Chapter Two

Grim brought the big truck to a stop. Even from the parking lot he could hear raucous music coming from The Barn. At one point in time it had been run by the Sandbergs, but they'd retired a few years back and now their daughter owned the place. Tally Sandberg was roughly his age, and she'd brought a youthful flair to the only honky-tonk in a twenty-mile radius.

Olivia leaned forward from her place in the back, reaching around to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for the ride. I'm meeting some friends, so don't worry about me getting home." She shifted and gave Josh the same easy affection. "You two behave. And Josh, thanks for being such a big old perv. I really do want to go to Bliss."

Josh sent his sister a frown. "They're there, aren't they?"

Olivia slid from the back seat and shrugged. "I don't know, but it might be fall break at MIT. We'll see. I'll be out at the G helping the olds figure out accounting software and watching the McNamara girls make their dads crazy. The last time I was out there Miranda was circling around Logan Talbot like a shark looking for supper. Everyone is afraid of her. It's good drama."

She waved and practically skipped into the honky-tonk.

"Well, my sister would know good drama." Josh's head shook. "We are not telling Dad about the fall break thing. I don't want to miss going to Austin."

"Are you sure?" Their trips to Austin were a vital part of their lives and had been for years. The BDSM club was one of the only places in the world Grim felt like he could be his true self. The club. The ranch. The shelter he'd taken over and modernized. He felt like himself when he was working.

He'd felt like himself earlier when he'd caught sight of that waitress. That beautiful, sexy woman who practically called out to his real self. The part of him that needed to dominate.

Beyond feeding him and giving him a place to call home, Jack Barnes had seen a need inside him, one that could have gone unfulfilled or could have exploded at some point and wrecked his life. Instead, Jack had sent him and Josh to be trained, to learn to control their impulses, so they could give the women they shared as much pleasure as possible.

A brow rose over Josh's eyes. "You don't want to go to Subversion?"

"I do, but I saw how you looked at her." He didn't have to indicate who he was talking about. They both knew.

"Nicole." Josh sat back. "I'll admit I've been watching her. And Pops is wrong. She's fine. I haven't figured out her last name yet or I would look her up on social media. I would ask Aunt Christa but the minute I do she'll talk to Mom, who will start making wedding plans."

Abby was hungry for more grandbabies since the ones Josh's older sister had given them lived hours and hours away. And were teenagers. Abby wanted a baby to cuddle, but that wasn't happening any time soon.

"I don't know. Mr. Fleetwood has good instincts."

Josh shrugged. "If she has a problem, then we can help her solve it."

So Josh thought she was in trouble, too, but he didn't want to bring it up until after they'd slept with her. The man might not share DNA with him, but Josh knew Grim as well as any brother. Grim would want to solve the problem first, and that had cost them sex on more than one occasion. Sometimes when a woman's problems were solved, she went back to her fiancé.

Josh groaned. "Fine. Yes, I think she's probably got some trouble. Maybe financial or something."

"I'm sorry about Kerry Thompson, but she really was in love with her fiancé." She'd also been too submissive for them. He needed a sub in the bedroom, but he wanted a woman he could count on.

He often wished he didn't need Josh as his second half. It would have been easy to fall in love with Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood. She was the right mix of crazy bitch, loving woman, and submissive, but she'd become his sister so long ago.

And he did need Josh. They fit, somehow, and he'd given up the thought of dating without Josh. Though mostly he slid into bed for sex while Josh escorted the woman around since not a lot of ladies wanted to be treated the way Abigail Barnes-Fleetwood had all her life.

Josh waved that off. "I have a feeling about this one."

"Have you even talked to her yet?"

A shrug gave Grim his answer. "Don't need to. You know I don't have this feeling often. I'm sure I'm right. Knew it the minute I saw her, and so did you."

He didn't trust his instincts the way Josh did. "Then why do you want to go to Austin?"

"I kind of thought we might invite her with us," Josh replied. "If it works out. And if it doesn't, then we can drown our sorrows in all those pretty, sweet subs."

The submissives at Subversion were gorgeous, and some of them were sweet. Some of them had claws and wanted to sink them into the obvious heir to the Barnes-Fleetwood empire. As plans went, Josh had kind of covered all the bases. "So how do you want to approach her? Are we sure she's single?"

