by Madison Faye
The two other men stared at him, and for a moment, I could see emotions flare across all three of their faces. I understood then that Damien had acted alone in telling me about their military pasts, hinting at the horrors they’d seen and endured, and I was suddenly worried that having done so would drive a wedge between my three men.
“Good.”
Sean’s sudden and gruffly spoken word shattered that fear.
“Good, I’m glad you told her.” He turned and smiled at me, nodding.
“We, uh, we don’t talk about that much,” Hunter mumbled quietly, turning to me as well.
“I didn’t think you did,” I said quietly, putting both hands out and resting them on Sean and Hunter’s forearms. “I’m glad Damien told me, for what it’s worth. I think I just…” I trailed off, not sure how to put it into words.
“I like knowing you,” I finally said, looking at each of them in turn. “And you don’t have to worry, I’m not going to—”
“We know,” Sean said with uncharacteristic softness. “We trust you, more than, well, more than we tend to trust pretty much anyone.”
The sound of Damien chambering a round broke the silence.
“I’d hate to break the moment, but—”
“Right, we gotta roll,” Hunter said with a growl, whirling and grabbing a flak jacket from the trunk.
I started to move towards the trunk as well, but Damien stopped me with a hand on my arm.
“I think it’s best if you stay here, actually.”
“The hell I am,” I shot back, my blood pounding at the thought of my best friend being held captive by her psychopath ex.
A hint of a smile crossed Damien’s face. “Arianna—”
“I’m coming, and that’s final.”
The other two turned, crossing arms over broad chests, eyeing me.
Damien finally nodded. “Something told me you were going to insist.” He turned back to the trunk, grabbed a smaller armored jacket, and passed it to me.
“You’re staying behind us,” Sean muttered. “That part is not up for discussion.”
“Here,” Hunter said darkly. I turned as he pressed the grip of a gun into my hands. I shivered at the feel of cold metal in my palm.
“I really think this is a terrible—”
“I’m coming,” I said flashing a scowl at Sean before my look softened at what was clearly just huge concern on his face. I reached out and squeezed his hand. “I’ll stay behind you, I promise. But there’s no scenario where I don’t come with you.”
Hunter nodded at the gun in my hands. “That’s a forty-five millimeter. Ever used one of these?”
Right, like I’d held a gun before.
I swallowed the lump in my throat, slowly shaking my head. Hunter nodded as he moved behind me and wrapped his arms alongside mine.
“I got it,” I said breathlessly.
I turned in his arms and kissed him, before turning again and doing the same with each of them, holding their equally passionate and yet wholly different kisses in turn.
Hunter looked at the other three and nodded solemnly. “Alright then. Let’s roll.”
Chapter 15
The lodge was quiet, but I knew the silence was deceiving. I followed my three men through the footpath from the mountain road, the shadowy outline of Luke and Jordan’s lavish mountain retreat looming against the starlit sky.
I felt a hand on the small of my back, and felt lips against my ear.
Damien.
“When I say hang back I mean hang way back, got it?”
I nodded, shivering in the night air. “I got it.”
“Nothing can happen to you, Ari,” he said softly, all of us stopping by the dark tree line.
“I mean that.” He cupped my chin, raising it as he leaned in and kissed my mouth hard, as if to convey the things a hardened man like that couldn’t put into words.
“If...” I pulled back, my face crumbling. “If something happens to Sasha, or the baby—”
“It won’t,” Sean said quickly, shaking his head. He put a hand on my hip, rubbing me softly. “I promise.”
He pulled me around as he kissed me then, different than Damien’s, but just as electric and just as passionate.
I turned and grabbed Hunter by the shirt collar, kissing him and feeling the shiver run through me at the deeply masculine growl that rumbled in his throat.
