Owned for Christmas (9 page)

“Stop it, both of you,” Kate screamed.

They ignored her.

This needed settling—and now. Daniel couldn’t take it anymore. The pain and distance Grant had already put between them, the hurt he’d caused Kate, before Daniel had even shown up, was inexcusable. And now he had the audacity to sniff around his girl as if he wanted her back.

It made his blood boil and he’d fucking had enough—of all of it. He was fucking sick of hearing how Grant had given up his life to come back to the ranch. That wasn’t Daniel’s fucking fault. Grant had chosen to do that.

Daniel leaned up on his knees, cocking his hand back to launch another punch, when freezing cold water showered down his back. It had dropped to the lower thirties that day and the forecast predicted snow tomorrow. Wet, it felt twenty below.

Daniel screamed out, rolling over, away from his brother, trying to escape the cold spray. Beside him, Grant bellowed, and Daniel smiled as the cold water drenched his brother too. He deserved it—and then some.

Grant shook his head, droplets flying everywhere from his long strands. “Why the fuck did you do that?” he shouted at Kate.

The urge to choke his brother rose up in Daniel’s body. He barely managed to push it down. How dare Grant yell at her like that! At least Daniel’s rage helped to raise his temperature a little.

“I don’t want any of this,” she declared, motioning between the two of them. “I don’t want you fighting, certainly not over me.” Her lower lip wobbled and her eyes glistened.

Daniel didn’t want to push her.

She sniffled then seemed to get control of herself. “If I’m coming between you two, then it’s better if I just leave.” She dropped the hose to the ground.

The thunk of the nozzle hitting the frozen ground reverberated through Daniel’s heart.

She turned tail and ran back toward the house, wiping at her eyes as she left.

Daniel lay there for a moment in the cold, dirty snow, stunned into stillness. Somewhere in the distance, he heard a door slam, but he didn’t register anything else.

She couldn’t leave. He couldn’t lose her. He’d never cared about anyone the way he cared about her. She was special, and he wasn’t about to let her go without a fight. Even if it was his brother Daniel was fighting.

“There are some towels in the barn.” Grant stood, heading toward the stables without a look backward.

Daniel rose too, following him. They walked to the barn silently.

If he lost Kate because of Grant, he didn’t know what he’d do. He might not speak to his brother again. Ever since their father’s death, everything between him and Grant had been strained. This fight over Kate might break that last tentative connection between them. If it did, he doubted they’d ever repair it.

The hay crunched beneath their feet as they walked into the stable. Daniel trailed Grant to the back room, where Grant hauled a fresh towel from a shelf. Daniel followed, tugging a towel off the rack and rubbing the warm, dry fabric across his head, wicking up the freezing water from his body. Though, amazingly, it didn’t make him feel any better. He still felt like shit. Slightly drier and warmer shit, but still shit.

Grant turned, his face contorted with anger. His knuckles whitened from twisting the terrycloth in his grip.

“
Fuck
!” He kicked the wall. He threw the bunched up towel across the room, continuing to holler. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” His brother slammed his foot into the wall over and over. The sound spooked two horses, both neighing in response.

“Grant,” Daniel bellowed. “Stop it. You’re going to break something.”
Like his foot.

“Did you hear her? She’s going to leave. She’s going to walk out on both of us because of all this fucking fighting.”

Daniel nodded. He’d heard her all right. Loud and clear. His gut twisted into knots from what she’d said.

“And what should we do about it? Are you okay with giving her up?” The ‘to me’ was implied but still made Daniel’s blood boil.

“Hell, no.” Daniel tightened his hands on his hips. It would be so easy to throw out his fist and punch Grant, again. But given how well that had worked so far, it didn’t seem the best course of action. “Why should I let her go? I’m the one who loves her. I’m the one who’s been there for her.” He took a step forward, invading his brother’s space. “You’re the one who left.”

“I know.” Grant looked down and, for a second, Daniel almost felt guilty. It was clear that his brother was hurting, that he regretted his decision. But then Daniel thought of Grant kissing Kate in this barn while he’d helped their mother prepare lunch. He remembered walking in on Grant pushing Kate up against the house and groping her luscious curves, and the anger inside him flared back to life.

