The Cowboys and the English Teacher [Hot Off The Ranch] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Luxie Ryder

  Jack didn’t want to start up the engine on the truck so late, and Wyler got the job of pushing it down the hill until they were far enough away not to wake anybody. His weak legs barely had enough energy to propel him into the passenger’s seat as the vehicle gained more speed than it should have on the shallow slope.

  ‘Very funny.’ He smirked despite himself at Jack’s prank. His brother looked as happy as he felt. Unsure whether he should ask, he cleared his throat. ‘So, are you okay?’

  ‘Yeah. You?’

  Wyler grinned. ‘I’m a little bit better than okay.’

  ‘Me, too.’ Jack smiled at him, his eyes betraying just how deeply affected he had been by the night with Betsy.

  Wyler understood. It had been more—she’d been more—than he’d ever imagined. And despite all his reservations, Jack being there had only heightened the experience. Knowing he looked identical to the man Betsy caressed and kissed had been a huge turn on, almost like watching himself making love to her through a mirror or in an erotic movie. Except that not only did he experience the sensations she had caused in him, but he could almost feel what she had done to Jack. Wyler’s body would react in exactly the same way as his.

  He had felt no jealousy, just a stronger bond with his brother and a deepening affection for the woman they had made love to.

  ‘That didn’t help at all,’ Jack said later as they lay in their bunks. Wyler had thought he’d fallen asleep until then.

  ‘Being with Betsy?’

  ‘Yeah.’ He hesitated. ‘Before tonight, I wasn’t sure that my interest in her wasn’t purely sexual, you know?’

  Wyler’s jaw clenched. ‘No. I don’t.’

  ‘Now don’t get mad. All I mean is that I wondered if my near obsession with her was fueled by wanting her so badly. Turns out it wasn’t.’ He sighed. ‘This is gonna get complicated.’

  ‘Maybe not. Just don’t rush things, okay? My guess is that she will be a little freaked out by all this in the morning.’

  Jack’s face appeared over the edge of the bunk above Wyler’s. ‘Why? And how come you always accuse me of rushing things?’

  ‘Forget it. What I mean is don’t assume anything. My gut tells me she is gonna be feeling bad about it all. Would any of this have happened if it wasn’t for that freaky kid at the party?’

  The silence from Jack did nothing to relieve Wyler’s concerns. The euphoric high he’d experienced earlier had disappeared as he thought about Betsy and how she would react when she woke up and remembered the night. ‘We should have stayed until morning and not given her a chance to get all crazy about what happened.’

  ‘Well, we can’t exactly go back over there now.’

  Wyler sighed. ‘So what shall we do? Go get her later and take her out for the day? That’s if she’ll come with us.’

  Jack laughed. ‘No. I’ve got a better idea.’

  Chapter 4

  Betsy woke, surprised to find them gone. She looked around the room as if searching for some tangible evidence that they’d been there at all. Emotions warred within her. She felt half relieved that she didn’t need to face them until she was ready and half angry that they had simply snuck away in the night like thieves. Why had they disappeared without so much as a note to let her know they’d had a good time or wanted to see her again?

  The weekend held no promise. Hour upon hour of nothing to do except avoid staring at herself in the mirror seemed to be all she had to look forward to. Her thoughts began to crowd in on her, so she leapt from the bed, determined not to think about what had happened. About what she’d done.

  The urge to get out of the small room and away from all reminders of them, like the crumpled sheets and her sated reflection in the bedroom mirror, drove her out of the house. Betsy dreaded bumping into Jack and Wyler but knew hiding away only delayed the inevitable. She’d have to face them sometime.

  A walk along the beach cleared her mind for a while and she began to put things into their proper perspective. Okay, so she’d ‘gone there’. She’d allowed herself a moment of wildness in an otherwise safe, boring life. No big deal. But even as she repeated the words in her head like a mantra, she knew that’s all they were, words. Betsy didn’t sleep with men at the drop of a hat. Her heart had to be involved. And therein lay the problem.

