Shoulda Been a Cowboy
Cam followed him and petted Gracie as they watched Brock load up. “Drive safe, buddy.”
“I will. Thanks for letting me crash here.” Brock grinned. “Thanks for letting me fuck your girlfriend.”
“You’re not welcome to her ever again.”
“Good. Tell her how you feel. Go all caveman on her ass. At least one of us has a chance at being happy. Do something crazy and impulsive for once in your life.”
***
Cam was on his way to work when Keely’s F-250 extended cab diesel truck blocked him in. “What’s up, sis?”
“Can’t a girl stop by her favorite brother’s house and tell him she misses him?”
He snorted. “What do you want?”
“Nothing. I’m headed to Cheyenne. I wondered if you needed anything from the VA while I’m there.”
“No.” He squinted at her behind his shades. “What’re you doin’ at the VA again?” For the last couple years Keely spent at least one week out of every month at the VA in Cheyenne, but she never divulged the details to anyone, which was completely unlike her.
“Moonlighting. They’re short staffed and I’m short on cash so it’s a perfect partnership. I work PT two days this week, then I’ll be back.” A weary sigh escaped. “I sure am tired of living out of a suitcase with Mom and Dad while I’m working out the details of going to work for Doc Monroe.”
“Sucks to be you.” Now he knew what was behind her impromptu visit.
“Cam, I’m just gonna say this flat out. Please let me live with you until I get my own place. I’d pay rent. I’d cook and clean and—”
“Keely, darlin’. Stop. I love you. But it won’t work. I need my own space.”
“Space to do what? To keep your family out? How long are you going to make Mom and Dad and our other brothers suffer and hope you’ll pull your head out of your ass and join the goddamn family again? How much longer are you going to wallow in misery? Jesus. Why don’t you build a fuckin’ moat to protect yourself from us? Do you really need this much space to hide in?”
No, I need it to fuck in was on the tip of his tongue but he bit it back. “That smartass answer ain’t helpin’ your cause, little sis.”
“Sorry. But—”
“But nothin’. I’m not exactly a hermit. I am seeing Domini. And Brock crashed here last night—”
“Brock was here? Really? How is he?”
“Good. Why?” With Keely’s suddenly chipper disposition, followed immediately by her hesitation, Cam guessed the truth. “For Christsake! You slept with him!”
She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel—the adult equivalent of jamming her fingers in her ears and singing la la la.
“When?”
“Cam—”
“I don’t believe this. Jesus, Keely! He’s like, ten years older than you. He’s my best friend and you…what the fuck were you thinking?”
Keely lowered her sunglasses and glared at him. “I’m thinking I’m not twelve, Cam. Yeah, Brock and I made mattress angels when he visited you in Cheyenne. I could bullshit you about how we comforted each other because we were torn up over your situation, but the truth is…Brock is really freakin’ hot. He’s sweet and sexy and I like him a lot. I trusted him. It sort of just happened. We both knew it’d never go anywhere, and I have not a single regret.”
Brock and his sister. Surreal.
“Please don’t go all psycho big brother on him and threaten to kick his ass or anything, okay? I know he’s your best friend. I would never do anything to sabotage that friendship because I know how important it is to both of you. Which is why neither of us said anything.”
“Fine.” He pointed at her. “But this is the reason you can’t live with me.”
“Because I slept with Brock?”
“No, because your behavior drives me insane. And my house is the one place where no insanity exists.”
“You suck.”
“Yep.” Cam smiled. “Drive safe.”
“I always do.”
Her tires spit gravel for twenty feet before the rubber caught pavement.
Safe. Right. Keely was a menace. He oughta write her a damn ticket.
***
Domini was restocking the pie case after the lunch rush when Deputy McKay strolled in.
Normally he’d wave off the waitress and head to his favorite booth if it was unoccupied. Not today.
Today Cam strode directly to her. The gleam in his eye was unmistakable.
No hello. No smile. Cam just planted his lips on hers and kissed her with passion, hunger and total possession.
In public.
The only place they touched were lips and tongues until Cam reached for her hand, sweeping his ragged thumb across her knuckles. Domini’s knees threatened to buckle. This man could undo her with a simple touch.
Finally, he eased back and smiled at her. “Hi.”
She blinked at him. Their faces were close enough his breath teased her damp lips. Seeing such pleasure in his eyes, his smile, even his posture, made her throw caution to the wind. She returned his kiss with the same potent lust.
