by Lora Leigh
AUGUST HEAT
An Ellora’s Cave Publication, DECEMBER 2003
Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.
PO Box 787
Hudson, OH 44236-0787
ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-727-1
Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):
Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML
AUGUST HEAT © 2003 LORA LEIGH
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.
Edited by Kari Berton
Cover art by Darrell King.
AUGUST HEAT
Lora Leigh
Prologue
May
The contractions began late that night, and they began hard. Marly awoke from a restless sleep, a pained gasp on her lips as her rounded stomach tightened painfully. Imperatively.
She reached for Cade, to awaken him, to warn him, but he was already there, his blue eyes filling with panic as he flipped on the bedside lamp and stared back at her.
“Oh shit.” She had never heard that particular tone of voice from him before.
Marly blinked at him in surprise, torn between laughter and concern as his wide eyes went to the rippling motions of the contraction that seized her heavily pregnant abdomen.
“Now, Cade,” she tried to soothe him as she scooted to the end of the bed, “don’t panic.”
“Fuck. Sam! Brock!” Marly was certain his demented scream rocked the upper level of the house.
Damn. They were all going to panic on her now. She did not need this.
“Dammit, Marly, where are you going?” Before she could throw her legs over the side of the mattress Cade was moving to her, his hands trembling as he gripped her arm to keep her in the bed.
“Cade August, I refuse to have this child at home,” she snapped, staring at him like the lunatic he was. “I need to get dressed. For that matter, so do you. I need the hospital.”
Marly hadn’t thought he could have gotten paler. But he did. In an instant his swarthy complexion went snow white as he swallowed tightly.
“Oh shit,” he seemed to wheeze.
The door burst open and Sam, Brock, and their wives rushed into the room. Sam had a gun and a hard-on. Brock was just sporting the hard-on. Thankfully, Sarah and Heather had thought to drag on robes.
Marly closed her eyes helplessly. They still hadn’t completely managed to still the terror that had gripped them during the months she, Sarah and Heather had been stalked. Annie still haunted them all.
“Heather was so right last year,” she sighed. “Only you guys would still have a hard-on, no matter the situation,” she moaned as she shook her head in resignation.
Another contraction seized her body, tightening her abdomen and rippling the flesh convulsively.
“Oh hell. She’s in labor,” Sam seemed to choke then as both he and Brock paled alarmingly.
“I don’t want to have this baby here,” she moaned, more than worried at the suddenly horrified faces of the men staring at her, as though she were some sort of aberration. “Sarah. Heather. Do something, please.”
Thankfully, they did. Marly wasn’t certain how they managed to get everyone dressed, including herself, and into the vehicles heading for the hospital. She was just thankful they had. The contractions were coming faster than Doc had told her they would starting off, and though she fought to hide her fear from Cade, she couldn’t hide it from herself.
She sat in the back seat of the Mercedes, Cade’s arms wrapped around her, doing the Lamaze breathing and feeling like a panting dog as she tried to relax through the rapidly building pain. God, she was so thankful she opted for drugs for the delivery. This was not comfortable. Not comfortable at all.
“Babe, you doing okay?” Sam glanced back as he sped through the night, his worried face reflected in the dim interior lights.
“Watch the damned road, Sam,” Cade snapped as he held Marly close to his chest, his gentle hands stroking her distended abdomen as it contracted harshly.
“I’m watching the road.” He turned back quickly as Heather’s softly whispered reminder of the upcoming curves of the road added to Cade’s order.
“I love you, Marly,” Cade whispered at her ear as another contraction gripped her stomach.
“Fifteen minutes apart, Marly.” Heather timed her. “Sam, honey, you’d better pick up some speed.”
He picked up speed. Marly closed her eyes instead of watching the night pass by at a rate that came close to terrifying.
* * * * *
The contractions were less than five minutes apart by the time they reached the hospital. Thanks to Heather’s call, nurses, orderlies, and Marly’s no-nonsense obstetrician were waiting at the ambulance entrance when they pulled in.
For Marly, life had turned into a minute-by-minute count between contractions as she tried to relax against the overwhelming pain of the labor. It had also turned into a kaleidoscope of memories.
As though her life were flashing before her eyes, Marly saw the impacting moments of her years with Cade, from the day she had arrived on his doorstep until now.
How he had taken her, a gawky, awkward child, and dressed her in the finest clothes, given her everything a child could have wished for. He had showered her with all the love, security and praise that he himself had lacked in his life. Brock and Sam had followed suit. Throughout her teenage years they had raised and protected her, sheltered her, and by turns had overseen each adventure in her life. Had overseen them, and had eventually become the adventure. And now here they were yet again. The three of them, faces pale, voices hoarse, as the nurses worked around her.
Between contractions, preparation and the smooth transition from pain to woozy comfort, she watched the three men. They stood silently across the room, their gazes shadowed and worried, flickering with fear. But Cade looked tortured.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, smiling for him as the pain receded. “We’re both going to be fine.”
