Julia needed to move, to take more, to push these lovers of hers to give her all she demanded and demand all she could give.
“Vixen.” Drew exhaled heavily, then wrapped his arms around her, holding her firmly, close and still.
“There will always be times when we won’t let you push us, baby doll. Here, now. Just let go and let us give you what you need the way we need to give it to you.”
Part of her wanted to rebel, to kick and scream at the nerve, the sheer nerve of their attitude. Yet she knew she’d done just that, tried to force them into losing control, into taking her hard and fast and deep.
She wanted to use the force of their desire for her to overpower the memory of being out of control and being afraid, when clearly they had another plan.
Dev grasped her ass, his grip solid enough to hold her completely immobile. “Just take us, Julia. Feel us. Give over to us. We’re yours and you’re ours. Let there be nothing but the three of us here, together.”
She felt her eyes tear. Oh, yes, she knew her men. And they knew her, too. Dev leaned over her and kissed a line down her spine, his fingers flexing on her hips. The sign of affection was so “Dev,” she thought her tears would overflow for certain.
Drew’s lips brushed the top of her head, and his hands warmed her shoulders, and down her arms.
“You feel so damn good around my cock, kitten. When I’m inside you, I know I’m home.”
She squeezed him, reveling in his groan and the gift of the small thrust he gave her in return.
Dev’s tongue stroked over her anus again, then pushed in slightly, thrilling her. Held in place by her two lovers, she could only moan and mew, a silent plea for more.
Dev moved, tenting her, and she felt his cock there. Hot and hard, it pressed against her tiny rosebud, forcing its way slowly and inexorably inside her.
“Yes, oh
yes
.” Shivers wracked her as her arousal began to shimmer and grow and change into orgasm—but an orgasm unlike any she’d ever experienced. Not the wild rush or the giant explosion she’d thought she needed, this one oozed, and flowed, and filled every atom of her being, heart and mind, body and soul. The orgasm spread, sealed, and cleansed. It took her outside of herself, destroyed her and made her new again. This orgasm consumed her completely so that there was only this and the men inside of her, her lovers.
Her mates
.
“That’s it, baby doll, come for us. Come on us.”
“Oh, please, I can’t…” She wanted to tell them she didn’t think she could take much more of this total bliss, but they continued to move inside her, slow and steady and deep. She could only lie there, totally open, completely theirs, and let them fuck her. Rapture continued to reign within her and rain inside her, and she closed her eyes, lost in the joy of their joining and the perfection of their possession.
“Hang on.” Dev’s steel-edged tone told her he’d reached his limit. Drew’s grunt signaled the same. Sweet friction gave way to a gently fierce plundering, and Julia felt her orgasm begin to rise again, changing, until the electric tingles turned to snapping shocks.
The explosion of ecstasy pulled a scream from the depths of her soul, as the fiery flames of passion branded her.
She felt them come inside her, felt the surge of hot fluid coating her, and the sensation excited even as it soothed.
Her senses slowly returned. Sound first, as she recognized the pounding of the heart under her ear and the laboring for breath above her. Then she heard the song of birds, just a few, their tweeting and chirping an avian chorus celebrating the dawn.
Tactile senses emerged with the tickle of hair under her cheek, the dampness of flesh pressed against her back, and the complete and total satiation drenching her.
“Easy.” Dev’s whisper brushed her ear, his moist breath tickling. He kissed her shoulder, and slowly withdrew from her body. Then she felt his hands on her, lifting her from Drew. He laid her on her side and snuggled in, so she became the filling in a man sandwich.
Julia sighed. “I don’t have the words to describe that.”
Dev threaded his fingers with hers and brought her hand to his mouth. She felt her heart turn over when he kissed the back of her hand.
“When Drew and I were on that last mission, when we became trapped, several of our team dead, one wounded, I was scared.
Really
scared. Even though I knew I’d fight until my last breath, and even though I wanted to live, and kept repeating to myself that we
would
live, I was scared.”
Julia squeezed his fingers, then turned to look at Drew. “Were you scared, too?”
Drew snorted. “Scared? Kitten, I damn near pissed myself, I was so scared.”
“The thing is,” Dev said, “only a fool doesn’t feel afraid when the situation warrants it. So of course you were frightened, sweetheart. But it’s over now.”
Julia appreciated that her men cared about her state of mind as much as they cared about her actual safety. She wondered how long it would take for any of them to be able to put this episode behind them. She let her thoughts travel back to those weeks when she never heard from them, those weeks when she doubted that sense of connection that had been so instant.
“I feel bad now,” she said. “All those nasty thoughts I sent winging to you after you were gone. I…I didn’t know you could be on an extended mission, or that your lives were in danger.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Drew said. “You couldn’t possibly have known. We weren’t allowed to tell you.”
“That’s right, we couldn’t tell you. That’s part of the security protocol surrounding being a SEAL,” Dev said. “One of the reasons we chose
not
to go out on active missions any longer is because we didn’t want to do that to you a second time.”
“I’d understand. Now that I know you love me, now that I feel secure in that, I’d understand. I don’t want you to deny yourselves what you need to do or be on account of me. You have to be true to yourselves first.”
“Thank you, baby doll. But the course we’re on now is the right one for us.”
“It was time,” Drew agreed. “Time to change gears.”
“And speaking of time,” Dev leaned down and kissed her, a light, flirty kiss. “It’s time for us to haul ass.”
“Again?”
“Funny girl,” Dev said. “We want to get you home, baby doll. The sooner the doctor at the clinic can have a look at that hard head of yours, the happier we’ll be.”
