The Trouble with Holly [Merricks, Montana 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by McKinlay Thomson

  Holly had just closed the door to the truck, when the sky opened up and the rain poured from the heavens. It bucketed down and Holly had to put the windscreen wipers on full, but visibility was still low.

  With the lights on high, Holly made her way toward the gate that led into the main pastures. She got drenched when she had to get out and open the gate, drive the truck through and then close them again.

  Holly wiped the water from her eyes as she bumped and jostled her way along the dirt track. All the cattle she passed had taken shelter under trees, but she there was still no sign of her men.

  Holly had to pass two more gates, getting wetter and wetter each time. She shivered in the cold and attempted to put the heat on. The damned thing was broken and only blew out cold air.

  Visibility was getting worse as the rain got heavier, and the windows fogged with the heat of her breath. She ran the sleeve of her jacket across the window, trying to wipe the fog away enough to see.

  Holly’s teeth started to chatter, and she was starting to regret her impulsiveness to reach her men. They could be back at the ranch for all she knew and wondering where the hell she was.

  Slowing the truck, Holly reached in her pockets searching for her phone. Shit, she thought. She must have left it on the kitchen bench. Chase and Jarrod were going to kill her when they found out. Their number one rule, next to don’t put yourself in harm’s way, was to always carry her cell when she left the house.

  She knew she was probably breaking both those rules now, but she had panicked and thought that Chase and Jarrod might need help. So with little regard to her safety, she had jumped in the truck to find them.

  Maybe she should go back? She had driven a fair way out and she hadn’t seen them. Maybe they had passed each other and they were already home?

  Holly slowed the truck and looked for a place to turn around. She was in one of the pastures that were all grass and very little trees. The dirt track was all but mud and large puddles were rising quickly.

  Holly started to circle the truck around. She had to leave the track to accomplish it, but it was a four-wheel drive and should be able to handle it.

  Holly made the turn slowly. The truck bumped and slid in the grass and mud, making Holly bounce around in her seat. When she came to a stop, the wheels spinning but not catching on the slippery ground, Holly planted her foot firmly on the gas pedal.

  The tires spun beneath the truck, but it didn’t move forward. Holly slammed it into reverse and tried to back out of the mess she was in, but the truck was well and truly bogged.

  Slamming her palms down on the steering wheel, Holly swore a blue streak. She said every bad word that came to her head and even made up a few. What was she going to do now? Her rescue mission had turned to shit, and now she was the one going to need rescuing.

  She sat in the cab of the truck and wrapped her wet jacket tighter around her body. The interior of the cab was so cold she could see her breath leave her body.

  She knew that she would have to sit and wait for someone to find her. Getting out of the truck and walking through this storm would be a death sentence. That was if she made it through the night as it was.

  Holly hoped something bad hadn’t happened to Chase and Jarrod. Tears filled her eyes as the sense of uselessness filled her. Great rescuer she turned out to be. She couldn’t even rescue herself and now she was going to freeze to death, alone in the cab of a rusty old truck.

  The images of Chase and Jarrod’s faces filled her mind as Holly cried more and more. She really was a loser, and if she made it out of this alive, she wouldn’t be surprised if Chase and Jarrod had her packed up and back staying in Emily’s living room.

  Holly swallowed back another sob. She had to be strong if she was going to make it out of this alive. No more self pity. She was strong, beautiful, and sexy. Any man would be lucky to have her.

  She was also wet and cold and so goddamned stupid. What was she thinking? Holly wiped away another tear and slammed her palm on the steering wheel again.

  * * * *

  Chase and Jarrod rode up to the barn and jumped from their horses. Pulling the heavy barn door open, they walked the horses in out of the rain and the cold.

  “Go inside,” Jarrod said, “Check on Holly and I’ll brush down the horses and stable them for the night. She might be worried about the storm and where we are.”

  “Okay,” Chase replied. “Call up to the house if you need help.” Chase knew that their cells wouldn’t work in the storm, but they had a landline in the barn.

