Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Thorin
Payne’s first request was to arrive on our doorstep properly dressed and ready to start tidying up the cabin for us. In order to accomplish that, I’d retrieved the trunk he’d brought with him and carried it outside so he could change while Wylde ducked into our bedroom. To do what, I wasn’t sure.
Despite my best efforts, the place looked like a tornado had spun through it.
How, I still couldn’t figure out. It was like Wylde had strewn three things around for every one thing I’d folded up and tucked away in our drawers.
Knowing him, he probably had. Outside, Payne was busy changing.
He’d requested that I not peek, and I wouldn’t.
I was too busy worrying if what he saw when he stepped into the room would be enough overwhelming chaos that it would send him running for the hills instead of slipping into the scene we were supposed to be playing out.
Clothes, boots, a few scattered dog-eared books, hell, even Wylde’s guitar was in the living room when I knew good and damned well it had started out in our bedroom. Why it was on the couch when it hadn’t been there this morning I didn’t know unless he finally intended to play it again.
Though he’d finished physical therapy on his shoulder over two months ago, he still hadn’t picked it back up yet. Until I saw it laying there, it hadn’t hit me how much I missed hearing him play it in the evening. Would he tonight?
Man, I hoped he did. Rattling and a loud clatter sounded behind the bedroom door before Wylde emerged, dusty black hat on his head, his long hair pulled completely free of the messy bun he’d had it tied up in this morning.
Those wavy chestnut locks spilled over his shoulders, drawing out the color in his eyes as he stood in a sunbeam, dusty leather chaps and vest having been added to his ensemble.
He looked like he’d just leapt down off the back of a bull.
That cocky smirk, that devil-may-care look, seeing him dressed like that, looking that way, was a reminder of all the nights we’d come down from the high of bull riding by pinning each other to the bed and fucking each other’s brains out.
Even in the low moments of crushing defeat, we’d have angry sex to break the tension, then lie in bed breaking down each other’s rides, analyzing everything that had gone wrong.
We’d been good together, damn good, but something about having a third had always elevated things between us from good to out-fucking-standing.
And I’d just bet Derek knew that. He seemed to know just about everything about everyone here at the Ranch.
At least when it came to their needs and dynamics.
We needed this. I’d wanted to deny it when he’d posed his request, but Wylde had jumped right on it, and I’d let him sweep me along with his plans for the perfect fantasy.
Which was starting to feel like it involved far more than a messy room and a refrigerator filled with groceries neither of us knew what to do with.
Knock. Knock. Knock!
Showtime!
Wylde strode past me to reach the door before I could move, opening it to a sight that left me breathless.
Payne’s sun-kissed skin shimmered with a dusting of glitter where it wasn’t covered by his black lace crop top, matching boy shorts, and the frilly white apron he’d tied around his waist. Fluffy black and white kitty-cat ears were perched on the top of his head, holding his golden hair back from his face, the longest strands falling less than an inch above his shoulders.
When Wylde shifted his stance to lean against the doorframe, I glimpsed what his body had kept hidden from my view.
Poking through those boy shorts, which could only mean that the base was a butt plug he’d inserted, was a black and white tail even fluffier than those amazing ears he had on.
Holy shit!
The end of his tail was draped over his arm, and in his hand he held a matching feather duster. He’d even drawn whiskers on his cheeks and darkened his nose, which wiggled when he mewed up at us.
“Hi,” he said, grinning, which made his green-gold eyes shimmer almost as much as his skin.
I was a sucker for green-eyed men; they’d always been my kryptonite. How had I not noticed the color in the lobby when we’d been introduced? Oh yeah, I’d been too busy admiring his dimples, another feature I’d always been drawn to.
“Well, hello kitty,” Wylde drawled. “What can we do for you?”
“I’m from the Meow Maids cleaning service, and I’m here to tidy up for you.”
“Really? I suppose the place could use a bit of sprucing up,” Wylde said. “What’s your name? We have to call you something, unless you’d prefer I just call you pretty kitty all day.”
“I wouldn’t mind at all if you did,” he replied. “My name is Payne, and I love to be petted, especially if you like my work. Will you let me in so I can get to work on you, err, for you?”
Payne blushed so adorably when he said it that I was momentarily stunned and almost failed to move out of the way fast enough when Wylde stepped back, nearly treading on my toes as he ushered Payne into the cabin past me.
“Come on in, Payne,” Wylde said, one hand hovering at the small of Payne’s back, but not touching. “But I should warn you, it’s a hot mess in here.”
Payne just flashed him a bright smile over his shoulder and waved the feather duster at him. “Messy is my specialty.”
“In that case, we can’t wait to see you in action,” I said as I followed them into the living room.
“Would it be okay if I put some music on while I clean?” he asked as he strode around the room, taking it all in. “Unless the owner of that guitar would like to play for me instead?”
His gaze slid from Wylde to me. Was that a challenge? A request? When Wylde didn’t immediately answer, I answered for him, just in case he was tempted to make a bunch of flimsy excuses about why he couldn’t.
“He’d be happy to,” I said as I lifted the case off the couch and passed it to him.
“Yes, yes, I would,” Wylde said, smirking, without even the least bit of hesitation about accepting it from me.
Finally!
My brain was screaming yes, yes, yes as he pulled it out and started tuning it up, while Payne finished taking a tour of the room like he was looking for the perfect place to start.
