Keeping Taryn’s Cowboys

STORY EXCERPT

“And when did you two start accepting sex as payment for handyman work?”

Royce gave his youngest brother a noncommittal look. Jacob Shelton stood in the doorway of the office, one shoulder resting against the frame, cowboy hat sitting low on his head, and a smirk tilting his lips.

On the sofa, Clint sighed and sat up straighter. “When Taryn Aldean finally figured out how to dial that phone number.” He jerked his chin at the cell phone Royce put on the desk.

“I never said we would take sex as payment for services rendered.” Not that he would balk at the idea. He’d do just about anything to bury his cock in Taryn’s sodden heat. He rubbed the back of his neck and stared down at the phone. Desperation got him by the balls and suspicion made him curious. “Makes me wonder why she made the call, though.”

“The little spread of hers is probably getting to be too much for her.” Clint walked to the mini-fridge and took out a bottle of water. “You caught a glimpse of it the same as I did the last time we were out at the CTS. She took on a few more horses, likely bit off more than she can chew, and probably needs work done to the barn. She can’t pull Buck off his chores to see to stuff like fixing rotting boards or painting a few walls. Not if she wants the rest of that place to keep running smoothly.”

Royce shook his head. “If that’s all she needed, she could’ve asked any one of the guys at the CTS. They’d do it for free.”

Cord DeMoss, Trace Tanner, and Sam Yates operated the CTS Ranch to the right of Taryn’s property. Cowboys, friendly, and gay, Royce knew none of the men would hesitate to lend a hand to Taryn if she asked.

“She said she couldn’t pay much, that she doesn’t have much.” And she called him Mr. Shelton. As if they hadn’t known one another since she wore that long, silky blonde hair in friggin’ pigtails. Hell, he’d wanted to fuck her nearly that long.

“Wouldn’t surprise me none if she’s close to broke,” Jacob commented. “Word around town is she lost her job in the city. She’s been picking up shifts at the Swingin’ Sunset Saloon a couple of nights a week.”

Royce gritted his teeth. He heard about her taking her sister’s place as the bartender at the Triple S a few times in recent weeks, and he didn’t like it a bit. Forget that most of the cowboys that frequented the Triple S went for partners of the same sex. He didn’t care for his Taryn working behind a bar.

His Taryn? Where in the hell did that thought come from? He wanted to fuck her, to make her writhe and beg and scream. He wanted to get drunk off her hot pussy juices and then shoot his wad deep inside her clenching channel. He didn’t want to keep her, to make her his, for Pete’s sake. Show her pleasure, get his rocks off, and walk away smiling. That’s what he and Clint did. A few hours or even a night with Taryn Aldean wouldn’t change a thing.

“Maybe she’s looking to sell the place,” Clint suggested, taking a long pull from the water bottle. “Fix it up real nice, get a good price for it, quit while she still can.”

“Taryn isn’t a quitter.” If anything she was a fighter, a true survivor.

“She sure as shit quit on you, bro.”

Jacob’s reminder hit Royce where it hurt.

“Not because she wanted to.” Clint tipped the lip of the bottle in Royce’s direction. “His stupid ass pushed her away from both of us.”

Royce met his brother’s gaze, saw the anger still simmering in the cool depths of Clint’s eyes. Nearly eight years and the man couldn’t let go of his mad any more than he did his need for the woman Royce turned away.

“She wasn’t ready, and you know it.” She’d barely been old enough to have sex, much less fuck in the ways Royce and Clint enjoyed. “We would have scared her to death, broken her spirit.” And lost the part of her Royce loved most. The blonde spitfire could defy a man hell-bent on taming her and bring him to his knees. He should know. He’d been on his knees praying for the strength to stay away from her for the last eight years.

“We won’t now.” Clint sounded confident, determined, and ready. “That call was more than a service request. I’m thinking she’s finally calling an end to this cat-and-mouse game.”

Yeah, Royce figured as much, too. Taryn called looking for a man to do more than give her a price quote on carpenter repairs. The question of how much more kept bucking around in his mind.

