by Luxie Ryder
Love: The Cowboy Way 2
Cowboy Love in Peril
Two years after fighting to save the lives of the people he loves, retired Special Forces soldier Brandon Reed is lured into a trap when a judge is kidnapped by the vicious drug lord he sent to jail. Manny Costanza is still hell-bent on killing him and avenging the death of his son.
Wade Gardiner makes a discovery that has him questioning everything he believes and terrified he will lose everything he loves. He carries the burden alone, unable to tell anyone why he is pulling away and causing them pain.
Kimber Gardiner-Reed fears her precious children will suffer for the choices she has made and learns some harsh lessons about the realities of bringing up kids in the kind of relationship the people in her small town wouldn't understand.
Brandon, Kimber, and Wade are fighting to save their love again, and this time, the peril comes from within.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 23,384 words
COWBOY LOVE IN PERIL
Love: The Cowboy Way 2
Luxie Ryder
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
COWBOY LOVE IN PERIL
Copyright © 2012 by Luxie Ryder
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62241-132-0
First E-book Publication: September 2012
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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COWBOY LOVE IN PERIL
Love: The Cowboy Way 2
LUXIE RYDER
Copyright © 2012
Chapter One
Kimberley Gardener-Reed put her one-year-old twin girls down in their crib, laying them side by side in the same one even though it was cramped, because they wouldn’t sleep unless they could touch each other. The cream-colored walls of the nursery glowed red and gold from the rays of a glorious sunset streaming in through the window, the light playing on the fat cheeks and wispy blonde hair of her baby girls, making them look like a pair of little cherubs.
She wandered over to sit down on the wooden toy chest beneath the window, tucking her feet under her and propping an elbow on the frame. Kimber took a deep breath, glad of a moment to get her wits about her—especially after the horrible afternoon she’d had, thanks to the receptionist at Chelwood Medical Center. The woman looked totally out of place in such a rural corner of New Mexico, and Kimber wished she’d go the hell back to wherever it was she—and her snooty accent—came from.
Kimber had changed her last name when she’d gotten pregnant with the twins. She’d wanted the girls to have their fathers’ last names but there was no legal way to do that, so she’d changed her name to Gardener-Reed and that’s what she’d put on the birth certificate. Apparently the receptionist had never seen a single parent before, or at least that’s impression she gave Kimber when she kept asking if the girls ever saw their father. Dodging her questions had been exhausting but Kimber tried her best to shove all thoughts of the woman out of her head—she’d be damned before a judgmental attitude ruined her evening the way it had her afternoon.
It didn’t take her long to relax. This was her favorite time of day. The all-engrossing task of raising two delightful but willful girls exhausted her, but no matter how busy Kimber had been, there was one ritual she was loathe to miss. Watching her guys walk up the lane together, sun-kissed and dirty after a day spent tending the ranches they managed, was a guilty pleasure she rarely denied herself.
Kimber’s gaze scanned the fields surrounding Wade’s ranch, looking up and down the lanes, unsure which direction they would come from. The minute she laid eyes on them, she knew that the night to come would be a long, steamy one. They were so easy to read. Wade Gardener appeared first, his big, strong body blocking the last of the day’s sun from Brandon Reed, casting him into shadow. Wade’s handsome face was rigid with tension under his Stetson and he marched toward the house in long, purposeful strides. He didn’t speak to Brandon as they approached but that didn’t seem to matter to Brandon, because his demeanor told Kimber he was as singularly focused on getting home to her as Wade was.
A frisson of excitement went up her spine as she imagined them working side by side all day, the sexual tension heavy between them. Why they’d recently stopped acting on the chemistry between them when she wasn’t around, she would never understand, but she usually reaped the benefits of their self-denial.
She turned from the window and crossed over to the twins, kissing them gently on their cheeks as they murmured to each other softly and resisted the urge to sleep. They wouldn’t be awake for long and should rest as soundly as they always did, which was probably just as well tonight if she knew her men at all.
Kimber walked through the house and down the stairs, stepping down onto the stripped wooden floor of the open-plan hallway just as she heard screen door at the back of the house creak shut. She found Brandon and Wade in the kitchen, both of them guzz
ling down a glass of cold water. They were probably desperate for it—the heat had been a bitch all afternoon.
Brandon had his back to her and she watched the play of muscles under his T-shirt as he refilled his glass and drained it again. His blond hair was plastered to the back of his neck, his clothing almost transparent with sweat.
