SIXTEEN
It was still dark when Kelly awoke, her body pleasantly sore as Rowdy slept deeply beside her, sprawled naked on his stomach.
Heat curled low in her stomach as she stared at his shadowed form, a shiver of remembered pleasure echoing through her womb.
Moving quietly, she slid from the bed, searching until she found Rowdy’s T-shirt, discarded on the nearby chair earlier that night, and pulled it over her naked body. She couldn’t hear anything below, but she doubted Dawg and Natches were both sleeping.
Making her way down the narrow, curved staircase, the faint glow of the television provided a dim light as Kelly headed for the small refrigerator.
She pulled a bottle of water free, uncapping it as she straightened and lifted it to her lips before she caught sight of Dawg.
He was sitting in the shadowed corner between the table and counter, his eyes gleaming in the darkness as she paused, watching him.
“Rowdy’s gonna bitch over you stealing another of his shirts,” he drawled quietly as she felt her face flush.
The heat had nothing do with the fact that she was caught stealing more of Rowdy’s clothes, it was the sudden question of whether or not his wicked mouth had been the one caressing her earlier.
“He should be used to it by now.” She cleared her throat uncomfortably, feeling a tingle of heat curl around her clitoris.
“He’s a stubborn boy, though.” He shrugged negligently. “You already know that.”
Kelly leaned against the counter and watched him curiously. There was a lot she still didn’t know about Rowdy and his relationship with his cousins. All anyone seemed to care about was the fact that sexually, they enjoyed sharing their toys.
She ducked her head, knowing she shouldn’t have put off learning more about the three men together rather than just focusing on Rowdy. But it was Rowdy who held her heart, not the other two. Though she knew, eventually, they would become a part of the relationship she and Rowdy shared.
“You look like a frightened little doe standing there.” His voice was like dark silk. “We’ve known each other too long for that wariness in your eyes, little girl.”
Yes, they had. Dawg and Natches were as much a part of her life as Rowdy was.
“I’m not frightened of you, Dawg,” she sighed. “I’m not frightened of any of you.”
Maybe she was frightened of herself.
“People make too much out of our little pleasures,” he grunted. “As though some insidious evil causes it rather than choice.” He chuckled at his own words. “There’s nothing evil in it, Kelly. And Rowdy would never press you for what you don’t want. So you don’t have to watch us as though we’re going to jump you at any minute.”
“And the three of you think I didn’t know what the hell I was getting myself into when I waited on Rowdy.” She pressed her lips together as her own frustration ate inside her. “It’s not a matter of not wanting it, Dawg, or even if I do want it.”
“You want to be seduced into it. You want the choice taken out of your hands?” He leaned back in his chair, watching her intently.
“I don’t want to analyze it to death, that’s for damned sure,” she snapped. “It’s a wonder the three of you found a woman to share if you talked her to death first.”
“The other women didn’t matter, Kelly.” He shocked her with his answer. “They were fun and games—you’re Rowdy’s future. There can be no misunderstandings, no seduction, no hesitations or hiding from the truth if you accept it. If you accept it, then you accept all of it.
Even the fact that eventually, the man she loved would touch another woman, pleasure her, fuck her. She couldn’t accept his cousins’ touch without that knowledge.
“I love him,” she whispered.
“This won’t be easy on any of us.” He lifted his shoulders heavily. “Natches and I both love you too, Kelly, not like Rowdy does, but we love you. We’ve been burning along with him to touch you. But the day will come when one or both of us will find the woman we want for our own. The sharing isn’t an every time thing, but it would sure as hell be missed if we stopped.”
“Has anyone ever asked you to stop, Dawg?” she asked. “Have you ever considered it?”
Something dangerous flashed in his expression before it was gone just as quickly. “I’d stop if someone I loved asked it of me. If I knew the woman I loved couldn’t handle it.” He shrugged his broad shoulders.
