“We’ll even help you hide the body,” James offered helpfully. “A body can get lost on this land.”
“I don’t deserve you.” But she would take him and Noah and whatever family they were blessed with.
James looked deep in her eyes. “I have a past, baby. If I haven’t fucked up quite as much as you and Noah it’s only because I didn’t have time to. I’ve made a mess of a lot of things in my life. I should have gone after my brother, but I let my stubbornness cost us.”
“He’s also slept with half of Southern Colorado,” Noah supplied.
James slapped at his brother and then looked back down at her. “He’s right. I’m not pure, baby. I’m not some perfect man, but I promise I won’t touch another woman after you. I don’t give a fuck who was in your bed before us, but from now on, it’s me and Noah. We’re your men.”
He took her hand and started toward the bedroom.
Hope followed, reaching behind for Noah’s hand, leaving her past behind for good. Now there was only her future ahead.
* * * *
Noah’s hands were shaking as Hope led him through the quiet house where he’d grown up. He knew every floorboard and wall of this house. Every inch contained a memory. There wasn’t a room in the house where he couldn’t remember his parents or some blissful piece of his childhood. Even the bad times now held a certain bittersweetness, as though time and age had taken the poison leaving only the beauty behind. Yes, there had been hard times in this home, but each one had been met with his parents’ grace, his brother’s steadfastness. Though Noah had been born somewhere else, he couldn’t remember that place. The Circle G seemed like the only home he’d ever had, as though his life hadn’t begun until he’d walked onto this land.
And it had ended when he’d left.
He’d been a dead man walking, a ghost trying to get back to life and failing until one small woman turned her eyes to his.
He loved Hope.
James opened the door to the master suite, the one their fathers had renovated to share with their momma. An aching sweetness pierced him.
“Do you remember standing outside in this hall, giggling?” James asked. He stared at the room as though he could see their parents in there once more, loving and laughing and building a home for them.
Noah missed them with his whole heart, but they were still here in every board and wall, in every acre. “Well, they made an awful lot of noise, brother.”
Hope laughed. “You two would listen to your parents making love?”
Noah nodded, the memory coming to him. “It was hard not to, darlin’. Sometimes we could even hear them down the hall. When we got older and it was just gross because parents shouldn’t do that sort of thing, we would blast music. Our dads were always going after Momma. They were crazy in love. Twenty years they had together on this earth.”
James became solemn. “And forever. They have forever.”
Forever. It was all he could ask for. More than he deserved.
James walked through the door and sat down on the huge bed that dominated the room. So much of it had been left untouched, a shrine to the love that had surrounded Noah and his brother all their lives. Three dressers and Momma’s hope chest. Three rocking chairs and Dad’s bookshelf. Papa’s cowboy hat still hung on a hook near the closet.
“This is our room now. We’re going to fill it with love the way they did. You remember what Dad did after their wedding?” James turned his head slightly and looked at Hope. “We weren’t there, of course, but he told us all about it. Dad and Papa gave us the speech about sex. And then they told us how they felt about our momma and what words they used on their wedding night because sex, they said, went far beyond bodies.”
Noah nodded and reached down, shoving his arms under Hope’s knees, hauling her high on his chest. He loved the weight of her in his arms. He carried her over the threshold and to the bed where his brother waited. “Jamie and I loved this story. Papa carried Momma over the threshold, and Dad was waiting for her. Papa sat her on Dad’s lap and told her something nice.”
He settled Hope onto James’s lap, his brother’s arms going around her waist.
James held her close. “He said this is our home now. This is our place, and we will never leave it again. Our bodies can walk around, but our hearts and souls are here. Always.”
“Always,” Hope said, tears in her eyes. “I love you, James. I love you, Noah. I love you both so much.”
