“Nothing is going on, Cassidy,” Gary said with a smile.
“You mean to tell me that the Walker brothers and the local sheriff were having a nice little chat on a Sunday morning?” She knew something was going on. The last time she’d seen all these men together, a fight had ensued. She refused to believe within a few weeks they were bosom buddies.
“Just fucking tell her, Gary,” Scott said. She heard the growl of anger in his voice.
“Don’t cuss,” Gary told him.
She watched the red heat of aggression fill Scott’s face. On instinct, she got up from her seat and walked toward him. “Morning, Scott,” she said. He opened his arms to receive her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her body close to his. His heart was pounding inside his chest.
“Morning, Cassidy.” She felt him inhale her scent. Cassidy refused to let go of him until he calmed down. She didn’t like the two brothers fighting.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Yes. Thank you,” he whispered against her ear.
Smiling, she went back to her seat between them. All five men looked at each other. None looked at her.
Staring down at her clasped fingers, she closed her eyes for a second to gain control of her emotions.
“I can’t pick,” she whispered. The words were strange to say aloud. Licking her lips, she wondered if they’d come out. The room was so still and silent. She looked up and saw the men frozen in place.
“It’s not that I don’t want to. You’re all amazing, and I would be honored to be your woman, but I can’t make this decision, and I’m asking you not to let me,” she said.
Her throat felt tight from the onslaught of emotion.
No one said anything for many minutes. She was sure they’d be able to hear a pin drop in the deathly silence. The tears filled her eyes as she thought about them rejecting her and sending her away.
She looked up as Michael knelt in front of her. His hand was on her knee. He was smiling at her.
“We don’t want you to choose,” he said.
“What?” she asked.
“We talked last night, Cassidy. We all love and care about you. We’re prepared to settle our differences and be with you together,” Michael explained to her.
The tears fell from her eyes. She looked from Michael to every man in the room, settling on Jesse last. “Is it true?”
Jesse nodded his head. “We love you far too much to risk losing you. We’re willing to share you with Michael. Providing you want us all, that is.”
“So what do you say, Cassidy? Do you want to be with us and Michael?” Scott asked.
* * * *
Gary saw the happiness in her eyes, and he knew in his own heart that he’d made the right decision.
“Are you all right with this?” she asked him.
“Baby, to see that look on your face I’d move heaven and earth.” He smiled at her. She turned her attention toward his other brothers. Gary stared at Scott and saw the anger in the other man. He knew it wasn’t at what was happening but toward him. Gary had no idea about what he’d done to his younger brother, but the anger was getting worse. Last night he thought they were going to come to blows. Roy and Scott gave her their answer, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the excitement inside her.
This is what he wanted to see. The fun, loving woman he’d grown to love.
“Do you want us, Cassidy?” Michael asked.
The tears were spilling down her cheeks as he nodded her head. “Yes, yes. I want you all so much.”
She wrapped her arms around Michael, crying into his shoulder. After several moments she pulled away. “Won’t you come to hate me? I mean, I’m one woman. Won’t you guys want your own woman or something like that? I’d hate for you guys to come to despise me.”
Gary watched Michael rub away her tears. “Baby, we only want you. We’ve only ever wanted you.”
“I can’t believe this is happening to me,” she said. “I was so scared last night wondering how I would tell you guys that I couldn’t pick. I can’t believe this.”
Jesse wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close. “I love you, Cassidy, and there is nothing I wouldn’t do to see you happy.”
“I love you, too. I love all of you.”
Gary smiled and swallowed down the lump in his throat. He would not cry at her admission. She’d never said those words toward him. They were always meant for his brothers.
“Can I use the phone? I need to phone my sister. I told her I might need a place to stay if this didn’t go well.”
“Sure, there is one in the office. You can use that one.” Jesse took her hand and led her out of the room. Michael turned to face him.
“That went better than expected,” Michael said.
“We’ve still got to work around time and dates and everything,” Scott said, taking the seat far away from Gary.
“If it is okay with you guys, I’d like to take one of your spare rooms while we work everything out. I know I work in town, but I want as much time with her as possible.” Michael stood, putting his fingers into the hoops of his jeans.
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Gary said as Jesse walked into the room.
“She’s talking to Louise. She seems excited.” He sat back down on the sofa. Gary knew that was all he was going to get from his younger brother.
“Michael is going to be staying for some time,” he said. Jesse nodded, already disappearing inside his own thoughts.
“What are you thinking? We set out a schedule and give her weekends off?” Scott asked, his gaze on Gary as he spoke.
“What is your problem?” Michael asked.
Gary had enough and walked out of the room. He was constantly doing something wrong when it came to Scott, and he’d had his fair share of blame for the day. Their relationship had always been tense and he knew when Scott was trying to bait him into a fight. Gary refused to fight his younger brother. He walked to his office and listened to her on the phone.
“I can’t believe it, Lou. I feel like this is all a dream and I’m going to wake up at any second. I love them all, and they want me. How can this be real?” He heard the emotion inside her and couldn’t help but feel happy for her. “Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow sometime, and we’ll talk. I can’t wait. I’ll tell you everything.”
He leaned against the frame and watched her talking. The sunlight beaming down on her made the dress she wore clear for him to see the perfect outline of her body.
“I love you, too. Okay, bye.” She hung up the phone, and he saw the small smile on her lips lighting up her whole face.
“How is your sister?” he asked.