“I don’t know if I could bear to see him touch another woman, Dawg.” A self-mocking smile twisted her lips. “How’s that for hypocrisy?”
“Not hypocrisy, sweetheart, honesty,” he told her quietly. “That’s what makes a relationship like this work, being honest about it. Being true to yourself and to Rowdy. We couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”
“I won’t do this just for Rowdy,” she breathed out roughly. “I won’t let him touch another woman just because I know it’s what he wants. It has to make sense to me. I have to be able to live with it.”
“That’s true enough.” He nodded in understanding. “Any relationship is give and take. You give a little, Rowdy gives a little, and vice versa.” He rose from his chair, moving the short distance to where she stood, towering over her.
Kelly swallowed deeply as she felt him surrounding her, his heat, the sensual hunger building inside him.
“Dawg…” There was no way to retreat.
She shivered as he reached out, his callused fingers running down her arm and filling her with conflicting emotions. Could she do it? Fantasizing about it was one thing, and Lord knew she had fantasized about it often. But actually taking that step was another matter.
“I want you,” he whispered.
“Stop,” she protested, shaking her head as denial began to rage within her. A panicked sense of discomfort began to build. It might be what Rowdy wanted, but this wasn’t Rowdy. It wasn’t his body heating her, his need surrounding her.
“It’s dark and shadowed. A lot of truths can be hid in the shadows.” Dawg’s voice was darker than the night. “As can lies.”
Her breath caught in her throat as his head lowered, his lips too close to her own.
“I could seduce you,” he whispered. “I can give you that, Kelly. I don’t have to wake up with you in the morning. I don’t have to face you knowing I used your body against you. Is that what you want?”
“Moron.” She pushed against his chest, her hands smacking into his hard-packed muscles as a shadowy chuckle whispered around her. “Get away from me. You’re about as amusing as the flu, Dawg.”
“Did I make my point?” His teeth flashed in a smile.
She sniffed disdainfully. “The point wasn’t needed. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I don’t understand his reasons. But I’m also still a woman, Dawg, not a plaything. He can get serious about this, or he can forget it.”
“Can he get anymore serious, Kelly? He let one of his cousins lick your ass. That’s pretty damned serious to me.”
Her face flamed as she narrowed her eyes.
“Was it you?”
He crossed his arms over his chest, watching her with a hint of a smile. “One licked, the other watched in anticipation. I ain’t tellin’ who did what.”
A feeling of denial raged through her at the memory. This wasn’t fantasy, it was reality, and she wasn’t comfortable with it, no matter how much she wished she was.
“You know, Dawg, one of these days you boys are going to bite off more than you can chew in a woman. What are you going to do then?”
“Looks to me like Rowdy has already managed that one,” he chuckled as his gaze shot past her. “And here he is to see how much further he can sink into monogamous bliss.”
Kelly turned quickly, barely restraining a moan at the sight of Rowdy, naked, hard, his eyes gleaming with interest as he stood at the bottom of the steps. One thing she could say about him, naked or dressed, confidence oozed from every pore of his body. Confidence and pure, driving lust.
He tilted his head as he watched her, his gaze moving to his cousin, then back to her slowly. There was a challenge there, a knowing glint in his eye that assured her that he was well aware that she was wet and aroused herself.
“There you go stealing my clothes again.” He shook his head in mock chastisement. “I was hoping you would learn better, baby.”
“I think she needs to be spanked,” Dawg murmured behind her, sending her pulse rocketing at the suggestion.
She arched her brow as she held Rowdy’s gaze. He was grinning back at her, a crooked, self-assured grin filled with carnal intent.
As she watched him, she was aware of Natches moving from the rear of the cabin, watching the scene curiously. The testosterone swept through the room, heavy with wicked hunger and sinful intent. Three predatory males, no matter how they tried to hide the primal instincts that ran just beneath the surface of their lazy humor.
They converged on her, tall, broad, aroused. Rowdy was the only one completely naked, but the other two were following suit quickly. Natches stripped off his shirt, while behind her she heard Dawg’s movements, the rustle of his clothes.