"I do know that much." Josh turned in his seat. "Aunt Christa hired her two weeks ago. Her car is at Al's shop, and he's waiting for her to be able to pay for parts. I would bet she's got a couple of weeks until she's able to make that payment, and then it depends on when he can get the parts for that old clunker. She's probably stuck for a month at least. We've got some time to work on her, to see if she's interested in the lifestyle."

Which lifestyle? Naturally they didn't fit into one neat category. They practiced BDSM and required a ménage relationship to be happy.

He wanted a relationship where he wasn't in the shadows.

You've let them corrupt you. You're going to Hell. That whole family is, and I'm going to be the one to send you there someday.

Grim shook off his stepfather's nasty words. Ezekiel was still alive, still trying to suck any joy from the world around him. He started sermonizing every time they crossed paths. Well, if he was alone. If Jack or Sam was with him, his stepdad made himself scarce.

But that was neither here nor there. It could be hard to find a woman who needed two Masters.

Abigail Barnes-Fleetwood didn't come along every day.

"All right." It wasn't like he hadn't taken one look at that gorgeous girl and had all the same thoughts Josh had. "Where do you want to start? Did you want to ask her out? Do you think she's already heard the rumors about us?"

Josh sighed and fiddled with the brim of his hat, a habit that let him know his brother was thinking about how to handle him. "I don't know if she's heard the rumors, but I can tell you she doesn't put up with the gossip nonsense. I saw her disdain when she served Lisa Brice and her friends. They were making fun of everyone, being real loud and nasty, and Nicole did not like that."

How closely had Josh been watching her? "Have you been eating every meal in town while I was gone?"

"Not every meal," Josh admitted. "She's gorgeous and I feel some… I don't know. I feel a pull."

And Josh always followed his instincts. "All right. Do you know where she lives?"

"She's staying in the rattrap on the outskirts of town."

It was a motel with a certain reputation. One it had earned, and the thought of any woman staying there on her own scared him. "You let her stay there?"

"Well, I haven't exactly introduced myself yet, so telling her she's moving felt like a stretch," Josh replied. "Nah, but I might have someone watching out for her. I asked the sheriff to up his nightly patrols and call me if anything bad goes down. I paid the owner to put an extra lock on her door. She thinks it was just maintenance."

"Tell me you didn't keep a key." And they called him the intense one. Josh Barnes had a bit of a god complex, but he'd come by it honestly. Jack was pretty much the be-all, end-all of authority in their lives, and Josh was following in his father's footsteps.

Of course it was a loving authority. An authority that truly wanted what was best for everyone he watched over. But until you knew a person, it could come off sketchy.

"Of course I didn't. I haven't even run a trace on her." Josh's hands were up like he was completely innocent. "I'm giving her privacy. I know what happens at that motel, and I don't want her getting caught in the crossfire. Let's get to know her and then if it seems to be working, we can gently start showing her apartments that don't have a ton of drug dealers in them."

He still thought Josh was running too hot, but he also wasn't opposed to starting something as long as it was real. Nothing seemed real. It was like he could live in the Barnes-Fleetwood house, but he'd always be Ezekiel's stepson. He could go to college and get a degree in veterinary medicine, but he was still just Josh's friend, the one he shared women with but mostly for sex.

"Hey, I know that look. You want to go to Dallas this weekend? I know you like that Daisy girl we met at the restaurant. This doesn't have to be all about me."

She'd been the hostess at a place called Top and she was a stunner, but he was pretty sure her father was some kind of Irish mobster. Oh, he'd been told the man was a security executive, but that felt like a good front. Her father was kind of crazy and had explained in no uncertain terms that his precious saint of a daughter wasn't getting involved in some godforsaken threesome. There had been other names mentioned and a lot of cussing he didn't fully understand, and all he'd done was ask the young woman out.

Though he had fully planned to get her in between him and Josh.

"I can handle Li O'Donnell if that's what the problem is. She seemed to like you. I could be the one who slips in and out this time," Josh offered.

He believed in Josh, but he thought he was overestimating what a mad Irish dad could do. And the truth was he didn't want Josh slipping in and out. He wanted what Jack and Abby and Sam had. "I think I'm kind of sick of that."

