Marnie shrugged and reached under the bar. She came back up with a shot glass filled with amber liquid. Without a second thought, Hannah picked it up and slammed it to the back of her throat. No feminine sipping for her this time.
Unlike the first two she’d had, this drink lacked bite. It was silky smooth and sweet. She put the empty glass down and stared with a frown. “I don’t think this is tequila. I like this one, Marnie. I could drink this all night.”
She’d probably have to. Glancing at the pilot again, Hannah asked, “Do you have any idea when Billy might be sober?”
It was rude to make her wait while he slept off his vodka. She’d planned a grand exit. She was supposed to be halfway to Anchorage by now. She couldn’t sit here much longer or the brothers would find her. What would happen then? She shivered in anticipation. No, you’re supposed to be leaving them forever, not thinking about all the delicious ways they could punish you.
Marnie leaned forward. “You’re in trouble, girl. Why don’t you tell me about it? I have a feeling this is about my boys.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I don’t know your boys. I just flew up from Dallas yesterday with my boss—well, my former boss—and his brothers. I haven’t exactly seen much past the bedroom, if you know what I mean.” Had she just said that out loud?
Hannah felt herself flush. Where had her manners gone? Fled in a haze of alcohol, she suspected. Except she didn’t feel very drunk. Tipsy, maybe. She picked up the last shot glass and sniffed it. “Hey, is this apple juice?”
Marnie merely poured another. “Now see, it sounds like you have met my boys. Gavin and Slade would be just the type to hide a woman away. And though I didn’t have a hand in raising Dex, he’s become like one of my own, too. He can be a caveman when it suits him.”
“Perfect.” Hannah downed the drink. “I flee, and I run straight into their surrogate momma.
If you’re not going to help me get drunk, will you at least get me a cup of coffee?” A rustling against the beat-up hardwood floors sounded behind her. Hannah sighed. The men of the bar had been watching her every move since she’d walked in. Initially Marnie had scared them, but Hannah had heard them whispering. Now, they began belting out offers.
“I’ll buy you a drink, ma’am.”
“Me, too. One of them fruity drinks, if you want,” added another.
“I have some of that fancy beer back at my place. We could get…comfortable and drink a few.”
Wincing, Hannah turned. The dozen or so roughnecks had closed in. The big, burly men in faded jeans and flannel shirts, clearly used to hard work if their battered boots were any indication, hovered. If she hadn’t already given her heart away, she might have found these guys attractive. But not a one could hold a candle to her men.
Except Gavin, Slade, and Dex weren’t her men anymore.
Hannah smoothed back her hair. “I appreciate the offer, gentlemen, but I’ve had enough of men to last me a lifetime. And Miss Marnie is probably right, I really don’t need more alcohol. I could, however, use a general store. Is there one around so I can pick up a few necessary items?” Her head spun a bit. Hannah felt a deep gratitude to Marnie for cutting her off while she could still stand. She wasn’t used to drinking, except the occasional glass of wine Slade ordered for her.
“The store is next door. What do you need?” Marnie asked. “I’ll have someone pick your items up.”
“Well, I need some underwear, for starters. Dex didn’t pack any. He said I wasn’t allowed to wear them, but now that I’ve left, I’ll wear anything I like. And I like underwear.” She heard the men behind her erupt into a rumble of chatter. She turned to find some of them texting. Others blatantly talked amongst themselves.
“The new girl ain’t wearin’ no underwear.”
Hannah held her head high and glared at the man who’d made that statement. He had to be at least six foot five and all of twenty-one, but neither trait excused him from using double negatives, at least not in Hannah’s book. “It’s more correct to say that I am not wearing any underwear. It’s also rude to point that out.” She turned back to Marnie. “I would also love a bra.”
“I told you she didn’t have no bra on. I can tell.”
Hannah glared over her shoulder at yet another man. He was smaller, but seemed to have his height-advantaged friend’s trouble with grammar.
“Sorry, ma’am,” he said, a flush turning his skin a dark brown. “I meant to say that you haven’t got a bra on.”
She shook her head, resolved to ignore him and the others.
Marnie set a cup of coffee in front of her. Hannah picked it up, wondering if she could pour it down the pilot’s throat instead. Time was running thin.
The older woman grinned, mirth lighting her dark eyes. “I can see why my boys are interested in you. You can handle yourself, girl. But I’m sorry to tell you that unless you like boxer shorts in an extra large, you’re out of luck. And I definitely don’t stock bras, although the way some of these men have gained weight, a few of them might need a little support.”
“It’s my thyroid, Marnie,” a particularly large man said as he crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders as though trying to hide his chest.
Marnie’s eyes rolled. “Roughnecks. Suddenly, they’re so sensitive. Now, which of my boys is giving you trouble? I bet it’s Gavin. Unless you’re leaving over the underwear thing. Then I’d say that’s either Dex or Slade. I like my briefs, to tell you the truth. I don’t think I could give them up.”
Hannah could probably live without the underwear, though she’d intended to fight them on the bra issue. She also needed to figure out how to get the plug out of her bottom. It was still there, a subtle reminder every time she moved of the pleasures she’d be missing now that she’d left those perverted, wonderful men. “It’s just…Gavin isn’t interested in me.” Marnie’s dark eyes turned shrewd. “I doubt that. I know him. I’ve been worried about him for the last ten years. When I heard he’d brought a woman here, I was so damn happy. Now that I’ve met you, I’m even happier. You’re what he needs. I’m guessing you’re already involved with Slade and Dex, while Gavin is being the stubborn holdout.” Hannah flushed. “You’re perceptive.”
