Hunt, Delilah - Wyoming Triple Heat (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)
Page 3
Slamming the refrigerator shut, she threw herself down into the floral 1980s-style couch Bernice was so fond of. Lexie folded her arms behind her head. She wondered if Logan regretted his decision not to hire her. Eh, most likely he’d forgotten all about it and her. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach because she knew it had to be true.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what being a member of their family must be like, despite it being just the three of them. Those men were tight-knit, they were like a perfect unit…and she was jealous. Jealous that they had each other and for an entirely different reason that she hated to contemplate. She was jealous of the attention they showed to other women, including the invitation Marissa and Anna-Sue had received from them, and all she wanted was a stinking shot at a job, and they couldn’t even give her that.
Lexie grimaced. She knew she should have kept a tighter rein on her control without allowing the hurt she’d felt to bubble to the surface inside his office. Apart from the day she’d gone over to the ranch and had her hand slapped by Owen, which up to this moment remained the most embarrassing moment of her life, she’d only seen them here and there and spoken to them a few times, what about, she couldn’t recall and had stopped paying attention to them after realizing that for all the eyeballing they were giving here, not one of them was interested enough to ask her out.
It was obvious they weren’t into her, so Lexie had no idea why the hell they behaved as if they knew everything about her. Including Owen’s reminder of her night in the jail. Did they know what Deputy Warren had tried to do to her? Dread slithered down her spine. They probably knew and planned on taking advantage of her fear sometime in the future. That had to be it. Sickos.
Lexie curled her lips and snatched up a book resting on the side table. Her thumb grazed the paper, but she froze when a single thud resonated on the door. Her mouth felt dry, and her heart hammered. No one ever came to her house, at least not since Bernice died five years ago. It was Sunday, no mail, so that meant it had to be Sam Warren. She gnashed her teeth. What to do? Call 911 and say a police officer was outside her door? Would they believe her if she said he’d tried to sexually assault her? So many weeks had passed…
“Lexie, open the door.”
Logan? The pounding in her chest quieted to a lull. If there were ever a time she’d wanted to hear that man’s voice, it was now. Dropping her book on the ground, Lexie raced toward the door, almost knocking over the side table in her haste. He must have had a change of mind about giving her a job.
Crossing her fingers, she chanted silently, Please, please, please and yanked the door open. Lexie staggered backward, feeling the wind knocked out of her. All three of the Kincaid brothers were standing in front of her small doorway, their massive shoulders and powerhouse builds making it impossible to see anything beyond them.
“What are you guys doing here?” she demanded, pulling the door closer so they wouldn’t see inside and think she was going to issue them an invitation.
Owen locked his gaze on her and lifted an eyebrow. “Not going to invite us in?”
“That would be a no.”
Logan snorted and pushed the door open. Her mouth flew open as the three men strode inside her living room. When she finally snapped her jaw closed and got over the shock of their arrogant intrusion, Lexie turned on them, arms folded, tapping one foot on the carpet.
“I repeat. What the hell do you think you’re doing? No one goes barging in on your property, what gives you the right to do that here?”
“That’s enough out of you.”
Wha…What? Lexie eyes bulged. Now Connor was issuing orders to her, inside her own freaking house. This had to be a hunger-induced hallucination.
She took a deep breath and held up her hands. “I’m going to close my eyes and count to ten, and when I open them, I better not see any one of you inside my house. One, two—”
“Stop counting and open your eyes, darlin’. We’re not going anywhere.” Owen again with that damn “darlin’,” something he probably called every woman under the age of sixty.
Lexie glared. “Then please tell me why my house is suddenly being taken over by the mighty Lord Kincaids.”
Logan brushed past her, and Lexie guffawed once more at the sheer gall of the way they behaved as if they owned the place. “Sit down. We have something important to discuss with you.”
She rolled her eyes and went to the couch. “Of course, silly me. It’s only my home, after all. Who am I to disobey your orders?”
