Page 19 of Mad About Her Cowboys

Connor turned his attention to the TV—or pretended to anyway. She wasn’t so sure it really held his interest as his fingers trailed along her shoulder. A pleasant shiver ran through her. At the same time, Franklin started the movie, and after he’d adjusted the volume, he set aside the remote and twined his fingers through hers. His hand felt large and warm and a little rough against hers. As she watched the opening sequence of the film, waiting for The Rock to come onscreen, she wondered how Franklin’s palm would feel elsewhere on her body.

Too soon, Madison, she reminded herself. Slow it on down. You’re the one who wants to go slow. Truly, she couldn’t believe how comfortable she was alone in the same room with four men, not a soul nearby.

She didn’t want slow anymore.

They just felt…right. Safe. That was it. She felt safe.

With a deep, cleansing breath, she relaxed back into the couch. Her head leaned against Connor’s large, muscular shoulder while the slow, soothing brush of Franklin’s thumb over the top of her hand lulled her. Connor kissed the top of her head before resting his cheek against her crown.

So cozy. She understood why this multiple lover thing was so popular here. Several men doting on you, wanting to protect and spoil you, to give you more pleasure than you could handle? What wasn’t to love? If it wasn’t for her innate need for caution, she’d jump right into it with no reservations.

But as good as things felt right this moment, she did have niggling reservations. Very small ones. Getting smaller by the second.

The biggest: how could something like this last?

Her mother’s voice sounded in her head. It’s all well and good right now, young lady, but how will it look?

Madison didn’t give a fuck how it looked to anyone. What she did was her business alone. Her right hand settled on her belly. Okay, maybe not just her business. She had the wellbeing of two to worry about. With the baby, it wasn’t just all about her.

“Are you okay?” Connor murmured, his head lifting slightly away. When she looked at him, he nodded once at her fingers on her stomach.

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “Just thinking.”

“About Daly and the decisions you’ll make? What it would mean if you were with us?”

How did he know? That psychic thing?

“You seem deep in thought instead of watching the movie.”

She nodded. “It’s a lot, you know? I’ve never been with two, let alone four. I…um…”

“Let’s go in the other room and talk while they watch the movie,” he suggested against her ear.

Again, she nodded. He set the bowl of popcorn on the table then took her free hand, pulling her to standing. Franklin kissed the back of her fingers before he let go. When she looked back, he gave her a smile and a nod as if he knew what she and Connor were about to do.

To her surprise, Connor led her down the hallway toward the bedrooms. She paused, tensing, and her arm stretched forward before he realized she’d stopped. He came back to her, wrapping his arms around her and tipping his forehead to hers like he had in the kitchen. His dark brown eyes stared into her gaze.

“Just talk,” he promised. “I don’t know what’s happened in your past, but I would never, ever force you into something. None of us would. It would never be acceptable to any of us, let alone anyone in the Daly community. Trust me when I say: if they strung us up, it would be the best scenario in the scheme of things that would happen. The cowboys here don’t put up with any kind of abuse.”

With that assurance, she relaxed a little and started down the hallway with him. He led her through the first doorway, the light already on in the room. Done in beige and light blue, it looked cozy enough with a quilt and fluffy pillows covering the bed. A chair sat near a large window, a table next to it. A frame sat on the surface with a message inside. When she squinted at it, she saw it was the Wi-Fi password in fancy script. Across from the bed was a dresser, the top empty save for a folded, dark-blue T-shirt.

“My room is the next door down on this side,” he said. “Franklin’s is across the hallway from it.”

Connor sat on the edge of the bed and gently pulled her to sit beside him. He laced his fingers through hers then played with the tips as if thinking. Silence surrounded them, the sounds from the action movie barely filtering down the passage to them.

“So…if you were with us, we’d want to take turns. Maybe have you with each of us on different nights. It sounds weird when I say it aloud, I suppose.”

“A little but everything is weird to me right now. So no multiples, huh? No ménage sex?” She bumped his shoulder, feeling comfortable enough to tease, especially since Riv had led her to believe that was the way around here.

“We never have. Not that the idea is unfamiliar. We live here, after all. And our parents live a trinogamous relationship. They shared a room and a bed, so I can only assume they were together.”

Seemed like a fair deduction. “What you’re suggesting…that’s more like I’d have a harem of men rather than being in a true ménage relationship—what?” she asked when he looked surprised. “I read. I’ve seen Big Love, but it would be the reverse of that without the polygamy.”

“What’s…Big Love?”

“An old HBO TV show. I used to watch it in college. The guy had three wives. He was with them on different days of the week.”

“You’d have four…men, that is. Unless you ask for something different.”

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