Wrangled Read online

  She stood, waved her had in the air as if it were nothing.

  “The way they look at you?” She fanned herself with her hand. “It’s obvious they really want you. And I don’t mean for sexy times.”

  I’d never really talked to anyone about sex, or my lack of having it. It had gotten to a point where I’d gotten too old to have the conversation. Every friend in college had had sex before and me asking them questions was too little, too late. And it wasn’t as if my mother had talked to me about sex. She’d only told me never to disgrace the family. That I had to be discreet in everything I did.

  I’d made out with two men in a gas station, then slept with them—and by slept I didn’t mean sleep—and then wasn’t discreet about it in the slightest when answering Boone’s door in just his shirt.

  “I…um, I’ve never done it before. Last night was my first time.”

  Kady’s mouth fell open but then she cocked her head to the side, smiled at me in a wistful way. “How sweet that it was with them. I bet those two went all alpha male on you with that one.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh yeah.”

  “Did they make it good for you?” she asked, then waved her hand through the air again. “Never mind. Of course, they did. If they’re anything like my men, then they had you come at least once before they even got inside you, right?”

  It was now my turn to blush. I had no intention of telling her we hadn’t used any protection, that they might have gotten me pregnant. That I might be excited about the possibility. I wasn’t ready to explain all of that to her. Not now.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “Emotionally, I mean.”

  “Yes.”

  “It wasn’t a one-night stand,” she said, as if she knew this for fact. I might have slept with Boone and Jamison, but she’d known them longer. “I’m sure you’re worried about that, even if they’ve said otherwise. I heard about your Masters. Congratulations. That means you’re one smart cookie and you’ll probably analyze all this to pieces. I know I did, and I didn’t have the whole virginity thing to deal with. Whatever they say, believe them. They want you, seriously want you, or you wouldn’t be here.”

  “They said they wanted forever.”

  She bit her lip and tears came to her eyes. “God, that’s so sweet. We’re trying to have a baby,” she admitted.

  Baby? My cell rang from my purse. I went to the chair and pulled it out, saw it was my mother. I swiped the screen to dismiss the call, put the phone away. “Sorry, my mother.”

  “You don’t get along with her?”

  “No. That conversation is best served with a bottle of wine. Maybe two.” I wasn’t going to say more about my mother. Not now. I was too overwhelmed with everything else. Boone and Jamison. Them wanting forever. Meeting Kady. “So, a baby?” I asked instead, turning the conversation back to her.

  She stood, went over to the window, nodded. Cord was riding Boone’s ATV across the big back yard. “Boys and their toys.”

  She looked at Cord the same way he’d looked at her earlier. Wistfully.

  “You love them.”

  She nodded. “Oh yes. Would you believe me if I said it was love at first sight, with both of them?”

  With my eyes, I followed Cord and the ATV back and forth across the yard. If we’d had this conversation before I’d met Jamison and Boone, I’d have probably said yes just to make her feel good. But now? Now I believed it one hundred percent. What else could this be? The attraction, the need, the desire to just be with them, it had to be love. I’d told them my deepest secrets and dreams, given them my virginity and even made myself susceptible to so much more than heartbreak. But I knew. I knew they wouldn’t hurt me. Stupid, my mother would say. Perhaps I was being stupid. But I was stupid in love and I wasn’t going to waste it. Wasn’t going to run away from it just because it might go bad, that it might be inappropriate that I wanted two men.

  I might be a Vandervelk on paper, but my DNA screamed Steele.

  “Absolutely,” I told her.

  “That’s why we’re trying for a baby. I want one. I always have. Them, too, it seems. Well, at least they want one with me.” Her hand slid over her flat belly. “I’m excited.”

  “Based on what Cord said in the doorway, the three of you are trying pretty hard.”

  She grinned wickedly. “I was on the pill, but I stopped a few weeks ago. It might take a while, but they’re willing to put their best efforts into it.”

