Hard Ridin' (22 page)

With one more insistent shove, Jens filled her.

“Ahhh.” She shook with the need to move yet remain still in order to grow accustomed to their double invasion.

“Okay, baby?” Holden brushed his lips over her throat.

“Yesss.”

“You move first, Holden.” Jens gripped her hips, absolutely motionless. Entirely in control.

With supreme care, Holden moved his cock inside her channel. Juices flooded him, and she cried out again.

“More!”

Jens didn’t move as Holden eased his shaft in and out of her, but she could feel Jens’s shudder.

“Sweet Lord, I can’t hold back much longer,” he said.

“Then don’t.” She reached up and tore off her blindfold. Holden’s face was painted with bliss. A grin stretched over her features as their gazes met. His hard lips quirked upward. In the dim light flooding the room through the window, the dark stubble on his jaw gleamed blue.

Twisting around, she shot Jens a look. “Don’t hold back. I need you both moving inside me.”

That was all the incentive he needed. With a primal groan, he slid his cock inside her ass, against the thin barrier separating Holden’s cock in her pussy. She grew boneless as they took turns filling her, just as they had earlier. But she wanted them moving in at the same time, stretching her to the brink.

The knot in her core tightened to a point of pain. If she didn’t release soon, she’d take matters into her own hands. If only she could muster the strength to demand what she wanted from both men.

When she ground her hips, male moans filled the air. Jens clamped a hand on her waist. “I am in charge here.” With that, he began to sync his thrusts to Holden’s, both in, both out, until her breath sobbed in her lungs.

The ache in her pussy and ass grew until she thought she’d die. Then all of a sudden, the heat increased and she knew she was lost. With a harsh cry, she came. Body slammed by the wave of ecstasy, pussy gripping Holden’s cock, ass contracting heavily around Jens’s. Her breasts felt heavy, the nipples excruciatingly tight.

“Jesus!” Holden stiffened and then pounded into her. Each hot spurt of come slicking her walls drove her higher.

“Oh my God, I can feel you both unraveling.” Jens grunted and shoved deep into her body as he shook with his orgasm.

Laurel’s mind blanked and all she knew for several minutes was the sensations in her body and the passion in her heart.

When she slowly began to return to her senses, Jens pulled his slack cock free of her. His weight left the bed and his footsteps faded into the bathroom.

By the time he returned, she and Holden were stretched on the bed in each other’s arms. Jens stopped in the doorway, staring at them for a long minute. Shadows obliterated his face, and she couldn’t see his expression.

Beckoning him with a hand, she urged him forward.

“I was an ass for not sharing the information about the Ransom place with you.”

“That you were,” Holden said quietly.

Laurel’s heart tripped. Were they still angry? Even after sharing her body? She’d thought they would unite in a brand new way after this encounter, but Jens remained stiff in the doorway, and Holden didn’t move to invite Jens farther.

At last, Jens drifted into the room. He reached for Laurel, and she drew him down with them. “This is where you belong, Jens.”

He didn’t speak. As she began to drift into an exhausted sleep, his voice sounded as a whisper. “I’m not so sure.”

The birds awakened long before the sun rose. Their endless chatter broke through Jens’s sleep-hazed brain. And instantly he knew he was alone.

No Laurel.

No Holden.

The bed was empty except for him. Lifting his head off the pillow, he glanced around at the tidy room. Not a discarded garment, which meant they’d picked up their belongings.

Were they in the shower? Downstairs flipping pancakes on the griddle together?

Jens threw out his hearing and could detect no other sound besides the birds.

He propped himself on his elbows and saw it. A scrap of paper on the middle pillow—Laurel’s pillow.

Went to take care of business.

Heart slamming violently against his chest wall, Jens forced back a bellow. Rage and terror slayed him. A bloody knife of jealousy twisted in his gut. They’d left him. Taking care of business could mean so many things—Laurel’s crops that might need water, a horse with an injury…or an elopement.

The last thing Jens had said to them was that he didn’t fit with them. Maybe they’d whispered together while he slept and had determined Jens was right. They belonged together, and Jens was truly a third wheel, an extra tractor tire with a leak that would slow them down.

“Fuck.” Jerking upright, he swung his legs over the side of the bed. His nudity suddenly felt sordid. What had he been thinking to climb into bed with the pair of them? In the end, his idea had fucked everything up. And now he was going to pay the price with a gutting and a shredded heart.

Tears clogged his throat. Battling them, he drifted through the darkened room and found his clothing. Tugging on his underwear and jeans, he again listened hard for any sign of life in the house below or outside. Even the cattle were silent this morning. Not a nicker or moo could be heard.

Before he descended the stairs, he knew the house was empty. He didn’t need to look out the window to realize Holden’s truck was gone.

Standing barefooted and brokenhearted before the living room window, Jens stared out at the rain-drenched world. Water sluiced from the damaged part of the gutter and fell with a low patter on the porch step. Last night it had stormed like hell while he and Holden had shared Laurel’s body.

The ultimate union and the ultimate sacrifice. Jens had given up his dreams by taking control and dominating the moment. Because of his overbearing need, he’d lost them.

A sob burned in his chest but he held on to it, refused to let it out. The cloud he’d been living on for so many weeks evaporated, and he was hurled to the ground. Now he had to fight to keep from crumpling in a broken heap.

He shrugged on his shirt and buttoned it. Locating a pair of boots near the door, he slipped them on and stole out into the pre-dawn.

Yep, just as he thought. Holden’s truck was gone. Despair struck him anew and this time he couldn’t stop the sound that burst from his throat. Even to his ears, it was the noise of a wounded animal.

