April, Dani - Raven's Ranch (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme) by Dani April Page A

any money either, and if I leave here I won’t have any place to go or any kind of a future. Guys, we’re all very much alike.”
    “We respect you too much to stay on here, Raven.” Chip spoke for the first time.
    “What he means is,” Roy finished for him, “we didn’t know how to work for a woman. We let you down. For that we’re sorry.”
    “Even if we had stayed,” Bran told her, “it wouldn’t have made a difference. We weren’t really able to do our best work with the new way of things around here. It was time to call it quits.”
    “Like I said, Raven, we’re all very sorry we couldn’t have helped you more,” Roy said, and she knew he was sincere. In fact, she knew they were all sincere.
    She knew this was the best group of guys she had ever met. These three before her were the most handsome men she had ever met in her life. Suddenly she realized they were her family now, and she wouldn’t let them go. This had nothing to do with the ranch, or with money, this had to do with love and family, and they were the most precious things in the entire world.
    Now that quiet thought that had been running around the back of her mind came to the fore, and she knew what she had to do. It was something she wanted to do. She had no idea what the final outcome would be, and knew she was treading in unknown territory, and yet nothing could have stopped her from going ahead with her idea. Her mind was irrevocably made up.
    “You guys are my family now.” She let them in on her thoughts. “ I don’t want you to go.”
    “Raven, it’s better if…”
    “I want to be with you,” she told them. She was speaking to all of them.
    They all stopped and stared at her. Raven wondered if they had heard her. She definitely had their attention now, and she had enough courage to move forward toward them.
    “Your home and your family are here on this ranch,” she told them, looking them all in the eyes. “Don’t leave that all behind.”
    There was absolute silence among them all. Raven stopped to collect her thoughts and found her breathing had become heavy. A night bird screeched out on the prairie followed by an owl hooting. A fly buzzed near Raven’s face and she had to twitch her nose to get rid of it.
    “What are you saying?” Roy asked her, his mouth hanging open, actually all three men had their mouths hanging open.
    Chip leaned back against the side of his truck. Actually, fell back would have been a better description. Raven knew he understood what the proposition was before the other two did, and she thought he was about to have a heart attack.
    Bran came up to her. He gently took her hand in his, and she felt like a midget standing next to the giant. “Raven, honey, we’re all crazy about you, too. I think you know how we feel about you, but you don’t know what you’re saying. There are five men on this ranch,” he told her, as if he was trying to talk her out of it.
    “What in the hell are you saying?” Roy was still confused, and she could see he still didn’t get it. Raven was surprised to see that he was almost as scared as Chip was.
    “I think it’s pretty obvious what she’s saying, dummy.” Bran went over and thumped him on the shoulder. “Use your imagination.”
    “I want you all,” Raven told them shamelessly.
    The wind blew through her long hair, and she was surprised that she didn’t feel any fear now. From the looks of things, all the fear in that yard had now been transferred to the guys standing in front of her. She felt in control of her life again, and for the first time since coming to the Lazy L, truly felt like the ranch boss. She was making the tough decisions and taking responsibility for all of them.
    Raven reasoned that her offer to have sex with the ranch hands was the only way to keep them working for her. This offer of her body was the only possible way she now had to save the ranch. A doubt flashed through her mind as she wondered if her body was really good