Tangled (Steele Ranch 3)

* * *

“Wait! I want to hear this, too,” Penny said, her voice breathless as she dashed into the room, her hands on the hem of her shirt, trying to get it straight.

“That was fast,” Kady said, grinning.

Penny blushed and rolled her eyes as she smoothed down her pale hair. “Let’s just say he knows what he’s doing.”

“What Boone wants, Boone gets,” Kady replied in a sing-song voice. “Like last month when you had the group dinner and he carried you off.”

“Yes, it’s such a hardship to have a quickie with that man.” Penny looked to me, her cheeks pink, although I wasn’t sure if it was from Kady’s teasing or her quickie. She did look satisfied. “You wouldn’t think I was a virgin a month ago.”

My mouth fell open. “Um…”

“These men know what they want. I’m sure you agree,” Kady continued. “And you’ve got three hotties panting after you.”

“Don’t let Jamison or Boone hear you say they’re hotties,” Penny reminded, then grabbed a mug from the cabinet and went to pour coffee from the carafe.

Boone swooped in, grabbed the mug from her as he kissed the side of her neck. “One cup, Kitten. That’s all you get now.”

“You did this to me,” she fake grumbled, tilting her head to the side.

He grinned, kissed along her jaw. “And you like it when I do it to you.”

He winked at her, then left the room as fast as he’d entered.

Penny frowned. “Stupid doctor,” she grumbled. “He knows better than to stay around.” She reached for my mug, took it from my hands and had a sip. “I can’t take hers.” She cocked her head toward Kady. “She’s only allowed one cup now, too, and she’d kill me if I drank any of it. Stupid caffeine and babies.”

“I’m not pregnant,” I blurted, then laughed at myself, shook my head. “That sounds ridiculous.”

“Not with us. I went off the pill because I wanted—want—a baby,” Kady said, her hand going to her belly once again. “As you can guess, it took me all of two seconds to get knocked up.”

“I probably got pregnant my first time,” Penny admitted, looking anywhere but at either of us. She might have just had a quickie down the hall with one of her men, but she definitely still had some innocence about her. “I want a family, to stay at home and deal with the insanity of a brood of kids.”

“That’s…great,” I said neutrally.

It was every woman’s choice to decide what she wanted to do with her life. Babies, no babies. Job, no job. Climb Mt. Everest, work in a circus. I was more career-minded, but that was because I’d been driven my whole to get out of the system, to make something of myself. I’d been on my own for my entire life and I’d known I was the only one who could make it happen.

“Foster care made me want to be self-sufficient, to never rely on anyone else again,” I admitted.

The looks on both their faces wasn’t pity, not understanding, but perhaps sympathy.

“My parents died in a car accident,” Kady told me. “I have my half-sister, Beth, who I grew up with, but she’s a drug addict and not…reliable.”

“My mother sold me out to an oil and gas company for campaign financing. She’s a senator.”

I stared at both of them, processed their—yes, soap opera—stories. I handed Penny my mug so she could finish it. “You totally win.”

All three of us burst into laughter. We had sadness and hardships in our lives, but it had brought us here. No, Aiden Steele had brought us together.

“So, our dad. He was a man whore, wasn’t he?” I asked as I caught my breath.

We laughed some more until we cried. Aiden Steele had left five women pregnant. I had to wonder how many others he’d been with who hadn’t gotten pregnant. Total man whore.

I was wiping tears from my eyes as Sutton came into the room, saw the three of us and stopped just inside the doorway. Kady bit her lip to try to stop laughing, wiped her eyes.

“Ladies,” he said cautiously.

My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him, the deep rumble of the one word. Tall, dark and brooding. That was Sutton. And while he didn’t look…happy, he looked happy to see me. His eyes raked down my body—not very exciting since I was in the same clothes from the day before—with blatant perusal and interest. I had no doubt he could see the way my nipples got hard in response. Just seeing him, hearing him, being near him had my body coming awake for him better than any amount of caffeine.