Lily's Cowboys (5 page)

“
What does she expect? Barging in my room. Taking over my bathroom. Thrusting those lush boobs at me? Does she expect me to be a damn saint?” Cursing under his breath, he sat up and tried to adjust his wayward cock. He managed to finally get control of his enthusiastic cock long enough to struggle into a pair of jeans. Pulling on a thick sweater, he marched over to the windows and slammed them shut. He was lucky his balls hadn’t frozen. It had to be forty degrees in his room. Walking over to the bathroom door, he slammed his fist against it.

“
Time to come out, baby doll. You need to get your ass back to town. You’re fired.” Allen raised his fist to bang on the door again only to stumble forward when it opened first.

Lily ducked under the upturned arm pounding on the door and made for the bedroom door, her arms full of dirty clothes. She paused just long enough to grab the towel Allen had been wearing when he came out of the bathroom. Turning to look over her shoulder, she calmly looked him over from head to toe before replying, “You didn’t hire me so you can’t fire me. Besides I have a contract guaranteeing me three months employment with living accommodations before I can be dismissed. Lunch will be on the table in the kitchen in thirty minutes. I suggest you be on time.” Pulling the door open, she caught it again with her foot to close it. Shutting out any response Allen would have made.

Lily was shaking as she headed for the laundry chute between the bedroom and the kitchen. She started shoving dirty clothes into it as fast as she could. She even stuffed the pillowcase filled with empty bottles down the chute. She could sort everything out once she was down in the basement. Having cleared the mess in the hallway, she headed for the kitchen with the dirty dishes from the bedroom. She dumped the dirty dishes in the sink before turning to get lunch ready. Grabbing out sandwich fixings, she pulled the roast beef she had been cooking out of the oven and sliced it up for hot roast beef sandwiches. She set out some potato salad and ice tea. Even though it was cold outside she figured it was nice and warm inside, all except for Allen’s room. She would build a fire in the fireplace when she made up his bed. She was bent over half way in the refrigerator when she felt hands grab her from behind. Letting out a small scream, she hit her head on the shelf.

“
Ouch!” Turning she shut the door to the refrigerator and glared at Allen. “What do you think you are doing? You scared the daylights out of me!”

Allen hadn’t known what to say to Lily when she had made her little comment about not being able to fire her. It had taken him a few minutes to locate his socks and shoes before he had walked stiffly out of his room and headed toward the kitchen. When he had entered the kitchen the last thing he was expecting was to see her lush ass sticking up in the air begging him to move behind her. His wayward cock had sprung to attention again and even if his jeans did fit a lot looser than they did before it was still painful. It had been a year since he had last had sex and his cock was telling him it was wide awake, ready, and willing.

Allen thought about all the questions he wanted to ask the little spitfire staring up at him but every sane thought vanished out of his head when he caught a whiff of her. She smelled like spring flowers and chocolate chips cookies all rolled into one. Bracing his arms on each side of her head he leaned in, staring down into her dark blue eyes. For a moment he felt like he was free falling. His gaze moved to her lips and he couldn’t control the way his body jerked when she ran her tongue over her lips to moisten them. He had to taste her. He felt wild with the need to crush her to him and make her his.

Lily watched as Allen’s eyes glazed over. Frowning, she worried he was about to pass out on her. If he fell on her she would be squished! “Well, would you look at that!” She said hurriedly looking behind Allen.

Allen turned. By God, if his aunt was behind him he was going to let her have it. He wasn’t sure if he was going to let into her for distracting him from the kiss he was going to take or for bringing the sexy pixie into the house. Not seeing anyone he turned around to find Lily gone. Looking under his arm he frowned as he watched the backside of her disappear around the table out of his reach.

Lily took advantage of his distraction to duck under his arm and move around the table, setting out plates and cups. She needed to put some space between them. The man was positively lethal in close quarters.

