Becoming Three Read online

  Hawkins Ranch:

  Becoming Three

  Cameron Dane

  Hawkins Ranch: Becoming Three

  Copyright © November 2009 by Cameron Dane

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  eISBN 978-1-60737-467-1

  Editor: G. G. Royale

  Cover Artist: April Martinez

  Printed in the United States of America

  Published by

  Loose Id LLC

  870 Market St, Suite 1201 San Francisco CA 94102-2907 www.loose-id.com

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning

  This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id LLC’s e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

  * * * *

  DISCLAIMER: Please do not try any new sexual practice, especially those that might be found in our BDSM/fetish titles without the guidance of an experienced practitioner. Neither Loose Id LLC nor its authors will be responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death resulting from use of the information contained in any of its titles.

  About this Title

  Genre: Contemporary Western Ménage

  Series: Hawkins Ranch; Previous Title: Knowing Caleb

  Deputy Jace Maxwell has fought an attraction to Sarah Tennison for too long. Jace looks

  out for Sarah, and although he has always wanted the fiery woman, he knows he can’t have her. For Jace, as much as he craves Sarah, he also lives with a secret, fierce attraction for men. Sarah has suppressed her love for Jace, knowing he only sees her as a chore. Enter cowboy Jasper Simmons. Jasper is as sweet and gentle as Jace is hard. Sarah tries to keep both men separate in her mind, but can’t stop fantasizing about all of them tangled and sweaty in bed together.

  When Jasper finds a dead woman nailed to a tree, he is thrown into contact with Jace. The proximity unearths an attraction the shy, awkward cowboy has only felt once before. Seeing Jace with Jasper in an emotion-filled situation gets Sarah wondering if her roommate is keeping secrets. Then Jasper admits to Sarah he once had a crush on another man, Jace suddenly kisses her in a shocking lapse of control, and Sarah sees everything in a brand new way.

  Sarah sets out to get her men, realizing the only path for them is becoming three. Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices, ménage (m/m/f with homoerotic content).

  Dedication

  This one is for Marina. An extremely clever kid, who in a few years would probably love and excel at either Jace's or Jasper's jobs, and with enough artistic talent and heart to desire the kind of volunteer work Sarah does too. Love ya, kiddo.

  Prologue

  Four Years Ago God, he wanted to kiss her.

  Jasper Simmons thrust his hand out at Sarah Tennison and prayed like hell it wasn't sweating. He'd wiped it at least three times while walking up the path to her porch. “Um, so, thanks for dinner—I mean, for lettin' me take you to dinner. I liked it. Um, the food was good,

  and so were you.” Heat flamed Jasper's entire body, and he was sure the porch light they stood under put a spotlight on his red face. “Shit. I meant you're nice, and I liked havin' dinner with you and Ren and Cade.”

  “It's okay. I know what you meant.” Sarah shook Jasper's outstretched hand and smiled. She immediately darted her gaze to her front door, though, and Jasper's heart plummeted right into his cowboy boots.

  Sarah looked back at him, and his heart skipped a beat at her pretty brown eyes and sweet smile. “I should probably go inside,” she said. “Ren and Cade are waiting for you.” They both turned their heads in the direction of the truck parked on the street, noting the two men—the other half of their double date—talking inside the vehicle. “They're pretending not to look at us, but it would probably be hard for anyone not to eavesdrop, you know?”

  “Right. Sure. Sorry.” God, Jas, you're blowing it. Stop talking before this girl laughs in your face and never wants to speak to you again, let alone have dinner with you. “I'll go.”

  Sarah turned her key in the lock and opened her door. “Thank you for dinner.” A gust of wind rushed through the night air, blowing strands of mahogany hair across her cheek. She tucked them behind her ear, and Jasper noticed that her fingers trembled. “You were right,” she added. “It was nice.”

  Jasper fought an internal battle to overcome his crushing nervousness and shyness, something that constantly lived inside him. Hope that this girl might like him pushed through and tried to get free. “Ma-maybe I can call you sometime?” He realized he tapped his cowboy hat in a furious beat against his thigh and forced his hand behind his back to make it stop. “Would that be okay?”

  “Sure. You can reach me at the station.” Sarah worked as the receptionist/dispatcher at the Quinten Sheriff's Department. “Maybe we can go see a movie.”

  Jasper smiled, unable to keep the stupid grin off his face. “Okay. All right. I'll do that.” He shoved his black Stetson on his head and loped down the porch steps, thanking God he didn't trip over his own legs. “Night.” He made a beeline for Ren's truck before he could do something idiotic and ruin any chance of becoming friends with Sarah.

  Or, if he could eventually build up his courage and get over being tongue-tied, maybe something more.

  Sarah bit the inside of her cheek, trying like hell not to bounce up and down like a little girl as she watched Jasper walk away. Oh Lord, though, he is so sweet and cute. As soon as Sarah had that thought, she chastised herself for using such teenage language. She was twenty years old. Jasper was too, and they both held down full-time jobs and supported themselves.

