J.J. just stared at them.
“And you still can’t figure it out? You still think that I’m some street slut involved with a drug lord who’s going to get locked up for a huge deal or maybe even for manufacturing and distributing drugs, once I testify?” She chuckled.
“She’s a cop,” Conway stated. She turned to look at him.
“Give the man a prize,” she said and then stared at the men.
“You’re law enforcement?” Lincoln asked.
She shoved her finger into Calder’s chest and was filled with attitude.
“The name is Julianna Jacobs. My friends call me J.J. I’m an investigator for the Nevada State Police, and I work undercover for a special unit. Well, I did as of a month ago. Now, I’m a woman with a bull’s-eye on my forehead, just trying to stay alive. My chances are slim. I get that, considering who’s after me, but I’ve accepted it,” she said and then looked away from the four of them. Before they could react, she turned back toward them.
“Hey, it is what it is. If it seems like these guys are coming this way, I’ll get out of here on my own. I won’t let you die because of me,” she said and started to walk out of the room.
“So who is Frank?” Calder asked, with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
She stared at Calder. “Frank is my commander, and my only friend. He set this up. He contacted Sandman as a last resort to keep me alive. I pray that he isn’t killed because of me.”
She walked away and Conway looked at the men.
“I’ll go talk to her. You guys get things started with dinner,” Conway stated.
“No,” Calder said. “It was me who got in her face and challenged her. I’ll handle this.”
Conway nodded his head as Calder left the room.
He looked at Brook and Lincoln.
“We were all way off,” Brook stated.
“We sure the fuck were,” Lincoln said.
“We need to get her to come around and give us more information on her situation. If she was working undercover, then more than likely she has evidence or actual proof to put away some seriously powerful people. If the federal agents who were watching her the first time around in protective custody were paid off and killed, then the person she has info against is very powerful and resourceful.”
“So are we. She needs us, Conway. You saw her eyes. You heard the defeat in her voice. It’s like she’s accepted the fact that she’s going to get killed by this guy. That really fucking pisses me off,” Lincoln stated.
“Me, too. And it isn’t just the fact that the four of us are totally attracted to her. She’s like the perfect woman for the four of us,” Brook stated. Conway shook his head and released a long sigh.
“That’s another thing we’re going to have to address later tonight, after she’s gone to bed. But for now, let’s just make her feel comfortable, and give her every opportunity to open up about herself, even if it means sharing some info on us.”
“I’m all for that. She’s been hurt badly enough. Those bruises are a reminder that whatever she went through it wasn’t easy to escape from,” Brook added.
“I feel an even stronger urge to protect her now. Call me crazy, but she’s special,” Lincoln said and then exited the room. Brook followed as Conway looked toward the hallway. Calder had entered J.J.’s room and she hadn’t thrown him out yet. A good sign? He felt his own gut clench and hope fill him inside. No woman had given him such a jolt the way J.J. had tonight. Learning that she was an undercover investigator just added to her appeal. Conway knew that things happened for a reason. Her being sent here to them was not just coincidence. They were all suffering in their own ways. Whether it was fear of their pasts, fear of the present, or despair over feeling alone, even though the house was full.
Could J.J. change that for them? Could they protect her once they knew all the details of her case? Hope swelled inside of him as Conway headed into the kitchen, too.
* * * *
J.J. leaned against the window frame in her bedroom. She felt defeated, lost, and completely confused about what had just happened out there in the living room. She really had no qualms about telling the men about her life about what happened. But as Calder became confrontational, she’d done what she always did. She closed up, got in her fighting stance, and prepared to battle it out. But he was Special Forces. Was she losing her freaking mind?
She heard the knock on her door and before she could say come in, Calder entered. He walked right in and stopped in the middle of her room. Immediately having the man in her bedroom changed her emotions. He was six feet four, in phenomenal physical condition, and he was staring at her.
“Listen, I’m sorry for coming off so strong back there. I shouldn’t have pushed.”
“Calder, there’s no need to apologize. I’m used to having to defend my capabilities, and especially with men. Don’t sweat it. It will be cool from here on out,” she said as she pushed off the windowsill and stood straight.
“You were upset, and I kept pushing.”
She walked closer. “Calder, I don’t need coddling. I’m used to doing things on my own, just as I’m sure you are. I could be a bit more understanding to your position and your team’s as well. But I don’t need sympathy or pampering,” she said and started walking toward the doorway.
Calder grabbed her upper arm, stopping her directly in front of him. His eyes zeroed in on hers, as he stared down at her.
“Sympathy or pampering. Damn, why the hell are you so full of fucking attitude?”
“Me? What about you? You’ve been giving me shit since I got here. You’re distrusting and bossy.”
“You’re distrusting, too,” he countered.
“You’re worse,” she stated. Calder pulled her against him.
She gasped. “You have a real tough girl attitude, and that drives me fucking crazy.”
They were both breathing rapidly. But J.J. felt this argument going in another direction, and so did her pussy. Her nipples hardened, her face felt flush.
“Fuck,” Calder said, and then lifted her up and kissed her.
