Three Shifters for Sarah (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Dani April

  “Yes,” he told her with a twinkle in his eye. “But in your case, lady, it’ll be a lifetime contract.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  He kissed her, his gloved hands pulling her body against him. She ran a hand down his face, felt his whiskers and the sweat on his brow. This was one of her mates, and held in his arms, the love she had for him just kept growing stronger.

  TJ was the next man to see her. No longer caring about autograph seekers, he had disentangled himself from the crowd and was at her side. He took her out of Lance’s arms and into his own. Her boots left the ground again, and she wrapped her legs around his waist to hold on. His kiss was hot and burning, a promise of all that was to come.

  “Sarah, I love you,” he whispered against her lips.

  “I love you, too, TJ.”

  Then Ryan was pulling her out of TJ’s grasp. The big Alpha took her up in a bear hug that was so tight she thought she would break. His need for her was powerfully evident in the embrace, and she returned his grip with equal fervor.

  “You’ve come home, Sarah.” It was half statement, half desperate question.

  “Yes, Ryan,” she answered him. “The Circle T is my home now.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Six months later the purr of the furnace coming through the bedroom vent woke Sarah from a delightful sleep. The golden rays of dawn were flowing inside through the window curtains. In a moment the alarm would go off to herald a new day. But this was one of those perfect mornings where one asked for an extra ten minutes to sleep or simply let their mind drift before the demands of family and job intruded to make everything less peaceful. This morning Sarah decided to take her ten minutes and enjoy what she had under the covers of her bed with her.

  There were two new mating marks on Sarah’s body. These had been added over the last six months. They were both tiny stars on her left shoulder. One belonged to Lance and one belonged to TJ.

  Snuggling up closer to TJ, she stifled a yawn, not wanting to wake him. Their bodies were entangled with each other under the blanket of her bed, his arm lightly wrapped around her shoulder, her face resting against his chest where she had slept, and one leg hiked wantonly across his waist. The steady rise and fall of his chest beneath her cheek told her he was still in a deep sleep from the night before.

  As she lay in TJ’s warm embrace, Sarah made a mental note of all the things she had to do that day. It started out as a short list, and then she kept adding to it. A smile curled her lips. It was nice to be busy.

  The alarm clicked in and turned on the radio. The announcer was just giving the news. With a sigh TJ opened his eyes and reached across Sarah’s body to hit the snooze control.

  “Who put that stupid thing on?” he asked in a groggy whisper.

  “I did,” Sarah reminded him.

  “This is my day off,” he protested.

  “I know it is.” She gave him a kiss. “But I have to go to work.”

  “Oh that’s right. They have you working overtime now.”

  “It’s just for a little while, and I really enjoy it.”

  He put his free hand to his face and tried to rub some sleep from his eyes. “Let me get you some breakfast, baby. I’ll get up.”

  She shushed him back down with another kiss. “This is your only day to sleep. You stay put. I can get my own breakfast.”

  TJ looked grateful. His head was already back on the pillow with one eye closed. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.” A wicked smile came over her face. She reddened and had to stifle a laugh.

  “What?”

  “I was just thinking that after your performance last night you need the rest a lot more than I do.”

  “Did you like that?” His fingers stroked down her backside, sending tingles along her spine. He brought her down for a kiss, and she tasted him, fresh as always even in the morning. “I aim to please you, my lady.”

  “You do please me.” She ran her palms across the ridged hardness of his chest, his skin so warm and soft she purred and nestled back into his arms for another few divine minutes of sack time.

  He looked down at her. There was that naughty look out of his eyes that set a fire in her belly. “How much time you got, baby?” he asked, and she knew what he wanted.

  Moving one hand beneath the blankets, she felt down his stomach until she came to a tall mountain standing straight up from his groin. He felt warm to the touch. The blanket proved an irritating concealment, so she pushed it back to reveal the beauty of his swollen cock. His impressive muscle pointed straight into the air, caught in a morning sunbeam that shined through her bedroom curtains.

  She stroked him lovingly and reached down to plant a kiss on his head.

  “Is this thing always hard?” she asked him incredulously.

  “Only when I’m in your bed, my lady.”

  She gave him a smile. “Good answer.”

  The gratifying touch of his fingers had moved down to the underside of her butt cheeks and he cupped them playfully. Sarah moaned into his chest “We don’t have time, TJ,” she warned him. “I don’t want to be late today.”

  His hand was on her hip and then running up higher along the outline of her ribs, arousing her senses wherever it roamed. “Just give me a few minutes to get your day started off right.”

  She was so very tempted but resisted her urge. “The problem is it always takes you a lot longer than just a few minutes, my darling.”

  Sarah threw the covers out of her way and crawled out of bed. The chill air of morning hit her naked flesh and caused goose bumps. She covered her chest with her arms and searched the bedroom for her robe.

  “Where’d you throw my things last night, TJ?”

  “I don’t know. I was in too big of a hurry to get you out of them.”

  She gave him an “oh go on” wave of her hand and then ran on tiptoes across the carpeting into the adjoining bathroom.