“Alright, let’s do this thing,” Sean said, nodding solemnly. “On my mark, we—”
The sound of gunfire had us dropping to the ground, Hunter scrambling to cover me with his body as the tree-branches exploded like fireworks around us. The house suddenly lit up with floodlight, illuminating men in black with guns running out of various doors and from around the side of it, all converging on the thicket of trees we were in.
“Now!” Damien roared, lunging to his feet with the gun in his hands blasting as he lurched out of the tree. Sean and Hunter exploded after him, roaring and laying down fire as they made a break for the house.
The gun was like dead weight in my hands, and sweat suddenly broke out on my back. I could feel my heart pounding like a truck engine as I watched the scene unfold as if in slow motion. Sean, skidding to a stop behind a tree stump, his expression grim before he whirled around and squeezed off a few rounds into three men in black running towards him. They dropped to the ground, and Sean ducked back behind his cover as another fresh spray of lead raked the wood beside him.
I could feel the cool of the gunmetal in my hot palm as I watched Hunter and Damien rush to cover him, hurdling over a fallen tree and bellowing like warriors as they rushed the group converging on Sean.
Then it was chaos, like little vignettes flashing before my eyes. Sean jumping back up, and slamming his gun into the gut of one of the goons who’d tried to dash around his cover. Hunter dropping four more bad guys in cold-blooded precision. Damien roaring as something hit him in the arm, spinning him around and dropping him to a knee before he lurched back up, face a mask of rage as he shook off the hit and kept advancing.
And for a second, it really looked like we were winning. The three men advanced steadily on the mountain lodge, and more and more goons fell under their honed skills. I made a move from the stand of trees where I’d been waiting, darting behind the men as they advanced on the big glass wall that faced the huge patio.
“Behind us, Ari,” Hunter said breathless, his jaw tight and his gun trained on the glass door to the still-dark-inside house. “Stay—”
“That’s far enough!”
The lights suddenly kicked on behind the glass wall, illuminating the scene inside.
And the whole world went cold and slow around me.
There was Mark, an arm around Sasha’s throat and gun in his hand.
A gun pointed right at her belly.
Her face was drawn but, it wasn’t fear I saw etched across my friend’s face, it was defiant fury.
Everything exploded in chaos after that. Damien and Hunter and Sean with guns drawn, roaring for Mark to drop his. Mark screaming back, a crazed, wild look in his eyes as he alternated between pointing the gun at Sasha and waving it them. I could still feel my blood pounding in my ears, the hair on the back of my neck prickling as the raw fear and fury of the moment blasted through me.
The screaming was getting louder and louder, every single second feeling more and more tense until there was no way it couldn’t shatter.
That’s when it all went dim around me.
That’s when I suddenly tuned it all out, ignored all of it, and concentrated on one thing.
I looked up, almost in slow motion, and locked eyes with my friend. I weighed the gun in my hand — cool, heavy, full of purpose. I squeezed it, running my thumb over the ridges of the grip and feeling my breath slow to a crawl. Everything around me slowed to nothing, the yelling and gun waving tuning out until it was just me, the gun in my hand, and my best friend.
I looked up and locked eyes with her.
She no
dded.
Sometimes you just have to jump in.
I raised the gun in my hands, my fingers curling around it as I looked right at Sasha.
“Jump,” her lips said silently.
I pulled my eyes from her, locked them on Mark, centered the gun, and squeezed as hard as I could.
The gun exploded in my hands, and for one quarter second, everything was frozen.
And then just as suddenly, it roared back to full speed.
I was dimly aware of the gun in Mark’s hand dropping to the ground as he seemed to fly backwards, his arms up in the air. I was aware of Damien, Hunter, and Sean lunging forward, the gun dropping from my own hands, and then my own voice screaming.
Arms caught me, familiar, protective arms.
Sasha.
I fell into her, wrapping my arms around her as all the emotions poured out of me.
It was over, and she was okay.
We were all okay.
Chapter 16
“That was some damn good shooting, you know.”
I turned to Hunter and smiled. “Thanks, I know.”
The guys laughed warmly as I grinned at my own joke.
