I was ready to cream myself. Ruby Lee, even in her masculine garb, brought me to my knees. I hadn’t expected a striptease, but she seemed willing to give me one. Who was I to complain? Even in my still fuzzy mind, I wanted her beyond any desire I’d yet known.

Her fingers shook slightly. This wasn’t something she was used to. Hell, she’d been a virgin before me. Yet just yesterday, she’d ripped the buttons off of her shirt. That had made me fucking crazy.

This time she was taking it slow, and as sexy as it was, I longed for her to rush through it, get naked, and sink down on me.

With each new inch of creamy skin she exposed, my cock grew bigger, harder.

How could I fight what I felt for her?

I loved her. I loved her devotion to her career, her determination to bring her own father—and one of my brother’s tormenters—to justice. I loved her self-deprecation, her beauty that everyone but she herself could see.

But how could I feel love without trust?

The shirt went to the floor in a ripple of white cotton. Her full creamy breasts were bulging out of her bra, her nipples protruding through the lace.

Fuck. Trust was overrated.

At least it was in this moment. I wanted her, and I would have her. Now.

With one flick of her wrists, she tossed her bra to the floor with the shirt. Her toned abdomen was gorgeous. Her belly button so sexy. She’d be beautiful with a jewel hanging from it. Maybe I could talk her into one sometime… I wanted to lick that sweet dimple and then keep sliding downward to that succulent place between her legs.

She’d be wet for me. She always was.

Slowly she unbuckled her belt, unbuttoned her pants, slid them gently over her perfect hips.

Lace. Pink lace.

Ruby was wearing a thong.

I’d have bet my fortune she didn’t own one. But fuck, I was glad she did.

She looked good enough to eat.

Eating probably wasn’t going to happen. I was so fucking hard I needed her on me now.

When her pants fell around her ankles, she turned pink. “Oh.”

Adorable. She’d forgotten her sensible shoes. She bent over, untied them, and then flipped them off. She’d screwed up her striptease, but I wasn’t going to say anything. She was still beautiful and sexy, and this was no doubt her first striptease ever. Last time I checked, most virgins didn’t do stripteases.

Once the shoes and pants were out of the way, she turned around and bent over.

Oh. My. God.

Her ass was so beautiful, red like her cheeks. She inserted her thumbs in the waistband of the pink lace thong and slowly eased it over her hips.

I grabbed my cock through the sheet and tightened my fist around the base to keep from shooting. She turned around and kicked the thong to the side with the rest of her clothes, standing before me, her long hair curtaining the swell of her breasts, her hard red nipples poking through.

I ached to take my time with her. Kiss her, tug on her raspberry nipples, eat the sweet cream out of her pussy until she was begging me to stop… But not right now. Right now, I needed my cock inside of her hot cunt.

“Come here,” I said, low and raspy.

She bent toward me, whisking the sheet away. Then she pushed the light blue hospital gown upward, baring me to her view.

She inhaled.

She’d seen me naked plenty of times. “What is it?”

“You’re just so…” She sighed. “You’re beautiful, Ryan.”

I stared into her sparkling blue eyes. “Baby, you’re what’s beautiful in this room. Come here.”

She looked toward the door timidly.

“No one will interrupt us,” I assured her.

“How do you know?”

I didn’t, but I’d be damned if we were stopping now. “Trust me.”

Big words from someone who wasn’t sure he trusted the person he was saying them to, let alone someone who couldn’t guarantee a nurse wouldn’t knock on the door. But right now, I was thinking with my other head. Big time.

“Please, baby. Sit on me. I need you.”

She smiled timidly. “I…want to.”

“Nothing stopping you,” I groaned through clenched teeth.

She climbed onto the bed, straddling me. She grabbed my cock and rubbed the tip against the wet folds of her pussy. I closed my eyes and concentrated to keep from prematurely ending our escapade.

When she sank down on me, a soft moan escaping her throat, every nerve in my body screamed at me to plunge up into her, but I held still, let her get comfortable. I wanted her to take the lead. I wanted her to fuck me.