She loved them. The words threatened to unman him utterly. She loved him, and she loved James. The family Noah had longed for was within his grasp. The ghost that was Christian Grady still lingered, but it was easy to brush him away for now. They would have to deal with him. If he’d truly fled the area, Noah would find a way to hire a private investigator to track him down. He wanted that man out of Hope’s life permanently, and he would find a way to do it. He looked at his brother and could see plainly that James was thinking the same thing.
They would deal with Christian Grady, but tonight was all about Hope.
“Kiss me, baby.” James leaned in, and Hope’s arms floated up to circle his neck. She pressed her mouth to his.
James waved his brother toward the nightstand. Of course. They would need a few things. Noah opened the small nightstand drawer and found a box of condoms and a tube of lubricant. Yep. His brother was always prepared.
James and Hope kissed as James’s hands pulled at her shirt, exposing creamy skin. Noah placed the items on the table and couldn’t help but reach out and touch her shoulders. Such delicate muscles and bones to have had all that weight pressing on them. Hope had been drowning for years, but she’d fought her way back. She’d clawed and sacrificed, and she deserved the best life he could give her. They could give her.
Noah pushed her soft hair to the side and knelt down. James had gotten the buttons undone, his tongue still tangling with hers. Noah pulled the shirt away and the bra that came after. He ran his hands all along the skin of her back, memorizing its feel and the dips and hills of her flesh and bones. He marveled at the fact that he had a lifetime to get to know this woman, to adore every inch of her, to leave no piece of her unloved.
He kissed his way down the length of her spine, reveling in the way she shivered at his touch. Her skin was heating up, and he would bet once he got that dowdy skirt off her that her pussy would be wet, creamy, and tangy with juice. She was ready for them. She was ready to truly become their woman. Though they had each had her, knew how sweet she was, until they had taken her together, the promise remained incomplete.
“Come on, baby,” James said, finally coming up for air. His face was flushed and his voice hoarse with arousal. “You don’t need this skirt. In fact, you never need clothes in this room. This room is our world, and you don’t need to hide yourself here.”
She laughed a little, the sound a balm to Noah’s soul. The whole time she’d screamed and cried, he’d felt pieces of himself breaking with her. He’d held her so tight as though she might float away on a sea of pain, but she’d come through it, and now she was laughing. She was okay because they were together.
“James, it gets cold here. I think you should know better than anyone what a Colorado winter is like. I can’t run around in the altogether.”
James put a hand on her breast, and when Hope gasped, Noah could bet on exactly what his brother had done. A little nipple tweak could bring a sweet sub back in line. If she misbehaved too much, he would clamp those sweet nipples and his baby would feel the burn. And it was time to back his brother up.
Noah hardened his voice, using his best Dom tone, the one guaranteed to have his sub’s eyes widen. “You heard what he told you. No clothes in our bedroom. You’re allowed to get dressed and undressed, but if you’re spending any amount of time in here, your lovely skin is the only cover that’s required. And we’ll keep you warm, darlin’. You won’t need anything but your men to keep you warm. And trust me, there will be nights when you aren’t allowed to wear clothe
s anywhere in this house. When we’re alone, you’ll sit at the dinner table in one of our laps while we feed you and feast on the sight of your gorgeous body.”
“What about the two of you?” Hope asked, her voice a little shaky as James set her on her feet.
Noah took the opportunity to slip his fingers under the waist of her skirt and drag it off her body. She slipped out of the skirt and immediately put her arms over her chest.
Not happening. It was time to start making things clear to his almost wife. He pulled her hands to her sides. “No covering up. And we’ll get undressed soon enough. But god, Hope, I think Jamie should be dressed most of the time. I can handle it when we’re making love to you, but I do not want to see that on a regular basis.”
His brother shot him the bird, one side of his mouth tugging up in a sarcastic grin. “Fuck you, Noah. I sincerely hope the years have taught you proper grooming techniques. The last girl we shared begged you to shave down there.”
