Chapter 3
“I have a proposal,” Kenny said an hour later while the three men sat around the table, drinking beer and playing poker with dollar bills they’d brought for that purpose. Beer bottles littered the table, along with empty bowls that’d once held chips.
The air still smelled faintly of rain and wet leaves, but the storm had passed and the cabin was quiet. Wolves are warm-blooded, so they hadn’t bothered with a fire in the hearth.
“We’re here to bond, so we offer a kinky play session with the hawk.
With Willow. She was reading a book about three men and one woman, right?
Maybe she wants to try it in real life. We ask about hard limits, give assurances we’ll honor her safeword.
Find out what she likes, all the negotiation details.
No strings. She’s here to toss off an old relationship, we’re here to build a better connection so we feel more like a team. Win-win for all of us.”
“If she’s game, I am,” Boone said.
“Same,” said Silas, and he tossed in three dollar bills, laid down a full house, and swept the pot into his growing pile with a smirk.
Kenny dealt the next hand without a word, took a swig of his beer, and considered his strategy when he got a look at his next hand.
They heard the boots outside long before the man made it to them. Boone stood, crossed the room in three easy strides, opened the door, looked out, and sniffed.
“Human,” he said softly. “Fire department.”
“Sevier County Fire and Rescue,” the man called from twenty yards away. “I’m Jenkins. Ya’ll holdin’ up okay up here?”
“We are,” Boone answered. “You need some water? That’s a hike, if you came up from the bottom.”
“I’m good. Just checkin’ cabins, makin’ sure folks are all right.”
“We’re fine, and the woman ’bout a quarter mile north is good. The three of us will need to get off the mountain by Monday or Tuesday, but she’ll be happy to stay until you get the road back down fixed.”
The man made it to the porch, and Boone moved and motioned him in.
“We happened to have a charged Yeti, and the fridge is plugged into it. Don’t really need electric for anything else.”
The fireman’s eyes flicked between them. “Our experts say the cabins are on bedrock, so you’re safe up here at the top, but I’d stay put till we’ve had a chance to clear debris and check stability down below.” He shifted his radio on his belt. “If you need anything, call the sheriff’s office.”
“If you’re going to check on our neighbor, I’ll walk with you,” Silas said. “She knows me, but a strange man approaching at night might spook her.”
“That’s mighty kind of you.”
Boone watched the two walk away and turned back to Kenny. “What are the odds she’ll accept your proposal, do you think?”
“I won’t offer it right off the bat. Lead her along toward it, and if she balks at any point, I stop talking in that direction.” He shrugged. “I give it a fifty-fifty chance. Maybe.”
* * * *
Willow woke early enough to read about an hour before she had to get ready, but when it was time, she debated about what to wear.
She’d been in joggers and a T-shirt when the wolves had shown up the day before, and when the wolf and fireman had checked on her after dark.
She’d brought a few cute outfits in case she lost her mind and wanted to go out to eat, but she didn’t want to show up looking as if she’d dressed up for them.
She ended up in snug jeans and a short-sleeved cotton turtleneck. It covered her boobs without showing cleavage, but it hugged her curves in all the right places and showed them off even more. The morning air was ten degrees warmer than the evening before, so a sweater would’ve been too much.
And these jeans loved her ass. Framed it exactly right. She’d been told by multiple men that hers is perfect. Apparently a narrow and poofy ass curving below an even narrower waist turns men on.
And why was she trying to turn these men on?
Maybe because they’d scented her arousal, seen what she was reading, and hadn’t recoiled in horror. Had actually been interested. Aroused.
And then they’d changed the subject like fucking gentlemen.
Not what you’d expect from wolves, but she’d let them in because the new Alpha of the Chattanooga Pack is reportedly a good guy.
Honest and loyal. People had doubted whether he could hold the pack together as Randall had, but it turns out, he’s fierce when needed, a good businessman, and a good manager, all of which are necessary for a good pack leader.
She put the potatoes, the cast-iron pan, and what was left of her apple cider into her grocery bag and walked the narrow trail toward the other cabin.
The morning was breaking in hues of golds and oranges with a gorgeous sunrise off to the east. The storm had scrubbed the air clean, and she breathed it into her lungs.
She heard the men at the back of the cabin, so she followed their voices and saw Silas cooking bacon over the grill on the patio while Kenny beat eggs in a bowl up on the deck.