“
What?” Allen demanded frustrated at Lily getting away from him again. He wanted a kiss. He needed a kiss. He was going to get a kiss before she walked out of his life if it was the last thing he ever did. That is, if he could catch her long enough.
Dammit
, Allen thought crossly,
he wanted more than a kiss
. He wanted to taste her so bad he felt like he was going to explode if he didn’t.
Here he was hard as a rock and she was busy playing Susie Homemaker
, he thought grinding his teeth together in frustration. She was acting like she was totally blind to the effect she was having on him. So help him, if his brothers had put her up to this he was going to kill them after he fucked her first though.

“
Why, it’s almost time for the men to come in.” Lily replied with a cheerful smile ignoring the glares he was sending her way. “You might want to sit down before you fall down. You look a little flushed.”

Leaning over the table, she gave Allen another eyeful of cleavage. “Here, take a plate and start building yourself a sandwich. I don’t expect there to be much left once the guys come in.”

Allen looked down at the plate she had thrust at him blankly. “What about you? Aren’t you going to eat?”

Lily laughed. “No, I’m full from taste testing everything. The joys of cooking are you get to taste everything first to make sure it is edible. The consequence of that is you get full and don’t want to eat when it is done. I have some things I want to get done. Oh, here they come. They’ll keep you company.”

Allen could only watch as the ball of energy who had swept him off his feet less than an hour ago swept from the room and down the stairs singing an old tune. He still never had a chance to ask if his brothers had sent her.

“
Hey, boss man. Good to see you up and about.” Clive said as he came in through the back door. He took off his hat and hung it on the hat rack next to the door.

“
Hey, boss.” Harold and Brad said in unison. Rubbing their hands together, they both had big grins on their faces.

“
Where’s Lily?” Brad asked. “Boy, this sure smells good. I swear I’m gonna marry the girl.”

“
You just met her this morning. How you know she is the one you want to marry?” Ed said in his deep, surly voice. Taking a bite of the sandwich he had made, he groaned, “Forget it, boy. I’m thinking she might appreciate an older man. One who can appreciate her fine cooking.”

Allen listened to the banter going back and forth about who was going to marry Lily. The only one who didn’t say much was Clive, probably because he was the only married one of the lot.

“
I’m gonna ask her out. Just to let you guys know.” Harold said. “She is the prettiest little thing I’ve seen in these parts in a while.”

Allen slammed his cup down on the table glaring at Brad and Harold. “No one will be asking Lily out or to get married or anything else. Where in the hell did she come from? Did Ethan and Caleb send for her?”

All the men stopped eating long enough to look at Allen. Brad asked curiously, “Why not, boss? You never minded before.”

Clive cleared his throat before answering Allen, “Naw, your brothers don’t even know about her. Maggie hired her after they left. Guess she met Lily in town last night and hired her. Maggie told me she guaranteed Lily three months living accommodations and salary. Maggie also told me to tell you not to scare Lily off ‘cause she wasn’t coming back until winter was over because it’s too damn cold here for her.”

“
Yeah, boss. Ethan and Caleb didn’t send for her. Maggie hired her. So why can’t we ask her out?” Harold asked. “None of you minded before as long as we kept it after hours.”

It was true some of the men had dated previous housekeepers. This part of Wyoming wasn’t known for having a surplus of females and the brothers had never put limits to the men’s personal activities as long as it didn’t affect what they did on the ranch. In the contracts the employees signed there was a sexual harassment clause that was carefully reviewed and the brothers let any man, or woman, know it would not be tolerated. At the same time, they could not say no if two consenting adults wanted to spend time together outside of work. None of the brothers had ever had a desired to date one of their employees before. It was just common sense as it opened them up to repercussions but Allen wasn’t thinking about repercussions right now; all he could think about was the pretty little brunette downstairs in the basement. How did he explain to them he wanted her for himself and would kill any man who touched her without sounding crazy?

Unable to think of a rational response, Allen glared at Harold and reiterated, “Lily is off limits.”