We were back in New York City, cleaned up, exhausted, and just being together in closeness after what had happened. The glassed-in roof deck at the very top of the building that housed Camelot Holdings was dimmed, with only the lights of the city illuminating us all.
Luke and Jordan had in fact broken out of their “house arrest” hotel and flown back home. Sasha was safe and sound back with them, and an immediate doctor’s visit had confirmed that the baby was just fine. All pending interest in her two men being involved in her kidnapping was obviously dropped.
Mark was in critical condition, but alive. I’d apparently hit a one in a thousand shot of hitting him in the chest but missing his heart. We’d been told he was currently in the ICU coming out of surgery.
There were plans to arrest him the second he came to, and this time, they were going to throw the book at him.
“You seriously pulled out a shot like that on your first try?” Sean raised a brow at me.
“Beginner’s luck?” I shook my head, looking into my glass of champagne. “I knew I couldn’t miss.”
Hunter grinned, leaning over to kiss the top of my head.
“So, that was interesting as first dates go.”
I laughed along with the other two. “Well, why don’t we call it a second and third as well.”
“And what does that mean?” he grinned.
“It means I think I like you guys,” I said quietly.
“Yeah?”
“It also means I quit.”
“What? No way!” Damien’s jaw dropped.
“I am not going to be your secretary,” I said sharply.
“Bodyguard, then?”
The guys cracked up as I turned and punched Sean in the arm.
“Hey! I’m just saying, with a dead-eye like that, we could probably use you,” he grinned.
“We’ll figure something out,” Hunter said evenly. “As long as you stay with us.” His eyes locked on mine. “And I mean it, with all of us.”
“I—”
And right there, sitting with them with the gorgeous view of the city behind us, I knew I wouldn’t be able choose one even if I wanted to.
“I feel like this is one unit, like we all work together as one.”
“We do too,” Damien said softly.
“I want this,” I said, nodding at each of them in turn. “And this is crazy, I know, but—”
Damien’s lips cut me off, pressing hotly to mine.
“Life is crazy, Ari. That’s why you hang on to what’s good.”
I kissed him back, moaning into his mouth as I felt hands move over my back, another pair on my thighs. The kiss broke, and Hunter brought my face around to kiss me forcefully, making me shiver at his strong touch.
I moved away from him and found myself falling into Sean, kissing him as well while the other two let their hands wander across me.
“So we’ll work something out, even if it means you not being our secretary.”
“Oh, it does,” I said with a grin.
“I sort of liked being your boss,” Damien said, a glint in his eyes.
I felt a throb of heat tease through me. “I— I liked you being my boss too.”
I gasped at the feel of lips across my neck. “That’s because you like being told just what to do,” Sean growled into my skin. “And secretary or not, you like being a good girl and doing what we tell you to do, don’t you?”
I moaned quietly, my head slowly nodding.
Hunter pulled the glass of champagne from my hand.
“Stand, Ms. Holloway.”
I felt an absolute throb of raw desire course through my body, tingling it’s way under my skin and diving between my legs.
God, I wanted this.
There was something so primal and raw about the way I loved having these three men talk to me like that — something in the way they dominated me and yet made me feel like a queen at the same time.
I nodded as I stood.
“Get on the table.”
Hunter’s voice was smooth and dark as he pointed at the large ornate coffee table in front of the lush L-shaped couch we’d been sitting at.
Again, all I could do was nod as I put one knee and then the other onto the smooth wood of the table. I could feel my slinky black dress slide up my thighs and pull tight across my ass. I could feel their eyes on me, and my nipples puckered beneath the sheer material.
“On your hands and knees.”
I whimpered — actually whimpered — at Damien’s commanding voice. But I did as I was told.
This was it. This is the rush I craved, and the need to be taken by them.
I felt a hand on my thigh, and looked back to see Sean, his dark eyes glinting at me as he let the hand slide up and down my bare, exposed skin. Damien’s strong hand moved to my other leg, and I felt the heat shiver through me at their touch.
