Elite Dragoons 2: Nicole's Military Men (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “I’m sorry, too.” Nicole licked her lips nervously and then gripped his wrist. It took everything in him not to pull her into his arms and devour her mouth. “I shouldn’t have reacted that way, but I’m used to rejection and when you said that it was your job to take care of me…it hurt. I felt like I was a duty to you.”

  “You are not and will never be a duty to us, baby.” Ty removed his hand from her face and laced their fingers together. “I care for you a great deal and when I said it was our job to take care of you, I meant that, but only because you mean more to me than any other woman ever has. I’ve never felt this way about anyone else and it would kill me if something happened to you.”

  “That goes for me, too, sunshine.” Rand stroked a hand over her head and then leaned in and kissed her on the temple.

  “Me too, darlin’.” Brom placed a hand on her knee and gave her a squeeze.

  “Do you really mean that?” Nicole asked with a breathless hitch and it looked like she was about to cry.

  “Yes, we do, baby. Why can’t you see how beautiful you are? And I don’t just mean on the outside. You are such a caring, loving woman and as gorgeous on the inside as you are on the outside.”

  “Ty’s right, sunshine.” Rand lightly tugged her hair. “You mean more to us than you know.”

  “You are very special, darlin’, will you please give us another chance?” Brom asked.

  “I want to,” Nicole began, “but I’m not sure if I can let anyone in. I’ve had to learn to keep nearly everyone in my life at arm’s length and I don’t know if I can open up anymore.”

  “Why?” Ty asked and then cringed at his own bluntness.

  “My mom is a prostitute and her clients always came to our house…”

  Ty and his brothers listened as Nicole explained her childhood and how she had to grow up at such a young age. It made him angry that her mother had become jealous of her own daughter and he barely contained his rage when she told them about the men turning their lustful stares on her when she was still a child. He just thanked God that she had gotten out of that environment before it had been too late.

  “What about boyfriends?” Rand asked.

  “I only ever had one boyfriend because I was too busy trying to earn money to keep a roof over my head and going to school to worry about dating.”

  Does that mean what I think it means? No. Surely she’s had sex before.

  Ty looked at his brothers and saw the speculative gleam in their eyes. Possessiveness for the woman next to him wrapped around his heart and wouldn’t let go. God, he wanted her so bad and his cock had been hard since the first time he laid eyes on her. He didn’t know if he could stay away from her much longer. Never had he felt for any other woman the way he did for this one. She’d worked her way into his heart and he needed to show her on a baser physical level how much he cared for her, but he wasn’t sure she was ready for that yet. Would she run from them again if they tried to make love with her? He suspected that she was a virgin, and since he was such a domineering, aggressive asshole, maybe he wasn’t good enough for her.

  Ty had learned to be cynical after the women he and his brothers had been with. They’d known the score and knew it was all about the sex. Now that he wanted a relationship, could he really touch someone so pure and not corrupt her, change her whole sweet outlook on life? He had no idea how to go about keeping a woman happy. Maybe he should just leave her be and get on with working the ranch and concentrate on any mission that came their way. But the thought of never being with her, of having her walk away from his life sent pain shooting through his chest.

  No, I can’t let her go. If that makes me a selfish asshole, then so be it! She’s ours and there is no way in hell I’m letting anyone else have her.

  Ty had to know for sure so he found himself asking the question with his usual tactlessness. “Are you a virgin, baby?”

  Not that it mattered to him one way or another if she wasn’t, but he needed to know so that he and his brothers wouldn’t hurt her if she let them make love to her.

  Rand and Brom glared at him, letting him know they didn’t appreciate his usual hard-ass self. When she looked down to the floor and her face turned pink, Ty was pretty sure of the answer without her having to come out with a reply.

  Brom leaned forward and nudged her chin so that she was looking at him. “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”

  Nicole turned her head and dislodged Brom’s hand. She looked down again and licked her lips nervously. “No, it’s okay.”

  Ty cursed under his breath and squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry, Nicole. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”

  “Actually, I think I do.” Nicole looked each of them in the eye and then brought her gaze back to his. “The answer is no, but I’ve only had sex once and don’t have any experience.” She paused to take a deep breath. “I’m not proud of that moment, since I was young and stupid and drunk, but I can’t go back and change it. Does that bother you?”

  “God no, baby!” Ty cupped her cheek. “It’s kind of a relief. I would hate to hurt you that first time.”

  “I think I would like to spend time getting to know you all more. But”—she held up a finger when Ty was about to speak—“I would like to ask some questions first.”

  “You can ask us anything you want, sunshine,” Rand gave her a smile.

  “How do you know you won’t get jealous of each other?”

  “We’ve shared a woman once before,” Brom began, “and even though it didn’t work out, we found ourselves to be more excited when we made love to her together.”

  “But…”

  “We haven’t finished, babe,” Ty interrupted and brought her hand up to his mouth giving the back of it a kiss. “We’ve each had women separately, but we were always attracted to the same women and would compete for her attention. That one time we shared, well, let’s just say that it blew our minds and that was with someone we didn’t really care about.”