“Alexa…”
“Just tell me if you’ve changed your mind about giving me the job or not.”
Before Logan had a chance to confirm or deny, Owen strode toward her and barked, “Stop asking about the damn job. You’re not working there, point blank. Never going to happen.”
Lexie jerked her head back at the violence dripping from his warning. What was going on here? She looked over at Connor who was supposed to be the quieter of the brothers. He looked just as annoyed as Owen.
Relenting, she whispered, “It was just a suggestion. Sorry. Sheesh.”
“We didn’t come here to upset you. In fact, we brought something that might brighten your entire day.”
Lexie frowned and craned her neck to glance between the three men standing before her. “Oh, yeah?”
“Give it to her, Logan,” Connor said thickly.
Baffled, Lexie noticed for the first time that Logan was holding his fist together as if to conceal something.
Her heartbeat stopped, and for a fraction of a second, she allowed herself to think it could be the necklace.
Logan stretched out his arm and opened his hand. “I believe this belongs to you.” He handed her a small pink box. Too terrified to open it and have her hopes dashed, Lexie could only stare at it, the tiny box jostling in her shaky hands.
“It’s your mother’s necklace, baby. Open it.”
In the back of her mind, she heard the husky tone of Connor’s voice, heard what he’d called her, but it was all just too much to think on. She had to see it for herself, know they weren’t playing with her. The pear-shaped diamond glistened beneath a row of ruby gemstones. Her throat felt tight. They hadn’t lied.
“How did you guys get it?” she asked softly. And why would they do this for me?
“It doesn’t matter. We knew it was important to you, and we weren’t blind enough to think Warren’s contract was legitimate.”
A tear fell from her lashes and then another. She didn’t care. The only thing she wanted to do right now was throw her arms around each of them.
Lexie beamed. “Thank you. I can’t believe you cared enough to do this for me. I assumed you all believed Frank instead of me because of…”
“Forget about it,” Owen insisted. “That’s the past, and we didn’t come here to discuss that asshole. Like Logan mentioned earlier, we have something important to talk about with you.”
The three of them were inching closer to her. “Am I in trouble?” She let out a giggle to lighten the mood.
“I don’t know, Alexa. You’ve been doing a number on us for quite a while.”
Lexie frowned in confusion, having fully expected at least some type of humor from them to reciprocate the banter. “Can I please know what it is you think I’ve been doing?”
Owen expelled a loud breath and shoved a hand through his low cut hair. “She doesn’t have a clue.”
The gratitude she felt toward them was quickly turning to fear and annoyance. She hated being in the dark. Everyone had kept her in the dark until she couldn’t help but notice her mother was dying. “I want to know what this is all about.” She clenched her jaw and rose from the couch.
“Relax, darlin’. Logan was only saying that for a while now, none of us have had a decent fuck.”
Her cheeks blazed, and yet she’d thoroughly enjoyed hearing those words coming out of his mouth. “So, what does that have to do with me?” They couldn’t possibly find a way to blame her for their la
ck of a love life.
“It has everything to do with you,” Logan rasped. “You’re the one we want.”
The muscles in her body froze, save for the pulsing between her legs ignited by his words. We want.
“Um, we who?” she asked innocently.
“The three of us. We want you to be ours.”
Lexie scanned the faces of the three men. Straight-faced, not a single line of humor to indicate she was the butt of a wicked joke.
“We’re not messing with you, Lexie. I know how weird all of this might sound, but fuck it, you have no idea how much we want to be with you.” His Adam’s apple bobbed, and his eyes went hazy. “How much I…we want to be inside you.”
Her eyes widened then lowered. The pulsing in her pussy intensified, the slickened walls clenching with need. She had to be as depraved as them to have become so aroused by Connor’s words.
“But you guys don’t even like me that much. You think I’m a thief. Logan wouldn’t even give me a…” She paused, remembering their warning to refrain from mentioning the job at the factory again.
