Page 22 of Mad About Her Cowboys

“And that makes you afraid to be with us?” Franklin asked.

“I’m not afraid of you. And it makes me wonder if something is wrong with me. I mean…shouldn’t I be? Shouldn’t I have more self-preservation or something?”

“Everyone reacts to trauma differently,” Connor said.

“I know,” she sighed. “I’m a nurse. I’ve seen the gamut of people’s reaction to life-changing situations.”

“How you react, how you deal with things, that’s up to you,” Franklin said. “Don’t let anyone try to tell you how you should be.” He gave a self-depreciating laugh. “Even me, ‘cause I just did.”

She offered a wane smile.

“Just so you know, for your peace of mind,” Neal said from the doorway, he and Edison having apparently overheard the conversation, “to us, no means no. I mean it. You say it, and I don’t care if I just sank inside you to find paradise—and I’m sure it would be. You say it, and we’ll stop.”

“Guaranteed,” Edison put in. He came to kneel beside Connor’s legs and took her free hand. “I promise.”

“I promise, too,” Franklin vowed, lifting her fingers to his lips.

She looked to Connor, and he gave her a smile that he was sure appeared a little despondent. He was sad that they had to have this conversation, but glad to have it out in the open. “Without question, darlin’,” he put in. “When it comes to sex, your word is our guide. Though I think your stop word shouldn’t be no or stop but something else unmistakable.”

“Like a safe word?” she asked, brows raised and looking so damned cute he wanted to kiss her again.

“Yeah. Kinda like,” he agreed. “Not like in the Fifty Shades of whatever the hell movie—”

Franklin gave him a shove. “You saw it.”

“Yeah, ‘cause Edison downloaded it for movie night thinking it would be funny,” Connor defended. He looked back to her, gaze sincere. “Not like that,” he repeated. “Just something that we’ll know definitely means stop right this second, and not stop, stop it feels so good and I’ll throttle you if you actually stop. None of us is into the whole whips and chains and whatever freaky stuff scene.”

“Speak for yourself,” Edison muttered. Connor shoved him with his foot, knowing the younger man wasn’t serious.

“I think you four will be good for me,” Madison sighed. She leaned her head on Connor’s shoulder, and a blanket of warm tenderness fell over him. He wanted to do everything for this woman, protect her, cherish her, provide for her, give her everything she needed.

“We can be,” he offered. “Give us a chance?”

She nodded. “I will. I want you—all of you. And I refuse to let him mess up my life and steal my joy. I can’t let him win.”

“He won’t,” Franklin vowed. The four of them knew about overcoming. Their pasts had all sucked epically, but they didn’t let that rule them. Connor understood how important it was, and Edison would understand more than any of them what Madison needed to move away from her past. Though he rarely spoke of it, his parents had been more than neglectful. Still, even if he knew why she needed to forge forward, Connor feared she might be rebounding, maybe using them as a leapfrog to her future by having a successful experience with them to prove she could then go on to someone else. Having the “knowing” or not, the fear still taunted him.

Madison stood and stepped a few feet away, leaving them all watching her. “No. He won’t. I’ll never let him have power over me again.” Her hands went to the bottom of her tunic, and without pausing, she whipped it up over her head. She stood there in only a red lacy bra from the waist up. She toed off her shoes and socks, then her fingers when to her waistband before anyone could move.

Connor leapt up. His hands covered hers. “Let me.”

“No,” she said, stepping a little farther back, and he froze. “I need to do this. And you need to get undressed. All of you do. We’re doing this. Now.”

Okay, his dick could get harder than before. It had deflated while she’d told her story, and now, it was back to full attention. He needed her bad.

“Safe word?” he rasped before anyone forgot.

She looked thoughtful, chewing on her bottom lip. “Um…Martin? Is that inappropriate?” she added quickly.

“Nope,” Edison told her. “If he’s that asshole, then it’s entirely fine. I should think it would be like a bucket of cold water on things.”

“You won’t need it,” Neal said. He’d already stripped off his shirt. He stepped into Connor’s line of vision, cupping Madison’s face and leaning in to kiss her. She must have been okay with it, because she wrapped her arms around his neck. Wanting to feel the same, her bare skin against him, Connor hurried out of his clothes but left on his boxer-briefs for now. To his right and left, Edison and Franklin did the same.

“You’re falling behind, Neal,” Edison teased since the man in question still had on his trousers.

Neal lifted his head. His thumbs traced along Madison’s jaw as he stared into her eyes. “I don’t think I’m behind at all.”

She smiled. “Get undressed.”

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