by Avery Gale
When she’d stammered, “Well, I’m guessing the bologna sandwich I had for lunch today doesn’t count, right?” he’d simply raised an eyebrow in question so she continued, “Yeah, that’s what I figured. Well, in that case…hmmm, let’s see.”
Cash hadn’t given her any more time to answer, he’d simply pulled in and parked at the next decent restaurant he’d found. He’d opened his door and pulled her over so he could help her step down out of the truck and told her simply, “We’ll be having a discussion about taking proper care of yourself later, love.”
Hell it appeared taking proper care of herself was going to be an ongoing lesson with Layla. He and his brothers had all reminded her of the importance of that lesson more times than he cared to remember during the past two months and still she’d continued to skip so many meals that she’d lost entirely too much weight. And he’d heard from Tori that she’d had a nasty bout of flu, too, something she had yet to mention to any of them.
Thinking back on their dinner that first night, he remembered that it had been tense, but even then Cash had known he was mostly to blame because he’d been so frustrated that she’d thought they’d allow her to traipse around a seedy neighborhood looking like she’d just stepped out of some fashion magazine. Hell, he’d barely spoken a word to her during their meal. And then, just as they finished dessert, he turned to her. “Layla, I want to make something perfectly clear. We were not trying to get rid of you, nor did we have any intention of letting you ride a city bus at night, hell, thinking about you riding on one of those things scares the hell out of me.”
The drive to Layla’s small apartment hadn’t taken long and when they parked in front of her building, Cash had seen Collin’s eyes darken as he’d taken in his surroundings. She’d sworn it was a typical Friday night in her neighborhood but he still shuddered every time he remembered the events of that evening. Once they’d made their way inside her tiny apartment, Cash had looked around and known she was nearly finished packing for her move. Cash watched as Collin looked around then asked, “How long will it take you to finish packing with our help?”
She’d shrugged her shoulders and then finally admitted it would probably only take an hour or so before she’d asked why they wanted to know. Collin had simply told her to get to work. He and Collin had started moving things to the door. After Layla had moved down the short hallway and into what Cash had assumed was her bedroom, he looked at Collin in silent question. Collin had been much too quiet and Cash was sure his mega-wealthy brother hadn’t been in a neighborhood like Layla’s in years.
Cash had almost laughed out loud when Collin had finally regained enough composure to start swearing under his breath. “I can’t fucking believe our woman lived in this place—a ground floor apartment in this part of the city? Christ, it’s a miracle she survived long enough for you to find her. ” The words had barely left his lips when they’d heard a gunshot from the apartment above. He and Collin had both taken off toward the small room that Layla had disappeared into.
She’d looked up startled by their sudden appearance, but oddly enough hadn’t uttered a sound when the gun had fired above her. “What?” When they had both stared at her in disbelief she seemed to catch on and said, “Oh, that?” pointing to the ceiling. “Never mind that, he used to do it a lot, but I made it clear he can’t shoot at the floor anymore so it’s not a big problem now.” And then she had turned back to the small bag she was filling as if her words had been perfectly reasonable.
Collin had dropped his face in his hands and shaken it back and forth. “Un—fucking—believable. ‘He can’t shoot at the floor anymore’? Are you serious? Christ, almighty. I’ll be in the living room.” Then Collin had turned to Cash. “She’s all yours, big brother. I was going to stop you if you started with her tonight, but not now.” Cash would have laughed at the absurdity of the situation if he hadn’t been so utterly astonished.
Collin had stormed from the room and he’d been left watching as Layla’s baffled expression had quickly transformed into a wall of defense Cash had been sure she was accustomed to calling upon. Deciding that he needed to pull together every bit of tact he could manage if they were going to get her out of there that night, he smiled and purposely softened his tone, “Love, we are concerned for your safety. Let’s get your things together and move them tonight.”
Just as he saw her start to protest he heard a loud knocking on the front door and as she tried to push past him, she’d called out, “Don’t answer that, Collin, please. If you do—” but her words had been too late. Collin had pulled the door open and a very drunk man stood in the doorway wearing boxer shorts, sandals, and nothing else.
