The Teacher’s Pets Read online

  

  Riverbend, Texas Heat 8

  The Teacher’s Pets

  Wesson and Cole are attracted to Jessie. Can they convince her to give two men a try? Will she risk losing her job for them?

  With someone shooting darts at the cattle, the men’s attentions are divided between dating her and protecting their ranch. Neither man wants Jessie hurt, so when she is hit by a tranquilizer dart they feel responsible and panic.

  Jessie has fallen for the two men and despite threats to her job teaching children, she continues to see them. They aren’t taking any chances with her safety but never think that the threat could be closer to her than to them.

  Finding out that the attacker is someone Jessie sees most every day only reinforces

  the need to protect their woman. Wesson and Cole close ranks around her. Jessie loves that they are so protective of her. Once the threat is eliminated, she agrees to be their wife.

  Genres: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense, Western/Cowboys

  Length: 49,000

  THE TEACHER’S PETS

  Riverbend, Texas Heat 8

  Marla Monroe

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  The Teacher’s Pets

  Copyright © 2018 by Marla Monroe

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-311-1

  First Publication: July 2018

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2018 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Marla Monroe has been writing professionally for over thirteen years. Her first book with Siren was published in January of 2011, and she now has over 85 books available with them. She loves to write and spends every spare minute either at the keyboard or reading. She writes everything from sizzling-hot cowboys, emotionally charged BDSM, and dangerously addictive shifters, to science fiction ménages with the occasional badass biker thrown in for good measure.

  Marla lives in the southern US and works full-time at a busy hospital. When not writing, she loves to travel, spend time with her feline muses, and read. Although she misses her cross-stitch and putting together puzzles, she is much happier writing fantasy worlds where she can make everyone’s dreams come true. She’s always eager to try something new and thoroughly enjoys the research she does for her books. She loves to hear from readers about what they are looking for in their reading adventures.

  You can reach Marla at [email protected], or

  Visit her website at www.marlamonroe.com

  Her blog: www.themarlamonroe.blogspot.com

  Twitter: @MarlaMonroe1

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  Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4562866.Marla_Monroe

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  Amazon page: http://amzn.to/1euRooO

  For all titles by Marla Monroe, please visit

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  The Teacher’s Pets

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Teacher’s Pets

  Riverbend, Texas Heat 8

  MARLA MONROE

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  “I’m telling you they’re hot, Jessie. You don’t know what you’re missing until you’ve had two guys at one time. I hear the sex is explosive.” Brenda, Jessica Winters’ best friend, waved her hands in front of her face.

  “Why would I want two men to have to pick up after when one is hard enough? Can you imagine just how tired you’d be if you hooked up with two of them? You’d spend all your time cooking and cleaning. Nope, not for me.” Jessie shrugged her shoulders.

  “The women I know swear by it. They say they’re so pampered and pleasured that they don’t know what to do with themselves when their men are at work. I’m telling you, getting into a relationship with a pair of the handsome hunks in this town would be like hitting the jackpot on double Tuesdays.” Brenda wasn’t giving up.

  “If dating two men is so amazing, why aren’t you doing it?” Jessie asked.

  “Because I’m already in love with Tommy. Otherwise, I’d be all over a couple of them in a heartbeat.”

  “What happened to Riverbend while I was away the last few years getting my masters? All of a sudden there are five or six families made up of threesomes when I’d never heard of it before.” Jessie stared at her menu.

  The Pizza House was a new venue that one of those threesome families had opened a couple of months back, and it was always crowded. They had delicious pizzas, pasta, and sandwiches. It was no wonder they stayed packed.

  “They’re looking your way, girlfriend. You’ve caught their attention. Now all you have to do is reel them in.”

  “What are they, fish? I’m no fisherman, Brenda. What are you going to get?” Jessie changed the subject, ignoring her friend.

  Ever since Brenda had gotten engaged to her boyfriend, she’d been determined to fix Jessie up. It was as if Brenda wanted her to be just as happy as she was. Well, she was happy. Okay, happy but lonely. Brenda spent a lot of her spare time with her new fiancé, which left Jessie on her own more than she was used to. Many of her old friends were either married and had a couple of kids or had moved away from Riverbend.

  “You are coming out with us tomorrow night, right?” Brenda asked.

  “I don’t know. I need to work on lesson plans. School starts in two weeks,” Jessie reminded her.

  “So, what else do you have to do during the week? Work on them during the day and go out with us tomorrow night. You have to, Jessie. I need you to.”

  “Need me to? You’ve got Tommy. You don’t need me.”