  Jarrod waved him off and Chase sprinted from the warmth of the barn into the rain and up to the house. The house was dark, and all the storm shutters were down. Holly had been busy and Chase felt his chest fill with pride. She didn’t need to do bother. The storm wasn’t that bad, but he was proud of her forward thinking.

  Chase slammed through the back door and shook the water out of his hair like a dog. Calling for Holly to bring him and Jarrod a towel, he stood waiting, shivering with the cold.

  “Holly!” he shouted. Where was she? Surely she wasn’t asleep? “Baby, where are you?”

  When he still received no reply, Chase went into the kitchen and looked around. The stove was off and the pots covered, and there was no sign of Holly.

  Not caring anymore that he was dripping on the floor, Chase ran from room to room, frantically searching and calling Holly’s name. She was nowhere to be found.

  Chase ran to the phone on the kitchen wall and dialed Holly’s cell. When the damned thing chirped from the kitchen island, Chase slammed down the phone, cursing.

  He grabbed it up again and dialed the barn. Pick up, pick up, Chase chanted, as he waited for his brother to answer.

  “Jarrod,” Chase snapped, when his brother finally picked up.

  “What’s the problem?” Jarrod asked.

  “Is Holly with you?” Chase replied. “She isn’t in the house, but her cell is here. I have searched the whole house.” Where was she? He was going to redden her ass something fierce when he found her.

  “Nope,” Jarrod told him. “Are any of the trucks keys gone? She might have headed into town and got caught in the storm?”

  “Wait, I’ll check.” Chase ran to the bowl on the front hallway table. It still had both Jarrod and Chase’s truck keys. Then a thought struck him. Surely she wouldn’t have taken one of the work trucks.

  Chase made his way to the back door and looked at the keys to the work trucks. The key to the old jeep was missing, and Chase cursed under his breath.

  What was Holly thinking taking that old beast? It was almost dead. The men only used it for jobs that needed power, but didn’t want to damage the newer vehicles.

  It was only the other week that they had used it to pull a stump from the ground where they were building their house. Now it seemed Holly was out on the ranch somewhere, with the oldest truck on the property.

  Chase went back to the phone and told his brother what he had discovered.

  “Grab some blankets,” Jarrod said. “Holly will be freezing by now. Meet me back here. I’m almost finished with the horses.”

  Chase flew through the house, grabbing the blankets and stuffing them into a waterproof bag. He ran out the back door, snagging the keys to one of the trucks as he passed by.

  It wasn’t long before the brothers were driving through the gate, Chase getting saturated in the process, looking for their woman.

  “Holly is going to regret leaving the house when we catch up with her,” Jarrod said. “She has broken so many rules with this stunt.”

  “Let’s just hope we can get to her in time,” Chase replied.

  “She won’t be sitting down for a week.”

  “Punishment will have to wait. She will be cold, wet, and scared.”

  “Fine, but once we get her safe and warm, then we punish her.” Chase wanted to laugh at his brother’s words, but he was too scared for Holly’s safety. Jarrod was scared, too, and he was expressing it through an
ger.

  He would never punish Holly while he was angry. Jarrod was too good of a Dom for that. But he would bluster and threaten until he calmed down. Then he would make sure Holly learnt a lesson she wouldn’t soon forget.

  Chase and Jarrod drove for a good twenty minutes, desperately looking for any sign of the rusty jeep or Holly. Just when they had decided to turn around and check the other side of the ranch, Chase spotted headlights in the distance.

  “Up ahead,” Chase said. “That has to be her.”

  “I see it,” Jarrod replied. He gunned the engine and roared toward the truck. Chase hoped like hell she hadn’t abandoned that jeep. They would have little to no way of finding her then, and the elements out in the wilds of Montana could be brutal.

  When the headlights of the other truck flashed, Chase sighed with relief. She was signaling them, which meant that she wasn’t hurt and knew they were coming.

