by Rayne O'Gara
“Yes, Luc caught the fucker, I called him to check on you that night after we left. It just didn’t feel right. He’s the one who called in the fire when he saw the smoke. Caught the guy sneaking around your house to his car. The asshole was staying to watch the show! Luc arrested him under suspicion and when he looked through the backpack he carried, Luc found all the tools needed to start a good fire. Plus the lingering smell of smoke on all his clothing helped Luc’s case as well,” Alex explains before Roman jumps in.
“In interrogation, Luc said he focused on the team, then us, then you. Sick bastard’s not even going to prison! He’s getting thrown into a psych ward cause of some disorder,” he finishes furiously while pacing back and forth in the little room.
“Will he be able to hurt anyone again?” I ask worried.
“No. He will get the help and medication he needs, but won’t be released for a very long while,” Alex answers.
“Then we’re good,” I say, sighing in relief.
“What!?” Roman roared. “He almost killed you! You almost fucking died, Caitriona! And you say oh, well, we’re good?!”
Oh he’s really mad. “Roman, come here.” His eyes widen with my command but shuffles over to me all the same.
“He didn’t succeed. I’m here. You and Alex are here. He’s receiving the help he needs. Am I furious, yes, but rehashing it over and over isn’t going to do anything but keep the hatred alive. Let it go, my love.” I finish talking and stroke my IV free hand down his shadowed jaw and feel his body relax, letting his anger go for now. Smiling into his eyes, a thought strikes and my eyes widen. Oh Shit.
“Did someone call Sofie?” I ask. If not, heads—and other bits—are going to roll and I liked all those bit just where there are.
“Yeah, she’s in the waiting room. You want us to go let her in?” Alex asks softly.
“No, not right now, but in a little while. I have to ask if I can stay at her place while my house gets fixed.”
“No!” they both shout at me.
“Excuse me?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“That didn’t come out right,” mumbles Roman, looking at me apologetically.
“What we meant was, would you consider movin’ in with us? Now don’t think that this is some chivalrous sacrifice from us, it’s not. Trust me, the things I wanna do to you when we have you in our home is less than gentlemanly,” he adds with a wink. “We were already talkin’ about askin’ you to move in with us before all this happened. It has just moved up our plans a little bit.”
I look into the serious face of Roman then into the almost pleading eyes of Alex, still not sure.
“Are you sure? I mean, what if…”
“We love you, baby. We want you next to us. Every day. Every night,” Roman says with a growl. I look over at Alex for confirmation and am greeted with a smile, nod, and love shining brightly in his eyes. Whoa.
With a giant smile I wrap my arms around both their shoulders and hug as much of them as I can before pulling away to settle back into the uncomfortable bed. “Okay, I would love to move in with you.”
With wide smiles and a lot of soft kisses later I lay back and just watch my men laugh and joke with each other.
“I better go get Sofe. She doesn’t know you’re awake yet,” said Alex. At my nod he heads for the door but stops before opening it.
“Oh, Cait…if anyone from the hospital asks…we’re your fiancés.” Gesturing to the two of them, he winks and walks out the door.
“Oh really?” I ask a relaxed Roman in the chair beside my bed. “And here I am, not remembering ever being asked,” I say playfully.
“Don’t worry,” he rumbles with a smile. “The real asking will happen soon, and you will definitely remember it.”
Oh, my. I can’t wait.
Epilogue
Cait…
Four months later
The annual Charity Fireman’s Ball in Austin is in full swing around me. Alex was very excited to be able to go when he told me about it. I am so excited to be here. Primped and pampered, my hair is swept up in a curling riot of an up-do and my make-up, done by Sofie, is done to perfectly fit the sleek lines of my formal azure strapless floor length dress. I feel so sophisticated. The last time I really got dressed up was two months ago when Alex and Roman brought me to Austin for a night out on the town. There were flowers, dinner, and a beautiful walk through the botanical gardens. That was the night they put their rings on my finger.