“I didn’t want to. But I didn’t think I had a choice. Someone had to come back here and help Mom out.” Grant slumped against the barn wall. His words no longer held the accusation they had every other time he had brought up taking over the farm after their father’s death.

At the time, it had seemed natural for Grant to come home. He’d never completely left the ranch. He’d worked as a horse wrangler in Dallas. He knew how to manage a farm.

Daniel wouldn’t have even known where to start. He was a number cruncher who worked in an office all day.

And Daniel had mistakenly thought his brother hadn’t given anything up by coming home. He’d never mentioned a girlfriend. Grant had never brought Kate home to meet them, so Daniel had assumed he had no one special in the city. Now he could see he’d been very wrong.

“With Kate here, so close…” Grant ran his fingers through his hair, disheveled from its usual tight ponytail by either their fight or the hose. “It’s clear I can’t give her up. I never really did.”

Daniel dropped onto a hay bale not far from the door, continuing to rub the towel through his wet hair. “Well, I can’t walk away from her either. I love her.”

Grant paced back and forth, his strides long. For the second time, he raked his fingers through his hair so hard Daniel couldn’t believe it didn’t hurt. It probably did. Maybe that was the point.

After a minute or so, he stopped and looked over at Daniel, a slight smile on his lips. “Then we’ll have to share her.”

Daniel laughed. “Like a timeshare? You get Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’ll take Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and we’ll alternate Sundays.”

“No, like a ménage, idiot.”

Daniel stared at his brother, surprised that his jaw hadn’t hit the floor. Had his brother just proposed they both have sex with Kate at the same time? He wasn’t Amish. He’d seen enough porn to know the mechanics of what he suggested. But there had to be more to it?

“Have you ever shared a woman before?” Daniel knew his brother was into some kinky stuff, but his mind had never gone to anything this crazy.

“Never permanently. Only for a night or two. But I know a few people who have lived a ménage lifestyle long term and have been very happy.”

Daniel shook his head. Could his brother be serious? Daniel knew he’d always been straight-laced compared to Grant. His entire life he’d felt the difference. But this… This was much more than he’d ever expected to hear, let alone experience.

“You’re out of your fucking mind.” Daniel threw his towel on the floor, the soft sound it made hitting the wood planks not nearly satisfying enough. “We can’t share her.” He’d gotten two bloody noses the summer their parents had decided they had to share a bike before they’d finally broken down and bought a second one.

“No. I’m not going to share her. Not with you.” Daniel thrust a finger in his brother’s direction to articulate his points. “I didn’t leave her. I didn’t hurt her. You don’t deserve her.”

Grant looked back at him, surprised. He opened his mouth, as if he were about to say something, but Daniel didn’t want to hear it.

There was nothing he could say, no way he could convince him to embark on this crazy idea. Daniel turned on his heel, marching out of the barn and slamming the door behind him.

Daniel trudged through the field back toward the house, back toward Kate. The cool night air felt good against his heated skin, his anger taking far longer to cool than usual. His mind continued to whirl on a constant loop.

My brother is crazy. Really fucking crazy. We couldn’t do this. We couldn’t share Kate.
Just making the suggestion meant that his brother deserved to be carted off to the closest padded room. He’d just head back to the house and tell Kate…
Tell Kate what
? That she was staying with him. That she didn’t have a choice in the matter. He doubted that would go over well. That was if she would even listen to him.

His gut twisted. He could only imagine the pain on her face when he told her she had to choose between him and his brother, or walk away from both of them. Could he really do that? Cause her that pain? To be yet another man to put that mournful look on her face? As much as he might hate it, he couldn’t be that man. He wouldn’t hurt Kate—even if it meant tearing his own heart out.

He stared up at the sky, wanting to scream. He hadn’t asked for any of this. He just wanted a nice girl he could bring home to his mother. Now he had to decide between hurting the woman he loved by walking away or sharing her with his own damn brother. But it didn’t appear he had another choice.