  “You used her?” Nicole asked indignantly.

  “No,” Brom answered emphatically then sighed. “Well, maybe we did, but she used us, too, sugar. That lady only wanted to use us for sex and we wanted the same. We would never use anyone unless they knew the score, Nic.”

  “We don’t go around hurting women, sunshine.” Rand kissed the top of her head. “The women we’ve been with knew it was only for sex.”

  “So, why me?” Nicole asked quietly.

  “You’re special, baby,” Ty replied. “We knew it from the first. We’re old enough and, I’m sad to say, experienced enough to know the difference between lust and someone we care about.”

  “But I’m no one special.”

  “Yes, you are,” Ty said forcefully and clenched his teeth when Nicole jumped, but there was no way in hell he was letting her think negatively about herself. “You are beautiful, baby, inside and out and we want to see where this thing between us could go. Don’t you want that, too?”

  * * * *

  Nicole had never felt special, beautiful, or feminine before she had encountered the Bayhard men. They made her feel more than she’d ever felt in her life and to blow them off before she could see if they could have a relationship filled her with pain. She had come to care for them so much and to walk away and not find out if what they had together could be a lifetime of happiness hurt her more than she expected. There was no way she could do that. If she ended up with a broken heart, at least she would have the memory of being with them to sustain her when she was alone and lonely.

  She was glad now that May had found her and talked some sense into her and was more than sorry for not letting Ty speak the previous evening, but thankful that they didn’t seem to hold her uncertainty against her. The knot that had been in her gut released and dissipated. Hope and excitement took its place, and for once in her life she actually felt pretty and her self-confidence perked up a bit. After the way her mom had
treated her, she’d never felt special, but these men were looking at her with lust and something else she couldn’t define and she felt her sex appeal kick in for the first time in her life.

  “Yes,” she finally answered Ty’s question and knew in the deepest corner of her heart that whatever happened she wouldn’t ever regret giving a relationship with these men a try.

  * * * *

  The last of the tension in Ty’s muscles released and his heart filled up with hope and joy. He wanted to pick Nicole up and carry her to the bedroom, strip her naked and bury his cock in her hot wet heat, but since she was inexperienced, he didn’t want to frighten her with his lust. So instead he placed his hands on each of her cheeks and turned her face toward him. He brushed his lips back and forth a few times but kept his tongue in his mouth.

  “Thank you, babe, we won’t give you any reason to regret being with us.” Ty released her and Rand gripped her chin and kissed her lightly on the lips and then on her forehead.

  “We’ll go slow, sunshine. We won’t push you into doing anything you don’t want.”

  Brom slid off the coffee table and knelt at her feet. She was so damn small compared to him and his brothers Ty hoped she didn’t feel overwhelmed as his brother loomed over her. Nicole looked up at Brom and Ty bit his tongue to keep his smile from forming. Their woman looked a little dazed at all their attention, but underlying that he could see desire in her eyes, too.

  Nicole giggled when Brom kissed the side of her neck and then proceeded to kiss his way up over her jaw and then placed a chaste kiss on her lips. His brother smiled down at her. “I can’t wait to find all the ticklish places on you, sugar. I love the sound of your laughter.”

  “Okay, you two.” Ty rose to his feet and helped Nicole up when she went to do the same. “We’ve got work to finish before dinner. Let’s get to it. We’ll see you at dinner, baby.”

  Ty led the way out of the house, feeling lighthearted and hopeful for the first time since meeting Nicole. He knew without a doubt that she was the woman he and his brothers had been waiting for. He adjusted his hard cock and tried to get the images of her naked on the bed spread out for their delectation out of his head, because if he got any harder or hornier, he was going to end up embarrassing himself by coming in his pants. They would have to ease Nicole into making love with them and he hoped like hell he could keep his dominance on a tight rein. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her off again. Maybe having one on one time with her would be better than overwhelming her with three lusty men at the same time.

  He halted in the yard and turned to face his brothers. “I think we should be with her alone for the first time. I don’t want to frighten her. Brom, you should go first.”

  “No,” Brom said and looked over at Rand before meeting his gaze. “The first time we should all be there. I know you’re worried about scaring her, Ty, but she needs to get used to having all three of us loving her.”

  Rand held up his hand when Ty went to refute his brother’s suggestion. “Brom’s right, Ty. I’m not saying we make love with her at the same time for her first time, but I for one would feel a lot more comfortable if I had you both in the room with me. We could get caught up in the moment and not see we were hurting her, or if she didn’t like something we did to her. Plus, we will eventually all make love with her simultaneously and I don’t want her freezing up because she’s not used to us all being there.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that, but you know how domineering I can be. What if she doesn’t like it?”

  “Nicole has more backbone than you’re giving her credit for, Ty. That night she fought with you on the porch of the main house, when you grabbed her and restrained her, turned her on. She was running from her own feelings, bro, not how you made her feel,” Brom said.

  Ty’s eyes became unfocused as he thought back and finally smiled at his brothers. “You’re right again. She was turned on, wasn’t she?”

  “Yep.” Rand grinned.

  “Good to know.” Ty began walking toward the barn again. “Maybe this will work out after all.”

