by Aubrey Rose
Julie felt shamed by the hurt in Ryan’s voice. She didn’t know they cared so much but what did they mean by ‘territory’ and ‘mate’? If they hadn’t mentioned her name directly she’d have thought they were talking about something else.
Confused by the tone of their voices and the strange turn of phrase, she stumbled backwards and managed to somehow trip over her own feet. The conversation between the two men stopped abruptly and she heard Ryan call out her name clearly.
Sighing, she gathered more nerve and moved out into the living room area and found both Caine and Ryan standing there looking her way. They made no move to close the gap between them as she stood some distance away.
“You heard us talking?” Ryan asked more gently while Caine gazed at her with a look that made every inch of her start to tingle. It was a few moments before she could think of what to say.
“I heard a bit,” she said, not knowing where to look. “Could you please tell me what’s going on? Why did you guys bring me here?”
Caine stepped forward, his eyes deepened with worry. “Don’t you remember? We were at the restaurant and you went to the rest room. I was just in time to see you about to leave with the two men in a car. You fainted and we brought you here to keep you safe. Whoever those people were, we wanted you someplace they’d never track you. No one knows about this place but us.”
He moved just close enough to reach out and touch her, but she backed into the wall. A pained look came over Caine’s face but he cloaked it quickly.
“Julie, why can’t you be completely honest with us? What kind of trouble are you in?”
“Why don’t we start with you two,” Julie said, her voice filled with suspicion. “You say you saw me try to leave with two men, but you were nowhere close to where we were. It was Ryan who came out to rescue me when that monster wolf came out of nowhere and...”
She shivered, wrapping her arms around her as she relived each moment, seeing that huge dark golden beast almost rip the men to shreds. She still didn’t understand it but she had a strange feeling the wolf had come out to protect her. But why?
Caine paused at her accusatory tone. “I was close, but you didn’t see me,” he said enigmatically. I was busy getting help while Ryan rushed out to get you out of harm’s way.”
Ryan stalked forward and his dark eyes looked stormy as he searched Julie’s face.
“Why would you do that, Julie? Endanger yourself the way you did? You knew we were waiting back at the restaurant, yet you chose to leave with strange men without saying a word. Do you have any idea how much we care about you?”
“I did it to protect you both!” she cried out, stung by Ryan’s fury. “If I didn’t go with them, they’d have...”
She shook her head and spun around. She couldn’t face the righteous anger she could feel coming off them in waves. Taking a deep breath, she faced them again with reluctance. “Look, I’m sorry for getting you mixed up in my troubles. Just give me my clothes and I’ll leave. Thanks for all you’ve done for me so far but I can’t let you get any more involved. For your own safety, you need to let me go.”
Ryan seemed to swallow his anger, his voice gentling with surprising speed as he gripped her by the shoulders. “Don’t you think we’re more than capable of protecting you, Julie? That’s all we ever wanted to do.”
“And I told you once before, I can take care of myself,” Julie said, hating to do it but shrugging out of his hold. “Please. Just let me go. Forget you ever met me.”
“That’s not an option,” Caine said suddenly, in the harshest tone she’d ever heard him use. “And if you think we’re going to let you walk out of our lives, you’ve got another thing coming. And anyone who ever tries to hurt you or take you away will have to go through us first.”
Despite her inherent independence and sense of self-preservation, Julie felt a certain thrill from Caine’s words and the blaze of possession in his blue eyes. Ryan looked just as fiercely protective, and she felt that familiar sensation of sinking helplessly into his gaze, now heated pools of green. She looked from one to the other and suddenly Julie realized just how serious they were about her. Things had gotten real and they were no more just the two caring, attentive ‘friends’ she enjoyed hanging out with. Even the sexual tension she normally felt around them had magnified to almost impossible proportions.
Somehow, they’d got her alone, in this place. It was some kind of cabin in the woods and she had an inkling they were miles from anywhere. They claimed it was to keep her safe but was that the true reason? In bringing her out here didn’t they suddenly become the one thing she needed protection from right now?