Nerves ripped through her, sending shudders of instinctive response to curl through her lower stomach before burning a path of erotic destruction along her erogenous zones. Her nipples peaked. Her lips ached and her sex wept.
“Take the shirt off, baby,” Rowdy whispered as his hands gripped the hem, slowly drawing it upward.
Behind her, Dawg stepped closer. The shock of his bare hands running up her thighs had her tensing at the pleasure. She was so wet she could feel her juices dampening her thighs now, running freely from her weeping pussy as they prepared her for the coming possessions.
“Look how pretty you are…” Rowdy whispered reverently as she lifted her arms, allowing him to strip his shirt from her body. “You nipples are so hard, flushed. I love tasting them, Kelly. Feeling them in my mouth, the tight little points throbbing on my tongue.”
They were throbbing now at the thought of it.
The shirt was tossed aside, but it wasn’t Rowdy’s hands that cupped the firm globes, it was Dawg’s. They slid around her side until both hands were filled with her flesh, the index finger and thumb of each hand gripping a hard point, playing with them, rolling them deliciously.
Her head fell back against his chest as the fingers moved aside. Rowdy shifted, making room for Natches as both men lowered their heads to the upthrust peaks.
Kelly went to her tiptoes as sensation exploded through her. A ragged cry slipped past her lips as a flood of weakening lust ripped through her.
Kelly lost the ability to speak, to see, to do anything but feel as two sets of hard male lips covered the sensitive peaks. Fire engulfed her as damp, lava-hot tongues begin to whip over the tight flesh, and hard male mouths began to suckle erotically.
“Easy, sweetheart,” Dawg whispered at her ear as she began to writhe within the hold the three men had created. The feel of their mouths sucking at her sent arrows of near painful pleasure ripping to her womb, her clit. The aching throb was destroying her. “It’s okay, Kelly.” His hands moved from her breasts, only to be replaced by Rowdy’s and Natches’s.
One arm clasped her to him as he slid his hand down her stomach, moving slowly for the tortured flesh of her pussy.
“Rowdy…” His name was a whimpering plea as she felt Dawg’s palm cup the sensitized folds of her cunt, one finger tucking subtly against the syrup-laden entrance to her vagina.
Rowdy groaned as he continued to suckle her, his teeth raking her nipple, his tongue flickering over it as Natches caught the tip he held captured between his teeth and pinched at it.
Her cry echoed around her as she twisted against Dawg, silently pleading to feel his finger slipping inside her.
The sensations tearing through her body were violent, destructive. Alternative caresses, suckling mouths, hands over her, hot male groans washing over her. And she was in the center of it, weak, helpless against the eroticism of each touch.
She pressed against Dawg’s palm, shattering cries passing her lips at the pressure against her clit. It would be so easy to climax, if she could just press against him a bit more, just the barest friction would allow her to ease the hunger beating at her.
“Not yet, baby,” he whispered at her ear, nipping her lobe. “Let your body burn for us, get so hungry that nothing matters except the touch, the need.”
She was already burning. Her fingers clenched in Rowdy’s and Natches’s hair as she felt Dawg’s fingers moving, felt him spreading her juices, allowing them to coat the tight entrance beyond as his finger massaged the closed portal.
She felt her anal entrance clench at the caresses, felt it open, milk at the tip of his finger as another hand, she didn’t know whose, began to play with the swollen bud of her clitoris.
She was trapped between them, in the middle of the kitchen area, suspended within a pleasure, a heat so intense she could barely make sense of it. Pleading, incoherent cries fell from her lips as she arched back, arched forward, so desperate that she no longer knew which touch would send her streaking toward orgasm; she just knew she needed it.
Yet, it was different than it had been with Rowdy alone. She struggled to push aside the vague unease she felt. The lack of emotional warmth, of sharing that had come from being in bed upstairs, just her and Rowdy.