“Well, sweetie, men don’t usually give edicts about whether a woman can wear delicates unless they’re involved, and I know Slade and Dex have been looking for a woman to share for a long time.”
“That’s a way of life around these parts, Miss,” the large man with the thyroid issue said with a big smile. “We ain’t got a lot of women here. We have to share. And if the James boys are only offering you three men, well, me and my brothers are willing to offer you five.”
“Not really a selling point,” Hannah said, unable to keep the horror from her voice. What on earth would she do with five men? Most likely, she would go crazy. The amount of cooking and laundry alone would make her suicidal.
“Don’t mind them.” Marnie reached out and covered Hannah’s hand with her own. “So you say Gavin doesn’t want you?”
Tears threatened. “Yes. He’s made it clear that I’m not good enough for him.”
“Horse pucky,” Marnie replied. “He’s been on a path to self-destruction for years. Ask yourself why he brought you here if he isn’t interested.”
“Well, I seem to have some sort of stalker…”
Marnie shrugged. “Dex’s area of expertise. That don’t require Gavin being here.” Good point. Hannah hadn’t considered that. Everything lately had been such a whirlwind.
The time to think between all those orgasms had been short.
Why would Gavin need to be here? The trouble at the site was either computer or mechanical. That was Slade’s end of the business. Dex was security, and he’d taken the lead on working with the Lenox brothers, as well as looking into the malicious virus at the River Run office. Gavin didn’t need to be here at all. Had he come simply because he wanted to?
“You might be right.”
“’Course I am.” A satisfied smile crossed Marnie’s face. “I talked to him yesterday. He always calls me when he’s coming in. I asked him what he was doing here, and he did that sputtering thing that men do when they can’t really explain themselves. I’ll bet Dex and Slade could have handled everything. Gavin should probably be in Dallas, but he chose to come here with you.”
“What you’re saying makes sense, but he pushed me away, Marnie. He said some really ugly things.”
“Men don’t always make the best decisions when it comes to admitting they’re in love. Stop thinking about what he said. Start thinking about how he’s treated you since you met him. That’s what his heart is telling you, even if his mouth is lying.”
How had Gavin treated her? She’d been so hurt by his slurs that she’d almost forgotten everything else between them.
He’d trusted her with a job she hadn’t been entirely qualified for. He’d been patient and kind while she learned. When she’d been rear-ended on the freeway, she’d called Gavin to let him know she would be late to work. Minutes later, he’d appeared at the scene, just as the police were taking her statement. He’d lifted all the responsibility off her shoulders, including getting her car towed and driving her to work while it was in the shop.
Gavin didn’t do that for all his employees.
She also bet he hadn’t put his last secretary on his piano and made love to her like he was a dying man and she was the only one who could save him. She could be pregnant with his child right now…and a part of her didn’t hate that idea. At the time, all she’d been able to think about was getting closer to him. Because she loved him. Maybe Gavin had been under the same spell.
And maybe she was making excuses for him because the alternative hurt too badly.
“It doesn’t matter,” Hannah said with a sad sigh. “He might have feelings for me, but he won’t face them.”
And she wouldn’t come between him and his brothers. Her own family had been so fractured that she couldn’t stand being the reason Slade, Dex, and Gavin fought.
Would Slade and Dex accept her goodbye? She doubted it. They would probably be on the next plane to Texas once they figured out she’d gone. They would hunt her down. Because they loved her.
Was it too late? Had she already come between them and Gavin? Was she giving up Dex and Slade for nothing?
“I’m not being very smart about this, am I?” Hannah asked Marnie.
“Walking away isn’t the answer, girl.”
“I don’t know what to do.” Hannah’s misery washed over her. There was a big part of her that wished none of this had happened. Then she would just be at home, cuddled up with her cat, continuing to dream about her men.
But that was no longer an option. So now what? She’d always thought that love would be easy-breezy and bring her nothing but joy. Nope. It was hard, like everything in life. Maybe harder because it was so precious. Yet, she hadn’t fought for it at all. She’d gotten almost everything she wanted, and now she was willing to throw it all away because it wasn’t quite perfect enough?
Marnie leaned across the bar, propping her chin on her fist. “Do you think you gave Gavin any reason to push you away?”
She shook her head, fighting tears as she remembered that horrible scene. “No. He had no reason to talk down to me that way. Bastard.”
He’d treated her like an annoying pest when all she’d done was offer him comfort. Well, and a blowjob. She’d given the man her very first blowjob. Shouldn’t that count for something? Yes.
But she hadn’t fought, hadn’t told Gavin how his words made her feel. She hadn’t stood up for herself.
She pounded a fist on the bar.
“Now, you’re getting mad.” Marnie grinned. “That’s the reaction you should have had.” The woman was right. Gavin had been a total jerk to her. Why had she cried over him and been willing to walk away from two men who did treat her right? She knew he was hurting, but that didn’t give him the right to hurt others. Why should she give up her future with Dex and Slade because Gavin wanted to wallow in the past?
“Hey, Marnie, why’d you have to go and do that?” Six-foot-five-guy frowned. “She was real sad. Sad women are easier to comfort than mad ones. Now we ain’t ever going to get her to come back to our place.”
“You step one inch closer to her and your place is going to be a pine box six feet under,” a low voice threatened.
Afternoon sunlight slanted in through open saloon doors. Slade, Dex, and Gavin stood in the doorway, looking like gunslingers about to start an Old West-style fight. Hannah’s heart took a nosedive. Individually, they were gorgeous. Together, they were positively heart-stopping.