  Jarrod pulled up next to the jeep and Chase jumped from the cab. The old truck was bogged in the mud and Chase could see where Holly had flawed it to try and break free. All she had done was make it worse, the tires sinking further.

  He pulled open the door and looked in at a shivering, miserable-looking Holly. He turned off the jeep and all but grabbed Holly from the cab. Carrying her back to where Jarrod waited, Chase dumped her into the warm interior and they quickly took off.

  The door was barely closed before Jarrod started his lecture.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Jarrod snapped. “You could have been killed. What if we didn’t find you?”

  Chase pulled the blanket from the bag and wrapped it around Holly as his brother went on “What if you had not seen a steep hill and gone over? Or hit a tree? Or the cattle? What if you had to spend the night out here and frozen?”

  “I’m sorry,” Holly said. “I got worried when you didn’t come back. I thought you might be hurt or injured.”

  “So you broke our rules and decided to come looking?” Jarrod snapped. “Leaving your cell behind. Not to mention, you took our oldest most unreliable truck.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  Chase pulled Holly into his arms when her eyes flooded with tears, and she started to cry. His brother was being hard on her and she had been given a fright. He pulled her head against his chest and shushed her, rubbing his arm along her back trying to warm her.

  “You scared us, baby,” he told her. “Jarrod is angry because he’s scared.”

  “I was only trying to help,” she said through her tears.

  “I know, but you put yourself in danger. You could have been badly hurt or killed.”

  “I’m sorry, I really am.”

  “You are going to be a lot more sorry before the night is out,” Jarrod said, causing Holly to cry more.

  “Jarrod would never hurt you in anger, baby,” Chase told her.

  “She knows that,” Jarrod snapped. “Don’t you?”

  Holly looked over at Jarrod. Chase could see the tension in his neck. He was clenching his jaw, and his hold was that tight on the steering wheel his knuckles were white.

  “Of course I do,” she said hesitantly.

  “And why is that, sweetheart?” Jarrod asked. Holly looked at Jarrod in confusion.

  “Because you are a good man,” she said.

  “And?” Jarrod asked.

  Chase had no idea what his brother was fishing for, but he was going to find out soon enough. Holly didn’t seem to know either.

  “Because, um…”

  “Because we love you, baby,” Chase added, not sure if that was what his brother was going to say and not really caring. He loved Holly with all his being and knew Jarrod felt the same. After the scare they had all had tonight, it needed to be said. Chase was sick of beating around the bush. It was time to lay all the cards on the table, and Holly could just deal with it.

  “Stealing my thunder, bro,” Jarrod told him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jarrod pulled the truck straight up to the back door, and they all piled out. He had never been so scared and angry in his life, and he was taking it out on Holly.

  But when she had burst into tears and Chase had to reassure her that he wasn’t going to hurt her, his anger had fled. He didn’t want Holly scared of him, and he didn’t want her to think they wouldn’t want her anymore because she had done wrong.

  So he had decided to tell her how he felt. It was on the tip of his tongue when Chase had beat him to it. Jarrod was just leading into it and giving Holly a chance to realize that he wasn’t the asshole that he was being.

  Jarrod opened the door to the truck and pulled Holly from his brother’s arms. He ran through the rain and into the house, letting Chase follow at his own pace.

  Not bothering about his muddy shoes, he went straight upstairs and into the bathroom. Peeling Holly from her blanket, he wasted no time in stripping her of her wet clothes.

  Chase had caught up and turned the shower on and adjusted the temperature. He removed his clothes, and Jarrod gently shoved a trembling Holly under the spray, starting to wash her down.

  Jarrod quickly removed his own wet clothes and joined them in the shower. No words were spoken as they washed Holly, scrubbing her body until she was pink. Her trembling stopped, the warmth of the water heating her the same way it was Jarrod.

  When they were all warm and washed, Jarrod turned off the water and used a big fluffy towel to dry Holly while he dripped onto the floor. She tried to bat his hands away and take over herself, but stopped when Jarrod growled at her.

