Hooking Up (Menage a Trouble #3)

Chapter Three

Bella navigated her truck and trailer into the rest stop and parked it between two other combos. After cutting the engine, she took a minute to check her cell. Usually her parents called while she drove and she was able to have long conversations through speakerphone, but she’d just gone six hours without a peep from them.

No texts either, so she shot one off to both parents, letting them know she was stopped just outside of Texas and on her way to Alabama for her next competition.

Times like these, she wished she was part of a team event. Traveling in pairs would be so much more interesting. The long, tedious drives alone with nobody to break the monotony wore on her after a while.

She climbed out and received a hoot for her trouble. Glaring at the offending cowboy, she tested her stiff legs to see if they’d support her. “Fuck off, Rigby,” she called back.

She caught a flash of long red hair. “A sweet talker as always, Bella.” The female drawl grated on Bella’s last nerve. She and Wynonna had been butting heads for countless years, but there seemed to be no escaping the woman.

“If it isn’t the charming Wynonna Calhoun.” She settled her hand on her hip and leaned against her truck, allowing her lower back time to untighten after sitting in the same position for too long.

“You ladies inspire me,” Rigby said, looking between them.

Bella laughed. “Save your wet dreams for somebody else, Rigby.” She took off for the rest stop, checking her pockets for quarters as she did. She needed the bathroom and then hopefully the vending machines boasted some coffee. She had a whole case of energy drinks in the trailer, but she hated the things. Give her the rich nectar of her people any day.

Most of the rodeo crowd traveled in caravan-style. Playing tag on the interstate, sharing meals when they stopped. But Bella was more of a solitary person. That was fine by her, when most of the women in her sport were like Wynonna.

Whatever rubbed her wrong about that woman Bella would never know. She suspected they’d hated each other in a past life and just carried it through to this one.

She washed her hands and splashed her face with water. As she exited the restroom, a woman frantically waved at her. Bella bit off a groan. Dammit, what did Wynonna want now?

“What’s up?” Bella asked as she neared. Wynonna twisted the end of her braid that dangled over her shoulder. She was a true redhead, and because of that she got a lot of attention. Bella knew a lot of women were jealous of her looks, but Bella wasn’t one of them.

“I ran into a couple of guys who’re sick.”

Bella stared at her. “So?”

Wynonna pushed out a hasty breath. “Honestly, Bella, don’t you ever care about somebody besides yourself? We’re like a big rodeo family here.”

“I stick to myself.” She started toward the vending machines, but Wynonna caught her forearm.

“Do you still drag around all those medicines in your trailer? I thought you might have something to fix up these guys.”

“Why don’t you nurse your own boyfriends back to health?”

Wynonna was a true redhead, all right, and she blushed like one. Her face scorched. “These aren’t my boyfriends. My brothers would tan my hide and make me go home faster than I could say eff off if I was seeing them.”

Bella rubbed the space between her eyes that was starting to ache. The last thing she wanted was to be mired in the Calhoun family politics. But she did feel a little bad for Wynonna. Having five older brothers couldn’t be good for the sex life.

“Fine. Who are they? Point me at them.”

“Those guys over there. The team ropers.” Wynonna, as tall as Bella, had the advantage of looking over much of the crowd. She pointed to the guys, and Bella swallowed a groan.

Dammit, couldn’t it be any other team roping pair? She didn’t want to help Carter or Quint. Not when she’d spent so much time lately avoiding both.

Wynonna gave her a tiny push in the direction of the gorgeous cowboys. “Go on. They’re not contagious.”

Bella shook off the woman and slowly approached the guys. Now that she got a good look at them, they did look under the weather.

The dark-haired pair was the most striking of all the cowboys in the rest stop. Tall and broad, one wearing a western shirt with white embroidery and the other sporting a ratty old plaid. Quint’s hat was tipped lower so she couldn’t see his eyes until she stood before him.

“I hear you’re unwell. Come with me.” She didn’t wait for either set of surprised eyes to register her words—she turned on her heel and marched away.

