We know. When she goes, we all pitch in to help with Cindy Lou and Maisie. Not because James can’t take care of his daughters alone, but because those girls are their momma’s mini-me’s and would have him tied up in barn chores for days if we didn’t keep them distracted.

  “Me and Johnny go stay at the resort when Katelyn has long events just so I can sleep next to her,” Mark admits. I swear if there was enough light to see him better, I think I’d find that he’s blushing at the confession.

  “Rix won’t let me go with her to races. Says I distract her with my dick,” I offer, half-pouting and half-bragging.

  Everyone laughs, but I’m dead serious.

  Mark is the one to raise his glass this time. “To rough assholes turned ducks. May we remember who we are, but still be better tomorrow than we are today.”

  “Language,” Mama Louise says, appearing from nowhere right behind Mark with Juniper in her arms. “You boys all know the love of the right woman can be a magical thing.”

  “That it is,” we agree.

  We drink, letting a comfortable silence settle as our bond hammers deeper into place. But before long, I’m thinking about Rix – and those damn panties again – and I’m sure the other guys are doing the same. About their wives, not mine and not her panties.

  “Where are the ladies?” I ask finally.

  Mama Louise’s smile is chilling. It looks like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, which means she’s up to something. And suddenly, the quiet evening starts to feel creepy.

  “Oh, they’re around,” she says airily. “I’m sure they’ll come find you shortly, but I’m going inside to start some wind-down activities with the babies. They’re all sleeping over here tonight.”

  That sounds great – the sleepover part, not the ladies finding us. The hairs on the back of my neck rise and I glance around at the dark surrounding us.

  When Mama Louise makes her exit and the door clicks closed behind her, I scan the guys’ faces. “Should we be scared?”

  Five nods answer me.

  I toss back my tea. “Just checking. Let’s see what they’ve got in store for us.”

  7

  SHAYANNE

  “We ready?” I ask the women standing in the circle with me.

  We’ve changed clothes for this, well-prepped in black yoga pants, black tank tops, and ponytails, and well-armed in… well, ourselves.

  This is the bucket at our feet, filled with an assortment of Super Soaker water guns and hundreds of water balloons. They all nod and we choose our weapons. “May the odds be ever in our favor,” I intone and we’re off.

  We move stealthily toward the back porch of the house where Mama Louise was distracting the guys so we could sneak out the front door and around the barn to our pre-prepared gear. They’re looking around suspiciously, but not a one of them has made a move until…

  Pssssttttt!

  An arc of water flies through the air and hits… bullseye! I got Luke right in the chest, soaking him fully. He yells in surprise, jumping to his feet, and the other guys stand too, not sure what happened. “I’m… wet?” Luke says, still not comprehending.

  But my brothers do. “Shit, it’s an ambush!” Brody shouts. The reaction is instant, all of them scattering. “Every man for himself!”

  We laugh and Rix holds up a hand, offering me a high five. “Good shot, Deadeye.”

  The plan was to stick together, but with our targets divided, we split up to go after our husbands. Plans, schmans… as long as the guys all get soaked, the ladies win. Properly, this time.

  Laughing maniacally, I go after Luke. “Here fishie, fishie,” I call out into the night.

  “You are nuttier than a nutsack,” Brody exclaims, probably thinking I’m hunting him. Too bad for him though, Rix has her sights set on him and she’s silent but deadly. He’ll never see her coming.

  “Takes one to know one!” But in my taunting of my brother, Luke disappears around the corner of the house and I lose him. “Shitake mushrooms! Where did he go?” I mutter to myself.

  I hear rustling in the trees, and thinking I’ve easily found my man, I aim my flashlight and my water gun. Pew-pew-pew, my gun shoots three quick bursts of water and I click the light on. “Gotcha!”

  But it’s not Luke.

  It’s James and Sophie, and I don’t think he’s even wet. Or at least not from any water gun shooting. Sophie’s the only one dripping and it’s from where I shot her. “Friendly fire, friendly fire,” I chant. “How was I to know you’d be riding James in the trees ten seconds after we declared war?”

