by Abby Blake
“And she’s happy?” Violet winced when she heard the wonder in her voice. She probably shouldn’t have sounded so interested, but wicked images of what Jayden and Brandon and even the brother she’d only seen in photos could do to her together were winding sensual promises through her skull. Hell, she probably shouldn’t have read all of those ménage romances, but imagining sex with all three Delko brothers…Oh, wow.
“Louise seems very happy. She was working as a sheriff’s deputy when she met them, so I can assure you she’s more than able to hold her own, even surrounded by three bossy husbands.”
“Seriously?” He grinned widely like he was having a great time shocking her with the unusual circumstances of his friend’s marriage. Again a million questions buzzed through her head, but at least this time she managed to keep her mouth shut. He grinned and watched her as she tried to hide her curiosity.
Finally he breathed out and laughed heartily. “She is a very happy woman, and so are the men she loves.”
“Wow, that’s…um…wow.”
“It is wow,” he said with a teasing grin. “She has three men loving her, protecting her, providing for her.”
“Hell, I’d settle for one half-decent guy,” she lamented before she really gave the words serious thought.
He chuckled. “Isn’t my little brother treating you right?”
“Oh, no. I mean, yes, he’s treating me right, but,”—she turned away, unable to look at Brandon as she voiced her concern—“surely you can see I’m not a good choice for him. He’s young and has the whole world at his feet. I’ve been around the block a time or two.”
“Hmm, I can see your point.” The words were so unexpected that her gaze flew to his face, but he grinned wickedly and added, “Maybe you better run off with me.”
She laughed, relieved that he wasn’t taking her maudlin thoughts too seriously. “I’m not sure Jayden would like that.”
“Actually, Jayden would love that.” His sudden change in demeanor threw her off-balance once more. “We’ve actually discussed what it would be like to live in a relationship like Louise has with her men. I think you might fit perfectly.”
Three men? Three rich men? Geez, maybe she’d had too much sun. She glanced up at the sky, frowned at the dark clouds, and wondered if she was maybe suffering brain freeze. Surely she was hallucinating or having a breakdown or something. This entire conversation could not be real.
“Think about it,” Brandon said as he pulled her hand into his, and turned her to look at him. He touched her face with the back of his knuckles. The skin was rough and calloused but so very warm. How the hell could he be so warm?
She didn’t even have the sense to pull away when he leaned in to kiss her. She just melted into his touch and mentally catalogued every sensation. Heat coursed through her, his nearness warming her blood and sending her brain into forbidden territory. Three men? What the hell was she thinking?
She jerked away from Brandon, half afraid he would dissolve into thin air and half afraid that he wouldn’t. “I…I need to talk to Jayden.”
“Of course,” Brandon said with a grin before he stepped away and gave her some much-needed space. They walked back to the car in companionable silence, and he didn’t even try to hold her hand. Hell, why was she disappointed?
“Lunch,” she blurted as they got into the car.
“Sure. What’s your favorite restaurant?”
“Hell, no,” she said, holding up her hands in an effort to stop the suggestion. “I am not letting you take me to a restaurant for lunch. This isn’t a date.”
“Of course not,” Brandon said agreeably, but he was wearing a wide grin, and she couldn’t quite reconcile it with the words coming from his mouth.
“Seriously. This is just two friends hanging out. All that stuff about your friend and her husbands, that doesn’t affect today. It has nothing to do with this…this thing between us.”
She groaned aloud at his happy smile. Clearly he wasn’t getting the point. She went to list all the reasons why she needed to talk to Jayden first, but Brandon cut her off.
“Okay, how about we grab a couple of pizzas and head back to the apartment. Jayden will need to eat as well, and I doubt he’ll grumble about the interruption if we grab an extra-large meat combo with double cheese.”
She smiled. It was Jayden’s favorite pizza. She had no idea how a man studying medicine, and who should know better, could put such huge amounts of cholesterol into his body. Yet, she’d watched him do it on more than one occasion. Ten minutes later Violet’s jaw nearly hit the counter when Brandon ordered two of those heart-attack-waiting-to-happen pizzas and a half-and-half vegetarian and barbecue chicken one for her.
By the time they entered the apartment Violet had almost managed to convince herself that their surreal conversation in the park had never happened. Three husbands? Where had she dreamed up that idea?
Chapter Five
Jayden smelled the pizza long before his brother’s and their mate’s scents reached his nose. He was already salivating by the time they walked into the apartment. But he went straight for his woman, sensing that the talk she’d had with Brandon had left her feeling a bit shell-shocked.
She moved into his arms easily, and he breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t pull away. He could feel a nervous energy bouncing off her and suspected it had something to do with his brother’s behavior. His theory was proven a moment later when Brandon stepped up behind her and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck.
She startled, like she wanted to move away, but Jayden laughed quietly and whispered, “See I told you he’d love you.”
She lifted her head and looked at him. He couldn’t quite contain his joy as he took her mouth in a kiss that seared him all the way to his bones and left the arousal level much, much higher in the room. Very deliberately he broke the kiss, smiled at their girl, and turned her around so that his brother could give her the same. Jayden caressed her hips, hoping to soothe and encourage as his brother took her lips in a kiss that left them all aching with need.
