by Jan Springer
Without warning, his head lowered. When he brushed his lips against hers with a teasing featherlight brush her senses snapped into awareness mode. Her world tilted wonderfully and she swore she fell headlong into a fire pit of longing to have this man fucking her senseless…just like last night. She wanted to curl her arms around his neck, draw him closer, but the restraints prevented her from moving. Frustration snapped through her as he pulled away from her. That sexy half grin of his made her insides boil with need.
“You taste good,” he whispered in a throaty voice.
They both jumped as the door burst open and Will stalked inside, his jacket and hat covered in snow. A whirlwind of snowflakes followed him and he quickly shut the door. As he turned around and spied Cade lying beside her on the bed, he froze.
His eyes darkened fiercely. She wasn’t sure if he was jealous or aroused…or both. A muscle spasmed in his left cheek as he stared at the two of them.
“Am I interrupting something?” he finally asked.
“If you were, I’d be asking you to join us,” Cade replied casually.
To her surprise, Blade grinned. His smile melted her insides just as fiercely as Cade’s had done moments earlier.
Oh boy, she was in trouble.
“The snow isn’t going to let up any time soon. It’s too deep for the snowmobile and almost zero visibility, so we’d get into trouble if we left. Best to stay here. You may as well let her loose. She won’t be going anywhere. She’ll be too busy with the both of us.”
He winked at her and she swore her world rocked.
Oh. My. God.
* * * * *
Cade cast sidelong glances at Reena as she washed the dishes. He stood beside her at the kitchen counter, drying the cutlery and placing it in the dish tray. Dainty. That’s how he would phrase the way she handled the cutlery. Dainty and sexy. Yeah, very sexy. And this petite woman was the leader of the Resistance?
“Your brother mentioned you during the Wars,” she said and he stiffened in surprise.
Over a dinner of canned meat, vegetables and potatoes, she’d been very quiet. He’d hoped what he and Will had done to punish her hadn’t backfired on them. But that couldn’t be the case. Not if the heated way she’d looked at him after he’d feather-kissed her on the bed was any indication. She was hot for him. And for Blade.
She shot quick glances to Blade every now and then when he wasn’t watching. She shot Cade quick looks too. The fire in her eyes was unmistakable. She wanted more of what they had given her last night. Talk about a hell of a good way to break the ice between the three of them.
“Nothing better to do than to discuss me?” he asked.
He wondered exactly how much his brother Tyler had told this woman about him. They’d had plenty of chances to talk during the time Reena and Tyler had taught together overseas, and then recently rekindling their friendship after Tyler’s return several months ago.
“He said we would make a good match.”
“He did, did he? What do you think, Blade? Was Tyler right? Do Red and I make a good match?”
Blade gazed up from several pieces of the satellite radio he’d laid out and was inspecting on the floor by the potbelly stove. “I think the three of us make a good match.”
Blade’s answer surprised Cade. At first he thought Blade was kidding, but as Cade looked into the other man’s dead-serious brown eyes, his resistance to the old ways of one man and one woman in a relationship began to dissolve. Some of his brothers had been in ménages with the women they loved. Their relationships were still strong. But was Blade nuts? Or Cade for that matter? Blade was an assassin. He’d been sent here to kill Red. How could Cade even entertain the idea of a possible relationship between the three of them?
They’d spent only one night pleasuring Reena. Yeah sure, it had been fantastic, and today had passed pleasantly enough—Cade and Blade bringing in armfuls of wood to pile beside the woodstove and fireplace and Rena doing the cooking. She was a good cook, or maybe he’d just been starving after their sex workout last night.
“No one is matching up with anyone,” Reena said and he refocused his attention on her. Her shoulders were tense and her eyes blazed with anger.
“I am the leader of the Resistance or have you forgotten that fact? The leader is free to pick and choose what man or what men, for that matter, she wants in her bed. As all women should be allowed to do,” she snapped.