She immediately straddled his hips, as his large palm grabbed a hold of her ass. He kissed her deeply, as they both struggled for control of the kiss as their hands explored one another’s bodies like wild animals.
His hands were big and hard as they grabbed at her body. She felt his one hand move under her blouse and the cami she wore and straight to her breast. He cupped it hard, and she moaned into his mouth. In a flash she was pressed up against the wall in the bedroom. She grabbed a hold of his head, feeling how hard and defined even his face and neck were.
They both pulled from their mouths at the same time to breathe. They were chin to chin and the power of their attraction was so intense they just stared at one another.
“Holy shit,” he said.
“Exactly,” she replied, and then he went after her neck. He licked and sucked her skin and collarbone and as he moved his lips across the front she gasped, grabbing his head to pull him back. The tears hit her eyes. She clenched them tightly. The damn bruising was still so raw and fragile.
“Shit. I’m sorry. Fuck,” he whispered, as he slowly lowered her feet to the ground. She straightened out her blouse, and he fixed his shirt.
She thought for a moment that he was going to deny what had just happened between them. But he didn’t.
Calder placed one hand over her shoulder above the wall behind her. His other hand held her hip in place as she leaned back against the wall. And his thigh remained between her legs and softly against her mound. Despite the jeans she wore, she knew she was dripping wet. Calder was one sexy, aggressive soldier.
He stared down at her as she gently held her throat.
“I’m sorry about that. We got a little carried away, huh?” He gave a small smile. She didn’t know he had that in him. He was always so tough and serious all the time.
“No problem. I guess it’s going to take some time for these bruises to hea
l completely.”
He lifted his hand from her waist. She felt the loss but then he gently glided his thumb over her throat. He was very careful not to apply even the slightest bit of pressure. She could imagine him holding her throat gently, possessively, as he sunk his cock deep into her cunt. J.J. closed her eyes and willed away the desire.
“No one has ever gotten under my skin the way you have. Not one fucking person I’ve met,” he told her. She opened her eyes, as his fingers left her throat and then trailed to her shoulder where he twirled part of her hair around his finger.
“What about Pauline?”
He snorted.
“I said under my skin, not on my nerves.”
“Give me time. I’m sure I can accomplish that,” she teased.
He nodded.
“I want to get to know you. I want to know the whole story, everything.”
She felt herself tense up.
“Is that why you kissed me?” she asked. He gripped her hip and gave her a squeeze.
“Hell, no. I kissed you because I wanted to. Shit, J.J., you’re damn lucky that everyone was in that room earlier, or I would have hauled your very naked ass over my shoulder and straight to my bedroom. We’d still be there now.”
She felt her cheeks warm.
“Awfully cocky, aren’t you, Calder?”
“Confident, ma’am. Cockiness gets people killed.”
They stared at one another again, and she wondered what he was thinking.
“There’s a lot for us to talk about. This thing, what just happened—”
“Is a mistake, and we shouldn’t let it happen again.”
“Hell, no. It wasn’t a mistake. It is going to happen again, and I won’t be the only one kissing these lips or exploring this body.”
“What?” she asked filled with shock.
“You know damn well that you’re attracted to all of us on the team. Just like we’re all attracted to you. What you need to understand, is that things are going to change from here on out. You’re going to explain everything so that we have the tools and the knowledge we need to protect you and help you. Keep an opened mind and just let it happen. After dinner, we’ll start,” he said and then pushed away from the wall. He took her hand and was leading her from the bedroom.
“Hey, I need to fix up or they’re going to know that we kissed.”
“Honey, they already know,” he said as they headed down the hallway. She felt her cheeks warm up mighty damn fast and her belly tighten in fear before they reached the kitchen. How would they know? Would Conway and the others be angry, pissed off, confrontational? She just didn’t think she could handle anything else tonight. When they entered the kitchen, all eyes were upon them.
J.J. swallowed hard as Calder held her by her hips and directed her toward her chair.
One glance around the room at Conway, Brook, and Lincoln, and she felt her temperature go up another notch. They weren’t mad. Those weren’t expressions of anger, disgust, or disappointment. No way. Instead, every feminine instinct told her exactly what was in their eyes.
Hunger.
* * * *
Long after J.J. went to bed, the men gathered around the surveillance room to talk about what had transpired. Conway was leading the discussion, taking his role as their team leader beyond the years in the field. He was good at it, and none of his team complained. He had some concerns about this job, and ultimately the way all his men immediately took to J.J. It was time to have a serious discussion.
“Okay, I understand that we discussed the possibility of sharing one woman, just like some of our close friends have. But what we need to discuss is number one, are we sure that we’re ready to do something like this, now that we’re face to face with a prospective candidate that we obviously mutually are attracted to, and secondly, why J.J.? What makes her stand out from any other women we’ve ever met since retiring from the military?” Conway asked.
He looked around the room and Brook very seriously began his perspective.
Brook was leaning back in the chair, his palms flat on his thighs as he looked at each of them and then back at Conway.
