County Sheriffs 1: Conquering Adversity (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Becca Van

  “Are you scared of us?” Clay glanced at her before turning back to the road.

  “No,” she replied instantly and sincerely.

  “Then why are you shaking?” Spence asked.

  “I–I d–don’t know.”

  Spence nudged her chin up until he was staring intently into her eyes. She could see the hunger in his green-eyed gaze, but that wasn’t all. As she gazed at him, she could see another emotion other than lust. When he frowned, she tried to look away but couldn’t. Misha had never felt so exposed in her life. She felt as if Spence could see right into her heart and soul.

  She tried to quell the shaking in her limbs but it didn’t help. Her belly felt as if a thousand butterflies were stuck inside of it and they had all taken flight. Spence released her chin, pulled her even tighter against him, and began to caress a hand up and down her back. Her rapid shallow breaths slowed a little and the tension in her muscles began to ease. The shivers slowed and finally stopped and she closed her eyes with relief. Misha felt a little foolish but still had no idea why she’d reacted the way she had, or maybe she did, but she wasn’t about to voice her concerns or innocence. She had no doubt that Clay and Spence were experienced with the opposite sex and she was more than a little daunted at them finding out she’d never been with anyone.

  Misha was scared that they would look at her with disgust and turn away from her, and for some reason, she knew she wouldn’t be able to handle rejection from these two confident men.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Clay shifted in his seat, turning so that he was facing her more directly. It was only then that Misha noticed they were already back at their ranch with the truck no longer running and parked close to the steps leading to the wraparound verandah.

  “You just did,” Misha said and smiled when Clay chuckled.

  “Oh, I think we have a smartass on our hands.” Spence grinned and withdrew his arm from around her shoulders as she straightened in her seat. He immediately laced his fingers with hers and when he stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, she found it hard to concentrate.

  “Are you a virgin, Misha?” Clay asked gently.

  Misha immediately lowered her head and blew out a long breath as heat crept up into her cheeks. She was glad that she’d left her hair down and used it as a protective shield. The muscles in her throat closed up, and for a second, she wondered if she’d be able to inhale, but when air filled her lungs, she sighed with relief. The silence in the truck cab was pregnant and loud and she was sure they would be able to hear her pounding heart.

  “Misha?” Spence squeezed her hand.

  She knew she was going to have to answer and hoped like hell they weren’t turned off over her lack of experience. She had a feeling they weren’t going to let her out of the truck until she replied, and there was no way she was going to crawl over either of them to escape. There was only one course of action anyway, but she kept her gaze on her knees as she finally nodded.

  She squeezed her eyes shut tight when she heard them both suck in noisy breaths of air and hoped the tears of humiliation burning the back of her eyes didn’t pool and well over.

  Misha heard a click and glanced sideways from under her eyelashes to see that her seatbelt had been released. She didn’t even notice that the tears which had threatened were falling until a drop landed on her bare arm. She gasped when firm, yet gentle hands gripped her waist and lifted her until her ass connected with hard thighs. Fingers combed into her hair and her head was pulled back. She blinked a few times when she met Spence’s hot, hungry, green eyes.

  “I knew you were special.”

  She shook her head and tried to look away but his grip in her hair and on the back of her neck was too firm for her to escape his hold. However, he wasn’t hurting her and that was a huge plus in her mind. She knew that Spence and Clay would never hurt anyone weaker than they were.

  “He’s right,” Clay said, drawing her gaze to his. He reached out and grasped one of her hands in his as he scooted along the bench seat so that he was a little closer to her. “Do you think we don’t know or see that you are an amazing woman, Misha? We don’t go around offering just any woman to have a relationship with us. I’m not going to lie and say we aren’t experienced with the opposite sex because we are. We’ve been with women, but none of them can hold a candle to you. You’re stunningly gorgeous and you have a heart of gold. You don’t play games or use your body to get what you want, and to me, us, in this day and age, that is amazingly special. Just like you are.”

  Misha’s heart flipped in her chest at Clay’s words. Warmth penetrated the ice cold organ she called a heart and she knew, in that moment, she was going to agree to try having a relationship with them. She’d already decided to open herself up to them more and see what would happen between them, but they had both just cemented the rightness of her decision. Being a virgin and having no experience with the opposite sex unless it was vicariously through Janice and other women she’d heard talking was no way to live her life. It was high time she found out what all the fuss was and who better than with Clay and Spence. She was beginning to care for them, and though she knew she could end up getting hurt, she couldn’t walk away from them. Just thinking about never seeing them again caused her heart to ache.

  “Thank you,” she finally remembered to respond to their heartfelt kind words.

  “You don’t need to thank us, honey.” Spence kissed her on the forehead. “And don’t think we’re just spouting shit to get you into our bed. We meant every word we just said.”

  “I know,” she replied honestly.

  “Why don’t we head on inside?” Clay suggested. “I sure don’t want to sit out here in the truck all night.”

  Misha nodded and went to slip off of Spence’s lap but he wrapped an arm around her waist to stop her. “Stay right there, honey.”