A picture of Kate last night flashed before his eyes, her body pressed beneath his. Her chest rising and falling with her shallow breaths, her eyes dark and glassy. Her lips softly parted. Could he really live the rest of his life without seeing her that way again? No more watching her body flush with orgasm, or feeling her pussy clamp down on him as she came. Worse, could he survive without those soft smiles she gave him first thing in the morning before she was even completely awake, or the way her body curled into his at night, perfectly fitting her curves into his hard lines? What man walked away from a woman who had spent six hours making him an apple pie from scratch because that’s all he’d said he wanted for his birthday?

Fuck, he couldn’t. He couldn’t live without her. If he lost her after trying this at least he wouldn’t have to wonder what might have been. But if he didn’t attempt everything he could to keep her, he’d hate himself for it.

He was just as big a fucking idiot as Grant was—maybe bigger.

Daniel walked back into the barn, throwing the door open with force. Grant looked up at him, the surprise on his face almost as strong as Daniel’s shock that he’d returned to confront Grant. “You’re a fucking asshole for suggesting this.” Daniel pointed his finger at his brother’s chest. “You’re a real bastard for going after my girl—the girl
I
love.”

For a second, Grant looked as if he was about to argue with him, to fight for Grant’s side of the situation, but almost as quickly as his brother’s gaze filled with anger, it faded. Instead Grant turned, pacing back across the room, slumping his shoulders.

“You’re right. And I am sorry about it. I never planned for this. I never wanted to hurt either of you. If there was any other way…” His voice dripped with pain and guilt, and he swallowed audibly.

“If I thought she could be happy with just me, I’d fight for her until the day I died. But it’s not that simple. I see how she is with you. She needs you too. And I’ll do anything to be with her. Even share her.”

Grant’s apology and his sagged physical stance took the wind right out of Daniel’s sails. His brother wasn’t any happier about this situation than Daniel. But he was willing to try for Kate. He was willing to put himself at a disadvantage for this woman. Something Daniel had never seen him do before. Somehow, that provided Daniel with some relief. Maybe they could find a balance in their situation. Maybe, in
this
relationship, they’d be even.

“I don’t know how something like that would work.” Daniel leaned back against the stable wall. His voice trembled slightly and his stomach twisted at his admission.

His brother let out an exasperated breath. He ran his fingers through his long hair, pushing the strands back from his face. “I’m not exactly sure either.”

At least they were on the same level.

“But I know if we don’t figure it out, we’ll both lose her.”

Daniel couldn’t allow that to happen. He loved Kate, more than he’d ever thought possible to love another person. She brought him to life. His whole existence had been drab and gray before she’d entered it. He looked forward to their future and the life they’d have together. No one else had ever made him feel that way. He couldn’t give that up. Not for something as stupid as possession.

“What if Kate doesn’t want this?” He gestured in the empty air between them.

“If Kate doesn’t want both of us then we stop and she has to choose.”

Daniel nodded, wishing he were more confident she’d choose him. But he’d seen the look in her eyes as Grant had pinned her to the wall. This wouldn’t be an easy win for him—if it was a win at all—which was why he had to do this. He
had
to give this ménage thing a try. Losing Kate was too big a gamble to take without attempting everything else first.

He met Grant’s gaze with trepidation. “What do we have to do?”

Chapter Six

Kate folded a sweater, placing it into her half-packed suitcase on the bed. She had to get out of here and she had to do it now. She regretted skipping out on Gale and the massive feast she had planned for Christmas tomorrow. She’d write the woman a letter and let her know how sorry she was for leaving so suddenly—after Kate was home and her heart safe from the tug-of-war between the two men.

But right now, she couldn’t wait. She
had
to leave. She had to use all this anger and disappointment to propel herself into walking out before the guys came back and convinced her to stay. If she didn’t and she stayed, she’d be a goner. They’d tug her back and forth between them, forcing her to choose, forcing her to deny some part of herself, and she’d end up with another broken heart. Only this time there wouldn’t be a Daniel to come along and put her back together.

The door rattled and the knob turned. Panic flooded her system. Pulling the dresser drawers open, she scooped up the entire contents and tossed them into the suitcase, no longer caring about folding. She’d deal with wrinkles later.