Tangled: Steele Ranch - Book 3 Read online

  “Red,” she mumbled.

  I stroked a hand over the creamy flesh of her ass. It was warm, silky soft and just as gorgeous as I remembered.

  “Good girl,” I murmured. Yeah, this was what she wanted. Last summer, we hadn’t come up with any elaborate safe words, but stuck with the basics. “You wanted Archer to take control and he hasn’t given it up yet. You say ‘red’ and we’ll let you up.”

  She looked back at me over her shoulder. I saw the skittishness, the surprise, the need, too.

  Her cheeks were flushed, her hair a wild tangle about her face.

  “Do you want to say red?” I asked, waiting, giving her one last chance.

  The way she stared at me, I could tell she was thinking, and hard. Archer and Lee were quiet, patiently waiting. My heart thudded in my chest as I wondered if we would have the same connection after a year apart.

  “No.”

  Inwardly, I sighed. Thank fuck.

  “The question is, what has you running scared? Answer when you’re ready.”

  I began the spanking, not all that hard, just a warmup, one cheek then the other. Her flesh jiggled beneath my palm, the skin instantly turning pink. The sound of the spanking filled the room. Her head was turned toward the back of the couch and I was able to watch her expressions. Her eyes were pinched closed, her face scrunched. Her cheeks were flushed as she tried to hold her breath, but as I continued, she began to pant.

  “Who’s in charge, baby?” I asked.

  When she didn’t respond, I spanked her again, a little bit harder. She jolted, hissed, then cried out, “You!”

  I soothed the sting over her red skin with my palm, felt the warmth of it.

  “That’s right. I am, along with Archer and Lee until you say your safe word. That means you don’t have any problems. Any worries. You give them to us.”

  She shook her head. Stubborn, stubborn woman! I spanked her again.

  A sob escaped, her hands clenched into fists.

  My palm came down once more. She slumped over my lap and cried.

  Finally. Fuck, I hated spankings like this. I was all for a playful bout, especially as I fucked, but this? She had to give over. There was nothing she could say that her men couldn’t handle. A lawman, a Marine and a guy insane enough to jump on the back of a bull were here to protect her, even if it meant from herself.

  Archer released his hold on the cuffs and Lee tugged her clothes back up, scooped her into his arms and carefully placed her on his lap. His hand went to her hair, brushed it back from her face and he leaned down and whispered to her. I couldn’t hear his words, but her crying eased, but didn’t stop.

  Fuck, I hated to see her cry. I gritted my teeth just watching her so upset.

  We waited for her to get it all out, for the tears to run dry. When they did, Lee took over. He didn’t like to spank; it wasn’t his thing. I was the Dominant of the three of us, but I knew he wasn’t going to let her get up without telling us what was going on.

  “Feel better?” he asked. She nodded, turned her head into his chest. “Hey, don’t wipe your snot all over me.”

  She laughed at that, then sniffled. “Sorry,” she murmured.

  “No, you’re not,” Lee replied, a smile turning up the corner of his mouth. “Okay, baby. What’s so bad that you’re ruining my shirt?”

  “I…messed up.”

  “We all mess up,” he replied. “Sutton messed up when he didn’t get your number.”

  I clenched my jaw, but remained quiet.

  She took a deep breath, sniffed once again.

  “Baby, don’t make Sutton pull you over his knee again,” Lee continued.

  “I borrowed money from the wrong person,” she said, her voice defeated.

  My gaze lifted to Lee’s. His eyes were a pale blue and there were crinkles at the edges from being so damned happy all the time, but his smile slipped from his face at her words. His eyes narrowing.

  “My car needed fixing and I had to use my tuition money to get it done. There would’ve been no way for me to get to class otherwise. So I got it fixed and borrowed the money for the class. One class, one semester, that’s it. I work two jobs so I don’t have to do financial aid and it’s taking me forever to get my degree, but the car thing messed it all up.”

  She was older than the normal college kid. Archer had said she was twenty-five. Based on what she said, she’d been working her ass off to pay her own way.

