Cord dumped her unceremoniously onto the bed, and then stepped back. He walked over to the dresser and then turned and nodded to Jackson as that man came into the room and joined him.
They’re just too damn sexy for my own good. They stood there looking at her. Neither one of them had so much as taken off their boots, straw cowboy hats, or their sunglasses.
She kicked off her shoes, and stretched first one leg and then the other, wiggling her toes. “One of the things I like best about Texas over Indiana is that I only have to wear socks with my running shoes a couple of months of the year.
“You like naked feet, do you?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” And she did some range of motion exercises with her feet. The denim Capris she wore didn’t allow for the same kind of show this would have been if she’d had a skirt on but sometimes a gal just had to go with what she had.
“Well now, brother, it looks as if Miss Ari is yanking our chains some,” Cord said.
“That’s not what I’m tugging on, cowboy.”
Both men grinned, fast and full. And then their smiles slid away and they looked at her for a long minute.
As if they’d practiced the move to perfection, they reached for their hats at the same time, lifted them off their heads, and set them on the dresser.
Keeping their gazes on her, their right hands reached up and removed sunglasses, and Ari felt her nipples peak and her pussy leak.
They’d dressed in long-sleeved, button-front shirts that morning, explaining that they’d be working part of the day in a chigger-prone area. She thought they might set right to work on those buttons and let her have a good look at their beautiful naked chests.
They, apparently, had another idea.
Together, in perfect sync and with their gazes locked on her, they unfastened the buttons on their cuffs and slowly rolled up their sleeves.
“Lord, have mercy.” She didn’t realize she’d whispered that aloud until Cord raised one eyebrow.
“You go teasing a couple of horny men, Red, it’s not the Lord you need to be begging mercy from.”
“Is that right?”
“That is right.” Cord put his hands on his hips and looked her up and down. “Your nipples are hard. Are you wet?”
“You not only have me wet, you’ve got me all twitter-pated with that sexy sleeve-rolling thing. Who knew it could be so sexy?”
“Tink? We haven’t even started on you, yet. But we’re about to.”
They took off their boots and then they moved toward her, an inexorable force of two delicious men, both, as Jackson had said, in an obvious state of horniness.
They climbed onto the bed and began to crawl toward her and Ari felt a shiver of anticipation run through her.
“You’ve got too many clothes on, woman.” Jackson reached out, wrapped his hand around her ankle, and pulled her down the bed toward him. He unsnapped, unzipped, and then tugged her Capris down her legs, tossing them over his shoulder.
Cord had kept moving until he was right beside her head. He made quick work of pulling her T-shirt up, until he could pull it over her head.
It didn’t take them much longer to divest her of the last two scraps of clothing she wore.
“I’m naked,” she said. And waited.
“That’s the way we happen to like you best.” Cord grinned. He cupped her breast, holding it in his hand, as he used his thumb and forefinger to pluck at her nipple.
“You look good naked, Ari,” Jackson said. He’d kept his position by her feet, and took advantage of his position by parting her legs, and placing one foot on each side of his body.
“Thank you. But the two of you are still fully clothed.”
“Hey, we took off our hats and shades and rolled our sleeves up,” Cord said. “Hell, we even kicked off our boots.”
“I noticed all of that. It made me hot.”
“And we noticed you getting hot. I think we’re going to make it a habit to roll our sleeves up from time to time when we’re out doing things. See if we can get you squirming in public.”
“Oh, now that sounds diabolical,” Ari said.
“We know.”
There was nothing like the sound of smug male, in stereo.
“I want you. I want you both.” Ari guessed she could flirt and tease some more, and really, that was a lot of fun. But the truth of the matter was she needed them. She needed to feel connected to them, a part of them. She, who’d spent the last ten years being alone and telling herself she was fine with it, had discovered that she really liked being with these two men.
“What do you want, baby? Tell us exactly how you want us.”
Ari grinned. She had a very specific need right now. She knew she could tell them, and they would give her want she craved.
