Mac was shaking his head even as the words were coming out of his friend's mouth.
"This is my home and my life," he growled, restraining the anger beginning to build inside him. "I don't mess with their sex lives and they will stay out of mine. Period. I'll make certain of it."
Jethro winced. "Cowboy tactics aren't going to work here, Mac."
"I was raised in this town, Jethro," Mac pointed out savagely. "Born and bred here. I know how to handle them. You don't."
Some people understood only one thing. Fear. He might not have been back to Scotland Neck in the fifteen years before his marriage, but he had made a point to learn everything he could before he returned.
He had to admit, he hadn't expected Delia to throw a wrench in the works. But he would take care of her through her husband and her mother-in-law. He knew where to strike that viper for the most effect.
"That doesn't solve where the information came from," Jethro pointed out.
"I'll find that one out as well."
His head lifted as a knock sounded on the door. A second later Keiley stepped into the office.
Mac almost grinned at the way she was dressed. He hadn't seen her covered so well in their home since he had married her. Not that the summer soft cotton pants and loose shirt detracted from the lush curves beneath them. The buttoned top draped over her breasts with a soft touch, inviting a man to find out what lay beneath it. The pants were just loose enough to hide her rounded thighs and hint at the soft cleft between them.
"I'm putting dinner on," she announced. "Is there anything in particular that you have a taste for?"
From the corner of his eye he caught the sudden flare of lust in Jethro's expression and the unusual tightening of his lips as his friend held back what Mac was certain would be a less-than-decent suggestion. The sight of the heated blush rushing beneath her cheeks assured him that Keiley hadn't missed it, either.
"Pervert," she muttered under her breath.
Wicked amusement lit Jethro's eyes as he turned to her more fully. "I resemble that remark."
She rolled her eyes before turning back to Mac. "Restrain him."
Mac arched a brow. "I'd much rather restrain you, but only after dinner."
"Fine, you can eat whatever I fix."
"Keiley." His voice was harder, darker, as she turned to leave, and he knew it. He heard it in his own voice, but her reaction was much more telling.
She froze, an almost imperceptible shudder working up her spine before she turned back to him.
Her expression had his balls drawing tight in his jeans. Her lashes had drifted lower, her lips appeared fuller, and a flush that had nothing to do with embarrassment darkened her cheeks.
"What?" A little frown also creased her brow as he stared back at her.
"Come here." It wasn't a request.
Her eyes narrowed as she glanced between him and Jethro.
She gave him a ladylike snort and said, "In your dreams."
With that she turned and closed the door firmly behind her nicely rounded little rear.
Mac almost jerked from the sudden tension that tore through his body at her deliberate challenge. His teeth clenched with an arousal so hot, spiking so hard, that he swore he was on the verge of release.
He stood slowly from the chair, staring at the door with a sense of anticipation.
"I want all the blinds closed through the house," he told Jethro softly. "Then join us in the kitchen."
His entire body was tight now, his control fraying by the second. All he could think about was holding her, restraining her, controlling that sweet, hot little body while he and Jethro worked her toward a pleasure she couldn't imagine. Keiley wasn't going to cook dinner tonight. They could order out later. Much later.
Keiley sensed she had just offered a dare that there wasn't a chance in hell Mac would refuse. She had seen it in his face that second as she glanced back before closing the door.
In an instant the taut, savage angles of an expression tight with lust was clearly revealed.
He had warned her not to awaken the animal inside him, but she had done it anyway.
Deliberately? She couldn't say. She knew her nerves were stretched to the limit, and her awareness of the two men in the same room had heightened the nervous arousal building within her all day.
She breathed in roughly as she heard Mac's office door close. Steeling herself, she turned to the kitchen entrance, watching as he stalked into the room.
"Come here." He crooked his finger, beckoning her toward him.
"Why?" Keiley retreated further into the kitchen, her breathing escalating as she stared at the conquering lover she knew he was.