Jacob grinned, tongue in cheek. “If you ask me, the way you two have been starving for her all these years, she’s likely to be the one to do the scaring and breaking.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“I like this look on you.” Sheer male appreciation sounded in Clint’s husky tone. “Shows how sexy you really are beneath the ranch clothes. Makes me wonder how much sexier you are inside these jeans, too. Are you hiding a treat for us there, too?”

Royce chose that moment to finally break the kiss, pulling back slowly to stare down at her through heavy-lidded eyes. Handsome didn’t begin to describe the man with his brown curls teasing his brows, the perpetual five o’clock shadow he maintained to hide the scar running along the curve of his jaw. The intensity and desire in his expression only enhanced his chiseled features, rendering her no hope of recapturing her breath after the mind-consuming kiss.

“Why don’t you find out?” She didn’t know where she found the wherewithal to issue the challenge but figured she couldn’t ask for a better response than the spark of pure male pride in Royce’s eyes. That is until his hand cupping her breast started to glide down her abdomen.

“I believe I’ll do just that.” His splayed hand covered her slender frame, the heat of his touch burning through the silk of her camisole to send her body reeling in its need for skin-to-skin attention. He released her head, tracing her lobe with the tip of one finger before skimming it down the side of her neck, following the path Clint’s kisses left tingling.

Finally free to move her head, she turned to find Clint’s gaze boring down on her, a cocky smile toying with the corners of his glistening lips. He watched her, unspeaking as he slowly lowered his thigh from between her legs. The absence of pressure to her aching pussy had her hips bucking to chase after it, to draw it back. The cocky smile bloomed to a devilish grin, a gruff laugh accompanying it as his hand closed around her hip, stilling her thrusts.

“Patience, darlin’,” he drawled.

She felt the knot of her shirt work free, shivered as a hand delved beneath the camisole, knuckles tickling up her front. The hand on the downward slide to the waistband of her jeans continued, large fingers yanking the button loose, tugging down the zipper.

“As you can see, Royce is about to give you something so much better to grind against.”

Taryn couldn’t see it, but she could damn sure feel it. The rough tips of Royce’s fingers danced along the elastic band of her panties. The length of those fingers pushed beneath the material and buried in her intimate curls.

Hands worked at her sides, Royce’s free hand and Clint’s, she realized with the part of her mind scrambling to keep track. Together, the men tugged her jeans down her hips, affording Royce with the ease he needed to push the final fraction home between her legs.

One impossibly long, deliciously coarse finger slipped between her sodden folds. Taryn couldn’t say for sure who moaned the loudest, herself or Royce as his hand stilled and her head fell back to rest on his shoulder.

“Christ, she’s wet.” Royce’s words came on a growl that rumbled from low in his throat and sent a sliver of excited apprehension racing down Taryn’s spine. She never heard him sound so animalistic, so primal. “It’s like sinking my finger into a jar of molasses, thick and warm. She’s drenching my fingers already, and I haven’t even gotten inside her yet.”

Taryn opened eyes she hadn’t realized she’d closed, peered at Clint through the narrow slits. She didn’t lift her head from Royce’s shoulder. She couldn’t find the strength. Her hands found purchase on their bodies, one fisting Clint’s shirt on his broad shoulder, the other turning to grip the back of Royce’s thigh. She wanted to fist more, to grip more. She wanted to touch them, taste them as they did her.

Clint’s skimming hand pushed her camisole up, baring her breasts. His head dipped, gaze remaining locked with hers beneath his lashes as he licked one taut nipple into his mouth and sent her body bucking once more. He didn’t tease, didn’t caress. He bit, sucked, plucked with his lips, and created a zing of pleasurable pain that bolted straight from her nipple to her pulsing clit.

“Ah, God, Clint!” Taryn’s head lolled on Royce’s shoulder, her breast thrusting into Clint’s mouth even as her hips gyrated in search for more of Royce’s touch. “Royce.” She hissed his name through her teeth as Clint delivered a sharper bite to her tortured nipple.