  Spence opened the passenger door and somehow managed to get out of the truck, taking her with him. She expected him to put her on her feet but he just nudged the door closed with his hip and strode quickly toward the steps.

  “I can walk, you know.”

  Spence grinned and winked at her, but continued up the steps and into the house, after Clay had shoved the front door open and stepped aside. “I know you can, Misha, but I like having you in my arms.”

  He didn’t stop until they were in the living room and he sat down on the sofa and plonked her in his lap.

  “Do you want something to drink, baby?” Clay asked as he moved toward her after shutting the front door. “We have wine, tea, coffee, soda, whatever you want.”

  “Water, please.”

  Clay turned and headed for the kitchen. Spence leaned back into the sofa and shifted her so that her back was toward the armchair and his arm and side were supporting her back. He nudged her chin up toward his and stroked a finger down her face.

  “Why did you go into hospitality, honey?”

  For a few seconds, Misha pondered over that question and wondered if she would sound even more vulnerable if she told him the truth, but she couldn’t do any less since he and Clay had all but bared their hearts to her.

  Clay came back from the kitchen and handed her a glass of water before passing Spence a bottle of beer.

  “Thanks.” She nodded at Clay as he sat on the sofa before lifting her legs and pulling them over his lap. “I’d always been intrigued by the behind the scenes work that went into running a hotel or resort and decided to major in that industry. My mom and dad didn’t have any real career skills, but they also showed me that nothing was beyond your dreams, except yourself. My mom started out cleaning motel rooms and gradually worked her way up to become a receptionist, which she loved. She used to come home and tell me and my dad about all the interesting people she’d meet on a day to day basis. Some were good and some not so good. Anyway, one day she was asked to fill in in the kitchens because they were a person short and she came home regaling us with tales of how amazing it was to see those people workin
g to put so much food together for the guests.”

  “She sounds like an amazing woman,” Clay said.

  “She was,” Misha all but whispered and then cleared her throat when emotion tried to take hold. She pushed the grief aside and continued with her story. “Mom was so affected by what she witnessed in the motel kitchen she decided then and there to sign up to night school and become a chef herself. She’d seen the control the head chef had over the other staff and the way she’d encouraged the others to do and be the best that they could be.”

  “Good on her. Did she get her degree?” Spence asked.

  “No,” Misha replied hoarsely. “The fire took her life just before she graduated.”

  “Shit. I’m sorry, baby.” Clay slipped her shoes from her feet and began to give her a foot massage. Having his hands on her all but made her forget how much she missed her parents.

  “What did your dad do?” Spence asked.

  “He was a mechanic.”

  “Did he have his own shop?” Clay questioned.

  “No. My parents didn’t have much money, but that didn’t seem to bother them. They were happy and so in love with each other. They weren’t mercenary in the least and as long as they could pay their way and be together, they were content.”

  “They sound like wonderful people.” Spence kissed her temple.

  “They were. It doesn’t seem to matter how long they’ve been gone, I still miss them and will for the rest of my life.”

  “Yeah, we know how you feel, baby.” Clay dug his thumb into the tight muscle at the arch of her foot, causing her to moan.

  “That feels so good.” She sighed and slumped against Spence, content to soak up the heat from his big, muscular body. “Your parents are dead?”

  She met Clay’s gaze when he looked up and he nodded. “My dad, who was a Ranger, was killed in the line of duty. My mom died five years ago from breast cancer.”

  Misha sat up straighter and placed her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

  Clay nodded again and started massaging her other foot. Misha tilted her head up to meet Spence’s gaze. “Are your parents living?”

  “My mother died from birth complications while she was having me. My dad is alive and kicking as well as remarried. He lives in California with his second wife.”

  “Neither of you have any brothers or sisters?” Misha saw Spence shake his head and Clay did the same.

  “You don’t either, do you, baby?”

  “No.” She drained the glass of water, easing the dryness in her throat. “My parents said that I was their miracle child. My mom had been told she would never be able to have kids, but three years after they married I was conceived.”

  “I’ll bet you were spoiled rotten,” Spence said.

  Misha grinned. “I was, if you mean I was showered with love.” The grin slowly slid from her face when Clay pressed on a spot on the ball of her foot, and just like that, her waning arousal shot back up into the red.

  Chapter Nine

  Clay glanced up at Misha when he heard her gasp. When he saw the desire in her eyes, he wasn’t sure he could continue sitting beside her without touching her in a sexual way. Her upper eyelids were only half open, as if they were too heavy. When he shifted his gaze to her chest, he bit back a groan when he saw her nipples were hard and poking at the material of her blue colored top. He dug his thumb into a small knotted muscle on the ball of her foot and realized when she moaned that he was somehow turning her on. He’d heard that particular places on a person’s foot could be an erogenous zone, but he hadn’t really believed it. Until now. Deciding to test his theory, just to make sure that it was his fingers and thumb on her that was heating her blood, he went back to the other foot and, after finding the exact same spot, massaged it.

  This time, she didn’t just gasp and moan. She shifted on Spence’s lap and started to rock her hips.

  Clay met Spence’s gaze over the top of her head and gave his friend a nod. It was time to give their woman a taste of the pleasure she deserved.

