Unbridled and Untethered [The Double Rider Men's Club 10] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
Authors: Elle Saint James
Tags: #Romance
The Double Rider Men's Club 10
Unbridled and Untethered
Emma Rae Madison wasn’t looking for one man, let alone two. After meeting Zeke Traynor at Clayton Forrester’s Double Rider Men’s Club security fortress by mistake, she’s intrigued and wary. The first time Zeke sees the girl of his dreams, he can’t resist her. But Clay won’t introduce them.
Zeke finds her later on at his bank, but before he learns her name, the bank is robbed at gunpoint. He takes a bullet saving her from a robber’s immoral intent.
Luke Benton was convinced a woman didn’t exist for them. Until he meets Emma Rae over Zeke’s hospital bed. He recognizes her as the one they’ve searched for. Now to persuade her.
While Zeke recuperates, Luke woos Emma Rae. When the three come together, it’s pure magic, and she agrees to move in. When she fetches her things from home, she finds the escaped robber waiting to kill her. She’s the only living witness to his crime.
Genre:
Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length:
53,872 words
The Double Rider Men’s Club 10
Elle Saint James
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
UNBRIDLED AND UNTETHERED
E-book ISBN:
978-1-62241-010-1
First E-book Publication: July 2012
Cover design by
Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of
Unbridled and Untethered
by Elle Saint James from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Elle Saint James’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Saint James’s right to earn a living from her work.
Amanda Hilton, Publisher
To my wonderful husband, who keeps me tethered in reality, since I spend so much time in fictional places.
UNBRIDLED AND UNTETHERED
The Double Rider Men’s Club 10
ELLE SAINT JAMES
Copyright © 2012
Ryder, Colorado
Double Rider Men’s Club property
Emma Rae Madison brushed an errant lock of blonde hair out of her eyes, exhaled a long breath to dispel her unreasonable fear, and stepped across the threshold of Clayton Forrester’s well-hidden security fortress on the Double Rider Men’s Club property.
Clay beckoned her farther inside the shadowy entryway. “Thanks for coming, Em. I know you hate to make house calls. Especially late at night on a weekend.”
“Luckily, you pay really well, or trust me, I wouldn’t.” Emma Rae hated the dark. Hated it with all her heart and wounded soul. But she hadn’t been doing anything else on this Saturday night, and the financial boon he offered would be worth it. It wasn’t like Clay had interrupted anything important.
“Touché,” he answered with a sudden and very infectious grin.
Regardless of her disquiet, she allowed a very small tilt upward of her lips in return.
Clay was not only one of her very best customers, he was also a very good friend. Maybe even her best friend. She wasn’t sure if
he
knew this, but one of these days perhaps she’d get up enough nerve to tell him.
Her exclusive, one-employee-only business was all about fixing computers. Hardware, software, or a combination of both, she loved working through computer problems to restore balance.
There were those who thought she communicated with computers better and more easily than with humans. That was likely true. Good with computers since she was old enough to type at a keyboard, Emma Rae was sought out by many local businesses as an excellent problem solver for various hardware and software integration issues. She’d only been in Ryder for a little over a year but already had amassed a decent client base who kept her in the black as far as her small business and her singular needs were concerned.
Few if any knew she preferred the company of computers to most humans. Well, perhaps Clay did, but no one else.
To her way of thinking, machines never lied. Nor did they kick a person while they were down, dominate them, press their will on another, or worst of all lock someone fragile in a dark, suffocating place for two days. Her past was unfortunately littered with some very nasty men.
Her most recent messy, horrible breakup had taught her, among other things, that trust and sex didn’t necessarily combine well. She’d also learned that getting out of a bad relationship could be as difficult and even more painful than staying in it. She still believed this more than a year later.
The move to Ryder had freed her from the likelihood of seeing her ex around the town where she used to live. Emma Rae knew he wouldn’t ever leave the area, so it was left up to her to go when she got tired of
running into
him everywhere. Because he had a prominent family with deep roots in the community and she didn’t. She was alone.
Regrettably, she’d learned that very important relationship lesson
more
than one time. After her last boyfriend had been such a bastard, Emma Rae had been overly cautious about getting close to any man since. Occasionally, she looked, but she by no means ever touched or got involved. Maybe never again. She was lonely, sure, but not enough to change her life or test another man only to discover she brought out the ultimate beast in his personality.
Emma Rae found much-needed control and satisfaction working with computers and software. A control that hadn’t ever translated well to her private life. It wasn’t that she needed to be controlling or always in control, but she hated being told what to do. Someone’s idea of “what was best for her” didn’t often set well in her bones. It engendered resentment. Hers. Unfortunately, she’d found out the hard way that
some
men don’t like being told no for any reason.
While she appreciated that Clay was very attractive, very tall, very muscular, and very easy to look at, he wasn’t a future love interest. Most importantly for
her
personal fears to be eased, Clay had a sad and even more tragic former love life than she did. She didn’t know all the details, just that he’d lost someone he’d loved. Therefore, they simply remained good friends. That was all.
Through her initial application for employment, she knew he completely understood her disastrous romantic past. He was gracious enough not to speak of the details. She also knew he’d never cross a romantic line with her. Emma Rae depended on that line. She valued Clay as her one, if not her very best, friend in the world.
She hitched the wide leather laptop-bag strap a little higher on her shoulder and entered into the plain room serving as the entrance to what she’d once referred to as Clay’s
security lair
. The long-ago label, issued during their first meeting over a year ago, had made him crack the first of his very rare smiles.
The yawning, dark corridor ahead made her hesitate. She allowed Clay to lead the way, even though she knew exactly where they were going. She didn’t want to take a step toward the blackness without an escort. An unreasonable fear, but one she lived with every day.
Damn bastard men from my past.
Clay moved silently down the corridor, and Emma Rae kept pace with him but also stayed out of arm’s length. Her trust issues were very deep seated.
Clay didn’t like to have anyone in this fortress. She knew this to be fact. As his good pal, she felt honored that he allowed an outsider, like her, entrance. It was a protected sanctuary she was in awe of. He had marvelous, high-end computer equipment, both software and hardware. And she felt safe here with him. No other man in her past or current lonely life could claim that privilege.
“So what’s the problem I’m looking at tonight?” Emma Rae asked to keep from worrying over the darkness of their surroundings. Trusted friend or not, she still hated the low light.
“It’s the recent surveillance-system software upgrade I installed. It all updated without a hitch except that the picture totally sucks.”
“And what have you already tried?”
“I tried everything that I know how to do already, but I can’t get the resolution on this security camera system to upgrade beyond the grainy crap you see in cheap cameras from twenty years ago. I must have put in a wrong parameter in the set-up language or the like, but I just can’t find it. I’m tired of searching, since I know you’ll be able to find it in five seconds and put me out of my misery.” He started walking toward the darkness where his security room was located.
