April, Dani - Raven's Ranch (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme) (25 page)

Tyler grew happy. He had enthusiasm for his job at the ranch and his friendship with the other guys. He took up some of his old hobbies. Hunting was one of his lost hobbies, and he took Raven out with him to the forest. They stayed all night, pitched a tent, and made love by the fire. Tyler was becoming more aggressive in his lovemaking and more passionate. Always the artful lover, he could time his climaxes to Raven’s, and she had the warmest feeling cradled in his arms afterwards. She could talk to him for hours like an old friend, and though they sometimes disagreed and even argued, this just brought them closer.

Roy was another matter altogether. The sex that he liked, and that he had introduced Raven to, turned her on more all the time. It seemed like he would never run out of ideas for sex games they could play. Normally he tied her up, but it was always in a different position. He was very rough and demanding with her, always taking her to the limit and then testing to see if he could push her further. But he never caused her pain. He knew just how to put her in a situation that at first she didn’t think she would be comfortable with, and then as it unfolded, brought her nothing but pure pleasure.

But she kept them all apart. During those summer months, which seemed to pass them by in the blink of an eye, she did not once allow herself to be in the presence of more than one of her men at a time. She knew this wasn’t healthy and that eventually something would have to give. It was a big ranch, and it allowed her to keep each relationship in its own little world, locked away from the others. There were several occasions when she’d be approaching the common area in the yard and see two or more of the guys together after a hard day. She would always turn around and flee back to the privacy of her trailer. Sometimes she would cry. She was scared, but wasn’t for sure exactly what it was that scared her.

Toward the end of summer the guys’ work became so intense that they did not have time to spend with her. She would make it a point to see them individually every day, but they didn’t have time to go out on dates or make love. Without a mind that was constantly addled in the afterglow of intense sex, Raven was able to concentrate more fully on her job as manager. Not only did she run the GPS tracking system from her office, but she turned herself into an expert on the cattle futures market, and knew they would get top dollar for their cattle when they got them to market.

Money was tight since no one was getting paid. They had to all batten down the fiscal hatches. The ranch and the trailers provided them with a place to live. The guys pooled their savings and bought food and necessities for them. This was one more thing Raven owed the guys for, and she swore to pay them back. Of course they all said they didn’t want this. When bills for ranching expenses came into her office, Raven made calls to the creditors and used some of the negotiating skills she’d learned in college to buy them more time.

Raven woke up. It was four in the morning and her alarm was going off. She was sleeping alone in her trailer. She thought it was funny. Here she was living on a ranch with five studs, and she hadn’t had sex with any of them in several weeks. Things had just gotten too busy on the ranch.

Today was the big day. The Lazy L had a special contract with one of the big railroads. They’d had it for generations, back from a time when the Lazy L was as young as the railroads. It had been signed by Raven’s great-great-grandfather and gave the railroad permission to run tracks over their land. The provision was that the railroad would send a freight train several times a year to pick up the herd from the ranch. There was a stockyard built just for this purpose. Over the years, other ranches had come to use it, but the Lazy L still had access because the stockyard was on its land.

This was the day when they would drive the herd down to the stockyard and wait for the freight to come in. It was a throwback to an old-fashioned cattle drive. Except instead of driving the cattle for a thousand miles as they had in the old days, the Lazy L only had to drive them ten. Still, to take over a thousand head of cattle ten miles in an orderly fashion without losing any of them was a big job.

Raven had wanted to get started a day early just to make sure they arrived on time, but the guys told her to relax. They could get the drive accomplished in a day just like they always had. Raven had to relinquish her opinion to the guys’ better judgment. She was the boss, but there was a lot she still had to learn about ranching.

Raven took a long, cold shower that morning. The water woke her up and made her ready for the momentous day. They had come up with a system where she could shower without fear of one of the guys walking in on her. She would leave a pair of her panties slung over the door to the outside. This was the signal that she was using the shower and for the guys to stay out. Strange, she thought, she had shared intimacies with all of them. They all knew her body almost as well as she did by this time. Yet she was still timid about letting them see her taking a shower.

This was because she was not emotionally prepared in the shower. She didn’t know which one of her men would be stepping in there with her. When she dated them, everything was planned in advance. She knew exactly which guy had her for that day, and what they would be doing.

Recently it had not been an issue. They had all been so busy, there had been no sex. Raven had been sleeping alone every night. When this first started she thought she’d had enough sex to last for the rest of her life, but now she was starting to miss it. There was an aching between her legs, and she longed for the touch of her men.

After her shower, Raven made breakfast and strong, black coffee. She made her coffee the way Bran had taught her to make it. She threw on an old pair of jeans and T-shirt. This would be a dirty, sweaty day. No need to dress up today.

All of her men would be there at the stockyards today. She wondered how she would handle that. Was she prepared to handle it? She watched the sun rise over the Great Plains to the east. Today she would have to force herself to come to terms with her relationship with the five men. Decisions were ahead of her to be made. She only hoped she was strong enough to face them or she would end up not only hurting herself but also the men she was learning to love.