“Dev’s right. We’ll both breathe easier once we get you thoroughly checked out. Then we can get you home, tucked into our bed, where you belong.”
Julia couldn’t prevent her one eyebrow from arching—and knew she wore what her brother Richard always called her “little snot” look. “You gentlemen are being more than a little bossy, don’t you think?”
“Damn straight,” Dev said. “One thing you can count on without fail.” He bent down, kissed her again, and then got to his feet. “When it comes to protecting you, or seeing to your welfare, we will be bossy, because, quite simply, we are the bosses of you.”
Julia tilted her head to one side as she looked from one of her lovers to the other. She found it more than a little ironic that the same trait she’d abhorred all her life in her brothers should somehow be the one trait she found so very attractive in her mates.
She scrunched her nose and stuck out her tongue, making both of her tough Navy SEALs chuckle.
She might adore their bossiness, but that didn’t mean she had to let them know it.
Chapter 18
Morgan was waiting at the airfield with his Jeep running when Henry landed the helicopter. While Drew settled Julia in the backseat of the car, Dev gave Morgan a thirty-second rundown of his encounter with Connor Talbot, and what he thought just might happen next.
Morgan whistled low. “Life is interesting, isn’t it? You just never know who the hell you’re going to run into.”
“Truer words. After I briefed Henry during the flight, he said he’d update Adam—but I didn’t tell Henry about Talbot. I didn’t know if the name would mean anything to him, or not.”
“No,” Morgan said, “Henry never met the man.” Morgan took a moment, and Dev knew he was thinking. “His presence raises more than one question.”
“It does, that’s why I wanted you to be aware. It’s clearly a case of one Federal agency not knowing what the other Federal agency is doing, since Alvarez obviously didn’t know of his infiltration into Ramos’s organization. But Talbot promised to send Ramos this way, and to step back himself. So, while Drew and I accompany Julia into the exam room, you could perhaps make a phone call or two? And also find out how Adam wants to handle things.”
“If Henry hasn’t seen to it, I’d best update my almost brother-in-law, the Fed, too,” Morgan said. “Peter’s at home today with Jordan and Tracy, and he’ll want to know about this latest development.”
“My instincts tell me we don’t have a lot of time,” Dev said. “But I can’t give you anything more solid than that.”
“That’s all right. Your instincts are good enough for me. If it makes you feel any better, from what I’ve been able to learn about the man over the last few weeks, I think they’re spot-on. Anyway, there’re enough strategic thinkers in this town, we should be able to cover all the bases.” Then Morgan frowned. “Maybe I’ll get Julia’s uncles involved in this, too. I believe the gentlemen of the Benedict-Murphy Detective agency could prove to be useful in this situation.”
Dev shook his head. “I imagine she’ll be pissed with me if anything happens to the elder Messrs. Benedict.”
Morgan grinned, and Dev thought it was an almost evil-looking grin. “Welcome to the family. Only right you have a turn dealing with the uncles, too. The rest of us have sure been put through the wringer lately. Ever have to supervise a sixty-plus-year-old man on a ladder several bone-breaking, heart-stopping feet in the air?”
Dev could only imagine. “Well, there won’t be any ladders involved today. The way I see it, two retired cops and a man who managed his own ranch for so many years—that’s a winning combination.”
Morgan snorted, likely because they’d been within Julia’s range of hearing when Dev had said that. Before he got behind the wheel, Morgan turned his attention to his cousin. “How are you doing back there, Jules?”
“I’m okay. Really, I am. I keep saying that, but none of you testosterone makers seem to be listening to me.”
“We called ahead as soon as Henry radioed he had you on board,” Morgan said. “And of course, because we did, you get
both
Doctors Jessop today. Just think how many times you’ll be able to say ‘I told you so’ if the Docs agree with your prognosis.”
“Smart-ass. Every man I know is a smart-ass.”
Dev chuckled when Julia mumbled that. He sat in front beside Morgan, and admired the way that man handled the Jeep at damn near double the speed limit. He kept his senses on alert as Morgan deftly made his way toward the clinic in the center of town. The day had dawned bright and sunny if a little cool after the storm of the night before.
Dev couldn’t say he was as familiar with the town as he would like to be, but he did notice that as Morgan sped along Main Street, people who were out and about—and there seemed to be a hell of a lot more of them than usual—looked up and watched the black Jeep pass.
No one waved, though several of the men nodded.
It would seem the good folks of Lusty had mobilized before they’d even been asked to.
He felt eyes on him and looked over at Morgan.
“We had time to think once Drew told us you had her and were going to wait out the weather. We played connect the dots, and got things moving here, just in case. But I think once word got out that we had her back, damn near everyone would have been out and about,
and
on alert.” He shook his head. “Add this latest adventure to what Kelsey went through a few months back, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a motion came before the Town Trust to turn Lusty into a gated community.”
“God, I hope not,” Julia said from the backseat.
Since she was sitting behind Morgan, Dev was able to turn and let her see him when he said, “I can almost get behind a movement like that, baby doll.”
Julia sighed. “I know. My only hope is that Grandma Kate would quash such a suggestion. A gated community smacks of hiding, and that’s not the Benedict way.”
“It’s not how Kendalls do things, either, Jules. So I think you can relax on that score.”
“You know,” Dev said, “in books and movies the climax of the plot sometimes comes amid car chases, raining bullets, and huge explosions. I’d just as soon this particular adventure ended on a soft whimper instead of a thunderous bang.”