“Initially, she pissed me off. Her attitude sucked, and her refusal to even engage in a civilized conversation with any of us got to me. However, it was the lost look on her face, in those moments when she zones out, like we’ve all witnessed, that tugged at something deep within me. Maybe it’s the artist in me, the craftsman that molds plain wood into something more, that makes me realize how beautiful J.J. truly is. Discard the bruises, the piss-fucking-poor attitude, and peel away those layers of distrust and fear, and look at her. She’s everything each of us had discussed that we wanted in a woman.”
“He’s right. Everything Brook said is right on. She’s scared, and those bruises on her neck indicate that her struggle to survive must have been frightening. Have you seen her neck up closely? There are finger marks there. Fucking finger marks, guys. Someone held that woman by her throat to try to kill her or control her. That just fucking pisses me off. She wants our help. I know she does. You heard our conversation in the gym. She asked a lot of questions about PTSS. She knows she has it and she’s suffering from it. We can help her,” Lincoln stated.
“J.J. is stubborn, she’s used to handling things by herself and being left with nowhere to go, no one to trust, and being hunted like some fucking animal isn’t right. She needs us. But to answer your question more directly, Conway, we need her. She’s the first and only woman that the four of us met and that we all agree we want. She’s got the tough no-nonsense attitude that I find pretty fucking sexy,” Calder stated.
“No shit. That’s why an argument between the two of you ended up with your tongue down her throat and her pinned against the bedroom wall,” Lincoln retorted.
They all chuckled.
“She’s not a pushover. This case she was working undercover on must be considered pretty high profile. I want her safe. I don’t want her touched, bruised, hurt by another person again. If that’s not good enough of an answer for any of you, then I don’t care,” Calder added.
“It’s a good enough answer. It’s what we’re all thinking, besides the fact that she’s got the sexiest body any of us have ever seen on a woman,” Brook said.
“Well, at least one for real and not in between the pages of Playboy,” Lincoln added. They laughed.
“What about you, Conway? You weren’t too keen about engaging in this type of relationship when we started talking about the possibility years ago. What’s changed?” Calder asked.
Conway took a deep breath as he leaned against the desk. He looked at his men, his team, his family.
“We did. The four of us have been together for most of our lives. We always have one another’s backs. We feel safest together as a team. There are no secrets between us because we’re one unit, one team, and together we’re whole. That’s with all our faults, our weaknesses, although we don’t admit to those, and our strengths. We’ve gotten through some heavy shit in our lives, together. She doesn’t have anyone. She’s tough, but she still can’t handle this alone. She can’t keep up this pace of self-sacrifice. J.J. definitely does have all the qualities we said we wanted in a woman to share. She has more than all of them. She is beyond anything we could have conjured up in our minds. But my fear is for her sake. She’s in over her head. She has already admitted that she believes death is coming. She’s fragile. Is it fair for us to pursue her romantically, when the woman is so scared and distrusting?”
“She needs us right now. She needs reassurance and support, but she needs honesty. We can’t pretend that we don’t want her in our bed, and between us. We can’t lie to her and ignore these desires. It will cause trouble between all of us, and that could scare her even more. I say we let it happen. She’s not going anywhere and neither are we. We take the time to get to know her, the situation, and how we all fit together. That’s a normal process, Chief,” Brook said and they chuckled.
Conway shook
his head.
“Holy shit, when she called me chief like that, I was so tempted to throw her over my knee and spank that ass of hers. Fuck. She shocked me,” Conway admitted.
They laughed.
“Well, it’s how I wound up in a make out sessions with her,” Calder stated.
“She may not be military, but as law enforcement she protects under similar rules. She helps to enforce the laws and keep people safe. I respect that. I consider her one of us, and we will find out her story. We need to. It can help us to protect her and it can help her to start healing,” Conway added.
“I bet she looks fucking hot in a uniform,” Brook stated.
“Hell, yeah, and even better out of it,” Lincoln said.
“So we agree to take our time, get to know her, and let the cards fall?” Conway asked.
They all agreed.
“She’ll come around. We’ll find out who did this to her and we’ll help put him away,” Lincoln said.
“Six feet under sounds better to me,” Calder added and they all agreed.
Chapter 5
J.J. was working out in the gym. She had already done the elliptical and now was moving around the punching bag. Lincoln and Calder were with her, as per their rules of her going nowhere without at least one of them.
No one mentioned last night, the kiss, or even asked her any questions at the dinner table. She had been shocked. It seemed that the tension was still high, but there was an added feel of anticipation. It had her walking on eggshells, but not the men. Long after she went to bed, the four of them remained up talking. Their mumbled voices eventually put her to sleep, as she thought about Calder and their little make out session.
Calder had the darkest gray eyes she had ever seen. But after they had kissed, the color seemed to brighten. She didn’t know if she’d imagined it, but it was like he let his guard down for just a moment. Perhaps she was just desperate to feel like she wasn’t so alone in her need to keep a distance and isolate herself. The four men, Calder, Lincoln, Brook, and Conway had a look in their eyes that was so similar it kind of bugged her out. They weren’t brothers as far as she knew. At least in the biological sense or through blood, but there was a definite bond there.
The American Soldier Collection 7: Their Sin City Showgirl (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 8
