by Anya Nowlan
Grant, on the other hand, appreciated women who could hold a conversation with him and challenge him intellectually. It was a Herculean task finding a woman that would fit those two very different molds.
Yet with Kelis, Grim got the sneaking suspicion that they might have been getting awfully close.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kelis
“What?! You can’t keep me here against my will! I’ll have my goddamn captain tear you new ones!” Kelis hissed as she found herself in a makeshift bunker, not a window in sight, staring daggers at the broad, decisive forms of Connor, Grim, and Grant.
Grim was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, blocking the door, and Grant had taken up position on one of the bunks, his eyes firmly on Kelis though his hands seemed to be working hard at checking the contents of his medpack. Connor stood closest to Kelis and for a fantastic moment, she considered how hard she could hit him and whether she could take the lieutenant out before both Grim and Grant were on her.
“I apologize, Miss Murdoch, but it is what it is. You yourself admitted that your appearance on the plane was a surprise and seemingly orchestrated by someone else. We have contacted our people and they know nothing about why you might have ended up on an airplane stocked full of highly dangerous neurotoxins, on its way to becoming a human testing lab in the sky. As such, I can’t let you go before we can hand you over to our intelligence unit.”
“This is fucking nuts. I got the plane down, didn’t I? You think I fly Boeing 747s on a whim because I get fucking bored or something? I don’t know what kind of bullshit was going on in that plane and Grim and Grant can attest that one of those blond psychos was trying to kill me too, which I don’t think they would do if I were working for them. Right? I just want to go home already,” she said, her last words rising to a slight pitch of desperation as she noticed Connor’s unmoving expression and the twins looking equally as morose.
“Nevertheless, we can’t let you leave. Grim and Grant will keep you company. The medical staff has assured me that you will be fine. Whatever that toxin was, it is leaving your system rapidly. You may feel more emotional and aggressive, but I have every faith that my squad mates can keep you and themselves safe. Accept my apologies. This shouldn’t take more than a day.”
“A day?! You mean I have to wait a whole day before I get to San Francisco?!”
“No,” Connor said, his lips twitching for a moment. “You’ll have to potentially wait a day until intelligence comes to pick you up. Pennsylvania is apparently rather sleepy. I can’t give you a timeline as to when you could find yourself back at home.”
“Someone’s going to have to let my unit know,” Kelis finally said, her voice a strangled growl, irritation rising and falling to the beat of her heart.
She saw that there was no point in getting upset, but something drove her to spit fire and brimstone and to be more enraged than anything else. How the hell could they be keeping her like this? She’d played along during the whole thing! When doctors were sticking needles in her, when a psychologist was asking her how she felt, and even when they’d confiscated all of her possessions during one of the admittedly fastest and cleanest disaster mop-ups she’d ever seen.
But a part of her was perhaps expecting to be treated with a bit more dignity and respect than she was at the moment.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have our colonel call your captain,” Connor said with a smirk. “I hear they play golf together.”
“Is there anyone Hemingway does not play golf with?” Grim queried from his stand at the door.
“You,” Grant said with a snort as Connor turned around and headed for the door, exchanging a few quiet words with Grim before heading out.
The heavy click behind him told Kelis in so few words that she’d been locked in with the two men, and there was little she could do about it. She stomped to the nearest cot and collapsed on it with an angry groan, grabbing the pillow and scrunching it between her fingers as if it had done her a grave personal injustice.
“Cheer up, Leatherneck. You’ll be back home in no time,” Grant said with a chuckle.
“Easy for you to say, Frogman,” Kelis said, twisting on the cot, tossing a glare in Grant’s general direction, but deciding to share it with Grim as well for good measure. “Apparently you two have nothing better to do than babysit me, but I do. I have about twenty hours of sleep to catch up on before I have to be back on duty tour.”
“Yeah? Where are you heading to?” Grim asked, apparently bypassing the whole song and dance about how entirely unhappy she was to be there.
“Afghanistan. Again,” Kelis said with a sigh, figuring it didn’t really matter if they knew or not.
By the sound of things, Connor or the people he worked for had already pulled her file anyway and scraped up more information on her than she herself probably knew. Always a great bit of fun, finding out that the government and certain covert companies knew more than you’d ever be willing to share about yourself with even your closest friend.
How the hell did I get here? You just had to be a hero, didn’t you, Kelis. Couldn’t just stay down, huff in that sweet-smelling gas and go on a rampage like the rest of them. You’d be on your way home now, not remembering any of this shit!
She’d seen glimpses of the conditioning the football players were getting. After being checked and tagged, they’d been wheeled into interrogation and the ones who seemed to be generally worthless had gotten a nice, long, thorough talk with some people who seemed to know everything about how to twist a human psyche around their pinkie fingers, until the guy who’d gone in bore no real resemblance to the one who came out. They all looked blissfully happy and none the wiser to all the horrible things they’d been a part of that day.
Kelis had to imagine there was some kind of a heavy medical cocktail involved as well, but after the beating their bodies had taken after the one on the airplane, she figured their bodies didn’t give much of a crap anymore.