When the ranch was in danger of being lost, all she had thought about was saving it from the bank. She had given herself over to every carnal desire the guys had for her. She had been scared every minute, but it had been the best time of her life. She had been completely happy and free for the first time in her life.

Now that the ranch was saved, things had changed. She was forced to look at herself and her actions. She had come back down to earth. The complications of having five boyfriends at the same time were making her head spin. It actually wouldn’t have been such a bad situation if she hadn’t fallen so hard for each of them.

Connor opened the screen door behind her. He gave a polite knock, and then let himself in. Raven never locked her door now. Another trait of the ranch she had absorbed.

He put his arms around her and gave her a good morning kiss on the lips.

“Good morning, baby,” she greeted him, returning his kiss.

“You ever think this day would arrive?” he asked her.

“No. Not really.” She laughed. “Now that it’s finally here, I’m scared to death.”

He laughed and gave her a pat on her rear. “There won’t be any time to be scared today. We’re going to be as busy as hell all day until the sun goes down tonight.”

She wasn’t convinced. She still felt scared.

“You know, after we get this herd in we’re going to have a few weeks of downtime ahead of us.”

“That sounds good,” she told him.

“We’ll have time to celebrate. This is a real accomplishment, Raven. We owe it all to you.”

“It was a team effort.” She gave him another kiss. She put on her jacket against the early morning chill of late summer outside. “Are the guys waiting for us?”

“They’ve already headed out with the herd. We’ll catch up with them in my truck.”

“All right.” She took a deep breath of fresh air as he opened the screen door for her. She stepped outside into the dimly lit trailer yard. “I’m as ready for this as I’ll ever be.”

He put his hand at the small of her back and led her to his truck. She felt butterflies in her stomach. She was going to see all of her guys together today. Why was it such a big deal? Why did it seem like it would be so uncomfortable? She had grown to love them all. It’s just she loved them all individually. Loving them all as a group was another matter.

Connor drove them across the plains. Raven soon saw the guys. They were on horseback and out with the herd, driving them methodically forward at a slow pace. It was a tedious process, and one that would take all day.

Raven brought out her iPad and pulled up the GPS software. Using the software and her cell phone to communicate with her cowboys, she could manage the ten-mile-long cattle drive from her seat in Connor’s truck.

“Hey, Chip, there are two dogies wandering off a hundred yards to the south,” she said into her phone. “You better ride over there and bring them back before they get too far away.”

“Thanks.” Chip gave her a kiss over the phone. “I love you, Raven.” In the last few weeks he had started telling her he loved her every chance he got. She enjoyed hearing the words.

“Thanks, Chip,” she told him into the receiver. “I love you, too.”

She was giving instruction into her phone and tapping the screen of her handheld device all day. She thankfully didn’t have time to think about her relationship with these men and could just focus on her work.

“Be careful, Bran. There’s a gully coming up in about three minutes. Lead the herd offtrack about twenty yards west and you’ll be able to avoid it.”

“I’m on top of it, pretty lady.” Bran’s voice came over her phone in his deep baritone. “I hope to be on top of you tonight.”

Raven blushed and looked at Connor. He laughed.

Tyler and Roy rode up alongside the truck. Tyler was by Raven’s window and Roy was by Connor’s. Raven felt slightly uncomfortable. Here were three of her lovers gathered around her. Each man gave her a smile. Tyler leaned inside the truck and gave her a kiss on her lips.

“We’re making good progress,” Tyler reported. “We should reach the stockyards later this afternoon.”

Roy leaned inside the truck from the other window. “You’re looking good enough to eat today, Raven.” The other men all agreed with Roy’s assessment and laughed.

Raven didn’t think it was funny. She kept her face lowered, eyes on her lap.

The stockyards were just hundreds of yards of fenced in corrals. They were old, and the ground looked soggy from all the late summer rain. The railroad tracks ran alongside them.

Raven and Connor arrived first in his truck. The herd was on the path behind them and headed in. Raven turned off her iPad. Her work was done. She climbed down from Connor’s truck and went to stand by a gate of the corral. Soon the herd was flowing through that gate and her cowboys were riding past on their horses. The freight train was due in less than an hour. They were right on time.

Raven did feel a sense of accomplishment as she watched the herd flow into the yards. All of this was largely due to her efforts. She had started off knowing nothing about the ranch or the business. She’d had no money and no credit, just a lot of debt. Now she had a fully operational cattle ranch that was back on its feet, and a future on this beautiful land she owned.

She also had five horny cowboys who all wanted to fuck her, and she didn’t know if she could handle all of them. Perhaps she had promised them more than she could offer.

As the guys began to gather around the front gate of the stockyard, Raven moved away from them. She walked along the railroad tracks lost in thought. Tomorrow there would be a lot of money in her bank account. She would be able to pay off all of her men, and the summer would be over. She would have some big decisions to make.

A train whistle sounded in the distance. The freight train was running on schedule. Raven saw its light in the distance and heard the sound of the engines. She stepped back from the tracks and watched it approach. She felt alone. Her guys were back in the corral with the herd, and here she was standing by herself along the side of the railroad tracks.