Lasso My Heart (5 page)

“And this automatically is my heat? You couldn’t have possibly pissed off your wife on your own?”

Tipping his head back to stare at the windows set high in the barn walls, he sighed heavily. “I do plenty, especially lately. I’ve been working so hard I’ve ignored her. And she…needs more.” He sounded as though he’d joined Tucker in swallowing that hay and chased it with a gulp of embarrassment.

“Needs more…” Tucker echoed.

“Yeah. I’m goin’ inside and spend time with my wife.”

“You do that. I’ll take care of putting the animals to bed.” Tucker gained his feet and stuck out a hand to Josh.

He took it, and his friend launched him to his feet. With their hands melded together, it was all too easy to remember how perfectly their cocks had fitted together a few minutes before.

Josh gave his hand one hard squeeze and let go. “I apologize for this.”

“Don’t worry about it. Go take care of Dixie. I’m sure she’s worried.”

“See you before dawn. We’ve got those horses to work.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to be.”

As Josh returned to the house, he knew he’d made the right decision in bringing Tucker on. It would just take some time to settle into a routine.

And time to stop lusting over the rough and insanely fucking hot cowboy who knotted him up inside.

* * * * *

Though his room was far from Josh and Dixie’s, he swore he felt their bed bouncing. If Josh didn’t have that luscious woman spread-eagle on their bed, eating her pussy like a champion, he was no kind of man.

But Tucker knew better too. Josh was an alpha in bed. Hell, he’d felt the bruises from Josh’s thorough sex for months after he’d walked out of his life.

His cock was impossibly hard—harder than it had been since those early days with Josh. Their first encounter had been all fumbling hesitation. Sloppy kisses, disjointed movements as they pumped their own cocks. But their second time that night had bound them. Each look, caress, lick and stroke had been made with one purpose—to give each other pleasure.

Tucker was man enough to admit he’d been in love with Josh. Neither of them had put voice to their relationship, though. There was no need.

Now Tucker wished to hell he’d told Josh. Maybe if he knew how Tucker had felt, he wouldn’t have ever suspected him capable of telling Dixie.

Fighting with Josh raised a deep ache inside him. He rolled onto his back and stared at the overhead fan whirling in the darkness. Sleep had never been further away. He was too hot, too antsy.
Too hard.

Sleeping naked had one advantage—easy access. He took his cock in hand, and Dixie’s face loomed in his mind’s eye.

God, she was another big problem. Tucker remembered too well how the gorgeous little country girl looked when she came. Lips parted, breasts rising and falling with her labored breaths.

He groaned as he slid his cock through his fist. Deep need made his muscles tense as he rocked his hips upward. Josh was such a lucky bastard to have put his ring on her finger. When Tucker dreamed of the future, there was always a woman just like Dixie at his side.

Fucking hell, to bury his face in her hair and sink into her tight, wet pussy was a fantasy he could grab onto with both hands.

His cock lengthened another fraction, and he issued a harsh groan as lust mounted. Mind swinging between both of his former lovers, he rolled his cock head through his fingers and fondled his balls with his other hand.

Maybe he could get them out of his system with a few spurts of come. He stroked faster. Pre-come oozed from the tip, and he envisioned Dixie’s little pink tongue lapping it up. Then the strong pulls of Josh’s mouth as he sucked him dry.

“Ffffuck.” He rocketed upward. For a dizzying second, he hung suspended between fantasy and reality, wanting both lovers equally.

Then he tipped over the ledge. Jets shot over his fingers and abs. His rough growl filled the room, and satisfaction spread through his limbs. His legs relaxed on the mattress as he continued to lightly stroke himself. The aftershocks shouldn’t arouse him but they did. In seconds he was as hard as ever.

I guess I won’t get them out of my system so easily.

He began to stroke.

Chapter Three

Dixie stood at the kitchen sink, peeling potatoes into a slop bucket for the pigs. The spring breeze circulated through the open window and door, bringing the scent of fresh-cut hay.

She dragged in a deep breath. Having Tucker here was definitely turning out to be a good thing for the ranch. They were accomplishing more and taking less time doing it. But Dixie couldn’t help but feel a little edgy.

If Josh discovered that she and Tucker had been lovers, he’d believe she’d hidden it from him. She needed to tell him, but doing so now was like loading a weapon. She despised arguments above anything. She adored her husband and hated seeing him unhappy.

At least Tucker had been taking some pressure off Josh, though. He’d had enough energy to enjoy her dropping to her knees and sucking his cock.

She picked up another potato and began to peel it. She didn’t mind having two hungry men to cook for, but she wasn’t entirely sure that Tucker was the best choice of ranch hands. He definitely crowded her mind with old memories. And he was too damn hot for her peace of mind in those low-slung Wranglers and hat tipped down over his smoldering eyes.

A step sounded. She looked over her shoulder and stopped dead.

The knife clattered into the sink, and the potato thumped alongside it. She whirled to face two tall, broad, shirtless cowboys. Her mouth dried out as she looked between tanned muscle and abs glistening with sweat.

