Authors: Gigi Moore
There was another hunger in him, the one that screamed for Desiree to see him as he was and not retreat in fear or horror. This hunger proved as strong as the other.
He needed her to know him, to understand what he was and what he was capable of. He wanted her to realize what dealing with him and Sam meant. His wolf would accept nothing less. The man wanted so much more than the primitive and rough sex that would appease his animal.
Like Sam, just loath to admit it, Carson wanted the whole package, and he wanted it with Desiree and his brother.
When he felt her arms wrap around his waist, he realized that he was so preoccupied with how to handle full disclosure that Desiree had managed to sneak up on him again.
Her warm vanilla aroma wafted to him over the cool, refreshing scent of the stream, and he wondered how he hadn’t known she was so near, her scent so distinctive.
She rested her cheek against his back, slowly sliding her hands from his groin up to his chest, where she paused to gently squeeze his nipples.
Carson gritted his teeth against his arousal, the cold water doing nothing to stave off a monster hard-on, not when she had her bare breasts pressed against his back.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Maybe if his voice didn’t crack on the last word he might have sounded more convincing. As it was, he cleared his throat before he turned in her arms to face her. Carson draped his arms around her waist, glad she was still naked and he could feel her soft, heated skin against his own. He slid his hands down her waist until they cupped her ass and he picked her up in his arms.
Desiree curved her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as she stared down at him, her gaze searching so deep he felt like she could see right inside of him, knew all his secrets, that there was nothing he could keep from her—except who and what he really was.
“Before me, had it been a while since you had…since you’d been with a woman?”
“What, did I seem out of practice?” He smirked.
“Not at all.” She shrugged, returning his look, only her grin was ten times more solemn.
“It’s been a while for me,” she admitted.
He knew what was coming and wasn’t sure he was ready to hear it any more than she was ready to tell him. Besides which, her revealing her skeletons would require quid pro quo, and he remained definitely sure she wasn’t ready to see his and Sam’s wolves.
Carson cupped her face. “You don’t have to until you’re ready.”
As if in relief, she released the breath she had been holding, and he knew he had said the right thing for the moment.
Desiree rocked in his arms, her luscious ass rubbing against his erect penis, creating undeniable friction despite them being in waist-deep water. “I’m ready for more with you two.”
Carson almost laughed but for the deadly serious look on Desiree’s face.
He should have been worried that she was pushing herself to do something she didn’t really want to just to prove a point, but then she pressed herself against him and he felt her hard, erect nipples jab into him. He didn’t need to be told that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
“I feel like I’ve been starving for the last few years, and now since I know what’s on the menu and what I can have, I don’t want to do without them ever again.”
Carson laughed and pressed her closer, nibbling her neck as he ground his pelvis against her. He loved the way she smelled, the way she
tasted
. He loved
her
and hated that he couldn’t tell her this, not yet anyway
.
“You don’t have to do without us ever again if you don’t want to.”
“I don’t…want to do without you, that is.”
“All right then,
cher
. Let’s go slake that hunger of yours.”
* * * *
Desiree had never been so insatiable for a man, much less two, ever in her life.
She’d never told anyone about what Jeremy had done to her, either, not her mother, not her sister—no one.
It made her wonder just how much she must trust Carson and Sam, as she’d been on the verge of telling both of them what had happened to her.
Was love just on the horizon? Didn’t it usually follow trust? Was that what these soft feelings, this affection that she had for each man, were? Was that why she felt like she needed them in her life as well as wanted?
Before tonight, she’d only been focused on fulfilling her physical needs. She’d finally stopped running scared from them. She didn’t want to run away from Carson and Sam, either. Now she knew that there was much more to this relationship for them than the physical, at least on her end.
How much pain would this revelation mean for her if it turned out that Carson and Sam didn’t feel the same way? Would she be able to let them go and forget them as easily as she had forgotten other lovers? Not that there had been all that many to begin with.
Desiree buried her face in the crook of Carson’s neck as he carried her back to dry land. She inhaled deep, drawing in his scent, a combination of cedar, fresh laundry, soap, and the stream water they had just gotten out of. It was an intoxicating mix that she knew she would always associate with Carson and being with him and Sam.
“I want to finish what I started in the truck,” she whispered against his skin then pulled her face out of his neck to look at him. “I want to taste you again.”
“You’ll get no arguments from me, although I did want to be inside your pussy when I come,
cher
.”
“We can do that, too.” Greedy, she was just plain greedy. Maybe she had gone so long without that she wanted to make up for lost time, at least her body did.
They made it back to the bedrolls where Sam sat, naked, legs crossed at the ankles as he leaned back against a tree and munched on grapes and a sandwich.
He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world, so natural in his surroundings, as if he regularly strolled through or sat in the woods in the nude, or as if he regularly had sex outside, as they all had just done.