  She had to admit that she had fallen in love – with both of them. And it seemed hopeless. She had no doubt that Wyler and Jack, who were not only younger than her but also far more sexually adventurous, would view her as just another conquest. If they had a list of the types of women they wanted to sleep with, they probably ticked off a few boxes with her. Played hard to get? Check. Older woman? Check. Sexually frustrated spinster? Check. What else could she possibly be to them but an experiment in their powers of attraction and seduction?

  The thing that bugged her the most and caused her greatest shame was the memory of the boy or man and his Brujeria spells. Betsy had been robbed of her right to choose. Okay, so his influence had gone by the time that Jack and Wyler came to her room later, but his interference that had set things in motion. She knew she would never have allowed herself the freedom to explore her desires without his meddling. She’d humiliated herself in front of everyone, including Perdita. What would she say when she saw her again?

  Betsy turned back toward the school and the safety of her room. As she reached the boundary of the grounds, she spotted Wyler and Jack walking on the other side of the compound. And they weren’t alone. A very slim, very young local woman had her arms looped through theirs. She giggled at something Jack said and put her head on his shoulder. He didn’t pull away.

  Wyler looked back toward the school and spotted Betsy. He dropped the girl’s arm and turned, obviously murmuring something to Jack, because he looked around seconds later. Wyler waved, a very relaxed smile crossing his face and Betsy froze, uncertain how to react. She hadn’t expected to see them so soon. Jack frowned and took a step toward her.

  In that moment, she knew she couldn’t face them. She wanted to hide her shame. Her legs woke up and she turned away blindly, running as fast as she could, not stopping until she slammed the door of her room behind her. Betsy had heard laughter from the girl as she ran and her cheeks had burned in humiliation while she made her escape.

  Sitting on her bed, struggling to regain her breath after her mad dash, she turned their reaction over and over in her mind. Why had the girl laughed? And what had they been doing with her? Taking her to their room? They had been walking in the right direction. And Wyler’s smile had looked a little guilty. Hadn’t he dropped the woman’s arm as soon as he spotted her? Jack seemed to be far more sensitive than Wyler. His frown had probably been from embarrassment at being caught trying to seduce another woman so soon.

  Betsy pounded the mattress with her fist, frustrated that so soon after she’d let them get near her, she turned into the needy, over analytical version of herself that she hated. Years of experiences with men hadn’t changed the basic part of her that could never just live in the moment and enjoy what life had to offer. But she knew that as bad as she felt at that moment, it would be nothing compared to what her emotional state would be after days and then weeks of self recrimination.

  What did she even know about them? She’d heard from some of the other volunteers that the twins had refused to take a salary from the charity for their work. They were independently wealthy and set to inherit a huge spread in Texas when their parents passed on. Betsy also knew that, as the youngest of six kids, they had sisters the same age as her.. She knew nothing else save the scant amount of information she had gleaned from others in Las Colinas del Mar, and none of it explained their interest in her.

  Whatever they’d been up to with that girl, Betsy had no intention of hanging around any longer. She couldn’t handle the prospect of tiptoeing around the pair of them for the next few weeks. Her contract didn’t expire until the end of the month, but the charity would just have to understand. Perdita could handle the classe
s from now on. She wanted to go home.

  She began throwing her meager belongings into the small suitcase she arrived with all those weeks ago. It took less than an hour to finish packing, due to her almost OCD like need for tidiness and the fact she had so very few clothes. Finding an alternative flight home would be the big problem. The school and its buildings still had no network set up, so the Internet was a luxury she didn’t have. The battery on her cell had died weeks ago. The office held the only phone and she had no intention of risking another meeting with the boys by going over there.

  Running away seemed cowardly and overly dramatic, but she had to do it. Betsy knew she would never be able to hide her feelings around them and she couldn’t handle their pity. Far better to let them believe she’d just been embarrassed about their night together, rather than hurt that it would never lead anywhere.

