grade teacher and the huge hairy mole on her upper lip made little difference. Damn! It usually worked in emergency situations. He shook his head and tried to think of something other than Gray tying him to their bed and fucking him senseless, or of beautiful butterflies floating across honey-gold skin. He wanted to kiss each and every one of them.
“I wonder how much she knows about Silver.”
Gray shrugged broad shoulders. “I suppose it depends on how long she’s been here or who she knows. Look, she’s going into Colt’s office. Maybe she’s looking at houses.”
“Well, that’s not good. How are we going to get her to live with us if she has her own house?”
“I still suggest we get her name first and work out everything else later. She could be married, engaged, or simply not interested. She could also be gay.” Gray looked down at him. He was six feet tall, but he enjoyed the other man’s additional five inches. “Did you just whine?”
Roarke had hoped Gray had missed that. He felt the heat along his cheekbones. “Caught that, did you? Not very manly,” he agreed. He cleared his throat, attempting a deeper, manlier tone. “Okay, let me try again. Darn that woman for spoiling all of our plans.”
Gray laughed and bent to kiss him again. “Better. You look damn sexy in that new hat. Maybe we’ll play ‘Ride the Cowboy’ tonight.” Okay, so now he was getting seriously hard again. Roarke groaned as he imagined wearing the worn, black leather chaps and the black felt hat. “Not helping here,” he grumbled, shifting uncomfortably. “I’m going to get arrested any moment.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got connections.” Gray grabbed his hand, leading him down the sidewalk as their quarry left their friend’s real estate office and continued down the street toward the residential area on the other end. “Come on. We’ll talk to Colt. He’ll tell us who she is.”
The front of the realtor’s office had four desks. They were all occupied by four people who looked like they’d never gotten the sticks out of their asses. Subdued business suits on the women and the men, neatly styled hair, and perfectly manicured hands. Colt Redford was all business and wanted those working for him to look the part.
The dragon at the door to their friend’s office jumped up to stand in front of it when she realized they were not going to bother to ask if Colt was available.
“You can’t go in there,” she stated coldly.
They loved to irritate the woman. He grinned at her. “Yes we can.” As he said this he reached around her to push the handle down on the door. He pushed the door open. “We’re here on official business.” When she started to follow him in, he stopped her with a firm voice. “You might not want to be here for this. We might have to strip-search your boss.”
She was left gasping in the doorway, her face turning an odd shade of red. Gray closed the panel as the tall, handsome man behind the desk started chuckling. “You two know how to make that woman lose it. She’ll probably threaten to quit again.”
Roarke shook his head. “She won’t quit. Right now she’s out there imagining you naked.”
“Please. She’s old enough to be my mother.”
“Maybe. But she’s not dead yet. Now, we need to know who that woman with the butterflies is.”
They watched Colt lean back in his chair. Roarke didn’t think he’d ever seen such a handsome man, besides his Grayson, of course. Colt was so handsome he was almost beautiful, but in a very masculine way. He wasn’t feminine or soft looking. He had fantastic bone structure, likely passed along to him by a Russian ancestor. He had seen a painting of the woman once, where it hung in one of the many rooms in the huge mansion Colt called home until he was in his early twenties. It was the ancestral home, but the man didn’t live there, claiming it was too big for one person. There was a staff living there, however, to see to the daily care of the place. And, as it was the house of one of the town’s founders, and a fabulous example of Queen Anne architecture, it was also considered something of a tourist attraction.
Yes, the man did have a hint of an exotic blood. Roarke blinked as he r
ealized a name was floating around and he had missed it.
“What was that?”
“Marley,” Colt repeated. He was not always a man of patience. “Her name is Marley Jacobson. Now pay attention, or you can just wait until Gray can fill you in on anything you miss.”
“Fuck you, Colt.”
The man wasn’t offended. He just grinned. It was a dangerous kind of thing. “Don’t you just wish you could?”
“Leave my fantasies out of this.” Colt and Gray laughed. “Is she visiting here? Moving here? Passing through?”
“Moving here. Actually, she’s already here, but she’s not happy with the house she has. She’s renting from me, but finds she needs more room. Since I don’t have anything else to rent at the moment, I’m going to let her live at the house with her dogs.”
Roarke stared at Colt. He knew Gray was doing the same. “Your house? A dog at the manor? Inside the house?”
“Yes to both.” Colt laughed again at their amazed expressions. He tossed the pen he was holding down onto an open appointment book. “I find myself fascinated by the charming Miss Jacobson.”
Gray growled, actually growled, low in his throat. “Uh, I think he’s about to pee on something. Maybe you’d like to rephrase that?” Roarke suggested quickly.
“Why? It’s so much more fun to pull his chain. Now, let’s get back to the beautiful, incredibly sexy, and alluring Marley Jacobson. I want to keep her close. Keep an eye on her. She doesn’t know anyone here.”