Chapter One
With the window of his Ford F-150 rolled down and a breeze whipping his face, Gabe Triplehorn didn’t mind the sultry, mid-summer heat. For the first time in years, he felt completely free.
Free of responsibility.
Free of Colt telling him what he ought to do with his life.
Free of Tommy giving him disgusted glances, because the last thing Gabe wanted to do lately was ride behind a herd of cattle kicking up dust in his face.
But he was especially free of the evidence of domestic bliss stinking up the air in the Triple Horn ranch house.
Gabe wasn’t usually so grumpy, but he’d lost sleep for weeks due to the lusty goings-on inside the Triple Horn ranch house. Unaccustomed to sleepless nights when he was home and in his own bed, and irritated at having to keep himself decently dressed every time he stepped foot outside his bedroom door, he’d become as nasty as a growling bear to be around.
And who could blame him? Sounds echoed down the bedroom hallway into the early morning hours. Sexy sounds—soft moans, warm chuckles. Sharp, urgent cries. Sounds that put erotic images into a horny man’s head. Stuffing a pillow over his face didn’t muffle them enough to cut through the pictures flooding his mind, especially after he’d gotten an up-close eyeful of one particularly hot-n-heavy petting session in the kitchen. Thankfully, the newly married couple had noticed as he’d hastily backed away from the door. But after that, he couldn’t look at melted chocolate or Zuri’s small breasts in quite the same light.
Not that he wasn’t happy for his brother Colt. The eldest of the brothers deserved every bit of the happiness he’d found with his new wife. He just wished the two of them had kept their newfound wedded bliss a little more private. Having a beautiful woman under the same roof, one whose lusty spirit apparently matched his brother’s stroke for stroke, played hell with Gabe’s own desire. The fact he hadn’t had time to court a new playmate to handle his excess frustration only added to his ill humor.
Gabe had at last gotten over the major case of indigestion that adding Zuri Prescott to the family had caused. She’d turned out to be all right. Far from the heartless heartbreaker he and Tommy had pegged her for.
Still, it was hard to shrug off over a decade of animosity and resentment in just a couple of months. Harder still to listen to the sounds of his brother’s hard-won satisfaction night after night.
When Colt had suggested that Gabe take a vacation, sew some wild oats—anything to get his head back on straight—Gabe had been a little angry at first, wondering if Colt was trying to push him out of the nest because he was cramping the couple’s style.
But Zuri had pulled him aside, surprising him after he’d been so rough on her when she’d first arrived. He hadn’t believed her story of being framed for a bank robbery or that the true robber had been a cop. Given who her father was, and what Gabe had thought she’d done to his brother, he’d suspected the worst.
Just that morning, after Colt had baldly told him he needed to get out of his system whatever was making him cranky, she’d stopped him on the front porch.
“Gabe,” she’d called after him.
He thought about ignoring her, had his hat in his hand as he stomped down the steps heading to the barn to saddle his horse.
“Gabe.”
He paused, sucked in a deep breath and pasted on a smile before he faced her. “What do want, Zuri?”
“For you to be happy.”
“Who says I’m not?”
She arched a dark brow while she silently studied him.
Gabe had to admit he could see his brother’s attraction to the woman standing before him. Her curves were subtle, but the length of smooth leg exposed beneath the hem of her short, blue-jean skirt could make any man stop and take notice. Add the healthy shine to her straight, chin-length dark hair and the wide, puppy-dog eyes, and he knew why his brother had risked his
With the window of his Ford F-150 rolled down and a breeze whipping his face, Gabe Triplehorn didn’t mind the sultry, mid-summer heat. For the first time in years, he felt completely free.
Free of responsibility.
Free of Colt telling him what he ought to do with his life.
Free of Tommy giving him disgusted glances, because the last thing Gabe wanted to do lately was ride behind a herd of cattle kicking up dust in his face.
But he was especially free of the evidence of domestic bliss stinking up the air in the Triple Horn ranch house.
Gabe wasn’t usually so grumpy, but he’d lost sleep for weeks due to the lusty goings-on inside the Triple Horn ranch house. Unaccustomed to sleepless nights when he was home and in his own bed, and irritated at having to keep himself decently dressed every time he stepped foot outside his bedroom door, he’d become as nasty as a growling bear to be around.
And who could blame him? Sounds echoed down the bedroom hallway into the early morning hours. Sexy sounds—soft moans, warm chuckles. Sharp, urgent cries. Sounds that put erotic images into a horny man’s head. Stuffing a pillow over his face didn’t muffle them enough to cut through the pictures flooding his mind, especially after he’d gotten an up-close eyeful of one particularly hot-n-heavy petting session in the kitchen. Thankfully, the newly married couple had noticed as he’d hastily backed away from the door. But after that, he couldn’t look at melted chocolate or Zuri’s small breasts in quite the same light.
Not that he wasn’t happy for his brother Colt. The eldest of the brothers deserved every bit of the happiness he’d found with his new wife. He just wished the two of them had kept their newfound wedded bliss a little more private. Having a beautiful woman under the same roof, one whose lusty spirit apparently matched his brother’s stroke for stroke, played hell with Gabe’s own desire. The fact he hadn’t had time to court a new playmate to handle his excess frustration only added to his ill humor.
Gabe had at last gotten over the major case of indigestion that adding Zuri Prescott to the family had caused. She’d turned out to be all right. Far from the heartless heartbreaker he and Tommy had pegged her for.
Still, it was hard to shrug off over a decade of animosity and resentment in just a couple of months. Harder still to listen to the sounds of his brother’s hard-won satisfaction night after night.
When Colt had suggested that Gabe take a vacation, sew some wild oats—anything to get his head back on straight—Gabe had been a little angry at first, wondering if Colt was trying to push him out of the nest because he was cramping the couple’s style.
But Zuri had pulled him aside, surprising him after he’d been so rough on her when she’d first arrived. He hadn’t believed her story of being framed for a bank robbery or that the true robber had been a cop. Given who her father was, and what Gabe had thought she’d done to his brother, he’d suspected the worst.
Just that morning, after Colt had baldly told him he needed to get out of his system whatever was making him cranky, she’d stopped him on the front porch.
“Gabe,” she’d called after him.
He thought about ignoring her, had his hat in his hand as he stomped down the steps heading to the barn to saddle his horse.
“Gabe.”
He paused, sucked in a deep breath and pasted on a smile before he faced her. “What do want, Zuri?”
“For you to be happy.”
“Who says I’m not?”
She arched a dark brow while she silently studied him.
Gabe had to admit he could see his brother’s attraction to the woman standing before him. Her curves were subtle, but the length of smooth leg exposed beneath the hem of her short, blue-jean skirt could make any man stop and take notice. Add the healthy shine to her straight, chin-length dark hair and the wide, puppy-dog eyes, and he knew why his brother had risked his
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