It took her a minute to figure out what Boone was doing — holding biscuits wrapped around sticks over a fire in the yard.
“Looks like ya’ll got an early start,” she said. “Not sure the potatoes will be done in time.”
“We can have potatoes with our lunch,” Silas said. “We were awake and figured we’d get started. You sleep good last night?”
“I did. What can I do to help?”
“If you want to do the eggs, I’ll bring plates out,” Kenny said. “Afraid we only have coffee, beer, water, and whiskey to drink, though.”
She lifted her grocery bag. “I brought apple cider to share, but coffee would be good, assuming you have sugar and milk.”
“No milk,” Silas said. “But we have some heavy cream since I’ll be making from-scratch alfredo tomorrow.”
She smiled. “That works.”
They sat around the big pine table when everything was ready — eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits, blackberry preserves. Willow took a bite of the sausage and made a small, involuntary sound.
Silas grinned. “That’s the same noise you made over my barbecue yesterday.”
Boone’s mouth curved. “Means we’re doing it right.”
Kenny’s gaze lingered on her for a beat longer than felt casual. “So. You said you’ve got time before your next stretch at work. No rush to get off the mountain?”
She shook her head. “Nope. I can be here until about a week before Thanksgiving if I have to be.” She would run out of food before then, so that wasn’t completely true, but she didn’t correct herself.
“That’s good,” he said, and buttered a rolled biscuit with slow precision. “Because I’ve been thinking about how we could make the best use of being stranded together.”
His gaze was all heat and testosterone, and her stomach tightened before everything fluttered.
Fire rushed between her thighs, and she took a bite to give herself a moment to consider a response.
He seemed to be heading somewhere interesting, and she didn’t want to shut it down.
In fact, she wanted to encourage it, so she swallowed and said, “That sounds like the start of a possibly fun proposal.”
“Maybe it is,” Kenny said, voice steady, calm as still water. “But it’s not one I’d drop on you cold. We’ll eat first. Talk after.”
His calmness was the kicker. He wasn’t teasing. He’d already decided on something, and now she had to decide how curious she was.
“Oh no. You don’t get to just start something like that and then say we’ll talk later. Out with it, wolf.”
Silas chuckled. “She’s got you there. Keep going. She’s clearly interested in where you’re headed.”
Kenny set his biscuit down and leaned back in his chair, studying her like a man deciding how best to cut a slab of beef. Not in a hurry, not uncertain, just weighing the shape of it.
“All right,” he said at last. “You like kink. We like kink. The three of us came up here to work on trust and coordination. Management styles. You being here opens a door I didn’t expect.”
Boone rested his elbows on the table, big hands loose around his mug. Silas mixed some of the pork into his eggs. Took a bite.
Kenny’s gaze didn’t leave hers. “Your book has sex with three men on one woman. If that doesn’t interest you, this won’t work, and that’s fine, but if it does?
No strings. The four of us set boundaries ahead of time.
Safeword’ll be honored without hesitation.
Hard limits respected. You tell us what you like, what you don’t. ”
He looked at Boone, who said. “We build the scene after the negotiations. You can give us input, but…” he shrugged. “Your call, just wanted that part clear.”
Her pulse jumped, and she set her fork down, hyperaware of how the three men had gone still around the table, waiting.
“I prefer the double-safeword method, so red to stop a scene, as in it’s over and may not start back, and yellow to let you know things are headed in that direction.
” She met Kenny’s gaze, her pulse picking up speed.
“Up to you whether you check in with me or assume you know the problem and back off, or continue as is and force me to end the scene.”
“Is that a yes?” Kenny asked.
“It’s a maybe. I’ve never taken on even two men at once.
Three will be a lot, and yet…” She sighed.
“Reading about it is hot and no way in hell am I saying no right off the bat, but the real thing, moving it from fantasy to reality?” Fuck, she wanted to say yes, but she did the adult thing and finished with, “It’s a maybe, and we need to talk before I can turn it into a yes. ”
She wanted it to be a yes. Every cell in her body screamed for it. But she couldn’t just strip and let them go to town without boundaries, no matter how badly her inner submissive begged her to.
“Not a chaotic scene,” Kenny said. “Structured. Intense, but we’ll let you get used to us before we reach the finale, with all three of us in you at once.” A shrug. “I’m big on control, but it looked like your book had plenty of power exchange.”