To her amazement, Ryan groaned out loud. “I’m sorry if we frightened you. We can smell your fear, Julie and that hurts more than anything could – knowing you’re scared of us.”
They could smell her fear? There it was again, the strange terms they used. Why did nothing make sense about them anymore?
“Julie....”
She heard them both call out for her but she was too busy running back the way she’d come. Suddenly the room seemed the safest place to be. It was familiar and kept her out of their reach. She dashed down the corridor and back into the room, slamming the door behind her. She thanked the stars there was a key and a bolt, both which she quickly used. She had her back against the door-frame as she breathed in shallowly, her mind spinning round in circles.
The sound of Caine’s voice on the other side of the door made her jump. “Please, Julie. Search your heart and you’ll know we’d rather die than hurt you,” he said softly and it was like he spoke just inches from her face. “You don’t have to tell us anything if you aren’t ready. But we can’t let you leave unless we’re sure we can protect you. And I understand that you don’t like to feel that you need to depend on others for your safety, but for once, believe me when I tell you that we’re for you, Julie. You can count on it.”
She hadn’t drawn a single breath all through his speech, and she didn’t say one word in reply though she could tell he was waiting. She heard his deep sigh as several seconds later, he retreated from the door. Only then did she sag against the frame, back sliding down its length to the ground as she hugged her arms around her knees and rested her spinning head on her arms.
Chapter Nine
Last night had been crazy and they hadn’t thought twice about bringing her here, the one place they knew she could be perfectly safe. She’d woken that morning with questions and they’d both been too caught up in their fear of almost losing her, unsure as to how she would handle the truth of what they were.
But then they looked searchingly into her eyes and her smile shone brighter than the morning sun breaking over the mountains.
“I smell breakfast,” she said, moving forward to the island where Ryan was seated on a bar stool. He grinned, the flash of white filled with relief and warmth.
“Caine has kitchen duty this morning, that’s why everything smells so good and not burned, like my cooking would undoubtedly have. Why don’t you sit down, I’ll pour you some coffee.”
She nodded, and looked at Caine who stood by the stove. It was definitely the heavenly smells that had led her straight here from her bedroom. She’d had a lot of time to think things through in the past couple of hours and she’d told herself she’d listen to Caine. Julie decided she’d better start trusting her instincts again, and this time she felt sure she was right about the fact that Ryan and Caine were the men she needed in her life, two people she could rely on even with so much hanging in the balance.
“Hmm, this is so good,” she sighed expressively after just one sip of the fragrant brew. Her hum of pleasure sounded somewhat erotic and when she looked up, blushing, she caught the men watching her, their eyes glued to her full, wet lips. She suddenly felt self conscious of the fact that she only wore panties and a thin t-shirt and she wondered who had undressed her though she was too embarrassed to ask.
Caine soon set out their plates, heaping
with delicious food. When she glanced Caine’s way he merely smirked. “If you’re going to be eating with us, you’ll need to keep up and grow a decent appetite. Now eat, woman.”
Julie hid a smile. She liked the thought of eating with them more often. She also liked the thought that they took her wellbeing so seriously as to whisk her off to their secret hideaway just to keep her safe. Most of all, she liked how it felt to be amongst two people who truly cared about her. Whatever their ‘agenda’, she knew she had no reason to doubt their integrity. And she’d make sure they had no cause to doubt hers.
“For the last several months, I’ve been on the run from my ex-boyfriend,” she began, staring down at her plate. She could feel their joint gaze on her but she continued without looking up.
“Tre Gaines is a man I’ve known all my life – who I thought I knew. He fronted as a legitimate businessman but soon after we started dating five years ago, I realized he was nothing more than a thug who runs some kind of crime ring. He was always this cool, handsome guy with standing in my community. I never dreamed he was into all sorts of shady deals from drugs to arms dealing and even human trafficking.” She shuddered visibly. Now she looked up to meet both pairs of eyes that never shifted from hers.
