Page 2 of Theirs to Keep

“Fuck Ash, she’s as pale as a sheet.” Ash turned her in his arms and that was the last thing she remembered before her world went completely black.

Jamison

Ashton lifted their pretty new cook into his arms and started for the staircase that led up to the bedrooms on the second floor. Ash carried her into Jamison’s room, which was the first one at the top of the stairs, and laid her across his king-sized bed. Dammit if she didn’t look completely right laying there in her cut-off jean shorts that were entirely too skimpy for a job interview and a flannel shirt over her tank top that did nothing to hide the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Her nipples were just begging him to clamp down on one with his mouth and make her moan his name. His cock grew heavy just imagining how he could drive her crazy.

“Fuck, she has tats,” Ash growled, slipping off her flannel shirt and he knew that his best friend was just as on edge about their new staff member as he was. Jamison watched Ash trace the fairy tattoo on her left shoulder and then rolled her over to take a good look at the lotus flower on her upper arm that she hid with her flannel shirt.

“Damn, I wonder if she has anymore hidden under her clothes?” Ash asked as they both looked her up and down as if trying to see through the skimpy outfit that she was wearing.

“Let’s stop examining our new employee’s tats and try to wake her up. She must have overheated in that flannel shirt. Didn’t you say that she is from up north?” Jamison went into his bathroom to retrieve a cold, wet washcloth to put on her forehead. What he wanted to do was strip Regan naked and push her into a cold shower to wake her the hell up.

“Yeah,” Ash’s voice stuttered, as he watched Jamison run a second washcloth along her neck and chest. “That’s what she said when she called about the position.” Ash couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her and that had Jamison worried. Once Miss Starr found out that the job description entailed a little more than just cooking, he was pretty sure that she’d run back up north. Hell, they’d be lucky to convince her to make them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after they got done telling her exactly what they wanted to do with her.

Jamison thought that Ash was crazy for advertising that they needed a cook, they were doing just fine without one. But Ash convinced him that they needed to spend more time working the land and cattle and less time cooking and cleaning. A couple of days back, Regan’s profile popped up on the job search website they were using. They both just about swallowed their tongues when they opened her picture that was attached to her application and saw the sexy little raven-haired woman staring back at them. She looked way too young to be a professional cook but according to her application, she was twenty-five and had studied at a local culinary program in her hometown.

After they reviewed her application online, Ash called her cell number and convinced her to come out to the farm for an interview and two days later, here she was. As far as they were concerned, she already had the job, but they were hoping that she would be so much more than just their cook. At thirty-eight, Jamison was tired of playing the field. He didn’t like going out to the local bars with Ash, trying to pick up women. At onlytwenty-nine, his best friend seemed to have double the energy that he did. Women in town knew the score, they liked to share women. It wasn’t a secret, they just seemed to find the same women attractive, and instead of fighting over who would take her home, they agreed to share. The woman would always have a great time, and they would both get what they needed from her. But that lifestyle was starting to wear them both down. Ash came up with the idea of luring Regan to their house under the pretense of them just needing a cook but if they both had their way and she was willing, she would end up in their bed between the two of them.

He couldn’t explain why he agreed to Ash’s crazy-assed plan, but he did. It was as if her piercing blue eyes looked out from her profile picture and stole a piece of his soul. As soon as he saw that picture he knew that she had to be theirs. He was just hoping that she would feel the same way when she learned what kind of kink turned them on, otherwise, they’d be out one cook and one hot-as-hell woman to share.

Ashton

Ash watched Regan sleep as Jamison leaned over their guest trying to wake her. She seemed to be so fragile and innocent, laying in the middle of Jamison’s big bed. “Come on honey, open those beautiful eyes for me,” Jamison growled, and Ash grew instantly hard. How many times had he heard his best friend say those same words to a woman in their bed just before she was about to come? Fuck, he was hoping that he’d have the chance to watch Regan come undone for them, it would be the hottest thing he’d seen in a long time.

When he placed the ad for someone to come cook for them and do some light housework, he never dreamed that someone like Regan would apply. She was perfect for them, both of their types and he knew that if they didn’t play their cards right, she would be gone before he had the chance to blink.

“This isn’t working, man. How about we let her sleep for a bit, she seems to be exhausted?” Ash wanted to talk to Jamison alone. He knew that their plan to blurt out the truth about them both being attracted to Regan, just from her profile picture didn’t seem like such a good one anymore. After meeting her andseeing how sweet and innocent she truly was, he didn’t want to risk scaring her off.

“Fine,” Jamison barked. “We can leave her in my bed, and I’ll check on her in a few hours.”

