“I wasn’t aware I was avoiding you.” She shrugged casually. She was avoiding Tara. She had no desire to remember that afternoon, to talk about it, or to think about it. She wanted to keep the memory hazy, until she could deal with it.
“Of course you are, and I understand why.” The woman moved into the room, and took a seat at the table as Marly sat down.
Still, Marly refused to look at her.
“It’s hard, that first time. It offends your sense of morality, your sense of yourself, revealing things you didn’t know before. I understand that. I’ve been there, Marly. It won’t be as hard as you think it will be.”
“I don’t want to talk about this.” Marly shook her head quickly. “I want to eat my snack, then go shower and go to sleep. I don’t want to deal with it.”
“If you don’t deal with it now, how will you deal with it when Sam or Brock brings a lover into the house? You’ll be expected to participate then, Marly. To not just accept the pleasure, but to return it. This is what Cade needs to prepare you for.”
“And why would you agree to it?” Marly bit out. “What’s in it for you?”
Tara’s look was straightforward as she shrugged. “You’re an attractive woman, Marly. It’s something I would enjoy.”
“Are you—?”
“A lesbian?” Tara laughed. “Not hardly. But there are joys to be found in it, just as there are joys to be found with a man. Cade knows me from the job we did on the neighboring ranch. He knows I like to play.”
Marly’s chest clenched with pain. Anger. “And have you ‘played’ with Cade?” She felt like throwing something in the woman’s face.
Tara shook her head. “No. A friend of his, though. He just happened to have shown up at the time.”
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Marly bit her lip, her appetite now gone as she stared down at the fresh peaches and juicy pears awaiting her.
Tara snagged a slice of the pear, and Marly’s eyes rose in surprise when it was suddenly poised at her lips. Tara’s deep green eyes were gentle when she rubbed the slick, dripping slice of fruit at Marly’s lips.
“That’s how it feels, Marly, and it tastes just as sweet. There’s nothing to be frightened of.” She pushed the fruit into Marly’s mouth. It was sweet and cool, running over her tongue like a sigh of bliss.
“You’re not expected to accept it as you do Cade’s touch, Cade’s taste. But I know he expects you to enjoy it. To want it. They’re tied in a way most siblings aren’t. Bonded in a way that may be hard to understand, as they sheltered you from the harsher realities of their lives.”
How did this woman, this stranger know so much more about her family than she did? Marly watched Tara, seeing the truth in her eyes, wondering how she could know so much.
“What do you mean?” Marly shook her head. “Cade wouldn’t tell you everything. He wouldn’t even explain it all to me.”
“Everything? I don’t know if anyone but those men know everything.” Tara sighed roughly. “Did you know how their father abused them? He was a very dominant man, and he allowed his sons to be tutored in dominance by a dear friend of his,” she sneered. “And they were forced to like it, Marly. Their very lives hinged on convincing themselves they could endure. That they could accept it. It changed them. Changed their sexuality and their feelings for each other.”
“They aren’t gay,” Marly bit out.
Tara arched a brow curiously.
“Gay is a lifestyle, a choice. Sexuality is something else entirely, Marly. Cade much prefers a woman, dreams of you, lusts after you, but he also enjoyed a special closeness with his brothers when he was younger. A bond that is reaffirmed each time he watches one of them fuck a woman he’s chosen. Each time he shares her, it’s his way of showing his brothers his love for them, and for you. He wouldn’t share you, the woman he loves more than his own life, with any other man except his brothers. But it’s your choice. You can accept him, and what he needs from you, or you can walk away. Cade won’t make you stay.”
Walk away? How was she supposed to walk away from him?
“I don’t know how to handle this,” she whispered. “I don’t like what I see in myself, Tara. It’s not the ‘me’ I’ve always known. And I won’t accept being with another woman. You are not part of this family. It’s not acceptable.”
“You just haven’t accepted it. And he doesn’t expect you to accept it overnight,”
Tara assured her. “He needs this, Marly. The four of you, closer than many couples Lora Leigh
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could imagine being with siblings of either side. He needs it, because it’s a part of him. Because it’s also a part of you. And Cade knows it is. He won’t let you hide from it.”