He moved to her, careful to stay out of the way of the nurses until he could stand beside the hospital bed. Then he laid his head beside hers, his hands tangling in her long hair as he held her to him, his body convulsing with a hard shudder.
“I know,” he whispered bleakly, his voice so haunted with pain it broke her heart. “Everything’s fine. I know that.”
But she could hear his fears. Fears that had only grown as the pregnancy progressed.
“He’ll be as gorgeous as his daddy. And just as strong,” she whispered, well aware of the fact that the child could be no one’s but Cade’s. She had made certain of it.
She had given each of them the illusion that they would be as much a part of the baby as Cade was, to keep that bond alive for them. But privately, she had ensured no other fathered the baby but Cade. He was her soul. Everything that mattered in this world to her.
As his hands tightened in her hair, his body trembling with emotion, Marly feared the changes that would soon come crashing into his life. She wanted her husband happy. Whole. The nightmares were gone, but she knew his fears still lingered. The fear of losing her. Of being alone, deep inside, once again. And she swore to herself in that moment, for Cade, for their baby, she had to make him face the final demon that haunted him. Him, Brock, and Sam.
* * * * *
Brock sat nervously on the uncomfortable couch in the waiting room. He held his wife close to him and watched the clock on the wall across from them. It amazed him. She amazed him. In little more than a year, Sarah had managed to fill his life so completely t
hat he knew he could never ask for more. Yet he had so much more.
Beside him, Sam held Heather as they talked softly. As they both worried about the woman and child Cade was with now. Alone. His brothers weren’t with him. But that was how it should be, Brock thought.
Until this moment, they had shared damned near every minute of that pregnancy with Cade. Had worried with him. Listened to his fears, saw his concerns. And as much as Brock was nervous now himself, he knew this final step was being taken as it should.
His fingers twined in Sarah’s hair, his eyes narrowing at the emotion that had been forming inside him for almost a year now. He could feel the change in the air. From the moment they rushed into Cade’s bedroom after his scream had disturbed Brock’s careful sensual torture of Sarah’s body, Brock had felt it. It moved like a wraith, weaving careful streamers of knowledge through his soul. He sighed deeply. No regret. No sense of nightmare. No overwhelming need to be certain he was still a part of the family, the bond that had saved his life for so many years. He had Sarah. With her, he could survive damned near anything.
“You okay?” She looked up at him, those whisky-colored eyes of hers soothing him as few other things could.
As always, Sarah sensed his feelings, his desires and needs, even before he knew himself.
“Do you know I love you?” he asked her softly.
A smile spread across her lips, through her gaze. “As I love you.”
His arms tightened around her. Change could come, as he knew it would anyway. But as long as Sarah held him, he knew he would survive.
* * * * *
Why didn’t he feel isolated? Sam sat beside Heather, his arm around her shoulders as her head rested against his chest, and frowned at that thought. Why wasn’t he going crazy, the need to be in there with Marly and Cade overwhelming him? He was concerned. Anxious. Sam thought of all the things that could go wrong, but he wasn’t frothing at the mouth to be certain. To share in it, to be assured Cade wasn’t alone. That he himself wasn’t alone.
He smoothed his hands down Heather’s arms, distantly aware of the softness of her skin, the warmth of her body. She was talking about her sister, Tara. He knew what she was doing. Trying to ease his mind. To give him something else to focus on. He frowned. She did that often. When the memories haunted him, it was as though she knew. She knew and she went out of her way to still his demons, to fill his heart.
Strange. He hadn’t seen that before. He had been married to her for well over a year, and was only now just realizing that.
“I told Tara this new assignment was a bad idea.” Heather sighed against his chest. “But she thinks she knows it all. Ryder’s not as easy to handle as she thinks he is. And Rick is just acting damned funny.”
There was a thread of suspicion in her voice. Sam could feel it, but couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
“Rick will keep her safe.” He wondered if that was really what she was worried about.
“Yeah. He will.” He heard the amusement in her voice. “Just like Cade will keep Marly safe.”
Sam frowned. “Of course he will. Cade wouldn’t let anything hurt her.”
“Then stop worrying so much,” she chided him gently. “I know you want to be in the delivery room yourself to be certain, but everything will be okay.”
Sam frowned. “No. No, I don’t.” He hated the streak of selfishness that often filled him. “If it were you, I’d want it to be just us, Heather. Together.”
He hadn’t been jealous when Brock or Cade touched her, loved her. It filled him with a sense of security to know she would always be loved, always cared for if something happened to him. But sometimes…sometimes he wished he didn’t have that need.
“It will be just us, Sam.” She rose from his chest, turning to him, her green eyes dark with love, with dreams and life. “I promise you that. Just us.”
His heart clenched. Something in his soul seemed to shift, though he wasn’t certain what it was.
“I love you,” he whispered.
She smiled that smile. The one that never failed to heat his blood, to mend his heart.