  I thought of Boone and Jamison, of how they’d taken me without protection. They’d been like two cavemen, seeing their cum slip from me. The idea of them making a baby with me had only made them hard again, which made them fuck me again and fill me with more cum. I wasn’t sure how I wasn’t pregnant. If Kady’s men were as virile, as attentive, she was probably pregnant now. Maybe that was why she was so weepy.

  “You have the main house now to yourself, although if your men are anything like mine, you won’t be staying there all too much.”

  We hadn’t spoken of next steps, nothing more than forever. Boone had a shift at the ER tomorrow and while the ranch would probably survive without Jamison, he couldn’t shirk his duties because of me for very long. While I wanted a family, a house to take care of, I didn’t think the men meant Boone’s house, nor beginning immediately.

  “I assume we’ll be dating, having more quiet times on the couch watching movies. Months of getting to know each other. I’ll be back at the main house by dinner. Alone.”

  She laughed, then stopped when I wasn’t laughing with her. Instead, I frowned.

  “I’m sorry, but you’re serious, aren’t you?”

  I realized I hadn’t finished buttoning my shirt and did them up as I replied. “Yes, I’m serious. I have stuff to resolve.” I pointed at my purse. “My mother is going to hound me about something. Most likely the outline for my dissertation or the job offers she’s somehow heard about. I swear she has my email bugged.”

  “Isn’t she a congresswoman?”

  “Yup,” I said, tucking my shirt into my jean skirt. “And she’s not thrilled I’m here. Aiden Steele is her dirty laundry. The sooner I’m out of Montana, the better.”

  “What?” She gripped my forearm. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

  “I have no intention of going anywhere. I like it here. I like Jamison and Boone. I really like what we did last night.”

  She waggled her red eyebrows and grinned.

  I smiled. “I just have to figure out my stuff. It’s not like I’ve known about the inheritance for very long.”

  She offered me a small smile in return. “Well, I’m glad you’re here. I have a half-sister, Beth, who I grew up with. She’s…she’s a drug addict and in a locked-down rehab.” She sighed. “We’ll need something even stronger than wine for that topic. What I’m telling you is I miss having a sister.”

  Now I felt wistful because she was actually interested in me. “I have a half-sister I grew up with, too. Evelyn. She’s six years older. I was shipped off to boarding school when I was eleven—”

  “Like Harry Potter? I’m a teacher, remember, so I know everything about the series.”

  I thought of Chapman Academy, about my years there. My mother got her money’s worth out of the place, but I’d gotten more out of it than just the fancy education. I’d learned just how little I’d been wanted. I’d been like the fancy silver, pulled out for special occasions, then put away once the need for me was over. “No flying brooms, unfortunately. Evelyn and I were never close. She’s a lawyer now in North Carolina. So yes, I’m glad I’m here, too. With you.”

  She slung her arm over my shoulders and we looked out the window. Boone, Jamison and Riley were standing together talking, all manly and a feast for the eyes. The loud motor of the ATV came first, then Cord flew by the window on the all-terrain vehicle.

  “They have too much testosterone for their own good,” she sighed.

  “That’s not what you said last night,” I teased.

/>   She giggled. “I bet you didn’t either.”

  10

  JAMISON

  I stopped the truck in front of the main house, but didn’t turn off the engine. The windows were open because the early evening was a perfect temperature. I hated wasting the good weather on my truck’s AC. Before too long, it would be snowing again. The weather in Montana was fickle enough.

  “Will you stay with me at my cabin?”

  “You’re asking?” Kitten asked, glancing up at me through those long, pale lashes.

  Boone had been none too happy when we left, but he started his shift in the ER at seven, so he needed a solid night sleep, not a temptation like our Kitten in his bed. There was no way he’d get any sleep if she were. Just like the night before. We’d barely slept.

  Because of it, I was exhausted, yet my cock was hard again. No, still. Just thinking about what we’d done, how she’d felt, tasted, screamed, clenched, begged…fucked.

  I would never forget the look on her face when I filled her for the very first time.

