“Don’t worry about it,” Evan said. “We paid him for all the copies.”
“When?” Peyton demanded to know.
“Today, when I went into town. I paid Loy a visit. Vicky, truth is, you and Peyton both need to stay away from him. Peyton, rumor around here is… you’re next. He planned to pop your cherry and post it for the world to see.”
“Well I messed up his one ambition in life,” Kane said proudly.
Vicky stared back and forth between the brothers. “I have no idea of how to repay you for this.”
Evan pointed to his cock. “I have some.”
“Evan!” Peyton scolded him. “I’ll give you head, damn it. Leave Vicky alone.”
“No, he’s right, Peyton. One of us took a dare, and the other was supposed to watch.”
“I’m not watching or being watched,” Peyton replied.
“That’s what you think,” Kane said promising all sorts of delicious sins in the future.
“I mean…Vicky,” she explained. “Again, Vick, don’t get pissed or anything but hey, I prefer cock.”
“And you’re good with cock too,” Kane said. “Okay you three, decide who is gonna do who because all this talk has me wild and ready.” He motioned for Peyton, and she went to him immediately.
“Give me some sugar, sugar.” He nibbled at her lips while Evan and Vicky watched.
Kane didn’t care who watched them. As long as he had her within his grasp, the world could watch with obvious amounts of unlimited envy. He pulled her arms around his neck and drew her body and her lips into one heated kiss. His tongue raked across her lower lip, and he bit at them playfully before he shot his brother a deliberately evil grin.
“You two gonna watch, or play?”
Evan reached for Vicky, and Peyton felt her heart stop beating right then and there. She swallowed tightly and moved her mouth to his ear. “Why are you doing this?”
“It’s what Evan wants, not me, darlin.”
“He wants Vicky?” she asked.
“Seems so.”
“But I thought-”
“You thought everything here was all about you,” Kane teased.
She closed her eyes and dared to look over her shoulder. Sure enough, Vicky and Evan were locked in one hell of a moment defining kiss. Her heart broke into a few shattered pieces.
Before she contemplated any act of defiance, she pushed Kane away and bolted out the door. She heard all of them calling for her as she ran for the fields.
Evan sent Vicky on her way after they upset Peyton. He was polite and walked her to her car. She saved them both the trouble of explaining their actions, and he’d forever owe her for it.
He didn’t like the chit-chat women often put a man through just because they wanted something analyzed. Lots of women looked for a quick fix for their guilt. Some of them were young and dumb enough to try to find it in the man who brought it on them in the first place. Thank goodness, Vicky didn’t leave with any. In some ways, she reminded him of Peyton.
She explained things rather well when she’d told him she wouldn’t fuck him even if she was drunk. She’d said, “It might hurt Peyton, and the last thing I want to do is hurt the only friend I have who is more like a sister to me than a friend.”
“What if she said it was okay?” He’d questioned her for a little fun.
“Well, if that were the case, then I’d be all for it,” she’d told him. Then she slipped a kiss on his cheek, patted his arm and added a reminder. “But it’s never going to happen. She’s in love with all of you. Someone needs to do something about it before somebody with the last name Cartwell really hurts her.”
Evan stood on the front porch and watched until Vicky’s tail lights disappeared into the darkness. He slowly turned and walked back inside.
“She’s at the boathouse,” Kane said.
“How’d she get there, walk?”
“Hell no, she didn’t walk. Somebody would’ve picked her up but I’ll bet anything that’s where we’re going to find her.” Kane shook his head and curled his lip over his top teeth to bite back the words hanging there. The fighting ones, the kind he wanted to turn on Braden and unleash with plenty of venom. “What the hell were you thinking when you gave her the boathouse keys anyway?”
Almost as quickly as the words left his mouth, Braden tossed two sets of keys his way. “Let’s go. I have a feeling who we’re going to find her with and if it’s what I think, you boys need to bite down some of your anger or tonight, we’re all going to sleep behind bars.”
Chapter 21
Loy Martin had a few marbles but he didn’t have balls. He parked in front of the boathouse and evidently believed he’d indulge in a little Cartwell property. The boathouse and Peyton-both of which were off limits to creeps like Martin.
“Why the hell would she do this?” Kane jabbed his finger in Evan’s chest. “This is all your fault. You and your stupid mind games. I think Peyton has lived through one too many of those, don’t you?”
Evan narrowed his gaze on Braden watching him as he jumped out of the truck in front of them. “Want to place blame? Place it on him. She told all of us she had a healthy solution, and I kind of liked where her train of thought led her.”
“Yeah, I bet you did,” Kane grumbled as he jumped out of the SUV. He hit maybe two steps as he jumped across them and onto the wrap-around dock. He walked around to the front of the boathouse where the terrace door was wide open. He took one step in, grabbed Peyton around the waist with his right arm, and knocked Loy Martin to the floor with his left hook.
“Stop this, Kane!” She struck out in anger, her fists slamming into his back as her feet kicked in every place but the one-thank goodness-that counts most for a man.
Loy never saw the second punch ready to strike a blow, and if he had, he might have screamed. Evan looked angrier than Kane. Braden caught his arm and held it high above his back. “I told you. We’re not going to jail tonight.”
Kane looked at the little goody bag on the coffee table. “Looks like you two planned on some fun, huh?”
“What didn’t you understand about what he did to your friend, Peyton?” Evan’s veins bulged in his neck.
Braden threw Loy his shirt. “You taping something here, Martin?”
“No. Hell, no. I’d never tape Peyton. At one time, I cared about her.”
“At one time,” Braden said “And how about now? Do you care about her now?”
Peyton wiggled against Kane’s grip. “Don’t answer them. It’s a trick question. If you tell them you still do, they’ll knock your lights out, and if you tell them you don’t, then they may just kill you for bringing me out here.”
Kane sneered. “She’s right.”
“Then can I plead the fifth and go?”
Evan narrowed his eyes on him. “On one condition.”
“I guessed as much,” Loy said. “What is it?”
“You give us a man’s word you’ll never lay one hand on her again.”
Peyton stamped her foot. Loy found the act particularly funny.
“You even act like them now. That’s a Kane and Evan Cartwell signature move. They don’t get their way, and they stomp their feet until they do. Tell me something, Peyton, are you already buying people off to get them to do what you want them to do?”
He shook his head and acted disgusted. “Don’t worry, I won’t be back for her. She’s already yours. The hell she must put you through. You three don’t know which one is going to get her, huh? What do you do? Take turns?”
Braden grabbed Loy’s shirt and pressed him against the wall. “Listen here, you little prick. We’re raising her as our own. We’re not fucking her or taking advantage of her in any way, and it’s because of that very reason, we’re not going to stand by and watch someone like you do it either.”
Loy flashed them his peculiar smile and then pointed at Kane. “Huh.” He rubbed his chin, “And here I thought Kane there kept it hard for Peyton. Hell, boys, maybe he has the hots for me.”