“As I love you, cowboy,” she said gently, leaning forward, her lips touching his. “Always, Sam. As I love you.”
Chapter One
October
“Look. If you put the damned thing there it’s going to throw the whole room off.” Marly’s voice was irritated, aggravated.
“It will make the room appear unique,” Heather argued. “It looks perfect there.”
“It’s not even centered,” Sarah piped in. “Really, Marly, that picture isn’t going to work.”
The picture in question was an aerial view of the house grounds. Unfortunately, Marly didn’t want to move the large, older map-styled picture of the ranch from over the fireplace. It had been hanging there for as long as the ranch house had stood on that spot. She wanted both pictures.
“You could hang this one in the dining room,” Heather argued. “It would look good there.”
“I want it in here.”
“It’s not going to work.”
“Only if you center it.”
And the argument was off again.
Cade escaped through the doorway with a growing sense of male horror and split a direct path to the kitchen and the coffee he prayed was waiting there for him. He found the coffee. The coffee and Sam and Brock, heads lowered, resignation marking their faces.
“What the hell is going on in there?” Cade questioned the other two men. “They act like they’re ready to tear each other’s hair out.”
“No, that was this morning. When the picture first arrived,” Brock sighed. “They’ve been crazy ever since Marly had Drace. You gotta do something about this, Cade.”
Cade crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Brock in no small amount of surprise. “And you expect me to do what?”
Drace was nearly six months old and growing daily. Cade had never known such a sense of love, of responsibility, as he did when he stared at his infant son. Nor such a sense of terror. How to protect him? No matter his age. To instill in him the strength of a man, the acceptance and the honor it would take to survive in the world.
“Hell if I know,” Brock mumbled. “Those three women have gone crazy. I swear they have.”
“Yeah. And they’re wearing panties again, too,” Sam bitched. “What’s with that shit? I touch Heather and she pats me on the head like I’m Drace’s age and goes about her business.”
They were horny. They were all horny. Not that they had been cut off…exactly. Just seriously restricted. Cade hadn’t anticipated this. Drace was his pride and joy, but there were days he exhausted Marly. And during those days, being with Sarah or Heather wasn’t the answer, either. The shift in the family dynamics had come about slowly, but it had settled like a comfortable shirt across their shoulders.
“I feel like I’m a fucking kid again,” Sam sighed. “Trying to seduce my favorite girl. Heather’s worse than a virgin some days.”
They were bitching about it, but Cade could hear a thread of amusement, feel the slowly building tension and anticipation growing in them all. He shook his head and headed for the coffee pot. He’d be damned if he knew what the three of those women were up to, but he knew it was something.
“And they keep mentioning presents,” Brock pointed out. “What do you buy them? Hell, I can’t think of anything they don’t have that we can afford.”
“I offered Heather a trip.” Sam sounded more than bemused now. “Anywhere she wanted to go, for however long. Thought she was going to cry. And not because she was happy, either.”
Uh oh. Cade turned back to them slowly.
“Yeah. Same with Sarah.” Brock shook his head. “I took her to look at new cars, and she acted like I broke her heart.”
Cade had tried several different suggestions with Marly. She smiled. Acted enthusiastic over each but there was no missing the sadness in her eyes. Christmas was only weeks away now. There wasn�
�t much time left and he had no idea what the hell she wanted.
“Has Sarah even given you any hints?” Sam asked Brock desperately. “Hasn’t Heather mentioned anything to her?”
“Not a damned thing,” Brock griped. “I even asked her what the others wanted. She told me to stop being a man and to figure it out.” Insulted male ego echoed in his voice. “How does one stop being a man?” he grunted irritably.
“By being a woman,” Sam snickered. “Want us to buy you a thong for Christmas, bro?”
Brock hurled a biscuit at his cackling brother, hitting him in the forehead even as Sam tried to duck. Crumbs rained down as it broke apart, littering Sam’s broad chest with the baked flour.
“Cut it out. Both of you.” Cade grabbed for one of the few remaining biscuits. Heather had made them, obviously. They were light and flaky, damned near melting in his mouth when he bit into one.
“How about a housekeeper?” He frowned as he thought of all the extra work involved in the house now. “Someone to just come in through the day.”
They all stilled. At any given time during the workday, they could sneak in for a few minutes of heated, lusty sex wherever they found one of the women. Cade sobered at that thought. Or at least it used to be. He frowned. He hadn’t touched Sarah or Heather since Drace’s birth. He was spending too much time trying to get into his own wife’s pants. Like the other two, she was as hard to seduce these days as a nervous virgin.
“Yeah, maybe that would be a good idea.” Sam straightened in his chair. “Hell, Heather gets out of bed too damned early to fix breakfast anyway. I never get to touch her in the morning anymore. That could work.”
“At least we don’t have to worry about a housekeeper walking in on anything anymore,” Cade said wearily. “Damned if I want any more talk circulating around town about our lives. I’d like to see it settle down a bit before Drace is old enough to go to school.”