“We like you. Way more than you think. There’s not going to be any more talk of you being a thief because you’re not, and no one thinks that of you. I don’t think of you like that. Are we clear?” Owen tipped her chin, awaiting her answer.
“We’re clear. So what do you guys want from me then? Are the four of us supposed to go on dates and stuff?” she asked, trying to make light of the situation. At least then they’d see how ridiculous it was. I mean, it was ridiculous after all, wasn’t it? She’d never even been with one man, much less three blond giants triple her size.
“We want you to belong to us,” Logan began. “We’ll give you everything you need, honey. Take care of you. All we ask in return is that you…” He paused and Lexie saw the subtle look that passed between the men before Logan continued smoothly. “We want to have sex with you and not just once.”
Her heart fell. “Oh. You mean you want me to prostitute myself to the three of you?” She arched a brow daring them to deny it. “It’s payment for the necklace, isn’t it?” Talk about feeling dumb. Why would they have done anything for her out of the kindness of their hearts? She thumbed the box, unsure what to do if they tried to take it from her.
“The necklace is yours. No payment involved. I swear it.”
Despite the sincerity she saw in Owen’s eyes, Lexie gritted her teeth and asked, “No strings attached?” Her hands tightened around the box.
“None,” they assured at once.
“And your offer. Is this a once in a lifetime treat for a lucky girl, getting to spread her legs for the Kincaids?”
Logan growled. “Lexie.”
She lifted her shoulders. “What? It’s the truth, isn’t it? You guys barge in here asking me to be…” She let out a strangled sound and held out her hands. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be.”
Connor cleared his throat and held her gaze, his blue eyes appearing somber. “Do you hate us, Lexie, is that the problem? You think we’re going to hurt you?”
“I don’t hate any of you. This is kind of a shock. You all just waltz into my home, come bearing the one thing I wanted most then bam, lay it on me that I’m now supposed to fuck you, Logan, and Owen.” She laughed and stared at them. “Have you guys taken a look in the mirror lately? Yeah. I am a little scared about how that would go. How would that even work out?”
Owen rubbed a crease on his forehead, staring at her with a stunned expression on his face. “Darlin’, are you trying to tell us you’ve never been fucked before?”
White-hot fire crept into her cheeks. “That’s none of your business.”
“Answer the question,” Logan ordered.
“Why? You’re going to flip a coin to see who gets to pop my cherry? How is that going to go down if I agree to this?” Jesus, Lexie, are you actually contemplating this? She was going insane. That had to be it. Her stomach rumbled again, and Lexie knew for sure this time it had to be insanity from the hunger.
Once the churning in her stomach quieted, Lexie turned to see them staring at her with slackened jaws. “When was the last time you’ve eaten?”
“An hour ago.”
Logan raised his brows, appearing sterner than usual. “When I ask you a question, I expect nothing less than an honest answer. Have you eaten today?”
Owen and Connor were stiff with their attention on her. Lexie sighed. “I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning. There, you dragged it out of me.”
“We’re not against you,” Connor told her. “That’s where you’ve got your thinking all messed up. You’re our girl. At least we hope you’ll be ours. What do you say the four of us go out to eat? Give you some time to decide if you’ll think about giving us a shot.”
Lexie touched her cheek. She was famished, and it wasn’t like she had anything else to do today. And you want to spend time with them. Admit it.
She slapped a hand to her knee, and she rose dramatically. “All right boys. Just give me a couple of minutes. I would say make yourselves at home, but you’ve already done that.”
She dashed into her bedroom and whipped out a dress. It wasn’t until she was halfway ready that she caught herself in the middle of a tune she was humming. Lexie clamped her mouth shut. She never hummed. No, that was a lie. As a child she would sit on the bed, mimicking her mother’s humming, which happened whenever she was getting ready to go out with her husband. Were the Kincaid men tearing down her defenses so quickly? No way. It was food that had her so excited. That had to be it—the gorgeous company had nothing to do with it.