The idea made Desiree smile. She knew the idea wasn’t too far-fetched.
Carson lowered her to the bedroll and reached for the picnic basket. “Anything left for us?”
“Plenty. You know how Mama is.”
Carson dug out two sandwiches, inspecting them through the plastic wrap.
“Turkey and Swiss on fresh-baked baguettes,” Sam said.
“Yummy.”
Desiree laughed at the two of them.
She felt so far away from the danger of her dreams or the vague threat she’d been feeling in the air ever since she’d been dealing with Remy.
She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, and it had nothing to do with his business, which all seemed legitimate as well as extremely profitable.
“No frowning,
bebe
.” Sam reached out a hand and smoothed her brow with gentle fingers.
Desiree shook her head as if to clear it. “Do either of you know Remy Bastien?”
Sam coughed, apparently choking on a bite of his sandwich.
Carson lightly pounded him on the back as Sam reached for a bottle of water, quickly opened and sipped from it. “You okay, bro?”
Sam coughed a couple more times before taking a few more gulps.
Finally, he nodded. “I’m okay.” He pinned Desiree with his honey eyes. “Why did you ask?”
Desiree shrugged, unsure herself. “He’s from Louisiana. I know it’s a big state, but I thought maybe you had run into him in your travels, before he came to the house for dinner earlier.”
“Like you said, it’s a big state. We know
of
him. Even outside business circles he’s pretty well-known.”
Desiree had to agree. Ever since her sister told her that she’d be handling his portfolio, Desiree had done her research. It seemed Remy never met a party invitation that he didn’t like or accept. She had seen no less than ten photos of him with a beautiful woman in the gossip rags, and never the same woman. The partying, however, didn’t interfere with his business acumen, from what Desiree could see. He was a sharp customer, well versed in finances and the arts, and knew exactly what he wanted when it came to diversifying his assets.
Normally, Desiree liked dealing with clients like Remy Bastien, but since the dinner earlier in the evening, he’d given her a decided case of the chills. She had already decided to try and be around him by herself as little as possible, which made things difficult since her job involved a lot of one-on-one with her clients. At least at the office they weren’t completely alone and there were always coworkers in the vicinity.
Earlier in the evening he’d breached her personal walls, coming to the house for dinner under the guise of business. Desiree knew that a lot of people in her and especially her sister Tamara’s position did business in their homes over dinner and drinks or even on a golf course. Desiree just thought it best to keep these sorts of encounters with Remy to a bare minimum.
“What’s your take on him?” Carson asked, and Desiree didn’t need to confirm who he meant before responding. Nor did she miss Carson’s cool, nonchalant demeanor—too cool, as if he didn’t really care about her answer when she knew that nothing could have been further from the truth.
“Intelligent, knows what he wants…” She’d been about to add he was aggressive but stopped herself. She didn’t think it would go over too well with the aggressive man asking. As it was, both Carson and Sam leaned forward as if hanging on to her every word, like their lives depended on them learning what she thought of Remy.
Desiree remembered Sam’s reaction earlier in the evening when he’d met Remy and how she had gotten the idea that he knew her client. There had been an undercurrent of antagonism between the two men, one she couldn’t deny.
Maybe Carson and Sam just saw Remy as an adversary? They needn’t have worried, since she only had eyes and feelings for them.
Desiree prepared to tell them just this, that they didn’t need to be jealous of any other man, much less Remy, before she felt both men stiffen in unison.
“Get dressed,
cher
,” Carson murmured, slowly and carefully sliding her red hoodie and jeans toward her.
“But I thought we were going to—” The rest of the sentence died in her throat when Desiree heard a low rumble behind her. Instinctively she froze at the sight of a large gray timber wolf emerging from the surrounding woods, strutting several feet toward them before pausing to snarl.
Chapter 15
Remy smiled at the trio but knew it probably looked more like he was baring his teeth, just as his laugh probably sounded more like a growl, especially when he picked up the scent of Desiree’s fear, feeding off of it.
He took a deep, bracing breath as he slinked forward, anticipating the two young men’s protective gesture when they closed ranks to stand in front of their prize.
“Get dressed now,” Carson repeated over his shoulder, his voice calm and cool, belying the uneasiness his face clearly showed as he turned back to eye Remy warily.
Sam, too, looked at him with a suspicious glare.
Remy knew that they recognized him but also knew that they weren’t sure of his motives or what he would do—to them or Desiree.
Good. He liked his prey off-balance and wondering. He would keep them that way until he could get them alone for their long-overdue powwow.
Remy went closer, never taking his eyes off of the trio, homing in on the bustle behind the young men as Desiree hastily got into her clothes, finally zipping up her hoodie—red, how appropriate—before standing up to peek at him through the small gap between Carson and Sam.