Liberation

by Becca Van

  “Let me take her,” Major said

  Rocco shifted to plant one foot on the ground and carefully maneuvered Delta out the door as he stood up. “I’ve got her.”

  Major nodded and ran his fingers through his hair but didn’t say anything. Rocco knew he wanted to hold her as much as he did, but he was going to keep her where she was until he got her inside. It would only be a minute or so before he had to put her down. Never had a woman felt so right in his arms. Her slight weight was perfect as was her womanly scent. Everything about Delta Sykes was absolutely perfect, and he was determined to have her in his life for the rest of his. Rocco just hoped she would agree to be with him and his brothers, because he wasn’t sure what he’d do if she didn’t.

  * * * *

  Major was more than a little envious of Rocco having the chance to hold Delta for so long, but he pushed his jealousy aside. This wasn’t about him or his brothers. This was about Delta and her needs. They needed to find out what the hell was going on, why someone had targeted the diner and essentially their woman. He was so damn angry at whoever had scared Delta, but until they found the culprit there was nothing to be done.

  Ace had gone ahead of him and Rocco, straight to the recently renovated master bedroom they’d set up in the hope of finding the one woman that was perfect for him and his brothers to share. Major just nodded his affirmation when Ace met his gaze and his brothers smiled and nodded back before tugging the covers back.

  Rocco carefully eased Delta onto the mattress on her side, and after removing the jacket he’d used to cover her gorgeous body with, he and Ace pulled the quilt up over her. He nodded toward the doorway, indicating his brothers to follow him out.

  Ace followed him, but when he didn’t hear Rocco move he paused in the doorway and glanced back. His brother was thinking better than he, for which he was glad. Rocco had turned the bedside lamp off, but flicked the light on in the adjacent bathroom on before closing the door almost all the way, so Delta could find her way about if she woke up and needed the facilities.

  Major hurried down the hall and snagged three beers from the fridge, and handed them to his brothers before taking the cap off and taking a slug.

  “I hate that no one knows who has it in for Delta.” Ace sipped at his beer.

  Just as Major was about to agree, his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and frowned when he saw he didn’t know who was calling but answered anyway, putting it on speaker so his brothers could hear.

  “Hello?”

  “Major Porter?”

  “Who’s asking?”

  “This is Giles Alcott.”

  “And?” Major couldn’t quite keep the bite of anger from his voice.

  “I called to apologize to you, your brothers, and Delta. We had a new guy monitoring things and we thought he was up to speed, enough to leave him on his own for the night. Obviously, I was wrong.”

  Major was too angry to go easy on the security expert. “Obviously.”

  “My brothers and I are going to foot the bill to fix the diner and replace any stock that was lost or damaged. I assure you something like this will never, ever happen again.”

  “You’d better make sure it doesn’t. If Delta hadn’t been able to contact us—I don’t even want to think about what could have happened to her.”

  “Yeah, I know. I am so damn sorry. We’ve never had anything like this happen before, and I can tell you now, it’ll never fucking happen again.”

  “Okay,” Major replied. “Thanks for the call and for footing the damage bill. I’ll let Delta know when she wakes up.”

  “How’d you know she was with us?” Rocco frowned suspiciously.

  “Luke Sun-Walker.”

  “That explains it,” Ace said.

  “Yeah, he called me after he and Damon secured the diner to let me know what had happened. He was just as angry as you three are, and rightly so. The guy monitoring the system should have picked up that something was going on. He’s had more than adequate training. You might be happy to know we’ve fired his ass.”

  “Will that come back on us?” Major asked, worriedly.

  “No, we’ll make sure of it.”

  “Okay, thanks for the call Giles.”

  “Sure. We’ll have contractors start work first thing. Remy, Brandon, and I would like to meet with Delta to apologize.”

  “I’ll let you know,” Major replied.

  “Fair enough.” Giles sighed. “See you soon.”

