by Vanessa Vale
“Guys, this is Ava—”
“Bennett!” Ava said, giving him a hug as if they knew each other. “Cash, it’s been a while,” she added when she turned to Mr. Dark and Deadly.
I frowned. What the hell?
The intense looks they’d been giving me fell away and they smiled at Ava.
“Any more problems with that four wheeler?” Cash asked her.
She shook her head, her styled curls sliding across her shoulders. “Nope, the new carburetor did the trick.”
Carburetor? Since when did she know about engine parts? She ran the Seed and Feed, but still. And why was she asking these two? I posed the obvious question. “You guys know each other?”
Ava stepped out of Bennett’s hug, but put her hand on his arm. “Of course. Cash owns the auto shop on Main with his uncle. He’s the one who towed your truck this morning.”
My mouth fell open as I looked to him. He grinned at me and winked.
I’d been helping Gus, Kemp and Poe—who ran a vet clinic together—with a business web site and, when done, I went out to my truck parked in front of their office to discover it wouldn’t start. Instead of meeting my mom for lunch and manicures, she’d picked me up and then later dropped me off here at Kaitlyn’s. Since I’d been busy, Gus had said he’d take care of getting my truck to the mechanic. I knew it had been to Carter’s Auto Repair, but I didn’t know the person behind the name was gorgeous, sex on a stick with a beard. Cash, Mr. Mechanic. God, it was a perfect stripper name.
“And Colton’s on the wait list for one of Bennett’s custom bikes.”
Towed trucks… Custom bike… Carburetors…
“I thought… I thought—” I sputtered, looked at the men. Holy shit. Yeah, they knew exactly what I thought.
Bennett ran a hand over the back of his neck and offered me a wicked smile.
These two hotties weren’t strippers at all.
2
CASH
* * *
I learned a few things about Julia Duke in the short time we spent with her in her brother’s kitchen. First, she was hot as fuck. Second, she could blush almost as red as her hair. Third, she was sassy, flirty and a tiny bit filthy. All of which made me rock hard, which was pretty fucking bad since I was sitting in Cassidy’s bar with her brothers and a few other guys who’d beat the shit out of me if they knew. I had to straighten my legs out beneath the table to get comfortable. When I bumped legs with Bennett who was across from me, I knew he had the same issue.
We’d shared women before—our friendship went back all the way to high school auto shop class—but I had a feeling every one of them was just preparation for Julia. Ten minutes with her and I wanted her. For good. And just thinking those two words, for good, should have me panicking, but it didn’t. The opposite, in fact. I bit my lip to stifle the smile. It was as if I’d been hit by a fucking Cupid arrow.
No matter what sappy crap I was thinking, I was shit for her. My past was a mess—a huge fucking understatement—and I wouldn’t blame her for steering clear. I’d been exonerated of the charges, but still. Once accused of being a rapist, always a rapist. Julia would learn of it and run far, far away. The fact these men weren’t driving me to the county line proved they didn’t know either.
“When’s the party done again?” Jed asked, dropping down into an empty chair at our big table, breaking me from my thoughts.
We’d slid two side by side to fit all of us—me, Bennett, Liam, Tucker, Colton, Poe and Porter. The bar was Jed’s and he’d been working, helping the bartender keep up with orders, but was taking a break. He looked at his watch, then waved a waiter over who took away some of the empty plates from our dinner. “Thanks, Mark.”
It was Friday night and people were out enjoying themselves. The jukebox was pumping out a mix of classic rock and country and the scent of burgers and beer filled the air.
“Ten,” Colton replied. He looked eager for it to be over so he could go over there, toss Ava over his shoulder and drag her back to the ranch. A few minutes with Julia and I had my own caveman thoughts. I wanted her all for myself. Myself and Bennett. We’d get her between us, get her naked and mark her up. Beard burn on her inner thighs, little nibble marks on the bottom swell of her full tits. Puffy pussy lips from being fucked hard and long. Cum coating her, inside and out. There would be no question she belonged to us.