I smile at the incredible memories of both men kneeling in front of me with expectant looks and open ring boxes. Like I was going to say no? Remembering the shocked look on Roman’s face when I said yes, I give my head a little shake and search for his dark head in the crowd. I would have never been separated from them if I didn’t have to keep rushing to the bathroom. All this perfume is nauseating!
Spotting Alex across the ballroom, I smile to myself at his social skills and cool demeanor. Chuckling softly to myself, I look down at my body. Let’s see how cool he is tonight when I tell them my news. I look back up to see Alex heading for me and I take a step toward him but end up stumbling on the hem of my dress with my too high, but gorgeous, high heels. I bump into someone behind me.
Regaining my balance, I turn to apologize.
“Caitriona?”
Oh, you have got to be kidding me.
“Hello, Michael.”
“What a surprise seeing you here,” he says smoothly.
“Yes a surprise for me as well. How are…”
“What exactly are you doing here? This is not your normal venue,” he asks me as a thin, bleached blonde woman hands Mike a drink and stays next to his side. She gives me a onceover before sniffing her nose up at me and starts to look around the room in a bored manner. Guess I didn’t make it up to par in her world, oh well. I focus back on Mike and try to answer him.
“You are right, this isn’t my usual scene. I’m on a date.” As soon as the last syllable leaves my mouth, Alex reaches my side.
“Hey, sweetness. Sorry about that,” he apologizes with a wink, wrapping his arm around my waist he pulls me close to his side.
“Hello,” Mike interrupts, again, talking to Alex. He thrusts his hand out for a handshake and leaves the introductions to me.
“Alex, this is Mike. Mike, this is Alex. My fiancé. He is a fighter in Liberty.”
“Yes, nice to meet you. So you’re a firefighter? I am a lawyer. I am with one of the companies that help put this party together. Must be nice to get out of that dreary small town and rub elbows with some real people, eh?” Laughing at his own joke, he doesn’t see Alex’s eyebrow raise and his quick look my way. The blonde next to Mike catches my attention when she takes a small step forward, eyes glued to Alex’s body.
Is she seriously eyeing him like that, right in front of me? With a predatory smile she takes another step forward putting herself closer to Alex. Oh hell no! Intercepting her I block her path, basically now standing directly in front of Alex.
“I am sorry I didn’t catch your name?” I ask her.
With a huff she glares at me with her glassy brown eyes. “I am Michael’s girlfriend, Candy.”
I am barely able to hold back my snort at her name. Of course her name is Candy.
“Okay, Candy, Mike’s current girlfriend. I, Cait, Alex’s fiancé, am telling you to stop eyeing him like that. He is not here for your perusing. This is me asking nicely by the way.” I smile sharply. I have come to the terms that I am very jealous when it comes my men. Now I am just waiting for the rest of the female population to catch up.
“Caitriona!” Mike gasps out.
Almost snarling, Candy verbally attacks me. “Please.” She sneers. “What makes you think a dumb fat bitch like you could keep someone like him satisfied? I am just letting him know he has better options,” she finishes, rubbing her hand from her fluffed out boobs, down her small waist, and stopping at her thin hips. The Cait I was before AR would have bowed her head and ran crying
at this attack. Now knowing myself better and confident in my guys’ feelings for me, I know my self-worth. Her words can’t touch me.
Waiting for my reaction, Candy flips her hair over her shoulder, cocks her hip out, and winks at Alex. The Bitch! Before I can move, Alex gets a death grip on my hand, keeping me in place. I see her eyes widen at something behind me before feeling the presence myself.
Roman puts an arm around my shoulder and pulls me a step backwards and I find myself back between two imposing figures.
“Is there a problem here?” Roman asks gruffly.
“No, love. Not anymore,” I answer, smiling up at him. “Mike, Candy, this is Roman. My fiancé.”
Turning, I look up at Roman’s face and I continue, “This is Mike. Remember, baby, I told you and Alex about him not to long ago.”
