Rachel snorted at that familiar phrase. Heather repeated it every time she told Rachel just what to do.
“But,” Heather spoke unnecessarily loud to drown out Rachel’s rude interruption, “you need to get your head on straight, honey. Those men have you twisted all around. If you were just using them for sex and some good times, I wouldn’t be worried, but what you’ve got going on is a lot sicker.”
Pausing with her finger on the trigger of the big mixer, Heather hesitated, turning on the loud machine to finish giving Rachel the rest of her lecture. “Now those men are playing like they’re your boyfriends. Worse than letting them get away with that, you’re playing along with what they want you to be. I’ve seen you with them, Rachel. You aren’t you around them, and how long are you going to keep that up?”
Rachel opened her mouth to answer that loaded question, only to be cut off by a high pitched whine. The piercing sound heralded in the vibrating drumbeat of the mixer’s paddle whirling to life. Instead of a sharp retort, Rachel had to settle on glaring at Heather. She was being really annoying with being right about everything.
Sure, she’d bitten back on the urge to take control of her more recent project. All it would have done was cause an argument and force her to face some facts because she already knew neither Killian nor Adam would listen to her. Things were too good right now for her to risk blowing everything up over some fight that really wouldn’t matter in the long run because this was a fling.
Except that going in with Kitty on this prostitution story would be kind of like frying gun powder over an open flame. If she told either of the deputies about it, they’d go into full no-way-in-hell mode, which would require her to respond with a you-don’t-own-me attitude. That could only result in catastrophe.
Though they’d find out once the article was printed, so there really would be no avoiding the issue in the end. There would only be postponing it. Really, how long did she have left with Killian and Adam? A couple of weeks? A few, maybe, if she were lucky.
It would take Kitty that long just to get into the action. Kitty wouldn’t be making any moves until Rachel did some research. So she could delay things a little and make sure it took as long as she needed. Her research could actually take a while, given she wouldn’t be asking Killian or Adam any questions. The rest of the department would be off limits, too, what with their blue-buddy attitude.
Not that they seem very fond of the sheriff. That thought popped in her head as she spied the man through the warped plastic window in the kitchen door. Sitting in the restaurant, Sheriff Krane was talking to his companion, Konor Dale. Rachel recognized him, thanks to her research into the barn fire. He worked for the fire department, and that could very well be her best introduction.
Or it could backfire on her. Either way, it would make for a more interesting time than listening to Heather’s lecture. She really should have skipped the Bread Box and gone right over to Hailey’s. Hailey Mathews had called earlier to explain that Patton Jones had dropped a birthday gift off for her. Rachel needed to stop by and pick it up, given Killian and Adam had also forgotten to invite either of those women to Rachel’s birthday party.
It really made her wonder who was actually coming to her party. Doubt the sheriff will show up, though. If she wanted to talk to him, then she needed to make her move because she really did need to stop by and see Hailey.
“You know I’m right,” Heather declared the second the mixer died down. “You need to start thinking about what’s best for you.”
“And that’s just what I’m going to do,” Rachel assured her as she slid off her stool. “Starting right now.”
Chapter 13
“You know you’re glowing.” Cole Jackson curled his lip as he studied Adam. “It’s kind of disgusting.”
“You should see him with his girl,” Jacob, Cole’s cousin, quickly chipped in. “He goes all googly-eyed, like some virgin schoolboy dreaming of his fourth-grade teacher.”
Not about to be outdone by his brother, Aaron continued their laffy-taffy banter. “Let off the man, tonight is his big night. He’s getting his macramé badge for all the streamers he handmade for Rachel’s party.”
“You’re all a riot,” Adam shot back at the three other Cattlemen smirking between each other at his expense. Cramped in around a slanted table on hard plastic chairs, all four men vied for elbow room and leg space as they waited for their lunch to be served.
He should have been eating at the Bread Box with Rachel instead of putting up with these three. Normally when they worked the day shift, Rachel would meet Killian and him there. The ritual felt very relationship-like to Adam, and he’d grown to depend on it.