“Hey, who are you and where is that chick that lives here? There’s never anybody else here. Oh, there you are, chicka, how’s about a date?” The man’s words had been slurred and his gaze locked on to her chest.
“Jimmy, go back to your wife, you know you aren’t supposed to be here. Don’t make me call her.” Layla stepped forward and shook her finger in the drunk’s face and quickly closed the door with him still standing there. Then she had turned to Collin, “Now, don’t open that door again, you hear me, mister? This happens sometimes and it may happen again before you and Cash get out of here, so just…well, just…don’t.” And then she turned and flounced herself right back into her bedroom.
Cash had watched her walk away and then turned to his brother. “I can’t fucking believe this shit. How on earth has she managed this? And she managed to study in this insane place? Hell, she must have an I.Q. to rival yours. Tori said she had a 4.0 average. How could she do that living in this loony bin?” That had probably only been the second time in their lives he’d actually seen Collin completely speechless, hell, the guy had started talking in full sentences at eighteen months and had barely come up for air since. There had been a small part of Cash that wanted to whip out his phone and video the whole scene because he was sure neither his parents nor Clay were ever going to believe it.
Finally Collin’s mouth had closed and Cash had watched as the man’s brain had come back online. “I have no words—honest to God—there are no words that would tell you what I’m thinking.” And then he had turned and walked back to moving boxes.
There had been two more incidents with knocking at the door before they had managed to get all of Layla’s belongings loaded into his truck. It had taken a long time to load because he’d made Collin stand guard so that nothing was stolen while he moved the boxes and they’d left Layla cooling her heels in the truck’s cab. She hadn’t been pleased by what she termed their “steam-rolling tactics” and he’d assured her she hadn’t begun to see “steam-rolled” yet. He’d known she must have called Tori to complain about how things were working out because he’d gotten a text from Alex Lamont that had simply read: Do what you need to do to keep her safe.
They’d quickly settled Layla in the larger of the available guest rooms despite her protests. Later they’d all sat around the kitchen island talking and enjoying a nice cold beer. When he’d seen her eyelids beginning to droop he had suggested, “Love, why don’t you go take a shower and hit the hay. I can see dark circles under your eyes and I know you have to be dead on your feet. Collin and I will check in with you before we go to bed ourselves to see if you need anything else.” It had been like watching a movie, as the beautiful woman sitting between them had just stared blankly ahead. Then they’d watched as her eyes had gone closed. She hadn’t made any effort to move. And when he had reached over and cradled the side of her pale face in his palm she hadn’t even stirred at his touch. And then her fingers had gone lax around the bottle she’d been holding.
Cash had looked up at Collin and his brother just smiled and shook his head. “Unbelievable. She is utterly exhausted. Can you imagine trying to get any real rest in that hell hole she was living in? Come on, I’ll help you with her shower and then we can get her into bed. I know she’ll sleep better if we get the stench of that place off of her.
How she managed to keep her little part of hell so clean is a miracle in itself. Did you look around? Hell, you could have eaten off the fucking floors.”
She had barely stirred when Cash had scooped her up in his arms and carried her down the hall. By the time Cash had gotten her undressed, Collin had gotten the large walk-in shower warmed up and he was standing in his boxers waiting to take her into the shower. While Cash had been stripping down to his briefs he had heard Collin speaking to her in soft tones and her sleepy replies. Once they’d gotten her cleaned up and dry they’d tucked her into the king-sized bed. They’d left a small dresser lamp on so that she wouldn’t be frightened by waking up in a strange place during the night. They’d left her sleeping peacefully and found their way to their own rooms.
Cash smiled thinking back on how anxious he’d been for her to meet Clay. He’d known Collin had been texting Clay about her earlier and he’d seen him take her picture when she hadn’t been watching and he’d been sure Collin had sent it to their younger brother. Cash had been ready to slide into bed, but hadn’t been able to resist checking in on her one last time. After waiting his entire life for her, it had been pure torture knowing she was just down the hall sleeping peacefully. Just as he had started to slip into the room, he’d heard Collin step out of his room as well. “You, too?” they had both chuckled.