A look between my two men reveal a future beat down for the asshat in front of us. Uh oh.
“I am sorry, but I am confused. I thought you said he was your fiancé,” Mike said pointing to Alex. Oh, his poor little pea sized brain.
“I am engaged to both Alex and Roman,” I explain slowly as if to a small child. I shift my gaze and look back to Mrs. Bimbo, twisting my mouth into a wicked smile.
“Yeah, this dumb fat bitch…as you called me, satisfies both of these incredible men. While you? You are stuck with him,” I say, gesturing toward a bewildered Mike. “But that’s good for you because you two definitely deserve each other. Have a great night.” I say sweetly as I turn my back on the gaping couple.
Walking away tucked safely against my lovers’ sides, I fully let go of the past, ready to embrace our future.
“I love you, baby.”
“I love you, sweetness.”
“I love you both, so very much,” I say, and in turn, reach up to give them both a kiss that holds the sweet promises of tomorrow.
Books by Rayne O’Gara
Hearts of Heroes
Taming Two Fires
Coming Soon – Book Two
I would love to hear from you!
Website: http://rayneogara.weebly.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005135174992fref=ts
Excerpt from Mission: Compromised Submissive
Breaking Protocol Book Three
By Willow Brooke
Two months had passed since that night at the party, and things had only gone downhill since. Each time Vice was forced to interact with Dom, it had grown harder and harder, making her dread the deployment coming in just two days. The whole farm had been buzzing with blooming love and it made her want to barf.
This morning she had tried to avoid everyone like the plague, but it seemed the forces of Grey Skull were stacking against her. Now, here she was, stuck loading the damn truck in the blazing hot sun with none other than their fearless asshole leader himself.
“Vice, get your head out of your ass and get this shit tied up!” Dom snapped.
Vice fumed. She had been tying the damn tent poles and ammo boxes for the past three damn hours with him barking orders and had had just about enough. Standing up straight, she grasped the small of her back that was aching so bad she could scream and glared at him with daggers shooting from her eyes.
“I don’t know what the hell has crawled up in your ass and camped out but you best get it out before I knock it out.” Her fists doubled at her sides and her eyes narrowed, daring him to say something.
The corners of Dom’s lips tilted up into a cocky smirk. Slowly, he walked toward her, stalking like a prowling lion in that moment before it took down its prey. Her heart pounded against her chest, speeding with each step he took closer. Vice felt her stomach flip-flop, dropping into her toes as he came up, stopping only mere inches from her face. He had intentionally invaded her personal space, using the uncomfortable closeness to knock her bearings—and it worked. She could feel his breath casting against her face, seeping in her pores like a searing branding iron. His eyes roamed over her features, looking for her to falter. She tried to remain cold as stone and keep her feelings hidden but knew he could see straight through her act. When he grinned, her gut twisted. How the hell did one man turn her body into a walking pile of mash potatoes? She watched as his lips parted, seeming to be in slow motion. “I assure you, nothing is in my ass, but if you keep getting lippy I will stick a plug in yours and spank it until it’s a pretty pink.”
Vice’s jaw hit the ground. When she finally found her tongue, she was boiling. “Your threats don’t work on me, Dom. You should know that by now…and you made it perfectly clear where you stood the night after the party. So, unless you want to loose a vital body part, I suggest you back the fuck off.” Her lip curled over her teeth, giving in to the pent up hurt and anger she had been holding since that mouthwatering, panty-twisting kiss.
Dom took a step back, mimicking the same reaction he had when he stormed off that night and backtracked. “You’re right. You are my soldier. Nothing else. Take five and finish up here.” He spun on his heel and disappeared for the rest of the day.
Excerpt from HeVan Earth
Nephilim Book Five
By Lucy Kelly
Earth…
“Are you going to introduce me to your guys, Aimeé?” asked Jo, taking a bite of her food.
“This is Tonne and Jorne Jors. They work for Kern Walthers Software. Only Kern retired, so it’s only Walthers now. They have two older brothers named Margan and Trake. Our family is all girls and theirs is all boys,” Aimeé said.
