CHAPTER 28
Maxie
There was a lumberjack hacking away at my brain. That was the only thing that would explain the excruciating pain I was in. A wave of nausea hit me hard but I couldn’t get up. I tried to lift my head but it weighed a thousand pounds. God, when had my head gotten so big? I felt like I was dying. I had to be. I’d never felt so awful in my entire life.
“Hell. I’m in hell.” I gagged and then there was an angel picking me up and flying me to a sparkly white toilet.
I tossed up what felt like everything I’d ever eaten and clung to the toilet with my face resting just inside the rim. I still hadn’t opened my eyes and when I tried to, I understood why. Even more pain cut through my brain. That stupid lumberjack needed to take a break and let me breathe.
“Not feeling so good, huh?”
I peeled one eye open and saw Shep grinning down at me. I wanted to punch his perfect teeth out for a second as another wave of nausea hit. How could he look so perfect when the world was clearly ending?
“Go away.”
He leaned down and rubbed my back.
“Not a chance, baby.”
I groaned and lifted one weak arm to try to push him away but it was useless.
“I’m dying. Did we at least have sex last night? I don’t want to die a virgin.”
Shep choked and stared at me with wide eyes.
“Are you serious? First of all, you came over here, agreed to give us a baby, and then passed out. Second of all, we aren’t creeps who would ever touch you while you were unconscious. Third of all, if we’d have fucked you last night, you’d damn sure remember it.”
It was annoying that I could still blush after the way I’d just puked up my guts in front of him. I jumped when he flushed the toilet and picked me up to put me down on the counter. I could feel myself pouting but couldn’t find it in me to care. I’d already broken so many rules that would’ve made Mom climb out of her grave and if she hadn’t already done it, I doubted pouting would be the thing that got her blood pumping again. Besides, I knew of at least two people who were willing to shove the mean old woman right back into the grave.
Shep put toothpaste on a toothbrush and handed it to me.
“What’s that smile about?”
I held the toothbrush and looked up at him through my eyelashes.
“Even if I do enough bad things to raise my mom from the dead, I have people who’d shove her right back down. I’ve never had that before.”
His eyes warmed.
“You have three men in this hotel suite who’d fight over who got to her first to shove her back to hell.”
I studied him while I brushed my teeth and saw he was doing the same to me. Something felt different. I felt different. There was something about deciding to take life by the horns, even if I’d made the decision while drunk, that made me feel stronger. I had more of a plan for my life than ever before. I was going to have lots of sex with the men I lived with, give them a baby, and then move on. It sounded so easy and mess-free when I thought of it like that. Without being tied to either ranch, I would be able to go wherever I wanted after having their child. I’d never thought about going anywhere and I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of leaving but maybe it would grow on me.
It would have to. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay in Devil’s Den and watch the family I’d never have grow without me. No, once I had the baby, I’d have to leave. There was no other way I’d survive.
“How about we get breakfast before we get on the road?”
I frowned.
“You don’t want to…”
“Want to what?” Shep grinned as he watched me blush and motion to my body with both hands. “Fuck you?”
I nodded. I’d made myself clear the night before. I’d give them their babies. That meant sex.
“How else am I supposed to get pregnant?”
He tilted his head and his eyebrows pinched together. Before he could say anything, Arlo groaned his way into the bathroom and frowned when he saw us.
“Unless you both want to watch me piss, you should go.”
I started to slip off the counter but Shep didn’t budge. He held my gaze as he grasped my chin.
“You should see part of what you’re getting yourself into.”
He turned my face towards Arlo and gripped my thigh with his other hand, sending sparks of electricity to my core. I wanted to look away, embarrassed about the idea of watching Arlo do something that felt so private. Never in my life had I considered the act of watching someone else pee. I was curious, though. I did want to see Arlo. I’d wanted to since I first felt him harden against my thigh ten years earlier.
Arlo reached through the flap of his boxer briefs and pulled his shaft out, his big, tan hand taking away nothing from the size of his dick. My mouth fell open. It was alarmingly big. I was also alarmingly interested in it. The veins running the length of it, the pretty pink color of it, the bulbous head… I wanted to get closer and see how it felt to the touch. It looked like velvet from where I sat.
I tried to press my thighs together to ease the sudden ache between my legs but Shep was in the way. I shifted on the counter and gasped when Arlo started peeing. I flushed hot and tried to look away. It was too private. I wasn’t supposed to see that.
Shep leaned in and pressed his mouth against the side of my face while his hand on my thigh moved closer to my sex.
“We’re all big men, baby. Are you sure you’re in a hurry to start this? Are you going to be comfortable walking out of this hotel looking like you just rode a horse for forty days and forty nights straight? Or would you rather we wait until we get home to spread you out and eat you whole?”
I whimpered when one of his fingers brushed against me through my pajama bottoms. I didn’t know what I wanted. I was on fire. I couldn’t even remember what cold felt like.
“When you scream for us, I don’t want another soul to hear it. No one else gets to hear that. Just us.” Arlo flushed and then walked closer to wash his hands. He glanced down and saw Shep’s finger brushing back and forth over me and smiled. “Although I think we could give you something to put in your mouth to keep you quiet.”
I squeaked. It wasn’t my best look but I was suddenly very nervous and the idea of losing my virginity in a hotel no longer sounded right.
“Home.”
Shep scooped me off the counter and growled.
“Let’s go.”