Only today, Killian had gotten called away on a domestic right before lunch, and Rachel was off in Dothan having a mid-day birthday celebration with an old friend. Kitty Anne. What the hell kind of name is that?
One that was easy to remember, and if he’d ever heard Rachel mention it before the other night, Adam would have remembered. Still, out of nowhere, Rachel had this best friend she’d known forever who always took her out on her birthday. How the hell was he supposed to have known that in time to invite Kitty to the damn party if Rachel had only mentioned her two days before the thing?
It brought home a sore point for him. He didn’t know any of Rachel’s friends. Except for Heather at the Bread Box, she hadn’t bothered to introduce them to anybody. That had to be a clear sign of what she thought of their relationship. They hadn’t even gotten to the friend test.
“Grumpy.” Cole’s grin only widened over that word as he swirled his straw through his ice tea. “What’s wrong, buddy? Getting tired of having your dick tucked between your legs?”
Yeah, a little. Adam kept that thought to himself as he growled back at his friend and challenger. “Just a little sleep deprived from having a woman in my bed every night.”
That had Cole stiffening, his tone sharpening. “I’ve had a woman in my bed every night, thank you very much.”
“Well, not exactly in your bed,” Jacob corrected.
Cole shot him a dirty look for pointing out that technicality. “In a bed. Happy now?”
“Better watch out, Jacob,” Aaron warned his brother with too much humor in his voice to make the threat sound real. “Or it might just be game on.”
Adam had no idea what that referred to, but it led to an argument that turned their attention away from him. He didn’t really care as long as they took after each other and left him the hell alone. Normally, he could take the teasing and banter, but he felt unsure enough about things with Rachel that the added commentary only built up more confusion.
Not that he should be worried. Killian told him that daily, like Adam ever trusted his friend to know enough about wooing women to rely on him. Killian’s mom, however, could always be trusted. Adam had sought not only her assurances, but her much-needed advice on how to treat a lady.
He’d followed every one of Mums’ rules. He’d cooked dinners, cleaned up after himself, and showed an active interest in Rachel’s work. Adam had even followed Killian’s dictates and kept his more perverted desires restrained. His friend’s arguments had strangely made sense. Rachel would want a considerate and normal lover who would make her think a man cared for more than her body.
“Oh, spare me.” Cole’s loud and obviously insulted tone piqued Adam’s attention for a second as he focused back in on the three men still arguing about whatever. “I am not afraid of any woman.”
“And how many Hailey look-alikes have you fucked in the past week?”
“Oh, shut up, Aaron.”
“Hailey who?” Adam’s curiosity couldn’t resist finding out who finally had Cole squirming in his seat.
“Nobody.”
“Hailey Mathews,” Jacob answered at the same time Cole did. Ignoring Cole’s pointed glare, Jacob kept the story going without any need for Adam to prod him along. “She’s Patton’s friend and helped set ol’ Cole here up the night of the bon
fire. He felt kind of sore—”
“Try pissed,” Cole corrected. Not that anybody paid him any mind.
“—about that, seeing as how he’s been panting after the girl forever—”
“I do not pant.”
“—and she can’t even manage a civil word when he’s around, right? So she set him up for a beat down and then the next day came walking into the Bread Box, right past Cole, like he doesn’t even exist—”
“So I paddled her ass in the parking lot and told her game on.” Tired of hearing a story he probably knew too well, Cole jumped to the last line and left Adam searching for something worthy to say.
“And then?”
Adam must have come up with the right response because Aaron and Jacob burst into laughter while Cole’s scowl got darker. “Then…I got busy. You wouldn’t believe the schedule out at the club. We’re down so many men, I’ve been completely overbooked.”
“He wimped out,” Aaron translated.
“I did not.”