  “No, sweetheart,” Jarrod said. “It my responsibility to see to your needs.”

  “I can dry myself,” Holly replied. Jarrod smiled at her, but chose to ignore her protest and dry her anyway.

  They walked into the bedroom, and Jarrod snagged Holly wrist in his when she moved toward the door.

  “Where do you think you are going?” he asked. Now she was warm and dry, it was time for her punishment. Jarrod wanted to get it over with quickly. Then he wanted to make love to his woman and forget the storm that raged around them.

  “I was going to get dressed,” she replied. “It’s cold.”

  “You don’t need clothes,” he told her. “You will be warm soon enough.”

  “But I said I was sorry,” she stammered. She had obviously caught onto his intensions.

  “Kneel, sub, now,” Jarrod said, in a firm voice. He wasn’t in the mood for games, and he wasn’t going to explain himself. She had disobeyed the rules and put her life at risk. Jarrod had every intention of spanking her round ass until it was good and red, and then he was going to get her well and truly aroused, but she wouldn’t be finding release tonight.

  Jarrod watched as Holly slowly lowered herself into the position they had taught her. She was a sight to behold with her round ass resting on her heels and her knees spread wide, showing them her pretty pink lips. Her shoulders were back and her hands clasped behind her back, pushing her big breasts out.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked. Holly may not be looking forward to her punishment, but she was turned on. Her nipples were hard little buds, and Jarrod could see the sheen of juices coating her pussy.

  “Chase,” Jarrod said, turning to his brother. “Get the door straps from my draw.”

  Jarrod and Chase couldn’t have a playroom while they lived with their folks, so they had to be very inventive with the bondage equipment they used. All of their stuff was portable and removable and could easily be packed away.

  That way when they played outside of the club, they could take the equipment with them and remove it when they went home. Also it meant their mother wouldn’t find it, not unless she went snooping through their things.

  The door straps were a neat piece he had picked up at a convention a few years back. It had two hooks that hung over the back of the door like towel racks. Wrist straps were connected to them. It also came with ankle restraints that threaded und
er the door. Jarrod would leave them off tonight though. He wanted to see Holly kick and dance around as he spanked her.

  “Eyes to me, sub.” Jarrod turned back to Holly, as his brother hooked the straps over the bedroom door. “You will receive thirty swats for going out into the storm and putting your life at risk and a further thirty for not carrying you cell.”

  “But that’s so many,” Holly said, looking up at him with her big hazel eyes. Jarrod wasn’t going to be swayed by her miserable puppy dog look.

  “No speaking unless asked a question,” he replied firmly. “You will get the first thirty from Chase and the second from me.”

  “But—”

  “Are you using your safe word, sub?” Jarrod asked. He crossed his arms and widened his stance. “I don’t want to hear another word from your mouth, unless it’s to say red. In that case, it all stops and we will take you to Emily’s.” Jarrod had no intention of giving her up, but she didn’t know that. He also knew Holly wouldn’t safe word. She was sorry and wanted to prove that.

  Jarrod’s heart beat loudly in his chest, as he waited for Holly to make the next move.

  “No, Sir,” she said quietly.

  “Good. Go to Chase and stand in facing the door. Arms above your head and breasts pressed against the door.”

  Jarrod didn’t break his stance as Holly moved to do his bidding. He swatted her on her naked ass as she slowly walked by him.

  “Get moving, sub,” he said. “The longer you delay, the longer your punishment will last.”

  Jarrod almost laughed when she rushed the rest of the way and all but threw herself against the door. His dick had gone hard the moment his hand had landed on her rump, and he wondered if he should get pants on. He quickly changed his mind, deciding that Holly needed to see just how much spanking her naughty butt turned him on.

  “Good girl,” Chase said as he placed the cuffs onto Holly’s wrists and pulled the straps tighter until she was perched on her toes. It was good that she was so short. Any taller and she would be touching the top of the door.

  “What color are you?” Chase asked as he moved back and the brothers looked over their hot sub, hanging from the door.