“Like that, baby?” Royce’s hand angled between her legs. His finger drove into her flaming channel, wiggled, explored, but he kept the base of his palm away from her clit. “Tell us, Taryn. Do you like it rough? Do you like the way your body burns, convulses uncontrollably, clouds the line between pain and pleasure?”

“Yes.” She loved it! She wanted more, wanted everything they would do to her and then some. Pressure built in her womb. Her clit pulsed. Her inner muscles gripped at Royce’s questing finger. The electric burn Clint started at her breasts blazed out of control, igniting a desire in her so carnal and naughty she couldn’t define it, let alone prevent it from eliciting the plea from her lips. “Please.”

“That’s it, darlin’,” Clint said around her nipple. “Beg for us. Beg Royce to fuck that pussy, for me to pleasure these breasts. You taste so delicious, Taryn, like a peach that’s been waiting for me out in the sun.”

She probably would have. Jesus knew she teetered on the verge of crying for them to do everything Clint asked of her. The orgasm built inside her, clawed through her channel like a tortured animal seeing freedom. Her breasts tingled, nipples throbbing in a fantastical pain she never before experienced. Then Royce’s hand flattened on her pussy, another finger joining the first as the heel of his palm pressed to her clit.

“Yes,” she said again, the breath leaving her as tears of sheer emotional overload filled her vision. She caught sight of Clint as he gazed up at her, mouth locked around one breast. Something about the look in his eyes and the position of Royce’s neck against her head told her the brothers exchanged a wordless communication in that instant she couldn’t define.

Running from Angel

STORY EXCERPT

A smarter man would hit the ground running. He should head back to his truck and drive away without a second thought. He knew too much about her past, about himself, and about Mitch. Safety for each of them lay in the miles they had put between themselves and this woman. He should be leaving dust tracks in his efforts to put that distance back again. The town limits of Sunset were less than ten miles up the road. One phone call and he could have a tow truck out here with an able-bodied mechanic in twenty minutes flat to help Angel get on her way. Instead, he asked the question that would surely lead to disaster.

“Why?” His voice sounded gruff, animalistic even to his own ears. He pulled back to meet her gaze and found her staring at him through desire-filled dark eyes.

Her pretty pink tongue peeked between her lips, leaving a moist trail that glistened in the last dregs of sunlight, and his cock throbbed in raging demand. “Why what?”

When did the bashful, innocent Angel he remembered from those fateful moments turn into a siren seductress?

“Don’t toy with me, Angel.” He meant it to be a warning, but damned if he didn’t detect a certain amount of pleading in his tone. He needed backup. He needed Mitch. His buddy tended to be the harder one. He went for the women they shared with a no-holds-barred, no-room-for-argument attitude. He could manipulate a woman to the precise point they wanted her, uncover longings and needs she didn’t know she possessed, and move in to deliver the pleasure. No doubt about it, if Mitch was in Jacob’s boots right now, he would have Angel bent over the hood of her car with her sexy ass bare and ready for a good spanking after this little show of challenge.

Except after all she had endured, all she had escaped, they could never take her that way. They could never expose her to the thin rope they walked between sheer ecstasy and naughty pain.

“Why did I come looking for you?” She repeated his question with a flippancy that set off every alarm bell in his being. “Why are you asking something you already know?”

She relaxed in the cage he had created around her with his arms on either side of her hips. Before he could think to react, before he recognized the disaster about to unfold, he felt the last tenuous bit of space between them dissipate.

Angel’s body molded to his. Her soft curves settled against his harder planes. Her nipples beaded to sharp arrows that pressed at his chest and sent shards of unadulterated lust raining to his cock. In that moment, destiny took his balls in a tight fist with the surefire threat that it wasn’t the only part of him it intended to hold. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he didn’t stand a prayer in heaven of not touching her now. He pushed a knee between her slightly parted legs and rocked his hips forward, bringing his tormented cock flush with her flattened belly. Surprise flashed in her eyes, followed by a bolt of triumph that snapped the last thread of his control.