Oh yeah, Cade liked the fire flaring in her eyes and his gut clenched really nice.
Will stared back at her, not saying anything. His intense gaze silenced her. She tightened her mouth, returning to washing the dishes.
Cade sent Will a warning scowl intended to tell him to back off, but Will just shrugged, shook his head casually and focused on the shattered satellite radio.
“No one is going to Claim me,” she muttered. She spoke so low he suspected her words weren’t meant for him to hear. But he did, and the isolation and heavy weight she carried with her sank deep into his very soul.
Reena was wanted by the law as well as any group of men who could catch and Claim her. The odds that she would stay free or alive were pretty slim, even if she were surrounded by an entourage of bodyguards. Which she wasn’t. That fact made him believe she had no sensible protection or she wouldn’t be wandering around alone out here.
She smiled weakly and handed him the last plate, which he dipped into the rinse bucket and then dried with a towel. A few minutes later, they joined Will, each of them pulling up a chair beside the woodstove. Heat blasted them and Cade leaned back against his chair as they all fell silent.
Outside, the storm continued to rage. Icy snow and blasts of wind pelted the quickly darkening windows and the fire in the stove crackled and snapped warmly.
“This place belonged to your grandparents,” Blade said, breaking the quiet lull. Beside him, Reena stiffened. She’d been doing that a lot today whenever one of them suddenly spoke. He hoped it was a good sign. That maybe she was relaxed with them around—that is, until they reminded her they were here. Or maybe she thought Blade was still going to kill her.
“Until the X-virus came and screwed my life, I came here and spent two weeks with my grandparents every summer,” Reena replied.
Pride and happiness flooded her voice. “It was our tradition. My grandmother and grandfather built this cabin shortly after they were married. They were young, but even back then they planned on spending their elderly years here. When he retired from his job as a butcher, they stayed here during the summer and fall and had a trailer in Florida where they stayed during spring and winter.”
“Snowbirds.” Cade grinned.
Reena nodded.
“That was a lot of people’s perfect retirement plan,” Blade said softly.
Then everyone got fucked, Cade added silently. He knew the others were thinking the same thing. He could see it in Reena’s sad eyes and Will’s thoughtful stare. These days there was no such thing as a retirement plan. Everyone worked until they dropped dead.
There weren’t too many older people around. The feeble ones succumbed because there were no facilities to look after them. Loved ones died or did everything they could to survive on their own, leaving the elderly to fend for themselves.
“How did your grandparents meet?” Cade asked, wanting to know everything about her. This kind of curiosity had been inside him only one other time, about the woman he’d planned on marrying.
“My grandfather emigrated to New York when he was a teenager. His parents had died and he didn’t want to impose on relatives. He was a very independent man. He became an apprentice for an elderly butcher he met on the boat ride over to the States. After he learned everything there was to learn, he opened his own shop. My grandmother was one of his first customers.”
Reena got a really nice wistful smile on her face. “My grandmother was working as a housekeeper for some rich people and was only sixteen when he first saw her. He said she was the most beautiful woman w
ith the reddest hair and greenest eyes he’d ever seen. He said he fell in love with her the instant he saw her. Grandmother said she didn’t particularly care for my grandfather in the beginning because every time she came into the butcher shop he would stare at her and barely spoke, he was so tongue-tied.”
Cade and Will laughed.
“She thought he was slow in his mind until one day he came to her rescue. As grandfather told it, even after months he still hadn’t been able to utter a word to her and so badly wanted to get to know her. But for some unexplainable reason, he was shy around her.
“Anyway, one day he noticed two men passing the shop window immediately after she left. He got a really bad feeling because they looked unsavory. Leaving several customers stranded, he exited his shop with a cleaver in his hand and followed them. He quickly realized they were up to no good because when my grandmother took a shortcut through an alley, the two men cornered her. When my grandfather saw the two men were about to attack my grandmother, he showed the hooligans his meat cleaver and found his voice, ordering the men to leave my grandmother alone.