Visions of being trapped between both bodies jumped into her head. Her pulse took off at a fast gallop, and she had to lean against the counter to keep from falling over.

“Time for dinner yet, darlin’?” Josh drawled.

She dragged her gaze up to his face, where a crooked, knowing smile spread over his rugged features. His blue eyes blazed from beneath the brim of his dusty hat.

Somehow she formed syllables. “About twenty minutes.”

In twenty minutes, they could have one hell of a good time. Her inner walls clenched.

“Mind if I have some sweet tea while we wait?” Tucker asked.

She turned her attention to the other stunning specimen standing half-naked in her kitchen. Tucker’s chest bore a tattoo of a bucking bull with a rider folded in half atop it. Beneath it was a blue banner with “8 seconds” in scrolling letters. Where his jeans had slid down his hips, a paler band of flesh drew her gaze. Apparently he didn’t work or ride bulls butt-naked.

Her cheeks heated as she realized she was staring at another man’s body intensely. She dragged her gaze to Tucker’s face and managed to wave at the refrigerator. “Help yourself.”

She reached into the cabinet nearby to fetch two tall glasses. Josh drifted across the kitchen to crowd her against the counter. As he leaned over, her breath hitched and her nipples pebbled. A dozen dirty scenarios played through her head—Josh lapping a trail up her inner thigh to her soaking center as Tucker suckled her breasts. Kissing them both, three tongues entwined.

One cock in her ass and one in her pussy.

Oh God.
What was wrong with her? She handed Josh the glasses, which he carried to the fridge.

She watched him and Tucker move together as if they’d done this a million times. Ice was dumped into glasses. Tea poured. When Josh handed Tucker his glass, their fingers brushed.

Brand new pornographic thoughts exploded in her mind.

She spun back to the sink and started peeling potatoes with record speed.

“Whoa, look at her go. If there was Olympic potato peeling, Dixie would win a medal.” Tucker leaned against the counter a few short feet from her. If he reached out, he could grab her.

And Josh’s thigh was solid against her on the other side. Inside she felt shivery-hot. Feverish.

She was losing her damn mind.

She whizzed through the last of the potatoes and dumped them all in a pot with water. Once she had the potatoes boiling on the stove, she had nothing left to busy herself with. The roast was out of the oven and the vegetables prepared.

“The smell of that roast is turning my stomach inside out.” Josh rubbed a hand up and down his ridged abs, sending her into another tailspin of desire.

Their gazes locked. In a heartbeat, she transmitted that she wanted him, and he responded with lowered eyelids.

When Tucker shifted from boot to boot, the moment was broken. Dixie gave him an awkward smile that fell right off her face when she noted the bulge in his jeans. A very big, prominent bulge.

He caught her looking but didn’t move to block himself. He just leaned against the counter unapologetically displaying his arousal.

She didn’t want Tucker—that horse had long since left the barn. But having a beautiful cowboy in her kitchen with a hard-on was equivalent to kicking back with a porno.

Her husband wasn’t paying attention to these things sending Dixie’s libido into overdrive, though. Josh turned to Tucker and they began to discuss the number of bales they’d put up today. Then her husband’s voice faltered. He twisted his face away as if he couldn’t bear to look at Tucker.

Crap, he must have noticed Tucker’s erection too. Was he going to take him outside again? She was no fool—she knew they’d gotten into a physical fight the previous night. When she’d tried to ask Josh about it, he’d shut her down quickly, and she hadn’t tried again. But the knuckles on his right hand were slightly swollen.

She needed to talk to Tucker alone and set things straight between them. He had to understand that he couldn’t think of her sexually anymore. She was a married woman, and his evident lust wasn’t going to earn him a position on the ranch for very long. Josh would send him packing.

Pressing her lips together, she busied herself with gathering dishes and setting the table. It didn’t help her deep-seated ache to find the men watching her every move. Damn, her panties were wet and the sway of her hips exaggerated by how slippery she was.

As she pulled the veggie casserole from the oven, she heard a groan from behind her. She spun too quickly. The pan slipped.

And the dish hit the floor.

Squash and corn splattered over the kitchen floor, up the cabinets and onto two sets of cowboy boots. She followed the mess upward to see Josh and Tucker’s legs covered in casserole.

“Shit, it’s hot.” Josh shook his leg, but Tucker was much less controlled. He stripped his jeans down to his boots so fast she had to blink to make sure she’d actually seen him drop his pants. Apparently he’d learned how to do everything quickly and efficiently in the rodeo.

“I’m so sorry.” She rushed forward with a kitchen towel to wipe at Josh’s legs and Tucker’s boots puddled with fabric.

She glanced up at lightly furred, muscled legs. Jerking her gaze aside, she found her husband standing in his boxers too. Boots hit the floor and the twin
clink
of belt buckles was too much for her.

A shudder of desire rolled through her. With her senses so heightened, she had no idea how to continue making dinner or even cleaning up.

“Let me get this, darlin’.” Josh came to her rescue, taking the towel from her hand and starting to clean the chunks of squash off the floor.

Tucker picked up both pairs of jeans and took them to the screen door. As he disappeared onto the porch in his trim black underwear, she was damn glad they didn’t have neighbors. He shook the jeans into the yard, giving her a hell of a show of rippling back muscles.