  “Yeah.” Major ended the call.

  “That was nice of him,” Ace said. “He didn’t have to do that.”

  “No, but something like this should never have happened in the first place.”

  “Don’t go holding a grudge on the Alcotts, Major.” Ace threaded his fingers through his hair. “Giles feels bad enough as is, and he’s trying to make amends.”

  “I know.” Major gulped the rest of his beer before tossing the bottle into the recycling. “She could have been fucking hurt.”

  “Thankfully, she wasn’t.” Rocco pointed out.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Major sighed as he turned toward the doorway. “I’m going to get a couple hours of sleep. I suggest you two do the same.”

  He paused outside his bedroom door, gazing at the nearly closed master bedroom door until he heard his brothers’ footsteps. With a sigh of resignation, he entered his room and started to undress. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get any sleep at all.

  * * * *

  Delta’s heart flipped and then slammed painfully against her ribs when she saw the small white toy gun aimed at her. Her lips twitched with humor, but when she met the guy’s eyes, fear came roaring back. She knew she’d been here before, and while she tried to force herself out of the nightmare, she couldn’t. It was the same nearly every night, and things would play out until she woke up gasping for breath. Even though she didn’t hear the pistol fire, she watched the stream of smoke wafting from the tip and then agony slammed into her shoulder. She screamed and screamed trying to alert the security guard, the other employees, and the customers to what was going on.

  The man turned away from her and just as she took another breath to scream again, he stumbled and went down to the floor. Dark red blood began pooling under him, and while she tried to make herself look away from the gruesome macabre scene, she couldn’t. Her vision got blurry and although she tried to lock her knees, they buckled. She hit the floor with a grunt, her mouth open in a silent scream as agony shot through her shoulder, down her arm, up her neck, and into her head.

  Hands reached for her, lifting her from the floor and she jolted awake.

  It took her few moments to realize that the last part hadn’t been part of her dream. She was sitting in Major’s lap and he was rocking her back and forth as if she were a child. The tears she tried to keep at bay welled and spilled over her lids before rolling down her cheeks. Her whole body shuddered as the first sob surged up from her chest and out of her mouth. She wrapped her arms around Major’s waist and clung to him while the storm raged, until finally her tears slowed and then ceased.

  She tensed when she felt another hand caressing up and down her back, and yet another up and down her arm. Major wasn’t alone. Ace and Rocco were with him.

  Delta figured she must have been screaming in her sleep and woken the men up. She felt a little guilty over that, but there was nothing she could do about it. After removing her arms from around Major’s waist, she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands and sniffed.

  Tissues were shoved into one of her hands and she blew her nose before lifting her gaze to Major’s. He was looking down but he wasn’t looking into her eyes. When she followed his train of sight, she gasped and tugged at the tank top. The strap had fallen off her shoulder, and the ugly round bullet wound and surgical scar were clearly visible.

  Major nudged her gaze back up to his.

  “Did you have a nightmare, baby?”

  She nodded and then apologized. “I’m sorry fo
r waking you all.”

  Rocco shifted closer to her side and that was when she realized that all three men were nearly naked. Heat suffused her cheeks and while she tried to keep her gaze from wandering, it was impossible. She licked her lips as she took in Rocco’s broad muscular shoulders, toned pecs, and defined abs. The man was built and his skin was bronzed with a healthy tan. All three of the Porter men were the epitome of every woman’s wet dream, and the more she looked, the stronger the urge to touch got.

  She turned her gaze to her other side when a finger stroked down her arm eliciting a shiver to race up her spine and goosebumps to spread over her skin.

  Ace was taller than Rocco by about an inch, and he was more muscular than his brother, but not in that horrible body builder kind of way. He was built more like a linebacker, and boy was he handsome. All the Porter men were divine to look at. She could have stared at them all day long. The hue of Ace’s gray eyes seemed to change with his moods and right now, they looked as if they were blazing with fire. At first she thought he was angry with her for waking him up, but quickly discarded that thought when his gaze wandered up and down her body as he licked his lips. When he lifted his gaze to hers once more, there was so much heat in his eyes there was no mistaking the lust.