  “Sure I do. He only dances to slow music. I need someone to dance with when they’re playing the good songs. Remember ‘It’s Raining Men’? We always dance to that one together.”

  “Fine. I’ll go, but I’m not making any guarantees that I’ll stay very late.”

  “Woohoo! We’re going to have a blast.” Brenda clapped her hands together.

  Jessie narrowed her eyes at her friend. She had something up her sleeve. She was entirely too happy that Jessie was going o
ut with them. With a sigh, Jessie resigned herself to being thrown at some poor man who wouldn’t know what hit him. What were best friends for unless it was to set you up on a blind date you didn’t even know you were going to have?

  They ordered pizza, half cheese and hamburger and half pepperoni. They’d always liked to eat pizza, but rarely got it unless they went into one of the larger towns shopping. Riverbend was a small ranching community that was obviously growing. High on the growth factor seemed to be men who shared. Evidently the news had gotten out that they seemed to be accepted in the community, and it attracted more like-minded men.

  “So, tell me about your teaching gig. Ae you excited?” Brenda asked.

  “I am. I’ll be teaching juniors English lit. I can’t wait. I did a lot of student teaching in school, but now I’ll be able to pick my own agenda and lessons.” Jessie loved teaching and had gone back to school to get her masters so that she could teach high school English with the extra education under her belt.

  “I can’t imagine teaching. All those rowdy teenagers and grading papers. I’ll stick with keeping books any day,” Brenda said.

  “See, keeping books sounds boring to me. We’re just different people,” Jessie said with a chuckle.

  “I love it though. I like order, and bookkeeping is the epitome of order. Everything has to be in the right place for it to all come out right in the end,” she said.

  “So why were you at loose ends tonight instead of going out with your fiancé?” Jessie asked.

  “He and his brothers are watching a ball game. I didn’t want to hang around a bunch of men yelling and cursing. I’d much rather eat pizza with my bestie,” Brenda said. Her face bloomed into a huge smile.

  “I don’t blame you. I’m glad you asked me, and this place is great. I’m glad it opened up, and it looks like it’s going to get plenty of business so it stays open,” Jessie said.

  “Yeah, they’re always busy at night and on the weekends. We should make this a regular hangout on Friday nights. Tommy and his brothers will probably keep watching games or playing poker on Friday nights. It’s a great time for us to hang out.” Brenda sat back when the waitress brought their pizza and set it in front of them.

  “Sounds good to me. We’ve still got to go to Dallas or somewhere to shop for your dress, girlfriend. It won’t be long before you’ll be walking down that aisle,” she told her friend.

  “I know. Let’s plan on next Saturday. I’ve been so busy with work lately that I haven’t felt like shopping. And me not feeling like shopping is huge,” Brenda pointed out.

  “Are things settling down now that they’ve hired a full-time secretary?” Jessie asked.

  “Yeah. Carmen is really nice. She’s quiet though. Doesn’t talk much about her past. I’m just glad they were able to get her. Trying to handle reception duties and my normal bookkeeping was really stretching me,” Brenda said.

  “Where did Carmen come from? I’ve never heard of her.”

  “She’s from Austin. She moved here about two months ago and has been looking for a job. Not sure why she picked here to settle down, but it doesn’t matter. She did, and I’m very happy about it.”

  They talked about Brenda’s vision for her wedding and the type of wedding dress she wanted to look for as well as the bridesmaids’ dresses. She’d already picked out the cakes that the local bakery would make for her. Jessie was beginning to get as excited for her friend as Brenda appeared to be.

  She and Brenda had known each other all their lives. They’d been best friends for most of that time and had only been apart for the two years that Jessie had temporarily moved away to get her masters. Now that she was back, it was as if she’d never been gone.

  “I can’t wait until tomorrow night,” Brenda said as they walked out to their respective cars. “We’re going to have a blast. I just know it.”

  “As long as you don’t have some blind date up your sleeve, I’ll be happy. I’m not going there, Brenda. I hope you haven’t planned anything like that.”

  “I haven’t. I promise. I just want you to have a good time, that’s all.”

  “I’m counting on it, girlfriend,” Jessie said.

  Jessie squeezed the other woman’s hand and hugged her before leaving her at her car to walk over to her own. She loved Brenda like a sister, but the other woman was set on finding her a man. Jessie wasn’t interested right now. She had her job to focus on. She couldn’t wait to start teaching. She had only a few weeks to prepare and didn’t have time to waste on a man. Or, as Brenda seemed to be pushing her toward, two men.

  * * * *

  “Wesson, hold her still while I check her back leg. She’s holding it funny,” Cole said.