Cam’s growl was too low for anyone else to hear, but to her it sounded as loud as a lion’s roar.
Domini broke the kiss in tiny nipping increments. She smiled up at him. “Hi yourself. What are you doing here?”
“I needed coffee.”
“Have a seat and I’ll bring you a cup.”
He squeezed her hand. “That was a lie. I needed to see you. I need to talk to you.”
Her stomach cartwheeled like a tumbleweed. “About?”
“Last night.” Cam tossed a look over his shoulder. “Is there someplace more private than the dining room?”
Domini glanced around. Only three tables had customers, but everyone was watching them. The rumor about Cam’s surprising public display of affection would fuel the gossip fires all day.
“Can’t this wait?”
“No.”
“My office is in the back, but I’ll warn you it’s the size of a coat closet.”
“That’s fine.”
She stopped at the waitress station and poured two cups of coffee, handing one to him. They wove through the cardboard boxes of produce stacked in the prep area. She unlocked her office. “I’ll get another chair.”
Cam pushed the door closed. And locked it. That unholy gleam was back in his eyes. “No need. I’ll sit in the chair. You sit on the desk facing me.”
His posture read: don’t argue. Domini shoved aside the papers littering her desk and kicked the chair against the wall giving them both room.
But after Cam’s ass hit the seat, he rolled the chair up to the desk. Right into her space. He didn’t touch her. He studied her intently as he nonchalantly sipped his coffee.
“What? You’re making me nervous.”
“Are you okay after last night’s threesome?”
She blushed.
“Does that blush mean you’re not okay with what happened?”
Domini focused on him, but his eyes were flat, as if he were interrogating a suspect. “If I wasn’t okay with it what could I do about it now? It’s over.” Her hands tightened on the coffee mug. “Unless that’s why you’re here? You’re wanting to demand a three-peat?”
“Fuck no.” He gulped his coffee and set the cup aside. He curled his hands around her knees. “After you left I wondered if the situation with Brock bothered you…if I’d gone too far because you practically ran out of my house when it was over.”
“And if I say yes, you’d gone too far. What then?”
“Then I’ll ask your forgiveness and assure you it won’t happen again.”
The conversation sent a jolt of power zinging through her. Rather than remind him she’d already confessed she wasn’t a threesome girl, Domini decided to do something bold for a change and…toy with Cam a little. Make him sweat. She gazed at him with aloofness, casually finishing her coffee. “And if I say…no? If I admit I liked it? What then?”
The muscle in Cam’s jaw popped he’d clenched his teeth so hard. His nostrils flared. His eyebrows were squished together. Yet for all his agitation, the pressure of his hands on her legs didn’t increase at all.
When he didn’t respond, Domini prompted, “What then?”
Cam inched toward her. “My answer is still no. Fuck. No. I had plenty of time to think about it, too, and know what I’ve determined, princess?”
Holy moly. Maybe she shouldn’t have taunted him.
“I don’t like to see another man’s hands on you. I don’t like to see another man’s cock in you. Last night with Brock I realized I don’t like to share, especially not you. And you don’t need two men in your bed to satisfy you. You need one man. Me.” He pushed out of the chair and crowded her. “Any questions?”
Was the thrilling sense of belonging only to Cam McKay…wrong? If so, too bad, Domini absolutely gloried in it.
“I said, any questions?”
“No.”
“Good. Now c’mere. I’ll make you forget every man’s touch but mine.”
Cam’s mouth was hot and controlling. He clamped his hands on her behind, yanking her forward until barely an inch of her butt cheeks rested on the desk. He broke from marauding her mouth to demand, “Undo your pants.”
After loosening the drawstring, the white chefs pants were baggy enough Cam easily snuck his hand inside.
He lightly traced the seam of her panties before his fingers slipped beneath the lace band. He parted the wet folds of her sex and probed her entrance with one finger, then two. “I love how fast you heat up for me.” He pressed his fingers deeper and trailed openmouthed kisses down her throat. “I love to make you come. I wish I had time to spread you across the desk and lick away all this sweet cream. Make you come against my tongue. Then I’d do it again, making you wetter and hotter. Making you come over and over until I had to carry you out of here because you couldn’t walk. I’d carry you straight upstairs to your bed and fuck you until you screamed.”