man in his marriage bed on a honeymoon night.
“I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do. You three can’t stop me!”
“Nope, Peyton, we can’t,” he agreed the second she said it.
They reached the barn then, and he pinned her against the wood pile and stared into her eyes. Don’t do it, he told himself as her lips parted and his dried. A couple of days, and I can sip on those sweet lips. Today, it’s against the law.
He returned his focus to the conversation at hand. “But we can make it damn hard on you when you try to do something like this.”
She sat down on the ground. “I’m not going anywhere until you kiss me.”
“Until I…huh?”
“Kane, I did not stutter. I missed out on a lot tonight so I’m willing to compromise. I want a kiss, and I want it from you. I want to know what those girls down at the tanning salon mean when they say you can kiss a woman into a screaming orgasm. Make me holler, Kane. I know you can. Show me.”
He bent down and yanked her up. She flew against his chest. “Oh, now, I see how it is. You like it rough.” She puckered her lips. “Kiss me?”
“Peyton, if I kiss you, there’s one thing you can guarandamtee. You’ll get your orgasm because I won’t stop with my lips on yours. I’ll move south, baby, and I’ll stay there until I taste every sip your little body will willingly give. For the record, ‘cause I know you’re young and all, I’m not talking about your lips.” He dropped his arms and grabbed her wrist. “Now, come on, get your ass up to the house.”
He stunned her quiet. She didn’t say a word from the time he made his promise. It wasn’t just a threat, and the girl apparently realized it because he made sure he said it as an oath, one he’d take before anyone.
He planned to take Peyton Storm to his bed. He’d see her there stark naked and reaching for him. He might tie her up, maybe not. It didn’t really matter. The end result guaranteed the same-pleasurable.
He’d like nothing more than to sling her pretty little behind over his shoulder right there and stroke those perfectly shaped globes as he carried her. Instead, he’d pulled her kicking and screaming all the way to the upper barn only to shut her up with a few selective words. Now, as he tugged her up the front stairs of the main hall, she looked quite different. She appeared ready for bed-his bed.
A minute later, he tossed her on her mattress and stared into knowing eyes. After the hike uphill, he doubled over and panted trying to get his breath.
He pursed his lips and dared to look up. Damn it. She stared at his cock. Right now, it demanded notice. Damn it. He wanted to spank her ass for the wrong reasons, and he wanted to do it when she turned eighteen.
If she pressed him much more, if she challenged him further, he might. But he would wait forty-eight hours to do it. God help him, if he could get away from her right then, he’d stay away until she turned legal.
“What’s wrong, Kane? Can’t keep up with a little thing like me?” She crossed one leg over the other and smiled sweetly.
“Damn if I’m not right about you.” He took a deep breath, slowly let it out and rolled his shoulders back as he tried to stand again. His erection still throbbed against his dirty jeans, the pants he left at his bed when he climbed between the sheets only hours before the latest Peyton-episode.
She acted uninterested as she studied her fingernails. “You know, I’m not as innocent as you boys want to believe.”
“Peyton, go to bed.” He walked out and shut the door behind him letting out a sigh of relief when he made it out of her room without touching her. He chewed the inside of his jaw and leaned his head against the door.
“I’m turning eighteen in two days!” she screamed.
Braden and Evan topped the stairs then. Braden narrowed his eyes on his brother. “Tell me, please God in heaven tell me, you didn’t lay a hand on her.”
He clenched his fist and stomped down the hall. “Hell, no. In case you haven’t heard, she’s going to be eighteen in two days. I’ve waited for three months. Two more days won’t kill me.”
Peyton smiled to herself as she overheard the most beautiful words she’d ever heard leave a man’s lips. She flattened her palm against the door and stared at it. She knew it. She pegged Evan for an easy mark but Kane haunted her. The way he watched her made her uneasy, and the way he told on her for things, made her think he did it for her own good, because he cared.
Maybe he cared too much.
Peyton fell on the bed and snapped her fingers. Yes, two more days and she’d give new meaning to sexual harassment. She’d chase these boys from one side of the ranch to the other.
Less than forty-eight hours, and she didn’t give a damn if they played their games or not. They weren’t going to call age-restrictions as their reasoning. Fuck them. Oh yes, her day was coming and soon. With any luck, she’d see one or two cowboys coming too.
Chapter 3
“You’ve gotta be kiddin’ here.” Kane blinked as he stood in the breezeway of the barn.
“It’s a Corvette,” Braden stated, his green eyes sparkling almost emerald.
“Really? Fooled me.” Kane’s sarcasm drifted into the loft where Evan peered down with a grin as he tossed a few hay bales over the rail.
“Ask him why he’s giving her a seventy-thousand dollar car. You’re gonna love this.” Evan stepped on a few boards, and then jumped out of the loft.
“I know why he’s doing it,” he said as he watched Braden survey his purchase.
“Braden, you’re acting like our dads used to act, or so the story goes. All of ‘em wanted to control Mom. Now you’re no different. You think by buying expensive gifts for Peyton, you’re buying a little insurance. You’re hoping she’ll do things our way until she graduates.”
“It’s worth a try.”
“It’s worth nearly seventy grand to keep her in line?” Kane rubbed his chin. “I don’t think so. Something else going on here?”
“Hell, no.”
“You responded too quick to the question.” Kane peered inside the car. “This is sweet.” He dared to even look. Then he dared to sit, turn the key and crank it.
He bent his ear and listened to the hum of six hundred and twenty horsepower. He didn’t know much about engines but he realized this little baby had plenty of get-up and go. He shook his head and stepped out of the sports car. “Hell, why not buy everybody one?”
“It’s not your birthday,” Evan pointed out.
Kane grunted.
Braden readjusted the ridiculous rope holding the bright red ribbon in place. The top of the car looked like it held the world’s largest squishy tomato on top rather than a beautiful bow with satin and silk ribbons.
“He likes her a little bit,” Evan reported.
“You don’t say.”
“It’s from all of us, you two helped pay for it too.”
Kane shook his head. “The dropped bomb.”
“Yeah, I took it out of the farm account.”
“Perfect. Where Peyton is concerned, you just don’t care, do you? Hell, why not sign over the ranch? For that matter, give her your damned horse. It cost about as much as this car.”
Braden shrugged and then poked him in the ribs and pointed toward the main gate leading into the property. Peyton’s car sped toward them. “Come on. Let’s hide over here.”
Before anyone protested, they crunched down in a nearby stall. They heard the four-door sedan move closer