  Kady, the first Steele heiress to show up on the ranch, had had been raised by parents, her mother and a man she’d married and who Kady had thought was her dad. The way she spoke of them, they’d been real nice people and had set aside money for her to go to college before they’d died. And Penny, the other woman to inherit, her family was rich and put her through college, even a Master’s program, but solely for her mother’s own personal career gains, not because Penny really wanted to be a subsurface geoscientist. I’d met Nancy Vandervelk last month, heard how she’d used Penny’s need for affection against her—and she was a stone-cold bitch. But that was another story.

  Cricket sat up, looked to all three of us. Her face, even splotchy and red, was earnest.

  “I paid him back. All of it and the interest, too,” she told us, her words almost desperate. Obviously, it was really important she made her own way. “I won’t be in debt to anyone. But he said I owed him more. Compound interest. I don’t have two thousand dollars.”

  “Two grand?” Archer said, running a hand over the back of his neck. He was pissed, but was good at hiding it. The way his jaw ticked I knew he was ready to go track down the fucker.

  She sighed loudly. “They came to my house today, made me go to this strip club, to pay the money back on stage. He even said I could pay off the money faster by doing private dances, which weren’t dances at all.”

  Archer stood, began to pace.

  Fuck, the thought of Cricket being forced to dance for strangers…fuck. If she wanted to do a little strip tease, even a lap dance, it would be all in play and it would be with us. No one else would see her that way. “Did they hurt you? Make you—”

  She shook her head. “No. Not then, but I was supposed to put on this slutty nurse’s outfit and then strip.” She spit out the words, her anger flaring. “That was so not happening. They threatened…well, you can imagine.” She turned her head up to look at Lee. “I never stripped before. And as for us, I know what we did last year was really wild, really kinky, but I’m not like that, at least not with anybody else. I’m not,” she vowed, as if it was crucial we understood that.

  “Shh,” Lee soothed, gripping her face in his palms. “Of course, you’re not. We never thought you were. Hell, baby, if you’d left your phone number, you’d have known how much we wanted you, that one night wasn’t enough. How much we want you now.”

  Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened. Shit, she’d thought we’d only wanted her for the weekend, for a fling.

  “Really?”

  “Really,” Archer added as he sat back down, making sure she knew we all felt the same way. “Lee and I never even saw your face. We’ve been wanting you ever since. I just couldn’t find you.”

  Tears slipped down her cheeks as Lee dropped his hands, but she was calm.

  “Why did you go?” I asked. “Why didn’t you at least say goodbye?”

  “I had my clinical shift at the hospital. I took the clinical rotation over the summer. For class credit, I had to take a certain number of shifts. I only expected to stay in Poulson for the rodeo, but you…you changed my plans. But I couldn’t call in sick. I had to go and I had to leave early to make it there in time.”

  “Even if you weren’t interested in more with us, you still could have said goodbye,” Sutton said.

  She glanced down, averting her eyes. “You’re right. But…I guess I just didn’t want to hear that ‘It had been a wild time, but see ‘ya’.”

  “So you left first, assuming we just wanted a wild fuck?” Archer asked.

  “Well…yeah. I mean, we met at a rodeo.” She licked her lips and her gaze lifted to mine. “We barely knew each other. I did things with all three of you.”

  I grinned, remembering all the things we’d done. All three of us. I could see though how she came to her assumptions.

  “We thought you’d just used us,” Lee added. His harsh words were softened with a sly smile and a wink. “Now that you’re here, you can definitely use us again.”

  “We want you, Cricket,” I told her, making it crystal clear. “Not just for a night. Now that you’re here, I want to try again.”

  “Yes,” Archer added.

  “Fuck, yes,” Lee finished.

  There was no way she didn’t know our intent now. Hell, we’d just spanked her ass, given her the outlet she needed to tell us her problems. We’d gotten off track though, so I asked, “You didn’t say exactly, but tonight, did they make you strip?”

  I didn’t know who the fucker was, but when I did—

  She shook her head, her hair flying about. “No. I…I climbed out a bathroom window before it was my turn.”

