Chapter 22 #2
Brookes stays buried deep inside me while Mason spoons me from behind, both of them surrounding me completely. Their hands rest over my belly, warm and protective.
“Gonna keep breeding this sweet pussy,” Mason murmurs against my neck, voice dark with promise. “Over and over. Filling you.”
Brookes groans in agreement, slowly rocking his hips, pushing their combined release deeper. “One wild night turned into forever. And we’re never stopping, darlin’. We’re going to fill you again and again.”
Their filthy, loving words send a fresh wave of heat through me. I clench around Brookes, already aching for more.
“I want that,” I whisper, completely surrendered. “I want all of it.”
They embrace me closer, peppering my face and shoulders with kisses, showing me exactly how much they want it too.
“I love you,” I whisper into the darkness, the words finally easy and true.
Outside, the ranch stretches wide beneath the night sky. Horses in the pasture. Fences waiting to be checked in the morning. A life still full of work and weather, gossip and uncertainty. But inside this room, everything is simple.
I'm loved. I'm safe. I'm home.
Mason kisses the curve of my shoulder. “No more running.”
“No more running,” I promise.
Brookes nuzzles my neck. “No more thinking you have to choose which parts of yourself we get to love.”
My throat tightens. “I don’t know how to be this happy without waiting for approval.”
Mason lifts his head. His eyes meet mine in the dim light.
“Then we’ll teach you.”
Brookes’s hand strokes slowly over my belly. “Every morning. Every night. As long as it takes.”
I press my hand over theirs.
“I was so scared,” I admit. “Of wanting too much. Of being too much.”
Mason’s mouth curves faintly. “Sweetheart, we’re cowboys. We don’t mind a little too much.”
Brookes chuckles. “We prefer it.”
A soft and shaky laugh slips out of me.
Mason’s expression turns serious again. “You’re not too much, Janey. You’re exactly enough.”
Brookes kisses my shoulder. “You’re everything.”
Mason kisses the back of my neck, slow and tender. “We love you, too, baby. More than you’ll ever know.”
“I want the baby to know,” I whisper. “Always. I want them to know they were wanted from the very beginning, even though I was scared.”
Mason’s hand splays wider over my stomach. “They’ll know.”
Brookes’s voice thickens. “They’ll never doubt it.”
“And my parents…” I trail off, unsure how to finish.
Mason kisses my temple. “Your dad will come around.”
“I think so,” I whisper.
“And your mom?” Brookes asks.
I’m quiet for a moment. The ache is still there. It may always be there.
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “But I meant what I said. I can’t live for her anymore.”
“No,” Mason says. “You live for you now.”
Brookes smiles against my skin. “And for this little bean.”
I laugh again, touching my belly. “Little bean?”
“Until further notice,” he says solemnly.
Mason hums. “I like it.”
“You would,” I tease.
Brookes lifts his head. “For the record, if it’s a girl, I’m teaching her to ride before she can walk.”
Mason snorts. “No, you’re not.”
“If it’s a boy, same plan.”
“No baby of ours is getting on a horse before they can hold their own head up.”
Brookes looks offended. “I said before walking, not before neck control.”
I laugh so hard my stomach aches, overwhelmed by this messy, beautiful love that spreads to fill all the dark, withheld places of my heart.
Brookes settles back down beside me, his hand sliding over my hip. “We need to talk about practical things soon.”
Mason groans softly. “Not tonight.”
“Not all of it,” Brookes says. “But some.”
I look at him. “Like what?”
“Like making sure you’re legally protected. Medical paperwork. The ranch. The baby. Us.”
Mason’s jaw tightens, but he nods. “He’s right. We can’t make the world understand us, but we can make sure it doesn’t get to decide for us.”
Emotion squeezes my chest. “You’ve thought about this?”
Brookes looks at me like my question is ridiculous. “Darlin’, I’ve thought about everything.”
Mason brushes hair away from my face. “Tomorrow, we’ll start figuring it out.
Whatever papers we need. Whatever conversations.
We’ll make a plan. And you can think about work.
It’s up to you if you want to relocate. You could start something up from here.
Or don’t. We’ve got you, whatever you decide. ”
Mason’s hand tightens on mine “We don’t need a test to tell us who she belongs to,” he says, his voice flat and certain. “But I want the paperwork to reflect that. We’ll sit down with a lawyer—someone discreet—to make sure the baby has both our names in whatever way the law allows.”
Brookes nods, his expression serious. “We share everything, Janey. That means the responsibility, the medical history, and the legal right to protect both of you.”
It’s a pragmatic admission that makes the family we’re building feel like more than a dream; it makes it a fortress.
“And the nursery,” Brookes adds.
Mason’s face softens. “Yeah. The nursery.”
I blink back fresh tears. “Where?”
“The room across the hall,” Mason says.
“The one with the morning light,” Brookes adds.
I know the room. Pale walls. Wide window. A view of the pasture where the horses graze at sunrise.
“It’s perfect,” I whisper.
Mason smiles. “Then it’s theirs.”
“Theirs,” I echo.
Brookes kisses my belly. “You hear that, little bean? You’re already getting the best room in the house.”
The ridiculous sweetness of it breaks me open all over again.
I tug him up and kiss him. Then Mason. Then both of them in turn, until I lose track of where one kiss ends and the next begins.
Eventually, we end up tangled beneath the blankets, bodies warm and heavy, the sharpest edge of need softened into deeper sensation.
Mason spoons me from behind, one arm tucked beneath my head, the other draped over my waist. Brookes lies facing me, his hand resting over the small life growing inside me.
Their palms overlap on my belly.
I cover both with mine.
Brookes’s voice rasps when he says, “You’re home now. With us. Where you belong.”
My eyes sting, but I smile.
I close my eyes, safe and claimed and full in every possible way. Their bodies surround me, their hands protective over the small life growing between us.
This is what I was so afraid to want, but taking chances, even the scary ones, brought me here.
To two rugged, loving cowboys who see every part of me and still choose me, giving me space to breathe between them.
To a life I never imagined, but one that already feels like the only place I truly belong.
I smile into the darkness.
Whatever comes next, I’m excited to face it with my two handsome cowboys by my side.