Mackie's Men (14 page)

“Good morning, guys, you all look handsome and ready for the day. Who’s taking me home?” She looked at Darryl and shook her head. “I am not riding on a bike in this dress, so if that was the plan forget it.” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, but shook his head no. “I need to get my purse, and I will be right with you.” She headed to the den, but Liam stopped her in her tracks by saying.

“Your purse is right here, I figured you might want it, I know how women and their purses are. Remind me to tell you about my mother’s collection of handbags. She drives everyone crazy when she misplaces hers.”

Mackie bit her lip because the other men laughed outright at his statement. Whatever the story about his mother was, it must be a good one. “Thank you, but I only carry one when I have no other option.” She waved a hand indicating the dress she wore. “No pockets, to put things.”

John looked at his watch. “We need to get moving, I have an appointment with Mike this morning and he gets pissy when his schedule is thrown off.” He stepped closer to Mackie and took her hand in his, before walking them to the back door of the house.

The garage was attached to the house, and the SUV was silver with dark tinted windows. There was a silver blue sports car next to it, but they all piled into the SUV with Darryl driving.

John was the first to be dropped off at his research facility. He leaned over and gave Mackie a open mouth kiss on her lips that had her hands reaching for his shoulders, before breaking the kiss and exiting the vehicle. Darryl waited until he’d entered the building before leaving the parking lot.

She felt the mood shift as he had walked into the open between the SUV and the building. “So why don’t you tell me the rest of the story here while we are en route to the Senator’s house? I can see you’re concerned John got inside the building, and I could see the way you watched for threats. Has someone been taking potshots at you guys too? I mean aside from the house being broken into and the problem at the pub last night. This is more than just a jealous co-worker, and more than you are telling me, so how about sharing here?”

Liam took her hand in his and examined her fingers before answering, “John’s research has just been awarded a huge amount of money to continue the search for antidotes and vaccines against the newest chemical threats that some countries are threatening to use to start wars. The country’s power people threaten to use chemicals if other countries refuse to sell or give them conventional weapons to maintain their armies. Making their threats useless with his research would screw up their blackmailing abilities, and they would have nothing to threaten with. No one was supposed to know what company was close to finding the answers, yet somehow John has been outed and it had to have come from the same source that leaked the Drone Tech advancement. John is the brains behind the research, take him out, and the project is shut down.

“Once he enters the building, he doesn’t leave for any reason unless he has at least two of Darryl’s men with him. We know he’s feeling restless because of the confinement. Thankfully, last night helped him release some of the stress. Being as independent and normally capable of taking care of his own safety makes it hard to deal with what he considers babysitters.”

He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it, lingering long enough to touch his tongue where he’d placed the kiss, and kissed it again. It was the oddest thing, but it also was a sexy thing for him to do. Mackie wanted to, hell, she didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do. These men confused her.

Darryl parked in front of a small mini mall and left the motor running when he got out and headed into the chain store coffee shop.

She turned to watch him walk inside of the building, scanning the area as much as possible, given the fact that she was in the back seat and Liam was obstructing part of the view. “If I’d known he was going to stop, I would have asked him to grab me a Frappe, I love the things way too much.”

Liam smiled and pulled her from her seat onto his lap and kissed her neck. “Well, if he doesn’t bring out what you like, we can send him back for the right thing.” He kissed her neck again and ran his hand up and down her thigh while talking. “I woke up this morning wanting you. My cock was so hard that it took maybe three minutes in the shower this morning to cum just imagining your beautiful lips wrapped around the damn thing. Every time you are near, I have to start doing math in my head, or I would be crawling after you, begging you to take pity on me and allow me to make love to you.”

He shook his head, “I don’t act like this, I never see a woman that I’d do anything to get her to smile at me, since maybe high school. Yet, the first time I saw you standing there, ready and willing to shoot me, I stood there like a dumbass, and all I could do was stare. My fuck up caused you to be shot, and it has haunted me since that day.”

More kisses and tiny licks with his tongue followed her jawline. “I’m such a sick fuck that when John and I undressed you, at first, all I could think about was sucking your nipple into my mouth, and if you hadn’t been bleeding so badly I might have done it. I saw the scars and I wanted to trace each one with my fingers, my lips, tongue, whatever way there was to touch you.”

He pulled his head back and sighed. “Like I said, I don’t allow myself to be controlled by beautiful women, but all I’ve wanted to do is wallow in and on you since the first time I saw you. I want to know everything about you, where you come from, what’s your favorite color, do you like chocolate or flowers? The things I want to know are endless, but this need to have you involves your enthusiasm too. I need you to want me as badly as I crave you.

“I know that didn’t make a lot of sense, and I know that this has been an overwhelming twenty hours. I’ve had months to think about you, and fantasize about you joining me, Darryl, and John, to solidify our family.” He kissed her lips gently and set her back in her seat. “All I ask is that you think about it, think about being the center of our lives, think about loving arms holding you at night, every night. Can you do that?”

She nodded her head and sat back in her seat. “I can’t promise anything at this point. I won’t lie to you, I have thought about you men over the months, but it never occurred to me the three of you were together, and no matter what some of the books I’ve read say. People don’t have relationships like the one that you men are asking me to be a part of. I was happy when you called, and I was looking forward to seeing you again, talking, maybe swapping stories and hearing how Eric and Jenny were doing. I’ve been in some very tight situations, but last night was one of the more unusual dates in recent memory.