“Really? You really had to go there?” Was nothing at all sacred in this house? Sometimes Noah thought the other partners of this town had it easy. Though he hadn’t known them long, Noah would bet Alexei couldn’t tease Caleb about his youthful grooming habits.
Hope held her hands up, laughing. “Stop, both of you. I can plainly see that I’m not just the wife, I’m the referee. I’m starting a support group with Rachel Harper. You two are as bad as Max and Rye. Fine, I’m naked. Someone better start kissing me. And I mean now.”
James came to stand beside Noah. He slid his brother a long look. “That sounds awfully bratty. She’s going to be demanding.”
Noah loved the way Hope’s skin flushed. She was obviously still self-conscious, but that would be gone soon. No amount of sex would ever take her innocence away. It was a lovely part of her soul, and Noah would kill to protect it. “She’s going to learn her place.”
Hope gasped, an irritated little sound. “And just where is that?”
“Between us, baby,” James said, taking over where Noah had left off.
“Always between us,” Noah finished.
It was his turn. Noah let his fingers skim across her skin, starting at her shoulders and settling finally at her waist. He pulled her to his body, her skin against his denim and the cotton of his shirt, but nothing could mask the heat of her or the hardness of those nipples against his chest. James crowded her from behind. She was caught in between them, and they would never let her escape.
“I think I can handle that,” Hope said, her voice breathless.
Her hands were on Noah’s waist, and she slowly let them drop to cup his ass. Noah’s cock responded with a twitch as she pulled him close. Message received. She would give as good as she got. She would be strong enough to handle them both. And that was a damn fine thing. Noah didn’t want a woman he could walk on. He wanted a woman he could walk beside. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t put up a bit of a fight.
“Darlin’, you are itching for a spanking.” He loved slapping that glorious ass and watching it get hot and pink. He’d thought he would die while he’d watched her with James. He’d stared at Trev’s wall of perversion and wondered how fast he could work her up to a paddle or a flogger. He would spank her until her cunt was dripping with cream, and then he would fuck that pretty ass of hers.
“My bottom is still sore from the last spanking,” she whispered, her brown eyes wide. The little hitch in her voice made Noah remember how she’d whimpered every time James’s hand had struck. How would she take to the St. Andrew’s Cross, his whip whispering across her back?
Noah bit back a growl of frustration. He had to take this slow. He couldn’t let his fantasies take over. This was about Hope. He had to remember that. There would be time later to introduce her to such pleasures. “Then you should obey us both for the next little bit or your ass will be a whole lot more sore. Darlin’, when we’re in this room and we’re making love, you’re our sweet little sub.”
James shook his head. “And we both know damn straight that you’re going to give us hell outside this room, so we demand some submission, because I get the feeling it’s going to be me and Noah who are your slaves outside of it.”
Hope’s head fell back, rubbing against James’s. “Yes, James. That’s what you like to hear, right? Yes, James. Yes, my Noah.”
Yes. For so many years, he’d heard “no” and “don’t” and told himself the same thing. But now he realized that Ally could have told him yes a thousand times and it wouldn’t have meant a damn thing because she hadn’t been Hope. Hope, with her soft eyes and strong heart, was the one for him.
He’d finally come home.
“Noah?” Hope looked up at him, her brown eyes sympathetic.
“I love you.” It felt so good to say the words. They felt right.
He’d said them before, but he’d been a silly child. He’d been searching for something, and he’d said the words in the hopes that he could find it. The words weren’t a road map, but a destination. Hope had always been his destination, the end to his searching and the beginning of his life as a man. The boy who had fought and clawed in a fit of jealousy and self-absorption had to go. Noah had to be a man because he was going to be a husband. Hope’s husband. His brother’s partner.
He could never, never let them down.
“I love you so much, Hope. You’re going to marry Jamie, but I’m going to be your husband, too. I’m going to love you until the day I die and long after that.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “And I’ll be wife to you both. Oh, I’ll be the best wife, Noah. James, I’ll try with everything I have. I’ll give this marriage and this ranch everything I have.”