“Tre is a very powerful man and somehow, he found me. I picked up the phone just days ago to hear his voice. Did you really think you could escape me? Did you think I’d ever give up what’s mine?”
Julie shook her head at the memory and how desperately afraid she’d been to know he was on the other end of the line. He knew where she was and would come after her.
“I wanted to leave the very next day but I guess I was sick of running. I already had a home, new friends. I had you guys,” she said, voice softening as she gazed at them both. “That one time he called, I told him to leave me alone or I’d call the cops. He didn’t call again and I felt relieved. But last night he called my cell. I went into the rest room to answer it and he told me he knew exactly where I was at that moment and who I was with. Said he had men stationed outside the restaurant who’d been ordered to shoot my two companions if I didn’t do as he instructed. I told him not to hurt my friends and I’d do anything he wanted. That was when he told me to leave through the back and get into the car. I was about to do just that when the biggest wolf I’d ever seen flew at my abductor and fairly ripped his arm out. From the way it didn’t try to hurt me, I realized that somehow, it was protecting me. Defending me.”
She smiled slightly, rolling her fork around her food. “And then Ryan showed up to the rescue. Everything went blank after that.”
“Will you tell us exactly why you left Tre in the first place? Did he try to hurt you?” Ryan asked calmly, though the fist he had clenched on the island looked almost white knuckled as if he was reining in his emotions.
Julie let out a deep sigh. “Once I knew the type of man he really was, I tried to leave him but he always threatened to hurt my friends or the people I loved. I didn’t really have anyone else to call my own since he never let anyone stay close to me. I’d already lost my parents when I was in college and whatever friends or relatives I had, drifted away because of my involvement with him. He liked that I was defenseless and in his power – unable to fight for myself. One day, I did fight,” she said with grim satisfaction.
“It was more than six months ago I packed my bags for the last time. He came home early and caught me trying to leave. He grabbed me by the arms and pinned me against the wall. Promised me he’d show me who was my master and by the time he was through, I’d be so disfigured and helpless that no one else would ever want me. That was when he slapped me around, ripped at my clothes and threw me on the floor...” She winced slightly but then after a slight pause to inhale a steadying breath, she continued,
“Somehow, when he got on top of me, I was able to reach for one of paper weights that had fallen to the floor during our struggle. I hit him on the head and knocked him out cold.”
Julie shrugged and began eating again, saying calmly, “That’s how I got to escape from him and I’ve been running ever since.”
“This is where your running stops – for good,” Ryan told her firmly. “Tre can’t get you here. We’ll keep you safe from him for as long as it takes to make sure he pays for all that he’s done.”
Julie slowly swallowed her food and looked from one man to the other. “You both know I can’t hole up here with you forever, right? You’ve got your own lives to lead. I can’t expect you to...”
“Julie, you still don’t understand, do you?” Caine asked, reaching out and brushing his fingertips gently across her bangs, tucking the longer strands behind one ear.
“Understand what?” she croaked, suddenly turned on by his gentle touch and the way his eyes seemed to melt her insides to liquid.
“That you belong with us,” he said simply. “You were meant to share our lives and whatever danger is keeping that from happening, Ryan and I will see to it that it’s a thing of the past.”
The words ‘share’ and ‘our’ had Julie feeling like she would start hyperventilating. She dropped her fork and gulped down the still hot coffee to clear her throat. Ryan, who sat next to her placed a hand gently on her bare knee and the warm weight did impossible things to her already mounting state of arousal. The kitchen suddenly seemed to grow smaller as she became wildly aware of that silken web that enmeshed her with a combined need for these two that almost overpowered her.
“You know what we want, Julie?” Ryan asked huskily. “Or do we need to show you?”
Julie gulped. Ryan’s hand stroking her knee ever so softly...Caine’s fingers forking through her hair with just that bit of sensuality...
No, she definitely didn’t need any more explaining. But that didn’t make it any less excruciatingly beguiling to suddenly come to terms with what she’d only guessed at and...dare she admit to herself, hoped for?