Josh got quiet. "Yeah, me, too. So we're looking to get serious?"

Josh could be single minded at times. Grim knew he was considered the broody one, but Josh covered his weird quirks with a sunny smile. One of those quirks was an utterly ruthless will when he decided to turn it on. When Josh decided it was time for them to get married, Grim knew he would find himself with a ring on his finger and a wife between them in short order. The problem was, they needed to find the right one.

"I would like to find a woman who doesn't mind dating us both. At the same time. In public. Everyone knows." That was the problem he truly had. "There's no one in this town who didn't know I was sleeping with Alyssa Gates while you were technically dating her."

"You told me you didn't mind."

"I didn't with her because I kind of hated her."

Josh shrugged. "That's fair. So did my momma. I got a whole lecture on how I should be smarter than this."

He'd avoided that lecture, though he had been put through Abby and Olivia sitting him down and gently trying to figure out if he was emotionally traumatized by the relationship. In some ways, it was the best he could have gotten because he hadn't been the one who had to sit around while Andrea's friends bitched about everything from the food at the café to how their boyfriends spent too much time fishing.

He'd been fishing and happy, but lately the idea of never having an acknowledged girlfriend bugged him.

He wasn't that sad-sack kid who simply wanted to get through a day without a beating. He'd conquered a lot of his insecurities and fears. He'd conquered college and veterinary school and had a damn fine job he was proud to do.

That should count for something.

Josh was staring at him. "I'm so curious what's going through your head right now."

"I'm tired of being the dirty secret."

A big smile lit Josh's face. So often people viewed him as a younger version of Jack without ever considering how much influence Sam Fleetwood had on him. There was a joy in Josh.

Sometimes Grim thought he was more like Jack in that way. Cautious. Willing to feel happiness but always on the lookout for something crappy to happen.

Josh slapped his arm. "That's what I wanted to hear. Good. We're farther along than I thought we were. So let's get out there and let Willow Fork know we're not playing anymore. Josh and Grim are serious about taking a sub."

Yeah, they would have to explain that, too. Hello, gorgeous girl. Would you like to date two guys and also submit to them sexually in the bedroom? The good news is we both know how to do laundry.

Sam and Jack had insisted he know despite the fact that the big house had a housekeeper. They'd explained when he and Josh were on their own, they wouldn't have a person hanging out who wanted to clean up after them.

The first time Abigail had walked into the apartment he and Josh shared during college, she'd taken the whole weekend to teach them how to clean. And how to get what she'd called "that smell" out.

Now he and Josh had a cleaning schedule for the small house they lived in on the ranch's land. Olivia had a suite in the main house but spent a lot of her time either on the road or in the apartment they all shared when they were in Dallas.

When they were in Austin they stayed at Subversion. Their memberships included a nice suite of rooms.

He'd paid for his own membership. To an elite sex club.

Yeah, he'd come a long way.

Could he go all the way? Could he get the life he wanted?

The only question was how did they get started? They needed to game plan. A long, slow seduction was called for. They could go into the café tomorrow morning and start up a casual conversation with her. Flirt a little. He could manage some charm. Maybe they could ask her out to lunch. That could be a nice way to ease her into starting to think about having a relationship with them. They would take their time and get to know each other before they got into a situation that could get serious.

Josh slid out of the cab of the truck.

Which was odd since they were planning on heading back to the ranch. "Uh, did you feel the sudden need to line dance?"

Josh settled his hat on his head. "There's no time like the present, and our potential sub is walking into a honky-tonk all by herself."

He looked over and sure enough Nicole was standing in front of a station wagon that had seen way better days since Grim was pretty sure they didn't make those anymore. "Is that Trista's grandma's car?"

Josh's lips quirked up. "Didn't you hear? She's started her own taxi service. All the ride shares turned her down since she's nine hundred years old and probably shouldn't be driving, but she swears she's saving up for a sportscar."

So Nicole had already made one poor choice this evening. "You think she's meeting someone here?"

Josh shrugged. "I know she's not serious about anyone, so even if she is I think we should give her choices. Come on, brother. I suddenly feel the need for a beer."

Grim followed his brother.

Their slow seduction had just gotten a whole lot faster.

* * * *

Nicole stepped out of the station wagon.