She pulled herself off of me, the beautiful muscles in her thighs tensing, stopping right before I was completely withdrawn. The suction of her opening and her silky, wet folds teased my cock head.

“Damn, baby.”

She sank down upon me again. I reached forward, grabbing her hips, pulling her off of me again and then pushing her back down. I couldn’t help but take charge. I wanted her so badly, and today, although I longed for her to lead, I needed her too badly to wait.

“Your breasts. Play with your nipples for me.”

She closed her eyes, obeying, her alabaster hands cupping her round breasts, her thumbs drifting over her hard nipples. Her soft sigh met my ears.

“Does that feel good, baby?”

“Mmm hmm.”

I pulled her off my cock again and then pushed her back down. My entire body shuddered, as if I were one big penis and nothing else. My balls tightened, and the base of my cock started sizzling. I was going to come.

I was going to come now.

I lifted her up once more and pushed her down hard upon my cock, gritting my teeth.

The tiny spasms started at the base, flowing out of my cock and into Ruby.

At the same time, her pussy clamped around me, and she bit her bottom lip.

“Ruby, God.” The orgasm erupted through me. It was a different sensation, perhaps because I was recovering from a concussion. I didn’t know. I knew only that it was rapturous, complete nirvana coming inside this woman.

I held her onto my cock as long as I could, until both of our orgasms quieted. I didn’t want to let her go. I looked up at her, into her beautiful blue eyes, her bottom lip now swollen from when she bit down, probably to keep from screaming. At her lovely breasts now flushed pink, her nipples red from her own attention.

I didn’t ever want to let her go.

I opened my mouth to speak, not knowing what I was going to say, when a knock interrupted me.

Ruby gasped, quickly moving off of me and off the bed. She grabbed her clothes and then ran to the bathroom.

I covered myself quickly. “Yeah? Come on in.”

“The door’s locked.”

Shit. “Okay. Sorry.” Ruby was in the bathroom, so I got up, trying to keep my gown closed in the back, walked to the door, and opened it.

My neurologist stood there. “Just here for my evening rounds, Mr. Steel.”

“Yeah, of course. Come on in.” I wasn’t about to explain to him why the door had been locked. I got back into my bed.

“So how are you feeling?” the doctor asked.

“Good.”

“Been eating, I see.” He eyed the takeout bag from Papa Tony’s. “That’s good. Any nausea?”

“Nope. It’s all staying down.”

“Good. Good sign. I don’t see why you can’t get out of here tomorrow morning.”

“Any possibility of getting out of here tonight, Doc?”

“Sorry. I’d rather have you stay. After all, you were out cold for about twelve hours overnight last night. You’re lucky you don’t have any signs of hypothermia.”

Ruby walked out of the bathroom fully dressed, her cheeks blazing red. She looked to the doctor. “Oh, hello.”

“Dr. Anderson, this is my friend Ruby Lee.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ruby said shyly. “How is he doing?”

“He’s doing great,” Dr. Anderson said.

“Glad to hear that,” Ruby said. “Ryan, I should get going. I know your brothers wanted me to stay but…”

I eyed her feet clad only in socks. “I understand. You probably don’t want to leave your shoes.”

If possible, she became even more scarlet. I had to stop myself from chuckling. She had put on her androgynous clothing, but her hair still fell around her face and shoulders like a sheet of smooth ebony silk. She wore a beautiful “just fucked” look.

She hastily put on her shoes and grabbed her small handbag. “I’m glad you’re doing well, Ryan.”

“I’m getting out of here tomorrow. I’ll call you.”

She nodded and left the room.

“She looks familiar to me,” Dr. Anderson said. “I wonder where I’ve seen her before.”

“She’s a detective with the Grand Junction PD. She’s probably been in here questioning people.”

“That could be.” He stroked his cheek thoughtfully. “Yes, that’s probably it.” He made a few notations on my chart. “The nurse will be in to check your vitals in a few minutes. Be sure to keep that door unlocked, Mr. Steel.” He smirked.

No reason to lock it now. Ruby wouldn’t be back.