Wade spotted her first but didn’t stop drinking. Any hurt feelings she might have felt at him not saying hello to her evaporated when she saw the way his gray eyes darkened as he stared at her. His molten silver gaze raced over her body, lingering on her breasts as he took one long, last swallow of his water and then dragged a fist across his mouth. A flutter of anticipation trembled in Kimber’s gut. Wade looked almost dangerous as the sexual tension radiated off him in waves. A quick glance at his groin revealed no surprises—he was rock hard and about to burst through the seams of his jeans.
Brandon turned at that moment, his hips lining up alongside Wade’s as the pair of them leaned against the brown granite countertop. He had a huge bulge in his pants, too. Kimber’s mouth went dry and her gaze darted up to his face.
She never tired of seeing them together. Although both men were about to turn forty, they couldn’t have been more different physically. Brandon was a retired Special Forces soldier with a body like a thoroughbred racehorse, all sleek lines and long, toned limbs. Wade, on the other hand, was more like a Clydesdale, a solid wall of muscle and staggeringly strong, yet still graceful, despite his size. He’d been forced to shelve his dreams of being a lawyer and take over the ranch when his father died but he rarely complained, happy with his lot in life.
Brandon seemed a little more relaxed than Wade today, and gave her a half smile when she looked at him, but still neither of them said a word. What the hell had gotten into them?
“Hey, you two.” Kimber turned away, slightly unnerved by how weird they were both acting. “You gonna go wash up while I start dinner?”
“You need to eat?” she heard Wade say, and turned to find he had spoken to Brandon, not her. When Brandon shook his head, his gaze still riveted to her face, Wade turned and asked her the same question.
“Well, I can wait and do dinner in a little while if you don’t want it yet. Aren’t you hungry, Wade?”
“For food? No.”
He took a step toward her as he removed his hat and tossed it onto the table, thrusting a hand through his dark hair. Brandon pushed away from the counter too and came to stand beside her.
“What about you? You hungry?” Brandon’s green eyes sparkled with mischief as he dropped a kiss on her temple and reached up to tug the band from her hair. “Because, if you are, you’d better let us know now.”
Kimber ruffled the blonde curls tumbling around her shoulders, sure she must look awful, but Brandon grabbed her hands, trapping them against his chest. She grinned. “I can wait. This seems more...urgent.”
Wade closed the distance between them in two long strides and swept her up into his arms. “Darlin’, you have no idea how urgent.”
The rooms passed by in a blur as Wade strode through them with Kimber in his arms. His dark brows bunched together in concentration as he took the steps two at a time and, before she could catch her breath, he’d dumped her on the bed in their bedroom and started tearing off his clothes. Brandon walked in moments behind them, his T-shirt already off and in his hand. He grinned when his gaze found Wade, standing half-naked, with his jeans and pants bunched around his ankles as he ripped his T-shirt over his head, giving the room a glorious view of his massive, muscled torso. Moments later, he kicked off his boots along with the rest of his clothing and took a step toward the bed where Kimber lay, damn near breathless at the ferocity of Wade’s desire for her. Brandon tapped him on the shoulder, distracting Wade just as he was about to crawl up the bed and do something deliciously dirty to her—if the expression on his face was anything to go by.
“Buddy—we gotta take a shower first. You stink, and I’m pretty sure I don’t smell much better.”
Wade scooted away. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“I...I don’t mind,” Kimber said, a little pissed at Brandon for mentioning it. They could’ve been rolling around in a pig sty all day for all she cared. She wanted them. Now.
Brandon laughed, totally ignoring the irritation in her voice, and kicked off the rest of his clothes to follow Wade into the en-suite bathroom. With nothing else to do but wait until they were done, Kimber picked up their dirty clothes and threw them in the hamper, then walked into the bathroom, intending to sit in the wicker chair she kept there for when she bathed the twins. She stopped halfway across the room, any thoughts of sitting down forgotten at the sight that greeted her. Wade and Brandon were washing each other.
They seemed unaware of her presence and totally at ease, despite the fact they both had raging erections. Kimber’s throat went dry as she watched them run soapy hands over their own shoulders, backs, and thighs, bubbles sliding down into crevices that she ached to explore with her tongue. Still they didn’t touch each other in an intimate way.
