Chapter Six
Clint Keegan took a taxi home from the airport. It was bad enough he had to come home with his tail between his legs. He wasn’t about to be trapped in a vehicle listening to his oldest brother telling him “I told you so” all the way back.
For twelve years he had flirted with fame in Hollywood. Bit parts, the occasional commercial, but nothing meaty came his way. He dated actresses and models, but he was one of the thousands that never were discovered. Oh sure, he had an agent who thought he was the next Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt, but only until he couldn’t pay his fee anymore. Then it was “Hit the road kid, you aren’t cut out for this business.”
When he took off for California at eighteen, he knew he was destined for fame. Everyone told him that he had a movie star face, and he had starred in all of the community theater programs at home. He figured if he didn’t land a great movie deal right away, he could always pose for a few magazines or catalogues to get by. What he hadn’t counted on was the competition. In Stone River, Texas, there was no competition. In Los Angeles, California, every waitress, bus boy, hotel clerk, and phone operator was a star in waiting.
The promise he made to his mother a few years ago when pops had his heart attack had snuck up on him. Now he was thirty, and he knew in his heart that his acting days were over. In truth, he was tired of the game. He missed home, but he would never admit that to his family. Not that it would make a difference. They always thought he was a dreamer, and his choice to run away to be an actor solidified that assumption for them.
Clint hadn’t even spoken to Tanner in six or eight months. Hell, he hadn’t talked to Dalton in almost a year other than the occasional email. A heavy ball of guilt sat in his gut. It was as much his fault as theirs. He hadn’t wanted to admit to them that he was still a struggling actor when they were doing so well. Dalton was a doctor, and Tanner owned the ranch for fu-cks sake. Clint was just the failure who could make people laugh.
The sun was low and his belly was growling as he paid the cab, then retrieved his suitcase. Standing in front of his childhood home, he was flooded with memories of playing basketball behind the barn, shooting BB guns at tin cans from the front porch, Christmases and Easters and everything in between. The smell of home hit him as he pulled the front door open. It was still exactly as it had been when his parents lived there, and he was comforted by that. Maybe being home wouldn’t be so terrible.
Of course, in all likelihood, Tanner didn’t have the extra resources to redecorate, but still, his mother would be pleased he had left it the way she had it, if she came home for Christmas. A noise in the kitchen surprised him, and he lowered his bag to the floor before walking through the living room. Expecting to find Tanner microwaving a frozen dinner, he was shocked to find a sexy woman dancing around the kitchen with a bowl in her hands and ear buds in her ears. She was humming a tune Clint recognized from the radio and stirring whatever was in her bowl like a mad woman.
Her long dark hair drifted around her swaying hips as she grooved to the music, and Clint couldn’t take his eyes off her ass. Perfectly shaped with just enough junk in the trunk to make it soft. It made his mouth water.
He wondered what the rest of her looked like, and when she continued to work with the goop in her bowl like she hadn't heard him, he figured he better announce himself. Reaching out, he plucked one of the black ear buds from her ear, and said, “How did Tanner manage to catch an angel and put her to work in his kitchen?”
Instead of laughing, the woman screamed and Clint found himself covered in white icing from nipples to nose as the bowl she had been holding flew at him.
“Holy shit, angel! I wanted a taste, but I didn’t need to wear it!”
The woman stood across the kitchen with both hands over her mouth. She had mesmerizing cornflower blue eyes that were wide with shock, and then crinkling with laughter as she began to giggle. Clint should have been pissed, but the soft sound of her giggles went straight to his cock making him hard as concrete.
“Clint? Oh my God! I didn’t know you were coming home!” She went to the sink to collect a washcloth and wet it before hurrying to his side. “I’m so sorry! I can’t believe I threw that at you! Here, let me help.”
Her tiny hands began running over his face, neck, and chest as she attempted to wipe the creamy goop from his skin. His mouth quirked up in a grin when he finally realized who was giving him a sponge bath. “Zoey Carson?”
She froze and lifted those beautiful blue eyes to his, “Yes, but I’m surprised you remembered me.”
“Oh I never forget a gorgeous face. So how did Tanner manage to land you? Last I knew he was living like a priest, paying more attention to his land than his dick.” Clint took the cloth she held out and completed the job before using paper towels to dry his face. His shirt was sticky, so he tugged it off over his head. Awareness zipped through him when her eyes zeroed in on his cut chest. He might not have made any movies, but he still had a movie star body thanks to the ten hours a day he had been putting in as a landscaper for the last couple of years.
