Adventures with Canine Cupids Box Set

Doggone Love-3

“Let me adjust those stirrups a notch or two. I usually trot to get out to where I’m going. It’ll be a butt-thumping ride if you can’t take some weight on your feet.”

Eric drew his boot free of the stirrup. Damon’s hands were not quite steady as he worked the buckle loose and set it up two notches on the strap. He circled the horse to do the same on the off side. That done he stood a moment, bemused. Without thinking, he put his hand on Eric’s solid thigh. The muscle felt hard and warm beneath his hand, and flexed slightly to his touch. The sensation went through him like a jolt of electricity. He jerked back his hand as he felt the flush heat his face. Damn, what’s getting into me?

“There, that ought to be better.” He turned away sharply, half-running to his mount. Swinging into the saddle, careful of the bulge in his jeans, he called back over his shoulder, “Let’s get going. We’ve got some miles to cover.”

* * * *

Before the day’s chore was over, Damon had to acknowledge Eric might not be a real cowboy, but he was certainly no stranger to riding and even to working cattle. Of course, the dogs did the biggest part of that, but they still needed a bit of direction at times.

Eric was never in the wrong place. He even anticipated a small problem a time or two and turned Ole Red to put a cow back into the herd or urge a lagging calf across a ditch. Finally the last gate was closed behind the herd as they settled to graze in the new area.

The sun was dropping low over the jagged line of the distant mountains on the west side of the Caliente Valley as the two men headed back to the ranch. Eric reined Ole Red in alongside Damon’s dun.

“Thanks for inviting me along, Damon. I’ve enjoyed it more than I can say. It’s been a while, but it felt real good to be in the saddle again.”

Damon grinned. “I have to admit I had my doubts, but you put them all to rest. You’re a damn good hand, Doc.”

Eric’s eyes were bright and warm, lit with a trace of mischief. “So you might have me out again?”

“Well, there’s still one test. You’ve gotta get outside a plate full of Rosalinda’s sour cream enchiladas before you leave.”

Eric laughed. “That sounds like a real challenge, but I grew up with Tex Mex cuisine. I think I can handle it.”

After they unsaddled and took care of the horses, Damon led Eric into the house. They only had to follow the tantalizing odors to the kitchen. Rosalinda, a tiny, stooped Mexican woman, with her thick, iron-gray hair twisted up in a bun, looked their way as they paused in the doorway. She dusted her hands on her old-fashioned apron.

“Aye, que bueno. You are just in the right time. Señor Doctor, it is good that my Damon persuaded you to stay to eat. Brandi is setting the table in the dining room. Go on in and get settled. She will serve you while I finish dishing things up.”

Damon shot a sharp glance at his housekeeper. “Brandi?”

Rosalinda looked nonplussed for a moment. “Oh, me siento. I forget to tell you. My grand-daughter, she has come for a visit from Los Angeles. She’s a good girl. She say she help me. Well, she say I am too old to be working so hard, but I say, ‘Who is old? I will swat your bottom if you don’t stop the smart mouth stuff,’ and she grins. She’s a good girl. They just talk sassy these days, not like the old times.”

At that moment, the subject of their conversation appeared in the arched doorway to the dining room, which Damon rarely used. He halted mid-stride. This exotic creature is elfish Rosalinda’s grand-daughter?

Brandi stood several inches taller than her nana, with extra height added by the four-inch heels on her platform shoes. Her short flounced skirt left a lot of bare brown leg visible, and her ample breasts threatened to burst free of the silky camisole style top she wore. She fluttered inch-long lashes as she flashed a dazzling smile at the two men.

“Hi. I hope you don’t mind me showing up without your approval. I figured it would help if I made myself useful. You will let me stay, won’t you, Mr. Carhart?”

Damon swallowed. She was one hot looking young woman, but her come-on stare made him uncomfortable. “Your grandparent’s home is theirs to share as they wish. Family is welcome, of course, Brandi.”

Even as he said the words, the thought occurred to him that she looked like the street was where she belonged. As an afterthought, he glanced at Eric to see how he was responding to this red hot bit of femininity.

Eric smiled, completely relaxed, and apparently unmoved by the sexy young woman’s sudden appearance. “Lead me to the feed trough,” he said. “Those scents, on top of a day outdoors, is enough to build up quite an appetite.”

Brandi turned to lead them to the table as if she were the hostess in a classy restaurant. She swung her pert hips in a way that flipped her skirt up to reveal even more leg. She certainly behaved as if she had seduction in mind, and it seemed she didn’t care which one of them she ensnared. During the meal, she spent an equal amount of time leaning over both men, sliding dishes in front of them, removing the empties, keeping their glasses filled with chilled Dos Equis, and generally making sure they didn’t have a chance to forget her presence.

