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“You can’t lead us on when you’ve laid your cards on the table so plainly,” Syrus reassured her.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to make it into a competition and pit one of you against the other,” she argued. “That makes it seem so sordid.”
“On the contrary, we’re each going to woo you. You can take all the time you need to get to know us and decide which of us is the best match.”
“And that won’t cause friction between you?”
“Scouts honor,” Ezra promised with a mock salute.
Ellie frowned and thought about it. She wasn’t convinced it could be that easy, but she supposed they knew each other better than she did. If the three of them were okay with this unusual arrangement, was it really up to her to argue any more than she already had?
“Aren’t you planning to, you know, maybe advertise again?” she asked hesitantly, not liking the possessiveness she felt towards every one of them at the mere thought of having to share. Which really, seriously, wasn’t fair in any shape or form. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
“Absolutely not!” Cody said in a tone that brooked no argument. “I’m pretty sure we, all four of us, agree that we’ve had enough of having too many women in the house. We’ll see how this goes and take it from there.”
And that seemed fine in theory, but what if she hooked up with one of the guys and then they found they preferred one ofthenew girls that came out to the ranch? Where would that leave her then?
Ellie shook her head. There was no point in trying to second guess herself, or them. They’d just have to follow the agreement and keep their fingers crossed everything would work out for the best.
She got up and started clearing up the kitchen, surprised when all three of them came to help her. Things were done remarkably quickly, but instead of disappearing up to her room, like she normally did, Cody requested she join him in the office.
He set off ahead of her and she followed hesitantly when she’d finished the last of the chores, wondering, with a fair amount of trepidation, what it was he wanted to say in private that couldn’t be said in front of his brothers.
When she joined him, she found him sitting in the chair behind his desk, with a book open in his hand. The cover was facing her, and she felt the blood drain from her face as she recognized it as her own racy paperback.
Oh god! How had he got his hands on that? Was he going to berate her and tell her he didn’t think the type of books she read were appropriate? It was obvious he’d been reading it himself. What was he thinking… did she even want to know?
“I believe this is yours?” He held it up properly for her to see the sexiness staring back at her from the cover. For a moment she wondered if she could deny it but, although she didn’t realize that it hadn’t been packed, she knew the last time she’d had it was when she’d fallen asleep reading. It must have fallen under the bed in her room. Denying it was hers would just prove her a liar, and that would be even worse.
“Umm…. yes,” she replied faintly, wishing the ground would just open up and swallow her.
“Interesting reading,” he said with deceptive mildness. She had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, so she just waited. That seemed to be a recurring theme with her lately.
“Seems like the page it fell open on might have been a favorite.”
Ohmygod,which one was he talking about? Her mind raced through the book. There were a few chapters she had read and re-read. No way it would have fallen open on anything that wasn’t hugely erotic and incriminating, it was just a question of how much.
“So, do you have a particular interest in some of the shenanigans in this book?”
The silence stretched as she scrambled with what to say and all the while Cody just sat there watching her expectantly and waiting for her to respond.
“Maaaybe?” Jeez! It came out like a question. What a dork. She bit her lip and his heated gaze followed the movement before coming back to meet her eyes. His look incinerated her, and she felt her nipples pebble under her cotton shirt and had to fight the urge to look down and see if it was noticeable.
“It’s quite… titillating,” he said, never taking his eyes off her. “And something that I have to admit, I find I have rather a fondness for, as you may have guessed.”
Ellie knew her eyes must be as round as saucers at that last little revelation.What the heck was he referring to? Exactly what was he fond of and speaking of like it was something he’d indulged in before?
One side of his oh-so-kissable mouth kicked up in a small half smile, and Ellie thought the ability tobreathemight just have deserted her.
“What?” It came out as a hoarse whisper, but she knew damn well he’d heard her when his eyes darkened even more.
“Spanking,” he said succinctly. Nothing else, just that one word, but it had a full body shudder coursing through her and her breath hitching.
Her mouth hung open, but no words came out. Her mind went blank, and she just stood there staring at him, her throat dry as a bone and panties soaking.
“Come here, Ellie.”
He patted his thigh, and her gaze dropped there instead. She licked her parched lips and tried to swallow past the huge lump that had appeared in her throat, but her feet clearly had a mind of their own and they were overjoyed that he had taken control. Trepidation filled her entire being, but her brain was doing its own little happy dance. She didn’t see the paddle anywhere this time. What did that mean? The paddling had been confusing on so many levels, but one of her deepest fantasies was an over the knee hand spanking. That was what happened in her book… was Cody going to make it become a reality?