“Yeah, I just wanted to see her one last time before I went to sleep.” As they walked quietly on bare feet so they were close to the bed, Collin had looked at him and smiled. “She is amazing. Honestly I had started to think we were never going to find her.” He’d watched as Collin reached forward and straightened the light blanket and then softly trailed the back of one finger over her cheek to move aside a stray curl. “She’s perfect. Well, maybe she’ll need some guidance on taking better care of herself, but really, she is simply breathtaking. And little brother is faunching at the bit to meet her, too. I promised him we’d bring her when we pick him up tomorrow.”
Cash had simply nodded his head and then leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the forehead before he’d muttered, “Let’s get out of here before we wake her and she thinks we’re a couple of crazed stalkers.”
Chapter 4
Cash had been submerged so deeply in the memories he hadn’t noticed when Clay had come in and sat down next to him until he heard his youngest brother laugh. “Damn, brother, where were you? I can’t even imagine what it takes to distract a former SEAL enough that he doesn’t know someone has approached him, let alone sat down on the next bar stool.”
“No shit. I was just remembering Layla in Houston and how much has happened in the past two months.” He sighed and looked around the empty room. In a couple of hours he knew they’d be swamped, but for now, the place was pretty quiet. “How did your time with Layla go yesterday? I haven’t had a chance to check in with you.”
Clay grinned like the fun-loving guy he’d been before his accident and Cash was glad he was finally finding out there really was life off the rodeo circuit. “It was great. I took her out to the Bartells’ and Trace let us ride a couple of their horses. We didn’t ride far because I didn’t want Layla to get saddle sores, well at least not from a fucking horse. Anyway, she seemed to really enjoy it. It was good to see her smile, she’d been so damned busy with that motel and she doesn’t take any time off that I can tell. Did you know she’d been sick?” At Cash’s nod, Clay had added, “Tori mentioned it to me briefly, but she didn’t want me to tell Layla she had blabbed.”
Cash knew Clay was right about Layla not taking enough time off. It was one thing they all had in common, their work ethics kept them too busy to enjoy life. But, that was coming to a screeching halt if Cash had anything to say about it. Alex and Zach Lamont had come in yesterday and had lunch with him. Cash hadn’t been so naive that he hadn’t known his friends had something on their minds so he’d finally just told them to spit it out.
Of course it was Alex that had met his challenge head-on. “Cash, we’re worried that you and your brothers are making a mistake with Layla. She is working too hard and from things she said to Rissa and Katarina recently at the spa, she’s decided you guys are no longer interested in her as anything other than a friend, so she’s planning to apply for a membership at ShadowDance.”
The ShadowDance Club was the Lamont brothers’ very exclusive and extremely successful BDSM club. Cash hadn’t been able to decide what shocked him more, the fact she thought they were no longer interested in her or that she’d even consider applying for a membership to The Club. “Has she submitted an application yet?” Cash had barely been able to spit out the question.
This time it was Zach that answered, “No, but honestly, if she does we won’t have any legitimate reason to reject it. Sure, we can stall a few days, but we all know she’ll sail through the clearance process. We’d already done it all when Tori first suggested her for the manager position at the motel.”
Collin had pulled up a chair and asked what they were talking about. When Cash answered, Col had nearly spit out his beer. “Are you fucking kidding me? Why on earth would she apply to The Club?” Cash had watched his brother’s expression change from confusion to fury as Zach had explained what Mitch had picked up on the monitors the day before.
Cash and both of his brothers had thanked the Lamonts for the heads-up and then sat down to discuss the best way to kick “Project Layla” into a higher gear—a much higher gear.
* * * *
Layla didn’t understand why she was so nervous about attending the Grand Opening at Red Clouds Dancing this evening, but she’d gone through her entire closet like a Tasmanian devil leaving her small bedroom looking like an F-5 tornado had passed through. She’d finally settled on a short denim skirt with a fitted white T-shirt with a bright red bandana and her red cowboy boots. She was happy with the way her clothes were fitting now that she’d dropped a few pounds, but she knew the Red Cloud brothers hadn’t seemed as impressed with her weight loss. Just another clue that they’ve lost interest, Layla. Time to get a clue, girl!