They finished up with a cup of steaming coffee. Eric belched as he pushed his chair back from the table. “I know this is not Japan, but that meal deserves a good salute. I think I’ll steal your cook, Damon.”

Damon grinned. “You can try, but Rosalinda is pretty well-rooted here at the ranch.”

Brandi cleared the table only to return with a carafe to refill their cups. “How about some dessert?”

“Couldn’t hold another bite,” Damon said.

Eric seconded that opinion.

“Oh, that wasn’t quite what I had in mind,” she responded, her hot gaze raking over both men. The cute wiggle she used to punctuate her words was suggestive enough to leave little doubt what she did have in mind.

“I think I can make you a suggestion you won’t refuse. Besides, I’d like to show you just how thankful I am that you’re willing for me to stay here. To tell the truth, my mama threw me out. She said I was old enough to make my own way and that I needed to quit playing around and find a real job. I didn’t tell Nana all the gory details…just enough to make her feel sorry for me. I needed to get out of LA for a while, to be honest. I was about to get busted, even though I really didn’t do a thing.”

Damon hesitated. She was tempting, no question about that, but with her grandparents just a couple of hundred yards away? What would they think? Was she trying to force the issue to where he’d have to marry her? Those and other questions danced through his mind.

He slid a glance at Eric. The other man was watching him with a slightly mocking smile as if to say, Your call, bud. Abruptly recalling his recent inappropriate responses to Eric, Damon made a sudden decision. “Okay, Brandi, what do you have in mind?”

“Some after dinner entertainment to begin with. Do you have a stereo?”

Damon nodded. “It’s in my bedroom, though. That’s about the only place I have time to listen to it. Even that is pretty seldom.”

“Oh, that’s fine. So long as there’s a little room where I can dance. I’ve been a dancer in a couple of clubs. I think you’ll enjoy my performance. I’ve been told my routine is hotter than jalapeños.”

With a few misgivings, Damon stood to lead the way to the master bedroom. It wasn’t huge, but there was room for a queen-sized bed, a dresser, a couple of chairs and the entertainment center where he had his TV and the stereo. The floor was smooth tile under a couple of throw rugs. He moved them aside to give Brandi a space at the foot of the bed. Dixie, curled up on one, made a grumble of protest at being disturbed. She settled herself on the far side of the bed with an aggrieved thump.

Brandi looked quickly through Damon’s CDs. She made a little moue of disgust, but finally selected one and popped it into the machine. While watching her, Damon had settled into one of the chairs as Eric took the other.

The CD she chose was an old one by the Miami Sound Machine. Damon wasn’t sure where he’d gotten it. Maybe an old roommate in college? He hadn’t listened to it for years.

Brandi started off slowly, just sauntering around in a little figure eight pattern that brought her close first to him and then to Eric. She had quite a strut. After maybe three circuits, she stopped in the empty space between the foot of the bed and the entertainment center. She did a slow shimmy that seemed to start with a snaky movement of her neck that worked its way clear down to the floor.

Damn, does the girl have a bone in her body? There was something in that sexy slither that brought to mind sweaty bodies and tangled sheets. Somehow he kept visualizing a solid male body on those sheets, instead of the lush feminine one parading before him, though. He carefully didn’t put a face on that body, but its shape bore a strong resemblance to Eric Vann.

He slid a quick glance at Eric. The other man relaxed in his chair, a cup of coffee lifted in a hand that seemed as steady as a brain surgeon’s. Hmmm, was the blond unmoved by the woman, by the whole sexy ambience or was he just concealing it well?

If I picked up my cup, I’d probably spill it in my damn lap. Damon exhaled a sharp sigh. He was torn by confusion and conflicting urges. What the hell is going on? I feel like I woke up in the wrong body or the wrong world.

All at once Brandi was right there, gyrating inches from him, her breasts bobbing as she moved, so close he could imagine he smelled her moist p***y. At that thought, his c**k twitched as his mental images shifted to include both a male and a female form on that bed. Six legs and six arms tangling, while the scents of sweat and s*x perfumed the air.

Brandi bent forward, rubbing those big t**s right across his face. Then she whirled around and bent forward, pert ass elevated in front of him. She was wearing a thong under that short skirt, and it didn’t conceal very much. The temperature in the room seemed to shoot up to desert summer heat level in an instant. Before he had a chance to react, she danced away to perform the same maneuvers for Eric.

The grin Eric had worn as he watched Brandi display herself for Damon faded as she moved on to him. He set his cup down and gripped the arm of the chair hard with one hand, while the other moved down to rub the growing bulge in his faded jeans.