  When she shifted in Major’s lap and felt something hard poking into her ass and thigh, she froze. She lowered her gaze as she tried to get the arousal simmering in her blood under control, but she made the mistake of staring at his wide chest. His pectorals jumped and twitched when he moved his arms and she couldn’t help but let her eyes wander, yet again. There was hair on his chest between his pecs and she wondered if it was as soft as it looked. Delta didn’t even realize she was moving until her hand landed on his warm skin. She licked her lips and sighed when his soft chest hairs tickled her fingers. She shifted her gaze to the small bronzed colored nipples and watched with fascination as they hardened. She hadn’t known a man’s nipples could do the same as a woman’s, but now that she did, she wondered if he’d like to have those nipples licked and sucked.

  She gasped when her breasts swelled and her nipples hardened, and had to bite her lip when her pussy moistened and clenched. That wasn’t the only response to being so close to these three sexy, nearly naked men. Her clit was throbbing as if it had its own heartbeat, and she was aching so much she wanted to shove her hand down her boy shorts and rub her engorged nub.

  It didn’t seem to matter to her body that she’d only known these three men for a very short time. It took everything she had to keep her attraction to them hidden, but right now she had no idea why that had been so important. She craved to have them kissing and touching her. She craved to have their arms around her and holding her. She craved to have them love her.

  But most of all, she craved for them to take the deep-seated liquid ache away.

  Chapter Nine

  Delta couldn’t seem to catch her breath and while she tried to pull her gaze away from all that delectable naked skin, she couldn’t. That was until Major nudged her eyes up to his. The moment she met his fiery, gray-blue gaze, she knew she was lost.

  She could have pulled away or lowered her eyes when she saw he was leaning closer and closer to her, but she did neither of those things. Instead, she licked her lips and then closed her lids. He brushed his lips back and forth over hers as if testing her response, and when he opened his mouth over hers, she was a goner. All thought fled from her mind as his tongue invaded her mouth. She didn’t consciously think about wrapping her arms around his neck, or leaning in closer to him, but knew she had when her fingers brushed against his silky-soft, cool, sandy-brown hair. Her aching breasts pressed against his naked chest and she moaned as her nipples tightened even more.

  Major caressed his hand up her back, his fingers threading into her hair and he cupped the back of her head. And then he was devouring her. His tongue delved deep before coming back to slide along and then twirl around hers. Delta whimpered as she angled her head a little more to the side as she kissed him back rapaciously.

  She’d thought her body had been on fire before, but that was nothing compared to the way she was burning up on the inside now. She was so hungry for more, she wanted to pull away from him, strip the clothes from her body and beg for his touch over every inch of her body.

  When he broke the kiss, she had to swallow her groan of disappointed frustration so she didn’t look too needy, and while the urge to open her eyes to meet his gaze was strong, she ignored it. Or tried to until he tugged gently on her hair to get her attention.

  She drew in a deep, steady breath and hoped her breathing would even out quickly, but suspected it wouldn’t when there was so much delicious manly flesh on display. She opened her eyes when Major clasped her waist and lifted her to sit on the mattress beside him.

  She met his gaze when he stroked a finger down her face and then lowered her eyes to his fingers as he signed to her.

  “We all want you, baby,” Major said. “We all want to make love with you, have a relationship with you.”

  Delta wanted the same, and though she knew it was going to be hard to find time to spend with them with her obligations to the diner, she wanted to say yes. She’d never been attracted to any other man, and while being attracted to three men was more than a little nerve wracking, she didn’t want to walk away. She wanted to know what it was like to make love, to be held and to be needed, but if she gave in and gave them what they wanted—her body—would they walk away from her afterward?

