Safe and SEALed with Ecstasy [The Heroes of Silver Island 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Tonya Ramagos

  “It’s still people we at least know of who live in an everyday place, holding down everyday careers, and are happy with the lives they’re sharing.”

  Brandon propped an elbow on the bar and ran his fingers through his hair in obvious frustration. “You really think we could share Lara? You really think that’s what she wants?”

  John lifted a shoulder. “I think we’ve both been torn up over this woman since the moment we saw her. I think I’m willing to give it a hell of a shot because I’m damn sure not liking the alternative.” He’d already told his friend he had no intentions of walking away. That hadn’t changed despite whatever had really happened between Brandon and Lara this afternoon. He also didn’t want to go to blows with his best friend over a woman. Geezus, they were acting like two testosterone-driven teenagers!

  Except, his cock hadn’t been the only part of his anatomy driving him since the moment Lara had stepped off the excursion boat. He wanted her body, yes, but he wanted far more than that. He wanted her heart, too, because she’d damn sure managed to somehow snake her way into his a long, long time ago.

  “I came here because of her.” Brandon made the words sound like a confession, as if he’d committed the ultimate sin.

  John couldn’t help but laugh. “Dude, do you really think I don’t know that?”

  The corners of Brandon’s lips twitched, but he didn’t smile. “I think that you don’t know the full story. I think your bosses are playing a little ménage matchmaking and using the threat of this guy, Harold Taggart, as a cover.”

  John froze with his mug halfway to his lips. “How do you know about Taggart? And, what do you mean cover?

  “Marcus apparently has some pretty powerful connections. He used them to get to me. He told me about Taggart, about how the bastard has been stalking Lara, and asked me to come to the island.”

  John ground his teeth so hard he was surprised little bits of enamel didn’t start shooting out of his ass. Marcus Winters had asked Brandon to come to the island. No doubt to protect Lara if Taggart decided to show his face. Did the man not think John could do his job? He was the sheriff on this damn island. The fact that he was a former SEAL had played a huge role in his landing the damn job.

  “Before you go all half-cocked thinking Marcus doesn’t have faith in you,” Brandon said, proving he knew John as well as John knew him, “think about what I said before I told you all of that.”

  “The bit about the cover,” John said, his teeth still clenched.

  “Marcus knows, as does Kenneth, I’m sure, that you can protect Lara. The Winters brothers also see Lara as part of their family. I got that from talking to Marcus. They’re close. They want to see her safe, yeah, but they also want to see her happy. My guess is, somehow they know you and I were part of the team that pulled her out of Cambodia four years ago. Somehow they know you and I are both hung up on her. Ergo, Marcus called me here to do a little ménage matchmaking like I said.”

  John sighed, knowing exactly what had happened. “That would be a combination of Charlotte and my big mouth. I’d bet you a year’s salary and my black Corvette she put them up to it.” It also explained Kenneth suddenly getting held up that morning in town and unable to meet Lara when she arrived at the docks.

  Both Brandon’s brows winged up. “You spilled the beans to their wife about having a thing for Lara?”

  John frowned and sipped his beer. “Not just me having a thing for her. You, too.” He suddenly found himself racing to his own defense. Damn, he hated it when he did that. “You haven’t met Charlotte yet. You’ll understand when you do. She’s as manipulative and smooth as she is fantastic. She has this way of getting people to talk before they know a word has left their mouth.”

  Brandon grinned. “And she pulled that on you, huh?”

  “Yeah, conniving witch,” John muttered, meaning it in the best possible sense of the words. He really did love Charlotte. He could easily see why Kenneth and Marcus had fallen for her and neither had been willing to back away.

  “Then I’m betting she’s behind tonight’s dinner, too.” Brandon glanced at his diving watch. “The three of us are due at their house at seven. Kenneth told Lara you would show us there.”