"You sure you want to go in there, hon?" the elderly woman who'd introduced herself as Gwen asked. She had a helmet of blue-gray hair and a sweet smile.

She also had a lead foot. "I'm not going in to party, Miss Gwen. Sometimes they let me work a shift. Or at least help clean up. I'm saving to get my car fixed."

She fished out the seven dollars the ride cost. Yup. She needed her car. Still, she added a couple of bucks because tipping was karma, and she could use some.

What she didn't tell the nice lady who'd driven her out to The Barn was that she didn't want to sit in her musty motel room where she was fairly certain her "neighbors" were cooking meth and those two creepy guys came around at least twice a week to ask her if she'd found Jesus. In that motel? No. But as they were ones who called women whores for wearing pants, she was pretty certain neither of them had met the Lord's son either.

"I'm looking at a mustang," Gwen said with a big smile that showed she was only wearing her top teeth. "I can't wait to put those youngsters to shame. And forget about what I said. You're young. You get in there and have a blast. Find a couple of cowboys and get them to fight, and whoever wins goes home with you. Oh, I loved those days. Make sure they aren't armed. That was the mistake I made. Good-bye, dear. Give me a call if you need a ride home."

She peeled out, proving that station wagon still had some life in it.

So did Gwen.

Sometimes Nicole wondered if she did.

There was a whole bar right there with bright lights and loud, rocking music and vibrant people having the time of their lives, and she hoped someone would slip her forty bucks to clean the bathrooms and wipe down the tables.

And if she couldn't find a ride back she'd be out another ten, so she would actually have netted a whole twenty bucks.

How long had it been since she'd danced and enjoyed herself?

Not since the minute she'd married a monster.

With a long sigh, she turned and started for the door and ran right into another woman.

"I'm so sorry." She managed to catch herself.

A gorgeous redhead stood her ground. She was wearing well-worn jeans and a Western shirt that hugged her every curve, the pearl snaps undone to show off a bit of impressive cleavage. She recognized the stunning woman from the diner. She was the cowboy's sister or cousin or whatever. Shit. Was he here? Of course he was. Where else would he be on a Saturday night?

"I'm not." Redhead gave her a brilliant smile. "Hey, we haven't met. I'm Olivia. You're new. I saw you at the café earlier tonight."

Nicole nodded. "Yeah. I started working there a couple of weeks ago. I'm Nicole."

She was glad they didn't seem to be exchanging last names. Sometimes she forgot that one. In her defense, she'd had four over the last two years. It could confuse a girl.

Olivia's eyes widened as she looked at something in the parking lot behind Nicole and then suddenly she was beside her, hooking her arm around Nicole's and leaning in conspiratorially. "Well, Nicole, why don't you let me show you around? Come on in, and the first round's on me."

"Oh, I wasn't planning on drinking. I'm here to ask the manager if I can help clean up after hours."

"Then you have hours and hours before you need to work," Olivia said. "Besides, you already worked a whole dinner shift. Let me buy you a Coke if you don't want something stronger."

"I was going to hang out upstairs." Nicole found herself swept along by her new friend. "They have this room, you see, and it's pretty quiet."

"Oh, I know all about that room. I wish I didn't know about that room, but my parents are open about things they should shove way deep down," Olivia said as they entered the lobby. The music was louder here but not too bad since the honky-tonk had a dining area, though from here she could see the neon lights from the dance hall. "You know everyone complains about their parents being repressed and stuff, but do they ever consider the opposite?"

"Uh, I don't know. I guess I never thought about it." She wasn't sure what was happening. Maybe she was being kidnapped.

Olivia waved to some friends but hustled Nicole over to a quieter section. There were a couple of bar areas here in the large complex known as The Barn. The one off the lobby was where people waited for a table. At this time of night, the dining room was only half full, so the forward bar was fairly empty.

"Well, it's terrible. My mom and dads got it into their heads that if they were open about sex, I wouldn't get a complex." Olivia sat down at a table for four, patting the chair beside her. "The complex is real. I'm afraid to walk into any door of my house. I learned to knock at a young age. How about you? Your parents uptight?"

"Oh, my parents are kind of… I don't know what they are. My mom left when I was seven and Dad remarried and started a new family, and I was kind of like the unpaid babysitter. Let's just say I find Cinderella triggering." Why had she said that? She'd learned to say as little as possible about herself over the last couple of years. She'd learned to blend into the background so as few people as possible noticed her.