“Loved that place,” Grim said, sarcasm dripping from his words.
“Oh yeah. Sand in my ass crack, sand in my coffee, sand in my penicillin and sand in my ammo. Best time of my life,” Grant said with a chuckle, putting his medpack aside.
Kelis watched with mounting realization that she was stuck in a room with those two guys. The ones that had been flirting with her shamelessly on the airplane and who were now looking at her like she was a doe and they were mighty fucking hungry. She swallowed dryly.
“Um, so, how many missions did you guys do in Afghanistan?” she asked quickly, trying to distract both herself and the twins from the moment of heavy, heady silence that had fallen on the room as Grim pulled a chair and sat down.
“Two, I think. They sort of blur together. There was that thing in Somalia between them, I think, but…” Grim said, trailing off as if trying to piece together his own years of service.
“Wasn’t that Chad?” Grant asked, cocking a brow.
“Could have been. All look the same to me. The bad guys always have guns and we always win,” Grim said, leaning back on the chair so it rested on just the back two legs, his hands behind his head.
God, they were both huge. She hadn’t noticed so much on the airplane, where everything had looked big and deadly, but here in relative normalcy, their size was all that much more obvious. Tall, of course, but with wide shoulders and muscles that seemed to extend further and look harder than on any man she’d seen before.
The whole team looked like that, she had to admit, but Grim and Grant called to her especially. It wasn’t something she was accustomed to at all.
I thought I’d built up a tolerance for hot guys.
“You’re twins, right?” Kelis asked, rolling over on her stomach.
Might as well get some conversation out of all of this, if nothing more. She noted that her blood pressure seemed to be spiking at the mere conversation with them, her eyes raking over them a bit too eagerly. The doctors had said that she might feel a bit off for th
e remainder of the day, but nothing uncontrollable. Still, it was a tiny bit uncomfortable, feeling her physical attraction to the two ex-SEALs so readily.
“What, related to this ugly mug? Never!” Grant scoffed, laughing.
“You could do worse!” Grim parried. “Think of me. I have to be your brother. Wasn’t fate crueler on me?”
Kelis couldn’t help but chuckle at their antics. They seemed to constantly pick on one another, but there was definitely affection between them. And she’d seen the way they’d kept an eye on one another during the fight, helping out where they could. While Kelis had several brothers and sisters, she’s always wondered what it felt like being a twin and having that special connection with someone. As much as the two men before her might have tried to downplay it, it was clear that they were fiercely loyal to one another.
“So I’ll take that as a yes. And… shifters?”
“Cougars,” Grant said, making her purse her lips slightly.
“Never heard of twin cougars,” she admitted, rustling around in her memory bank to see if she could scare up something.
No dice. In the Marines, they had extensive classes on shapeshifters, their physiology and psychology, and it included shifter twins. A lot of shifters ended up with military careers, as that was the one option that could actually put them to excellent use in modern society. Clan and pack wars were generally frowned upon and bloody shifter politics were getting lessening.
“It seems to be somewhat of a rarity, we know,” Grim nodded, looking awfully relaxed.
But then again, what was there to be tense about? The dangerous part was over. They probably had a stack of papers to fill out and she had a dozen dreary interviews to live through, repeating time after time that she had no idea why she was on the plane and even less of a clue as to why someone might have wanted her there. And yet, her heart was beating heavily in her chest as if they were still in the midst of battle.
“What’s it like? Being twins and shifters.”
“Complicated,” Grant said, flicking a look at his brother. “But not without its upsides.”
“Like?”
“Someone always watches out for you. And there’s never a lack of someone to mock,” Grim said with a grin that showed off his pearly whites, making him seem even more of a predator. “Why do you ask?”
“I think it’s interesting. Having a team within a team, essentially. Thatch and Tex are twins too, right?”
“Yeah, our wolfies. They’re thick as thieves now, what with their kids and mate whipping them into shape,” Grant said, standing up and stretching.
He looked hot as hell in his camo fatigues and tight dark green shirt, the outline of his dog tags just underneath. Unlike Grim, he didn’t have any visible tattoos and he looked more clean-cut. His expression was almost always solemn while Grim’s seemed to burn with mischief. She was drawn to both equally though, which was odd enough on top of everything else that had happened.
“Does getting a mate change much?” she queried, not even sure why she was asking.
She knew it changed things for a shifter. She’d learned about it back in boot camp! So why was she so intent on asking for confirmation now? Unless she wanted to know whether the twins before her were single too…
That’s none of your business, Kelis. And what if they are? You’re on a mission!
But she wasn’t. And a very big, vocal part that seemed to be throbbing right at her core was very aware of this. For the time being, she was little more than a civilian. A woman who had had a very long few weeks of festivities and difficult family members, who had almost died on a freak airplane flight, and who was now stuck in a rather small room with two really sexy guys.
And her body seemed to be doing all it possibly could to lead her down one heck of a naughty track.
“We wouldn’t know,” Grim said, but the lightness disappeared in his voice.
