“Successful livestock dealers handle transactions, Allister. Look around this place. If we don’t start turning some major profits somewhere, it will be mighty tough to keep running this town.”
“Coming from the man who stares at millions in the bank every damned day.” Mac entered the office and slammed the door behind him. “Either of you heard from Markie?”
“Not me,” Allister said.
Draegan groaned. “As if he’d touch base with you anyway.”
“That was ugly,” Mac said, quoting what their dear mother used to say when they snapped at one another.
Draegan and Allister smiled as if the quote had stirred a memory. Doris McCall had been in her grave for nearly a decade and for painful reasons too great to acknowledge, they seldom mentioned her.
Draegan pushed away from the desk and said, “Markie was pretty hung up on this guy. He’ll probably be out all night.”
“Speaking of which…” Mac let his voice trail off. “What happened to you tonight?”
A recollection stamped its place in Draegan’s mind’s eye and he couldn’t shake the delectable memory. Regardless of sweet recollections, he was still doggone perturbed.
“Whatever it was, it must’ve been a humdinger,” Allister said. “Serena called Ellie for a little chitchat.”
“She did?” Draegan leaned forward, nearly foaming at the mouth for information. “What’d she say?”
“How the hell would I know?” Allister grunted. “Thanks to you, I get to go home to Ryan and Derek. Ellie would’ve been in my bed if Serena had been in yours.”
“Sounds like you’re taking one for the team,” Mac said, staring at Allister. Then, he turned his attention to Draegan. “If Sable ends up with an invitation to join Ellie and Serena, I’m blaming you because you couldn’t take one for the team.”
“Yeah, well, join the party,” Draegan grumbled.
“That’s it!” Allister shook his finger at Draegan. “That’s what started this whole thing. Isn’t it?”
“What?” Draegan knew damn well what Allister meant but he wasn’t about to volunteer information. Sometimes listening was the best option, particularly around his brothers. They were, after all, sleeping with his woman’s best friends.
“You know about the detective,” Mac said.
“You knew!” Draegan flew off the handle. “You knew about Brice?”
“Hell, Draegan, she hasn’t exactly hidden it.” Mac walked into the kitchen and returned with a bottled beer. After twisting off the cap and throwing it in the wastebasket, he added, “He’s been sending her flowers and shit.”
“Every other day or so,” Allister added.
“And no one thought to tell me?” Damn it. Now he was pissed. “You both know how I feel about her. You know! And you let some outsider send her gifts?”
“That’s right,” Allister said, slapping Mac across the chest. “I forgot about the shopping bags he sent in here.”
“And the car,” Mac said, clearly taking the taunting too far.
“A car?”
Allister laughed. “If you’d left it at shopping bags, we might have pulled one over on him.”
“Did he send flowers or not?”
“Yes to the roses and no to the shopping bags. I threw that in for laughs,” Allister said.
“This is not a laughing matter.”
“I like Bane. He’s a good guy,” Mac said.
Allister shrugged. “Gotta admit, it would be kind of nice to have a cop around here.”
“Wait a minute.” Draegan stuck his index finger up in the air. “It’s one thing if he moves in on my woman but another thing altogether if you two are already talking about moving him here to Trouble.”
Mac rose from his seat. “If he moves in on your woman, he’ll likely move here anyway and the way I see it? We all share without any problems. Big brother, it’s your turn now. Best be brushing up on your bedroom etiquette. It’s sort of weird getting used to the tag-teaming thing if you’re lacking in confidence in matters of sex.”
“Lacking in confidence!” Draegan snarled. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Allister and Mac broke into fits of laughter before Allister added, “Brice thinks you’re intimidated because he’s a cop.”
“Intimidated?”
Mac shivered. “I can see where that might be a problem. I bet the guy has a lot of experience under his belt. Young women love the boys in blue.”
“He’s not a street cop.” He’d heard that enough. “He’s a detective.”
“Didn’t he say he’s worked vice for most of his career?” Allister looked at Mac.
“I believe he did.”
“What the hell does that matter?” Draegan asked.
“Vice cops and detectives end up with all the women. Think about it. Their men go away for long sentences and the men on their speed dials are the fellas who put their husbands and boyfriends away.”
“But of course. Cops go in and take a woman’s bread and butter away and she can’t wait to hook up with the one who’ll be bringing the champagne and caviar.” He rolled his eyes. “Those busty babes on a drug lord’s arms aren’t going for the cops dragging in thirty or forty thousand a year, especially if they are ultimately responsible for cutting off their money supply.”
Mac shrugged. “Either way, the guy seems cocky enough. He thinks you don’t want him around because you’re afraid of the competition.”
“Well, how about that? The truth finally comes out.” Draegan crossed his arms and studied his brothers. “So it is a competition.”
“Why, hell no,” Mac said, shaking his head. “We share Sable because we want to share Sable. With our jobs and her…”
Draegan leaned forward and cupped his ear. “Her what? Overactive sex drive?”
Mac grinned. “Okay. I’ll give you that. Yes, our jobs and her insatiable appetite make the sharing thing work well for us.”
