Page 24 of Rope Me, Cowboys

“No,” he admitted with a grin.

“I asked Holden, but he changed the subject,” I said. “So tell me. What’s the big secret?”

Sawyer squinted at the fire for a minute, then nodded. “I guess you deserve to know, seeing as how Mrs. Grimes is probably going to make a fuss about what she saw.”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“We had a…a woman living here,” he said. “For a while. Our grandpa was real excited to have all four of us living in the cabins. He lived in the big house. When he passed, we lived out there still. Waylon brought his woman out here to live in his cabin with him. But one day, she up and ran off with another man. We haven’t had another lady living out here since.”

“Who’s the four of you?” I couldn’t help but gulp at the thought of one more irresistible cowboy stepbrother. “Is there another brother I haven’t met?”

Sawyer’s voice went hard. “And you won’t meet him.”

“Because he’s the one who ran off with Waylon’s girlfriend.”

Sawyer nodded. “He’s been a little jaded about women ever since.”

“And what about you?” I asked. “You don’t seem jaded. You’re as much of a catch as Waylon.”

“Why, thank you, ma’am.”

“Come on, tell me,” I said, leaning over to press my shoulder against his solid one. “I’ll tell you my relationship status if you tell me yours.”

“We don’t get out a lot,” he said. “It was hard having a woman around and not having certain thoughts about her. I’m not good at hiding things. She knew it probably before I did. And she flirted with all of us, pitted us against each other. Things were a mess for a while when she left.”

“Holden liked her, too?”

Sawyer nodded. “The three of us who were left decided we were brothers first and always would be. Nothing will ever come between us again, not a woman, not money, not anything. We decided then to live here in this house together. There’s no jealousy about whose cabin is better, where a woman is sleeping, or who gets more land now that our granddad is gone. We’re not splitting the land and each taking a piece. We share everything. We have to agree on everything or it doesn’t happen. And that includes bringing a woman here to live. If one of us doesn’t like her, if she doesn’t get a unanimous vote of approval, we stop seeing her.”

“Wow,” I said. “That’s a lot to expect of a woman. She basically has to meet the standards of all three of you. No wonder you’re all single.”

Even though I wasn’t a woman they were interested in, I felt a rising resentment that they had to have such high standards. Good thing I wasn’t trying to impress them. If I was, I’d be shit out of luck, because Waylon had to think I was beyond stupid. He probably couldn’t wait to get rid of me.

Sawyer shifted and adjusted his jeans, pulling at the knees. It drew my attention straight to his crotch. I could see a bulge in his jeans that made me gulp. “What about you?” he asked. “I told you my story. What’s yours?”

I gave him my cheekiest grin. “I’m single,” I said, stifling a yawn before snuggling down under the blankets. “Ready to get some sleep?”

20

Amber

I woke up when Sawyer began to stir. We were lying on the floor, the pillows surrounding us, both under the same blanket. The fire had died down to nothing, and the wind had fallen silent. And something huge and hard was pressed firmly against my ass.

I peeked over my shoulder and saw Sawyer still asleep, his arms cocooning me in their warmth. The decent thing to do would’ve been to slip out from under the blankets and politely pretend I didn’t feel his cock give a throb against my backside. But I’d never been a decent girl.

I wriggled my hips a bit, pushing back into his lap. My god, that thing felt enormous! So enormous that I decided to investigate. I slipped my arm back and slid my hand down between us, my fingers wrapping around his thick shaft. Even through his jeans I could tell he was bigger than anything I’d ever encountered.

He moaned and pressed his hips forward, pressing his cock into my hand. Well, then. Maybe I’d met one brother’s standards. I couldn’t resist giving him a little squeeze, then running my hand up the length of his cock to the head. I moved it to one side, away from the zipper, and started tracing the outline through his jeans. He groaned again, his arms tightening around me, his hips pushing forward against mine.

I pulled my hand away and arched my back, nestling my ass down into his lap. His breathing went deeper as he pushed back, rocking his hips against mine. I couldn’t bear all the clothes between us, so many layers. In that exact position, but naked of course, he’d be ready to slide that enormous cock right into me.

But I heard the shower running upstairs, and footsteps walking across the floor, and I knew the other guys were getting up, too. I didn’t want to miss my chance to get to know him in one more way. I could make him forget all about that Maria bitch. And the truth was, I wanted to forget Charlie, too. Now that I knew Sawyer a little, I figured he’d be the guy to help me do just that. He was fun and hot as hell. Out of all the guys, he was the one most likely to overlook the small fact that our parents were married.

“Sawyer?” I whispered. “Should we take this upstairs?”

Sawyer rolled away, his eyes fluttering open. He looked at me like he’d never seen me before. But then his eyes cleared and he smiled. “Amber,” he said. “Guess I got you warmed up.”

“You have no idea,” I said.