Maybe that was way easier in the big cities she'd been in or the tiny farm towns where no one looked at her at all because she'd been picking tomatoes or helping bring in the citrus crop. She'd melted into groups that no one wanted to acknowledge existed because they were paid mostly under the table.

"How many siblings?" Olivia held a hand up, gesturing to the waitstaff.

How did she get out of this? She'd kind of planned on talking to Tally and then sneaking up to the room Olivia seemed to think was terrible so she could take a nap. It could be hard to sleep at the motel. Between the drug deals and the sex workers, nighttime could get loud.

"I have a couple of half sisters," she murmured. "I should go and find Tally to see if she needs me tonight."

A tall guy with a The Barn T-shirt on walked up, placing a couple of napkins in front of them. "Hey, Livie. New Girl. Tally's not in tonight. Are you Nicole?"

She nodded.

He winced. "I'm sorry. I was supposed to call to let you know everyone came in tonight."

Damn it. She'd come all the way for nothing. Now she would actually be in the hole.

"Sorry. I got caught up in the rush. She told me not to expect you until around midnight and you're early," he said. "How about some fries? On the house."

Olivia groaned. "We can do better than that. Nicole here is my brothers' latest crush, so I thought I would get to know her. We're going to need a pitcher of margaritas and some nachos."

Wait. What? "Your brother?"

"Brothers," Olivia corrected. "There are two of them, though you should know one is more of a found-family brother meaning my dad found him hiding out in one of the dorms because he got kicked out of his house."

The waiter huffed. "Best fucking day of Grim's life. I think about it a lot. That boy went from a nasty cult movie set to the nicest family in the county. And he got to have Abigail Barnes as his new momma. She could be my momma any day."

"Eww," Olivia protested with a frown. "She's my actual momma, you know, Ed."

Ed winked her way. "And you look it, Liv. I'll get those nachos in."

"I'm sorry. I'm confused. I haven't met your brothers."

Olivia shrugged. "Yeah, sometimes you don't need to. But they're great guys, and I think they would like to get to know you. And the nachos and margs are totally on me. Unless you want to head back to the rattrap and spend the evening counting the meth deals. That could be fun, too. Or you could let me ply you with liquor and we could dance, and at some point my brothers will show up because they totally saw you walking in here. It's why I hustled you away. If they got to you first, I wouldn't have the opportunity to get to know you. So, half siblings. Were they evil?"

Nicole sat there for a moment. The smart move would be to walk away because this woman confused her, and she wasn't sure she could trust the whole big sis/best friend vibe she was giving off.

Would it hurt to sit here and have a margarita and talk to someone interesting? She wasn't even considering the whole gorgeous cowboys had a crush on her thing. Again, she wasn't about to come between two brothers. But it might be fun to dance and pretend like she wasn't in a Lifetime movie for a night. She could pretend she was in another movie. A comedy.

"We don't have to talk about your family, if you don't want to." Olivia's voice had gone softer, like she was trying to coax a scared puppy. "We could talk about something else. I have a lot of crazy stories about my brothers."

"They were kind of evil." No one had asked about her in forever. She'd become invisible, and it felt good for a moment to be seen. And she didn't want to count the meth deals. "Like from birth, I think. You know most babies are sweet and cute, but my stepsisters were crazy demanding, and that did not stop as they grew up. They can throw a fit, if you know what I mean, and I'm talking about as teens. I was in college by then. I had to work full time, too. My dad used my college fund as a down payment on an SUV. Because he knew I wouldn't mind. I minded."

"That's awful. I have to admit, despite the fact that I complain about the amount of my parents' public displays of affection, they are awesome," Olivia said as Ed placed a pitcher of margaritas in front of them.

"Jack and Sam and Abby are all kinds of awesome. Don't let the pearl clutchers of the town tell you otherwise," Ed said with a nod as he started pouring a drink for Nicole. "I have no idea where this town would be without the Barnes-Fleetwood family."

So they probably did a ton of charity work. It already sounded like they'd taken in a kid who needed a home. But she was confused. "Your dad's name is Jackson Sam? That's unusual."

Olivia's lips curled up, and Ed laughed as he finished pouring her drink.