“It’s all right, Dixie. We can eat the vegetables off our boots.”

“Oh God.” She plastered a hand to her face and tried to swallow her small moan that was half mirth, half despair.

Tucker returned in time to send her whirling another direction. He laid the jeans over the back of a chair and crossed the kitchen in nothing but his underwear and socks. He started opening drawers, looking for something to clean up.

“Third drawer,” she and Josh told him at the same time.

A wave of heat washed over her, and she slumped into a chair to watch the show. Hell, she needed popcorn and jujubes. They worked as if they were in the barn, not half naked in her kitchen.

When they squatted together to pick up more casserole, their thighs touched.

Oh my God.

They looked up at her, and she realized she must have made some noise.

“Did you get burned, darlin’?” Everything about her husband made her realize she was wearing far too many clothes. His pose, his direct gaze…she wanted to straddle him and ride him long and hard into the night.

She shook her head. Tucker rose to his feet and walked to the sink to drop some casserole into the slop bucket. “The pigs’ll eat good tonight.”

“It’s a shame we won’t get any,” she said.

“There’s still a little in the pan. A few bites for each.” Using the towel, Josh picked up the dropped dish and carried it to the table.

Dixie started to get up to check on the potatoes but Tucker was quicker. He nudged back the brim of his hat to peer into the pot. “A few more minutes.”

She plopped back into her chair. In the back of her mind she knew she should get up and help, but the view was so pretty from here. Josh came to stand beside Tucker, and she almost swooned.

From cowboy hats to bulging calves, they were the stuff of fantasies. Her pussy was soaked and a dark burn had taken up permanent residence in her lower belly.

“Little longer,” Tucker said.

“Hand me that fork,” Josh said.

Tucker did, and Josh stabbed a potato. “Yeah, few more minutes,” he agreed. “How’s a man who’s been ridin’ bulls for five years know anything about cooking potatoes?”

Tucker threw a look over his shoulder at her. Her stomach bottomed out as she realized where he’d learned to cook—at the restaurant where they’d both worked that summer.

She let her gaze skitter away from his intense stare.

“Let me by you. I’ll slice the roast.” Josh elbowed Tucker, and her attention was drawn to the place where his manly arm glanced off Tucker’s hard body. Her mind was on a dirty carousel ride, bobbing up and down, spinning past lewd images.

She blinked, and the men separated, Josh to slice the roast and Tucker to wash his hands. When Tucker turned back, she noted a red blotch on his shin where the boiling-hot casserole had burned him.

Gasping, she went to him. “You’re burned.”

He looked down, down, down his own body and stuck out his leg to examine it. “Nah. It’s nothing.”

“It’s starting to blister.” No wonder he’d stripped down fast. Hot squash and corn casserole was like hot tar, scorching through denim. “Let me get some balm.”

She left the room, and their quiet voices followed her. She had no idea what they were saying but was nosy enough to want to. Hurrying back with a tube of salve in hand, she found Josh draining the potatoes. Steam enveloped him, making his skin shimmer with dew.

Mouth desiccated all over again, she battled for her bearings. Then Tucker came close, bringing his rich male scents. He propped his leg on the chair, and she smeared some balm on the red spot.

“That does feel better. Here too.” He pointed at a spot higher on his thigh where more hot food had splashed.

Touching her finger to his bulging muscle—a mere foot from his cock—was insane. And fun.

When she’d finished and looked into his face, she caught his bemused smile. Memories hung thick in her mind—of Tucker smiling at her exactly this way right before he caught her and pinned her to the wall of the restaurant where they’d worked. He’d been a damn good kisser.

Josh swooped in and kissed her right behind the ear. The sensitive spot he called his own was an immediate trigger, and her body went haywire. She grabbed him around the neck before he could move away and kissed him.

Hard.

Passionately.

Grinding her body against his, she was aware that Tucker was watching. Somehow that aroused her more. Josh plunged his tongue between her lips, drawing her onto tiptoe against his hard cock.

When they tore away, they both looked at Tucker. The man’s eyelids were lowered over his smoldering stare. His chest worked, and his hard-on was obvious to both. “Keep goin’,” he drawled. “I haven’t watched anything that good in a while. No cable.” He winked.

Chuckling, Josh led her back to the table and made her sit while he and Tucker served the food. Once they all were seated, she relaxed. They ate and talked and took turns scooping small bits of casserole straight from the dish as if it were an appetizer the three had agreed to share.

But Dixie was still burning hot. If someone didn’t douse her soon, she feared she’d join the cowboys in stripping down to the buff.

* * * * *

Training horses to work cattle was a never-ending job. Today Josh wanted to work a four-year-old gelded who hadn’t been quite trained up before Josh had bought him off a neighbor.

He needed some leg control. The horse also had a tendency to fire too hard and quick and he’d miss the cow.

As Josh got a bridle on him, Tucker came into the round pen to pat the horse’s sleek brown coat. “Pretty horse. Young’un?” When Tucker looked directly at Josh, a spark lit inside him.