Sexual Expression (Contemporary Cowboys 2)

“Something wrong?” Drina asked.

“No,” Coco replied curtly.

“I was talking to Kane,” she said, winking at Coco.

Apparently Drina loved to devil Kane.

“No. Just making sure I know these fellas. Everything is fine.” Kane went to the porch to welcome everyone while Peyton hummed right along like she didn’t have a care in the world. If she’d had a nice apron to wear, she would’ve fit the part.

Coco watched her with interest, wondering if she could ever know such peace of mind, such joy. Deciding her lot in life was overshadowed by her father’s decisions, she walked outside, rushing her sisters and for the moment, grateful she could hang on to the family she knew and the sisters she loved.

“So I hear we have some catching up to do,” Brianna said.

“I suppose,” Coco said, nodding at Drina. “She has some news of her own.”

Gemma grumbled, “As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with a man, we’re good.”

After everyone had been introduced, they made their way into the kitchen. Peyton offered “refreshments” and directed the agents to the table where they immediately began retrieving notepads or cell phones, their methods of note taking providing evidence of their ages.

Questions about the night before began and before Coco knew what hit her, she found herself under scrutiny and she longed for her other family—for the Blaziers who had somehow always known what to do and what to say.

“Excuse me for a moment,” she said, rushing to the half bath down the hall. Digging in her slacks and thankful she’d changed into something comfortable before the Feds and company had arrived, she typed out a group message to Brandon, Kurt, and Liam. In its simplest form, it was a cry out for help, but she only typed, The questions are upsetting. Please send someone. I’m afraid I’ll say something I shouldn’t.

She returned to the table and caught stern glares from each of her sisters. Even Jax gave her a leveled look.

“Where did you go, Ms. Baldini?” one of the agents asked.

Brianna quickly shook her head as if to warn her.

“To the bathroom?” Maybe she should’ve flushed the toilet and turned on the water. Perhaps that was the real problem here. These men with their refined attitudes, thousand dollar suits, and expensive shoes were staring down their noses as if she were a lesser person, a person with the last name Baldini, a lowly person they wouldn’t want to save if their jobs didn’t require them to do so.

“Got it,” one of the younger agents said, flashing his phone. “Who did you text while you were in the bathroom, Miss Baldini?”

She flicked a quick glance at Drina who immediately shook her head.

“Ms. Baldini?”

“Perhaps you should call us by our first names,” Brianna suggested. “Since there are four sisters here who could all answer to Miss Baldini.”

“Very well,” said the agent with his cell phone still up in the air. “Coco, who did you text?”

She could see the very message she had typed out on her cell. How had they managed to intercept her text? She focused on the only one there who could potentially save her but Kane was watching her as if he too expected an answer.

“My boyfriend.” She held her head up high.

“Don’t you mean boyfriends, Miss Bal—Coco, isn’t that what you mean?”

She focused on Brianna again. She was seated at the far end of the table. Jax sat next to her. Tyler and Flint stood behind her. Surely the agents there already figured out their relationship arrangement.

Then again, how could she define her relationships exactly? She’d had sex with Liam that morning on the balcony. Later, she’d been the gal in the middle and she’d fucked all three of them. The day before she’d sucked Brandon off and had a fling with Kurt. What were they to her except men she cared for, men she admittedly felt compelled to summon when she had a problem, no doubt, but boyfriends? No, she wasn’t sure they were boyfriends exactly because they were so much more. They were her lovers, her men, her greatest protectors.

Maybe even her truest loves.

“We’re friends. I should’ve said a friend rather than boy-friend.”

“But in fact you had it right the first time,” another agent said, pulling free a small notepad and flipping over a few pages. “Here it is. You’ve been involved with Brandon

Blazier for a reported four years, probably more. You’ve been sleeping with him for at least two and best I can tell you are involved with at least two of his brothers, if the club footage from last night and this morning is accurate and I’m willing to say the footage reveals an accurate depiction of your relationship with Liam, Brandon, and Kurt Blazier.”