“I was too busy checking out your backside. It’s hard to give a flip about water when a man’s fine ass is bent over the tub.”
He stroked her hip and then pushed her aside. “Let me get it.”
A few minutes later they were standing in the shower. He washed her like he thought she didn’t have the first inclination to do it herself.
His hands were rough and smooth at the same time. The calluses on them reminded her of the hard working man she had lathering her up while his gentle touch emphasized how much he cared for her. He handled her like fine china. Heaven help her, he cared too much, maybe. She had the potential to break a man like Kane Cartwell.
For a second, she thought back to the dreams she’d had. Their mother visited her in her dreams and asked her to choose, begged her to make a choice, and then left her to her own devices to do it.
For some time now, she’d known. She’d never walk away from Kane. If he was a package deal with his brothers then all the better but Kane wasn’t someone she’d leave behind. She closed her eyes and let him run the washcloth back and forth over her mound.
“Spread your legs,” he said.
“I can wash myself,” she said suddenly embarrassed when she realized he wanted to wash her pussy.
“You’re not going to. I need to do this.”
A wicked twinge of curiosity bit at her gut. She turned around to face him. If he was going to bathe her twat, she wanted to watch.
His lips quirked into a smile, and he moved the bar of soap back and forth over the cloth. He bent his head down and parted her lips with a soul stealing kiss, while his hand began to massage her pussy with the cloth, working back and forth around her swollen folds. When he finished kissing her, the washcloth dropped, and she looked down at the hard-on pressuring her for attention.
“Are you always so hard after sex?”
“No.”
“Are you horny or…”
“Honey, if I’m hard, I’m horny.”
She dropped to her knees and gripped his thighs. “Then I want to do something to take care of your problem.”
Chapter 14
Vicky tumbled out of a car loaded down with teenage girls and ran for the barn. “Peyton! Braden! Anyone here?” She sprinted through the breezeway and right into Evan’s arms.
“Yikes! I didn’t see you there.” She giggled. “What’s up, handsome?” His face tensed a lot when she was around, sometimes Vicky thought with a little persuasion she could get Evan into bed but lately, she’d thought better of it.
Why would she stand in as Peyton’s substitute? It was clear all of the Cartwells wanted her best friend, and once she made up her mind which one, if any of them, she wanted then Vicky planned to consider the other two as possible options.
“What’s the rush?” Evan clutched her to him rather than released her. “Who’s in the car?”
He nodded toward the Ford Mustang and then turned his gaze back to her. “There are too many of you in that car. Someone’s going to have to stick around so I can give a few rides home.”
Vicky laughed, wiggled out of his grip and then looked back at her girlfriends and waved. Not as in goodbye but as in ‘get out of the car and say hello’.
“Why invite ‘em in?” he grumbled.
“Didn’t Peyton tell you?” Vicky smiled and then touched his arm, “We’re having a sleepover tonight. Braden okay’d it.”
“I didn’t get that memo.” His jaw tensed.
“What’s wrong, Evan? You’re not afraid of a few southern ladies, are you?”
He stamped his foot, like a child ready to throw a temper tantrum. He turned, headed for the back field and called over his shoulder. “I’m not afraid of a woman, Vicky. It’s the teenage girls who want a southern gentleman to lift their skirts that scare the hell out of me.”
By the time she saw him disappear over the hillside, her friends stood behind her laughing their heads off.
“I guess he just couldn’t take it. He had to run off and find big brother to deal with us,” she told them.
“Where’s Peyton?” a few girls chimed in together.
“I don’t know. Her car isn’t here so she’ll probably be back soon wherever she is.” Vicky didn’t mind playing hostess for a bit. The boys let her rule the roost as much as Peyton.
Evan reappeared at the far end of the barn with Braden on his heels.
“Evan, you’re so predictable,” Vicky said. “Hey, Braden.”
“Vicky.” He turned to the other girls, “Ladies.”
They giggled.
Vicky pointed at the two cowboys. “Girls, this is Braden, he’s the oldest. This is Evan, he’s the youngest. Kane…where is Kane by the way?”
Evan took a deep breath and stormed out of the barn again and Braden grabbed Vicky’s arm, “Girls, I have to talk to Vicky. Go on up to the house and get settled in. We’ll be there shortly.”
“Oh boy,” she teased. “This might be a whole lot of fun.”
“I promise, you’re not going to enjoy it,” he growled. “Annabelle, pull your car right up to the house and let the girls unload their things. Just leave it there for the night. We’ll be right there. Make yourself at home.”
Once the girls scattered, some of them hurrying up the hill to the main house and a few others jumping back in the car, Braden returned his focus to Vicky. “Where are they?”
“Huh? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Peyton and Kane. Where are they?”
Vicky felt the corners of her mouth turn up in a nervous smile. “I don’t know. I didn’t know she wasn’t here.”
“Yes, you did. She would’ve called you and told you to carry on with the party as planned until she got here. Now, where are they?” His grip tightened.
“Stop, Braden. You’re hurting me.”
He released his grip and eased her arm to her side. “I’m sorry…I just…”
Vicky narrowed her eyes on him. “You really don’t know where she is?”
“Hell, no.”
“Well, I really hate you don’t believe me but Braden, I don’t know either but I imagine if she’s with Kane, she’s okay. In fact, I’d say she’s more than okay.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he snarled.
Vicky smiled sweetly, tried to resist laughing out loud and just went for it. “To put it bluntly? I’d say she’s fucked.”
“Yeah, well, that seems to be the general consensus around here.”
He must’ve been crazy, stark mad to allow Peyton to come into their home and live with them like family. He’d known when he signed on for something like this, it was going to lead to trouble but he did it anyway. He’d promised Peyton’s mother. He’d guaranteed her safe keeping and swore to protect her even after she graduated from high school.
Peyton’s mom had been a dear friend, and he didn’t need his brothers to remind him how many times she saved him from himself. As a teenager, he was a rebel dying to live wild and manage trouble.
Peyton’s mom, a concerned bystander, seemed determined to keep him safe. At one time, Braden even made a play for her. He thought the whole older woman, younger man thing might appeal to her since she’d been so kind to him. She quickly set him straight and once told him with mischief dancing in her eyes that she wanted to save him for her daughter.
Humph! Saving Peyton for him? Some luck he had. His brothers were far too aggressive for him to compete with them regardless of what he said. He kicked a wave of shavings through the barn as he tried to think of where all of this started to go wrong.
Kane.
It was Kane’s fault. He couldn’t keep his hands to himself. Now, it wasn’t just his hands Braden worried about. Other body parts presented the problem. His mouth on Peyton’s lips, his body hovering over hers, and his cock stroking at the one woman Braden wanted to take to his bed. It drove him to pure madness.
“We’re in trouble here, Braden.”
Braden turned around and glared at Evan.
“You know it. I know it. Kane’s known it for awhile.”
“What kind of trouble do you think we’re going to find in her?” Braden asked curiously.