  John closed his eyes, shook his head, and chuckled. So much for his table for two dinner plans tonight. Not that he wouldn’t have willingly and gladly turned it into a table for three if Brandon had decided he wanted to share Lara. But, it appeared it was going to be more like a table for six at the main island house instead, courtesy of one very scheming ménage couple.

  John pushed the Winters threesome out of his mind for now and concentrated on the much more important issue. “What do you know about Taggart?”

  Brandon shrugged. “Just that he’s a mental sap that doesn’t understand when a woman says no she means it. I know he’s been calling Lara, sending her gifts that were apparently inappropriate, leaving letters in her mailbox, and showing up nearly everywhere she goes.”

  John nodded. “Those inappropriate gifts started out as flowers and morphed to things like floggers, electrosex toys, and bondage gear with notes on how he plans to use them on her.”

  “Christ,” Brandon breathed. “Does this guy have a rap sheet, any prior arrests for this sort of shit or anything?”

  John shook his head. “I did a background check the minute Kenneth told me about him. Taggart is clean. He’s been in the media a few times. That university shooting a while back, his sister was the one who was killed. Since then, there’s been articles published about his fight for gun control. He’s one of the many pushing to have ownership of firearms banned from the general public. Only law enforcement and military would be licensed to carry if a law like that passed in Congress.”

  “Lara has stood up for gun control, too. And Lawrence Hampton is behind the bill going through Congress, isn’t he?”

  “To a point. He’s pushing for some changes to be made to it before he gives the bill his full support.”

  “Then this bastard’s fixation with Lara doesn’t have anything to do with the senator.”

  John figured it was a safe assumption. It also made him feel marginally better about the psycho knowing he’d lived through a tragedy that had put him off on guns. Only marginally, though, because he knew plenty of men who could kill with their bare hands. No gun necessary. He and Brandon were two of them.

  “Why the fuck hasn’t she gone to the police?”

  John sighed. “According to Kenneth, a couple of reasons. She doesn’t have any concrete proof it’s Taggart. He blocks the number he’s calling from, drops off the supposed gifts at her doorstep, and leaves the letters in her mailbox unaddressed and unstamped.”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it the cops’ job to find the concrete proof to nail the guy?”

  “It is.”

  “So she reports it, gets them on the case, they put a unit outside her place, and watch for Taggart to make his next move.” Brandon smacked the bar in front of him with the palm of his hand, drawing a cursory glance from several of the nearby patrons. “Blam! They’ve got the fucker.”

  “And every news reporter in a hundred-mile radius or more,” John pointed out. “Are you forgetting we’re talking about the daughter of a United States senator?”

  Brandon scowled, proving he didn’t care for Lawrence Hampton any more than John. “I know exactly who her father is. You’d think being his daughter would get her a little more protection against psycho pervs like Taggart.”

  “It does, if Lawrence told anyone about it. Which is the other reason Lara hasn’t gone to the police. Simply putting an unmarked car outside her place is going to draw media attention. One whiff and she’ll have a media scandal on her hands. Her father is up for re-election this year. He’s campaigning his ass off right now. Lara already has the reputation of being the trouble child even though a good majority of the American people still listen to what she has to say because she stands up for things that matter.”


  Brandon looked skeptical. “Like Silver Island?”

  John couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, her visit here and then returning to the mainland to boast about it isn’t likely something that’s going to gain her a lot of brownie points with the conservatives. Her father is already playing that up in the media, too, talking about how headstrong his daughter is and how, while he may not condone what she’s doing, she is standing up for her beliefs. To tell you the truth, listening to the guy makes me want to puke.”

  “You and me both, man.” Brandon hesitated a moment and then asked, “You’re positive this Taggart guy hasn’t made it onto the island?”

  John nodded. “Absolutely positive. I’ve made sure the island business owners are on alert and know who to look out for. I haven’t told them anything beyond his name and flashed his picture around, so they don’t know why, but they’re keeping their eyes open. The security on the mainland is on it, too, and I’ve talked with a few friends on the Silver Springs Police Department as well. If he gets anywhere close to this island, I’ll know about it.”