“You know, Hailey’s a friend of Rachel’s,” Jacob took the moment to point out, surprising Adam and making him glower all at the same time. How did he know that when Adam didn’t? “Ol’ puppy dog eyes over there might be able to help you out.”
Being referred to that way did not help Adam’s mood. He spared a moment to shoot Jacob a dirty look before turning his frown on Cole. The last thing he needed was to complicate his situation with Rachel by trying to help Cole score some revenge on one of her friends.
“You don’t need any help with a woman. Do you, Cole?” That was one way to make sure he didn’t end up embarrassed by this conversation.
“No,” Cole grunted. “Certainly not from you, because trust me, when I get into Hailey, it’s going to be her pussy wrapped around my cock and not my dick getting whipped.”
“You’re un-invited to the party.”
“That’s fine.” Cole shrugged. “From what I hear, the guest list is nothing but men.”
“No, it’s not. There are going to be women.” Rachel, Heather, and Killian’s mom were all coming, which really didn’t justify Adam’s sore-toned response. Screwing up on the one task given to him by Mums did, especially when he’d really tried to get it right. His damn woman didn’t own an address book, though, and he hadn’t dared to snoop through her cell phone.
As Rachel herself had pointed out the other day when their surprise had been revealed, he could have asked Heather for some names. That would have taken some balls. Heather obviously didn’t approve of them being with Rachel. Not that she ever said anything because she almost never said anything to either one of them.
The pointed distance she’d put between her and them told Adam all he needed to know, and it wasn’t good. Rachel’s best friend had aligned herself against them, and women always valued their friends opinions. They didn’t have the kind of pointlessly juvenile relationships that men did.
“Maybe Jacob can bring you his blow-up doll collection to add a little more pussy.”
Jacob’s ears went red right along with the rest of his face as the rest of them burst out laughing. They all knew Jacob had ordered the dolls as a practical joke, but it had backfired and he’d been the one to look like a fool, having spent nearly three hundred dollars on an army of plastic women. He was saved, though, from the endless well of mirth the rest of the Cattlemen could find in remembering that incident by the arrival of the waitress and plates overloaded with large potato wedges and juicy burgers.
The smell of the meat made his stomach grumble with anticipation. Three weeks of eating pretty much every meal at the Bread Box had made him dream of something different. He could have simply told Rachel he wanted to go elsewhere, but he knew how close she was to Heather and wanted to show his respect for that relationship.
If eating the same fried chicken for every twenty-one meals a week kept Rachel happy, Adam would grow to like it or at least suffer in silence. A man endured for a woman he loved. Adam understood that because he’d seen firsthand what happened when a man didn’t. His own father hadn’t been able to take on the responsibility of his wife and child.
Instead of getting Adam’s mom help and forcing her to clean up, his dad had just left his mom to wallow in her own mire. He’d left Adam right beside her. He might not have learned all the fine courting techniques Mums knew, but Adam’s mom had taught him one important thing about women. They needed to be catered to.
Perhaps if his dad had made his mom’s life easier, she wouldn’t have needed the drink to escape. If maybe his dad had actually loved his mom, he could have made her feel it, and then she would have been happy. As happy as Rachel and Rachel was happy…wasn’t she?
Everybody told him she looked it, sounded it, and acted it, but something in Adam’s gut told him it was all a lie. That first night she’d been full of spit and sass, but now she was all agreeable all the time. He could have taken the credit for making her world sing on a daily basis, but even Adam wasn’t that arrogant.
Killian was. Adam had always worried that Killian would intentionally screw up something when the right woman came along. That fear had turned out to be baseless because Killian had jumped right into the game of outdoing each other as they competed to be the better boyfriend. Instead of reassuring Adam, though, Killian’s relaxed attitude tended to frustrate him.
Here Adam had to try so hard to be the right kind of man, and the effort wore on him, while Killian was pretty naturally a good boyfriend. It was like a constant reminder that he and Rachel didn’t fit. Not really, but Adam couldn’t afford to lose her.