  She wrote a note to Alberto, the charity’s on-site co-coordinator, explaining that she had to leave but not the reason why. It occurred to Betsy that she could inadvertently upset her colleagues if she left them wondering if some tragedy had befallen her loved ones. So she added a post script telling him everything was okay and that she just wanted to go home.

  Tossing the note onto the table next to the entrance, she placed her keys on top of it and left the door unlocked. That way, whoever the school dispatched to look for her when she didn’t turn up on Monday wouldn’t have to search long for an explanation over her disappearance.

  The bus stop was about a quarter of a mile away from the school, and she didn’t relish the idea of carrying her suitcase so far in the suffocating heat, but she had no choice. Twenty minutes and five gallons of sweat later, she sat on the bus headed toward the city. A taxi to the airport got her to the reservations desk within another hour, but then the long wait began. It turned out it would be 12 hours until the next available flight, unless she wanted to be routed through Outer Mongolia.

  The only sensible option in the crowded and stuffy airport seemed to be to find a vacant spot and settle down for the wait. Betsy tucked her bag under her knees, crossed her arms, and hunkered down. She felt her eyes beginning to drift shut and remembered thinking that falling asleep in public wasn’t very ladylike, dignified, or safe. But she didn’t care. She needed a break from the thoughts circling in her head and she felt as if she were running on empty, both physically and emotionally.

  She only realized she’d actually fallen asleep when she woke up. Betsy fought against the bright light trying to invade her eyelids and put a hand over her face to block it out as she squinted, gazing at her watch. Damn! She’d only slept for about an hour and still had almost half a day to wait. Aware of people sitting on either side of her despite the fact that the seating area in the immediate vicinity was half empty, she flicked an irritated look to her left, glancing down at the feet of the person who had no respect for personal space.

  A pair of very tanned, very male feet in thong sandals made her heart skip as she recognized them, and she looked up at their owner without pause, sure of what she would find. Until her gaze landed on Jack’s face, she hadn’t been sure which twin it would be, but she knew it would be one of them.

  ‘Hi, sleeping beauty.’

  * * * *

  ‘We were just debating whether to wake you up,’ Wyler said.

  She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, seeming to take a moment to recover her breath. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘Taking you back to the school where you belong.’

  ‘I can’t go back. I’ve changed my ticket and I’m flying out in a few hours.’

  ‘Well then, you are just gonna have to unchange it. We checked with the desk. For a small fee, they can reschedule you,’ Wyler said, as if he were explaining the procedure to a five year old.

  Jack admired his brother’s confidence, but he had a feeling it wasn’t gonna wash with Betsy. She shook her head. ‘I don’t want to change my ticket. I’m going home.’

  ‘Running away, you mean.’ The smile slipped from Jack’s face.

  ‘Fine, call it what you want. I’m still doing it.’

  ‘Can you get onto the plane without your passport?’ Wyler mused, as if talking to himself. He picked up her bag and began walking toward the exit.

  ‘Jack, stop him,’ she shouted.

  He laughed.

  When in the hell had Wyler gotten so strong willed? Not that Jack minded.

  Betsy leapt to her feet, trying to catch up to Wyler as he covered the ground in long strides. Her little legs were forced into a run and she managed finally to get a hand on his elbow. He stopped suddenly, surprising Betsy. She stared at him mutely as if she needed to organize her thoughts.

  ‘Why are you leaving us?’ The sadness in his voice doubled Jack’s own pain. The arrogance had been replaced by a need for answers.

  ‘I told you we can’t force her to stay.’ Jack placed a comforting hand on Wyler’s shoulder. His eyes clashed with hers, and he fought to keep the bitterness out of his voice. ‘She obviously doesn’t want to be around us any longer.’

  ‘What did we do wrong?’ Wyler asked, ignoring him. ‘Last night was one of the best nights of my life. Okay, so things were weird at the beginning but I, or rather both of us, thought that you were finally ready to let us get close to you, that you felt the same way that we did.’

  The sincerity of his words seemed to touch her, but Jack saw her chase the emotion away. ‘Spare me the sob story, Wyler. I saw you guys working on a new conquest this morning, remember?’