  Time to grow up. Sarah looked at Jasper again as he climbed into the backseat of the double-cab truck, admiring the way his jeans hugged his long legs and ass. Not his butt or tush, but his ass. The man had a nice ass. He had a handsome face too: sun-kissed skin from working outdoors as a cowboy for Hawkins Ranch, kissable lips, nice cheekbones, and kind hazel eyes that leaned toward amber and green. He had overlong blond hair that almost dusted his shoulders, making Sarah think he needed someone in his life to nudge him to get a haircut every once in a while. Not that it looked bad the way he wore it right now. She liked the way he pushed his hands through the blond thickness, cleared it off his face, and shoved it behind his ears before he put his hat on.

  As the truck pulled away, Sarah waved at the three men inside, keeping her gaze on Jasper until they turned the corner and she could see him no more.

  Yeah, Sarah wouldn't mind going out with Jasper again. Heck, they might even untie their tongues and speak more than ten words to each other over their next meal. She'd have to thank Cade and Ren for agreeing to the double date their mutual friend Risa had set up. Sarah had been too nervous to know what to say—which normally wasn't like her at all—and all through dinner, she couldn't tell if Jasper was shy or completely uninterested. With the way he had stumbled ov
er his good night, Sarah settled on Jasper being as nervous as she was. She found that hard to believe in a young man as good-looking as Jasper.

  Appearances are deceiving sometimes.

  Sarah chuckled as she let herself inside and shut the door. That sure as hell was right. Lord knew she had a she-devil of a temptress living inside her just dying to find a way out into the open. If only she had a bit more going for her than a nice personality and a halfway decent pair of legs.

  “Have a good time?” Her warden, her onetime crush, her roommate, Jace Maxwell's voice cut across the darkened living room. She looked his way, finding his pale, mossy gaze in the flashes of light from the TV screen.

  Sarah sighed, closing her eyes as she leaned against the front door. Of course Jace would be close by; he always was. She might stand a chance at breaking out of her “good friend Sarah” rut if she didn't have a chaperone living with her and working as a deputy down at the station, keeping track of her every move.

  Thanks for that, Hunter. She held a conversation with her older brother in her head, something she occasionally did since his deployment to Afghanistan almost three years ago. I'm an adult now. It wouldn't kill you to agree to call off your watchdog best friend.

  “Is that sigh a sign that you plan on going to bed dreaming about your cowboy date, or a signal of relief that the date is finally over?” Jace broke the quiet a second time and once again drew her gaze.

  Sarah studied Jace, as she'd done at least a million times since he moved into her home and became her surrogate brother. With dark hair as neat as Jasper's was flyaway, this man had a hard, unforgiving face and body for someone only twenty-six years old. Sarah sometimes wondered if Jace resented Hunter's request to look out for her, as the man didn't laugh very much or act like most other single men his age. Then Sarah remembered Jace had always been intense and hard, even as a teenager, and she forgave herself for killing most of his social life.

  Huh. Sarah stood up straight. I wonder if that's why he constantly aborts mine.

  “Well,” Jace said. “Which is it? Excited or relieved?” He sat slouched in his favorite chair with his legs stretched out, crossed at the ankle, and a beer resting on his washboard-flat stomach. Damn, Sarah knew that stomach well; she'd seen it bare at some point almost every day since the man had moved into her home.

  Swallowing, she lifted her focus from his stomach and big hands to his eyes. His lids were at half-mast, but Sarah didn't for one second think this man wasn't at full alert. Nobody got the drop on Jace or the better of him. Nobody.

  Except, occasionally, me.

  “I'll let you decide what kind of sigh it was,” Sarah finally answered. Jace's pupils flared, and he brought his bottle of beer to his lips for a long drag. “See you in the morning, warden. Good night.”

  Sarah moved down the hallway to her bedroom, and let her mind drift back to her date tonight. Jasper was sexy, sweet, and his nervousness actually put her at ease some. It was nice to know she wasn't alone in her worry about making a good impression. Jasper surely had more experience than she did, but that wouldn't be very hard to achieve. Sarah knew Risa wouldn't have set them up on a date if she thought Jasper was a jerk. All Sarah had needed to do was spend a little bit of time with Jasper tonight to feel in her gut that he was a good person. If Jasper called, it would be a good step toward proving himself a man of his word too.

  Jeez, she hoped Jasper would give them a shot to become friends, and maybe something more. Something stirred in her when she got near Jasper, sensations that left her tingly all over and a little breathless too. Things that made her extremely aware of her own feminine features, and that Jasper was very male.

  The kind of reaction I can't control in my body when I'm close to Jace too.

  No. Don't let your head go in that direction.

  Jace thought of Sarah as a kid and an albatross around his neck. A responsibility to a good friend that had gone on longer than he had surely planned. An obligation he was unwilling to forfeit until Hunter returned home.

  But Jasper, well, he might just see Sarah as something resembling a woman. Which biologically, if not biblically, she was. Just thinking about Jasper made her breasts feel achy.

  She really hoped he called.