At least he hadn’t run away screaming. If anything, the bright smile on his face had only grown when he’d seen the state of the cabin.
Alrighty then. It seemed like Wylde’d had the right idea after all.
“In that case, I’ll just be right over here enjoying the show,” I said, matching Wylde smirk for smirk as I settled into the easy chair and immediately jumped to my feet when I realized there was something hard and lumpy underneath the cushion.
Shaking my head, I lifted it to reveal a portable charging block.
“Oh nice, I was looking for that,” Wylde said as he adjusted a string on the guitar.
“I can certainly see why you two need my services,” Payne said. “If you’d waited any longer to call, I’d have had to bring in a whole litter of kitties to help, and I think I’d much rather have you both all to myself.”
Whoa.
Sexy Kitty winked at me, and my brain went blank.
Full stop, loud screech of tires as the brakes slammed on.
I sat back down, missing the edge of the coffee table when I attempted to place the charger on it.
I nearly bumped heads with Payne when we both bent to retrieve it.
Then our flirty boy shook a finger at me, and I straightened up and let him retrieve it and place it where I’d intended to.
It earned me a smile, then with a smirk to rival Wylde’s, as Payne spun around in a slow circle, treating me to a view of that tail, which I reached out and stroked when it brushed my knee.
“Are there proper places for everything, or should I work that part out for you?” he asked.
“It all goes wherever you think it should go,” Wylde said as he worked his way down to the final string. “We’ve been too busy to get settled in properly.”
“We might be in need of regular services,” I added.
It was true, too. While the bulk of the mess had been specifically crafted so Payne could enjoy his fantasy, neither Wylde nor I had ever been the best housekeepers in the world. Our gear was about the only thing that was always perfectly maintained.
“He’s right,” Wylde said, “we’re much too disorganized to be left to our own devices.”
“Sounds to me like tidying up after the two of you could be a full-time job,” Payne said as he shook his head at the state of the room.
“It is if you’re available,” Wylde said.
“Don’t you want to see a demonstration of my skills first?”
Wylde chuckled, gently caressing the fretboard as he spoke. “Oh, we definitely want to see a demonstration of all you can do.”
“In that case, I’d better get to work,” Payne replied as Wylde started strumming the opening chords to, of all things, Warrant’s “Cherry Pie”.
Payne’s eyes grew wide, and he licked his lips, then that tail started swinging when he shook his ass to the beat as he bent to pick up the boots Wylde had left in the middle of the living room rug. His hips swayed as he sashayed over to the shoe tray by the door and placed them on it.
The best part was when he started singing, because he had a soft, sweet voice that meshed beautifully with Wylde’s.
This was better than dinner and a show. There was a whole private concert going on, complete with a seductive dancer who was so into his work that after less than half an hour, progress was clearly noticeable and the seductive look on Payne’s face had morphed into one of serenity and focus.
The longer I watched, the more I understood what he’d been searching for in this fantasy.
He truly derived pleasure from the tasks he undertook.
It was there, on his face, as he thoughtfully looked around the space, seeking out the best places to put things.
I could almost picture him in the actual apartment Wylde and I shared on the Ranch, moving through each room with grace and ease.
Whoa.
Where had that thought come from?
For the second time that afternoon, the sound of brakes squealing echoed through my mind, followed by the opening chords of Wylde launching into “Pour Some Sugar on Me” like he was trying to hit every stripper song he knew.
Come to think of it, he knew a lot of them. Funny, but I’d never really paused to consider why that was. Had it been a conscious choice, or did he just like the cadence of them? Because personally, the tempo of Wylde’s playing mixed with the way Payne moved was doing it for me on every level.
“Hmm, this really should be in the kitchen, probably on a high shelf where it won’t be in the way of the everyday pans and dishes.
The shelf looks kind of high, though. Do you think you can help me put it back where it belongs?
” Payne asked as he picked up the pasta strainer and spaghetti scoop we’d brought over since spaghetti and meatballs was one of the few things we could cook without tragic results.
“I sure can,” I said, following him in there, Wylde’s eyes tracking our movements as we left the room.
Thanks to the open floor plan and his position on the couch, Wylde had an unimpeded view of me wrapping my hands around Payne’s waist, careful of his fluffy, flowing tail as I lifted him while he placed the colander and scoop on the top shelf.
As I lowered him back to the floor, I made sure to brush his backside down the front of my body before his feet touched the ground.
The sound he made in the back of his throat could almost have been a purr, and the look he gave me when he tilted his head back meant the top of his ears rubbed over the front of my shirt.
Still, I felt it as intensely as if he’d stroked his fingers over it, and that grin? I never wanted it to leave his face.
“Thank you,” he said and danced right back into the living room, leaving me watching the way that tail moved while wondering just how much pleasure he got out of the feel of every movement.
With that plug, I bet he experienced a lot.
Did all his tails come that way, or was the tail detachable?
It probably had to be, right? To make cleaning both easier?
I knew how to clean a plug, but a tail? Did it go in the washing machine, or did he wash it by hand and dry it over the shower curtain rod the way I did the two shirts I owned that specifically said do not put in the dryer?
Was this the tamest costume in the trunk or one of the more risqué ones?
Tamest, I hoped. Like, I really, really hoped, because the longer I watched him work, the more I was curious to see what else was in there and how many other surprises he had in store for us.