“Unfortunately the two men decided to gang up on my grandfather. When they attacked him, he chopped off the hand of one man and sliced off a good portion of the other man’s forehead before they both ran away. My grandmother was so impressed with his strength, she asked him to go out with her. The rest, as they say, is history.”
“That’s a pretty cool story,” Blade replied.
“Which brings me to the question of how the two of you first met?” Cade blurted. This walk down memory lane was the perfect opportunity to find out a little about their past relationship.
Both Reena and Blade frowned. Neither said a thing.
Okay. So, why had Blade been so gung-ho last night about her sweet pussy? And why did he possess other sexual knowledge about her if there wasn’t some kind of serious thing going on?
“Something I said?” he prodded.
Uneasiness swept through him and he didn’t like the flicker of darkness in Reena’s eyes.
“It is private,” Blade said, tossing Cade a cool gaze that asked him to back off.
“Actually, I should tell him, Blade. I owe both of you the whole truth. Why don’t I make us some coffee and we can talk?”
She stood, turned and headed back toward the kitchen, sighing heavily.
Nope, she was not looking forward to this confession.
Chapter Nine
Up until a few minutes ago, Reena had been damned irresistible in tight jeans and a navy-blue sweater that perfectly hugged the curves of her breasts. But as she stood silently, staring out the nearby window, her arms crossed over her breasts, she appeared serious and untouchable. Maybe she was thinking about those hunters who’d roughed her up the other day. Blade was surprised she hadn’t shown herself to be more deeply affected by that experience. She was probably just good at hiding her emotions.
Except for now.
His gaze drifted to Cade, who was also watching her with concern. He had probably never been a threat to her. Most likely, if Blade hadn’t come along, she and Cade would have gotten together sometime on the trail back to civilization. She would have been dead months ago if Blade hadn’t developed this sexual desire for her and hesitated pulling the trigger the two times he’d had the chance. It seemed like such a long time ago. So damn long.
Will winced at the sudden jolt of pain zipping through his chest, compliments of the bullet wound that still ached whenever he moved too quickly. He tried to ignore the discomfort and shifted in his seat, returning to studying the satellite phone he’d partially pieced together. The sizzle of pain reminded him that he was recovering from a bullet wound and shouldn’t be thinking about having sex with her again. Not until he was a hell of a lot more healed.
“You’ve been fiddling with that all day. Any ideas if you can fix it?” Cade asked in a low voice so Reena wouldn’t hear. Blade knew the last thing Cade wanted was for Reena to get on the phone and call the Resistance. If the Outlaw brothers discovered Cade’s bounty was Tyler’s good friend, there would be hell to pay.
“I’m pretty sure the damage can’t be reversed,” Blade said truthfully and gazed over at Red, still staring out the window. His balls tightened in awareness of her beauty and his protective instincts concerning her made his heart pick up speed.
“She looks stressed,” Cade commented.
“Fucking her 24/7 would take care of that problem, but I don’t think she’d want that.”
Cade chuckled. “She just might if last night was an indication.”
Blade gritted his teeth as his cock twitched against his pants. Memories of her sensual whimpers stroked his senses, the powerful orgasm he’d experienced in her sweet, tight mouth.
“By the serious look on her face, having sex with us again is the farthest thing from her mind.”
“Do you have any idea what she wants to discuss?”
Blade let out a low, deep sigh that didn’t loosen any of the tension tightening his body. He suspected he knew what Reena wanted to talk about. If his suspicions were correct, he may as well give Cade the lowdown and soften the blow by a few minutes.
“Most likely, her time as a pleasure slave would be my best guess.”
Cade’s mouth dropped open in shock. His face went a bit pale behind his healthy outdoor tan. It appeared Cade hadn’t been briefed on that short period of her life.
“Are you serious?” he asked in a strangled voice.
Blade shrugged and returned to working on the radio. He wished he’d just kept his big mouth shut.
