Page 59 of Brooke's Bliss
A few days of living with them and she was already addictedto having them around.It went way beyond the way they fucked her—which wasoften and with great enthusiasm.They’d even sort of tried the playroom, thoughthey hadn’t found their groove there yet.
She smiled at him and accepted the coffee and the kiss heoffered her.“I had an idea for the first act, but I want to see how thislaceis going to work on the fabric I have.It’s weird tobe working with a budget.”
“Did you not have one at the New York job?What’s the name…”Shane began.
She turned and frowned his way.“Seriously?We’re pretendingto not know?”
Bay chuckled from the hallway.He was so big and broad hemade her sigh.He was dressed for work in well-worn jeans and a Western shirt,his cowboy hat already on his head.He was such a contradiction.So like thecowboys she’d known all her life, but with a thirst for culture and art.“It’sthe House of Bianchi.Brother, we know which pieces she designed for the springline.”
Shane shrugged like he’d tried.“I was hoping she’d forgetthe stalker stuff.”
She’d actually thought about this and talked about it withLucy and River when they met for drinks at Hell on Wheels.Sawyer naturallylistened in and came down firmly on the “those boys are creepy and she shouldmove in with cats” side, but then Sawyer hated mostly everyone.Lucy and Riverpointed out that she didn’t have to view it as creepy behavior.More like theywere fans of hers and wanted to follow her and maybe fall into her bed and giveher multiple orgasms and save her from her brothers and bring her coffee andmake sure she had a place in their home to work in.
She stood and gave Shane a real kiss.“I’m choosing to lookat it as pre-relationship research.After all, I wouldn’t have this lovely roomif you didn’t know an awful lot about me.And to answer your question, notreally.I mean I didn’t ask for Mulberry silk or baby cashmere, but for themost part anything I wanted was either in-house or we had an account at severalfabric stores.”
“But sometimes it’s fun to see what you can do with what youhave,” Bay said.“I think my favorite piece of work I’ve ever done is asculpture of Shane riding a bronc that I made out of scrap metal and aluminumcans.”
She’d seen it.How had she not realized it was Shane on thatpowerful horse?“It’s at Stef’s, right?He keeps it in his foyer.I hope youknow how much it means to him to keep it there.”
If there was one thing she was feeling bad about it was therift between her and her family, and that included Stefan Talbot.She hadn’ttalked to her brothers in days.She’d seen Rachel when she brought the kids byto say hello and dropped them off for some babysitting.She’d been working inthe theater, and Paige had given her the rundown on everything that happenedduring last summer’s kid production ofThe Little Mermaid.ApparentlyPoppy thought Ursula was misunderstood and probably disturbed by the amount ofpollution in the ocean, and Charlie and Zander had told Paige that the actorwho played Prince Eric was a poopy face, but only after Paige said he was cute.And Sierra Kincaid-Briggs had cried during the part where Ariel lost her voiceso loudly they shut the show down because they were worried she hurt herself.
Rachel had looked sad even as she smiled.Tired.She lookedtired and a bit lost, and that made Brooke feel infinitely guilty.
Bay leaned against the doorframe.“Well, I would have leftit wherever we were.I can haul my sketchbooks around, but there’s not a lot ofplaces to put a one-and-a-half-foot sculpture when you’re working ranches andstaying in bunkhouses.We were outside of Denver at the time, and Shaneinsisted on calling up a gallery.”
“Four, actually,” Shane explained.“I called the first oneand they hung up on me.That was when I realized I needed a good story.So Imade up a bunch of crap about being a dealer from back East who’d found thisamazing modern Western artist to rival Remington and Dixon.It took me a whilebut once they actually let us in, they agreed to sell it.Well, once theyagreed to let Bay in.”
He did not take enough credit.“You were right the firsttime.How did you meet Stef?”
“The gallery owner called him,” Bay took up the story.“Apparently he has several gallery owners on the lookout for interestingcontemporary Western artists.Stef went up to Denver the next day, bought it,and got our number from the owner.He showed up at the ranch we were working atand had a laugh that my high-powered East Coast agent was my kid brother whowas knee deep in cow shit the first time they met.That was when he offered tomentor us.Me in art and Shane in the business of art.”
She knew it was more than that.“And both of you in the artof Dominance and submission?”
Bay’s lips curled up, his eyes heating.“Yeah.That, too.Hegot us memberships to a club in Denver, and we stayed close for a while.Hewould have us come out to his place and I would work, and then at night hewould open his playroom.This was all before Jennifer.”
“Yes,” she replied with a wrinkled nose.“It was around thetime you hit on my sister-in-law.”
Bay moved in, putting his hands on her hips.“She wasn’tyour sister-in-law at the time.”He leaned over and brushed those generous lipsagainst her own, and she felt Shane move in behind her.“What did we ask thatday, brother?”
“We asked your brothers if they had a sister,” Shanewhispered.
She had to laugh.“I’m sure they took that well.”
They still weren’t taking it well, but Bay kissed her andShane’s hands found her breasts.
The world could wait.And so could work.
Tuesday
Shane held the goat gently as Noah Bennettshowed Henry how to prime the needle that held the vaccine.
Noah was the town vet and happy to help teach Nell and Henryhow to take care of the animals they were planning on welcoming at their newanimal sanctuary.
Shane had been in the kitchen when Noah walked through andannounced he could use help.
Some days it was all about where a person happened to be.The right place—since he’d been grabbing some coffee filters—and the wrong timebecause now he was spending the whole afternoon here with the Flanders clan andthirty-two traumatized goats.Bay probably finished up early and was alreadyfucking their girl.
It was something they’d both gotten used to.Only yesterdayBay had a meeting with the gallery owner and Shane had gone to the theater tobring Brooke a late lunch and ended up fucking her backstage during arehearsal.It had been hot as hell.