Outside the building, they caught up and flanked her. It struck her that Wynonna might be playing some game. If Carter and Quint were fighting over Bella, they wouldn’t be at peak performance, and Wynonna’s brother wanted that top spot in the team roping event.

“How’d you hear we’re sick?” Carter’s deep voice buried itself somewhere deep inside her belly, entirely too low for her own peace of mind. Something warm and liquid broke open and flowed downward.

Damn them. And damn Wynonna.

Next time she got the woman alone, she was going to let her know she didn’t appreciate Wynonna butting into her personal life. Either that or she’d prank the hell out of her and see what her big brothers could do about it.

The idea brought a faint smile to her face as she looked over the two studs in front of her.

“Wynonna told me. Now what’s the matter?” She didn’t wait for their replies, just unlocked her trailer door and launched herself inside. When they didn’t follow, she poked her head out. “You coming?”

“Sure.”

“Much obliged.”

In seconds the trailer she comfortably inhabited while on the road was shrunken to fairy proportions. With Carter’s height and Quint’s thick shoulders, there wasn’t a spare inch of space.

“Uh…” She looked around and her gaze landed on the small kitchen table and two stools her daddy had helped her bolt to the floor so they didn’t roll around while she drove. “Have a seat, guys.”

Carter moved toward the stool, but Quint stood his ground. “I’m fine here.”

“Suit yourself. I’ll just be a minute.” She bent and rummaged under the little cabinet that housed odds and ends she might need on a long trip. Was it her imagination or were they staring at her ass?

She straightened, her hair flopping into one eye. She hadn’t bothered with her hat after getting out of the truck, and it still lay on the passenger seat. Pressing her hair back, she looked between them.

They gaped at her as if she’d sprouted a tail and devil horns. The thought gave her a smile to match. With a grand gesture, she set the small, clear plastic box on the tabletop.

Carter leaned back to peer at the contents. “Whattaya got there?”

“Everything and anything to cure most human illnesses. Or at least relieve symptoms. Now tell me what’s going on.”

Carter rubbed his knuckles over his jaw, creating a rasping noise she felt deep in her core. That liquid heat inside her that hadn’t gone away since those two amazing kisses seemed to go from a slow simmer to a boil in a blink. She dragged in a deep breath, but that just made it worse.

He smelled good. Real good.

“Think we picked up a bug after that last rodeo.”

“And you didn’t stop at a clinic or find the doc?” The rodeo doctor traveled along with them, seeing to strained muscles and broken bones. “He likes seeing cowboys come in with something wrong besides a dislocated shoulder. He’s pretty good at diagnosing and doling out medicine too.”

Carter raised a brow but Quint looked like a thundercloud scudding across the sky. “How well do you know the doc?”

Heat swept up her throat. “Well enough.” He might have been one of the guys who’d believed she just needed a soft touch early after her breakup. But the doctor had gotten a mouthful of her sassy barbs and run off with his tail tucked. Which was why she carried so much medicine now—she could take care of herself.

Quint snorted, and she waved him closer. “So you have a cold? Headache?”

“Throat’s a little sore,” he admitted. “And I feel a little hot and cold both.”

She wrinkled her nose. She’d take a handful of vitamin C and Echinacea after they left just to keep her own immune system in tip-top shape. “Okay, let’s see what I have.” She popped off the lid and the guys leaned to peer inside.

“What are you—a pharmacist in your spare time?” Carter asked.

“Nope. I make meth to supplement my rodeo winnings.”

Carter guffawed, and Quint moved a step closer. A wall of heat, starting at her ankles and rushing up to the top of her head, swept over her. Her nipples pinched hard, and she sank her teeth into her lower lip.

Damn, being so close to them was reminding her why she’d let them kiss her in the first place. Pure, raw attraction. She wanted both Carter and Quint with an animalistic need that could only be quenched between the sheets.

But since she wasn’t in the business of breaking up team roping champions, she’d opted to cut things off at one kiss apiece.

