CHAPTER ONE
They would be home tonight. Peter and Mike had been gone for over three months. Lilly had no idea where their Special Forces unit had been or what they’d been doing, but she’d thought about them both a lot since they’d left.
She’d met Mike and his buddy, Peter, at the gym and they’d gone out for meals a few times together. Lilly worked part-time as an aerobics instructor. She’d been a dancer in her younger days and needed the exercise to keep off those extra pounds that seemed to want to creep onto her petite frame given the least opportunity.
Mike and Peter didn’t look like they needed any help staying fit. They were in peak physical form and every woman in the gym did a double take every time they walked in the door. Both men were just over six feet tall and both had super broad shoulders. Mike was a little stockier than Peter, but both had the honed muscles of superior athletes.
They were the new martial arts instructors. Both black belts. Both highly skilled in different forms of hand to hand combat. And both had taken up teaching at the gym as a sideline to their first love—their military careers.
The female gym owner had known they wouldn’t be around on a steady basis, depending on their deployments, but they were so good for business, she’d take them any way she could get them. They came as a set, though they switched off teaching duties. Only rarely did they conduct a class together, and then only for advanced students.
Both men had asked Lilly out and she’d gone on a casual date with each before they’d had to leave. She’d kissed them both goodbye not knowing if she’d ever see them again. They’d said it was most likely a training operation, but in these troubled times she knew things could change on a dime.
Then last night she’d received an email from Peter that had both surprised and delighted her. He’d told her they were on their way home and would be arriving at the nearby base sometime this afternoon. He’d invited her to a celebration of sorts being given in their unit’s honor at a nearby watering hole.
Lilly checked her reflection one more time in the darkened glass of the doorway before entering the pub. It was a middle of the road sort of place—not quite a dive, but far from expensive. It was comfortably middle class.
Warm air greeted her as she stepped inside. It was noisy too, but she had no problem identifying the group she was here to meet. To a man, each one of those soldiers was huge, solid, and carried themselves as if they knew where they were going and what they were doing at all times. There was no hesitancy in any one of them.
Lilly had seen some of the guys around the gym from time to time when they came to either take, or assist with, martial arts classes. Some had also taken the opportunity to lift weights, much to the delight of the female clientele. Even Lilly had noticed when Mike pumped iron, the sweat dripping down his muscular chest, making her want to trace its path with her tongue.
A muscular arm snaked around her waist, making her jump. She was guided around until she faced a devastatingly handsome man.
“Peter!” She flattened her palms on his chest as she recognized him.
“It’s good you see you, Lil.” He swooped down and kissed her the way she’d been dreaming about for three long months. Even longer, if she counted the months she’d watched him and Mike prowl around the gym. She’d lusted after them both for almost half a year, come to think of it.
Peter’s kiss melted her bones and she would’ve slumped to a puddle at his feet if his big hands hadn’t been at her waist, steadying her. Peter let her up for air, only to twirl her once more in his arms. Just that easily, she was passed from one strong embrace to another. She looked up to find Mike’s rugged face grinning hungrily down at her.
“I’ve been thinking about this for months, baby.” Mike didn’t give her time to respond, leaning her back over his arm and kissing the daylights out of her.
His taste was masculine and divine, just as Peter’s had been. It made her even shakier to think of kissing them both so intimately, one after the other. She’d had some naughty fantasies about having them both in her life—and in her bed—but she knew in the real world, she’d have to pick only one. A girl just didn’t get lucky enough to have two guys like this interested in her.
Honestly, she’d be happy with either one of them. She’d thought long and hard about it and resolved to dive right in if one of them asked her out again. She figured if there had been any question of competition, they’d have settled it between themselves by now. She expected one to back off and one to come on stronger if—and that was a big if—one of them actually did want her.
When she was so lost in his kiss, she was about to start climbing up his hard body, Mike raised his head and let her go, but he didn’t let her go far. His breath was ragged as he leaned his forehead against hers.
“We missed you, honey. Every night I went to sleep thinking about kissing you. And more.”
Thank you, Lord! It sounded like Mike was the one who’d step forward and while she’d miss Peter, she was thrilled to have either one of them.
“I thought about it too,” she answered with a hint of shyness. In her experience, guys liked a demure woman.
Mike let her go and Peter stepped up to tuck her under his massive arm. She realized he’d watched the entire scene. The thought of him watching while his buddy kissed her like there was no tomorrow made her even hotter. She tried her best not to squirm though her body was on fire.
“Stop hogging her, Mike.” Peter leaned in and kissed the top of her head as he moved with her toward the crowd of men who watched them with barely concealed interest. “Come on, I’ll introduce you around.”