Hard Ridin' (24 page)

Holden couldn’t stop the smile that spread over his face at Laurel’s boldness. She wasn’t afraid to fight for what she wanted—what they all wanted.

“Just take it, Robbie,” his mother said in a tremulous voice. “It’s what your father would have wanted. Honor his memory. Please.”

Robbie’s features shivered as he covered the envelope with his hand. Laurel pulled away and took several steps backward, reaching automatically for Jens’s hand. He gave it to her hesitantly, his eyes downcast.

Holden edged closer to them, desperate to be part of their link, to express how sorry he was for leaving without word.

Shock choked him.

He’d made the mistake a second time—took off and didn’t keep in touch with the person he loved. Staggering under the weight of his actions, he couldn’t help but wonder if Jens would forgive him as Laurel eventually had.

He tried to catch Jens’s gaze, but he turned his face away.

Burning, Holden had to get them out of here. “You’ve got your money, Breaker. Now leave us be. Mrs. Breaker, if you ever need anything, please give us a call.”

“Thank you.”

Holden wrapped his fingers around the place where Jens and Laurel joined hands. He applied pressure, indicating they should go.

Laurel gave Holden a pointed look that expressed her fears too, as the three of them made their way back outside, the organic farm plot theirs once again. But could their connection be recaptured or was it severed forever?

Chapter Fourteen

“Jens, look at me.”

He folded his lips and kept his gaze centered somewhere on Laurel’s mouth. While tingles of want spread through her, she knew they were far from where she wanted to be. Jens wore his pain like a shroud, and first she and Holden had to make amends.

“What were you doing here, man?” Holden asked.

The rain was soaking through Laurel’s clothes and she was freezing. But no one would get into a truck because it meant they’d be separated. Even though Jens was obviously hurt, he too was unwilling to move away from her and Holden. A good sign.

Her adrenaline was still pumping madly from her encounter with Robbie Breaker. For a moment, she’d questioned her own strength. Facing a man of that size, and who was obviously unwilling to negotiate, had taken an act of courage she hadn’t known she possessed.

But she’d done it, forced him to take the check, and claimed the land for her, Holden and Jens.

She cradled Jens’s chiseled jaw on her palm. The motion brought him back to life, and he suddenly drew a deep breath.

“I came to tell Robbie that I found some more documents concerning the property, and that his was dated the most recently. I came to tell him he owned it and if he wouldn’t sell, then he at least had to agree to give Laurel her crops.”

She made a quiet noise. Love blossomed in her heart. Though Jens had been so distraught, he was still looking out for her. “You believed we’d left you.”

“Didn’t you?” He met her gaze reluctantly, but his fell as quickly as it lifted.

“This is my fault,” Holden said.

They both looked at him. His hat was black with wetness and the shoulders of his shirt soaked through. She was wet too—and pretty sure she could win a wet T-shirt contest.

A shudder passed through her as a frigid rivulet of water snaked down her nape. “Can we get into the truck? I’m freezing.”

As if noticing this for the first time, Holden sprang into action. He opened the door of Jens’s truck, which had a big bench seat and no console to separate them. It wasn’t the most convenient place to have a life-changing discussion, but she’d take what she could get. They just had to make this work. If their union ended, she didn’t think she could go on. A part of her would always be missing.

She dropped her purse and hat to the floor and scooted across the seat, leaving wet trails on the vinyl behind her. Holden got into the passenger seat and Jens behind the wheel. The rain blurred the view from the windows, enclosing them in a private cocoon.

Holden began talking at once. “I fucked up by leaving and not clueing you in about our whereabouts or intentions, Jens. Just as I messed up with Laurel when I went to Alaska. I take responsibility for my actions, and I swear I’ve learned my lesson.”

“Oh, Holden.” She leaned against him, brushing her lips over his once. The wounds from those long-ago months healed with the balm of his words.