“Tonne, Jorne, this is my older sister, Josephine. As I explained, we, my other sisters and I, all call her Jo. She’s with the FBI, and that’s why she always gives our boyfriends the third degree. Prepare to be interrogated. Be nice, Jo,” she told her sister.
Then each man stepped forward to shake Josephine’s hand. She had gotten up from her chair when her sister started talking. Now she sat back down again.
“Don’t worry about making any food, Jo. I’m going to phone for Chinese. I’ll get extra crab rangoons and pot stickers, if you’re still hungry after the eggs. We were going to do that later, anyway, because I haven’t had time for grocery shopping with everything that’s been happening…and the cupboards are practically bare. It’s a good thing there are all-night Chinese restaurants or they’d starve. I can’t keep feeding them breakfast. I think you used up the last of the eggs,” Aimeé said.
Jo went back to her eggs before they got cold. The menu for the Chinese restaurant had been found; the various items decided on, and the order phoned in, Jo was finished eating. They were all sitting awkwardly, not talking.
“So, since I found you guys naked in the bath, I’m guessing you’ve been having sex with my baby sister. Have you mentioned you’re aliens from another planet?” asked Jo, dropping a conversational bomb in the room. She was starting the interrogation her sister had mentioned.
“What the hell are you talking about, Jo?” asked Aimeé.
“When I was in Wisconsin on a case, I was told our birthmarks prove we descended from aliens who landed on Earth about ten thousand years ago. These men have come from a distant planet to find those descendants—us—and mate with us, because there are almost no women left on HeVan. HeVan is the name of their planet and they call themselves the Nephilim,” she said to her sister, casting looks at the men.
Josephine turned from her sister to look Tonne and Jorne in the eye.
“Have I left anything out?” she asked blandly.
“Actually, there is one more thing,” said Tonne, as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. As always, Jorne was unruffled, he was better at hiding his feelings.
“You mean she’s not joking with me? You three haven’t gotten together to cook up some story?” asked Aimeé, her voice getting high and tight. She got out of her chair and backed up to the counter.
Jorne turned to confront Josephine. “You’ve scared her! Why did you blurt it all out like that?” he accused.
Tonne got up and, before he’d taken a st
ep toward Aimeé, she held out a hand, palm out, and told him to stay away from her.
Now Josephine’s anger came out. She stood herself. Pushing her plate out of the way, she leaned over the table to get into Jorne’s face.
“No, you should have waited to jump into bed with my sister until everything was cleared up. You two are the ones taking advantage of her. If you cared for Aimeé, you would have been up front with her. You have hurt her and no one hurts my family!”
HeVan…
Suddenly, the transport bucked. They all went tumbling, and the alarms sounded.
“Engine is offline. Attempting to start emergency secondary engine. Stabilizers at seventy percent,” the computer said.
The transport had gone into a dive, and the computer’s attempts to stabilize were tossing the passengers around like a fist shaking dice. Bracing his feet and grabbing onto a door handle, Justyn reached out with his other hand and pulled Grace into his body. The blanket was tangled up around his legs, and Jett was trying to move it out of his way so he could get into the command chair. Jalen had hit his head, knocked unconscious as his body continued to tumble with the motion of the transport.
“Stabilizers at forty percent, twenty seconds until terminal velocity. Unable to change trajectory to avoid populated area, self-destruct in fifteen seconds. All passengers must eject before self-destruct,” the computer said.
“How do we eject?” Grace asked urgently.
“We have to put on the emergency ejection suits. They have built-in parafoils,” Justyn said.
“Bring it on,” she shouted.
The computer was counting down to twelve seconds.
“There’s not enough time,” he said, holding her through another shake and role of the transport.
“Jett, do something,” she cried.
He had worked his way into the command chair. They were down to eight seconds. Jalen was hung up on one of the seats, which had popped out of its stowed position.