The look he gave the men brooked no more discussion on the subject and soon talk turned to what was going on around the ranch. Allen had forgotten how much he missed ranch life. He listened as the men talked about the new bulls Ethan had purchased for breeding, the expectations for the spring count, and the problems they had been having on the western side of the ranch with someone cutting the fencing. They were missing some cattle but it hadn’t been too big a deal yet. Caleb had taken one of the trucks and his horse, Buck, out and was staying in the old line shack to see if he could track what was happening. Throughout the discussion Allen’s mind kept turning to the beautiful brunette with her tantalizing lips, big blue eyes, and perky nose that twitched. Shifting in his seat to try to relieve the pressure in the front of his jeans he seemed to get every time he thought of her, he wondered again what she would taste like.

Lily listened for a while on the stairwell near the kitchen door leading to the basement. She couldn’t help but smile. This was the first step with Allen. She had wanted to get him out of his room. She knew if it was too cold to stay in it he would have to leave. The second step was to get him to eat some hot food with some good company. She could hear the interest in his voice as he asked questions about the ranch. She even heard a chuckle when Harold and Brad related some of the antics the new horses were getting into. Seems there was one horse who loved to steal food from another and another who liked to steal the blankets hanging around.

She moved down the stairs to get the laundry going. She smiled sadly when she saw the number of empty whiskey bottles. The smell was almost overwhelming. For a moment she was lost in another time when the smell of whiskey had been overwhelming. Brushing a stray tear, she carefully placed every bottle in the trash can. She walked up the basement stairs coming to the butler’s corridor leading to the kitchen and took the back stairs up to the second level. She still needed to clean the upstairs. She also wanted to spend some time exploring.

Allen wasn’t the only one who needed help according to Maggie. She had already learned a lot about the men but she felt she could learn even more from their personal space. There were four bedrooms on this floor according to Maggie. She walked into the first room and knew immediately it had to have been Allen’s. A huge king-size bed took up the center of the room. It was made from rich oak and stained a natural color. Along one wall there were pictures of his family hanging in a collage. She walked over to the wall and looked at them. There were pictures of him at different ages along with his brothers and his parents. Lily smiled when she saw the two tall men standing behind a beautiful woman in one picture. She saw the resemblance to Allen in one of the men. Moving from picture to picture, she could see the love shining through. There wasn’t much left in the room, a couple of nightstands and a tall chest of drawers. Opening a door, Lily discovered a closet filled with shirts and jeans. The upper shelf contained a few cowboy hats and there were several pairs of boots on the floor. Closing the door, she walked to the other side of the room and found a huge bathroom. It contained a sunken Jacuzzi and a shower almost as big as his closet with two shower heads in it. Obviously, big men needed big bathrooms, she thought with a grin. There was one huge window facing the mountains. Lily stood for a moment just enjoying the view before she realized she had better get busy if she didn’t want to really get fired.

The room didn’t take long to put in order since no one was staying in it. She quickly moved to the next room and decided it must belong to Caleb. It also had a king-size bed but the furniture was much darker. His room had a huge window as well. Caleb only had a couple of pictures, one of him and his brothers and one of his parents. She lightly ran her fingers over the picture. She had never imagined it possible to have not one, but two dads. His closet wasn’t as neat as Allen’s. Clothes were piled along the narrow shelves and a few were scattered on the floor. It looked like he had just tossed his boots in without looking. Shaking her head, she gathered up the clothes on the floor for washing and matched all the boots up neatly. Next, she turned to strip the bed. A shiver ran down her spine as she inhaled the masculine scent. Unable to resist, she buried her face briefly in his pillow. Something strange stirred in her. Almost like a need. She had felt the same thing when Allen had trapped her in the kitchen. She had never thought of herself as a woman with needs. Oh, she had wanted a family but realized it was not to be. She had never reacted to any other man she had met much less two of them. Glancing at the picture of Caleb’s parents she couldn’t help but let a wishful sigh escape her lips. If only…