Startled, she looked up and he saw the flush spread from her chest up to her cheeks. Gary walked into the room, stopping by the corner of his desk. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I was lost in my own thoughts, and yes, my sister is great.” He watched her lick her lips. The action went straight to his cock. “She’s happy for me. Long Mead is sure a strange town.” She chuckled.
“How do you mean?”
“Well, this whole sharing thing. I know your fathers shared your mother, and then there is Claire, Liam, and Shane, who are in a sharing relationship. I’m sure there are more couples sharing than not in this little town,” she said.
“You think the sharing makes it a strange town?”
“Well, you wouldn’t find any of this going on in the city.” She folded her arms under her breasts. For a second, he looked at her cleavage, admiring the full swells of her tits.
“I would seriously doubt that,” he said, moving toward her.
“Yeah? How would you know?”
“I’ve gotten around. I wasn’t always a small-town cowboy. I’ve been to the city and seen what it’s like.” He stood in front of her. Her floral scent invaded his nostrils.
“What was it like?” She ran her hand down his chest, resting her knuckles against his stomach. Thinking through all of his memories, he couldn’t recall her reaching out and touching him before.
“Fast. Too fast. It was fun going to some of the clubs and experimenting a little, but life is to be enjoyed. Not to watch it go by and forever wondering when you need to jump off.”
He stared into her blue eyes when she tilted her head back to look at him.
“Gary Walker, you’ve kept a great deal of yourself hidden away, haven’t you?”
“I’ve spent the last four years trying to seduce you. I’ve not had the time to think about showing you all of myself.” He let out a moan as she leaned up and kissed him. The touch of her lips sent a shock wave of sensation all through his body. The current between them was like little bolts of lightning sparking.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. Her curves were warm and soft against his hard body. Gary heard her gasp and her small hands gripped his shirt as he took over the kiss, devouring her mouth. She tasted of honey and lemon. The combination of innocence and sin contrasted together. He wanted to lose himself inside her, to feel her slick, wet heat consume him.
Gary lifted her up and threw the paperwork off the desk. He placed her on the edge, opening her legs and standing between her thighs. Sinking his fingers into her hair, he tilted her head back and deepened their embrace.
Her little moans were driving him crazy. She gripped his hair, pulling him closer to her. He was already addicted to her soft little sounds.
“We leave you alone for two minutes, and you’re already staking your claim,” Michael said.
Gary and Cassidy pulled apart to see his brothers and Michael standing in the doorway.
“If you’re going to share me then you’d better get used to seeing me kiss all of you,” she said. He felt her shaking, and he caressed her cheek. His dick pressed against his jeans. Tight, hot, and he knew he had to wait to sink between her lush thighs.
“Then perhaps we should all get a kiss for our troubles?” Scott asked.
Cassidy chuckled. She cupped Gary’s cheek and turned him to look at her. “That was amazing. I can’t believe we waited so long to kiss.” She brushed her lips on his, and he felt better hearing her say those words.
He moved away, knowing this was a test for all of them. She sat on the desk and waited for one of the others to take his place. Gary took a seat on the sofa in the room. This was the first test. If they couldn’t handle her kissing all of them and Michael, they had no chance of seeing her fucking them.
Cassidy was so fucking turned-on. She never knew Gary could kiss like that. Her body tingled all over, and her lips felt on fire. She wasn’t surprised when Scott came toward her. He was so determined to pull away from Gary’s shadow that she feared for their relationship as brothers. Never had she seen two men so aggressive to each other. Scott’s temper could cause problems if she didn’t get to the bottom of it.
“Hi,” she said, feeling shy and trying to hide it.
“Do you want a kiss from me after that?” Everything was a competition.
“Of course. If I’m going to have all of you, then I’d better get used to what you like.” She smiled, grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer. He sunk his fingers into her hair in the same way Gary had done. She felt something different inside him. Scott wasn’t as hard with his touch. His hands were gentle on her body. Soft. Biting her lip, she stared up into his light brown eyes and lost herself. She knew her other men were in the background, but in that moment the only man who mattered was Scott. She knew he sensed it, too, as his body changed. He was no longer stiff with the competition. She saw the true Scott, and he made her ache with longing. He was scared to disappoint her. Cassidy didn’t know how she knew this, she just did. It was like a sixth sense to her. She had known the Walker brothers her whole life. The love she felt for all four of them couldn’t be described into neat, simple facts. Her feelings were powerful, and she knew in some part of themselves, they felt the same way about her.
His lips were gentle, teasing her with what he could do to her. She moaned and relished the feel of him close. His body was hard where she held him.
“Do you want me, Scott?” she asked.
“Always.”
“Then kiss me like you want to.” He took her lips in a gentle but dominating kiss. She had no chance to compare Scott to the other men as Scott was totally different, and she would never do such a thing to her men. They each deserved to have their own attention. She went under his shirt and held onto his hot, hard flesh. The contact of his skin made her moan as the physical contact of their bodies meant what she was doing was real and not a dream.
Scott made love to her lips. He explored her, pressing his tongue against hers and asking permission to deepen. She closed her eyes and gave herself over to his careful attentions. The devotion he gave her through the kiss meant so much to her that she thought she would cry from his tenderness.
He pulled away first. “I’ve never felt anything like that.”
“Me neither.”
A frown crossed his face, and she saw him look back at Gary.
“Don’t,” she said. “You’re different from your brother, but that doesn’t make you any less of a man or better.”
She saw his eyes glaze over. Before she could comfort him, he pulled away and left the space open for another. Roy took his place.