“Truth is, Draegan, if you can’t share with Bane, then you’re probably going to have to walk away. She cares about him. She was all giddy when he’d send her flowers. She loves you, man. I don’t doubt that, but will she love you enough to let the detective go?” Mac tilted his head. “I don’t know about all that.”
“Something you need to think about,” Allister said, slapping his hand against the desk and turning to go.
“I’d give it a lot of thought if I were you and then look around. There are a lot of women who are juggling men and they’re the happiest ladies here, if you ask me.”
“Well, why wouldn’t they be?” Draegan asked, cursing the very thought of sharing Serena with Bane Brice. “You boys act like it’s your greatest privilege to share your women.”
“It is,” they said in unison, already at the door when Draegan received back-to-back texts.
“Hang on a minute. Markie is sending me some sort of downloads.” He held his phone up, waiting.
“You’ll regret watching whatever he’s sending,” Mac said, already leaving.
“What the hell is this?” Draegan gasped at the first image as pure rage took hold. “Regrets? Regrets are precisely what this son-of-a-bitch will have for taking Markie to his house of horrors!”
Chapter Eight
“You blow a man’s cock, not his ego.” Ellie patted Serena’s hand. “I’ve known Draegan for over half my life. He’d strut around school like Mr. Stud just because he gave a girl her first kiss. Best guess? The reason he’s so upset is because after the parking lot lovin’, he likely believed he owned everything between your legs.”
“You make it sound like I’m sitting on a mine over here.” Serena laughed as she sipped her wine.
“We all are, honey,” Ellie said. “And trust me, it’s not until you catch it from the front and from the back that you realize you’re sitting on gold.”
“Ellie Hunter, you’re drunk!” Serena laughed until she cried.
“That I am,” she said, taking a hearty drink. “The guys are gonn
a have fun with me tonight.”
They laughed even more until Serena stopped abruptly. “That’s just it. I want what you have only I want it with two, not four.”
“Well, let’s face it. Not everyone is born with an inner whore.”
“Oh, Ellie, stop. You are not a secret slut.”
“Oh yes, I am,” she said, grinning sheepishly. “I’m not too proud to admit it. I’ve slept with five men in my life—the one I had the dumb luck to marry and the four in my bed now. Yet I can pass some of the biggest sluts in the city—ya know the type, the ones who’ve been in over a hundred beds over the course of a lifetime—and they’ll be the first to cast stones in my direction.”
“Do you care?”
She made a weird face and waved her hand. “Not at all. Honey, I’m the luckiest woman in the world!”
“I know that’s true,” Serena said, wishing she felt the same.
“You listen to me.” Ellie shook Serena’s hands and left them cupped between her own. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve that happiness on your own terms. Do you hear me?”
Serena slowly nodded. “So what do I do?”
“You march down to Draegan’s house first thing in the morning and you tell him what’s what.”
“Which is?”
“You said you loved him. Right?”
She groaned. “I told him right in front of Bane.”
“Did you express your feelings for the detective, too?”
“I told Draegan I was attracted to Bane, but that’s the real hell of all this. I told Draegan, not Bane.”
“He was there, right?”
“Yes.”
“So what’s the big deal?”
“I said I was attracted to him. The truth is, I think I’m in love with him, too.”
“You guys haven’t spent much time together,” Ellie pointed out.
“That’s where it gets strange, at least in my head. I see Draegan every single day at the café. I could set my watch by when he’ll show up. I don’t see Bane. We talk every evening and I feel like I know so much more about him, about his goals and dreams, about how he actually admires Draegan for the work he’s done here in Trouble.”
“Maybe start there then,” Ellie suggested. “When you talk to Draegan, stroke his ego a bit. Don’t break confidences, by any means, but maybe express to him that you think Bane admires him or feed him some information that would suggest as much.”
“It’s hard to stroke Draegan’s ego. Whenever I’m around him, all I want to do is touch him.”
“And what about Bane?”
“I haven’t been around Bane enough to know.”
Peck! Peck! Peck!
Ellie pointed at the aluminum door and grinned. “Looks like you’re about to find out.” Ellie grabbed her lightweight jacket and threw it around her shoulders. Before she left, she kissed Serena on the cheek. “Relax. You’ve been honest with both men. Now, you can live in the moment. Enjoy whatever each man brings to the table. They know the score, Serena. You’ve been honest with both of them. Beyond that, you don’t owe them anything until one or both of them ask for a commitment.”
Ellie waved at Bane and then let herself out the backdoor. Serena smiled at Bane as she unlocked the screen door and pushed it back. “Come on in.”
“Surprised to see me, I guess.”
“Not really,” she said, closing the screen and main doors.
Bane smirked as if he thought the second door closing represented some sort of victory for the man inside. Perhaps she should’ve left it open.
“Can I get you something to drink?”
“Got a beer?”
“Sure.” She disappeared into her cozy kitchen and returned with a bottled beer. “It’s dark. Hope that’s okay.”
“It’s wet.”
She gulped, wondering then if she’d taken him the wrong way. “It’s cold.”
“As opposed to wet, slick, and hot,” he said, his voice laden with lust.
She forced a smile. They’d had some pretty heated conversations. They’d been on the outskirts of phone sex on a number of different occasions, so the provocative talk shouldn’t have surprised her.