---

Dr. Anderson had given me my walking papers early, during his morning rounds. Talon was due to drive me home in an hour. I didn’t feel like sitting around the hospital, so I walked over to a little dive café.

An old man in a flannel shirt sat a few stools down, nursing a cup of coffee. He turned and looked at me strangely.

“You have a problem?” I said.

He shook his head and took the seat next to me. “No problem. You just look familiar to me. Have we met?”

“I don’t think so.”

He put out his hand. “Name’s Mike.”

“Ryan Steel.”

“Steel. That’s why you look so familiar. You’re one of them Steel brothers, aren’t you?”

“Guilty.” Sort of. We were almost brothers.

“I’ve met your brothers. Nice guys.”

“Yeah.” I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. “Nice guys.”

A bleached-blond waitress in a pink uniform sidled up. “What’ll it be?”

“What he’s having.” I pointed to Mike’s coffee. “And two eggs over easy, slice of bacon.”

The waitress filled a coffee cup and set it in front of me.

“How are your brothers doing?” Mike asked.

“They’re good. Both married now.”

“You don’t say!” A grin split Mike’s wrinkled face. “That’s great! They deserve happiness.”

Just how much did this guy know about my brothers? I took a swig of coffee—might as well have been water with brown food coloring—and raised my eyebrows. “Do they?”

“I’d think you’d be happy for them.”

I sighed. “I am. And you’re right. They deserve it. They’ve been through a lot.” I took another drink.

“So why don’t you seem all that happy for them?”

I wasn’t about to tell a perfect stranger the details of my DNA. “Just got a lot on my mind.”

Mike rubbed at his chin. “You may not believe this, but I talked to both of your brothers when they were kind of down in the mouth.”

“How the hell is that possible?”

“They both stumbled in to a little dive where I hang out sometimes. Makes this place look like the Ritz.”

I looked around. If it made this shithole look like the Ritz, it must be something akin to an old latrine. “You don’t say.”

“I do say.”

“Why the hell would my brothers go into a dive?”

“I asked them that. First thing I noticed was their expensive ostrich cowboy boots.”

I looked down at my own feet…shod in expensive ostrich cowboy boots. “I suppose we seem pretty pretentious to a guy like you.”

“A guy like me?”

I sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean any offense.”

“None taken. I’ve worked hard all my life. Never took a handout. And I make ends meet now, in retirement. I just miss my wife. She passed on some time ago.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah. But we all got to go sometime, I guess.” He motioned to the waitress. “More coffee please.”

“It’s on me,” I said.

“Thanks. You Steels are generous.”

Generous? A shitty cup of coffee might set me back a couple of bucks. That was hardly generous.

“By the way,” he continued. “I don’t consider you pretentious. I don’t judge people. Hell, I’d wear boots like that if I could afford them.”

I looked down at my boots once more. These were my work boots. They were nearly trashed. I’d hate for him to see the six other pairs sitting in my walk-in closet.

“You live around here?” I asked.

“Not too far. The place I used to go—where I met your brothers—closed up last week. Some problem with their liquor license. It was a nice little bar and grill when I was younger, though that was some thirty years ago. Things change. Places change.”

“And people change,” I added.

“Yep, they do.” He took a drink from the steaming coffee the waitress had just filled. “Thanks for this, by the way.”

“No problem. What brings you to this place?”

“I’m seeing my doc over at the hospital for some routine stuff this morning, so I stumbled in here to wait. The bus only runs up here early in the morning, so I’ve got some time before my appointment.”

“Everything all right?”

“Yeah. Just routine stuff, like I said.” He took a drink and smiled. “Your brother with the funny name—Talon, I think—sent me a case of amazing bourbon called Peach Street.”

That piqued my interest. “Yeah? That’s his favorite.” If Talon had sent this old man a case of Peach Street, the guy had done something spectacular to earn it.

“It’s great stuff. So smooth. And the aroma.” Mike closed his eyes and inhaled. “Something special. I’m saving it. I only have a jigger every couple of days, as a treat.” He sighed. “I’m going to miss that old dive bar. Truth is, I get lonely. I like to get out, see people. Now that I’m retired and Melanie is gone, I don’t have a lot of human contact.”