She turned to Jens. His shoulders were tense, his jaw set. “I know you think the worst, but don’t, Jens. Don’t.” She wrapped her arms around his stiff form. When he didn’t respond, she slid onto his lap.

A ragged breath left him, washing over her cheek. She inhaled his scents, body on fire because she’d missed him so much. If only he’d be her easy-going Jens and put his arms around her.

Rubbing her cheek over his, she yearned to kiss him. “Please forgive us, Jens. I love you. You’re half of my world.”

He locked his arms around her and crushed her against him with a groan. Clinging to him, she released the sob that rushed up her throat. Then Holden’s arms were around her too—around both of them.

Jens was shaking as he kissed her. The scorching caress of his lips instantly spiked her need. Big male muscles were pressing her from the front and back, enclosing her in a perfectly safe haven—the only place she wanted to be.

“I’m sorry I took over—didn’t let you in when I found out about Breaker owning that land.” Jens’s voice was choked.

Laurel closed her eyes and drank in his scent. A sweet torment began low in her belly. Soon she’d be wriggling wantonly against him and pressing her ass back against Holden. She opened her eyes.

“We’ve all made mistakes. I hid my relationship with Holden from you, Jens. But going forward, I want everything to be out in the open—no boundaries just as there aren’t in the bedroom.”

At the mere mention of the bedroom, a charged silence descended.

Jens ran a hand down her side, skimming her breast before settling on her hip. “I think we’d better get her home, Holden.” The men’s gazes connected, and in that look, Laurel knew all was healed.

“I’ll drive myself. Laurel, you stay with Jens.” Holden leaned forward and kissed her and then turned his mouth up to Jens’s. Before either of them could respond properly, Holden was bouncing out of the vehicle.

Jens stared into Laurel’s eyes for a long minute. The piercing blue was electricity bolting across a night sky. “I was so afraid I’d lost you both,” he murmured in a grating voice.

She shook her head and pressed her lips to the place in his throat where his pulse beat frantically. “Never. It’s always been the three of us, Jens. Without you, Holden and I can’t function.”

He placed his lips over hers, his tongue stroking hers in a maddening dance of promise. Her body pinged to life, but he set her on the seat beside him before she could do more than grind her pussy against his erection.

“Soon, darlin’. We’re only minutes from home, and then I’ll spread you out on our big bed and make love to you with Holden at our side.”

She grinned, light entering her shadowed soul once more. “I’m counting on it. But first you have to tell me why you keep showing up smelling of perfume.”

Emotion roiled through Jens’s system—relief that Laurel and Holden hadn’t eloped, arousal for the reunion to come and mirth at Laurel’s perfume question.

He pinched his shirt and pulled it away from his body, giving it a big sniff. “It’s that damn Belinda woman from town. Every time she sees me, she has to hug me.”

Laurel stared at him levelly. “O-kaay,” she drawled. “Why are you running into her so often?”

He snagged her off the seat and plopped her onto his lap once more. “You can’t believe I’d ever cheat on you, darlin’. From the start, I’ve made my intentions clear concerning you.” He skimmed the outer curve of her hip, his cock leaping in his jeans at the feel of the decadent swell. Burying his nose against her throat, he inhaled deeply. “It’s always been you, Laurel. Belinda is nothing but a fly buzzing around the wrong man. But she has been a help to me the past few weeks, gathering data about the Ransom property.”

“Which is now ours.”

“Thanks to you and your ability to charm Robbie Breaker.”

She threw her head back and laughed hysterically. “If that’s what you want to call it.”

“I do.” He swirled his tongue over the place where her pulse beat erratically, making her squirm. He groaned. “All right. Let’s head home. Holden’s waiting for us.”

His cock twitched again at the thought of his other lover. When they’d embarked on this journey to share Laurel, Jens had never imagined he’d wind up in bed with his best friend, let alone experiencing the same emotions for Holden as he possessed for Laurel.

