by Kaliana Cole
“I wish I could tell you otherwise, but nothing I’ve heard about the Marshalls supports a happy ending. However,” Emma raised her finger, firmly in lecture mode, causing Casey to grin, “I bring to your attention two pieces of interest. Firstly, Colb and Zach were bigger womanizers than that pair ever were, and look at them now. And secondly, I haven’t heard of the Marshalls following one of their conquests around afterwards.”
“How do you know they are following me?”
“When we head back out, take a look at Brody’s shirt and Luke’s boots, if he still has them sticking out from under the table, and tell me those boys didn’t dress in a hurry.” Emma’s smile was impish as she sauntered back out the door.
Casey followed, gathering her courage before exiting the bathroom. She knew they were sitting straight ahead. Their gazes locked on to her the moment she stepped out, looking at her with equal parts hunger and longing. That wasn’t what she wanted to see. She wanted to see the cocky, arrogant bastards who had thought she’d be a convenient fuck next door.
At the moment she had trouble not laughing despite the hangdog look on their far-too-handsome faces. Brody’s shirt was buttoned up two holes crooked. One side of his collar was halfway down his chest. Luke had concrete-spattered rubber boots on. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he’d left home barefoot and grabbed the only footwear in the bed of Brody’s truck to wear inside. For men who usually dressed with an eye for impressing the ladies, they were a fucking mess. She gave them a polite but distant smile and sat back down.
Colby and Zach still had the occasional giggle escaping their control, but they were for the most part coherent throughout the meal. To Casey’s surprise, Ty offered to take her home afterward, leaving Emma with the giggling duo.
Ty had just opened the passenger door for her when hurried footsteps sounded behind them. “Hey, Casey!” The raspy voice sent desire shooting down her spine and wrapping around her womb. Steeling herself, she turned. Luke halted before her, his eyes shining softly in the parking lot lighting. “We can give you a lift home if you like. We have to drive straight past your place. It will save you a trip, Ty.”
“That’s entirely up to Casey.” Ty folded his massive forearms atop the open door and settled in patiently to watch. Casey envied him his calm assurance. She felt like her heart was looking for a way out of her chest.
“We need to talk, Case. You’re avoiding us.” Brody stepped up beside his brother, looking painfully earnest despite his obvious wardrobe malfunction.
She folded her arms across her chest, trying to cover up her body’s primal reaction to them. “I thought you’d be smart enough to pick up on that hint.”
“Avoiding us won’t fix the problem, Casey.”
“What problem, Brody? We scratched the itch, had a bit of fun. It was good, but now it’s over. Get over it and move on.”
“It was more than that and you know it.”
“It was sex. That’s all. You guys have had enough of it to know that. Go and find someone else to play with.” Casey climbed up into the truck. “Take me home, Ty.”
“You heard the lady.” He shut the door softly and walked past the Marshalls to round the cab.
Casey breathed a big sigh of relief when Ty drove out of the lot. “You want to talk about it?” his voice was a deep rumble in the dark vehicle.
“Not much to talk about. You heard enough then to know what’s going on.”
“What I heard and what I seen are two different things. Just keep them hanging for a while longer. Make them really work for it. Men don’t appreciate things they don’t have to work for. It will do them good.”
“I’m not going to give in, Ty. All those two were after was a bit of action. They got that. I wasn’t sticking around for them to dump me afterward. It was just sex.”
“You keep telling yourself that, darlin’. You might even sound convincing one day.”
Casey fumed in silence. She hated it when a man was right.
* * * *
“What the fuck do we do now?”
Brody watched Ty’s taillights fade from sight. “I don’t know, Luke. Following her around like a bad smell didn’t work. Who’s fucking idea was that anyway?”
“Well, I thought if she saw us around enough, she’d cave. I think we need a different approach.”
“Ya think?” Brody really hoped dumb-ass picked up on the sarcasm. “Take those boots off before you get in my truck. I can’t believe you left home without shoes.”