  She climbed out of a window?

  “That’s why you were speeding,” Archer said, thinking aloud.

  “I climbed out the window because they wouldn’t have let me leave otherwise. So, yes, I was speeding because I thought they might come after me. I didn’t tell you there on the side of the road because they told me not to.” Her lower lip wobbled at that. The idea of someone taking advantage of her in such a way, of debasing her to the point she was scared of talking to a fucking sheriff, made me see red.

  “You were coming here to Steele Ranch,” Archer added, giving me a second or two to take a breath, to try to calm my need to kill. When she nodded, he continued, “If you knew about this place, of your inheritance, why didn’t you give them the money? Or get in touch with Riley Townsend and tell him the problem? He’d have paid them off.”

  Her eyes flared, the anger was back. That was better. I couldn’t handle a crying woman. And Cricket? It gutted me. So did hearing this story. While Lee and I had been with the horses earlier, she’d had to climb out a fucking window at a strip club. Alone. Even though we’d known nothing about it or her whereabouts, I felt as if we should have been there. It seemed she’d taken care of herself and could continue to do so, but why? Especially with these assholes. She needed backup. Of the big, brawny variety.

  “I only got the letter from the lawyer last week and I’d already paid him back by then. I’d thought, until this afternoon, that I was done with the loan and with the guy. I didn’t tell him about my inheritance because I didn’t want him to know about all this. If he was trying to…make me strip for two thousand, I didn’t know what he’d do for an entire ranch.”

  She lifted her arms indicating the house, the handcuffs rattling. Archer reached out, took hold of her wrist, got the key and released her from the restraints. He rubbed her wrists once they were off, ensuring the metal hadn’t marred her skin.

  “You’re right. It’s none of his fucking business,” Archer said, lifting her wrist to his lips, kissing the inside. “Smart thinking, keeping the money a secret. For escaping and coming here.”

  “That’s right. You’re such a good girl,” I murmured, impressed I sounded calm when I was barely hanging on. “You’re not alone in this. Not anymore.”

  Whoever the fucker was, he was going down. It was probably good that one of Cricket’s men—one of us—was in law enforcement, otherwise there’d be a body buried on Steele property instead of soon being behind bars.

  “That’s right. We’ll take care of this,” Archer added. While I knew he meant finding out the details about the guy and getting the local cops to arrest him, the look on his face and the dark tone of his words had me thinking he might be carrying the shovel for me instead. “You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

  Lee laughed. “Didn’t you hear, baby? Sutton killed the last fucker who went after a Steele heiress. And that was Kady, who belongs to Cord and Riley. Imagine what he’ll do for you.”

  Cricket stared at me wide eyed. I’d killed the hitman who’d come after Kady. He’d been hired by her drug-addicted sister’s scheming husband, who’d known all about the inheritance and he’d been a greedy fuck wanting it all for himself and using Kady’s weak-minded sister to attempt to get it. This guy? This fucker who was going to force my woman to strip? If he showed up on the ranch, I wouldn’t just put a bullet in his heart.

  I leaned in, put my lips to hers. Gentle, chaste. Brief. “I’ll do anything for you.”

  6

  LEE

  * * *

  Holy fuck.

  She was here. Cricket was here between us, kissing Sutton. And that wasn’t all of it. She was one of Aiden Steele’s long-lost daughters. I should go out and buy a fucking lottery ticket. What were the chances? While I’d never told Sutton or Archer, I’d never expected to see Cricket again. Not after the wild night we’d shared, the weekend she’d had with Sutton. She’d slipped out, clearly not wanting anything long-term.

  I hadn’t been happy about it. Hell, it had been the best and wildest night of my life. Sharing a woman with my two best friends hadn’t been something I’d considered before then, but now, it was all I imagined. Not just any woman, but Cricket. And so I’d cock blocked myself ever since.

  Riding the rodeo circuit meant women threw themselves, and their panties, at me. They’d all been gorgeous and eager, but none would do. Only Cricket, and I hadn’t even known what she looked like.

