Take Her to HeVan (Nephilim Book 6) (19 page)

Even though she didn’t mean it when she said he was going to carry all of the groceries, he wouldn’t let her help. He had her wait in the truck as he loaded up.

When they arrived at the butcher’s, who should she run into…Jake. Well, it was a small town. Once again, he was all smiles. “Hello, Marla. I hear congratulations are in order. Is this your new husband?” he asked with a smirk.

Marla knew what that smirk meant. She was more determined than ever not to let him get away with his plans. “No, Karlo is back at the ranch. He’s making sure we don’t have any more problems. This is Charl Darvik, his older brother. Charl, this is Jake O’Brien, another local rancher and neighbor of mine. I’ve told you about him.”

“Yes, the man who has no honor. I will remember his face,” he said, looking Jake over from head to toe as he held the door open for Marla to enter the store.

Marla had trouble holding back a laugh. “We are in kind of a hurry. We don’t want the groceries to spoil. Have a nice day,” she said before going inside. It was an added bonus that both Karlo and Charl were taller than Jake, and better looking, too.

Jake’s smile grew tight as he watched them go inside. “We’ll see who has the last laugh, bitch,” he said under his breath as he stalked over to his truck.

Later that evening, while the guys were cooking dinner, Marla went online to look up the rules about annulments. Then she looked up what constituted proof of service. As she read, the wheels turned and ideas started coming to her. She was smiling again when she went in to dinner.

Saturday afternoon when Deputy Sheriff Jim Tucker arrived, Karlo and Charl had already left the barn and were helping with lunch. They had decided to grill on the barbeque because it was an especially warm day, and from her shopping the day before, they had plenty of steaks.

Karlo and Charl were manning the grill. Marla chuckled as the two of them argued over the best way to grill the steaks. Of course, they helped whenever she asked them to, but they were practically gleeful when they found out lunch would be cooked over an open flame. Any hint of danger and they jumped in with both feet. Marla figured it just proved that men were men all across the universe.

Deputy Sheriff Jim Tucker arrived right on time. The four of them sat down to rib-eyes cooked to perfection, homemade mac-n-cheese, a large spinach salad, and asparagus. For drinks there was lemonade and beer.

Marla had a specific reason for inviting Jim to lunch, but she didn’t want to bring it up right away. He and Karlo had developed a friendship over the last two weeks. She was hoping it would pay off now.

When they finished eating lunch, Marla brought out the apple pie she had made.

“Okay, apple pie. Now I know you’re buttering me up. What do you want?” Jim asked.

“Can you keep a secret?” Marla asked.

“Of course! I keep secrets for a living,” Jim answered.

“We didn’t give you this meal just to get your cooperation. The meal was because you’re our friend. I figure we’ll get your help because it’s the right thing to do and you’re a Deputy Sheriff and you like doing the right thing.”

Between Marla and Karlo, they filled Jim in on everything that had happened and what Jake O’Brien had been up to.

“So basically, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to have Jake served. It has to be someone over eighteen years of age who’s not connected to us. Well, you probably know the rules of service better than we do. I know Jake’s mom has been visiting him and she’s planning on leaving on Wednesday…”

Jim sat back in his chair and roared. He got what she intended right away. Everyone in town knew how scatterbrained Mrs. O’Brien was.

“So, will you do it?” Marla asked.

“Oh yeah, I love it. I wish you hadn’t let those two guys leave town. I’d like to build a case against Jake for his actions against you. The arson carries the stiffest penalty of all the crimes you’ve told me about. I think you’re right about the water rights, too. I may have to do some research on that. It may increase the level and severity of the crime. Take it from a misdemeanor to a felony.”

“Mr. Edwards has their depositions. When you pick up the papers to serve to Jake the snake, you can get copies. I’ll call him to give my permission,” Marla said.

“Great. Now that business is taken care of, let’s get back to Saturday afternoon,” said Karlo.

“Yes, Karlo and I wanted to know if you would explain something to us,” said Charl.

“Sure, what do you need?” Jim asked with a smile. He took another swig of his beer.

“We would like to understand fantasy baseball and fantasy football. We understand the sports, how they are played. We just don’t understand how this other works,” said Charl.

The three men started talking and Marla left them to it. She had her own plans to put in place. As she cleaned up from lunch, she let her mind wander to the evening ahead. She cancelled the plan of them going out to a restaurant. After the incident at the butcher shop, she didn’t want to leave the ranch unguarded.

Instead, she was working on a special romantic dinner. After cleaning the kitchen, she went upstairs and drew herself a bath. She hadn’t let the guys sleep with her last night. She had built up this night in her head, and she wanted everything to be just right.

Her nerves had been jumping ever since the bed had been delivered. Karlo’s embarrassing her had just added anger to the mix. Still, Marla was determined to have this night the way she wanted it, on her terms. Staying in control was how she intended to protect her heart, though it was really too late.

She already loved Karlo when they had gone to get married. For the past week, she had been falling in love with Charl too. He and Karlo had proven to her that they weren’t going to be jealous of each other. Tonight, she was going from having a regular man-woman sex life, to sliding into unconventional territory by having sex with two men.

Sex with two men wasn’t something she’d ever written in her diary. Except for the dream the other night, which was probably a result of those hormones the guys told her about, this was going to be her first foray into kinky-land. Was it any wonder she needed a long relaxing soak in a hot tub?

Downstairs, the guys finished their foray into the world of fantasy sports teams and said goodbye to their friend. Karlo headed out to check on a diagnostic he had set up that morning on the shuttle. Charl went to find Marla.