“Would you like to have a seat?” She turned to the sofa and waved her arm over the furniture.
Bane set his beer on the coffee table and shrugged off his leather jacket. After he placed it over the arm of the chair, he took a seat on the far end of the couch, practically hugging the end where he’d placed his outerwear.
“I didn’t know if you’d be here.”
“Is that why you came by? To see if I was here or at Draegan’s?”
His lips twitched. “Busted.”
“It took a lot of nerve to walk up to the door. Draegan could’ve been here.”
“And what would’ve happened if he’d been sitting here?” He turned to face her, one knee against the center cushion dividing them.
She glanced down and immediately turned away. The thick bulge in his dress slacks was enough to make her mouth water.
“I would’ve invited you inside.”
“With Draegan here?” He moistened his lips, stared at hers, and then brushed her hair over her shoulder.
A shiver ran up and down her spine. “Yes.”
“And what do you think would’ve happened next?”
“I don’t think Draegan would’ve been too glad to see you.”
“I’m not asking about Draegan. I want to know about you.”
Serena’s head was swimming from the wine and the excitement. She shuddered against the chill and was very much aware then that she was only dressed in her nightshirt. After she’d called Ellie, she’d showered and grabbed the first thing she’d spotted—a printed T-shirt which read “I’m sweet in my sleep. Now? I’m Naughty.”
At that very moment, Bane apparently noticed the words on her shirt. He crooked his finger back and forth. “Come sit beside me.”
“I’m afraid of what might happen if I do.”
“I’m afraid of what might happen if you don’t,” Bane said, reaching for her then and trailing his fingers up her knee and thigh.
Maybe it was the alcohol or perhaps it was just months upon months of waiting on a man to make a move. Either way, she leaned back against the sofa and propped her neck on the small decorative pillows and just stared at him, daring him, perhaps even challenging him.
Bane stood then and stared down at her as if he were one hundred percent certain he knew precisely what was on her mind. His hands moved quickly over his buttons and he was bare-chested in a matter of seconds.
Her eyes fell to his belt and her breath caught in her chest. “Take the rest off.”
He grinned. “I had you pegged right from the start.”
Serena knew what he meant. She was shy, somewhat backward in public, but when the doors were closed and she was with a man she wanted, she knew how to ask for what she needed. She expressed herself in a manner in which a man could easily understand.
Bane unhooked his belt and left it hanging from the loops. He unbuttoned his slacks and slowly tore the zipper down. Another second or two and he kicked off his shoes and stepped away from his pants.
The hard bulge in his tight-fitting underwear made her mouth water, her eyes burn. She couldn’t look away then.
“Now what, sweetheart?” He rested his hands on his hips. A serious expression washed across his face, and he clearly wanted her to call the shots or at least lead to a certain degree. She didn’t mind. She’d been on the other end of the spectrum when she’d been a married sub, a woman who hadn’t been given the option to express what she wanted or liked.
“I haven’t slept with Draegan,” she told him, thinking perhaps she should let him know where they stood.
“You said you loved him.”
“Yes, but I also told him I was attracted to you.”
“And are you?”
“I didn’t just say it to make conversation.”
“I see,” Bane said,
placing his knee to the sofa and pressing his palms against hers. He then spread her legs and stared at her pussy.
She swallowed then, thankful she’d suffered through a Brazilian the week before. More at ease than she’d suspected, she reached down to the edge of her tee and pulled it straight up and over her head.
“Sweet Lord,” Bane said, staring at her breasts with his lips slightly parted.
Serena sucked her forefinger between her lips and dragged her hand down to her breast, circling her nipple until it puckered.
“You know what I like,” he rasped, his cock pushing against his underwear. The briefs were tight enough to showcase every ridge, every pulsing line.
Bane was right, of course. She knew what he liked. They’d talked about it, discussed it. They hadn’t seen one another since the barbeque and now she regretted not acting more pleased to see him when they’d bumped into one another at the club. They’d talked on the phone every single night and yet when she’d seen him in Drover, she’d treated him like a stranger.
“What do you want me to do?” She wasn’t willing to play the role of a submissive, but she was eager to please him. She loved how he watched her, how he anxiously awaited her to act out on those dark fantasies he’d told her.
“Fuck yourself,” he said, taking her hand in his and guiding her fingers to her bare mound.
She parted her legs, tilted her head, and lifted her fingers to his lips, shivering when he sucked them. His tongue leisurely played with the three digits and she became wet, horny, and just plain eager to enjoy a rambunctious time.
Slipping her fingers away from his lips, Serena lifted her hips and widened her legs, hiding nothing from him as she thrust her fingers inside her pussy. A moan fell from his lips and her own as she worked her hand closer to her pussy, thrusting her fingers in and out and in and out.
“God bless, that’s hot.”
She stopped suddenly and lifted her fingers to his lips again, this time watching as his tongue swirled slowly around each digit, drawing them between his lips and acting positively entranced. Using her free hand, she cupped her breast and tweaked her hard nipple, strumming the point with quick flicks from her thumb.
Trouble Travels in Threes [Trouble, Tennessee 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 5