Morgan's Mates (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (16 page)

The orgasm of her life hit her. She was afraid it would rip open something inside of her. Her nerve endings had been torn raw. She gritted her teeth and rode it out to its last agonizing ripple. Her nails clawed down Drake’s spine, and she was afraid she had hurt him.

They would both be sore for a week after this. But what a good sore it was going to be.

After it was over, she lay in his arms. She had to face up to something now, and she looked up at him.

“I used to only have one weakness in my life.” She touched Drake’s lips with her own and felt the comforting warmth of his body beneath the blanket. “Now I have three of them.”

“Hurry up!” Hunter called down the hall to Morgan. “You don’t want to be late for the art fair.”

Morgan flew through the bedroom door. She looked sexy in her black leather jacket and boots. As always, her jeans hugged her figure nicely. She grabbed her shoulder bag from the living room table.

“I’m ready.”

“I have the truck pulled around out front.” Hunter gave her a quick peck on the cheek, which she returned. He wanted to turn her around and head her straight back to the bedroom where he could peel those jeans down her long legs. But that would come later.

Drake was on the other side of her and had her in his arms. “Don’t be nervous,” he admonished.

“Sorry. I can’t help it.”

Hunter detected an anxious wrinkle of her brow and noticed her bite her lower lip. This was the big day. The Wolf Creek Art Fair had arrived, and Morgan had six paintings out on the stands for sale among the hundreds of others being offered by local artists.

Hunter would never have admitted it to anyone, and especially not Morgan, but he found that he also was nervous. He wanted to see her do well and succeed. She deserved every ounce of success coming her way.

Hunter put an arm around her waist, and along with Drake they escorted her outside to the truck.

It was a cold, windy day outside. The first snow was predicted to fall soon. The higher elevations had already gotten snow for several weeks.

Hunter drove with Morgan sitting in between him and Drake. He had to turn the wipers of his truck on due to ice pellets that fell from the heavy cloud bank covering the mountains. He took the winding roads of the forest slow, and they made it into Wolf Creek in a little over half an hour.

The normally sleepy town was packed for the annual art fair, which brought in tourists and curiosity seekers from the neighboring counties. It was the one day of the year when it was hard to find a parking spot in downtown Wolf Creek. But Hunter negotiated the traffic and found one four blocks down from the proceedings.

“This traffic reminds me more of downtown Chicago than downtown Wolf Creek,” Morgan said. She had been holding Drake’s hand during the trip down the mountain. Now that he had slowed the truck for traffic, she picked Hunter’s free hand up in her other.

“That reminds me why I never want to go to Chicago or any city,” Hunter replied and gave her hand a squeeze.

“Yes. I agree.” Morgan gave him a smile. But he could still see how nervous she was. Hunter understood the feeling because he had butterflies in his stomach, too.

The art fair was crowded. Hunter and Drake linked arms with Morgan and escorted her through the throngs of people.

They had gone as a threesome. Hunter was proud for the entire world to see Morgan was with him and Drake. She was their woman. Because of all the shifters living in and around town, Wolf Creek was one of the few places where an arrangement such as theirs could be brought out in public. No one thought anything of a ménage in this small town.

Hunter knew Morgan was safe now, too. All of the ornery shifters out looking for a mate would stay clear of them. Morgan already had two men at her side. Hunter and Drake each had reputations for being rather good in a fight, too, so all the other men would be respectful of her just like they should be.

“Hey look, there they are!” Morgan shouted and ran ahead of them. Her paintings were on proud display in the local artists section.

The big tent overhead kept the icy rain out. It was still cold, but Hunter barely felt the chill now that they had spotted Morgan’s work. He thought perhaps he was just as proud of it as she was, if not even prouder.

“What do you think of them, guys?”

“I don’t know much about art.” Hunter shrugged and took a closer look at one of the landscapes. “But I’d say this here is just about the prettiest painting I’ve ever seen.”

Morgan reached up and gave him a kiss for the compliment.

“The dealer gave them a good spot here at the head of the row.” Drake was on her other side, inspecting them with her.

“Oh my!” Morgan exclaimed. “Look at the price they’re selling them for?”

Hunter peered in at the price tag hanging off one of them. It was a high price, but definitely worth it for one of Morgan’s paintings. He would have gladly paid a hundred times more, though she had forbidden him and Drake from buying any of her work. She said she wanted to make her money honestly.

Hunter stood back and let Drake take her on a tour of the other many rows of art under that big tent. Morgan was running down each row like a young girl as she took in all the fair had to offer with her artist’s eye.

Hunter loved to see her like this. She was so alive and vibrant and in her element. Perhaps he’d played some small part in bringing her to this happy stage. He hoped so. She deserved all the happiness in the world, and he wanted to be the one to provide it for her.

He took a great sigh and scratched his head as he watched the woman of his dreams run through the fair having a good time.

It was time he admitted the truth. At least he could start by admitting it to himself, though the prospect scared the hell out of him. No longer was Morgan only a sexual infatuation for him.

Hunter had fallen in love with her.

* * * *

Morgan caught herself chewing on her nails. It was a nervous habit, and she quickly stopped. To see strangers casually perusing her work, some with favorable opinions and some not so much, was an uneasy experience.

She worried when she looked at the other paintings up for sale near her work. Some of them were abstract, some of them were portraits, and some she couldn’t understand at all. Is this what the art-buying public wanted? If so, maybe her work was destined for failure.