“I want Cord to fuck my mouth, and I want you to fuck my ass.”
“Well now,” Cord said. “That sounds like a fun way to spend the evening.”
“It sure as hell does.” He sat back on his haunches and began to strip. Cord got to his feet beside the bed and also started dropping his clothes.
It didn’t take them long to become as naked as she was. The sound of a drawer sliding pulled her attention to the right. She turned her head just in time to see two items sailing through the air toward Jackson.
Ari followed the flight, an instinctive reaction. And then Cord stretched out beside her, cupped her chin, and redirected her attention.
“I love you.” He laid his mouth on hers and plundered.
The world slipped away, melted and slid down an invisible drain until there were only these men and this bed. His tongue dueled with hers and his flavor seeped into her blood. His aroma and the scent of his brother surrounded her, and a tiny part of her that had stayed tense, and keyed up, unwound and relaxed.
This was what she loved, being with these men, being steeped in them.
“Your kisses get me hot,” Cord said. He moved away just slightly, and Jackson moved in on her other side.
“Me, too,” Jackson said. He kissed her, and her entire body thrilled to the taste of both lovers mixing on her tongue. And then the flavor was pure Jackson, and she drank him in as if she’d been parched for him. His tongue slid and swirled, and hers followed, a woman surrendering to her man, sending her arousal higher, and then higher still.
He broke their kiss and moved down her body. Sipping and licking and nipping, he spread the fire of passion as he traveled down. He buried his face between her legs, his lips and tongue caressing and teasing her cunt and her clit until she nearly bowed off the bed, and whimpered in need.
“Get on your hands and knees and suck my brother’s cock.”
Ari didn’t think, she simply moved. Rolling over, she got on her knees and reached for Cord’s cock. He moved closer to her, and she fisted him, giving him three good, strong strokes.
Adjusting her position until she was between his legs, she nuzzled his cock where it sprang from his body, inhaling this very essence of him. She swirled her tongue along the head of his cock, slurping up the tiny drop of pre-cum. Her gaze met Cord’s, and then she sucked his cock inside her mouth.
Cord groaned in pleasure as he combed his fingers through her hair and held her in place. Behind her, she felt Jackson stroke her slit, and felt him spread lube over her anus.
Sometimes she was in the mood for gentle, romantic lovemaking. And sometimes, she just wanted to get down and dirty.
Ari wiggled her ass toward Jackson, and cupped Cord’s balls with her left hand while her right pumped his cock as she sucked him. Tiny little zaps of electric thrills began to snap and sizzle through her body when Jackson pressed first one finger, and then two, against the tiny rosebud opening of her anus. She liked his fingers inside her but she wanted his cock there more.
Jackson pulled his fingers out of her, moved in closer, and pressed his cock against her ass.
The burning edged to pain, and she loved it. She pushed back against him, and he grasped her hips in a firm grip as he t
hrust forward. His cock slid into her, solid and deep.
Ari lost herself in the wonder of these men, in the give and take and the rhythm that consumed her. She sucked, was fucked, and whimpered around Cord’s cock, because the pleasure felt better than anything, and all she wanted was more.
“Yeah, baby, that’s it. Take me. Come for me.” Jackson leaned over and nipped her shoulder. His right hand released her hip. He reached around, found her clit, and stroked it.
Ari sucked deeply and cried out with Cord as her orgasm exploded. Wave after wave of sensation surged through her in perfect sync to the waves of cum Cord fed her. Jackson’s low growl told her he’d reached his peak, too, and she shivered as the feel of his cock pulsing in her ass seemed to make her climax deepen.
She swallowed every drop of Cord’s seed and let his cock slip out from between her lips. She kissed his deflated penis gently, but could manage no other movement than that. Heart pounding, chest heaving, she thought that she could stay where she was, the way she was, forever.
“Mother of God,” Cord said.
“Yeah,” Jackson said. He kissed her shoulder. “Hold still. I’ll be back in a moment. I’m going to clean you up and carry you to the hot tub.”
