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Rex laughed. “Don’t get carried away there, little brother. They nicknamed you ‘the Shetland pony’ because you were always ready to give free rides, but after a buck or two, the gals lost interest and you copped a bad attitude.”
“That wasn’t true. He picked up the nickname long before he had his way with the ladies,” Lucy said.
“I had a reason to have a chip on my shoulder,” Luke said, frowning. “My brother ran off with my girl.”
“You should’ve known he’d bring me back,” Lucy told him.
“Nothing in life is certain,” Luke said. “In love and war, we all fly by the seat of our pants.”
“Oh quit your whining, boy,” Mrs. Carpenter said. “At least Rex had the good decency to share.”
Laughter filled the room, and Mrs. Carpenter grabbed a bright-orange cardigan draped over a nearby wicker chair. “Lucy, I’ve got to get out of here while the getting is good. When I return from vacation, I hope to see you.”
“I’ll be around.”
“I think so, too,” Mrs. Carpenter said. Turning to the McDavid brothers, she added, “If you need anything, call, but you’d better not bother me unless it’s life or death.”
With those parting words, she slid a kiss on each of their cheeks and disappeared down the hall. After a quiet moment turned into an uncomfortable silence filled with heated, desire-filled gazes exchanged, Rex said, “You’d better hurry up and finish eating. I have a little something planned for entertainment this evening.”
* * * *
Lucy wasn’t going there. She didn’t care how much she’d missed them. She didn’t care how much she still loved them. She wasn’t taking up old habits. No way. She was just coming to terms with old feelings again. The last thing she needed was to bounce up those front steps and race them to the showers.
After dinner ended, Rex helped her from her chair and held out his arm. “Let’s take a walk.”
Her heart skipped a beat. Ah, hell. Who was she trying to fool? She might as well lose her skirt now.
“Rex McDavid, you must think I’m crazy. If I let you lead the way, you’ll steer me toward your bedroom.”
“And you’d be what?” Luke asked. “Ready to put up a fight?”
“I’m not going to bed with you,” Lucy said firmly. “Either of you.”
Rex tilted his head toward the dining room. “I wouldn’t be so certain about that if I were you.”
Lucy felt a chill of excitement in the air. Rather than choke on a thread of jealousy, she shivered when Rex implied he would escort her to the dining room. Delicious events once occurred in that room, carnal activities she hadn’t been permitted to enjoy.
No, she hadn’t been the recipient of such erotic pleasures, but she’d wanted to be. She still remembered how it felt to stand there at the window, watching and waiting, practically hoping Luke and Rex would see her. She was certain if they had, they would’ve asked her to join them. And then what?
She shook her head. She couldn’t think about it. She’d heard the rumors, listened to the tales. Luke and Rex liked two on one, but on occasion, they’d added another woman. Lucy liked to play, but she didn’t swing that way. Still, there was something about watching the McDavids with Marilyn that excited her, and since she’d loved them at the time, the distorted feelings she’d experienced profoundly confused her.
The activities she’d witnessed there that day left her breathless, made her realize what she wanted most in the world, and that’s why she ran. Envy didn’t guide her as they must’ve suspected. Desire wounded her, made her realize she’d never be complete until she mastered the art of restrained loving and learned to unmask the characters she’d watched Marilyn r
eveal.
Lucy was scared. She was frightened then and terrified now. Until that day, she’d actually thought Rex was a dark rogue of a man, a hardened cowboy no woman in her right mind would ever tame.
Yet she loved him. She loved him then. She loved him more than ever with each passing day. And Luke wasn’t shortchanged. She worshiped the ground he walked on, too.
She longed to experience their uninhibited side, and recognizing that need damn near destroyed her five years ago. It wouldn’t now. She was older, wiser, and more sophisticated.
She was ready.
Lucy wanted the raw men, the untamed cowboys, the McDavid rebels every woman in the county had seemingly grown to adore. Lucy needed to claim the dominant men who were said to love their women and love them well.
Luke took Lucy by the hand and gave her fingers a tight squeeze. Leaning against her, he whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry, Lucy. We’re not in any hurry tonight.”
An electric current of pure lust shot up her arm. His touch was like fire and his voice, pure fuel to the flame.