Now he was looking at her more intently, and she saw the flash of gold in his eyes as he let the chair fall back on all four legs with a thud. He stood up suddenly, a smile playing on those inviting lips of his.
“Kelis, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were probing us for information to figure out whether we were single or not. Is that what you’re doing, sugar?” he asked, prowling over to her bedside.
That was the exact word she wanted to use for it. Prowl. Because that was what he did, his powerful body suddenly lithe and silent, his steps a mixture of deadly grace and perfect strength. It made her breath catch in her lungs and she was sure he must have heard it. Grant’s gaze was steadfastly locked on them as well.
“You can just ask, you know. We’ll tell you,” Grant said, his voice taking on a hint of a purr, something deep and guttural.
Kelis felt adrenaline flooding her veins, rushing through her harder than ever as she got back on her side and then sat up in the bed, very aware of how close Grim was. He was looming above her. His scent was intoxicating and the way his blue eyes looked at her—like he was about to devour her—made tingles run up and down her spine.
“Well, are you?” she heard herself asking, but she could hardly believe she’d uttered the words.
“Yes,” Grim said, grinning. “Does that change anything for you?” he asked.
And again, it was like someone else was talking for her, though she knew that the words were as much hers as they ever could have been.
“Yes,” she whispered, hiking herself up on her knees and putting her hands on Grim’s hips, her touch light as a feather.
Grim glanced over to Grant, and the muscular but lithe medic was already stalking over, his eyes burning with lust.
Oh my God, what am I getting myself into!
CHAPTER SIX
Kelis
Kelis gasped as strong hands took her by the arms and stood her up, pinning her between Grant and Grim, making her body feeling infinitely frail and small. Grant’s fingers traced the outline of her chin and a small moan escaped her lips, a shudder jolting right to her core.
“What do you want, Kelis? Tell us,” Grant said, his tone saccharine-sweet, but his eyes anything but.
“I…um…” she stuttered. Grim was behind her, his body so close they were almost touching, but not quite.
Though the cougars had her caught between them, they wouldn’t do anything to her unless she expressly said she wanted them to. And oh how she wanted them to!
“Say it,” Grim growled, his sexy voice making her almost mewl, desperate to push herself against him and Grant, to have both of them right now!
“I want both of you,” she said, and it came out a little breathless, a little wanting.
But that was how she felt, and she wasn’t going to back down from it now. Kelis could almost feel the grin that formed on Grim’s lips, same as it did on Grant’s, and her first sensation was Grim’s hot lips grazing along the length of her neck, his fingers pushing aside her long blonde locks. She dipped her head back and to the side, groaning as his touch set her on fire.
Grant’s hands slipped down her sides and stopped on her hips, his thumbs pressing against her soft stomach and making her arch her body in his direction. He dipped forward and when his lips met hers, Kelis thought she would truly lose her mind. The kiss was magnificent, deep and warm, calming and at the same time stoking that blaze that they’d set inside of her.
He parted from her lips far too fast, leaving her desperate for more, but Grim was there right away, pulling her face to his by capturing her chin between his fingers and turning her to face him. He kissed her too, and that kiss was completely different, passionate, hungry, raw. Their lips gnashed together, his teeth nipping at her lower lip, and she felt a cold lightning strike go through her, joining the much warmer one that Grant’s kiss had given her.
Kelis felt her belt being undone on the fatigues she’d been given when she’d gotten off the airplane, all her clothing having been taken in as evidence. Her hands reached for Grant, tugging at his shirt, and he took it off swiftl
y, tossing it aside. Grim followed his lead, and for a second she was left to admire two almost identical, completely flawless bodies.
Grim had tattoos on his chest and arms. She could see the SEAL logo on his ribs, close to his heart, and the only tattoo that Grant had was in the same spot. They were both complete bad boys, but Grim fit the bill much better, while the danger in Grant was more understated, bubbling underneath a seemingly calm surface.
“Fuck,” she whispered, eyes wide as she reached her hands out to touch their chests, trailing down along their ridged abs. “You look so good.”
The men grinned, dark mirror images of one another, and the next thing Kelis knew, she found herself shirtless and being helped out of her boots and pants, the men working together efficiently. She undid their belts in the meanwhile, not managing to resist the urge to run her palm down the length of their zippers either, causing her to gasp. They weren’t just huge as far as their bodies were concerned, but all over!
Grant kissed her again, more forcefully now that her hand was still on his cock, willing her to push his pants down. She did so, moaning into his mouth as Grim took off her bra and grabbed her heavy breasts with both hands, clasping them with his rough palms. It felt so good, her delicate skin against his calloused hands, her tongue snaking into Grant’s mouth. She lost herself in the moment completely and nothing could have shaken her from it.
Grim laid kisses down her spine, and when he reached the small of her back, his fingers hooked around the fabric of her panties, dragging them down and around her ankles. She could smell her excitement, so she had to assume that her hot and heady scent was assaulting the nostrils of the two commandos as well. It seemed to only drive them wilder, just like she wanted.