“Melanie? Joe’s wife’s name is Melanie.”

“No kidding? He mentioned he knew a woman named Melanie, but I didn’t know she was someone special to him.”

“Yeah. She’s a psychotherapist. They just got married in Jamaica.”

“Good for him. And Talon?”

“He got married at the same time. Her name is Jade.”

“He told me he had a special lady in his life.”

Again, I wondered who the hell this man was and how he somehow had my brothers’ confidence.

“What about you?” Mike asked. “Any special lady in your life?”

Yeah. One I wasn’t sure I could trust anymore. Just like I wasn’t sure I could trust my brothers. I didn’t respond.

“What’s her name?” Mike asked.

“I didn’t say there was one.”

He laughed. “You didn’t. But you would have said ‘no’ if there wasn’t. I’ve been around the block enough times to know that. What’s her name, son?”

I smiled. I was beginning to see why my brothers had talked to this man. “Ruby. Ruby Lee.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

“Yeah. It is.”

“You’re a good-looking fellow, even better looking than your brothers, I’d say, though don’t tell them I said that.”

I’d heard that so many times it went in one ear and out the other. Ryan Steel was the handsomest Steel with the best personality. Who’d have thought that Brad Steel and Wendy Madigan could create a more handsome person than Brad and Daphne Steel? Genetics made no sense sometimes.

Mike continued, “So I bet she’s tall, blond, and beautiful.”

I chuckled. “Well, she’s beautiful.”

“I got the other two wrong?”

“She’s not short, but my sister is six feet, so most women don’t seem tall to me. As for the blond? She’s about as far away from blond as you can get. Her hair is nearly black.”

“Still, she’s probably a model, right?”

Again, I chuckled. “She’s a cop. A detective, actually.”

“A working girl, huh? My Melanie never worked. But we were from a different time.”

Actually, I couldn’t imagine Ruby—or Jade or Melanie, for that matter—ever staying home. “True.”

“Glad your brothers are happy.”

I smiled tersely.

“What’s your beef with your brothers, son?” Mike asked.

“No beef.”

“Bullshit. You’ve tensed up every time I’ve mentioned them.”

Damn. Did this man know everything about my life?

“No beef,” I said again. “Except that they’re not my brothers.”

“You’ll never convince me of that. There’s a huge resemblance.”

“Yeah, we all look like our father.”

“Must have been a good-looking man.”

I took a sip of bad coffee. Thankfully he didn’t push the “they’re not my brothers” comment.

“I had a brother once,” Mike went on. “We had a falling out a couple decades ago. Never spoke again. Mort died a month after Melanie. She always wanted me to make up with him, but I was too stubborn. I’ll always regret that. We were really close as kids.”

“I’m sorry.” My heart went out to the guy.

“Thing is, we weren’t even brothers in the biological sense. He was my stepbrother. My real father died in the war when my mother was pregnant with me. I wasn’t yet two when she married my father. My true father. The man who raised me. Mort was his son. His first wife had died in childbirth. Mort and I were nearly the same age, and people always thought we were twins.” He gazed wistfully at the ketchup bottle in front of him. “I miss him.”

A brick hit my gut. “You considered him your brother?”

“Well, he was. My father adopted me, and my mother adopted Mort. We were brothers in the legal sense.”

“But you didn’t share a bloodline.”

“Hell, what’s blood got to do with it? I don’t have any childhood memories that don’t include my father and Mort. We were brothers. I wish…” He stared into space again.

“Mike, I don’t want to pry, but what was the fight about? When you and Mort stopped speaking?”

“I can’t talk about it. I’m sorry. It just hurts too much.”

My phone buzzed. Talon was waiting outside. I laid two hundreds on the bar and pushed them toward Mike. “That’s all right. Thanks, Mike. Eat my breakfast, will you? Give the waitress a nice tip, and keep the rest.”

“You Steels are generous,” he said. “God bless.”

“Back at you.” I left the bar and spied Talon’s truck across the street. I ambled over and got in the passenger side.