  Spence cupped her cheek in his big hand before slowly, gently, tilting her head back. His friend gave Misha time to tell him to stop or pull away before Spence’s lips covered hers, but she did neither. In fact, she placed her hand behind Spence’s head and leaned up to meet his kiss.

  Clay lifted her legs from his legs, slid out from beneath them, and onto his knees on the floor before lowering her legs again. He shuffled on his knees closer to her and Spence. Just as he moved up behind them, Misha groaned. She must have liked Spence’s kisses a lot because she maneuvered on his friend’s lap until she was facing him, straddling his hips.

  Clay’s gaze went straight to Misha’s delectable little jeans-clad ass and had to clench his hands into fists so he didn’t grab hold of those soft yet muscular globes and frighten her.

  When she began rocking her hips against Spence’s, Clay lost all control and moved close enough that his chest was pressing against her back. He was glad that Misha didn’t tense up or pull away from him. In actual fact, she shoved her ass back and shimmied against the front of his pants, but he wanted, needed, more. He tapped Spence on the knee. Spence’s eyes opened to mere slits, and Clay nodded to the floor before shifting back away from them.

  Spence didn’t even break the kiss he had going with Misha as he shoved his hips forward until his ass was on the edge of the sofa cushion before sliding to the floor with a thump. Thankfully, Misha must have felt Spence moving because she ended up squatting over Spence. When Spence wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged, she went to her knees and then lowered herself back down onto his lap, straddling his hips again.

  Clay shuffled forward, widening his own legs as he did, so that he was perched over Spence’s knees without touching the other man. He again pressed his chest against Misha’s back and, after brushing her long black hair over her shoulders, began to lick and nibble up and down her neck. She was sweet and salty at the same time, and the more he tasted, the more he wanted.

  He heard a strangled moaning sound come from Misha’s mouth and lifted his head to see what was happening. When he saw that Spence was kneading her breasts, Clay’s cock throbbed so hard he felt pre-cum bubble from the tip. He was harder than he’d ever been in his life and felt as if his dick was about to burst out of his pants. Misha turned her head, breaking the kisses she and Spence had been sharing, and when she tipped her head back, with her eyes closed and her lips parted as she sucked air into her lungs, he nearly came in his pants. Clay knew then and there that no woman had or ever would affect him the way Misha did. He just hoped like hell that after showing her the pleasure they could give her, she would accept them into her life. Permanently.

  * * * *

  Misha’s whole body was on fire from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. The blood racing through her veins as her heart pounded in her chest felt as if it was melting her from the inside out. She’d never felt so out of control in her life, and though she knew she should be concerned about her behavior since she’d never reacted this way to any man ever before, she didn’t care. All she cared about was feeling more.

  She arched her back, pressing her breasts forward, and moaned when Spence kneaded and molded the soft globes. Her nipples were so hard they were aching and the crotch of her teddy was so damn wet her jeans were probably getting soaked, too.

  Misha’s eyes fluttered open to find Spence watching her with a famished gaze, causing her pussy to clench, sending more of her juices dripping out. When she noticed she was trembling, she tried to quell the tremors, but that just seemed to exacerbate the shaking in her muscles.

  Clay threaded his fingers into her hair, turned her toward him, and slanted his mouth over hers. She whimpered as his tongue stroked into her mouth, swirling and twirling around hers before rubbing along it. He and Spence tasted so good, so right, and she couldn’t get enough. She wanted, craved, needed, so much more.

  “We need to move somewhere a little more comfortable,�
� Spence rasped.

  Misha moaned when Spence tweaked both of her hard nipples at the same time. Having those sensitive nubs squeezed like that felt amazing and that was while she still had her shirt and bra on. Thinking of how it would feel if she was bare to them caused her clit to throb hard and fast, as if it had its own heartbeat.

  She sighed with disappointment when Clay lifted his lips from hers and blinked a few times to get her hazy vision cleared so she could see.

  “You’re right,” Clay said, right before he stood behind her and scooped her up into his arms and strode quickly down the hall.

  Misha frowned as she tried to think back over what Clay had said and it took her a few moments to get her brain in gear and remember that Spence had spoken first. She looped her arm around Clay’s neck and tried to get her ragged breathing and racing heart to slow down again, but it was an impossible feat. Especially since her mind was already in the bedroom as she tried to imagine what these two men were going to do to her.

  Clay nudged the door at the end of the hallway where her bag had been dropped earlier and walked toward the bed. Instead of dropping her onto the mattress like she expected him to do, he slowly lowered her down his body until her feet were on the floor. He kept an arm around her waist when she wobbled on her feet or maybe because he couldn’t bear to let her go.

  “We want you, baby,” Clay rasped. “Will you let us make love with you?”

  Misha wanted to shout her answer right away but made sure to take her time so she didn’t appear too eager. She noticed when Clay glanced over at Spence and saw that his friend had his hands curled into tight fists and his jaw clenched, as if waiting for her to reject them. Misha felt almost guilty for making them wait but had needed to make absolutely sure this was what she wanted, and it was.