“Oh no,” Ash laughed, “we can check on her together because there is no way that I’m leaving you alone with her. We agreed to do this together, remember?” Jamison nodded and made his way out of his room. He gently closed his door and went back down to the kitchen.

“Stellar plan, Ash. Now we have a girl that we both want to fuck and no one to cook us dinner still.” Jamison pulled out a pack of chicken breasts from the freezer and slapped it down onto the counter.

“I’ll cook tonight. Barbecue chicken on the grill sound good to you?” Ash was so hungry he felt like he could eat his fist. He grumbled something about not wanting to wait for Jamison to figure out how to use the grill and went out to the patio to get it started. His only hope for dinner was if he got the old charcoal grill going while Jamison prepped the food.

He smiled thinking about how both of their dads used to have similar arguments around the farm. Ash and Jamison’s dads were best friends. They both pooled their money and bought the old plantation, turning it back into a working farm with about three hundred heads of cattle and over fifteen hundred acres of land on which they planted crops. Jamison’s mom died when he was only eight years old, and his dad struggled to make ends meet. After Ash’s mom up and left when he was two, his dad came up with the idea of buying the land and fixing up the old house. He and Jamison had grown up side-by-side like brothers, learning to work the land. After both of their dads passed, they decided to continue running the farm and carry on their fathers’ dreams of having one of the largest working cattle farms in the area.

Lately, Jamison seemed restless, and Ash worried that he was unhappy. Finding Regan might be just what they both needed to get out of the funk that they were stuck in. If Ash was being honest, he’d admit that he was feeling the same listlessness as his best friend. They both needed to find something to ground them, and he was hoping that Regan was the answer. He thought about her laying up in Jamison’s big bed in her tight little jean shorts and he nearly came in his pants. They needed to come up with a new plan to keep her because just blurting out that they saw her picture and thought that she was hot, didn’t seem like a stellar option.

Jamison brought out the tray of chicken and handed it to Ash.

“We need a better plan Ash because your original plan sucks.” Jamison always seemed to know what Ash was thinking as if he could read his mind.

Ash nodded, adding the chicken to the hot grill, “I agree. So, what’s the new plan, boss?”

“Oh no, I’m not your boss—we established that long ago. I might be older than you, but we are equal partners in everything.” Jamison watched Ash add the last piece of meat to the sizzling grill. “So, what’s it gonna be, Partner?” Jamison clapped him on the shoulder and took the empty platter from Ash.

They both stood and watched the smoke rise from the grill, trying to think of their next move with the gorgeous woman sleeping up in Jamison’s bed. “I’ve got nothing, man. If we tell her that we picked her application because of her hot profile picture, she’ll run out of here and never look back.” Jamison nodded his agreement and grunted.

“So, we just let this play out then. If she’s interested, she’ll let us know and we’ll make our move. Until then, we’ll hire her to cook for us and do some work around the house, just like myad said.” Jamison remained quiet beside him and Ash began to worry.

“What if she only wants one of us?” questioned Jamison. There it was—the ever-present elephant in the room. Most girls they picked up and brought home were closer to Ash’s age than Jamison’s. He usually let Ash do most of the talking at the bar but once they got home, the women liked how bossy Jamison could be. He seemed to get off on telling everyone what to do—even Ash and honestly, he didn’t mind.

The two shared women but that’s where their relationship with each other ended. It was comical the way most women wanted to know how it worked, some even asked flat out if he and Jamison fucked. The idea was one that never crossed either of their minds but some of the women they brought home still tried to get them to at least kiss. That’s usually when the party ended, it was just not something that either of them was in to.

Occasionally, Jamison would doubt if the women really wanted him or if they just wanted Ash and brought him along for the ride. Ash got sick of telling his friend that most of the women he talked to asked more about Jamison than they did about him. He didn’t know why his friend was so hung up on his age because honestly, it didn’t matter. The women were too busy getting off on the idea of the two of them working as a team to give them mind-blowing orgasms to care about how old either of them was.

Ash turned the chicken. “If, and I mean if she only wants one of us then we’ll worry about that when the time comes. But if I had to guess from the way that she responded to us both, Regan Starr will be just fine being stuck between us,” Ash assured. Jamison nodded and Ash relaxed a little. “Let’s finish getting dinner together and then we can try to wake her up again. I bet she’s hungry and food might help her feel better. We can offer her the job and get her settled in the room between us. She’s going to have to get used to being in the middle of us sooneror later,” Ash said and bobbed his eyebrows making Jamison chuckle.

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