by Roma James
“Yeah.” I nodded, wrapping both hands around my warm mug. “I think I’ll go back upstairs now.” I took a couple of steps and then turned back toward Cade. “Thanks for keeping me company. Good night.”
He gave a little wave as I slipped past Boone and hurried toward the stairs. I could hear them talking in hushed tones behind me but couldn’t make out any of the words.
Judging by the way they’d both been exchanging uncomfortable glances, though, I had to assume they were arguing about something.
And I was afraid that something might be me.
I walked back up the stairs as quickly and quietly as I could, cringing every time a board creaked or groaned under my feet. I think I held my breath until I was finally back inside my own room with the door closed behind me. Only then did I think back on everything that had just happened.
Cade had been ready to kiss me—would have kissed me if Boone hadn’t shown up. I was pretty sure of that much, at least.
But earlier in the evening I’d felt like Boone might have been interested in something more than just a comforting hug. He was harder to read, though, and I didn’t have enough experience with guys to be certain.
I crossed the room and sat down on the edge of my bed, making room on my bedside table for the mug of cocoa as I strained to listen for the guys’ heavy footsteps on the stairs.
God, what if they had both come in here after me? That would have made one of my hottest fantasies come true. Not that I really thought it would happen in a million years, but still… no, I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like.
I’d heard rumors about them, though. About how Cade and Boone sometimes liked to share a woman.
I crawled back under the covers as I tried to picture what kind of woman it would take to turn both of their heads. I liked and respected both of them, but God, they were just so different.
And after tonight, I might have just blown any chance I might have had with either of them.
Tomorrow would be a new day, though, and I’d hopefully get a chance to see them before they left to go back home. I wouldn’t be able to get close to either of them like I had tonight, but I’d at least be able to make sure things weren’t still awkward between the three of us.
For now, that was probably the best I could hope for.
Chapter 5
Boone
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been lying awake in the Thoresons' guest bedroom. Too long. Tomorrow—today, whatever—was going to be long and tedious with no sleep, but every time I closed my eyes all I could see was Cade standing there with Janessa.
He’d sworn to me that nothing had happened between them, but I honestly couldn’t tell. The guilty expressions on their faces when I’d walked into the kitchen hadn’t helped Cade’s story, though.
Not that I could have blamed him if he had kissed her. I’d certainly been tempted earlier in the evening.
Except, well… I would have blamed him. We had an agreement. And yeah, I’d given her a hug, but there hadn’t been anything inappropriate about that. She’d been missing her parents, and I had just been trying to comfort her. It would have taken a real asshole to walk away from someone in need like that, and I might be a lot of things, but I would never intentionally cause anyone pain.
Especially not when Janessa was involved.
I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Cade on the way over here. We’d both agreed to keep things friendly but to keep our hands to ourselves. Just like we’d agreed that we wouldn’t let any potential feelings for a woman come between our friendship. We should be old enough and mature enough to separate the two.
But now I was feeling a little pissed off at Cade, and I was pretty sure he was across the hall in his room feeling the same way about me.
I closed my eyes again.
I just needed to fall asleep and forget about it. What else was I going to do?
Again, that same tired scenario started to play out in my mind. I’d been walking down the stairs. I could see the light shining from the kitchen, and I could hear Janessa’s quiet laugh followed by Cade’s not-so-quiet voice. He was always too loud, too fast to act, too unconcerned about the consequences.
I stopped just outside the kitchen doorway. I could see them, but they hadn’t noticed me yet. They were close, but Cade’s bigger body was blocking what I really wanted to see.
That was when I was supposed to walk in and interrupt them, when they were supposed to turn with those guilty looks on their faces and tell me nothing had happened, that they’d just been talking.
Except this time was different.
This time I didn’t interrupt. I watched from the doorway as Cade put his arms around her and pulled her close. I could see her now, could see how fucking beautiful she looked with her mouth parted and her sexy body pressed up against Cade.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I had to be dreaming. This was way too hot to be real. But my cock was hard and my heart was beating faster as I watched them, waiting to see what would happen next.
Fuck, if this really was a dream, I didn’t ever want it to end.
I reached down to palm myself through my jeans—except I wasn’t wearing jeans. I was somehow just in my underwear as I stood there in the kitchen doorway. Yeah, I was definitely dreaming now but fuck it. This dream was amazing.
He kissed her. Her body looked like it was melting into him as he nearly lifted her off her feet. Jesus, did I hear her whimper? My cock throbbed at that sexy little noise, so small but so fucking hot.
I slipped my hand beneath the waistband of my underwear, slowly stroking myself as I watched her open her mouth to him. I could see their tongues entwined as they kissed and could hear the low rumble from Cade’s throat as he finally broke away and looked down at her.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” he growled. “I want you. Want to fuck you right here, right now.”
Jesus.
I stroked faster. Heat was radiating from my cock, and I could already feel my balls start to tighten as Janessa nodded, breathless from the long kiss they’d just shared.
