Sir Loin of Beef (Grade-A Beefcakes 1)

At least that was what he thought.

“You won’t disrespect her that way,” Colton said. His voice was low, but it was laced with steel.

The smile slipped from the bastard’s face, but he kept at it. He had no fucking idea he was about to lose his teeth. “Oh, come on. My dick never got hard for Pete when he ran the place. I consider it a perk of getting supplies for the ranch. I’ll have to go rub one out before I head home.”

“You mean head back to your wife. How are Rachel and the kids?” Colton asked, right before he gripped Roscoe’s hand and wrenched it behind his back.

I watched as Colton easily escorted the fucker out the front door, funny sounds of pain coming from Roscoe’s throat as his fingers were close to being broken.

“Tucker Duke, what is Colton doing with my customer?” Ava asked. Her eyes were fixed on Roscoe being escorted out the store’s entrance.

I turned so I could face her. Winked. “Taking out the trash, tiger.”

Her eyes widened, then narrowed. Oh yeah, here came the claws.

“He’s a customer! You can’t just… just manhandle people in here as the two of you see fit.”

“He touched you,” I countered.

If Roscoe wasn’t being taken care of by Colton, I wouldn’t be so calm. If he ever came in the store again, Roscoe’d be showing Ava and his wife some respect or he’d be buried in the back forty.

“You think that’s the first man who’s done that? I can take care of myself.” She crossed her arms over her chest. The flannel plaid button-up did nothing to hide her generous curves. While I longed for the day when she wore only my shirt—and nothing else—this one had a trim women’s cut to it, showing off her pretty curves. This was good because if it were another man’s—besides Colton’s—I’d have dragged her into the office and stripped it off her. Covered her with mine.

Her outfit was fashionable. As sassy as she was. To me, she always looked perfect. Blonde hair styled and makeup on, even when taking orders for pig feed. Fire engine red nail polish coated her fingernails. Small diamond studs sparkled at her ears. While her clothes bordered on the ridiculous for a small Montana town—and as the owner of a Feed and Seed store, I loved the way she looked. As if she never got her hands dirty a day in her life. That was how it should be. Ava with two men taking care of her, doing all the dirty work.

Well, maybe not all the dirty work. We’d get nice and dirty. Filthy even. Together.

Why she’d bought the Seed and Feed from Pete, I had no idea, and I damned well wanted to find out, but she was doing a good job. With the amount of time I’d spent in the store the past month, I’d say she had a whole slew of customers. Which had me wondering—

“Who else has touched you? Worse?”

She gave a small shrug of her dainty shoulder. While she came up to my chin, I knew she had on some kind of heels. I’d never seen her without them. Again, impractical, but I loved a good fuck-me heel on a woman.

Colton walked up then, propped his hip against the counter. “Well, sugar? Any other man we should know about?”

“Roscoe Barnes ordered four months’ worth of feed,” she said, pointing toward the door. “I can’t have him shopping for it in Clayton. I have a business to run.”

I nodded. “You do. But you don’t need men pawing all over you.”

“So you’re going to what? Continue to come in every day to make sure no one does?”

Colton shifted, put his hands on the counter and leaned in. “Roscoe will be a perfect gentleman from now on, I promise you that. But to answer your question, yes. If that’s what it takes. We protect what’s ours.”

Her mouth fell open at that. I imagined it open a whole lot wider as my dick worked its way inside.

“Ours?”

I leaned in, too, so both of us were close. So the two of us blocked out everything else. “You need a man touching you?”

“Men,” Colton corrected.

“You’ve got us right here, tiger.” I pointed between Colton and myself.

The blue of her eyes went darker, her cheeks flushed and her hand crumpled the order form. We watched as she took a moment to pull herself together, to fortify that fucking wall she put around her emotions. Inwardly, I grinned, for we were getting to her. Slowly, but surely.

She licked her lips, looked between the two of us. “Every day you stop in. Every day you ask me to go out with you and I say no. Don’t you take no for an answer?”

“If you really meant it,” Colton said seriously. Neither of us would force our intentions on a woman. But we knew the signs of when a woman wasn’t interested and Ava hadn’t shown any one of them. Ava was just scared. I didn’t blame her. We were bossy men. Intense. We wanted everything from her, but we would give her the same in return. We wouldn’t treat her half-assed like Roscoe did his wife. Hell, I hadn’t even glanced at another woman since I laid eyes on Ava. Only thought of her—those fiery eyes, thought of her tiny hands trying to wrap themselves around my dick, wondering if her pussy was bare or if she had a little strip of hair pointing the way to heaven—when I rubbed one out in the shower. Every fucking day. We’d love her completely. Fuck her completely. Cherish her.