“How do you know them so well?” Marly shook her head in bemusement. “You just came here.”
“Because, in a way, I’m the same,” she told her gently. “Rick is my brother in law, Marly, not my husband. I share his bed every night, and before my husband died, I shared a bed with both of them. I know what they are, and what they need, because it’s the same for Rick and myself.”
Marly swallowed tightly.
“He sent you in here, didn’t he?” she whispered.
“Cade wants you to come into the family room. Sam, Brock, and Rick are there. A bed has been formed in the middle of the room. When we go in, we’ll remove our clothes. You’ll then be called to one of the brothers. He’ll insert the plug into your rear. You and I will go to the bed, and pleasure one another. When we’re finished, Cade, Sam and Brock will bring you into the family, Marly. You’ll belong to all of them then.”
Marly shook her head desperately.
“It’s your choice, Marly,” Tara told her gently. “You can come into the family room with me, or you can go to Cade’s bedroom. If you do that, then he’ll know it’s your choice to find your own life after the danger is gone. He won’t come to you. He won’t take you, unless you do this.”
Marly’s eyes narrowed in anger. An ultimatum? She did not do ultimatums. Cade was pushing her. Pushing her too hard and too fast, and he should be smart enough to know that. If he didn’t, then it was about time she let him in on that little fact. She rose to her feet. Her hands went flat on the table as she went nose to nose with Tara.
“No man, least of all Cade, will make this choice for me,” she bit out. “Not now, not ever, and not until I choose. And I’ll be damned if I’ll walk away just because he doesn’t like it.”
Tara frowned.
“Marly,” she started warningly.
“Get lost, Tara. You and Rick are supposed to be tracking Jack Jennings, not fucking me. Go do your job, and I’ll take care of Cade however I see fit. I don’t like his highhandedness, nor do I care for his decision making, and he’ll find that little fact out now.”
She rose to her full, and she admitted diminutive, height and stalked through the house. Waiting on her in the family room, was he? She thought furiously. Had it all waiting for her. Had it all planned? She would do this. She would do that. She would kick all their asses first. Dammit, she wasn’t about to let him dictate to her this way. She stomped into the room, seeing everything laid out for her, just as Tara had said. Cade, Brock and Sam watched her in surprise as she faced them, her hands on her hips. Lora Leigh
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“The three of you. Don’t even say a word. And you.” She turned to Rick with a frown. “Don’t you have a damned job to do? I’d like to swim in my damned pool sometime this year. So unless you want to personally move it into the house, maybe you should be out there tracking that bastard instead of waiting to get your jollies by seeing me get fucked.”
Rick jumped to his feet, then frowned in surprise as he did so. He glanced at Cade.
“Hey, He-Man.” Marly snapped her fingers at him. “It’s not going to happen. Not tonight, not ever. You do your job, asshole and leave the rest of it to me.”
Rick’s lips quirked as he fought his smile. He stared down at her, fighting his smile, but a measure of respect flared in his eyes.
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded tightly. “I’ll get right on that.”
She turned to the men on the other side of the room as Rick and Tara left. Cade was watching her with a frown, his eyes glittering with dark, suppressed emotion.
“I’m not a robot you can order to perform,” she told him harshly as she walked over to him. “I belong to you, and in some part to Sam and Brock as well, and I can accept that. The rest, you can ease me into, or you can kiss my ass and put up with me hounding you. But I will not be forced into a choice I’m not ready for. It’s my choice, Cade, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be pushed into anything before I’m ready for it. Now, big boys, you strip. Let’s see how you like being ordered around for a change.”
“You’ll be punished for this, Marly.” There was laughter and a spark of desire unlike anything she had ever seen in his eyes.
“Yeah well, you get punished first.” She gripped the middle of his shirt and jerked. Buttons went flying a second before he jerked her to him and ground his mouth down on hers.
She went on her toes, fighting to get closer to him, aware that she had inflamed all three men to a point of no return. Their hands were on her as Cade kissed her hard and deep, pulling her clothes from her body, fingers and lips roving over her nakedness, invading tight channels, groaning out at the slick liquid that eased their ways. She was turned, Cade undressing quickly as Brock pushed her to the floor, his mouth going between her thighs, dining on her sweetness, moaning into her flesh. Sam’s mouth attacked her breasts, and Cade knelt beside the small raised bed, pushing his cock into her mouth as she moaned in rising pleasure. These men, they were hers. Cade held her heart the most, but the others had their little part as well. And they would share her body, her passion, because it was her choice, and because it brought her pleasure.