The gray shirt he wore stretched across his chest and shoulders, skimmed his tight, hard abs before it disappeared into the leather-cinched snug jeans he wore.
The leather was coming off. His hands worked the belt buckle, loosening it slowly as she backed away from him slowly.
"I don't think so, Mac." She smiled sweetly. "I have too much to do tonight to play games with you."
She was pushing it and she knew it. Pushing his arousal, pushing her own boundaries.
She was tired of the restlessness, tired of the tension growing within them both, the knowledge that there was more left to explore, that there was more pleasure, more adventure in his arms than he had ever let her see so far.
"But I want to play games, Kei," he informed her with dark amusement as the ends of his belt released.
God, that was sexy. Just the belt open, the heavy bulge of his cock straining beneath the denim.
"We don't always get what we want." She pursed her lips in mock sympathy. "You should know that by now."
His chuckle was deep, shadowed with a hidden power that she knew she had yet to glimpse. Who was this man she had married? She thought she knew him so well, but she was beginning to realize that perhaps she only knew a shadow of his sexuality. The hunger lurking beneath the controlled exterior had excitement racing through her veins.
She could see it now. His eyes weren't stormy; they weren't dark with shadows of a hunger he wasn't revealing. They were clear, bright, heated by an inner flame that reached out to burn her as well.
She could feel her breathing growing rougher, heavier. Her breasts became swollen, the nipples so sensitive that their rasp against the lace of her bra was incredibly arousing.
And between her thighs, her clit was swelling, her sex spilling its slick moisture, preparing her for him.
"I'm going to get what I want in this case," he promised, moving too quickly for her to evade, catching her wrists and drawing them behind her back as he jerked her against him.
His erection dug into her stomach, pressing hot and hard against her as he held her wrists at the small of her back and arched her into his hold.
"Now what?" she challenged him, struggling against him, feeling her pulse racing at the knowledge that he wasn't letting her escape.
She loved this. It sent a spike of heat tearing through her, clenching her womb and spasming through her vagina as he lifted her from her feet.
"Now we play my way." His tone warned her that what was coming could be more than she had ever anticipated. "We show you exactly what the meaning of true pleasure can be, sweetheart."
"We." Him and Jethro.
Keiley breathed in roughly as he lifted her from her feet, still holding her wrists while the other arm wrapped around her hips to move her from the kitchen, through the foyer into the open, dimly lit living room.
"Dinner," she whispered, suddenly uncertain, nervous as Jethro moved from the shaded window, doing as Mac had done and loosening his belt first.
"Scared, baby?" Mac cupped her face with his hand, turning her head until he was staring into her eyes, the heavy dominance in his expression stealing her breath.
She could feel her lips trembling, fear and hunger and uncertainty clouding her mind.
"I—" She whimpered as his lips lowered to hers, tears dampening her eyes as the ramifications of what they were about to do began to pound into her brain. "I love only you," she whispered against his lips. "I love only you, Mac."
His head lifted, his expression at once gentle and filled with lust. She could see the love in his eyes, the hunger and the promise. But fear began to edge into her mind. No other man had ever touched her, had ever taken her.
"And I love only you, Keiley," he promised her. She heard the promise in his voice, the emotion, the need.
"We need to talk about this," she protested again as his lips lowered to hers once again.
"The time to talk is over," he told her firmly. "Unless you say no, then all I want to hear are your cries of pleasure."
"If I say no?" But did she want to say no?
"No means no," he agreed, his lashes lowering over his eyes as his thumb smoothed over her lips. "But is that what you really want to do?"
Was it what she wanted to do?
Mac's hand slid down her neck then, over her chest, to the buttons that secured the knit shirt. Keiley fought to keep her eyes open, to hold onto her senses as she felt Jethro moving behind her.
"Mac—"
"It's okay, sugar," Jethro whispered then. "Nothing too heavy this time. We're just going to play a little bit."
His voice was a breath of sound at her ear, the warmth of his body heating her from behind as Mac held her steady against his body.