  She turned her gaze toward Rocco when he tapped her on the thigh.

  “What has you hesitating, honey?” Rocco signed, haltingly.

  Tears of gratitude burned the back of her eyes that he would take time out of his busy life to learn sign language just so he could communicate with her.

  Ace caressed a hand down her arm to gain her attention and then he signed as he spoke. “What’s wrong, darlin’? Talk to us. Tell us, what’s going through your mind?”

  “Why me?”

  “Why you what?” Major asked.

  “What’s so special about me? You guys are all very handsome. You could have your pick of any woman you wanted.”

  “We don’t want just any woman, Delta,” Major said. “We want you.”

  “But why?”

  “You have no idea how gorgeously sexy you are, do you?”

  She shook her head. She didn’t think she was ugly, but she didn’t think she was gorgeous or sexy, either.

  Major continued. “You are such a strong person and you’ve got a big heart, although you try to hide it. Did you think we didn’t notice the hurt in your eyes when you told us you couldn’t get anyone to work under you? Do you think we don’t see the sadness in your soul you try to hide, or the yearning looks whenever you gaze at us?”

  “I don’t—”

  “Don’t.” Rocco slashed his hand in the air. “Don’t you deny the attraction between us, honey. We’ve been around the block a time or two and know when a woman is attracted to us.”

  “So what?” Delta signed. “I’ll bet if you walk down the street you’d see a myriad of woman ogling your attributes.”

  “We don’t care about any other women,” Ace said. “We only care about you.”

  “What makes me so special? And if I did agree to have…sex with you, what then?”

  “What do you mean what then?” Major asked.

  “Will you turn your backs after you’ve gotten what you wanted?”

  Major stared deeply into her eyes and frowned. “Who hurt you, Delta?”

  “No one hurt me,” she replied.

  He lowered his gaze to her shoulder before locking eyes with her again. “That was a lie, which we’ll come back to, but I want to know who made you scared of relationships.”

  “I’m not scared of relationships,” she signed rapidly. “How could I be when I’ve never had one before.”

  “And why is that?” Major asked.

  She gnawed on her lip and shook her he
ad.

  “What are you so afraid of, baby?”

  The emotion in his eyes had her heart flipping in her chest. Major looked as if he genuinely cared for her, but how could that be when he’d only known her for a few days?

  Rocco caressed her bare thigh, causing her to shiver. “Where do you parents live, Delta?”

  She didn’t want to answer, but from the implacable resolve in Rocco’s gaze, he wasn’t going anywhere until she did. When she glanced at Ace and Major she noticed they were both watching her avidly, too.

  “I don’t have any parents.” Her heart was beating a rapid staccato inside her chest and she was panting. Tears of humiliation and dejection burned her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. She’d done more than enough crying and wasn’t about to fall apart in front of these three, strong, confident men again. Delta had learned a long time ago that tears never solved anything, even if the release of emotions was sometimes cathartic.

  “Where did you grow up?” Major asked.

  “In an institution for the deaf and blind.” She couldn’t believe she was answering them. Normally she never talked about herself, but there was something about Major, Rocco, and Ace that set her at ease, which was a direct contradiction to the way her stomach was roiling.

  “Was it a good place?” Ace asked.

  She met each of their gazes, and when she noticed none of them were watching her with pity she relaxed a little more. “It wasn’t bad. I learned how to take care of myself, how to sign, and got a good education.”

  “Yet you keep yourself apart from others,” Rocco said. “Why?”

  “Why do you think?” she replied. “Do you know what it’s like to be treated differently because of a disability? All through my life I’ve been shunned because I’m deaf. I was even kept apart from the other employees when I worked at the bank in Chicago. The manger had a teller window set up across the other side of the room, away from everyone else. Do you know what it’s like to be singled out day after day just because you’re different to everyone else? If the manager hadn’t done that, maybe I wouldn’t have been targeted and shot in the bank hold up.