  “Turn the light off, Shayanne,” James growls, trying to cover Sophie’s butt where she’s sitting on his dick.

  Helpfully, I inform him, “I can see your balls.”

  “Shay!”

  I click the flashlight off, but hiss at Sophie, “Traitor.” Quieter, I add, “It’s nice that you didn’t make her lay in the grass, James.”

  I’m pretty sure he groans in annoyance, but Sophie giggles. “That was nice of you.”

  I make my way back toward the house, figuring I’ll start at Luke’s last known appearance and work from there. Looking around, I see no sign of him. Carefully, I expand my search…

  Across the night, I hear a squeal of surprise that sounds vaguely like Katelyn. I look up at the stars, sending a prayer that she’s okay. Mark won’t hurt her – at least not in any way she doesn’t thoroughly enjoy – but that’s two ladies down already. And truthfully, Willow probably found a cozy spot to curl up for a nap and Allyson stomps around like she’s wearing heels even when she’s trying to be quiet so Bruce will find her before she finds him. That means it’s up to me and Rix.

  “Be safe, sister,” I whisper on the wind, hoping she receives the message of support.

  But the moment of quiet listening has made me realize something else. The horses are whinnying. I smile to myself, knowing exactly where my target is – his sanctuary. The barn.

  “I’m coming for you, Luke Bennett.” I’d love to say this is where I let out a maniacal, villainous laugh that sounds like ‘muahahaha’, but the truth is, I just start high-kneeing for the barn with no regard for whatever noise I might be making. I won’t have surprise on my side, but I’ve got a semi-loaded water gun and I snatch up a water balloon on my way past the bucket, so I’m locked and loaded for fun.

  "Hey, cowboy,” I sing as I sashay into the dimly lit barn. The horses answer me with huffs and puffs, annoyed at the interruption of their evening slumber. Cutting my eyes left and right, I look for any sign of where Luke might be hiding.

  One particular horse, Lollipop, is shuffling around, so I sneak closer to her stall, ducking down to hide behind the solid wood gate. Silently, I count to myself, “Three, two, one…” I jump up, gun at the ready to shoot Luke, who I’m certain is crouched inside the stall. But…

  There’s no one there.

  “Fluffer nutters,” I mumble, turning around to search for Luke some more.

  But it’s a trap. As soon as I turn, a blast of freezing cold water hits me dead center in my chest and less than a split second later, a water balloon bursts at my feet. “Luke Bennett!” I screech as I stomp my foot. We were supposed to be the only ones armed and dangerous, and that man snatched some of our ammunition.

  The only answer I get is my husband guffawing and hee-hawing at my predicament. Righteously riled up, I march my dripping self over to the ladder and lean back, glaring up into the hay loft. “I have half a mind to take this away and leave you trapped up there,” I threaten.

  “You could…” he drawls out, “or you could come up here with me. Let me apologize properly for beating you at your own game.”

  I make a sound of displeasure. He did not beat me at my own game. We’re still playing.

  Plus, I know what happens in that hay loft. I’ve had sex there plenty of times. We all have. Those romps in the hay also have a particular reputation for leaving us girls full of more than cum. At least three of our herd of kids have been conceived up there.

  “What’re you up to, Mr. Bennett?” I ask suspiciously.

  We’re not having more children, that’s one thing I’m for sure about. My two boys are plenty for me, and with me added into that equation, we’re more than enough for Luke. He’s already getting some early gray hairs at his temple that he tries to blame on me. Secretly, I think they’re hot and go along with his delusions that they’re probably just ‘highlights’ from his time in the sun.

  “Nothing.”

  One little word, but it sure sounds like something. “Then maybe you should come down here and apologize like the gentleman you pretend to be. I’m soaked to my bones.”

  He chuckles again. “I ain’t never pretended to be a thing, especially a gentleman.”

  That’s not true and we both know it. Luke treats me like a queen, and I love it. Better yet, he’s teaching our boys to treat me the same way and there is nothing like a wad of wilted wildflowers from a little boy’s grubby fist to make my momma heart seize up.

  “Come up, Shayanne.”