"Feel how hot it can get, Keiley," Mac told her then. "That's all. Do you think I would force you?"
She shook her head jerkily.
"Good girl." His smile was tight, hungry. "Now, let me show you part of what you could be saying no to."
She expected his kiss. She expected the flaming, destructive hunger she had seen in the past few days. She didn't expect his control. She didn't expect Jethro to suddenly have possession of her wrists as Mac had both hands free to unbutton her shirt.
"I love these little buttons," he growled. "Opening them up is like Christmas. Because I know the sweetest, plumpest nipples are waiting just below it."
The edges of the shirt slid open, revealing the lace bra.
Mac's look was frankly sensual and filled with a wry humor.
“Armor, sweetheart?"
She shuddered in Jethro's grip as she stared up at her husband. Of course, she might have been able to maintain a semblance of strength if Jethro's lips hadn't lowered to her neck.
Mac's gaze was caught by his friend's movement, his eyes darkening, deepening, as his jaw flexed with the effort it was obviously taking to maintain his control.
The feel of the soft kisses at the tender cord of her neck as Mac watched, the scrape of teeth as her husband drew the shirt from her shoulders and allowed it to drape over her bound arms, had sensation clawing through her womb.
"I'm going to have to punish you for this."
Keiley's gaze widened as he tugged at the little clasp of the bra between her breasts.
"P-punish me?" she stammered. Why did the threat sound so damned erotic.
"I've never spanked you, have I, Kei?" He almost crooned the question.
"No." Keiley swallowed tightly. "Never."
Did she want him to? Why was her rear tingling as though in anticipation?
"I've been dying to watch your pretty ass blush."
The clasp released with a flick of his fingers, the lace cups shielding her breasts and their tight tips despite the release.
But they couldn't hold out against Mac's fingers. Fingers that peeled the lace back as though he were unwrapping a particularly delicate present.
"Damn. That's pretty," Jethro suddenly growled behind her, his hands releasing her wrists slowly before he drew the shirt and bra from her.
"Too damned pretty." Mac's voice was tight now, throbbing with lust. "Pretty enough that it's a damned shame to cover them."
His head lowered as his arms went around her, his tongue licking over a tight peak as she jerked and cried out. Pleasure whipped through her body. Nerve endings that normally required dedicated foreplay to flare to life were suddenly throbbing in welcome.
She was barely aware of Jethro stepping away from her. She realized his body was no longer there, but she didn't care that it was gone. Mac was holding her, lifting her against him as his lips covered the tight peak of her breast and began drawing on it with tight, deep draws of his mouth.
"Mac. Oh God. It's too good."
She was going to orgasm. Her nipples were so sensitive, so throbbingly aware of each brush of his tongue, each draw of his mouth, that she could feel the sensation tearing into her womb. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her fingers pushing into his hair. All she wanted to do was hold onto him. To hold this exquisite pleasure inside her forever. To hold Mac inside her forever.
It was different. So much different that she could barely process the additional sensuality, the pure eroticism overtaking her.
She was different. She could feel the differences now. Something wild and uninhibited was rising inside her. Something she couldn't define, couldn't make sense of. Something that washed over her like a tidal wave of erotic heat and held her beneath its simmering waves.
"I love your nipples," Mac groaned seconds later as he lifted his head from one peak and went to the next. "How hard and tight they get. How they redden from my mouth. My tongue."
He licked over the other peak, drew it in, sucked at it strongly as she arched into his arms and held tight to his shoulders. The world was rocking around her. Spinning around her in heat and arousal, stealing her breath and her senses.
His head lifted, his lips damp from his ministrations to her nipple, his eyes nearly black with arousal.
"You've fantasized about it," he told her ruthlessly. "I saw it in your eyes at our wedding. I've seen it in your face each time you've asked about it. I've felt it more than once when you've gone wild beneath me."
She shook her head in denial, whimpering because she couldn't push the lie past her lips.
"And it made me hotter knowing. It made me want to devour every inch of your body.