  “I am. We claimed you last night, Kitten. You’re ours now. Mine and Boone’s, but that doesn’t mean we’ll boss you around. If want to stay in the main house, then I’ll respect that.”

  “But you won’t like it.”

  I shook my head. “No, I won’t. After what happened to Kady there, I don’t like the idea of you being up there alone, even if the fuck—, the man’s dead.”

  “Someone tried to kill her.”

  “That’s right.”

  “But I stayed there the past few nights.”

  “But you weren’t ours then.”

  Sutton had killed the fucker, a single, perfect shot to his heart. But that had only been after the intruder stumbled around in the dark trying to find Kady. We’d gotten there in time to save her, although she’d done a pretty good job of it herself, hiding out on the porch roof. Since then, I’d wondered if the asshole would have ever found her. It had been a moonless, dark night and she’d been tucked in a corner by one of the chimneys.

  The thought of Kitten like that, huddling on the roof, petrified, made my dick shrink. I’d respect her decision, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t stay there with her, rifle in my lap as I watched her sleep. I’d been a cop, was familiar with the underbelly of society. I’d seen shit I would never forget. And I wanted none of that to touch Kitten.

  Her cell rang in her bag. She pulled it out, sighed. “It’s my mother. This is the third time she’s called today.”

  She didn’t look happy about a call from her mom. I spoke to my parents twice a week because, well, I liked them. I loved them, too, of course, but I enjoyed talking to them, hearing about their lives. It was obvious this wasn’t the relationship Kitten had with her mother. I hated that for her because she was missing out.

  I lifted my chin. “Answer it.”

  “But—”

  “She’s not going to stop. And when I get you in bed later, neither will I.”

  Her mouth fell open and her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink. I couldn’t help but wink at her, enjoying this lingering innocence about her.

  She took the call, put her cell to her ear.

  “Hello, Mother.”

  I wanted to listen in on this call, not to eavesdrop, per se, but to witness the dynamic between mother and daughter. To see how Kitten was affected. From what she told us the night before, she didn’t like Congresswoman Vandervelk very much. I only knew of the woman from her political career and I’d looked her up online, studied her platform, her stand on important issues. While I might not have voted for her, she had an impressive track record. In Congress. With her daughter? Not so much.

  I could hear the woman’s voice, but couldn’t make out the words.

  “Yes, I’m still in Montana. Yes, the outline is progressing.”

  She’d mentioned her dissertation outline that was due to her advisor. But based on the way her body was tense, she wasn’t telling the truth because she had no intention of continuing on in the program. She didn’t like lying to her mother, but had yet to tell the woman off. From what she’d said, the stakes were high.

  If her family did cut her off, she wouldn’t be alone. We’d meant every word of what we’d said the night before. We wanted forever with Kitten. Hell, we wouldn’t have fucked her otherwise. Taken her without protection. And when we’d found out she was a virgin…fuck. Her pussy was broken in just for our dicks. Molded to fit us. No one else would know the hot, wet grip of it. See his cum slip from her, knowing he’d filled her to the brim. Most likely filled her with a baby. Fuck no. Only me and Boone.

  “Borstar? Yes, I received emails from them. A phone call, too. Yes.” There was a pause as she listened. “Yes, the job description is impressive. Salary, too. Yes. Why? Because I don’t want to work for an oil and gas company.”

  I could hear her mother talking then, her voice louder. Kitten pulled the phone away from her ear, turned and looked at me and mouthed, “Sorry.”

  There was nothing more that I could do than wink. This was her battle to fight. While I wanted to rip the phone out of her hand and tell her mother off, that wasn’t going to end this shit.

  I’d be here for her, Boone too, in any way she needed, but she had to come to the decision on her own to cut the ties. To walk away. To live her life the way she wanted. Last night, with us, was the first step. We’d take the next one, and the one after that, together.

  “Mother, I have to go. No, I won’t call the company back. I’m not interested. Good bye, Mother.”