  The words sounded callous, and her expression told him she didn’t mean to be that way. She couldn’t take them back.

  Jack put a hand on Wyler’s chest, pushing him back out of the way as he squared up to Betsy. ‘What you saw was Wyler and me trying to talk Jade into letting us use her place for a few days.’

  ‘That was Jade?’

  Why hadn’t she recognized her? Jade’s job as a clerical assistant for the charity kept her trapped in the office and out of sight most of the time but everybody knew her. Hope flared in Jack’s chest. Maybe Betsy had been jealous? She had to care to react that way. He saw the questions filtering through her mind and waited to see which one she would ask.

  ‘Why did you want her place?’

  ‘Her family has a place up in the Colinas. We thought a weekend in the mountains would give us a chance to get to know each other a bit better.’ Jack cast his gaze downward to hide how strongly he felt. Making her feel more guilty did none of them any good. ‘Wyler thought you would like it.’

  ‘I wasn’t the only one,’ Wyler protested, speaking for the first time in ages. The wounded look hadn’t left his eyes though.

  ‘Why didn’t you come after me when I ran off?’

  Jack grimaced. ‘That was my fault. I convinced Wyler not to follow you. We wanted everything to be right by the time we saw you. We had no idea you were so upset.’

  ‘We figured you were just being a little shy after…you know,’ Wyler added, his voice dropping away.

  Betsy didn’t respond. The silence between them stretched on until she cleared her throat, her gaze focused on the floor. Jack forced Wyler to relinquish his grip on her suitcase and handed it back to her. She took it without looking up.

  He wrapped an arm around Wyler’s shoulder and steered him away. She’d made her decision, and they could do nothing about it. Not without forcing her to come with them.

  ‘Take care of yourself, Betsy.’ Her gaze found his, and he paused for just a moment, giving her a chance to stop them from leaving. But she didn’t.

  Wyler didn’t look at her again or resist his brother as he led him away. They walked slowly toward the doors, and Jack held his breath, hoping that any second he would hear her call them back, but she didn’t.

  They’d almost reached the truck when Jack took one last look over his shoulder and saw her running toward the exit. She scanned the parking area through the huge glass windows. Jack nudged Wyler and lifted a hand to get her attentio
n.

  ‘Hey,’ she shouted as she burst through the doors and out into the bright sunlight. They ran to her without hesitation, whooping and laughing as they approached. Wyler made it back first and scooped her up into his arms, planting a hard kiss on her cheek.

  ‘Put me down.’ She laughed a little as he hugged her. Jack had a tighter grip on his emotions than Wyler, but he couldn’t help staring at her with what he felt sure would be a dopey look on his face.

  ‘What made you change your mind?’ Wyler asked her, voicing the question Jack was afraid to.

  ‘I don’t know to be honest.’ She shook her head and grinned. ‘I just saw you walking away, and I couldn’t resist the urge to follow you. So I did.’

  Her brilliant smile told Jack all he needed to know. His arms went around her, and he had to make do with just hugging her, unable to do what he wanted in the middle of a parking lot.

  They sorted out her ticket easily and headed back to the truck. Jack handed her a crumpled piece of paper that she instantly recognized as the note she had left in her room. Betsy laughed. ‘You were so sure I would change my mind?’

  He grinned. ‘We didn’t really think about it. We just knew we had to try to stop you leaving. Besides, Wyler had a plan.’

  She turned to his brother and waited for an explanation. His face went a little red under his tan, but he held her gaze. ‘Don’t look at me like that. It wasn’t much more than I actually did, except there could have been a little bit of throwing you over my shoulder and dragging you back to my cave involved.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have minded.’ She hid her eyes. Jack sensed she was experimenting with being honest about her feelings.

  He put his foot down on the gas as his brother laughed in surprise at her reply. Wyler picked her up from the seat and placed her in his lap. His hands cupped her face as he pulled her in for a kiss. Jack got hard when she groaned and wriggled against his brother’s thighs.