“Why do you have all this stuff?” Quint asked.

She set several boxes and bottles out on the table, looking for something in particular.

“My momma’s a big one for home doctoring. And her mother before her. We hoard medicines like we’re about to enter a zombie apocalypse.”

“Have you heard Quint snoring then? He sounds like a damn zombie.” Carter got elbowed in the arm for his quip.

“How would you know? You’re too busy whistling Dixie through your nose on your side of the hotel room.” Quint’s dark eyes twinkled with merriment.

Bella found herself relaxing. While she lined up a few more bottles, she asked questions. Did either have an unbearable sore throat, a high fever?

“No,” they said together.

Her body was doing a wild come-hither dance, each hormone a separate cheerleader waving pompons and shouting into a megaphone that she was ready and willing to let them touch her.

Carter’s hard lips were too alluring for her sanity, and Quint kept tucking the corner of his wide lips in, entrancing her.

“Sleeping all right?” She looked from one to the other.

“Hell no. Quint won’t quit snoring.”

“And you’ve got a nose whistle.”

“Shut the hell up, Quint.”

She hid a smile by ducking her head and rooting through a few more packages and some wads of Ace bandages. “Aha! Just what you both need.” She held up a decongestant.

“That’s it? Does it come with a bottle of whiskey?”

“No, but I’m sure you can find some down the road. I don’t suggest washing these down with alcohol, though. Sounds to me that you both have allergy flare-ups. Crossing Texas, I could feel the weather changing. I think ragweed’s in season too.”

She extended the box, and Carter took it from her, brushing his warm, dry fingers against hers as she did. Her inner exotic dancer did a naughty striptease for him.

When his gaze trapped hers, electricity zapped through her body. She pulled her hand back and threw a look at Quint.

Damn, that was almost worse. The man’s eyes were hooded with desire. A thousand butterflies hatched in her stomach.

“Just…take those according to the directions on the box. Get some rest and drink plenty.” She went to the door, indicating they should go.

Neither budged. Carter, still on the stool, leaned his big shoulders against the wall and crossed his legs. Quint hitched himself onto the arm of an old recliner she’d dragged out of her parents’ Goodwill pile. One scuffed boot dangled, an enticing line that led to his muscled, denim-covered thigh.

And the yummy bulge above.

She folded her arms over her chest, mostly to keep four roving eyes off her breasts, but also to hide her hard nipples. “We’d better get on the road again, boys.”

“Yeah,” Quint drawled, eyeing all the places her arms didn’t cover, “Alabama awaits.”

“That medicine shouldn’t make you too drowsy. It’s a daytime formula.”

“Thanks.” Carter didn’t make a move to get up. In fact, they looked as if they were settling in for the long haul.

“Great ride the other day, by the way. Your four-point-nine was a great score. Record-breaking?” she asked.

“For us.” Quint eyed his partner. “Why don’t you go on ahead of me and find us some drinks to swallow a coupla those pills?”

“Why don’t you?” Carter said with slow defiance.

She stepped between them. “Look, I’ve got to get on the road. And return a phone call.” Wash my hair. Finger my pussy. “So why don’t you both step on out of my trailer?”

“Or what?” The mischief in Carter’s eyes made her want to play long and hard and get sweaty and breathless.

She wasn’t about to let either man know it.

“Or you’ll let me kiss you again, Bella?”

She sucked in a gasp at Carter’s question. Quint’s answering growl filled the cramped space, and she had to take action.

“Get out!” Snatching up a set of spurs, she held them like ninja throwing stars, aimed at each handsome cowboy’s face.

“You kissed her? Hell, that’s nothing like the kiss I got,” Quint said as if she weren’t standing there wishing she’d given them each mouse poison.

Carter gained his feet. Quint straightened. All of a sudden, she pictured her whole trailer trashed by a brawling pair of team ropers.