  Her mother’s muted voice continued to rant until Kitten ended the call.

  She propped her head back, closed her eyes. “Sorry about that.”

  “You can’t change your mother.”

  She turned her head, looked at me. Smiled. “I can change my father though.”

  “Very true. And see what that’s done. You’re here in Montana, claimed by two men and you’ve just told your mother you turned down the job offers. I’d say that’s a good start.”

  “And your mom? Is she a power-grubbing congresswoman?”

  I ran my hand over the back of my neck. “My mom lives with my dad in a beach house in Alabama. They were snowbirds, retiring and leaving the cold of Montana in the winter, but then decided to stay year round. When I was growing up, her job was taking care of me and my three brothers. Now, her job is to stay sane while living with my father.” I smiled, thinking of my parents’ loving relationship. “My father likes to tag along to the grocery store, look at everything, talk to people. My mother likes to get what’s on her list. Get in, get out. He drives her crazy. I’m waiting for the call when I’ll have to bail her out of jail.”

  Kitten smiled at my story. “That’s sounds nice. Normal. Although any woman who had four boys should get a medal from Congress. Hmm, maybe I can get my mom to give her one.”

  I remained quiet for a moment, let her think about that. I couldn’t imagine two mothers being polar opposites more than ours.

  “You were offered a job?” I let that question bounce around the cabin of the truck, even though I knew the answer.

  “I told you yesterday they’d been in touch. Emails from several places, but one company is more persistent than the others. I guess they really want me working there.”

  “That must feel good, knowing all your hard work has paid off.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t want the job, turned it down. I’m glad I finished my degree, but I’m just not interested anymore. It’s not what I want.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, ending the conversation, at least for now. Nothing about it would change overnight. “So will you stay with me?”

  She glanced at the house. “Yes, but I need to pack a bag. I need something besides this outfit.”

  I looked her over, but didn’t see the jean skirt and shirt she’d put back on. I saw her pale skin, the curve of her wide hips, the soft swells of her full breasts as she sprawled across Boone’s sheets. Every bare inch of her.


  “Pack it all, Kitten. You’ll be in my bed or Boone’s until we decide where all of us should live together.”

  Her wide eyes met mine. “You…I mean, I thought…you want to live with me?”

  “Don’t go saying we just met.”

  She pinched her lips together.

  “I thought we’ve been over that.”

  She reached out, took my hand, curled her fingers around mine. “We have. It’s just…I’m not used to someone, or two someones, wanting me. I’m not used to it.”

  I tugged her hand, pulled her close for a kiss. “Get used to it. Fast. Like we said, we wouldn’t have taken that sweet cherry of yours if we didn’t mean forever.”

  She blushed as bright as a cherry, stared at a button on my shirt. “You’ve had women before.”

  This was a dangerous conversation and I had to tread carefully. I understood the difference between Kitten and the woman I’d been with in the past. I’d fucked for twenty years. But it had never been with Kitten. It had meant nothing. A quick release. But I had to make sure she understood that.

  “Yes, I have,” I admitted. “But I never once fucked without a condom. She may have had access to my dick, but never once did I give a woman my heart. Until you.”

  Her full lips parted. “Jamison,” she whispered. “What we did wasn’t making love. It was—”

  “Wild?”

  “Yes.”

  “Dirty?”

  “Yes.”

  “Really fucking naughty.”

  She went cold then. Her expression went blank and she stiffened.

  “What? What is it?” I asked, recognizing things had just changed, that something was wrong. I glanced out the windows to see if she saw something.

  “I…I don’t like that word. Naughty. I haven’t been bad.”

  Shit. Shit. It was a trigger for her. Naughty. Of course, it would be. She’d been trying to be loved by her family so desperately that she probably hadn’t done anything wrong in her life just so they’d give her a scrap of praise. And yet she’d most likely been shamed instead. Sent to boarding school because she just hadn’t been good enough. She wasn’t like her step-brothers and step-sister and because of that she believed she’d done something wrong.