Orgasm after orgasm ripped over her as the moans in the room rose in volume. One after the other moved between her thighs, the soft, slurping sounds of thrust after thrust of eager tongues rising around them, Marly’s cries echoing heatedly. And still it went on.
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Finally, Cade lifted her above him, holding onto her weary body as he impaled her on his rising flesh.
“Rest, darlin’. We’ll take care of you.” He moaned as he pressed her sweat-damp head to his chest.
She felt Brock, or was it Sam behind her. Heat flared through her body as she felt the cool sensation of a thick lubrication as he slowly prepared her for his invasion. Minutes later, the thick head of his erection nudged the soft pucker of her anus. She relaxed for him, loosening her body, hearing his harsh groan as he slid deep inside her. Marly couldn’t halt her cry of lust, or of pleasure so exquisite she felt seared. Then another erection, hard and hot was being pushed past her lips as someone raised her head. Hard hands held her body steady, her eyes closed. She didn’t care whose cock invaded her where. She was spiraling out of control, enclosed in a place where only heated moans, hard thrusts, and fiery desire ruled the moment. She arched, she cried around the thrusting flesh between her lips, and orgasm after orgasm tore through her body until finally, mercifully, she felt their last hot ejaculations into her, and collapsed wearily against Cade’s chest.
Sleep rather than unconsciousness claimed her now. It no longer frightened her. She didn’t have to hide. Not from these men, the ones who loved her best. There was no reason to hide, to escape. She was safe, well pleasured, and so tired she refused to move on her own.
* * * * *
Cade watched as Brock lifted a sleeping Marly tenderly from his body. He rose, sitting up as his brother carried her to the couch, laying her down on it as he breathed out wearily, staring down at her.
He knew what the other two were slowly realizing. Climaxing in Marly’s body was more satisfaction than he had ever known, had ever believed possible. Sam was lying on the other couch, fighting to catch his own breath, and Brock finally collapsed at the end of Marly’s couch.
“Son of a damned bitch,” he breathed out heavily, his eyes meeting Cade’s. “If I had known that, she would have never started college to begin with.”
Known her passion, her strength of will, her acceptance of them. It was what Cade had feared, that she would be unable to accept total surrender to the three of them.
“She’s going to kill us, if we keep up like this,” Sam muttered. “Damn, did we ever have a woman that could take each of us, then all of us again?”
They hadn’t. They had been forced, the few times it had happened, to space the passion to allow for the women and their lack of ability to endure their passion.
“So what now?” Brock asked, his head resting on the back of the couch. “What do we do when they find Jennings?”
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Cade looked at him in some surprise. “I marry her. She’s not leaving, Brock. She made the choice, she won’t back away from it now.”
Brock grinned. “Well hell, she’ll keep us busy if nothing else. Maybe we need to hire more cowboys. I don’t think I want to ride fences anymore.”
Cade chuckled. He moved over to his woman, seeing the flush of satisfaction on her face, her body marred with moisture and their combined releases. She was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.
“Come on, you two can help me get her bathed and into bed. I don’t think she’s willing to wake up for it.”
He rose, bent and lifted her into his arms. She grumbled tiredly, grimacing at being disturbed then settling against Cade’s chest with a sigh. He felt his heart swell. Not his cock, he thought, his heart. She filled him in ways he could not have believed possible. With Sam and Brock following him quickly, he strode upstairs. He wanted her to rest, and he knew she wouldn’t do so as the sweat began to dry on her body. She would bitch about the bath, maybe, but when her head hit the pillows, she would sleep, as she never had. And Cade knew, he would as well.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
All her jeans were gone, as were her shorts. There was nothing in her closet, or Cade’s, except her dresses. She tore one of the longer, full-skirted sundresses from a hanger and dragged it over her head. Her bras were missing too; thankfully, her breasts were full and firm, and looked good without one. It was the principal of the matter, though.