“Gmph.” It was the best response she could make. She closed her eyes and gave over, trusting her men to take care of her.
Chapter 20
One thing had become absolutely clear to Ari. If she wanted to make a stand—if she finally wanted to fight back—then she would have to be sneaky and underhanded about it.
The men of Lusty had circled the wagons. She’d been in town long enough to understand their reasoning. The women of Lusty were her clients and she’d heard all the tales.
She’d heard how Kelsey had grabbed the gun of her abductor, shot out the windshield of the car he had her in, and then run like hell.
She’d heard how Susan Benedict had chased a mentally unbalanced, shot-gun armed man with a fucking shovel.
She’d heard how Penelope had walked away from the family’s vacation cabin and into the wilds in her anger, how Tamara had taken on a drug dealer with a screwdriver, and Tracy had rubbed her wrist raw getting out of handcuffs to draw the fire of a street thug bent on murder, using his own car against him.
She’d heard how Julia had broken a bed and crawled out a window and how Ginny had not only kicked the gun out of the hand of a drug lord, but a couple of months later had pulled her own tormentor out of a car armed with nothing but righteous fury.
So she understood why the men were determined to do all they could to keep her safe. But she also felt as if doing so—simply hanging back, wringing her hands and, whimpering while the big strong penis-bearers slew her dragon for her—would be a kind of betrayal of the spirit of the women of Lusty.
Besides, she’d had more than a decade for her anger to brew and simmer and, baby, that soup was done.
Traffic had never been much of anything in town. Lusty had a single traffic light which everyone complained about. It seemed it always turned red at the wrong moment. But beyond the locals, they didn’t get many cars passing through.
Some surrounding ranchers and farmers would occasionally come to town for supplies, or to go to the clinic, or grab a bite to eat. And once in a while tourists would get lost and drive through town.
But mostly, Lusty was as quiet as a town could get. Ari grinned. But it was not necessarily a sleepy one, because the residents had better things to do than sleep.
She’d seen the silver Chevy go through town twice, now, as she’d been standing by the reception desk at the Lusty Glow Day Spa. Its first cruise she’d noticed had been south to north. The second one, north to south.
Moments later she saw the sheriff’s cruisers—both of them—speed past, heading north. In the wake of the cop cars, three pickups followed closely behind. She saw Cody Harper and Ryder Magee and Peter Alvarez-Kendall at the wheels of those trucks.
Math had always been a pretty good subject for Ari. She had two assholes looking for her. It was safe to say the men of Lusty were hot on the trail of one of them, likely someone snooping around the Benedict North Ranch.
It occurred to her that someone might figure out where that photo had been taken and look for her there.
She’d bet the proverbial farm the other asshole was driving that silver Chevy.
Kate Benedict stepped into the spa. She was Ari’s next client. She gave Kate a smile. “You’re always on time! Would you like a hot pack for your shoulders, Grandma Kate?”
“Do you know, I think I would?”
Ari nodded. “Why don’t you have a seat in the serenity room, then? I’ll go get that for you.”
Ari’s hands shook, because she knew she had to time it fairly close. Once the pack was ready, she took it in to her favorite person in Lusty—aside from her two men—and draped it around her shoulders.
“Will you take a few minutes and just Zen out here? I have to do something. I’ll be right back.”
Kate met her gaze, and if Ari were to be fanciful she would say that woman could see clear down to her soul. Finally, she nodded. “You go do what you have to do, sweetheart, and don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
She turned to leave, but Kate grabbed her hand. Ari looked back and the nonagenarian gave her fingers a squeeze. For luck?
Stop being fanciful and just do what needs to be done.
Ari squeezed back, and Kate let her go.