* * * * *
Cade reeled from this newest tidbit of information. Reena had been a pleasure slave? But he quickly reined in his surprise. Reena’s father had mentioned he’d lost touch with his daughter while she’d been in the Terrorist Wars. Cade knew women had been forced into weekly R & R sex with the soldiers. Her father had said he’d tried to protect her for as long as possible, but then he’d lost contact with her.
Is that what Blade had been referring to? Her time in the Wars? Before he could question Blade further, Reena thrust a mug of black coffee in front of his face and the moist steam whispered against his cheeks. When he accepted the coffee and looked up at her, his gut clenched at the torment etching her facial features. For a woman in her early twenties, she suddenly appeared many years older. She was a woman of vast sexual experience—good and bad—and he got the feeling she was about to tell them the really bad part.
Suddenly he wished he was anywhere but here.
* * * * *
Reena didn’t want to explain her past to the two men. But the intense way they’d been looking at her all day made her realize she had to say something. Their we-want-to-have-more-sex-with-you stares and her own cravings to experience more pleasure with them made her want to remind them she wasn’t some dainty virgin who was just starting to explore sex. She was experienced and she’d put her life in danger on many occasions for the Cause. If she needed to die in order to help free women from the insane Claiming Law, the same that gave men the right to rape women and take them as wives against their will, then she was quite willing to make that sacrifice.
At least she had been until last night. Before then, she’d used sex to gain something. During the Terrorist Wars she’d disciplined herself into not thinking about what happened to her on a daily basis. Instead she’d turned her emotions inward, hidden her dreams, forgotten her desires for a man to love her and cut off all ideas of having kids and a family. She’d buried it all deep inside. Concealed her dreams somewhere safe, where no insane Claiming Law or X-virus or R & R could reach and ruin them.
She’d turned cold toward men. She’d lost her innocence and trust because of what she’d been forced to endure. But in such a short time, Cade and Will had snuck past her defenses.
They’d allowed her to trust again. Trust in strangers. With that trust, hope had been bursting through her all day. Hope for all women. Because if two guys she barely k
new would put their own lives at risk to save hers, this meant all men weren’t as bad as she’d originally believed.
Sure, Cade had an agenda to keep her alive so he could get his bounty, but Will didn’t. He could have shot her in that camp with all those hunters and left Cade to fight it out with those men. Cade could have killed Blade when they’d discovered her missing and come after her alone. But he hadn’t. The two men, working on opposite sides—one to kill her and one to take her in—had banded together against bad odds to rescue her.
She had hope for man again and this was the best she’d felt in a long time. But before she let her hopes grow, she needed to tell them the truth. People said “the truth shall set you free.” She hoped they were right in her case.
Emotions, thick and raw, welled up as she sat down upon the chair she’d occupied earlier. Both men stared expectantly at her as they nursed their coffees. Once again, they looked at her as if she was just some normal woman they could have sex with.
She closed her eyes and breathed deep, gathering her courage. She hoped one or both men would reassure her that whatever she said wouldn’t change things. Better yet, she hoped they urged her not to tell them anything.
They remained silent.
She opened her eyes. Both men were smiling encouragement at her. Gosh, they were both so cute. One dark-haired, the other fair. Her rescuers. Her guys.
She shook away those thoughts and concentrated on what she needed to say.
“During the Wars, I was forced to serve many soldiers,” she said. If the men were shocked, their faces didn’t show it and this encouraged her to continue. “I went into the R & R program unwillingly, as many other surviving women did. We were required to have sex with our colleagues, subordinates and bosses.
“We were sexual chattel, comfort women for soldiers, our rights stripped away. We were put on a weekly schedule to work eight hours a day. Half an hour for each man. At night we were bedded by superiors and slept in their beds. Our health was of the utmost importance. Condoms and spermicide, as well as other forms of birth control, were mandatory. Video surveillance was 24/7. I learned to cope. I learned to please. I learned to hate.”