  * * * *

  Brandon had allowed himself to take it too far. He’d let his attraction to Lara, his flaming need to have her and hold onto her, run the show. Once he’d gotten his arms around her, once he’d started kissing her, he’d been done for. The feel of her against his body coupled with the savory taste of her mouth, had French fried his brain.

  It had stayed that way the rest of the afternoon and hadn’t showed any signs of unfrying anytime soon. Especially not when he and John had showed up at Lara’s cottage after returning to their own places to shower and change for dinner. She’d walked out looking like a fresh, sultry piece of summer in a strapless yellow sundress that hugged her amazing body in a way that put every perfect curve and plane on a cock-teasing display.

  She continued to torment his cock with her dazzling smile and melodic laughter all through dinner with the Winters. It took him barely five minutes in Charlotte Winters’s company to decide John couldn’t have described the woman more perfectly. Brandon had done the math and figured Charlotte had to be approaching the backside of fifty, but she didn’t look a day over forty. Rather beautiful with long flowing ebony hair, fair skin despite living on an island, and lively dark eyes, it was easy to see who was the true bond in her polygamous marriage with the Winters twins and who had indeed been the mastermind in the attempts to turn himself, John, and Lara into a ménage of their own.

  He found it difficult to concentrate through dinner thinking about that. He was crazy about Lara and even suspected he might be in love with her. If the way John looked at her was any indication, and he knew damn well it was, then his buddy was already half buzz-cut over combat boots in love with her, too.

  Strangely enough, it didn’t feel so weird sitting on one side of Lara while John sat on the other at the long dinner table in the main dining room of the Winters’s home. Charlotte sat between Kenneth and Marcus on the opposite side of the table and the six of them ate a delicious southern feast of seasoned pork chops, home-style mashed potatoes, pinto beans, and cornbread complete with apple cobbler for dessert. They talked about the island. Marcus loved how the population of the islanders was remaining small while the amount of visitors to the resort on the far end by the main docks was on the rise. Kenneth talked about his plans to attract even more visitors during tourist season, and Charlotte beamed about how the islanders had settled in to become one big alternative-style family.

  By the time Brandon, Lara, and John said goodnight, Brandon found himself feeling like he’d already started to become part of that big alternative-style family. Despite his reservations about sharing Lara, the time at dinner proved one thing. She would never be happy if he forced her to choose between him and John. If anything, she’d drop them both before she settled for one or the other.

  Lara groaned as they stepped into the moderately cool air of the night outside the Winters’s home. “I ate so much it’s going to take me a week to lose the pounds I just put on.”

  “Nah, you’ll get up in the morning, walk around the island some more, probably hit the beach for a good afternoon swim, and the pounds will be gone before you know it,” John predicted, placing a hand on the small of her back to lead her toward the golf cart they’d ridden to the house.

  Brandon held back a few steps, watching them, his mind reeling. He waited for the jealously to punch him in the gut like it did when he had watched John kiss her, but it didn’t happen. Instead, he got an instant image flash of watching John’s hands roam Lara’s naked body and of himself crawling onto his knees on the bed to join them. It stunned him so much he stopped in his tracks, only absently hearing the conversation as she and John continued to talk.

  “It’s beautiful out here tonight.”

  “Would you rather walk back to the cottage? We can leave the golf cart here and I can pick it up tomorrow.”

  “Can we?” Sheer pleasure rang in Lara’s voice.

  “Whatever you want, sweetheart. Hey, Ace, you walking with us or what?”

  Brandon snapped out of his reverie at the sound of his nickname, but part of his mind had latched on to what John had said to Lara. Whatever you want, sweetheart. It was the absolute truth. All that mattered was what Lara wanted. All that mattered was hearing that pleasure remain in her voice. If she wanted him and John, if it took both of them to keep that happy, melodic tone in her voice, then that’s what she would get.