  “It will,” Rand said. “We won’t let it not.”

  Chapter Six

  Nicole spent the rest of the afternoon on pins, but instead of just walking around in a haze of excitement, she went over to the main house to help Sara and May prepare the evening meal. When there was nothing left to do, she decided to go outside into the cool fall air and wonderful sunshine.

  A couple of the ranch hands were branding cattle in the corral to the left of the barn while another looked like he was training one of the horses in the corral to the right of the barn. She’d always loved horses but had never really had anything to do with them, so she wandered over to the fence and leaned against the wooden post as she watched man and horse. She could hear the man muttering to himself like he was angry or something, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. The man, whose back was to her, had a whip in his right hand and a long rein in his left. The horse, a chestnut-colored mare, looked really nervous and she speculated on whether the animal was picking up on the man’s ire. She could see the white of its eyes and wondered why it was so skittish. The man flicked the whip and she heard the crack as the tip connected with the horse’s rump and the horse reared up.

  Nicole didn’t stop to think, but the next thing she knew she was in the corral and pulled the whip from the man’s hand. “What the hell are you doing? Why are you hurting that horse?”

  She turned her back on him and threw the whip out over the fence. The next thing she knew, she was facedown in the dirt and pain exploded in between her shoulder blades. Is the horse stomping on me? Another blow landed on her back and she cried out with fear and agony and then did the only thing she could think of. She curled up into a ball and covered her head with her arms. A loud roar and pounding feet sounded nearby and then she was being lifted from the ground. She looked up into Dalton’s eyes and then turned in time to see Whitmoor punching the ranch hand in the face.

  “Are you all right, Nicole?” Dalton asked as he carried her to the corral fence, using his body to shield her from the fighting men, but she was able to see over his shoulder and saw the man who had hit her on the ground with blood streaming out of his nose and Whit standing over him threateningly.

  “Get your stuff packed and get the fuck off my ranch,” Whitmoor yelled. “Hay, have his pay ready and meet him at the truck. Joe”—he turned toward one of the other ranch hands who was standing at the fence looking angrily at the man on the ground—“make sure he gets only his things and escort him to his truck.”

  Whitmoor turned away from the man and then walked over to her and Dalton. “Are you okay, honey?”

  Nicole took a deep breath and tried not to wince when it caused pain in her back. “Yes, I’m fine.”

  “No, you’re not,” Dalton said and then looked at his brother. “Jump the fence so I can hand her over to you.”

  Nicole gaped with awe when Whitmoor jumped the fence with ease, without touching it, and then she remembered that the Bayhard brothers still hadn’t told her about their abilities. Just as she was being handed over to Whit, Ty, Brom, and Rand came galloping toward them on their horses. Ty didn’t even wait for the horse to stop before he jumped off and hurried over to her.

  “What the hell is going on?” Ty roared his question and hurt her ears.

  Nicole frowned at him, but before she could explain, Dalton began talking. She cringed a little because the more Dalt explained the angrier Ty looked. Rand moved in and gently took her from Whitmoor’s arms.

  “Don’t be scared, sunshine, Ty’s angry at that fucker, Abe Stone, not you.” He kissed the top of her head and then began walking toward the main house. “Where did he hurt you, Nicole?”

  “He punched me in the back, right between my shoulder blades.”

  “Fucking asshole.” Rand’s muscles tensed and she squeaked when he squeezed her tight. “Shit. Sorry, honey. Are you okay?”

  “I’
m fine, Rand.”

  Dalton hurried around them and held the door open while Rand carried inside. “Take her to the infirmary. I want to check her over.”

  Rand nodded and even though she could feel the tension in his body, he made sure he didn’t apply any unnecessary pressure to her.

  She reached up and pressed her palm against the side of his face. “Thank you.” She looked over toward Dalton. “Thank you for coming to my rescue.”

  Dalton nodded but didn’t say anything. Rand carried her into the infirmary and then sat her down on the medical table.

  “I need you to take your top off, Nicole. I want to see how bad that bastard hurt you.” Dalton went over to a cupboard and pulled a clean cotton hospital gown out and handed it to Rand. “I’ll wait outside until you’re ready.”

  Nicole grabbed the hem of her shirt and went to pull it up over her head but sucked in a breath when her body protested.

  “Here, let me do that, sunshine.”

  Rand carefully pulled the sleeves from her arms, pulled her shirt over her head and then removed her bra. When she looked up, she saw that his gaze was pinned avidly on her breasts and felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment. She lifted her arms, intending to cover her bare breasts with her hands, but he stayed the movement by clasping her wrists.

  “Don’t cover yourself from me, Nicole,” he said in a raspy voice. “You’re beautiful, sunshine. Let me help you put the gown on so Dalton can look at you.”

  Nicole nodded and sighed with relief now that her front was covered. She was going to have to get over her prudish behavior if she was going to have sex with three men.

  “Are you ready?” Dalton called through the door.

  Rand walked over and opened the door and closed it once Dalton was inside.

  “Why don’t you lie down on your side, Nicole? I want you to be comfortable while I examine you.”