  He ran his hands down the horse’s flank then traveled down her leg to feel for any abnormality he could find. His hand caught something stuck on the inside of her leg and sighed. It felt like a barb of some kind. Where had she picked up something like that?

  “Found something on her inner leg. Try to keep her steady while I check it out,” he said.

  “What the hell would she be doing with something like that? We don’t have any bushes like that around here,” Cole said.

  “Don’t have a clue. Let me see what it looks like. At least it isn’t a muscle strain we’d have to pen her up for.”

  Cole tried to see the spot while Wesson held the horse still, but he couldn’t get a good visual. Instead he grasped the end of the barb and pulled it out with a quick jerk. Then he felt to see if the area would bleed. Nothing.

  He scooted out from beneath the horse and stood to look at what he’d pulled out of the horse’s upper leg. It looked like a dart of some kind. He held it up and turned it over and over. What the hell was it?

  “Never seen anything like it before. Where in the hell did it come from?” Wesson asked.

  “Don’t have a clue what it is or how it got in her leg. Think we should call the sheriff and make out a report?” Cole asked.

  “It’s a one-off thing. Let’s just see if it happens again.”

  “I don’t like it. Someone is going around shooting these dart things. They’re going to hurt someone or something more than this if they keep it up,” he said.

  “That’s true. Maybe you’re right and we should at least report it. They may even have had some other reports of this from one of the other ranches,” Wesson said.

  “We’re lucky there wasn’t anything on the dart that would have harmed the horse. It could have been dipped in poison or something.” Cole didn’t like that someone was going around with a dart gun of some kind.

  “I’ll call the sheriff and tell him what happened. Do you think we should keep Spice in the barn for a day or two to let her rest before letting her back out?” Cole asked.

  “Yeah. Just to be sure she doesn’t have any long-lasting effects. She’ll probably be fine, but it won’t hurt.” Wesson sighed.

  Cole watched as Wesson disappeared into the barn with the horse. The idea that there was someone out there using their horses for target practice grated on him. He wanted to find whoever it was and beat some sense into them. Even if they didn’t have anything on them, they were dangerous to animals and people.

  He walked inside the house he and his brother shared and headed straight for the office. He wondered if anyone else had reported finding darts in their horses or cattle. After taking a seat behind the desk, Cole punched in the number for the sheriff’s department and leaned back to wait for someone to answer.

  “Sheriff’s office. This is Carol, how can I help you?”

  “Hey, Carol. It’s Cole Taylor at the Bar T Ranch. Is the sheriff available?” he asked.

  “Just a minute, Cole. He just walked in but is on the other line,” she said.

  Cole waited for a good fifteen minutes before Sheriff Kinkade barked out an irritated, “Hello.”

  “Hey, sheriff, this is Cole out at the Bar T. We just found a dart on one of our horses. You get any other complaints like that recently?”
he asked.

  “Well, hell, Cole. This the first time it’s happened? Haven’t had any other calls like that.”

  “Yeah, first one we’ve found. Going to check over the rest of the cattle and horses, but that’s going to take a hell of a lot of time to do.”

  He could hear the creak of the other man’s chair as he leaned back in it. The sheriff was a good man and thorough when it came to doing his job.

  “Got the dart?” he finally asked.

  “Yeah. Not very big, but it could have had something on it and hurt or killed our horse,” Cole pointed out.

  “Keep it handy. When I’m out that way I’ll pick it up. I’ll have one of my deputies call around and see if anyone else has found one on their animals and just didn’t report it,” the sheriff said.

  “Will do. Thanks.” Cole ended the call and sat behind the desk thinking.

  More than likely it was some bored teenager with nothing better to do. Kids needed activities to keep them busy so they didn’t get into trouble like this. When he and Wesson had been kids, they’d had chores then jobs that kept them from getting themselves into trouble.

  Well, mostly. They’d still managed to cause enough havoc that their pa had stepped in with a belt on occasion. He grinned at the memories. Yeah, his butt had hurt, but mostly it had been his pride that had taken the punishment. It wasn’t that he and Wesson had gotten caught. It was that their pa had been disappointed in them. At the time they’d been misbehaving, it had seemed like fun.

  He shook his head and sighed. He might as well get out there and start checking the rest of the horses then grab Wesson to start checking over the cattle. He didn’t relish that job one bit.

  Cole met Wesson at the corral and shared his conversation with the sheriff. His brother frowned but nodded.

  “Guess we might as well get started. It’s going to take most of the day. I’ll radio the hands to start out where they are now. Hopefully between the five of us we can knock this out fairly quickly,” Wesson said.