Hunter stood from the couch and moved a hand over my ass, a look of pure desire on his face. He let his fingers tease across my barely-covered skin, tracing the line of my thong beneath the silky dress.
“Turn around,” he growled. “Show us.”
My breath hitched as I nodded and turned on me knees, facing Damien and Hunter sitting on one side of the L-couch, with Sean to my right sitting on the corner. He reached out with his strong hands and ran them over my ass — a gesture that soaked my panties instantly.
“You know what we want, don’t you?”
I nodded eagerly. Yeah, it was the exact same thing I was craving, and he knew it.
“Call me sir.”
I moaned quietly as Sean’s hand moved over my ass.
“Yes sir.”
“Good girl.”
Hunter stood and began to pull at his zipper, with Damien following suit. I moaned, biting my lip as they both let their thick, throbbing cocks bob out in front of my face. Sean pulled at my dress, yanking it up over my ass. He growled as his hand slipped down over my ass and between my legs, his fingers finding me soaking wet through my panties.
“Dirty, dirty girl,” Sean growled, making me shiver. “The idea of all three of us making you ours gets you nice and wet doesn’t it?”
I nodded eagerly. “Yes, sir.”
His hand came down suddenly with a loud smack on my exposed ass, making me yelp in pleasure. In front of me, Damien and Hunter moved closer, their thick, heavy cocks arching up towards me. Hunter let his hand move across my cheek, pushing his thumb between my lips. I moaned softly as I sucked it inside, swirling it with my tongue and locking eyes with him as Sean dragged a finger over my panties.
Damien pushed his hand into my hair, pulling closer towards their cocks. I gasped as I felt both of their soft, velvety heads push over my cheeks, across my lips as they stroked my face against their cocks. With a gasp, I opened my mouth for Damien first, and he pushed his thick
head through my wet lips and into my hot mouth.
I moaned around his shaft, swirling my tongue around his head and relishing the thick weight of him in my mouth. Hunter growled and began to stroke himself as he reached down and pulled my breasts free from the dress.
The position had me on my elbows, my back arched and my ass thrust high in the air for Sean. I felt like such a plaything for these men to use for their pleasure, and the thought of that had my head spinning in pleasure.
Sean stroked my slit through my soaked panties, and suddenly I felt him grab and yank them down my thighs to my knees, leaving them there to bind me like that on my knees with my ass thrust back for him. My eyes flew open and I moaned wildly as I suddenly felt his tongue drag over my bare slit, pushing through my slick folds and curling over my hard little clit. In front of me, Damien moved away as Hunter took his place, pushing his own thick head between my lips and deep into my mouth.
Sean’s tongue swirled through my folds, lapping at the juices flowing freely from my tight pussy. He pushed the tip of his tongue in deep, teasing me as his hands stroked up and down my thighs and gripped at my ass tightly.
Suddenly, his tongue slid higher, and I moaned around Hunter’s cock in my throat. His tongue swirled around my ass, making me shiver and making my pussy even wetter. The feeling of his hot tongue dancing around my little ring like that had me writhing and moaning on the table like an animal.
Hunter pulled away from my mouth and I moved back to Damian. My pulse spiked as he grabbed me by the hair and began to fuck my mouth with even, deep strokes. My lips felt so stretched and used by his big, thick cock, and I loved it.
The sound of a zipper and clothes falling came from behind me, and my heart raced. Sean moved behind me, and I felt his hands sliding over my ass. I gasped as I felt the hot, thick head of his cock touch against my needy pussy lips.
He pushed forward, and my body tensed as his thick girth began to stretch my pussy wide, making me moan. Holy shit he was big! He slowly slid in, pushing his big dick inch-by-inch into my clenching slit. He grunted when his balls rested against my lips, his hands gripping my ass, and slowly he pulled out, slamming back in, hard.