“There you go, sweetheart,” Dawg whispered again as she felt the tip of his finger slide inside her anus. “Damn, you’re tight, and hot. Your ass is sucking at my finger like a little mouth, needing more. Do you need more, sweetheart?”
At the same time, hard fingers captured her clit and pumped it wickedly. Oh God, she could come so easy, if she could just get closer.
She relaxed her buttocks as flames licked at the little bud. Simultaneously, the little entrance sucked the hard finger deeper as the pressure eased at her clit, causing her to scream in pleasure and frustration.
Her ass felt filled, and yet she needed more. Her clit was pounding with need, her pussy clenching with it until suddenly, sirens began to rip through her head….
“Fuck…” Reality slammed through as she was jerked to the floor, three cursing, furious men covering her as blasts shattered the erotic frenzy with cold fury.
“Get her to the side.” She was being pulled, jerked to the side, between the heavy cabinets as the sound of pounding feet and raging curses were heralded by return fire.
Shadows flashed around her in the dark as she scrambled to the corner of the cabinets, her hands brushing over fabric as she felt the shirt she had worn earlier beneath her hands.
Pulling it from the floor, she crouched in the V made by the cabinets and pulled it over her head as Rowdy pressed her tight against his side.
She didn’t ask questions, she wasn’t hysterical. She followed his lead as he, Natches, and Dawg began to work her closer to the back of the houseboat.
“Bastard shot the hull, Rowdy,” Dawg hissed as the gunfire eased.
The computerized alarm was still going nuts, the siren shattering her nerves as the sound of the security personnel on the other end demanded an answer.
She noticed no one was answering. Within seconds they were informed that Lake Patrol had been alerted and was now moving for the area.
“The pumps are working.” Natches slid in place with them. “We’ll be okay until the patrol gets here.”
They were dressed. She felt the scratch of Rowdy’s jeans on her thigh, Natches at her rear. Dawg had dragged his shorts back on, but where Rowdy had come up with clothes she wasn’t certain.
“I think he’s on the cliff overlooking us,” Natches snapped. “The trajectory of the shots would be about right for that.”
“He’ll have to cross the point to get back to the road,” Dawg growled. “I’ll be back. I’m going after him.”
“No…” The word was a hollow, raspy sound, jerking from Kelly’s throat as she caught at his pants.
Dawg brushed her hand aside, moving through the darkness as the pulsing siren continued to echo through the boat.
“Stay here.” Rowdy pressed her against the counters before moving for the alarm box and quickly cutting the sound off.
Kelly listened silently as he spoke to the security personnel, his voice hard, dark, furious.
“Don’t move from here until Rowdy comes back,” Natches whispered in her ear. “I need to check upstairs.”
She nodded in reply, her throat tight, fear and fury clogging her voice until she wasn’t certain she could speak. This was because of her. Someone had shot into the boat, tried to sink it, to kill them, because of her. She had placed Rowdy and his cousins in danger, had caused a madman to focus on them.
She wrapped her arms around her waist, staying in place, huddled against the counter as Rowdy flipped on a light in the living area.
She looked up as he came around the counter, his expression hard, his eyes gleaming with rage.
“Come on, baby.” His voice was gentle as he reached down for her. “Lake Patrol will be here to escort us to the dock in a minute. We need to get you dressed.”
She pulled herself wearily to her feet, gazing around at the destruction. The windows were shattered, glass and debris littering the floor, the paneling splintered from the bullets.
“Come on.” He lifted her into his arms as she stared around numbly at the destruction.
Despair tightened in her chest as she buried her face against Rowdy’s neck. She could feel her stomach cramping with guilt, with fear. One of them could have died. She could have lost Rowdy, or Dawg or Natches could have been hurt, killed.
“Here.” He sat her in the middle of the bedroom floor before moving to the small closet and pulling free a pair of her jeans. “Put these on.”