“Baby,” James said, his arms hugging her from behind. “Noah and I are going to take such good care of you. We won’t ever let you down.”
Never again. He wouldn’t let either one of them down ever again.
Noah tilted her chin up and took her mouth, molding his lips to hers. So soft. He sank his hands into her hair and let his tongue surge inside. Hope’s mouth opened beneath his, her tongue dancing. He kissed her over and over, reveling in the feeling. He loved the little sounds, her gasps and moans. His cock was practically begging to be released, but he wanted this to last. This was the first time. Oh, he’d had her before, but this was the first time they were complete.
And there were several things he wanted from his wife-to-be.
He delved into her mouth one last time before reluctantly letting her go. James’s hands were on her breasts, cupping her, his fingers playing with her nipples. They were swollen red berries as James pinched and pulled at them. Noah had the sudden urge to taste them.
“Her tits are so beautiful,” James said, his hands offering them up.
Noah took the bait, not for a second willing to let the chance get by. He dropped to his knees in front of her and leaned forward. Her nipple lengthened as though there were a magnet between her breasts and Noah’s mouth. Noah licked at it, brushing the areola with his tongue. He flicked at the hard bud and was rewarded by Hope’s moans as she struggled against James’s hold.
“You be still, baby. Noah wants a treat. You’re our treat, and you’re going to let us have you.” James’s arms were a cage holding her still for Noah’s delectation.
God, it was good to have a partner again. Noah gave in and gave Hope what she wanted. He pulled her nipple into his mouth and sucked. He tugged at the nipple, laving it with his affection before letting it go and starting the process all over again with her other breast. He could smell her cunt, a soft, tangy scent that had his cock aching. He sucked on her nipple and let his hand find her pussy. Sure enough, she was slick and wet, her folds swollen and wanting. He ran his hand across her labia, skimming her clit.
“Noah, please, please.” She was still in James’s arms, but her voice was shaking.
“Nasty old Noah is giving you a hard time, baby.” James chuckled against her neck. “Let me make it worse.”
His brother’s ha
nd slipped down her torso, joining his own. James’s fingers caught her clit, and Noah knew just what to do. He pressed the petals of her pussy apart and slipped two fingers up her cunt.
“Oh, oh,” Hope cried out. She tried to move, but James held her torso, and Noah wrapped his free hand around her waist. There was nowhere to go, no relief from their torment until they decided to release her. Hope was trapped, and that was where Noah wanted her to be.
“Give it to her, brother. We’re going to make her come all night long. Now’s as good a time to start as any,” James vowed.
Noah worked his fingers up, hooking high into her cunt, seeking that magic place that would make her go off like a rocket. The muscles of her pussy gripped him, fighting his fingers. He slid in and out, fucking her with his fingers as James milked her clit.
Hope’s whole body shook as she came. A delicious rush of cream coated Noah’s fingers.
“What do you say, Hope? What do you tell your men after they give you an orgasm?” James asked.
“Thank you.” Her voice was sweet and a little dreamy, her eyes soft and languid.
Noah reluctantly allowed his hand to slip from her pussy. He brought his fingers to his mouth and sucked them inside. She tasted so fucking good. He loved her scent and the tangy cream that coated her sex. He licked off every inch of her arousal, reveling in her taste.
“We need to get her ready.” James’s voice sounded guttural. “I’m going to work on her ass. You need to try her mouth. Oh, she’s got the sweetest mouth.”
That sounded just about perfect to Noah. His brother was practically reading his mind. “On your knees, darlin’. James is going to get your ass ready. We’re going to take you together.”
As it should be.
He took her hand and helped ease her onto the floor. Her body seemed soft, and now that she’d had an orgasm, she complied without a single complaint or worry. She got to her knees, her head coming up and those eyes looking at him. He felt twelve feet tall when she looked at him.