“Not too rowdy for a bachelorette party,” Jed added, taking a sip of his iced tea. The former rodeo champ seemed relaxed and enjoying his retirement from the sport, or his new life with the sweet town librarian and Duke. “We should be thankful they didn’t want to go to Vegas. They can’t go too wild at our house.”
I looked to Bennett. The corner of his mouth tipped up, but he didn’t say anything. While they knew we’d stopped by to introduce ourselves to Julia—so we didn’t freak her out being driven home by strangers—neither of us shared what we knew about the party. Julia might have been a tiny thing, but I didn’t want to be on her shit list. I really wanted her to like me, and I knew her threat hadn’t been an empty one.
We also didn’t share the dirty thoughts we had about her. For the guys around the table, she was either sister, cousin, or future sister-in-law. Sharing how we wanted to double team her wasn’t the way to survive the night.
It was obvious none of the guys knew about the strippers. I didn’t know these guys all that well, but I did know them to be possessive fuckers. I doubted any of them worried their woman would stray, but having them get lap dances from guys in nut huggers might cross the line. I had to wonder if the ladies would keep the strippers a secret; I knew they’d spill about the unique party favors.
And that brought about the vision of Julia Duke holding a dildo. I hid my own smile behind a sip of beer and thought of those ten minutes in Duke and Jed’s kitchen with her.
“Why do you look like you’re having a heart attack?” Ava had asked Julia after she’d introduced us.
We’d been sort-of helping Julia fill the favor bags, but I hadn’t gotten far. The only filling I wanted to do with a dick—real or fake—was put it in Julia’s pussy.
“Oh shit,” Julia replied, looking anywhere in the room but at me or Bennett, then turned so her back was to us. She was blatantly embarrassed, but I thought it funny. “I… I thought they were the strippers.”
Yeah, she had. I’d caught on pretty fast and when I’d glanced at Bennett, he had, too. Instead of correcting her, I’d enjoyed every bit of our conversation. Julia wasn’t shy or prudish. Not the way she’d talked about dick size and stripper moves. Still, she was also a touch wary. I hadn’t been able to pinpoint it exactly, but she seemed a little jaded with guys. Like she’d maybe been burned. I knew she was single, and she looked to be in her late twenties. No woman made it that long and not married without having her heart broken a time or two. She was intriguing and I wanted to learn more. So much more. Like what she looked like when she woke up next to me in the morning, what she sounded like when she came. The way she screamed my name.
Ava stared at her for a second, wide-eyed, then burst out laughing. “Those two?” She waved her hand between me and Bennett. “God, Julia, what did you say to them?”
I could see Julia’s profile, her cheeks a bright pink. She put her hands up to her face, realized she was still holding a dildo, then tossed it on the table. She covered her face and mumbled. I could barely make out the words banana hammock and gyrating hips.
Ava glanced our way and I offered her a wink to let her know we found it amusing. Flattering even, in a backwards sort of way, to be mistaken for a stripper. The way Bennett just stood there and grinned, he didn’t seem to mind either.
We had some moves we could show her. In private.
All at once, Julia’s spine stiffened and she spun about, walked over to me and poked me in the chest. “Why didn’t you say something?”
I raised my hands in surrender and tried not to smile, but she was almost a foot shorter and a tiny thing, at least com
pared to me. I couldn’t miss the way her body filled out her jeans and that her full breasts weren’t hidden beneath her trim t-shirt. I wasn’t in much physical danger, but she did have a hell of a lot of wrath. Oh, if that could be channeled into other things… fuck, was she passionate.
“And miss out on all the fun?” I asked. “Don’t you want to see if my nut huggers are neon yellow or blue?”
Steam would have come from her ears if it were possible. The look on her face had me wondering if she might knee me in the balls, so I shifted my stance slightly just in case. I’d never seen eyes so green before and I was mesmerized.
“Angel, don’t be mad,” Bennett said, his voice calm. “Maybe we can start over. I’m Bennett and this idiot is Cash. He’s got your truck at his shop.”
“That’s right,” I added. “I didn’t have your number to give you an update personally, so I called Gus, told him it’s not fixed yet.”