  Technically this big five-hundred-square-foot bedroom belonged to Sarah all by herself because each of the men had their own room in the house, too. But there hadn’t been a night yet since the house had been finished that at least one of her men hadn’t shared it with her.

  The closet space alone blew her mind when she first saw the floor plan. The room took up the entire third floor of the new Colonial-Revival-style home the men had built at the head of the tallest ridge on the Circle T. Her bedroom in the new place was bigger than her entire apartment had been back in New York City. Sarah loved the new house, especially loved her bedroom with the big full bath that adjoined it, but more than anything loved all that new closet space.

  It was cold out on the plains that morning, and Sarah enjoyed the hot spray of her shower. But she was running late. She had to get downstairs and get some breakfast and then get to work.

  * * * *

  Sarah’s shirt was still untucked, her jeans still unfastened as she came down the stairs fresh from the shower, dressing in a hurry. Stopping on the second-floor landing, she was surprised by what she saw out the oval window over the staircase. Snow blanketed the fields outside, the first one of the year, and everything was white and looked new again.

  The simple, elegant sight was beautiful and made her hasten to start her new day. Securing her T-shirt and zipping up her jeans she made her way down to the first floor where she smelled a pot of strong coffee brewing.

  Lance was in the kitchen and responsible for the coffee. It gladdened Sarah’s heart when she saw him, his face still unshaved, his hair tussled from sleep, wearing only the sweatpants he slept in and nothing else.

  He came to her across the kitchen and gave her a kiss, his arms wrapping briefly around her waist. “I thought I was going to have to come upstairs and wake you up, sleepyhead.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I overslept.”

  “Tell TJ to quit keeping you awake so late.”

  Sarah smiled. The men were so open about everything in their relationship with her, and she was learning to be just
as open, all her old preconceived notions about romance and what it meant dramatically changing the longer she lived with them, and honestly she thought the relationship they were building together was far more romantic than anything she could have ever imagined in her old boring life.

  “Actually it was me who kept TJ up last night,” Sarah admitted boldly and unashamedly. “Don’t worry. I’ll start breakfast now.”

  “Already taken care of,” Lance announced, indicating a chair at the head of the kitchen table. “I already scrambled the eggs. Go sit down and I’ll serve you.”

  Sarah was always marveling at how well the men took care of her, how they seemed to anticipate her every need. She knew she was in trouble. If she didn’t put her foot down soon they were going to have her spoiled rotten. But then again a little pampering now and then from her three handsome shape-shifters was always appreciated.

  He started by handing her a cup of strong black coffee. The guys didn’t know how to make coffee any other way. This formidable brew got her eyes open and her heart beating fast every morning. At first she had balked at the taste, told the guys she hated it. But they insisted she give it a try for a few weeks back in the summer, and surprisingly enough it had grown on her in that time. Now it was a staple at her breakfast table each morning, and she didn’t think she could start her day without at least one cup to get her going.

  “Is Ryan up yet?” she asked after her third man.

  “He’s already left for the day.”

  “He’s already left?” Sarah laughed. Leave it to Ryan to be up before the rest of them and already out working.

  “He had to take care of some Alpha business. A land dispute between two families. He’s in town settling it this morning.”

  “Thanks for breakfast. You make the eggs a lot better than I do,” Sarah told him as she enjoyed the food he had set before her on the table. This was such a nice way to start off her day.

  “Got a busy day planned?” he asked her as he sat down to eat.

  “I do,” she acknowledged with a sigh. “I’m just finishing transferring all the books on the computer system at the office. I figure another week of ten-hour days and I’ll be done.”

  “My plate’s going to be pretty full today, too,” he shared with her. “With Ryan in town and TJ having the day off, I’m the only cowboy on the ranch. With this overnight snow I’m going to have some work to do out there.”

  Sarah looked out the kitchen window at the big backyard behind their house. The snow excited her. In New York it seemed like it always got dirty before it hit the ground, but out here it was staying pure.

  “I know it causes a lot of work,” she said. “But isn’t it beautiful?”

  Lance gave her a smile. He wasn’t looking at the snow. “You’re beautiful,” he told her gently.

  Rushing through the rest of her breakfast, Sarah got up from the table and put her dishes in the washer. She was going to give Lance a quick kiss good-bye before rushing out the door, but he wanted more.

  He pulled her hard against his half-naked body. His lips were on her, and he was kissing his way down her body. Lacing her fingers through his hair, Sarah closed her eyes and enjoyed the ravishment. It had been three days since Lance had last visited her in bed, and he was showing his hot need for her body now. Kneeling before her, he buried his face in her crotch as if trying to taste her through the material of her jeans.

  “Mmm, that’s nice,” she told him, suddenly in no hurry to make it to work on time.

  “Would it be all right if I came to your room tonight, Sarah?” Lance was always the gentleman, even now after they had explored each other in so many ways. He put her on a pedestal, expressing his care for her with kindness and gentleness, never making her feel uncomfortable but always loved.

  “Yes. I want to spend the night with you,” she whispered into his ear. He had needs, and Sarah knew just how to take care of them.