“Hey, at least my shirt’s straight.”
“What?” Brody looked down in question and cursed. “Fuck, Luke. I’ve been sitting there all night like this? You could have told me, you prick. How can you expect Casey to take us seriously when we’re getting around like this? No wonder those fuckwits were laughing their asses off.” Brody shook his head in disgust. “Get in the truck.”
Brody started the big engine up and roared from the lot. He didn’t bother trying to catch Ty. They knew he would take Casey straight home.
How were they going to win her over?
“We need a plan that is actually going to work this time. There’s got to be a way to reach her.”
“There’s one thing she’s not denying, Brode—she liked it.”
“And this benefits us how if she won’t stand still long enough to even exchange a few words?”
“Think about it. She’s got needs, just the same as us. And we get her hot, there’s no question of that. We stop chasing her and just let her look for a bit.
“It’s a bit like trying to catch Checkers when he don’t want to be caught. If you chase that horse, he’ll run for days. Just stand around and ignore the bastard and he’ll have his head over your shoulder in less than a minute.”
“Casey is not a horse, Luke.”
“No, but I’m betting that if we spend enough time just lazing around ignoring her, she’ll get curious. I think it’s time we started back on that barn. That’ll give her something to look at. And she still has to come over and clean out the tank. I’m sure we can come up with a reason to be around while she does that.”
Brody thought it over. Luke may have stumbled across a workable plan. Casey had healthy carnal appetites. If they could whet those enough, she might just come looking for another taste. The barn was good for an appetizer—they’d both felt her appreciative gaze when they’d been working bare-chested on that.
But Brody had another plan he’d keep to himself for now. He’d noticed Casey sneaking off up toward the spring every time the mercury nudged ninety. He’d also noticed her heated reaction to something Luke had done the other night.
The next time Casey headed up to the spring, he’d give her a show she wouldn’t forget in a hurry.
Chapter 8
They were at it again.
How frigging long did it take two men to put a roof on?
Day after day, after work and all weekend, she would come home to the sight of them working shirtless beneath the summer sky. Obviously they didn’t sweat sun cancer. Luke spotted her walking onto the porch and gave her an absent wave. That had her worried, too—they had ceased following her around.
Had she actually gotten through to them in the parking lot?
She doubted it. They were up to something. What exactly, she had no idea, only time would tell. Until something resolved itself, Casey was stuck in a perpetual state of frustrated arousal that only built with every glimpse of their hard, sun-burnished bodies. It wasn’t fair. Masturbation only made it worse, leaving her momentarily sated but only fueling her need for their touch.
She had to go over there tomorrow. Luke had left a message on her phone asking if she could come and clean out the tank before the rains predicted for later in the week. She had in turn rang their house phone when she had known they were not there and left a message saying she would do it on Tuesday. Luke had already pointed out which tank it was before things went pear-shaped.
It was hot, too fucking hot. She swi
tched on the air-conditioner, but the house was too hot for it to have much effect. She checked out the corner of the drapes to see if the Marshalls were occupied. It was time to cool off. Luke was nailing clapboard siding on, but Brody wasn’t in sight. His truck was down by the half-built structure, so Casey grabbed a towel and slipped from the back door. Her hot tub just got too warm on days like this, even with the heating function turned off.
By the time she reached the spring she had worked up more than a little sweat. Her shirt clung to her back and she could feel perspiration tickling the backs of her knees. The spring water was going to feel so damn good. She couldn’t wait to just jump in and soak in the cool water.
The path was familiar enough for her to move with confidence now. On light feet she jumped from boulder to boulder. Swinging around the jutting outcrop, she stopped dead. Her heart slammed like a sledgehammer against her ribs and her breath caught in her throat. No wonder she hadn’t seen Brody at the barn. He was lying beside the pool in the dappled sunlight, not twenty feet below her.
Stark freaking naked.