  Now, after having her in my lap, feeling her, seeing her, it only made me realize I’d been right all along. She was the woman I wanted. And watching Sutton kiss her as he tangled his fingers in his hair should have gotten me jealous as fuck. But, no. It got me hot. I reached down, shifted my dick in my jeans. I knew Sutton was priming her for me and Archer with the kisses. She wanted them, wanted all of us. She wasn’t pushing him away. It would be our turn soon enough and we’d go as far as she wanted.

  Watching her like this, while she’d definitely had a rough night, she looked beautiful. Her hair was black, her eyes almost as dark. She was average height, but that was the only average thing about her. Full, pert breasts, narrow waist, lush hips and ass. All of that I remembered. Every single inch of her. But hearing her talk, the things she didn’t actually say but could be inferred pretty fucking easily, proved she had balls. Big honkin’ bull balls to go through life on her own. Two jobs. College one class at a time. She had determination I recognized. I’d had no interest in any schooling past high school, but I’d been determined to make a career in bull riding and I’d done it. Through sweat and broken bones, grit and fucking determination, I’d gotten to where I was today.

  I was never going to be a millionaire, but I had enough. But that was just money.

  I’d tired of buckle bunnies a long time ago, even before the night with Cricket. I wanted a connection, a bond so deep with a woman it couldn’t be severed. Watching Cord and Riley with Kady and Jamison and Boone with Penny made me want the same. I’d dreamed about it with Cricket and now we were hopefully going to get it.

  We weren’t letting her go. I knew Archer would use the handcuffs again if we had to. Sutton was all about consent when it came to all the stuff he did with her, and while I didn’t usually go to such extremes, I didn’t fuck without it, that was for damned sure. But we’d keep her here—on a ranch she fucking owned—until she gave it to us.

  That spanking; she’d agreed to that, sub-consciously at least knowing she needed it, needed Sutton to give her a way to tell him her secrets. She’d wanted him to push her into talking. And it had worked.

  The cuffs Archer had put on; hell, the fact he’d restrained her with her hands in front, was a good indication she’d wanted it. Yeah, she’d wanted her men to take care of her. She all but silently screamed it.

  And it started now. Cricket whimpered and shifted on Sutton’s lap as they continued to kiss. She switched quickly from tame to a tiger. It was time to join in. Moving so my knee was on the couch beside them, I curled my fingers around the bottom of her t-shirt and slowly worked it up, my knuckles brushing across her smooth skin.

  Archer helped from the other side and Sutton pulled back from the kiss long enough so we could work the shirt up over her head and lifted arms.

  I groaned at the sight of her lacy black bra. It wasn’t fancy, but it was delicate and feminine and well, Cricket was wearing it. She’d look hot wrapped in a saddle cloth. Hell, the idea of her in just a saddle cloth had me envisioning a wild romp in the stable. Maybe bending her over a low railing or kneeling on a bale of hay. Fuck.

  Archer’s deft fingers undid the back clasp on her bra and it slid down her arms.

  Sutton pulled back from kissing her once again and just stared at her perfect body. He was breathing hard, but so was she. And damned if her pert breasts didn’t rise and fall as she panted, the pretty pink tips hard. Her cheeks were flushed—and not from crying—her eyes hazy and her lips red and swollen.

  “More?” he asked.

  She didn’t delay, just nodded.

  “We need to hear it, baby.”

  “More,” she said, her voice deeper, breathy.

  Sutton stroked his knuckles down her cheek, along the side of her neck and around the curve of one breast. Goosebumps rose on her pale skin.

  “You remember, baby, that you’ve got three men who want you,” Sutton said, his gaze sliding up from where his rough, work-worn fingers were a stark contrast to her creamy, plump breast, to her eyes. “You don’t want Archer or Lee to be left out, do you?”

  She looked to Archer, then to me, her eyes a gorgeous hazy blur. Her straight teeth dented her lower lip as she considered. Topless and in Sutton’s lap, I doubted she was thinking of turning us down; she’d have done so before now.

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