  Ooh, he’s playing dirty, ordering me around like that. If anybody else tried it, I’d have ‘em strung up by their dick. But Luke gets special privileges on account he’s the one that loves me and that I love right back.

  “I’m not getting pregnant,” I warn, setting my water gun down. Like they’ve got a mind of their own, my feet are climbing the ladder to the hay loft, where Luke is waiting for me at the top. He holds a hand out to help me with the last step, and I take his hand gratefully, letting him pull me up and to his side.

  That’s when I smash the water balloon I was hiding right over his head.

  “Gotcha!” I shout as I run behind a stack of hay bales. That man’s a’coming for me. I know it. And that’s exactly what I want.

  A little chase. A bit of fun. Some sexy silliness. I have missed him while he’s been gone and though we’ve already had our fair share of reunion sex, I missed you so much fucking, and don’t leave again lovemaking, this is something different. This is light and easy, and we need this.

  The next thing I know, he’s tackled me. But I don’t go down that simply. Oh no, I’m a wildcat, flailing and fighting and hollering loud. His arms clamp around me, stilling the struggle that I don’t really mean anyway.

  “You trying to make me come in my jeans?” Luke hisses.

  That brings me up short and I realize something else. Mr. Bennett has a hard-on for little ole me. One I can feel behind his jeans as he presses against my core.

  Oh, I might be down, but this game’s still on.

  “Better in those jeans than tempting fate up here in this loft,” I warn again. I’m not superstitious, but I’m also not daring Mother Nature to do her damnedest with my uterus either.

  “You worried?” Luke’s gone serious, which is the opposite of what I want, so I wiggle and squirm, working the growing length I can feel getting more insistent against me.

  I offer a sly grin. “Worried you’re not gonna get us satisfied before someone else tries to sneak in here. I don’t want my brothers seeing my backside. And I sure don’t want one of yours seeing me either.”

  “Then we’d better hurry. How fast can you come for me, honey?”

  Holding up my watchless wrist, I tap my arm three times. “Clock’s ticking. Let’s find out.”

  Luke’s smile is filled with the devil I love, but I only get a quick peek before he’s ducking down my body and his hands are yanking my yoga pants to my knees, taking my panties with them. I try to kick my legs to help, but he leaves me like that… legs trapped and tied up in my latest purchase from the Tik Tok shop that promised to lift my butt to the heavens. To be fair, they deliver and I’ll be buying three more pairs to torture Luke with.

  With my legs locked by my pants and Luke laying over them, propped up on his elbows, he’s managed to get me right where he wants me. It’s a damn good thing it’s where I want him too – his mouth hovering so close to my clit that I can feel the heat of his breath over it. I squeeze my butt cheeks, trying to finagle myself to his tongue, but the hay is a bit too scratchy to be doing much of that.

  Luckily, Luke doesn’t make me wait long. Spreading my lower lips to get fuller access, he licks a slow line from my entrance up to my clit. “Delicious,” he murmurs.

  “More where that came from,” I offer helpfully, pointing between my legs.

  I shouldn’t have worried about that though because Luke dives in for more, driving me higher and higher. He knows my body better than anyone, better than me even. He’s showed me what I’m capable of, what my body can do, but I’ve done the same for him. Not because I’m a sexpert, but because I’m a Luke-pert, an expert in all things Luke. He knows that when he fastens his mouth over my clit and batters it with his tongue the way he’s doing now, I will detonate in seconds. But I know that the way his hips are shifting over my legs, he’s gonna do the one thing he said he didn’t want to do – come in his jeans - if I don’t hurry.

  I close my eyes and hold my breath, letting the sensations overwhelm me, feeling my husband worship me like he’ll never get enough of me. The tightness builds, my entire being on the edge of shattering, and then that man, while still latched onto my clit like it’s the tastiest morsel he’s ever had, does something that shocks me…

  He growls.

  Not some sweet little purr or tiny vibration. No, he sounds like a damn animal. And oh my chee-sus and crackers, my whole body lights up like it’s the 4th of July and the entire wheelbarrow of firecrackers accidentally got lit at once.