Chapter Four
“So, what do you guys want to talk about?” Lexie asked in between a bite of her mahimahi and rice.
If it wasn’t so heartbreaking how hungry she had been, Connor would have laughed at the way she attacked the food. Then again, his laughter might alienate her and make her not want to give them a chance. Not having her wasn’t an option at this point, not when he was sporting a constant erection thinking of how hot her pussy would feel around his cock. Connor shifted in his seat, but it did nothing to relieve the pressure in his cock.
“We can talk about whatever you’d like,” Owen said.
Not wanting to be overshadowed by his older and younger brothers, Connor quickly joined in the conversation. “Aren’t you lonely? You’ve been living by yourself since Mrs. Conrad died.”
She dropped the fork on the dish and wrinkled her adorable nose. “Tell me something, and this goes for all three of you. How the hell is it you all know so much about me?” She swallowed hard. “And how did you know about my, um…time in jail?”
“This is small-town America. News travels fast.”
Her lips tilted into a smirk as she faced him. “At least you know it. That leaves me to wonder why none of you seem concerned about people finding out about the four of us. She narrowed her eyes. “Or was the plan to keep me hidden beneath a cellar or something?”
Connor’s hand shook, barely catching his glass before it slipped. Holy shit. She’d said the four of them. Did that mean she was going to let them fuck her?
“Hey, wait a minute,” she cried. “Get that look off your face. I’m not agreeing to anything. I was just tossing around ideas, putting it out there.”
“But if we made you happy, would you be concerned if people knew about our arrangement?” He and his brothers didn’t care. They’d discussed it already. Fuck, they wanted everyone to know Lexie was off-limits and belonged to them.
Her eyes lost their ferocity as she lowered her lashes and shrugged. “I used to be happy. That was a long time ago, though. Before my mom passed away and my father started drinking to ease his pain.” She straightened in her seat and raised her head, a hint of a smile on her pert lips. “We used to have money. A lot. The necklace you guys gave back to me—I remember when my father surprised my mom with it. It wasn’t her birthday or even a holiday. She asked him what it was for and you know what he sai
d? ‘Because I love you and you’re my beautiful wife.’”
Connor watched her eyes go hazy as if she was lost inside the memory, and his heart ached for her.
“Romantic, isn’t it? Buuut, I’m sure you all know how that turned out for both of my parents.” Lexie picked up her fork. “Still, there’s a lot to be said for happiness. If I was happy and the person…” She smiled at them. “My apologies. Persons I’m with were happy then no, I wouldn’t care about anyone who had something negative to say about us. They’d better keep it to themselves.”
Logan, who had so far remained silent in a more observatory role, nodded. “I agree with you. What we do is no one’s business but our own.” He reached across the table and stroked her fingers. “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with so much, honey. We’re not going to rush this decision on you. It’s obvious you need more time to consider our arrangement.” He squeezed her hand. “Just don’t keep us waiting too long. I don’t think these two have grasped the concept of patience yet,” Logan added, pointing his thumb at him and Owen.
Despite the surge of jealousy he’d felt at seeing Logan’s hand on Lexie, Connor chuckled. “Maybe when we get to your age we’ll get the meaning, until then, I’ll enjoy being young.”
Owen scoffed. “Don’t forget you turned thirty-two last month. That’s only two years behind Logan.”
“How old are you?” she asked Owen.
“Thirty, darlin’.”
Lexie leaned back in her chair and tapped a finger against the table. “Change of topic now that you’ve proven I’m not dealing with boys. So, ah, how’d the party go?” She glanced at all three of them but chose to narrow her eyes particularly at him. “I guess Anna-Sue must have chatted your ears off, huh, Connor?”
Holy shit. Lexie was jealous and correct in her assumption. The redhead had tried to corner him at every opportunity last night. For the first half of the night, he’d talk with her a lot, hoping he’d get information out of her, but as it turned out, she knew nothing about Sam Warren, except for maybe the size of the man’s dick. He’d cut her loose after that and made himself scarce.