“Uh…um…Tanner didn’t land me. I’m just living with him, er…well…temporarily. He’s giving me a place to stay for a couple of weeks. Does he know you’re back? He didn’t say anything to me.” Zoey seemed flustered as she retrieved the now empty bowl and put it in the sink to be washed. He watched as she pulled another bowl from the cabinet and began making the icing again.
“Not yet, but he’ll know soon enough. So you’re not Tanner’s girl then?”
She hesitated before shaking her head no, and Clint was intrigued. They might not be an official couple, but something was up between the two of them.
“Well good, then I don’t have to feel bad about making out with you.” He turned and started to walk back to the living room, working hard to resist laughing at her gasp and fumbling protest.
“Wait a second, I’m not making out with you!” She looked so indignant that he wanted to throw her to the floor and prove her wrong. Instead he just shrugged.
“No, not yet. We’ll save that for later. First, I need to unload my stuff in my room. Do you know where I can find Tanner?” Clint stopped and cocked his head in confusion because her cheeks went pale.
“Your room? Um…well…you can’t.”
“I can’t? I can’t what?” He narrowed his eyes.
“You can’t use your room.”
A laugh burst from his throat, “Oh really? And why is that?”
“Um, because I’m using it.”
Clint was struck dumb. He stood there staring at her, and fighting to keep his erection from busting the seams of his pants. Holy fu-ck! The angel was sleeping in his bed! How lucky could he get? He knew he should be a gentleman and offer to take the couch, but if Zoey wasn’t with anyone right now, then he wanted to take advantage of this moment and coax her into giving him a shot. He couldn’t wait to get her under him naked.
When he left years ago, she had just started puberty. She was skinny as a rail and her head was bigger than the rest of her. Now, she was a voluptuous woman with killer porn star curves. It reminded him of his own ugly duckling phase, and it shouldn’t surprise him that she had matured into a swan too.
“Aw, that’s alright, Zoey love. That will save me some time and effort, because you were going to end up there eventually anyway.” He spun on his heel as she sputtered and cursed up a blue streak behind him. Laughter spilled from his chest, but he kept walking toward the living room to get his stuff. Clint wasn’t the type to force a woman, but he would sure as hell seduce her. Watch out Zoey Carson, I’ve got you in my sites, and I’m planning on bagging the trophy, as he put his luggage into his now shared bedroom.
Maybe coming home wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.
His bedroom smelled sweet, a blend of him and Zoey. The scent didn’t help the erection he was trying to ignore as he set his gear in one corner and pulled on a clean shirt. Before looking for his brothers, he peeked around. She didn’t have much, a few things in the dresser drawers, a cedar chest, a bike, and a framed photo of her and another woman sat on the bedside table next to a romance novel.
Clint did a double take when he saw the couple on the cover weren’t just embracing. The woman was bound with rope, and blindfolded, while the man hovered near her ear holding her close.
The knowledge that Zoey didn’t mind a little kink in her play sent his temperature skyrocketing. He had to shake himself hard to get his brain functioning again.
What the fu-ck is wrong with you, Keegan? You haven’t even been home for a full hour and you already want to seduce a local and tie her to the bed so she can’t get away. You don’t even know her!
With that thought firmly in his brain, his cock began to slowly deflate until he was able to walk more comfortably. Now that he was thinking properly again, it was time to find his big brother and swallow his pride.
He glanced toward the kitchen on his way to the front door, but Zoey was nowhere in sight. A twinge of disappointment was ignored as he walked across the yard to the open barn doors. It felt strange to be walking into the barn in tennis shoes and not cowboy boots, but oddly, the familiar smells and warmth of the old building were comforting.
Standing in the middle of the aisle with his back to him was Tanner. He was talking to someone, and when Clint heard a female’s distinct huff of irritation, he knew he had found the missing Zoey.
What he wasn’t prepared for, was to find Dalton as well.
“Professor?”
All three turned to look at him, and Dalton’s face broke out in a wide grin. “Gilligan! Damn, boy, it’s good to see you!”
Clint hugged his brother, clapping him on the back and fighting the emotions that welled up inside of him. He and Dalton had always been the closest of the three brothers. Maybe it was because they were the younger two, or maybe they just understood the other’s need to escape Texas and the pressure of the ranch.