I knew Gus and his two colleagues, Kemp and Poe, from a summer softball league. He’d let me know her truck was in front of the vet office, told me he thought it might have a dead battery, although Kemp and Poe had told him otherwise. Since Poe tried to jump it and it still didn’t start, I doubted the battery problem. Either way, Gus asked if I’d tow and fix it.
I’d taken a peek when it arrived and saw it was a cracked distributor cap. It wasn’t a big issue, but the truck wouldn’t run without a new one.
“I didn’t have your contact info. Since Gus was headed out of town and I have your ride, I told him I’d make sure you got home all right after the party,” I told her.
“We,” Bennett corrected. The way he was looking at her, he didn’t want to be left out.
I tipped my head toward him, nodded. “We just stopped by to introduce ourselves, let you know we’d be by to get you at ten.”
Julia glanced at Ava, who added, “Cash is Cash Carter of Carter’s Auto. He moved here to help out his uncle and take over the shop.” She looked me up and down as if taking inventory. “While he’s pretty hot, I don’t think he has the moves for a stripper.”
Those green eyes of Julia’s stayed narrowed, but she wasn’t quite as pissed. Thankfully Ava vouched for me. Us.
“Thanks,” I said to Ava. “Survived my first winter in Montana.” After Miami, a Raines winter was fucking freezing, but life was quiet and no one knew about my shit background. Business was good at the shop, and now, a woman just came into my life. I shouldn’t be thinking that, but it wasn’t my brain doing the thinking right now.
“I followed Cash out here from Florida,” Bennett said. “As Ava said, I do custom motorcycles.”
“All the guys are going to hang at Cassidy’s while we have our fun,” she told the red-haired vixen. “Ooh, are those dildos?”
Julia ignored Ava, whose interest shifted to the party favors, narrowed her eyes and looked between me and Bennett. Poked me in the chest once more, just for the hell of it. And that made my dick throb in my jeans. I wanted to reach down, shift myself to be more comfortable, but that wasn’t a good idea.
“You say one word about what the plans are for this party to any of my brothers, or any of the guys, you’re a dead man. I’m small, but I can rope the shit out of a calf and I know where all the good burial spots are on the ranch.”
That sexy-as-fuck warning had been hours ago. Sitting here at Cassidy’s, I was still hard just thinking about that smooth-as-silk voice talking about rope and getting tied up. That went along with the tight little body and no-holds-barred attitude and I was hooked.
I wanted some of that. Not some, I wanted a whole hell of a lot of Julia Duke. All of her. Every delectable inch. It wasn’t the best idea to get involved with her, or any woman for that matter, but again, my dick seemed to be doing the thinking where she was concerned.
Still, Bennett and I were picking her up and taking her home. It had been courtesy, at first, to help out Gus’s sister. Now, it was imperative. Oh, I wanted to feel those soft curves beneath my work-worn palms. She’d feel like satin, every hot inch of her. I considered Ava pretty with her intentional good looks. But high maintenance to me meant getting a car serviced every three thousand miles. I liked a woman who was natural, and it seemed with lots of wild red hair.
I’d never imagined a woman with a sharp tongue could light my fire, but shit, Julia Duke. I had to wonder if that gorgeous hair also capped her pussy. Did she shave herself bare down there or leave a little fire to go with all that heat?
“They didn’t say anything about your bachelor party last week,” Jed said to Tucker, bringing me back from my thoughts.
Tucker reached over and slapped him on the shoulder. “That’s because it was a bunch of guys camping in the woods, fishing for dinner. Unless we were into fucking the wildlife, it wasn’t going to get too crazy. The women didn’t care.”
I’d heard about their weekend and I had to agree. It sounded like the women were wilder than the guys.
“You might want to ask after the party favors,” Bennett said. When everyone looked his way, he added, “Let’s just say I hope you don’t have dick issues.”
The guys left pretty fast after that. Knowing their women pretty well, they could infer quite a bit from Bennett’s words. As we walked to Bennett’s truck parked down the street, he said, “It’s been a while since we’ve both wanted the same woman.”