“I want you, too,” she said. “I want you both…”
She turned and looked at me. Fuck, how did she know I was there?
“Both of you,” she repeated, motioning for me to join them.
I was so close. I could feel the orgasm as it rushed through my body, closer and closer with each step I took toward them.
Fuck.
A loud thud outside and a flash of light that moved across my window made my eyes snap open. I was out of breath and panting. My hand was still on my cock, and I had to squeeze it hard to keep from coming in my fucking underwear.
Jesus Christ. What the hell had just happened?
I’d been asleep. Dreaming. Best dream of my fucking life. And then… right. The noise. The light outside.
Probably just thunder and lightning from the storm.
But as I regained my senses from that crazy dream, I realized that it hadn’t been the sound thunder normally would have made—it hadn’t been a boom or a clap. Just a… a thud. And the flash of light? No, there was no way that had been lightning. Not with the way it moved across the window.
My sexy, hot-as-hell, too-good-to-be-true dream faded away as I sat up in bed and listened. Hell, it wasn’t even raining anymore.
Fuck.
What I’d mistaken for thunder and lightning at first could have really only been one thing.
A car door and headlights.
I moved to the window and peered out into the darkness but couldn’t see a damn thing. No car. No lights. Nothing.
Who would have driven here in the middle of the night? In the middle of a storm?
It would have been just as weird for someone to be leaving the ranch right now. Had Justin gone somewhere? That just didn’t make any sense. And wouldn’t I have heard him moving around on those creaky stairs?
I quickly moved around the room and gathered my clothes, pulling on my shirt and
jeans without giving it another thought.
I still didn’t have any idea why someone would be driving around outside the house at this time of night, but I didn’t have a good feeling about it. Nobody would have driven down the long dirt road and up the Thoresons' private driveway in a storm by accident.
Now I just needed to find out who the hell had been out there and what the hell they’d been up to.
I opened the bedroom door at the same time Cade was stepping out into the hallway from his own room.
“You heard that, too?” he whispered.
I nodded. “I saw headlights. I was just coming to get you.”
“I didn’t see anything on this side of the house, but I was pretty sure I heard an engine rev outside. If you saw the headlights, that pretty much confirms it.”
“But why?” I asked, my stomach twisting into knots as I nodded toward the end of the hallway. “Did Justin go somewhere?”
Cade shook his head. “He’s not going anywhere. I can still hear him snoring.”
I stopped to listen, barely able to hear anything over my own drumming heart. But yeah, now that Cade mentioned it, I could hear the old man’s rattling snores coming from his bedroom.
“Do you think we should wake him?” I asked.
If this had been our place, Cade and I would have already been outside investigating. But this wasn’t our ranch. Still, if there was someone still outside, I didn’t like the idea of Janessa being up here all alone—and Justin would almost certainly insist on coming with us if we woke him.
“No,” Cade said, apparently coming to the same conclusion. “We can move faster on our own. Let’s just go down there and check things out. If we find anything, we’ll come right back and tell him. If not…” He shrugged. “No sense in waking up the whole house in the middle of the night, right?”
I didn’t bother answering. I agreed, of course, but we had already lost time just standing here talking. Now it was time to get moving.
“Sorry about earlier, by the way,” Cade whispered as we got to the foot of the stairs. “I really wasn’t doing anything with her. I wouldn’t have—”
I held up a hand to cut him off. “Don’t worry about that right now, buddy. I’m over it. I’m a hell of a lot more concerned with what might have happened outside than anything you could have done in the kitchen, okay?”
He nodded, then followed me through the house without another word about it.
Thank God.
Because while I might not have actually been one hundred percent over it, I also didn’t want to keep being pissed off about it. At the end of the day, Cade and I knew each other better than anyone else on the planet. We were still good. Still on the same page as far as Janessa was concerned.
And for now, that was good enough for me.
We stopped at the back door, and I turned to face him one more time before turning the handle. “Let’s just stick together out there. I think whoever it was is already long gone, but I don’t want to take any chances by splitting up.”
“Got it.” He nodded. “I’ll follow you.”
I opened the door and we stepped outside. Between the crisp night air and the rush of adrenaline pumping through my veins, I felt like I was ready for anything.
We moved around to the corner of the house, and I held up a hand to stop Cade from moving any further while I listened. It was so quiet. Too quiet. Even the normal nighttime sounds seemed to be gone.
I took another step, peering around the side of the house toward the horse stables and then sucked in a sharp breath as I heard something rustle behind us.
Cade was already on it, though. He’d turned around and crouched low just as I finally made out a shadowy form in the darkness.
“Janessa?” Cade’s voice was a mixture of worry and irritation as he stood back up and moved toward the figure. “What the hell? You need to get back inside the house right now.”
My mouth fell open as she stepped closer. I could see her better now and could see that she was shaking her head.