  The cowboy can barely form a complete sentence. Jace settled deeper into his chair, feeling a whole lot better at the end of this night than he had at the beginning. He let the breeze from the open window blow in and caress his skin, satisfied with not only Cade's—a fellow deputy's—description of Jasper as an awkward kid who wouldn't bring Sarah any harm, but also with having overheard the entire conversation Sarah and Jasper had shared on the porch minutes ago.

  If Jasper and his always surprising deep voice managed to call Sarah, Jace seriously doubted the young man would threaten her innocence. A half dozen dates where Jasper fumbled through dinner without saying more than a few sentences, and Sarah, who loved to talk, would soon lose interest. She might keep Jasper as an acquaintance, so as not to hurt his feelings, but nothing more. Sarah had a kind and gentle way about her; her vulnerability was one of the reasons Jace always looked out for her.

  His promise to Hunter was the other. Jace always remembered that Sarah was his best friend's sister. He reminded himself of that truth constantly and refused to let her quick wit and beauty weaken his will. If Jace wouldn't let himself act on his awareness of Sarah, then he damn well wouldn't let anyone else either.

  Jace smiled, took another swig of his beer, and returned his attention to the movie. With Jasper as Sarah's only suitor, Jace wouldn't lose any sleep.

  * * * *

  He re-dressed the body he'd propped up against the bridge pillar, artfully arranging the man's slashed clothing over his brutalized, mangled frame. Tilting the lifeless head to the left, the individual stepped back and admired his work. The twinkling from the city lights in the distance reflected in the lifeless blue eyes. They had certainly been beautiful once upon a time, as had been the man himself, and those who knew him and loved him would certainly mourn.

  Smiling, his being humming with the completion of his task, the man looked forward to phase two.

  Wouldn't be much longer before the true joy began.

  The man stroked the front of his pants and grew hard with anticipation.

  Chapter One

  Present Day Hands pinned to the bed, Sarah cried out as Jasper drove his cock into her for the first time, sheathing himself to the hilt.

  Jasper froze above her, but his shaft continued to pulse deep inside her body. “You okay?” His face was a twist of stark passion, but his eyes blinked and cleared, pinning her to the bed as fully as his hands and the wonderful weight of his body.

  Sarah nodded and squeezed their linked fingers. “It was a good scream.” She pumped up her hips as best she could, unable to remain still as she adjusted to the sensation of fullness in her pussy. She strained upward and brushed her mouth against Jasper's, loving the way he always clung and kissed her back. “Jeez, Jas, you feel so good.”

  Chuckling, Jasper pulled out, sank all the way into her again, and delivered the most incredible friction against her walls. “You should feel what I'm feelin'.” He slid his hand down the side of her body, skimming shivers over her skin with the lightness of his touch. Reaching her hip, he clutched the firm flesh in his hand and pulled her leg up to his waist. He locked it around his back and opened her cunt to his penetration in a new way. Then he pushed up and into her with long, full strokes, rubbing his cock over her clit with every single strike.

  Holy mother. Sarah gritted her teeth as her sex clenched around Jasper's embedded length, somehow sucking him even deeper inside her body and sending the most delicious waves of pleasure to every corner of her being.

  Jasper's mouth fell open, and he turned his head, swallowing a rough noise. “Oh God, honey, I can feel every damn response goin' on inside you.” Jasper let go of Sarah and braced his hands on the bed; he looked at her, and the intensity in his eyes turned
the hazel nearly pure green. “You're so fuckin' tight.” He loomed over her, and perspiration put a shine on his nudity, creating a display for every line of ropy muscle covering his body. “Hold on to me”—Jasper's voice held more raw command than Sarah had ever heard in him—“and don't let go.”

  Sarah grabbed Jasper's shoulders and dug in with her fingers. He withdrew and slammed his length into her pussy with incredible force, rolling Sarah's hips right off the bed. He did it again, and again, hitting at her core in a way that should have frightened her but didn't. Excitement coursed through Sarah, charging her system like a plug in a fully juiced socket. She bucked up against Jasper with each plunge of his cock, begging him with every molecule in her body to give her more.

  Jasper looked into her eyes, and a sizzle of every moment of friendship they'd shared these last four years flashed between them and brought a private, sensual smile to his face. “Sweet Sarah.” He lowered the push-up stance of his arms and licked her open mouth, sweeping her lips with the flat of his tongue. “Sexy Sarah,” he added, smiling again as he continued to move within her body. She fluttered inside in response to that secret grin, and she rubbed her fingers over his mouth to feel it. Jasper kissed her fingertips and trembled. “Seductive Sarah.” He rocked his penis in and out of her sex in agonizingly delicious full strokes. “My Sarah.” His eyes remained locked on hers, and the brightness shining within reached right into her heart.

  Sarah slid her arms around Jasper and curled her hands into his upper back, holding on tight. “Yours, Jas.” She slanted her lips across his and kissed him deeply, welcoming the tangle of his tongue that turned into a stabbing—a taking. Her mouth hung open, welcoming his wet aggression, craving every connection, no matter how rudimentary. “Yours.” Her pussy squeezed all around his prick again, completely out of her control.