“I’m not coming to your rescue this time, sweetheart.” It damned near killed him before. Not just learning about the life she was struggling to escape, but being one of two men who had inadvertently put her on the right path to freedom then turned and walked away. The gratitude that had masked the pain in her eyes had been tough enough to take. The promise of repayment that bordered on a convoluted sense of hero worship had been impossible to claim.

“Funny, it seems you already did.” Temper simmered in her tone, but the sultry seductress that possessed this new Angel in his arms didn’t surrender the fight. “Unless you’re thinking you’re going to leave me stranded here now.”

If Jacob didn’t know better he might have thought she staged the whole thing. True coincidences didn’t happen often to his way of thinking, and this afternoon had been chock-full of them. Restless for reasons he couldn’t pin down, he had driven into town for supplies needed at the ranch rather than sending one of the hands or requesting delivery the way such business was usually handled. He had completed the errand sooner than he liked and stopped off at the Double Horn Saloon for a beer before heading back to the ranch. Timing put him traveling this lonely country road at a time when Angel needed him, same as it did fifteen months ago when he ended up at the Applebranch Mall for much of the same reasons, staring into the eyes of the woman who stole his heart and every bit of his sanity.

“What I’m thinking…” he drawled and lifted his thigh to her pussy. He swallowed a tormented groan when her hips started to move, grinding against the pressure. Hell, he couldn’t remember what he had been thinking! He started again, rephrasing the statement. “I’m betting you aren’t ready for the can of worms you’re opening, sweetheart.”

Challenge, unadulterated and fierce, turned her expression to one that would tease and torture him in his dreams for many nights to come. “Try me.”

Fuck. The crude word settled in his mind with every possible definition lighting it like a neon sign.

“Right here, Jake. Right now. Try me.”

Jacob stilled her gyrating hips with a firm grip of his hands and stared down at her. Few things surprised him these days, but Angel Dalton was shocking him clean to his booted toes. She dared him to take what he wanted right here and now and damn the consequences. He almost did it. Only one thing kept his control in check.

“Not here.” He dipped his head a fraction and let his lips hover above hers. “Not now. Not alone.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Angel looked up, seeing the intense concentration on his face first, then the mirrors above him. She saw herself reflected back, face flush and eyes heavy-lidded, and the back of his head as he stared down at her. The muscles in his shoulders flexed as he held her ass off the bed, pulling his cock back until only the head remained inside her cunt before pistoning inside her sopping channel once more.

“Watch yourself, darlin’.” Mitch’s voice came out of nowhere. Her gaze slid right, finding him in the mirror as he crawled onto the bed beside her and Jacob. His attention fixated on her in the mirror. “See how he’s fucking you.”

Jacob pushed his upper body up, the move driving his cock deeper inside her, exposing more of their bodies to the reflection.

“See how his cock slides in and out of that sweet pussy. Your juices are covering his cock. Did you come for him already?”

Angel shook her head, unsure if she could speak with the riot of sensations racing through her.

“That’s a good girl. I don’t want you coming until I’m inside you, too.”

Her heart skipped a beat in apprehension. She couldn’t look away from Mitch, couldn’t watch Jacob fuck her when Mitch talked about something she burned to feel yet dreaded at the same time.

Jacob leaned down again, brushing his lips to hers and capturing her attention despite herself. “You’ll be okay. A little pain and a lot of pleasure.” As he spoke, he rolled, taking her with him until she was on top, straddling his hips, his cock still buried deep in her cunt. His arms formed a tight vise around her waist, holding her lower body flush against his. She rested the weight of her upper body on her forearms on either side of his head.

“God, you have an amazing ass.” Mitch growled as the bed shifted, and she felt him moving in behind her. His hands splayed on her ass cheeks, squeezing and caressing, teasing and ratcheting her uneasiness to a wickedly exciting level. Then he slipped a finger between her cheeks, the callused pad pressing against the tight ring of her anus.