Pulling back from Dalton, he turned to Tanner, “Skipper! Wow, do you know how much you look like pops?”
“fu-ck you too, Hollywood!” Tanner said, but his lips quirked up in a half smile as he held his hand out for a handshake. Clint jerked his grip and hugged his older brother loosely.
“Hollywood, huh? Well, it’s better than Gilligan.”
Zoey cleared her throat, but the moment they all three turned their attention on her she looked like a deer in the headlights, shifting nervously on her feet. “Um, yeah, so it’s great that we’re having a family reunion and all the name calling, but uh, there’s kind of the problem of three beds and four people.”
Clint reached out and snagged her around the waist, determined to shake her of the prim and proper way she set her spine when she spoke to him. “I told you, angel. I don’t mind sharing. I’ll keep your back warm…or your front, I’m not picky.”
She planted her two tiny hands on his muscular chest and pushed. If he hadn’t released her she wouldn’t have been able to move him, but he let her go easily. “I am not sharing a bed with you, Clint. I’m happy you’re home for your brother’s sake, but I’m not a welcome home gift.”
“You can share mine, pretty lady,” Dalton said with a chuckle, and Clint gave him a fist bump.
“Shut up both of you jackasses. Zoey isn’t going to be sharing anyone’s bed. Just because I turned my old room into an office doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking we would all be back here at some point. The sofa in there pulls out into a bed. Clint can sleep in there.” Tanner nodded to Zoey who gave him a smile that almost took Clint’s breath away. She was absolutely radiant.
Her beauty didn’t distract him enough that he wouldn’t argue a little, “Hey! Why am I the one giving up my bed?”
“Because it hasn’t been your bed for years. It’s Zoey’s bed now. Enough about beds,” Tanner adjusted his stance and Clint almost laughed out loud. So, he was right that there was attraction between Zoey and his oldest brother, he just didn’t realize that Dalton was in the running too. This could end up being an interesting foot race.
“So, are you back for good, little brother?” Dalton asked, taking a seat on a hay bale nearby. He patted his knee and held out his hand for Zoey, who rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Yep. I think so. I’m not sure what I’m going to do back here, but my Hollywood dreams died on my thirtieth birthday. What about you, Professor? What are you doing out of the wilds of Africa? Did your rhino girlfriend leave you high and dry and you came home to nurse a broken heart?”
Dalton flipped him off. “I see you’re still a dickwad. MSF actually shut down the program in Somalia. I didn’t have another post to go to, so I came home for a while. Tanner needed a hand on the ranch, and rumor has it that Doc Plass might want to retire soon.”
Clint felt his mouth drop open, “You mean you might stay for good?”
Dalton just shrugged.
“I think I’m going to just leave you three to catch up. I have to make another batch of icing for the bread,” Zoey said, turning to leave.
“Another batch?” Tanner questioned.
“I ended up wearing the first batch. It was pretty damn tasty though, angel. Just give me more notice the next time you want to play with food, and I’ll make sure I start out naked.” He winked at her, and enjoyed the slight pink flush that stained her cheeks before she stomped out of the barn, her heart shaped ass swaying. When she disappeared out the doors, Clint turned just in time to realize both of his brothers’ eyes had been locked on her ass too.
Locking that tidbit of info away for the moment, he pulled on a more serious face. “How did you end up with a woman living here that you can’t fu-ck?”
Matching hard looks from both Dalton and Tanner surprised him, and he held his hands up, “Sorry! I just wanted to know what the story was.”
“Zoey needed a place to stay, so I gave her one. She is under my protection, so don’t push her too hard. She’s not one of your bimbo California women,” Tanner said, giving him a glare.
“Gotcha. You have a thing for her. I don’t blame you, but I won’t make any promises. If she gives me a signal, all bets are off. That woman is hot as hell, and based on her reading material, I think she has a kinky side I would love to explore,” Clint said just as seriously.
Dalton perked up, “Kinky side?”
“The book on the night table in my old room certainly isn’t a children’s book,” Clint said with a laugh.
“Her choice of reading material is her business. Lay off, Clint,” Tanner snapped.
“Got it, Skipper. So, tell me what’s been going on at the ranch.” The three men settled in to catch up, and Clint finally felt like he could breathe again. This was home, and this was how home was supposed to be. The three of them together again, talking horses, woman, and beer. It had been years since he felt like he belonged somewhere, and he was glad it was here.