His hat was pushed back, screening his head from the sun as he lay face down. Casey breathed a sigh of relief when she realized he was facing the opaque aqua pool instead of her. She knew she should leave, but the sight of his bared body was absolutely captivating. Wide, wide shoulders, thick with muscle, led down to his strong waist. The swell of his ass arising from it had her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.
That was one Grade A ass. Tight and round. Completely drool-worthy.
His thighs were heavy but shapely and his calves so defined she could see the separate halves of the tight, bunched muscle. She had an insane urge to sink her teeth into it like an apple.
She sank into the shadows as he rolled over, her heart in her throat as she waited for him to spot her. But he settled that hat down over his face and lay there in full view.
Oh. My. God.
Casey gripped at the boulder to stay upright as swift arousal assailed her. Her cunt clenched in pure need. This wasn’t fair. She didn’t need this, but she couldn’t find the strength to look away.
He was long and thick and growing harder by the second. Lolled against his thigh, his cock visibly grew, the veins plumping and the folds filling. Casey watched, amazed as it began to make vertical progress. It almost rolled, moving to lie on the golden-toned skin below his hip, and then worked further across his belly, thickening and straightening with every passing second. Straight as an arrow, the arresting organ came to a throbbing halt pointing at his bellybutton.
Casey’s breaths came in quick pants. The sight of Brody’s cock coming to full erection floored her. Never before had she witnessed something so riveting, so enthralling, so fucking erotic. She glanced down to see her hands trembling. Christ, she’d never been this turned on.
His big, beefy hand lifted from where it lay, grazed up his thigh, and rubbed low on his belly. She caught the wanton moan before it escaped her throat. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.
He did.
Slow and leisurely, that big hand wrapped around the dark, engorged flesh. Unhurriedly, it stroked up and down his cock, caressing the full balls beneath at the bottom of each indulgent stroke. A shaft of sunlight fell across his loins and a glint shining on the tip attested to the fluid beading beneath his self-pleasuring hand. Casey’s tongue reflexively licked her lips, hungering to sample his musky salt. Ruthlessly, she held herself still.
His deliberate pace picked up a little and he forsook the slow massage of his balls for a thumb stroke across the wide, wetly shining head. He lifted it higher, drawing the shaft further out from his body. The muscles rippling in his forearms and the ropy tendons of his wrist revealed how strong his grip was, how tight he squeezed with each long, measured pump of his hand. Casey pressed her thighs together tight and tried not to think about what those big, powerful hands could do. Her body remembered all too well.
Caught in the ever-escalating pace of his shuttling hand, lust rooted Casey to the spot. Soon, it had to be soon. His chest was rising and falling swiftly, the muscles of his thighs clenched and released, clenched and released. His hips rose and fell, driven up and down by the bunching of muscles in that magnificent ass. A low groan reached her ears and then it happened. His whole body stiffened at once. Veins stuck out on the back of his hand, and jets of shiny seed spurted from the head of his cock, spattering his belly as he continued to draw forth more of the briny flood.
Everything within Casey pulsed in sympathy, pushing her the closest she had ever been to orgasm without actually coming. Her blood sang through her veins, pulsing with the frantic pace. Her ears rang, deaf to all but the frenzied beat of her heart. Her knees trembled, and a small pebble dislodged from the path and tumbled down the precarious slope, tearing her from her arousal-induced fog. Startled, Casey bounded back up the path she had traveled before Brody decided to tip his hat back and have a look around.
She wasn’t in a state to think coherently, let alone talk her way out of that predicament. Hotter than she’d been before heading for the cool spring, Casey headed for home and an icy shower.
* * * *
Brody pushed his cutter back with a grin and watched Casey’s long-legged form hurtle up out of sight. He rubbed his sticky fingers together ruefully. Only for Casey would he get cum all over himself—it was horribly sticky shit.
He’d thought she’d get hot over watching him play with himself, but damn! He’d been able to hear her panting over the sigh of the hot westerly through the pines. He’d bet his right nut she was wet clear down to her knees. He’d never come across a woman who creamed as readily as Casey did. His mouth watered just thinking about it.