Being with Rachel made everything in life more vibrant. Her very presence made him excited in a way that went beyond the physical. Suddenly, the air smelled sweeter, the day held more hope, and the night more interesting possibilities whenever she was near. Sometimes she’d look at him or touch him in some small way, and for a moment, Adam felt loved.
Still, a part of him sensed her pulling away. Even if nobody else saw it, Adam did. Her opinion of their relationship lay hidden in the small details, like the way she’d never gotten around to introducing them to her friends. It bugged him, keeping him silent through lunch and brooding as he said good-bye to his friends, all of whom he’d already introduced to Rachel.
With the sun out, the sky perfectly blue, and the trees and grass looking lush and full, it was too pretty of a day out to sulk. Slowly, the drive unwound some of his tension, and Adam repeated all the positive things Killian was forever pointing out.
She’d never said a word about them moving their stuff into her house. Nor had she objected to the amount of time they spent together. Despite the bland nature of their sex lives, she always came to bed eager and went to sleep satisfied. The reassurance worked, and his speed dipped as his mind wandered.
Killian and he agreed that once they had truly established themselves as Rachel’s men, with no arguments from the woman in question, they’d slowly reintroduce her to their world of extremes. In fact, Killian had even said if Adam could get a collar on her, they could take her out to the club.
Being held in check for the past three weeks had given Adam ample time to develop a variety of fantasies for when that time came. They kept him entertained and made it easier to accept the current conditions. Some of them might even shock the little darlin’.
Shocked was just what Adam was to see Rachel’s car parked in the Bread Box. He hadn’t expected her back so soon and couldn’t help but to slow down to a near crawl as he passed the deli’s big windows, hoping for a chance to see his woman. Expecting to see her at the bar gossiping with Heather, Adam reacted instinctively when he saw her, clear as day, in the front window, sitting and laughing with the sheriff.
The cruiser jerked hard when he slammed the breaks. It took all of Adam’s control not to jump out and go smash in Alex’s face. Only the sure knowledge that walking into the Bread Box and beating the crap out of Alex would not only be bad for his career but devastating for his relationship with Rach
el stopped him. Relationship.
Adam hated that word right then. He might have every right to make a scene, but knew Rachel would still disapprove. A boyfriend had to trust his girlfriend, not act like a paranoid lunatic. If he gave into jealousy, she’d accuse him of insulting her. Then he’d be in the hole when she should be because a taken woman didn’t spend the afternoon having coffee with another man.
Especially not when that man is Alex Krane. The sheriff was a good-looking son of a bitch, known to charm any woman into just about anything. Hell, that’s how he kept getting elected. Who the hell wouldn’t get elected with over ninety percent of the voting females choosing him?
Worse yet, he had a bone to pick with Killian and Adam, one that involved a woman. An eye for an eye said Alex had every reason to try and seduce Rachel away from Adam. If that happened, he really would make a scene.
For now, though, he’d play the good boy and let them finish their conversation in peace. That didn’t mean he had to like switching his foot to the gas pedal and continuing on to the station house.
“You worthless disgusting pig!” Mabel’s slurred shout greeted Adam the moment he pulled up behind Killian. The big deputy struggled to pull the woman out of his patrol car while the woman jerked backward, kicking at him. “Don’t touch me, you filthy boy. All you men want the same thing!”
Yeah, a woman who hasn’t just puked. Adam kept that opinion to himself as he went to help Killian. Together, they managed to get Mabel from the car to the jail cell without causing her any injury and without getting any spit on them in the process.
They left her there to sober up a little while they started the paperwork, a task that Adam could not concentrate on. His mind had locked in on the image of Rachel and Alex together. This is all Killian’s fault.
He’d been the one to suggest they play like good little boys, and look what happened. Staring across his desk, he watched Killian scowl at the keyboard as he searched for the letters. It took him about five minutes of muttering cusses before he glanced up and noticed Adam’s glare.
Penn, Jenny - Rachel's Seduction [Cattleman's Club] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 15