  “Luke!” I cry out, my hands shoving into his hair and holding him to me. If he moves, I will die. No, if he stops, I will kill him.

  Thankfully, I don’t have to do that. He sucks harder, his tongue moves faster, and he growls again as sparklers, no those M-150 Black Cats, go off inside me.

  As the explosions settle down, Luke lifts to his knees, his deft fingers making quick work of his jeans. When he shoves them and his underwear down to his thighs, I get a look at the prettiest penis I’ve ever seen. It’s also the only one, but I’m pretty sure the label still stands.

  But now, his cute idea of keeping my legs locked is causing problems because there’s not a lot of room for me to spread my legs for him. “Just c’mere,” I say, solving problems the way I always do.

  I take him in hand, and using the pre-cum running down his length, I stroke him up and down. He shifts a bit, bumping my clit with his tip on my downstroke, and we both groan. “Fuck, honey. Keep doing that.”

  As if I was gonna stop. I’ve got Luke right where I want him – about to come in my hand and cover my pussy with his cum. Both of us are gonna be satisfied, and nobody will be the wiser.

  “Do not get a drop inside me,” I warn.

  “You’re on birth control,” he grits out as he throws his head back, the veins in his neck visible as he strains to hold on a little longer.

  I tilt my head, glaring. I’m no fool though, what has him peeling his eyes open is that I stop jacking him and squeeze the base of his cock tightly.

  “Fair point,” he agrees. I’m not exactly Fertile Myrtle here, but we basically decided to try and popped positive the very next month with Riley. Only test I ever passed with flying colors.

  “Come all over me instead.” The words are a hot whisper, delivered intentionally as I swirl my hand up and down his length, my thumb caressing the spot just beneath his crown that I know he loves for me to play with. I feel him getting close… so close, and feel like I’m the most powerful woman in the world to bring a man like Luke to his knees.

  That’s when I strike. “Show me how much you love me, cowboy. Let me see it… spill it right here.”

  “Fuck, Shay,” Luke groans a split second before I feel the hot splashes of his cum hitting my lower belly and pussy.

  Feeling like the cat that got the cream, I smile to myself as I squeeze every blessed drop from him. And when he falls to the side, laying out next to me and panting harder than he ever does from riding or training a difficult horse, I smile even bigger.

  Until I realize that I have to do something with the puddle. “Uhm, I hope you did the Boy Scout thing and came prepared with a towel?”

  Luke chuckles and reaches behind his head to pull his shirt over his head, promptly and carefully swiping me clean with the soft cotton. His eyes go distant and he says quietly, “You’re always beautiful, but you looked extra gorgeous when you had my baby in you.”

  He glances up quick, judging my reaction.

  Another one? We haven’t really talked about that. Other than when I got on birth control because Riley was a newborn. But he’s in school a few days a week now and Leo’s in school full-time. I also have my business… and my goats… and an entire blended family that’d put the Brady Bunch to shame to take care of… and Luke is here and gone, and gone and here.

  “Gotcha,” he whispers. His eyes are dancing with delight at having gotten one over on me.

  Ooh, this man! He’s gonna pay for that!

  I tickle his ribs, dance my fingers around to his sides while he spasms and squirms, trying to get away. “What if I’d said yes?” I snap, laughing too.

  He shrugs carelessly. “Then you’d probably be pregnant next month.” Grinning, he says confidently, “I like our life like it is. Don’t you?”

  I nod, agreeing. “Yeah, you’re alright, I guess.”

  We lay there a little longer, just enjoying the quiet stillness and appreciating how life has turned out. But after a bit, I reluctantly ask him, “You think everyone else is already down at the pond?”

  Brows drawn in confusion, he asks, “Is that where we’re supposed to end up?”

  “Yeah, that’s rendezvous point B.” I say it seriously, but Luke laughs like I’m kidding. He has no idea that us women cussed and discussed, plotted and planned today’s fun out like we were going to war against our husbands. I’m pretty sure Katelyn had a minute-by-minute breakdown of the timeline for games, food, and fun.