Finally, Brandon lifted his head and smiled down at their mate.
“I must be out of my mind,” she whispered.
“Nope,” Brandon said as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Not yet.”
She seemed stunned for a moment, but then she giggled and whispered, “You’re probably right.”
“Lunch,” Brandon proclaimed as he broke their clinch, patted her hip, and then headed for the kitchen.
Jayden watched Violet as she watched Brandon. She seemed more amused than upset, and Jayden felt his own tension level drop considerably. Maybe, just maybe, they had a chance to make things work.
“Is he always like that?” she asked Jayden as Brandon grabbed a pizza and began eating.
Jayden shrugged. “Pretty much.”
She glanced around the room but finally asked, “And you’re okay with what just happened?”
“Absolutely.”
She looked like she might say something else, but Brandon called them to hurry their asses up, and she turned toward the kitchen instead.
* * * *
Declan smiled as he hung up the phone. Finally a little bit of good news. Brandon had sounded quite excited about their mate and assured him that Violet was definitely the type of woman they would all have chosen if they’d been given the chance to choose. That at least gave him hope for the future.
He was more than ready to settle into a steady relationship even if it did mean sharing his woman with his brothers. In some ways it was almost fitting. As kids they’d been inseparable, as adults they all worked for the family business, and as husbands they’d all love the same woman.
The best news was that she wasn’t some little gold digger trying to latch on to a rich doctor. In many ways she was the opposite, even to the point that she was refusing to visit the resort until she could get time off work and save the money to pay for her own flight. He’d heard the annoyance in his brother
’s voice when Brandon had explained, but he’d also sensed the pride that Brandon felt in their mate. She was strong and independent, and she would definitely need that when mated to three bossy, overprotective males.
“When does she get here?” his mother asked as he came into the office. She’d been a little shocked when they’d explained what was happening, but she wanted her sons to be happy. She also realized it put her one step closer to being a grandmother—something she was very much looking forward to.
“She’s not coming.”
When his mother’s smile faltered, Declan felt like the world’s biggest jerk. “I mean, she’s refusing to let us pay for her flight, so we’ll need to be patient while she organizes her own finances.”
“Great,” his mother said, her disappointment practically dripping from the word. “You finally find your mate and she’s going to be stubborn about it.”
“Yup,” Declan said, knowing that his grin would confuse his mother even more. Declan had spent a lot of time dating the ladies who frequented the resort, but he’d only met one who’d been possessive and clingy. It had been enough to convince him that it wasn’t what he wanted. Violet, on the other hand, seemed exactly the type of woman he wanted.
“I don’t suppose she’d take too kindly to an intervention-slash-kidnapping?” His mother smiled, but Declan suspected that the woman was only half joking. Hell, maybe they should wait a while before introducing their mate to their mother. The woman’s enthusiasm was probably enough to scare Violet away.
But Declan laughed anyway. From everything he’d heard from Brandon and Jayden their lady would probably verbally castrate them before she let herself be kidnapped. Even though what had happened with her ex still burned his gut, Declan was very proud of the way she’d handled it.
“When does she get here?” his dad practically growled as he walked past the office door.
“Not for a while,” Declan answered. His dad was probably going to be the hardest to convince that Violet truly belonged to them. The fact that Declan was falling for her even though he hadn’t actually met her yet was proof enough for Declan. But his dad was a different story. Even though his mother and father had a happy marriage and loved each other deeply, they weren’t true mates, so they hadn’t experienced the type of uncontrollable attraction he felt for a woman he barely knew. He was very aware that being mates didn’t actually guarantee they would love, or even like, each other, but he felt confident enough that they were off to a good start.
“What does ‘Not for a while’ mean?” his father asked in a grumpy voice.
Declan shrugged. “She won’t let us pay her airfare.”
“She what?” His dad had bounced the gold-digger theory around a few times in the past two days, so it felt kind of nice to be able to throw Violet’s stubbornness in the man’s face.
“She won’t let—”
But Brandon’s mother spoke over his father. “Why won’t she let us pay?”
“She wants to pay her own way. And,” Declan said a little louder, cutting off whatever his father was going to say next. “She doesn’t want to lose her job, so she needs to organize holidays.”
“What the hell? She’s a waitress. Give her a job in the restaurant. It’s not like she’ll want to leave once she gets here.”
Declan felt angry enough to want to put another fist through the wall. He knew that his dad would change his tune once he met Violet, but his gruff attitude was getting really annoying.
Fortunately, the man chose that moment to stalk away. The front door rattled on its hinges a moment later, and the distant sound of wood being chopped reached his ears soon after that. So much for being retired. At the rate his dad had been cutting firewood they were going to have enough to last several winters.
“He’ll come around,” his mother said. Declan hoped like hell it proved to be true.
* * * *
Violet woke for the second morning in a row surrounded by warm muscles. Both Jayden and Brandon had crawled into bed with her the last two nights and simply held her all night long. She could honestly say she’d never been warmer…or hotter.