Instead of responding directly, she simply smiled. “Breakfast was perfect. And talking about everything that’s happened has lifted a weight off my chest. You don’t know how much it means knowing that for the first time in a long while, I can feel safe.”
She rose and was about to clean up their dishes when Ryan stopped her. “Don’t worry about those. Go freshen up. Caine will find something you can change into till we can do something about your clothes and what not.”
“Thank you,” she said, feeling strangely shy now that so much was out in the open.
Both men watched her leave the kitchen and there was no mistaking the barely suppressed hunger in their gaze, mixed in with the deepest tenderness. Both emotions warred within them and it was all they could do not to scramble after their mate like horny teenage boys.
It didn’t make things easier to know how much her arousal seeped in droplets of honey down her inner thighs, the scent almost driving them mad. But they had to focus on what was most important and that was protecting Julie from this bastard that had hurt her so much, had driven her away from everything she had ever known. They had to make sure that he could never hurt her again and then she’d be free to move on with her life, to be with them forever.
Their desire made them long to be one with their mate, finally. She was the love of their lives, a woman to be protected and cared for. Her ingrown independence wasn’t going to be a problem because they’d show her the many ways she’d find strength even in submitting to them. One step at a time, they thought, nodding to each other as no more words needed to be said. They knew what they had to do.
Chapter Ten
Julie was taking a long, warm and luxurious shower. Naked beneath the spray, her body tingled so much that each drop seemed to stimulate her every nerve ending.
Closing her eyes brought images she’d long denied, and needs she’d kept bottled-up much too long. Her hands lingered on her throat, breasts and in between her thighs, soaping sensually and wishing it was a lover’s hands that moved over her instead.
Not just any lover. Her lovers – two of
the most physically irresistible men she’d ever met. Two warm-hearted, patient and exciting men who made her feel beautiful when they looked at her. She skimmed her hands back up again, over her belly and up to slightly knead her D-cup sized breasts.
The rush of the water almost made her miss the sound of the bathroom door opening.
Julie suddenly sensed the lone figure of a naked man join her in the shower, taking up the space behind her. Hands, large and deliciously warm, came round tugged her wandering hands down to her sides. Julie gasped inaudibly at the sensation of rock-hard, nude male pushing against her from behind. She didn’t look back but when she glanced down she saw that the arms were dotted with black, tribal ink. The next instant she heard the rumble of his voice in her ear as his lips brushed her lobe.
“Every inch of you is so very beautiful,” Caine growled. “Do you like my hands on you, baby?”
Julie let out a soft moan. If he needed confirmation that he could keep going with his exploration of her thick, curvy frame, then Julie would have thought he could read body language well enough. Even he could feel the way she trembled with carnal response to his fingers feathering over the under swell of her breasts, across the line of her nipples and then sinking down to grip her waist and push her back against his unmistakably rigid manhood. He nestled his turgid length right between the fleshy orbs of her ass, where he felt right at home.
Oh my. Oh, goodness, thought Julie. So long without a man and she was all set to disintegrate if Caine drifted his hand much lower and simply flicked her clit. Fighting for control, she instead rested back against his broad, muscular chest and whispered into the falling shower, “Yes. I like your hands on me. Touch me, Caine. All over.”
He groaned in her ear, and a single, long shudder seemed to move through his body as his fingers tightened momentarily on her hips. Then he spun her round to face him and kissed her hard, so hard their teeth clashed. She panted, hands gripping tightly to the width of his upper arms. The world faded away and Julie caught no more of the sounds or smells of the shower. All she could taste and feel was Caine, and she drew herself up towards him with total abandon. He cradled her to him, trailing his lips sensuously from her responsive mouth to trace her lobe and then her neck with his eager tongue. He bent lower to explore the hollow that dipped between her breasts, which he now had scooped together in his hands. Julie felt intoxicated by his touch and the feeling of his lips on her skin.
