JULIA
* * *
My brothers had each found their “The One”. Even my cousin Porter. It had happened fast for them. Bam, hit by a Mack truck of love. They were all pussy-whipped and happy about it.
It was hard to watch because I wanted what they had. A guy who was ridiculously possessive, attentive, protective. Loving. Devoted. All the adjectives a woman wanted in a man.
Their hot and heavy affection made me even more depressed. Made Friday dinners even harder to swallow. Clearly, a relationship wasn’t for me. Love existed, but for everyone else.
I was doomed to being the spinster who had six cats and even more vibrators.
I’d been in such a funk about relationships, I didn’t see one when it arrived on the doorstep. It even rang the doorbell for me. As for fast? I should have used a stopwatch on how long it took me to fall in love. One weekend and a story could be written about it.
The Duke boys were nicknamed for cuts of meat. Sir Loin of Beef. T-Bone. Tri-Tip. Porterhouse. We were a ranching family after all. And me? I was known as Skirt Steak. I didn’t think much of it until Cash and Bennett, because they told me—and showed me—how much they liked my pink center, said it was juicy and lick-their-lips good.
I was going to take their word for it. Every single time they made me come.
1
JULIA
* * *
“Dildos weren’t what I had in mind for party favors,” Kaitlyn said as she held a neon green one in her hand. She pushed her glasses up her nose and frowned at it.
I paused as I pulled one from the brown shipping box. I’d ordered them online for the party. “You haven’t seen one up close before?”
I wasn’t into using lots of toys with a guy, but I did have a vibrator in my bedside drawer for sex dry spells… like now.
She blushed and looked at me across her kitchen table. A sly grin spread across her face as she waved the toy back and forth, the tip of it swaying. “With two men with big dicks, who needs this?”
I closed my eyes and groaned. “Ugh, I hate when you guys talk about my brothers’ dicks.” And a pang of loneliness was buried beneath the horrible mental picture of my brothers, naked. I didn’t have a guy warming my bed, or my heart, and I wasn’t holding out hope for finding one. Not after what happened with Frank Marsden, not that I was telling anyone, least of all Kaitlyn or the others. He lived in town and Raines was really small. I’d been miserable enough after our so-called relationship to become a road warrior for work, taking jobs all over to keep me out of town until I felt like my self-confidence wasn’t in the toilet. Until Frank hopefully moved on.
Kaitlyn didn’t apologize, and why should she? It wasn’t her fault she was in a solid—and sexy—relationship with my oldest brother, Duke, and also with Jed Cassidy, who owned a bar on Main Street. She laughed and set the dildo back on the table. “It’s only me around right now. Just wait until Ava and Parker get here.”
The other two women were in relationships with my other brothers. Parker was hot and heavy with Gus, along with his two colleagues Kemp and Poe. Ava was engaged to my middle brother, Tucker, and also Colton Ridge. Yeah, two guys for Ava and three for Parker. Tonight was Ava’s bachelorette party which Kaitlyn was hosting, although I was the organizer. That was why I was at her house early, getting things set up.
“Don’t forget Jill. Porter’s my cousin, and hearing about his dick isn’t all that fun either,” I grumbled. I was happy for all four of them, but I really didn’t like to hear all the details of their sex lives, especially when mine only involved either my hand or my vibrator.
“Then you shouldn’t have bought dildos,” Kaitlyn countered, grabbing a favor bag, opening it up and sitting it upright beside the others on the table to be filled.
“Oh please, ditching the dildos isn’t going to keep everyone from talking hot men, or ogling the ones I have showing up.”
“So it’s okay for you to call your brothers—and cousin—hot, but not mention their dicks,” she countered. She was an only child, so she had no idea what it was like with three older brothers. Three bossy older brothers.
It wasn’t like I was going to tell any of them about my sex life… and after Frank, I figured sex wasn’t happening. Ever. I wasn’t looking for a guy. In fact, I’d had to hide from one at the grocery store. Of course, with Raines being so small, I had to see Frank standing with some woman in front of the apples in the produce section. I’d had to steer my cart around the deli counter and hide in the pasta section until I was sure he was gone.
Sure, a guy would be nice. To have what Kaitlyn had with Duke and Jed was something I’d always wanted. But now, since I was a considered a “frigid bitch”, it probably wasn’t going to happen. I sighed, knowing Frank the Asshole, was long over me, and yet still lingering in among the fruit and my low self-esteem. Most likely hooked up with the woman who knew what she was doing, could give blow jobs that didn’t put him to sleep. Hell, who wasn’t “broken”.