It’s my own fault.
He never should have attempted to right the problem with Robbie Breaker alone. Holden thought he owned that land too and deserved to be let into the loop. And it was Laurel’s money—Laurel’s dream—that was in question. While Jens was busy orchestrating their lives, he’d failed to let them hold the reins as well. On this ranch, all three persons should have been equal partners.

He strode across the yard, boot heels sinking into the sloppy earth. Leaves and debris littered the ground. First things first. Take care of the animals, then check the crops for damage.

As Jens threw himself into his chores, he couldn’t help but wish he could curl up and nurse his damaged heart.

Holden kept his eyes trained on the horizon, placing a hand on Laurel’s jean-clad thigh. The truck was warm and fuggy, and the scents of their lovemaking with Jens still lingered.

Shooting a glance at the clock on the truck dash, Holden wondered when their boy would rouse from sleep. When they’d slipped away in the wee hours of the night, Jens had been dead to the world. Holden’s and Laurel’s footsteps had been drowned by the roar of the wind and lash of rain, not to mention the thunder.

Holden didn’t need to feel Laurel’s taut thigh muscle under his hand to know she was out of her head with worry. She’d shed a few tears over her precious plants when the worst of the storm had hit. And she’d been downright inconsolable at the idea of leaving Jens.

“You’re sure this is the right thing to do?” she asked for the fourth time.

Holden kneaded her leg, just above her knee in the sensitive spot that usually made her writhe. “Baby darlin’, he’s so stubborn, he’d never let me do this without a fight.”

She shivered. “Yeah, and I don’t have a desire to see you go at it again like two cocks in a ring.”

Holden flexed his fingers of his other hand, still feeling the cut of Jens’s teeth against his knuckles. But he could also feel the way his friend’s shaft filled his mouth.

“We’ll get to the bank and withdraw that money, then rush back to pay Breaker.”

“Why isn’t the money in a local bank, Holden? Why did you put it so far away?”

He swallowed hard. Here was where his own past rose up to haunt him. When he’d discovered Laurel was with Jens, he’d taken his big check from the fishing stint and placed it in a bank far away from their small town. If he had to make a run for it, he didn’t want to have to stop and face the townspeople—he’d just planned to hop in the truck and drive. A bank four hours away had seemed the best place at the time.

He’d used up a small portion of the cash he kept with him to pay for some of the improvements to Laurel’s organic farm, but otherwise, the money was untouched. Tens of thousands of dollars. Surely, Robbie Breaker would accept it as a down payment. Then Holden could apply for a bigger loan to make up the rest.

Hopefully.

The fact that Jens was maxed on his credit limit worried Holden. But with any luck, the chunk of change Holden kept in that bank branch would assist his cause.

Laurel seemed to read his thoughts. “I can help out. Apply for a loan.”

He shook his head before she completed the sentence. “I can’t let you put yourself out there more. You’re already taking a big risk with your farm.”

She blinked at him. The gray light of dawn sparkled on her wet lashes. “And you aren’t? Jens didn’t?”

Holden bit off the urge to tell her flat-out that he wasn’t allowing her to dump her money into the pool. They should take care of her, dammit—Holden intended to. However, wasn’t this mindset exactly what had gotten Jens in trouble in the first place? He’d thought to take control of matters, and only when he was spiraling out of control did he break.

Holden couldn’t take that chance. Laurel deserved to be let in. If they were equal partners in the bedroom, they should be on the ranch too. And the ranch included Laurel’s organic farm.

Which at the moment belonged to Robbie Breaker, Grade-A asshole.

As Holden and Laurel pulled out of the Rope Burn Ranch, Holden had called the man and dragged him out of bed long enough to spit, “I’m getting the money,” into the phone.

Holden sighed. “All right, baby. I’ll try this my way first, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ll gladly accept your help.”

Her eyes glistened with fresh tears. “Thank you. If we’re truly a team…”

“I know. We are.” He rubbed his knuckles beneath her chin and then swiped a stray tear from her peachy-soft cheek.

“Should we call him?”

She didn’t need to mention Jens’s name—Holden knew exactly whom she was talking about.

“If we do, he’ll go all ape-shit alpha on us again. And while that was hot as hell in the boudoir, I’d like to avoid it when it comes to the ranch. Don’t you agree?”

“Mmm.” Her quiet tone pointed to the fact that she might be thinking of the bedroom part of Holden’s sentence and not the latter.

Holden ran his fingers up her inner thigh, inches from her heat. “There’s a lot more of that to come, if I have any say about it.”

“You will. He’ll forgive us for running out on him like this, won’t he?” Worry tinged her words.

Holden bit the inside of his cheek as he considered the notion. Jens was stubborn but not nearly as stubborn as Holden. Of the two of them, Jens had the most level head, while Holden allowed his emotions to run away with him. The idea that Jens was out of control with his emotions and desires pointed to the fact that he was a man in love—desperate to hold on to it.

And Holden didn’t have to ask Jens how he felt about him. When he’d watched Jens’s face as his cock spurted into Holden’s mouth, he’d known.

Laurel covered his hand. “You’re sure my plants are all right? Would the storm have hurt them?”

Holden shook his head. “There wasn’t hail. They’ll be all right, baby.” Even as he said this, he prayed it was true. The roots were fragile and the stiff winds might have caused some damage. He wished he’d had time to check before they took off. Inherently, he knew Jens would look. If her crops had sustained damage, there was little they could do except replant. Thankfully, it was early enough to do so.

Squeezing Laurel’s fingers, he sent her a sidelong look. “No matter what happens, sweetheart, we’ll be okay. All of us.”

Chapter Thirteen

Everything about the inside of the bank was wrong. It smelled wrong—like paper and a strange chemical cleaner—and the rigid lines of the interior weren’t home. Laurel paced before the door of the small office where Holden was sequestered with a loan officer.

“Miss? Could I offer you a chair and some coffee while you wait?” A young woman eyed her.