Hunter and Drake stayed by her side constantly. She didn’t think she could have gotten rid of them if she wanted to. Their steady presence next to her through the evening made it so much better. In a way, they had made her work possible. They had made this night possible.

Hunter tried joking with her. His irreverence helped pass the time. Drake tried to distract her by engaging her in conversation about her opinions on the sculptures over in the next tent. Then the two of them got into a heated but good-natured discussion over how much business an event like the art fair would bring to the small town and, in particular, their own business.

Morgan found herself laughing with them. Through it all, they were her rocks. There was a cold bite in the late fall air. But she had her two men to keep her warm. Hunter’s arm was around her waist. His palm would stray to her butt at times, and she’d have to slap it away, as it was too much of a public display of affection, she decided. Then at other times, she had Drake. He would take her close to him, an arm wrapped protectively about her shoulder.

She felt so safe and protected with them. They would never let anything bad happen. She would trust them with her life. In fact, in many ways that was exactly what she had been doing over the past six months.

“An artist is always feeling some emotion when they paint.” An older lady had moved up next to Morgan to gaze at her landscapes. “Tell me what you were feeling when you worked on this one?”

Morgan had to think about it. The older lady was asking for a deeper meaning than just how her breath had been taken away at the sight of the beautiful scenery.

“It took me a while to complete this one,” Morgan explained. “When I started, my life was pretty routine and on a set course. Notice how the large strokes are peaceful. Then in the middle of working on this, I…” Morgan caught herself. She almost said she had lost her friend. But she quickly amended her words before they were spoken. “My friend got sick, and he had to go away and leave me for a while. My life was turned upside down. I brought the little details into sharper focus, like this rockslide at the bottom of the canvas.”

“But then when you finished off, everything seems to be on more solid ground than when you started.” The older lady pointed to the white puffy clouds darting through the sky at the top of the canvas. “Did your friend get well and come back to you?”

“No. He didn’t.” Morgan swallowed hard. She had never thought that things were better in her new life then right now with the two men. This was a puzzling way of looking at things when she was so much in love with Nathan.

Her two men were just doing a good shape-shifter deed and taking care of another male’s mate for him until he returned. Her relationship with them was only temporary. It would be a betrayal to Nathan to think anything else.

“I want to buy these two over here.” The older lady startled Morgan out of her funk.

“Really?” Morgan asked, astounded. No one had ever bought any of her work before. She never dreamed that it could be possible. “Thank you.” Morgan was left speechless. There was nothing else to say.

When she turned around, Hunter was there. He took her up in a big bear hug. Her feet left the ground. After he put her down, she was only on the ground for a second, and Drake took over. She was in his arms, wrapping her own arms around his neck.

All three of them gave a whoop of joy.

“I can’t believe I’m good enough to actually sell something,” Morgan confided in them.

“You’re going to sell every painting you have on sale here tonight,” Hunter assured her.

“You are a brilliant artist,” Drake told her.

“I feel like the luckiest person in the whole world right now.” A huge smile had broken out on Morgan’s face that she could not hold back as she accepted more hugs from each of the guys. “I am so thankful for everything I have in my life.”

By the end of the evening, Drake’s prediction had come true. Morgan had sold all six paintings she had entered in the art fair. The price tag was reasonable on each of them, and she was not going to be rich by a long shot. But it was an encouraging start down a career path she had wanted to pursue for most of her life.

“You have a future as an artist, Morgan.” Hunter shared in her happiness. The joy was brimming from him every bit as much as it was from her.

Drake took her in his arms and kissed her. He brushed the hair back from her forehead the way he liked to do. “At least a part of your future seems pretty certain now, honey.”

Morgan knew exactly what he meant. It was looking more and more like she could support herself with her painting now.

But what about the two of them, the two men she was currently living with, her lovers at present?

And what about Nathan, her poor, sick, lost Nathan?

Morgan’s head ached when she thought about the mess.

“We’re taking you out to dinner to celebrate.” Drake took her by the arm and led her away with Hunter.

“Sounds like a plan.” Morgan was ready to have a nice dinner with the men, one she didn’t have to cook for a change.

Morgan left the art fair a little bit richer, but a whole lot more confused about her feelings.

Drake sat next to Morgan in a cozy corner booth of the restaurant. Hunter sat across from them. Wolf Creek had only one really nice restaurant. It was a cattleman’s steak house. Drake and Hunter had brought Morgan here to celebrate her success at selling out all her paintings at the art fair.

Drake had also brought Morgan here, hoping to celebrate something more with her. He had spoken to Hunter before they came out tonight, and Hunter had agreed with him. It was time they had a talk with Morgan. The setting of the restaurant seemed the best place to do it.

“This is a nice place to eat,” Morgan told them after they placed orders for their steaks. “I came here once with Nathan right after we moved to Wolf Creek. The steak sauce here is to die for.”

“It is pretty decent at that,” Hunter agreed.

Drake had gone silent. He was mentally rehearsing all the things he wanted to tell Morgan. He had never really put himself out there for a woman before. This was a new experience. There had been plenty of women he had pursued for sex in the past. But the feelings he wanted to share with Morgan tonight were much more intimate than just sex.

When their wine arrived, Drake proposed a toast. “To making it on your own as a professional artist from this night forward.”

“It’s a scary thought.” Morgan gave him a smile. It made Drake’s heart expand to see how happy she was. “But I’ll drink to that.”

All three of them touched glasses over the table.

“You’re going to be busy,” Hunter told her.

Morgan sighed and agreed with him. “I still have to find an agent and, hopefully, a gallery in the city that would be willing to display my work.”