I looked at my brother. Same old Tal. Wavy dark hair that he wore too long, a slight crook in his nose from where he had broken it long ago. Talon was my hero.

I closed my eyes.

---

Talon and I had been walking for about an hour, looking for clues. Talon wanted to find out what had happened to his friend Luke Walker, Bryce’s cousin. I wasn’t that concerned about Luke. I just wanted to tag along with Talon. I always followed him. Joe thought I was a pest and didn’t want me around much. But Talon… Talon always made time for me.

Our tummies were full. Mrs. Walker had given us oatmeal cookies and watermelon when we showed up at her door. “Y’all can look around if you want to,” she’d said. Her eyes were recessed and sad. “Just come back before dark. Do your mom and dad know you’re here?”

Talon had nodded and nudged me so I wouldn’t talk. It was a lie. Mom and Dad didn’t know where we were, but Joe did. He’d tell them when he got home from school.

“This is where they found the mask,” Talon said, looking around.

I wasn’t sure how he knew, but he was a lot older than I was. I was only seven, but Talon was ten. Almost a grown-up.

Nothing was visible. Even the Walkers’ house had faded from view this far out. The cattle must not have grazed in this area, because the grass was tall. It brushed our knees.

In the distance stood a little shack.

“Let’s go check out that building,” Talon said.

I nodded. I’d do whatever he said. We traipsed forward.

The wood was gray and splintered, old. Talon reached out to touch the knotty surface, when—

Something grabbed me. “Talon! Auuuughh!” A large gloved hand clamped over my mouth.

A man dressed all in black, even his face, stood between me and Talon. My heart tried to pound out of my chest. I had to pee so bad.

But Talon was there. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt me.

“You leave my brother alone!” Talon shouted.

The other pair of hands lunged toward Talon, but before they could grab him, Talon ran into the man holding me, kicking at his shins. “Let go! Let go! Let go!”

The other man had grabbed the back of Talon’s shirt. Still, Talon kicked.

I closed my eyes, brittle fear taking over my body. A kick. Then a fist. Pain lanced through my body. I struggled against the hands gripping me, but I was too little, too weak. Couldn’t get away.

Talon gasped and grunted, until a cry of “Motherfucker!” came from behind me and I fell to my knees in the dirt. Somehow Talon had gotten the hands to let go of me.

“Run!” Talon yelled. “Run back to the house! Get Dad! Run, run, run!”

I stood, dazed, immobile. I wasn’t going to leave my big brother.

“Damn it, I said run!”

One of the men shoved Talon to the ground.

“Run!” he kept yelling. “Damn it, Ryan. Run!”

I turned.

I ran.

---

My brother had saved my life that day. Saved me from the torturous fate he’d endured for two months, a fate I was certain I wouldn’t have survived. Talon had been three years older, three years tougher. He’d been starved, beaten, raped…and he’d gotten out alive.

I owed him my life.

I had since I was seven years old.

Now I wondered if I knew my brother—half brother—at all.

We drove up to the guesthouse where I lived, and I got out of his truck. “You can go,” I said to him.

“Nah. I’m coming in. I want to make sure you’re all right. You sure you don’t want to stay at the house with Jade and me tonight?”

He’d already asked me that three times, and I’d said no three times. I was sick and tired of repeating myself.

“Ry, you’re just not yourself,” he said as I opened the door.

My golden retriever, Ricky, greeted me with licks and pants. I tousled the soft hair on his neck. “Hey, boy. I missed you.”

Talon followed me in. Clearly he wasn’t ready to leave quite yet, even though I’d made it clear I wanted to be alone.

“How about a drink?” he said. Then, “Never mind. You probably shouldn’t have any alcohol. We’ll just have some iced tea.” He headed to the kitchen and opened my refrigerator.

Normally that wouldn’t have bothered me. We brothers always helped ourselves to each other’s food and booze. Today, though, I found it irksome.

I no longer thought of him as my brother. My full blood brother. And I wanted to be alone.

Talon poured two glasses of iced tea and carried them into my family room where he set them on the coffee table and then sat down in one of my leather recliners. “It’s time to talk this out, Ry.”