  They held each other, and their lips touched. “I’ll try and get off early,” he told her.

  “Me, too,” she assured him.

  Then definitely running late for work, Sarah hurried out the backdoor to her waiting vehicle, her day just beginning.

  * * * *

  Sarah knew how to drive. She just had never driven that much. In New York, the traffic was so terrible and the subway or a bus could take her wherever she wanted to go. There had been no need to drive. Out in Montana a car was absolutely essential, and she had used her savings as a down payment on a used truck. Now it accompanied her everywhere she needed to go, and she had fallen in love with it. Though the guys had offered to buy her a new SUV, she refused to part with the old Ford truck that had come to symbolize her independence living on the Great Plains.

  Driving off the ranch that morning, she had to drop by a truck stop out on the interstate highway to pick up a dozen bagels before heading into the Circle T’s front office. Ryan had told her as the mate to the Alpha and Two Betas, she would be looked to as a sort of leader among the other pack members. Sarah would never exert her authority, but buying treats for her peers at the office was something she loved to do, and this morning she had promised the office bagels from the truck stop.

  The small communities around the Circle T and the wolf pack were farming towns, intimate little places where people got to know one another quickly. When Sarah walked into the truck stop, she was on a first-name basis with everyone who worked there. They had become her friends. She had a lot of friends out here now. The kindly old lady who worked behind the front counter even offered her a free cup of coffee. However, Sarah had already had a cup of Lance’s coffee that morning so she declined. Because nothing was quite as good as that which one of her guys made for her.

  She drove back to the Circle T as fast as the old Ford would take her and was only five minutes late when she walked in the front office in the main cabin of the Circle T.

  Ryan had given her the job as the head accountant of the Circle T guest ranch, and actually she was the only accountant they’d ever employed. At first she had argued with him, hadn’t wanted to take the job. It was inappropriate to let her lovers give her a job. She needed to make her own way. When she had first arrived back in the summer they had spent two weeks fighting about the proposed position.

  Then Ryan had convinced her they had been looking for a qualified person to come in and handle their books for them for some time. It had been over a year, and they still had not been able to find anyone. For one there weren’t too many qualified accountants out in the country, and secondly the Circle T didn’t exactly pay top dollar. Ryan had told her he was not going to pay her any more or less than he would have any other applicant, nor would he treat her any differently.

  Finally Sarah had given in and taken the job, and to her surprise she loved it. The Circle T did a lot of business and had a lot of accounts to be squared away and an antiquated computer system that was in bad need of an upgrade. The work was challenging and kept her busy. Only now almost six months later was she just getting all the accounts put into electronic format. She was proud of the work she had done and was thinking of asking Ryan for a raise.

  Then there was the issue of her shifter heritage. She told the men back in the summer when she first arrived. They had been happy and surprised, but told her the news didn’t change the way they felt. For Sarah the information her father gave her didn’t change how she felt about the men either. After she had lived here for six months she realized she could have fit in whether she was human, or shifter, or half shifter. When you loved someone their heritage didn’t matter.

  The front office was small, handling guest accommodations, advertising, and travel agent relations. Only five people worked there. Four of the five were nonshifters and just regular townsfolk from the neighboring communities that were glad to have a job. The fifth employee was Sheila. She was a full-blooded shifter, a member of Ryan’s pack and mated to six men.

  Sarah became fast friends with Sheila, and taking her under her w
ing, Sheila showed Sarah the ropes, the ins and outs of living in a wolf pack.

  “As the female you are really in charge of your men,” Sheila had explained to Sarah early on.

  “But Ryan is the Alpha, and TJ and Lance are both Betas, and I still don’t know what I’m doing out here,” Sarah had protested.

  “It doesn’t make any difference,” Sheila had assured her. “This is the way shifters have arranged their family lives since the beginning of time.”

  Sheila had gone on to provide some valuable insight into what that family life would be like for Sarah and the advice had served her well over the months to come. First the female and her males all lived under the same roof in the same house. Second the female was given a bedroom all to herself and the males each had a room of their own. Most importantly, in the female’s bedroom, she was considered the boss. She made the rules of her room and got to choose who slept there with her.

  At first this had been extremely awkward for Sarah. Even after nearly six months she was still struggling to adjust. She loved all three of her men, how was she supposed to pick one above the others for the night?

  Knowing this was an uncomfortable issue for her the guys had helped her a lot. There was no jealousy between them, and since they knew she was hesitant to pick one over the others they were quick to provide their own schedules of when they would get to spend a night in her bed.

  However, Sarah could feel herself becoming more assertive and confident in her role as a female shifter as time went on. This morning she had asked Lance to come to her room tonight, and she knew that would settle things. The other two men would back off and leave her and Lance alone for the night.

  It was a heady experience for Sarah knowing she had three lovers to pick from at any time she wanted them. Most of the time in the beginning, she went around feeling slightly naughty because of all the sexual power she wielded. But this feeling changed like everything else over time, and she began to realize it wasn’t power she wielded with the men but love, and in that category they held just as much power over her because she loved them with all her heart.