He needed Holden in his life in the same way he needed her. They were a unit—and hopefully now they were unbreakable.

As Jens guided the truck home, lurid images flitted through his head. Of Holden on his knees, sucking Jens’s cock. Of Laurel pinned between them, her body linking them. He could nearly smell the musk of their lovemaking and see the golden rays of light after the rain slanting across the bed, making their skin glow.

By the time he drove beneath the arch at the end of the driveway declaring it was the Rope Burn Ranch, Jens was aching. Throbbing. Unbelievably aroused.

If he didn’t get them all in bed soon, he was going to roar his need to the brilliant sky.

Laurel fairly hummed with pleasure as they stopped in front of the house. Jens shot her a grin and she returned it with an excited one of her own. He jumped out of the truck and ran around to her door before she could open it.

The screen door banged, and Holden drifted onto the porch in only his jeans. His strong chest rippled as he moved, and he was even barefoot. Jens grasped Laurel’s hand and towed her quickly up the steps and into the house. As soon as they entered the cool living room, Holden wrapped his arms around them and shoved them both against the wall.

His gaze locked with Jens’s. “I’m sorry, man.”

“Me too. For all of it.”

“I say we go upstairs and show each other just how sorry we are,” Laurel suggested.

Holden ducked his head and captured her lips. Inches away, Jens watched the dance of their lips and tongues. Need boiled in his gut, and he could stand it no more. He leaned forward and added his mouth to the mix.

A groan echoed between Holden and Laurel as Jens traced his tongue over their lips. When he pressed his tongue into Laurel’s mouth and met Holden’s within, Jens nearly came undone.

Gripping Holden’s nape and twisting his fist in Laurel’s long, dark hair, he drew on them, nipping their lips and sucking their tongues until they were all quaking.

“Upstairs,” Holden moaned, scraping his rough jaw over Jens’s.

“Mmm. Better carry our girl, Holden. She looks pretty dazed.”

Holden swept Laurel into his arms, and Jens led the way to the bedroom.

He shoved the door open, visions of Laurel’s messy room flitting through his memory. Now that they had her in their house with them, she’d made an effort to keep her belongings in order. But there had been a few times that Jens had teased her about a growing pile of discarded clothes on the floor.

The inviting bed beckoned to them. Holden fell into it with Laurel, stretching atop her and rocking his hips into the V of her legs with a growl.

Jens stood at the side of the bed near her head, holding her gaze as he began to strip. As each piece of clothing fell away, Laurel’s eyes grew more hooded and the depths more blurred with desire.

“I’m in charge,” he said.

Holden grinned, not arguing with Jens’s authority in the bedroom. He pushed off Laurel and knelt over her. Together, Jens and Holden stripped her.

Each tiny scrap of skin revealed ignited Jens further. She reached for his belt and he jerked his hips back, out of her reach. “Patience, love. Remember?”

She made a quiet noise of agreement and fell still, allowing them to bare her completely.

The sweet scent of her body wash filled the air, comingled with Holden’s personal cologne. The scents sent dark tendrils of lust through Jens’s consciousness.

For a long minute, he stared at Laurel’s body. Every curve enticed him, her nipples straining and deep rose. The patch of curls on her mound pointed to her glistening folds.

“Part her for me, Holden.”

Holden lifted his gaze and they exchanged a knowing look. Gently, Holden used his fingertips to press her pussy lips back, exposing the soaking center of her. “Sweet Jesus. We’re dead men,” he said in a guttural voice.

Jens ran his tongue over the roof of his mouth, practically able to taste her juices. Quickly, he removed the rest of his clothing and gave a nod to Holden to indicate he should strip out of his jeans too.

They stood side by side, their cocks distended and pointing toward Laurel. She reached for them and wrapped a hand around each shaft.

“Fffuck.” Jens could barely contain his want. But he’d be damned if he was going to prematurely ejaculate. He was in this for the long haul today. No one was escaping this room without several orgasms.