He stepped back, holding his hands up. "And I will leave you to the explanations. The nachos will be right up, ladies."

Olivia shook her head. "Nope. Jack and Sam. As in Jack Barnes and Sam Fleetwood."

Her parents were two guys. That was totally cool with her. "That's nice. It's probably hard in a small town. Is Abigail your birth mom?"

"She is," Olivia agreed. "She's also married to my dads. I'm going to lay this out to you so there's no tiptoeing around it. Everyone in town knows, but I rather thought you might not. You seem to keep to yourself. My parents are a threesome and have been since before I was born. They're married and committed to each other."

Nicole felt a smile cross her face. Like a kinky romance novel. "That's cool. Like, good for your mom."

Olivia laughed. "That is the reaction I was hoping for."

"I don't judge. Never. Love is love, and if it doesn't hurt anyone else, I say go for it. Besides, if your parents have been together for that long, they sure as hell beat my mom and dad's traditional marriage and equally traditional divorce."

"Our parents are anything but traditional," a deep voice said, and she found herself turning and looking up into green eyes that she could get lost in. Josh gave her a smile and frowned his sister's way. "I thought you were here to meet friends."

Olivia's eyes lit with mischief. "I found a new friend."

"Liv," Josh began.

"Why don't you introduce us, Olivia," the brother from another mother said.

Nicole knew that was supposed to be a question. But that wasn't a question coming out of his mouth. That was a command, and it kind of made her heart race.

She wasn't coming in between brothers. If she started a bunch of gossip, people would look at her. She'd done a good job of flying under the radar.

"I would be happy to, Grim," Olivia said before turning Nicole's way and wrinkling her nose. "His real name is Jared, which is a lovely name, but he's pissed at his father for dying and leaving him with a prick of a stepdad, so everyone calls him Grim. He broods a lot."

"Olivia." Josh was the perfect picture of outrage.

Grim simply smiled and held out a hand. "That was a pretty fair assessment. Our Olivia never prevaricates."

He did not talk like some ranch hand off the range. He was a lot like his nickname except when his lips curled up, there was the sweetest dimple in his cheeks. She was suddenly slightly afraid of taking his hand. Like if she touched him this thing, this pull she felt, would be real, and that would be the stupidest thing she could do.

Still, it was rude to ignore him. She put her hand in his, and she was wrapped in warm strength as he placed his other hand over hers.

"And I'm Joshua." He took her other hand, and she was between them.

Holy hell. Were they…

Just because their mom and dads were a threesome…

Really upped the odds that they wouldn't mind. Except they were brothers. Except they weren't blood siblings.

Except… She was deeply confused, and it would be smart to run right this second.

But it seemed like so much more fun to sit here and talk and pretend she was normal.

"I'm Nicole," she said and wished she didn't sound so breathless.

They both let go at the same time, as though they were coordinated movements. They sat in the two unoccupied chairs.

"I thought you two were calling it an early night." There was no small amount of teasing in Olivia's tone.

"There's a lot of plans changing," Josh acknowledged and then turned slightly to the bar. "Ed, bring two beers and double whatever my sister ordered." He turned back to her, giving her a smile that damn near melted her panties. "So, Nicole, where are you from?"

Ah, there it was. She could see reason through the fine mist of lust. "Chicago."

It was a well-crafted story and one she didn't have to use often. She'd discovered most people wanted no more than the minimum facts before they felt comfortable talking about themselves and then she could nod along and give up nothing else.

Olivia looked like the cat who'd gotten all the cream as she started talking to Grim and Josh. Like a woman who'd set her brothers up to succeed.

Would it be so bad? Why couldn't she have a single night of pleasure? She would be out of this town in a week. She would have the money, and the mechanic had told her the car would only take a few days to fix.

What if she could see them for those days? On the sly. Or not. It wouldn't matter if she was leaving. They could talk about the mysterious young woman who worked at the café, dated two men, and then disappeared.

Or they wouldn't because something new would come along and they would forget her. Like these two men would forget her.

But she didn't have to forget them. She would be in another country by this time next year, trying to make a life for herself.

Couldn't she go a little wild now?

"You are a long way from home," Josh said. "How did you come to be in our town?"

She sat back and decided to go with the flow for once.