Charl didn’t know what to do. He’d heard her in the tub and he knew behind the door she was naked. He didn’t feel he could go into the bathroom; Marla deserved her privacy. At the same time, he didn’t want to leave. She might fall and need him to help her, so he went over to the bed and then sat down on it to wait. In a short time, he heard the water turn off and then after a few moments, the door opened.

Marla wrapped a towel around her head and another around her body. She liked to sit on her bed as she smoothed lotion over her limbs. The one great thing about having a lover was being able to have lotion spread over those parts of her body she couldn’t reach. It was one of the things she’d missed this past week. Opening the door, she halfway expected Karlo to be there. She halted in the doorway when saw Charl.

Charl noticed her hesitation and his heart fell. “Sorry, I’m interrupting. I’ll go.”

As he started to rise, Marla suddenly didn’t want him to go anywhere. “No. I don’t want you to leave. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

Moving into the room, she walked over to her dresser and picked up the large pump bottle of body lotion. As she walked back to the bed, she handed it to him, then took the towel from her head. After giving her head a final rub, she placed the towel on the bed and then sat down on it with one foot tucked under the opposite thigh.

She decided to be bold, after all she’d had sex with this man. She opened the other towel and let it fall behind her. She turned to Charl and held out her hand. “Would you pump some lotion into my hand?”

Charl held out the lotion bottle over her hand. Before he depressed the pump, he looked Marla in the eye. “Would you grant me the privilege of smoothing this lotion over your skin?” he asked.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she said in a husky voice.

Placing her hands behind her hips, she leaned back and then straightened her legs so they rested in his lap. Outwardly, Marla was acting seductively, while inwardly she was second guessing every action and was amazed at her behavior. Could she be this person she was pretending to be for more than a few minutes? Was this the new Marla Jones? Did she really want to try to have a relationship with two men or was she leading him on?

Charl put a small amount of lotion in his palm and then placed the bottle on the bed. He used his hands to warm the lotion before picking up one leg and started smoothing the lotion over her shin down to her foot. He was moisturizing her skin, not giving her a massage. Still, he used many of the techniques of the
Kuan Haddis
, or female pleasure massage, as he went along.

They both were breathing a little heavily when he reached the juncture of her thighs. Marla had stopped holding herself up when her arms shook a little. She was now lying on her back with her eyes closed. He passed over her core and moved up her abdomen, over her breasts, and down one shoulder to work on her arm. After finishing her arms, he had her roll over.

Since she wore her hair so short he was able to put lotion on her neck and shoulders as well as down her back. He thought she was perfect. Soft white skin so fair, he could see the veins just underneath the surface. And yet, she was also strong. He’d run his hands over every muscle and tendon. He adored her back, flowing strong and smooth down her spine to the two little dimples at the base just before the landscape rose up over the round globes of her gorgeous ass.

He was working lotion into that most perfect ass when Karlo opened the door. He was balancing a tray of food in one hand as he held the door with the other.

“Oh, man, what a lovely sight. I’m sorry I missed lotion time,” said Karlo.

Marla slowly lifted her head up off the bed. She felt so decadent being catered to by these two men. “A woman could get used to this kind of service,” she said as she sat up, swinging her legs around to hang over the side of the bed. When she looked at Karlo’s face, she realized subconsciously she was testing him again. He didn’t seem jealous or angry about his brother seeing her naked or touching her.

“We intend for you to enjoy this kind of service so much, you’ll want to keep us around forever,” said Charl.

“It really doesn’t bother you. Even though I love you and we were going to get married, I’m finally starting to believe it,” she said to Karlo.

“Honey, when we were young men, we were genetically altered to have the same chemical reaction to females. With the current ratio of males and females on HeVan, only a few make a
Join
and all Joins are with multiple
Ankida
. We’ve grown up knowing we’d be the luckiest of men to find the one woman perfect for us with whom we could share as our join. On HeVan, it’s not uncommon for a female to have three
Ankida
,” Karlo said.

The two men urged her to sit back against the headboard. When she started to pull the sheet up and tuck it under her arms, Charl gently tugged it back down. “Would you deny us the pleasure of looking at you?” Charl asked.

A deep blush rose from her chest and up over her face. “I’ve been making all sorts of plans for tonight. It’s one of the reasons I took that bath. I’m getting ready for tonight.”

“I like this self-confident woman I’m seeing,” said Karlo.

“I may seem self-confident, but I’m still shaking inside. I’m going to start shaking on the outside if I don’t put something on; it is cold in here,” she answered them.

“It seems a shame to cover up those beautiful breasts. I suppose we must, though. We don’t want you catching cold,” Karlo added. He walked over to her closet and pulled out her robe.

“Thank you for understanding. I really want tonight to be special. I’m not trying to be a tease or anything.”

“We don’t see it as teasing. We see it as foreplay. We also have plans to make this a special night,” said Charl.

“You go play with your shuttle. I’m going to start dinner. I’m also going to set up some stuff up here so no peeking, okay?”

“Okay, honey,” said Karlo.

Both of them kissed her until her knees went weak and then they left. Well, it was only fair. She got them all hot and bothered and they had just returned the favor.

Since they had such a heavy lunch and since Marla was planning on having a very physical evening and night, she planned their dinner accordingly. She made seafood pasta Alfredo with a Caesar salad. For dessert, she had a lemon meringue pie ready in the refrigerator.

The guys came in to shower and get ready while she was setting the table.

“Why do you have the plates on opposite sides of the table instead of at the end as you usually do?” Karlo asked.

“Because I want us to be able to see each other clearly during dinner, and if we’re sitting opposite each other, we can. If we’re too close, then you’ll be touching me all the time and we won’t talk. We’ll be lucky if we even finish our food,” she said