Kimber wondered how they could bear it—to be so physically close, and as in love with each other as they were with her, yet never allow themselves to have sex without her anymore. Why did they deny themselves these days? She was gonna have to talk to them about it. Their relationship with each other was every bit as important as their relationships with her, and Kimber hated that she might be the reason they fought against the insane chemistry between them. Neither of them had a problem with stepping back and letting the other have some one-on-one time with her.
Brandon got a handful of body wash and scrubbed at Wade’s dripping wet hair, staring into his face and grinning when Wade complained about the lather getting in his eyes. Brandon stepped away and washed his own hair while Wade rinsed the suds out of his, then he moved closer to Wade, pressing him up against the tiled wall as he stepped under the gushing shower head. Kimber saw Wade’s hands bunch into fists and she knew the urge to grab Brandon would be near killing him. Brandon’s biceps flexed as he scrubbed at his hair, his gaze locked onto Wade’s, his cock grazing gently against Wade’s hip as he moved. Wade took it without complaint, the expression on his handsome face a warning to anyone who knew him that Brandon could have his fun, but Wade would make him pay for it.
Brandon reached down and turned off the water, and Kimber could see from Wade’s rigid posture that it was taking every ounce of his self-control not to grab Brandon and thrust into him. Their gazes locked and held for a second, and then Wade noticed Kimber watching them and stepped out of the cubicle.
“If I’d known you were here, I’d have dragged you in with us.”
“Ah, but then I wouldn’t get to watch,” Kimber whispered against Wade’s lips, “and you know how I love to watch.”
Brandon slid up behind Wade, barely visible over the huge curve of the taller man’s shoulder, and grazed his teeth across the expanse of toned flesh. Wade groaned and reached back to clasp Brandon’s hips, the pair of them happy to allow their caresses to become sexual now Kimber was near, it seemed.
Wade hissed through gritted teeth when Brandon reached around to grab his cock and began tugging on it hard and fast. He surged forward, still in the other man’s grip, and nudged Kimber up against the wall. She braced her hands against Wade’s chest as he tore at her shirt, exposing her bra and dragging it up to release her breasts. He groaned and dropped his head, latching his hot mouth over one of her nipples while his fingers burrowed through the layers of her clothes to find her throbbing clit. Kimber jerked at the first, frantic touch of his hand and opened her legs wider.
Brandon came around to stand beside Wade and added his gentle kiss to the sensations overwhelming Kimber. He tugged her skirt up and pulled her panties to one side, giving Wade better access to her moist pussy—access which he took instant advantage of as he dropped to his knees. Wade’s thumb thrust into her cunt as his demanding mouth clamped on to her clit and he began to suck on her. Her lips
parted in a gasp and Brandon’s tongue slid between them, surging in and out, almost matching the rhythm of Wade’s hand. He tugged on her nipples, twisting one a little and sending a small but delicious jolt of pain racing from her breasts to her groin. The first, hard pulse of an impending orgasm stole her breath and she slumped against the wall, unable and unwilling to stop Brandon and Wade doing what they wanted to her.
Kimber’s fingers latched on to whatever she could reach and some part of her brain warned her she was digging her nails into Brandon’s flesh while tearing at Wade’s hair. She tried to release her grip but then another, stronger spasm rocked through her, pulling the walls of her pussy up tight and dragging Wade’s thumb further inside. Her knees began to shake and for a second, she feared she would fall but she couldn’t speak to tell them...couldn’t do anything but writhe and groan under their combined touch. Wade’s huge hand splayed across her ass, supporting her a little, but when his mouth kept up its relentless torture, she knew he wouldn’t be able to hold her weight while she thrashed above him much longer. Brandon seemed to sense she needed help and clutched her under the arms, just as her legs gave out. Kimber rode out her orgasm suspended in mid-air, the two men holding her up against the wall until the last of her spasms faded away. Her skirt and shoes were tugged off and discarded by Wade, the blouse and bra by Brandon, and then he picked her up and took her back to bed.
Wade crawled up beside her, his cock grazing against her thigh as he moved in closer. Brandon didn’t take his usual spot on the other side of her. Instead, he climbed in behind Wade. Kimber turned toward them, enjoying the thought of what she and Brandon could get up to with big, beautiful Wade sandwiched between them and at their mercy, for a change. Wade had such a dominant sexual air about him, and he was always the one running the show, in bed at least. Kimber didn’t mind at all, and Brandon sure as hell didn’t seem to.