She accepted them silently, bending to pull them over her feet and then to her hips before she took the sneakers from his hand. She sat on the bed, slipped them on, then struggled to tie the laces.
“Easy, baby.” As Rowdy knelt before her, she realized the small whimpers she could hear were her own.
He brushed her fingers out of the way before tying the laces quickly, then staring up at her. Something twisted inside Kelly at the gentle emotion she saw in his eyes. Beyond the anger, the determination to kill that she could see raging inside him, she saw his gentleness.
“This wasn’t your fault, Kelly.” He reached up, cupping her cheek in his hand.
Kelly fought the tears that clogged her throat. Rather than answering, she pulled from his touch slowly, shuddering at the thought that his need for her could end in his death.
“Don’t even try it.” The snarl that twisted his face had her staring back at him in shock. “Don’t think I’m going to let you run from me now, Kelly,” he snapped roughly. “The time for running was over the minute you let me fuck that hot little body of yours.”
She shook her head desperately, pushing against his chest as she fought to jerk to her feet. She couldn’t speak. If she dared to attempt to, she knew the screams of rage and fear wouldn’t be far behind.
“Stop it, Kelly…” He grabbed her wrists, forcing her in place as she heard the first hoarse cry leave her lips. “It’s okay to be scared, baby. I swear to you, we’re all okay, we anticipated this, we know how to fight him—”
“No,” she protested fiercely, feeling the tears seeping past her eyes despite her desperation to hold them in check. “He’s crazy. You can’t do this. You can’t…” She wasn’t going to let him do it.
She tried to tear herself away from him, to get away from his touch, his warmth. She couldn’t live like this. She couldn’t live if anything happened to him, or the others, because of her.
“I will do it.” He gripped her upper arms, giving her a brief, hard shake as she stared back at him miserably. “Hear me well, Kelly. I will stop him. And when I get my hands on him I’ll kill him. Do you understand me? He will never ever touch you or another woman again. Ever.”
Death shadowed his eyes as she stared back at him, incredulous. He would kill, and he would do so with no guilt, no second thoughts, she could see it in his eyes.
“He’s trying to kill you all. He won’t stop.” Her voice was shaky, her insides trembling with enough force to make her stomach pitch. “Because of me. What if you’re hurt? What if he manages to…” To kill one of you. She couldn’t say the words, was terrified to let the thought pass her lips, as though giving it voice would make it more real than it already was.
“I won’t stop either, Kelly,” he bit out. “Listen to me, dammit. I will not stop until he’s dead. I will not let that bastard terrorize you.”
She opened her lips to argue, to beg, only to be cut off as Dawg moved quickly into the room.
“He got away.” He was breathing rough, heavy. “Lake Patrol is moving in and Ray and Maria are right behind them. Natches is on the deck waiting for them.”
Rowdy turned back to her. “You aren’t leaving with them, Kelly. Don’t even consider it.”
Her breath caught, feeling the shudders in her belly beginning to work through her body. She had no other choice. She had to leave. And soon, she would have to leave Ray’s home as well. She couldn’t continue to endanger the people she loved.
“Don’t make me gag you.” She stared back at him in shock as his voice rumbled dangerously.
“What?”
“You’re going to try to run from this. I can see it in your eyes. Leaving town isn’t the answer Kelly. And if you try, I’ll throw you over my shoulder and cart you out of here like a sack of fucking potatoes. Don’t push me.”
His lips curled back from his teeth in a powerful snarl as his eyes blazed with green fire back at her. Shock whipped through her at the deadly warning she saw in his gaze, as well as the confidence that he would carry out his warning.
“Don’t…” She tried to protest, to fight against the sheer force she could feel wrapping around her.
“I mean it, Kelly,” he growled, rising slowly to his feet as he pulled her after him. “Don’t fight me on this. Not right now.”
She felt dazed, overtaken, her mind overwhelmed by the danger and the certainty that if she attempted to run from him, then he would chase her down. He wouldn’t let her go. Not now, not yet. Not before he shed blood.