“I’m not going anywhere unless it’s with the two of you,” she said, her defiant tone matching Cade’s. “Anyway, you guys might need this.”
She held up a shotgun, and Cade turned back to look over his shoulder at me. The expression on his face was enough to tell me exactly what he was thinking.
She might be right.
We really might need that gun if there was still someone out here.
Grudgingly, I held out a hand. “I’ll take the gun,” I said. “You stay between me and Cade.” I gave her a hard look. “Actually, no. You need to get back inside. This isn’t safe.”
Her eyes narrowed. “This is my ranch. I’m going with you whether you want me to or not.” She nodded toward the stables. “We should check there first. I could have sworn I heard the stable door slam earlier.”
Maybe that had been the loud thud that I’d thought was a car door. Not that it really mattered. We’d all heard something, and that was enough to make me feel really uneasy about bringing Janessa along with us.
If anything happened to her, I’d—no. I wouldn’t even think about it because I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. And I wasn’t going to admit it out loud, but she also made a good point.
This was her land—or it would be soon enough. She had just as much business—more, really—as we did out here.
“Fine,” I ground out through gritted teeth. “Just stay close and try not to make too much noise.”
She nodded and Cade moved to take up a position behind her. He hadn’t objected, which meant he and I had probably come to the same conclusion.
We couldn’t make Janessa stay behind. Staying behind ourselves wasn’t an option, either.
I turned back toward the stables and took a step out from the shadow of the house. If there was still someone down there, they’d be able to see us coming long before we saw them.
Jesus, this was a bad idea.
I just hoped it wouldn’t turn into something worse.
“The lock is broken,” Janessa whispered over my shoulder as we got closer to the stable doors. “I can see it dangling from here.”
“And look over there in the mud,” Cade added, pointing to the patch of ground a few feet away. “Those tire tracks weren’t there earlier when Justin and I came down here to look at the horses.”
“But why here?” I asked, more to myself than to either of them. “Why would anyone need to get into the stables in the middle of the night?”
It was no secret that the Thoresons had valuable quarter horses. All of their animals—from their cattle to their horses, even their chickens—were some of the best in the state after generations of careful breeding.
Still, for someone to come here and try to steal a horse right from under Janessa Thoreson’s nose? I didn’t know anyone with balls big enough to attempt something like that.
And a horse trailer would have made a lot more noise than what we’d heard earlier. Hell, it would have probably still been stuck right here in this mud. Whoever came out here had to have known that.
But if they hadn’t planned on stealing the horses, then… what? What other reason could there be?
I was afraid to open the doors but not because there might still be someone in there. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be the case. What I was more afraid of was what we’d find. I could deal with another person easily enough, but if they’d done something to these defenseless animals… fuck, I couldn’t even think about it without feeling sick to my stomach.
“We have to check,” Cade said, stepping up next to me. He gave me a knowing look, then turned to Janessa. “I don’t know what we’re going to find in there, but you’d better let us take a look first.”
Thankfully, she didn’t argue. Her face was pale in the moonlight, and her eyes were wide as she nodded. Maybe seeing the broken lock and the tire tracks had finally made her realize just how dangerous the situation could have been. And just how dangerous it still could be.
>
I swung open the heavy doors and peered inside. It was pitch black. Every horse in the place could have been gone for all I could tell.
“There’s a light switch on your right,” Janessa whispered, stepping up close behind me.
If there was someone in here, they would have already seen us, so any advantage the darkness could have given us was already gone.
I reached over and felt for the switch, then shut my eyes tight for a moment as the big overhead lights flickered to life.
“Nothing looks out of place so far,” Cade said, walking ahead as I still struggled to open my eyes and squint into the horse stalls. “Do you see anything weird, Janessa?”
She shook her head as we followed along, then she stopped and pointed to the stall on the end. “There. I don’t see Rebel’s head.”
Cade and I both moved cautiously toward the last stall. It was possible the horse was just standing far into a corner, even though all the other horses were up and alert now. It was no surprise that none of the other horses seemed to be sleeping since they’d had to deal with the earlier stranger, the overhead lights, and now the three of us moving around among them.
So where was Rebel?
“Let me go first,” I said, my finger near the trigger of the shotgun as I moved closer to the stall door.
Cade tucked Janessa behind him and stepped back to give me some room as I pulled the door open.
The horse was there, lying on its side on the straw-covered floor. She was still breathing, eliminating most of my initial worries.
But even as I took a tentative step toward her, Rebel didn’t make any attempt to get up. She was looking at me, though, her big, dark eyes slowly tracking my movements as I knelt down next to her.
“She’s alive,” I said, motioning for Cade and Janessa to come closer. “Something isn’t right, though. Is she normally this docile?”
“Oh, God, no.” Janessa shook her head, her brows furrowing as she reached out to rub the mare’s nose. “She normally wouldn’t let a stranger get anywhere near as close as you are now. There’s something wrong with her.”