Angel froze, every muscle in her body seizing in anticipation of his next move.

“Right here, darlin’.” His finger pressed a little harder, circling the rim of her back entrance. “This is where I’m going to put my cock.”

The finger retreated, and she felt something cool and liquid in its place. She moaned, her head bowing until her forehead rested on Jacob’s as the finger returned to spread the gel Mitch obviously squirted to lube her ass.

“This is where I’m going to fuck you,” he told her as his finger returned, this time pressing more insistently until it breached the outer rim of her anus.

The combination of cool and slick slammed into a wall of sharp pain that wondrously morphed to a devilish pleasure. A strangled scream tore from her throat even as her hips rocked back on the intrusion of their own volition.

“That’s it, Angel. Fuck my finger with your ass. I knew you would like it.” Approval and satisfaction laced his heated words as he pushed deeper, twisted and wiggled his finger in her anus, pulled back, and added a second. “Two fingers, sweetheart. Your body is opening for me so nicely. I’ve got two fingers in your ass now.”

“How does it feel?” Jacob asked, his voice raking over her like satiny asphalt, soft and yet abrasive with his own obvious struggles to hold himself in check.

“Oh, God. Oh, God. Please.” She felt out of her mind, her hips moving into Mitch’s probing fingers, retreating only to drive down on Jacob’s cock still lodged in her pussy. She fought to control the sensations, to suspend the release building in her channel. She couldn’t come, wouldn’t until Mitch replaced his fingers with his cock, until both men fucked her as they promised they would.

“Damn, that’s sexy as hell,” Mitch murmured, wiggling his fingers, pushing the lubrication deeper in her ass. “I can’t wait a second longer to see my cock inside you.”

Angel screamed in protest when Mitch pulled his fingers free without warning. She gyrated her hips, grinding her pussy on Jacob’s cock as she desperately searched for that pleasurable pain Mitch delivered to her anus. The smack that landed on her butt cheek, sending a fiery dance of exquisite pain through her ass, made her freeze again. Fingers delved into the back of her hair, fisted, and yanked her head to one side.

She gasped, her eyes widening as they locked with Mitch’s.

“I won’t tolerate the way you pushed me today, again.” His flattened hand landed on her rear, this smack harder than the first. Angel moaned as the pleasure danced with the sting. “I won’t tolerate the sharp tongue you’ve been using since you showed up, either.” Another smack, another moan, and she teetered closer and closer to the orgasmic edge. “Do I make myself clear?”

Angel tried to nod, but he held her head too firmly for movement. “Yes.”

“Good.” He dipped his head, grazing his lips over her shoulder. The bite of pain as his teeth sank into her flesh collided with the sting as his hand smacked her ass so many times in succession she lost count. Her butt cheek flamed from the spanking, her shoulder throbbing from the bite, and her pussy pulsed, the orgasm so close now she knew she wouldn’t be able to control it much longer.

“My mark on your pretty flesh,” he said as he pulled back, releasing his grip on her hair. “Just as this will be my mark inside this sexy body.”

Angel stilled herself, knowing, as she felt the bulbous head of his cock rest against the heated entrance of her ass, what he intended next.

“Breathe, baby,” Jacob coached softly and used his hold on her waist to draw her body down, lifting his hips to impale her as deep as he could go as Mitch began to sheath his cock in her ass.

“Relax, darlin’,” Mitch instructed through gritted teeth. “Let your body take my cock.” He entered her slowly but insistently, breaching the tight ring of muscles and burying his cock in her ass to the hilt.

Angel’s vision swam. Pain, bliss, wonder fogged her mind, and for a moment she thought she might pass out. She closed her eyes and allowed every spark, every bolt, and every sensation of ecstasy to consume her as completely as her men claimed her.

Mitch and Jacob moved in unison, one pulling back as the other thrust inside her, and she surrendered, mind, body, and soul. They fucked her with a ruthlessness that drove her past the brink of spectacular pleasure and to the edge of paradise.