She’d spent over an hour in the bathtub thinking back to the night all three brothers had made love to her in Houston and she was now running late, but damn that was some night. And even if all she ever had was the sweet memory, it had been so worth it. Every time she’d let her mind wander back to that night, it was as if she could feel the way her entire body had seemed to hum with awareness as Cash and Clay had led her down the hall in the condo. And when they’d reached the bedroom she’d been using they’d both peeled off their shirts and since they’d already been barefoot that had left them clad in faded Wranglers that did nothing to hide their obvious arousal.
The two of them had worked quickly to free her from the yoga pants and short tank top she’d been using as pajamas and then laid her out on the bed. She’d felt goose bumps race over her skin as they’d stood along the bed admiring her like she’d been some kind of prize. When they’d finally climbed onto the enormous bed and flanked her she’d nearly moaned aloud at their first touch. She could still feel their fingers tracing the curves of her breasts, then following unseen lines over her hips until they’d each grasped a thigh and pulled her legs wide apart. The first brush of the cool air of the room had ignited every nerve ending in her already throbbing pussy and she hadn’t been able to suppress her gasp.
Layla hadn’t even realized that she’d closed her eyes until she heard Collin’s voice from the doorway. “Are you two going to just play or are you going to give her the relief she seeks?”
She’d watched Clay smile up from where he had been worshipping her tightly budded pink nipples. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out Clay was a breast man…he’d told her that he loved breasts because they were the givers of life and for most women they were extremely sensitive. She’d smiled when he’d told her that hers were perfect because they would pillow a child in need of comfort and they’d also be perfect for fucking…then waggled his eyebrows up and down in true comic fashion. She’d
mentally shaken her head at his antics, but she truly loved his sense of the absurd as much as she loved Cash’s strength and Collin’s dominance.
When Clay had said, “Oh she’s going to get to come, I promise you that. Hell, she’s going to come until she doesn’t think she can possibly do it again and then we’ll get one or two more from this sweet body,” Layla had felt like he’d lit a fire deep in her belly as desire raced through her blood like a west Texas prairie fire.
She had quickly found herself completely lost in the sensations of Cash’s mouth ravishing her wet folds. When he’d used his fingers to separate the folds hiding her opening she’d had to take deep breaths and then bite her lip to keep from begging him to fuck her. And then just before Cash had started sucking her clit in before biting down on it gently she’d met Collin’s gaze. He was standing over them stroking himself. His cock was so huge she wondered for a moment if she’d be able to take him in. But then she completely lost every ounce of focus when Cash had sucked her clit into his mouth setting off an explosion of pleasure from the depths of her soul. Every muscle had gone rigid before she screamed out Cash’s name. And then when Cash moved up and pushed his cock deep inside her before the last of the aftershocks had passed it had sent her right back over the edge.
When Cash had slid his muscular arms under her and pulled her tightly against his chest then pumped into her with long strokes she’d felt like she truly belonged to him. In that moment everything in her world had been in perfect synch. His words spoken against her ear were so rough with pleasure his tone alone nearly made her come again.
She’d clung to those sweet words during these past months, but maybe he had just been caught up in the moment. He’d rasped, “You are so fucking beautiful and even more so when you are lost in orgasm. Do you have any idea how much we all want you? We’ve been looking for you our entire lives. Your body pulses around my cock and tries to keep me inside because it recognizes that we are soul mates. Raise your arms over your head and grasp the headboard.” When she had managed to make her arms follow his words, he’d gone on, “Don’t let go or I’ll paddle your beautiful ass, love.” She felt him shift his hips and then with each stroke the head of his cock grazed a spot inside her that felt as if it sent out pulses of pure energy. His next words sent her over the edge again, “Come for me, love.” This time when she came it wasn’t as explosive but it had rocked her to the rock bottom of her soul.