“Enough! Take it outside and rest assured that neither of you will be laying a hand, lip—or any other body part you want to find still attached to your body—on me!” She twisted her hand in the cloth covering Quint’s chest. His warm, steely flesh beneath ignited her, but she managed to propel him toward the door, open it and shove him out.

When she returned for Carter, she found him grinning at her with that slow, bad-boy smile that made all her lady parts sit up and beg. Pushing through her need, she latched onto his ear.

He yowled. She tossed him out after his buddy and slammed the door. Then she whirled, panting, quivering with pent-up need to straddle not one cowboy but two, and ride herself into a state of full exhaustion.

Her gaze settled on the box of medicine they hadn’t taken with them.

Grabbing it, she stomped to the door and hurled it out at their astonished faces. When she slammed the door again, she couldn’t stop a small giggle from escaping. Now that they knew she’d toyed with them both, they could go off and beat each other up. Or snore and nose-whistle each other to death.

Her laugh burst out, freeing some of her tension after being trapped with two sexy cowboys she couldn’t decide between. Now she wouldn’t have to make a choice, because they were both off the table. In one swoop, she’d ended things before they’d begun.

No, she didn’t have a cure for what ailed them in her medicine box, but now she could set to work on fixing her messed-up head.

*

Carter stared at Bella’s door, a half-smile creeping over his face. “Damn, she’s a tornado a man would want to roll around with for all his years.”

“Too many bullets shooting out of that pretty lipstick-coated mouth, but damn if I don’t want to stay here and take a few more hits.” Quint shook himself and then looked at Carter—hard. “You finally going to admit you want her?”

“I never denied I do. I just don’t think it’s your business.”

“It’s my business when she’s playing with both of us. She let you kiss her?”

“Yeah.” Carter drew up to his full height, meeting his friend’s challenging tone.

“What else did you do with her?”

Carter wasn’t about to admit that Bella had shut him down and avoided him ever since. “None of your business.” He turned and started walking away.

Quint’s strides ate up the distance in a blink. “Did you sleep with her?”

“You’re not very bright, are you? I’ve been in that hotel room with you for weeks. Do you honestly think if I had Bella in my hands, I’d spend less than a full night loving her?”

Quint snorted. “So you haven’t had her.”

Slowing his gait, Carter shot his friend a look. “Have you?” He didn’t want to hear the answer, yet he wasn’t about to chase a woman who was spoken for. If there was a glimmer of a chance with Bella, though…

“I’m of the same mind as you, bro. I wouldn’t come back to a hotel room and listen to you snore if I had.”

They walked in silence for a minute, meandering through the parking lot to their truck. Carter glanced at the meds he’d scooped off the asphalt. “Think she means to kill us with these pills so we leave her alone?”

Quint’s low chuckle echoed the amusement Carter felt. Their friendship had survived everything from losing streaks to injuries to bad attitudes. They wouldn’t let a woman get between them.

Except she obviously liked both or she wouldn’t have let them close enough to grab her and kiss her. Bella was savvy enough to evade them if she’d really wanted, and she didn’t want to. Carter had detected the rapid rise and fall of her chest while in the trailer. Her lowered lashes, the way she dashed her wet, pink tongue over her lower lip…

Unless he was totally off, she was turned on by them being there.

“Look, I’m not feeling great about any of this. Just keep your distance today, okay?” Quint tugged his cowboy hat lower over his eyes.

“Oh that’ll be easy considering we’re stuck in a truck together.” Carter tried to tip the scales of his partner’s grumpiness, but Quint just glared at him from under the brim of his battered hat.

“You can take the meds first. Hopefully Bella was wrong and you can knock yourself out.”

Irritation was a long snake slithering through Carter’s chest. “Fine by me.”

“Good.”

They climbed into the truck and slammed their doors. Carter popped two pills and chased them with a bottle of warm, flat soda. Then he settled down for a long drive with his moody friend. Unfortunately, Bella wasn’t wrong about the medication. Carter was wide awake and thinking very clearly—about Bella’s sweet lips and the way she’d looked into his eyes.

May the best man win.