It had been even odds on whether she would stay or run. He’d thought that if she stayed to watch she may have plucked up the courage to lend him a hand, but he knew that was wishful thinking. He got up and headed for the small stream that ran from the thermal pool. He really needed to wash his hand and his belly.
A smile curled his lips as a realization hit him.
Casey was running from herself as much as she was running from them.
* * * *
Walking a machine across open paddocks was bone-jarring work. The tracks rattled and banged across the rough ground as she headed toward the tank. She had the big mud bucket on the excavator as well as a smaller one inside it in case there was any actual digging to do. There was no telling how long the silt had been filling the dam for. It might be set like cement.
She topped the rise above the tank and her shoulders slumped even as her nipples sat up and begged. Luke’s Chevy was pulled up beside the dam, and two men leaned against the hood. Even from that distance she could tell the brothers apart. Both wore jeans and dirt-spangled, sweat-stained cowboy hats. One wore a white shirt, the other black, but the difference in physique and stance was readily apparent. Luke had that lazy, laid-back way of standing—he lounged no matter what position he was in, while Brody filled out every available inch of his white tee. That chest of his was stretching the cotton to capacity.
Great, just fucking great. It was just what she didn’t need. Her body had been a hormonal, quivering mess since she had watched Brody jerk off yesterday. It hadn’t been that much better before it, but at least she hadn’t been a danger to those around her. She had left a job early today because she had nearly got someone hurt. A preoccupied mind shouldn’t be in control of heavy machinery. This was supposed to be an easy, thought-free job. Those two turning up shot that to hell.
Casey squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. She could do this. Just go down there, say “Hi,” and get the job done. Simple. Yep, and about then a flock of pigs would go soaring by.
She brought the machine to a stop atop the wide earth berm that formed the wall of the dam. Pulling her professional persona around her like a suit of armor, Casey jumped down from the machine and headed toward Luke and Brody.
“Hi. Do you want the silt stockpiled or added to the wall
?” There, that was professional, if somewhat brusque.
“Just add it on to the wall, thanks, Casey. You don’t mind if we watch, do you? It is always interesting to see what’s living in the dams.” Luke was cool as ever, relaxed and comfortable. Brody she didn’t even look at. There was no way she could clap eyes on him and not have yesterday play over and over in her mind.
“No problem, but stay near the vehicle where I can see you.” They might be the bane of her existence at the moment, but she would hate to injure one of them by accident. If Casey did physical damage to either of the Marshalls, she wanted it to be deliberate.
She headed back to the excavator, more than a little conscious of the two sets of eyes following her every move. She soon forgot about them as she fell into a working rhythm, scoop the mud, slew around to empty the bucket, and return. She was grateful the berm was wide enough to comfortably support the nine-ton machine because she was able to work a lot quicker than if she’d had to lower the back blade for stability every time she inched forward.
It was when she had worked her way halfway around the dam that it got a little hard to concentrate. Luke was poking through the first lot of mud and silt she had pulled out, looking about for toads and frogs and the like with a stick—without his shirt on. A glance the other way was no better. Brody was kicking back in the Chevy, his boots resting on the open door’s windowsill. The afternoon sun flickered against his golden skin where he, too, had lost his shirt. Not fair. Just not fucking fair.
As if aware of her scrutiny, Brody stretched slowly, his muscles writhing beneath that burnished hide. There was a definite smile flickering at the corners of his mouth that he hastily concealed. That man knew exactly how hot that body of his looked and the effect he had upon her.
Casey felt a bit of mischief spark inside her. Brody definitely looked like he could use some cooling off. She quickly calculated angle and distance and walked the machine forward two feet. She knew she would only get one shot at this. One she could possibly pass off as an accident. She slewed to empty the bucket and brought the digger’s arm back the other way so that it was traveling across the water toward Brody. When it had reached a suitable speed she dropped the bucket, sending a sheet of water with devastating precision straight in the open door of Luke’s truck.