It was just past noon on a pretty September Friday—the last Friday of the month. The sun shone with barely a cloud in the sky. There’d been talk of rain the night before, but Ari couldn’t see any sign of it at the moment. She didn’t know what to do with herself while she waited, so she walked to the edge of the curb and stood against a lamppost. There were only a few people in view. Old Mr. Parker waved to her as he headed toward the pharmacy. Ari waved back, grinning, because she knew that after he picked up his prescription, he’d head across the street to Lusty Appetites for lunch.
She’d been a child in a large city, and had become familiar not only with the hustle and bustle of it, but with the darker underpinnings. Get that many people living in a small space, and there’s going to be rot.
She was just as happy to live here, where life was predictable and maybe a little pedestrian, but it was real. Very real and honest and, in her estimation, damn near perfect.
The silver Chevy came into view, driving south to north, and slowed as it passed. She didn’t recognize the man behind the wheel. She’d never seen him before. She got the impression that he was middle aged, maybe in his fifties.
He’d certainly gotten a gander at her. He continued on, and then, just past the empty sheriff’s office, performed a U-turn and headed back.
He pulled his car to the curb on the other side of the street.
Ari had a sudden insight that maybe she hadn’t thought things through as well as she should have when the driver of the Chevy emerged from his vehicle. He kept the driver’s door open, leaned back with his hands in his pockets, and looked up and down the street. There was no one in sight, and Ari didn’t know how to feel about that, either.
“You lost?” She heard the edge, the sneer, and realized that just that easily, she’d slipped back into the Ari she’d been when she’d first come to Lusty.
“No, I think I’ve found exactly what I’m looking for. Fifty bucks?”
How clichéd! Asshole thinks I’m a hooker because I’m leaning against a lamp post?
She pretended not to know what he meant. “What do you mean, fifty bucks, sir?”
“A blow job. Unless you’ve been tossed aside by those quarterbacks already and need the cash badly enough you’ll fuck for that. Either, or, don’t matter to me. Come on, I’ll find us a quiet spot and you can do me in the car.”
Ari decided to drop any pretense of understanding what he was about. “I’m not going anywhere with you, asshole. Who are you? Did the Congressman send you? He must have, he’s too much of a cowa
rd to face a grown woman. He’d rather victimize a child.”
The man looked up and down the street one more time, sighed, and pulled his hand out of his pocket. He leveled a very nasty looking gun right at her. Ari had the sense that it wouldn’t bother him at all to pull the trigger, either.
“No more questions, Connie. Just get into the car.”
* * * *
Cord wanted to tackle the son of a bitch himself. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done to hang back with Jackson while they waited for the sheriff.
Using binoculars, he had a look at the man who stood on the county road who was using binoculars to have a look at the ranch house.
“Thanks, Chase,” Jackson said. “Thanks for noticing him and calling Adam.”
“You don’t need to thank me. We’re all responsible for the safety of our women.” Then he met Cord’s gaze. “We know what it’s like, too, having to hang back and let someone else have at a bastard you want, desperately, to pummel the living hell out of.”
“I know you do.” While they’d been waiting, Chase and Brian had told them about the day, last year, when the sick bastard who’d raped their Carrie when she’d been a child had grabbed her sister, Chloe. They’d wanted to go in and beat the shit out of the pervert. But in the end, it had been Chloe—sweet, gentle Chloe—who’d served justice that day. She’d killed the bastard, saving the life of Lusty’s sheriff in the process.
“There they are. Fuck, look at them go!”
Cord’s gaze snapped to the tableau on the road. Sherriff department cars had careened in, from both ends of the road, fishtailing to a stop, dust flying. Well back of Adam’s car, three pickups pulled off to the side of the road, the drivers emerging, each carrying a rifle. They seemed to take up their positions as if forming a defensive line. Even from well back they could hear Adam and Matt.
“Hands up now! On your knees! Move it, move it!”
“Drop the hardware and put your hands behind your head!”
Cord watched as the man—hell, a guy not much more than his own age—complied with the yelled-out orders. The moment Adam moved in and cuffed him, he and Jackson jumped into their truck, arriving at the scene in seconds.
Love Under Two Quarterbacks [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 22