  “Yeah.” He snapped to attention, scrambling to catch up with them as they started walking down the sidewalk along the edge of the street. Even the sidewalks were wider than those in normal towns, obviously designed so three people could walk side by side without one of them ending up in the road.

  John shot him a questioning look behind Lara’s back as he caught up. Brandon easily read the look and knew what John didn’t say. What the fuck is up with you? Oddly enough, he figured if he were to answer aloud he’d likely say something like, Just realizing this op isn’t the clusterfuck I’ve been making it out to be, man.

  As he slowed his steps to match Lara’s and laced his fingers with hers, he knew that answer was the truth. It felt right walking along beneath the moon and the stars with Lara between him and his best friend in the world. Now, all he and John had to do was make sure Lara wanted to stay between them for a very long time.

  * * * *

  “I believe you owe me an explanation tonight.”

  John glanced down at Lara, half-mesmerized by the way the moonlight played in her blonde hair. He felt the tips of the strands tickle the hand he hadn’t removed from the small of her back. The feeling conjured images of her hair falling across his thighs as she lowered her head between his legs and took his cock in her luscious mouth.

  He pushed the image aside and tried to figure out what she meant. He hadn’t been the one to alter their plans for dinner. Kenneth, Charlotte, and Marcus had done that and she’d gone along with it.

  “You told me you would tell me why you left the SEALs over dinner,” she reminded him. “Naturally, you didn’t get a chance with all the conversation going on between the six of us, but I don’t hear anyone talking now.”

  Oh, that. He tried not to let her feel the way his muscles had stiffened when she’d mentioned the SEAL team, but figured he’d failed when he saw a wave of compassion move through her eyes as she looked at him.

  She shifted enough that he could see she was still holding Brandon’s hand and slid her free arm behind his back, her delicate fingers resting just above the waistband of his shorts. “I’ll let you off the hook for now if you’d rather not talk about it tonight.”

  He slid his attention past her to Brandon. If the height-challenged SEAL hadn’t been walking a half step faster at the moment, their gazes likely wouldn’t have met, but they did. Brandon knew leaving the SEAL team had been the hardest decision he’d ever made. The man also knew why he’d felt he’d had no other choice.

  John took a deep breath, let it
out slow, and started to relive quite possibly the worst time of his life. “The drug lord that kidnapped you in Cambodia, Veng Kim Phay. Our mission that night was to rescue you and take him and his cartel down. We accomplished the first, but failed on the last.”

  “He and his men had already deserted the compound,” she said, nodding as she remembered. “And left me there to whatever fate God dealt.” Her arm around his waist tightened. “Which just happened to be the fate of being rescued by two supremely handsome SEALs, along with a few of their teammates.”

  John heard Brandon give a half laugh at that, but the other man didn’t speak.

  “He and his cartel went underground,” John continued. “By all accounts, the bastard vanished. He resurfaced almost two years later in Silver Springs with a new chip on his shoulder against the team that sent his cartel underground. He went after Ryan Magee.”

  Lara gasped and stopped walking. “Oh my god. Are you serious?”

  John nodded.

  “Phay didn’t get him, of course,” Brandon interjected. “Do you really think Mr. Too Sexy for His Shirt would go down that easy?”

  John angled his head forward to look around Lara at Brandon. “Mr. what?”

  They both laughed and Lara started walking again, pulling him and Brandon along with her. “I’ll explain later. Continue, please.”

  John squashed the jealousy that rose in his gut at the idea that she’d found Magee so sexy. Not that he hadn’t already known it. He’d seen it firsthand the night they’d rescued her. Odd, though, how it rankled when he thought of her being attracted to Magee, but it didn’t bother him to know she was obviously as attracted to Brandon as she was to him.

  “Phay sent his goons after Magee because his injury had already taken him out of the team. He was the easiest to get to. He got to P.J. Dugger next.” John stopped and swallowed hard. “At least we’ve always believed it was Phay that had P.J. killed. His body was found in a Dumpster outside a nightclub during a weekend shore leave.”