Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
“My father’s family ran a small cattle ranch. My dad didn’t work it. He was a salesman. Mom was a stay at home, but they would send us both out to the ranch on weekends and summers, and Grandad would teach us. He was an old man and bitter because he missed our grandmother so much, but he did what he could,” Bay explained.
“Teaching us how to work the ranch was how he showed he loved us. I don’t claim my father, but I loved my grandfather,” Shane admitted. “The time we spent at the ranch was heaven for me.”
“Why didn’t you stay?”
“He was too old to handle a kid, and by the time I wasn’t a handful, I realized I needed to stay home.” Shane’s voice was so steady.
Bay’s fingers found her hair, and he moved them along her scalp. “He didn’t go live with our grandfather because he thought if he did, my mother would take out her rage on me. And he was probably right. I know I’m the artistic one, but Shane knew how hard it would be on me when he was ten years old. He made the choice to take the abuse so I didn’t have to.”
“Stop,” she said, unable to simply sit there. Did they think they could tell her all of this and she would just… Emotion threatened to overwhelm her.
They weren’t party boys. They might tease her brothers and be assholes from time to time, but wasn’t everyone? They were real men with real problems, and so far they had treated her like she was made of gold.
They treated her like she was the one who got all the affection and comfort, and she didn’t have to give it back unless it was sexually.
Both their hands came off her like the well-trained Doms they were. Even though they hadn’t gone over their limits or set hard rules, she knew she could trust them.
It was herself she didn’t trust, but that didn’t mean a thing right now. What mattered was what they’d gone through.
What Shane had done for his brother.
Sometimes words failed and all a person had was touch. She stood and she saw Shane’s face fall as though he thought she was rejecting them.
She moved to him, putting her hands on both his shoulders and then lowering herself onto his lap so she was straddling him.
His expression relaxed, and his hands found her hips. “You’re not disgusted by my childhood.”
“By how you were treated? Absolutely.” She studied him for a moment. He looked a lot like his brother, but there were stark lines in his face that seemed softer on Bay. Like life had carved him up in a way it hadn’t Bay. She ran her hands over his hair and watched him. She couldn’t imagine how sweet he would have looked as a child, how vulnerable. How he’d been forced to grow up quickly, and even at a young age he’d made choices to sacrifice for the brother he loved. He was a good man. She leaned over and kissed him, bringing their mouths together in the connection she didn’t even know she’d been looking for.
This time it wasn’t lust that moved her body. It was something more, something infinitely dangerous, but she couldn’t stop herself.
“Tell me you came here for this,” she whispered on his lips before running her tongue there.
He shuddered under her, fingers tightening on her hips, and she could feel his cock come to life. “We came here for you. We wanted to make sure you got dinner and had company if you wanted.”
“And we came here for this.” Bay pushed back her hair and kissed the nape of her neck, sending shivers down her spine. “We came because we can’t stay away now that we’ve had you, now that we know how fucking right this feels. Shane was nervous about telling you how we grew up. I told him you would never think less of him. I told him I was the one who should be worried. I was his older brother.”
This was the way to talk. With their hands on her, with knowledge that they were together and connected, at least for now. For now she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t fighting some good fight she couldn’t win. She was riding a wave of feeling, and they were right there with her.
She didn’t have to think about the future, but she had some things to say about their past. “You were a kid, too. Did you ignore what your mom did?”
“He fought for me. He put himself on the line for me,” Shane confessed as he ran his hands under her shirt. “When he was old enough, he explained to her that if she kept hitting me, he would act out. He would do terrible things, and everyone would know what an awful mother she was. Not because she hit me. Not because she couldn’t love me.”