“Good morning, baby girl,” Brandon whispered in her ear as he pulled her closer. “Did you sleep well?”
Well? If dreaming of red-hot threesomes with these two all night counted as sleeping then, yes, she slept very well. But he didn’t really need to know all of that, so she nodded instead.
He laughed quietly as if he heard every word she hadn’t said and then tilted her chin up so that he could press a soft kiss to her lips. “Is there any way I can convince you to come home with me today?”
She was tempted. Oh, she was tempted, but she wasn’t about to let curiosity and overexcited hormones make her decisions for her. And she certainly wasn’t accepting their money. She shook her head and tried to remind herself that a relationship with three men would be damn near impossible to keep. No matter how happy their friend Louise was, surely she was the exception rather than the rule. Keeping a relationship happy with only two people was hard enough. The statistics on divorce proved that. How on earth would Violet keep three men with very different personalities happy?
And was she really thinking of doing it?
Hell, she’d already agreed to meet the other brother, but was she seriously considering their offer?
“Brandon,” she whispered quietly, trying not to wake Jayden. “What does Louise do now? You said she was a sheriff’s deputy. What does she do now?”
“Oh,” he said with another quiet laugh. “She still works. She’s involved in security for a large private company.”
“That’s good,” Violet said just a little too enthusiastically. It was a relief to learn that their friend Louise wasn’t just a bed partner. Violet might not have a heap of ambition when it came to her career, but she wanted more than just being a sex toy to three men. And she certainly wouldn’t be able to take a backseat and let anyone make all of her decisions for her.”
“Actually, Louise has a friend, Andrea, who also has three husbands. I believe Andrea gave birth to triplets a few months ago.”
“Can I meet them?”
“Of course,” Brandon said as he caressed her hip with his warm hand. “They both live in a gated community a few hours from the resort. We can take you to meet them anytime you like.”
“A gated community?”
“I’ve only been there a few times myself, but it’s really beautiful. And it’s a very safe place to raise pups.”
“Pups?” she asked, feeling confused.
“Children,” he said with a grin. “Offspring, babies, pups, cubs…”
“Sounds lovely,” she said as all of her old dreams resurfaced. A safe place to raise babies sounded just about perfect to her.
“Sure is,” he said as his hand wandered over her ass. She’d slept naked in their arms for the past two nights, but this was the first time Brandon had actually touched her. She’d gotten the distinct impression that they were trying to let her indicate when she was ready. A part of her brain argued that she barely knew him, but deep down, somewhere inside her confusion was a small voice that said she belonged to this man—and his brothers.
It made no sense. She’d never believed in the idea of love at first sight, but maybe this man would prove her wrong. It seemed so strange—especially since she could feel Jayden’s warmth at her back, but the thought of being with Brandon just felt natural, even necessary.
“Can I make love to you?” he asked in a deep, sexy voice.
She shook her head as words jammed in her throat. “No condoms,” she finally managed to squeak out before he could misunderstand her. Whether it was right or wrong, she wanted both Brandon and Jayden, but not without precautions. She’d already erred in that department, and she had no wish to do it again.
Brandon glanced at Jayden and raised an eyebrow.
She looked over her shoulder to find Jayden awake. “Don’t blame him,” she said to Brandon. “It was only once a
nd we weren’t thinking clearly and neither of us indulge in unsafe sex usually and we’d both had a fright and it was a fairly safe time in my cycle so I think we should be okay in that department—not to say that if we did accidentally get pregnant that I wouldn’t have the baby, just that I’m fairly certain that I’m not…you know…accidentally going to have his baby.”
Brandon looked a little shell-shocked by her garbled explanation, and she felt Jayden pull her away from his brother and into his arms. He pressed a kiss to the back of her neck as he held her spooned against him. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “It’ll all work out, I promise you.”
“I know,” she said, willing to believe every word her lover said. She didn’t know whether he meant she wouldn’t get pregnant or that if she did get pregnant he’d take care of her, but she was willing to believe him on that one. Yet she wasn’t silly enough to take the same chance again.
Brandon watched his brother for a moment longer, but then smiled and nodded in agreement. “Well then, we’ll just have to find some other way to pass the time.”
She couldn’t help but smile at his confidence. The man was a rake, and his eyes promised heavenly delights. He leaned over her, pushing her harder against Jayden as he pressed his lips against hers. His tongue swept in, caressing her mouth as his and Jayden’s hands roved over her curves, inflaming her need, erasing her worries, making these men the center of her world.
Brandon broke the kiss, smiled wickedly, and slid down the bed. Jayden kissed her slowly, sensually, damn near breaking her heart with his gentleness even as Brandon threw the blankets off them and tickled her thighs. She writhed to get away from the funny sensation even as she tried to concentrate on kissing Jayden.
She tilted her hips, and Brandon made a sound of triumph before she realized he’d pinned her knees to the bed with her legs wide open. She shook as Brandon stopped all movement, her mind painting a picture of what he would see. He used his incredibly warm tongue to lick her labia, and they both groaned as she felt her pussy pulse more juice onto her thighs.