“This is different. She’s different,” I added.
“Fuck, yeah, she is.” He was looking down the street, but most likely seeing Julia Duke.
I ran my hand over the back of my neck. “She’ll find out.”
Bennett stopped, turned to face me. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
He’d said the same thing to me a million times. It was moments like this, especially now, where his words didn’t matter. It was what was on paper, online, the police reports, my time in jail as I awaited arraignment. Julia Duke was too good for me.
“I want her. If she goes running, at least she’ll end up in your arms.”
Getting a woman off was a gift. When it was two guys doing it, it only made it better for her. Double the hands, the mouths, the dicks. There was more to what I felt for Julia Duke than just seeing to her orgasms. Two men taking care of her ensured she’d always be safe. Protected. Cherished. I could clearly see why all the Duke guys claimed a woman with another.
In a backwards sort of way, it was the gentlemanly thing to do.
I was far from a gentleman, but I still wanted her. Still wanted to get my hands on her and get her all filthy, and she’d love every second of it.
I wanted to wake Julia up every morning with my head between her thighs getting her off. Or until she learned the truth of my past and kicked me out of her bed.
3
JULIA
* * *
Be still my heart. When I walked out of Kaitlyn’s house, I stopped short at the sight of Cash and Bennett, both leaning against a big SUV in the driveway. It was dark, but the exterior lighting illuminated them well. Tall, broad, manly. My ovaries no doubt couldn’t help but pop out an egg or two at their blatant virility.
It didn’t seem strange to me I was interested in both of them. A woman with two men was a norm in the Duke family. When I was a little girl, I hadn’t dreamed of being with two men, but lately, seeing my brothers settle down in polyamorous relationships and watching how devoted and in love they were made me want that, too. I’d never dated two men at once, never considered it. I’d struggled with finding one guy worth keeping—or who wanted to keep me—let alone two.
And after the fiasco with Frank, I’d just dated my vibrator. I’d thought the dildo from the favor bag would be my new boyfriend, but now…
I had to wonder if Bennett and Cash considered claiming a woman together. They knew Gus, who, along with Kemp and Poe, was dating Parker. Not dating, but they were together. Very together. I had to wonder who’d be engaged next: Kaitlyn, Parker or Jill with how fast they fell. How hard.
I doubted Bennett and Cash�
��even reasonably new to town—missed any idle gossip about the relationships in the Duke family. Had they ever shared a woman before? Would they even want to?
They strode toward me with their long gaits. My mouth watered at the expanse of their broad shoulders that tapered to slim hips. Lower, thick thighs made their jeans taut. Not just that, but the ample bulges in the front. Their eyes were focused squarely on me. I realized I was holding my breath and let it out. Why was I so nervous? I hadn’t been when I’d thought they were strippers. Why did these two make my palms damp, my nipples go hard and my pussy ache to be filled with something besides silicone? Oh yeah, because they were fucking gorgeous.
Bennett took the big box from my arms.
“Have fun?” Cash asked. With his head tipped down, his dark eyes held mine. I was a little—a whole hell of a lot—mesmerized by them. His beard, too. Would it tickle when we kissed?
When… my body and my head were not in sync because my brain, my logical, reasoning mind hadn’t thought that. My inner ho wondered about it. Just like she’d wondered all night long if they’d be good in bed. And out, like on the couch, in the kitchen, with whipped cream or even in the back seat of the huge truck behind them. Any which way would work, but together.
They would have moves all right, and nothing like the two strippers. The real strippers. At the party, they’d been good, sexy and playful. Got Ava in a chair and pretty much climbed in her lap and twirled their junk near her face. But their polish had been dulled for me because of Bennett and Cash. The strippers just weren’t as attractive. As manly, even wearing just G-strings that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. They’d exuded sex appeal, but the two men in front of me right now had pheromones all but seeping from their pores. I’d never been so attracted in my life.
“It turned out great,” I replied, realizing they’d been waiting for me to answer. “Ava had a blast and that’s what matters.”