“I don’t have answers, or even have an idea here. You say John is used to being independent, I think our past history is a good example of my nature. I don’t let men manhandle me unless I want them to. I’m not a docile doormat, but for some reason, I feel comfortable with you all.” She looked out of the window toward the coffee shop door for Darryl to come back to them.

She didn’t see him, so she turned back to Liam. “Seeing the three of you last night was the most beautiful thing I’ve seen. The caring and tenderness about brought me to tears. That’s something else I never do, I don’t cry. The only relationships I’ve had are a few passing lust filled nights. I don’t do love and commitment, and now in one night everything has changed. I’m not sure I can handle it. I’m attracted, I admit it, but can I give you a commitment?” She shook her head. “I don’t know you. All I know is what I could glean from public records and a few other resources. The only promise I will make is that I will think about it, and If Laura Downs releases me from her employment on good terms, I’ll help you ferret out your rat.”

Liam smiled, and her body tingled seeing that smile, he was flirting with her and she smiled back, that smile, yeah, she was sunk and knew it, but she would still take her time to make certain this is what she wanted.

Darryl finally left the store, and in his hands was a short sided cardboard carton with several bags sitting upright in the box. Liam unlocked the door and took the box from him so Darryl could get in the driver’s seat.

Darryl looked into the back of the vehicle where Mackie was sitting and grinned. “You get a special treat this morning, not what I would have liked to give you, but it will have to do for now. No peeking until we get to the house.”

He reversed the SUV and they were on their way to take her home.

Mackie let the men into the house and led them through the formal sitting room and into the kitchen through the dining room. The house was a rental for the last year of Laura and Thom’s time in the area, so the furnishings belonged to the landlord. Mackie knew that Laura cringed every time she saw the ornate dining room furniture, and knew the woman hated the formal setting in every room but the kitchen. Laura loved to cook when she had the time. They found the couple sitting in the sunroom talking while Laura arranged a vase of beautiful spring daffodils.

Thom was wearing his sweats, and Mackie knew the man kept his muscles in good shape by working out every morning, so they must not have been awake very long.

Laura saw her first and grinned. “Are you going to ask me if you can keep them? Usually it is puppies or kittens that follow you home. I see that you have upgraded to men.” She laughed as Mackie turned pink cheeked and crossed over to the three people, holding out her hand to greet the strangers.

Mackie made the introductions and Thom Hurrell walked over to invite them to sit down and rest for a while.

Feeling woefully underdressed, she excused herself to go change. “I’ll be right back, I need to take care of something.”

No one was paying attention to her, Darryl was distributing the goodies that he’d purchased at the coffee shop and Laura was clapping her hands at the sight of the double caramel mocha frappe smothered in whipped cream that he held out for her to take. Liam handed over a large black coffee to Thom, and was opening a bag filled with biscotti and cream filled snacks.

She had no idea that both men watched her as she exited the room, but the married couple noticed, and Thom gave a small shake of his head toward his matchmaking wife. She was positively beaming and gushing over the thoughtful gesture they had brought with them.

When everyone was seated, Thom looked directly at Liam and asked him. “Now the niceties have been observed, and we’ve been sweetened up, how about telling us what’s going on? The last time I saw either of you the circumstances were a bit different. By the way, thank you for not shooting my wife’s bodyguard this time. She gets upset when that happens.” He watched the scowls and enjoyed making the men uncomfortable. He sat back and waited for Liam to tell them what was going on.

Liam nodded, he acknowledged the dig about shooting Mackie, and started retelling the story of the traitor in the midst of Klinger Corporation.

Ten minutes into the story, where the subject of his date with Mackie came up, Laura excused herself. Men saw things much differently than women did, and she wanted to get Mackie’s part firsthand. Liam Klinger was leaving things out of his story, she would bet on it, and unless she missed her guess, it involved the two handsome men that were still entertaining Thom with the story of intrigue.

Mackie finished blow drying her hair and contemplated having it cut. It took forever to deal with each morning and she liked it long, but maybe a shorter cut would save time. She was still pondering the idea when she exited the bathroom and came to a stop once she noticed Laura sitting on the old blanket chest at the foot of her bed. “Oh I’m sorry it took so long for me to get changed, was there something you needed?”

Laura shook her head and smiled. “No, I came up here to get your story. Those two walking wet dreams are still brainstorming with Thom downstairs. I want to hear what you have to say about last night.” She grinned, “And don’t stand there and tell me that nothing happened, when you left the room, I swear both of them watched you like you were a steak and they were starving Rottweiler’s. My mouth went dry the minute they smiled. You know it’s a good thing Thom took care of me this morning or I might have jumped on one of them myself. Tell me, are they as good as they appear to be?”

Mackie laughed a little and shook her head. “You have no idea, I swear I don’t, I, how to describe last night. Yes, they are all extraordinary, and I haven’t had, well, damn.” She took a deep breath and sat down next to her employer and best friend.

“You know how we did some background on Liam, Darryl, and John?” She got a nodded response, and shrugged. “Well there were a few things that weren’t in the files that we accessed about them. They are close, and by close, I mean as close as men can get, but that’s not the part that is making me stutter like this. They have decided that they want me.” She raised her hands and dropped them back onto her lap. “All three of them. They want me to be, I don’t know what I would call it. Last night was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and done, but I don’t know how we could make something like that work. I’m used to being different, independent and strong, but one look and they make me wish I could be more.”