by Mia Ashlinn
Katie-Anne’s heart accelerated as fear crept into her mind. I’m not ready. I need more time. A few minutes. A couple of hours. Anything. Just more time. Knowing that Landon was her rock, and he would understand completely, she asked, “Can I please have a little more time, Landon? I promise I’ll tell you and Shane soon.”
Swinging his head toward her, he quickly scrutinized her face with too-perceptive eyes. Then, with a sigh, he returned his attention to the road. “I guess so, but I wish you wouldn’t wait too long. There are a lot of complicated things going on right now. The three of us need to be able to talk to each other about anything, and we have to be completely honest.”
“I won’t wait much longer,” she swore. “I just need to sort through a couple of things then I promise I will tell you both everything and answer all your questions.”
“Good,” he replied with a nod. Steering the wheel to the right, he rounded the street corner and pulled through the unlocked gates of Dewey’s Drive-In. Hitting the accelerator, he barreled down the long drive and into the giant field. Then, coming to an abrupt halt, he switched off the engine. “Get in the backseat. This may take a while, and I want you to be comfortable.”
Ignoring his gruff yet sweet order, she fussed, “Hey, this isn’t a real parking spot.”
“Does it matter?” he asked as he cocked his head to the side and arched his eyebrow at her. “There’s no one in sight.”
“So?”
“So, no one is going to give a fuck about where I parked.”
“Fine. Whatever,” she grumbled then got out of the front seat and into the back. “It’s still rude.”
Following her example, he joined her in the back seat. As soon as he entered the car, the clean smell of his favorite soap hit her, driving her libido wild. His scent never failed to arouse her. The unique, manly smell was his and only his. God, I love that aroma. I could just eat him right up.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Landon demanded, dropping his head back and bumping it into the headrest a couple of times. “I cannot even think about talking when you have that sexy kitten look on your face.”
She chuckled, sounding far throatier than usual. “Sorry,” she lied. She wasn’t sorry, not even a little bit.
“Liar,” he growled as he reached over and pulled her across the seat then draped his arm around her. His broad hand slid around her shoulder, reaching for her breasts in one smooth move. “Liar. Liar. Liar.” He kneaded the swollen globes through the fabric of the blouse she’d put on this morning, and the tips of her nipple hardened under his touch.
“Stop it,” she grumbled, wriggling and trying to get away. If he didn’t quit touching her, they wouldn’t talk for a very long time. She was primed and ready for him between her legs, and it was only a matter of time before she opened them and asked him ever-so-nicely to fuck her. “Back at the restaurant you said you needed to talk to me about something, too. Then just a minute ago, you mentioned complications. What is it? Is everything okay?”
Landon frowned. “Katie-Anne,” he said, sounding like he was warning her of something but said no more.
Dropping her eyes to the floorboard, she said quietly, “I’m listening.”
“Okay,” he murmured. She could feel the tension coiling in his body as he went rigid beside her. Releasing her breast from his hand, he sighed. “There is a lot about Shane that you don’t know. Well, nobody knows. He will probably tear me a new one once he finds out I told you, but I have no other option. He is going to need us—both of us—over the next few weeks.”
“What is it?” she asked in a wavering voice, hoping to not sound as though she was prying but firm enough to let him know she wanted to know more.
Landon tucked her closer into his body. She felt like he was protecting himself from what he was about to say, as much as he was her. He cupped her head with the hand that had been on her breast only moments before. Stroking her hair in a slow, seamless caress, he started telling her everything she wanted to know and far more.
“Shane is a foster child,” he stated, telling her something she already knew.
Instead of reminding him that she was aware of Shane’s background, she turned her head to the side and nuzzled the palm of his hand, kissing the sensitive skin there.
Landon sighed. “Well, his childhood wasn’t like most of the other foster kids. My parents died when I was a baby, and Sarah’s teenage mother gave her up right after birth. Deke has no clue about his parentage. We were all forced into the system, but Shane was not. He chose to go there.”
Katie-Anne’s head came up and she stared at Landon in shock. “What?”
“Shane has a background more similar to yours than you realize. He was born to the McCulloughs.”
Katie-Anne gasped, her eyes widening dramatically. “As in the McCulloughs?”
Landon nodded with a sharp jerk of his head. A flash of anger flittered across his handsome face, but it was so sudden and short-lived she wondered if it had ever happened at all. “He grew up in the lap of luxury in Florida. They had more money than they could ever want, but it didn’t satisfy his parents. His mother, Sharon McCullough, was a heroin addict, and his father, Scott, was her dealer.”
With a snort, Landon went on, “It’s funny how people can have the world at their fingertips, but they fuck it up anyway. Scott and Shane were very close. Honestly, I think Shane’s still in denial about his father’s, shall we say, habits. But that is irrelevant. When he was twelve, he walked into his father’s office and found him lying on the floor in a pool of blood. His mother was standing over Scott’s body, and his nanny stood close by, watching the entire thing.”
“Oh my God,” she cried. “No!”
Landon cuddled her closer to him, so close she felt as though she was a part of him. “Yes. His mother was arrested for it and sent to prison, but she was released a short time later. A lot of people claim that she got off because of her daddy’s money, but there was so much more to it than that.”
“There always is.”
Landon ran his hand through her hair, stroking it gently. “Shane truly believes that his mother murdered his father, and he hates her for it, even now. Predictably, his mother’s parents took him in. They were horrible to him, treating him like a plaything in front of their social set and beating him behind the closed doors. One day, when he was supposed to be at school, he snuck off to a pay phone and called the Florida Department of Children and Families. He explained everything to them, and they started an investigation. Even with their money, his grandparents hadn’t escaped that scandal unscathed, so they packed him up and threw him out.”
“He was only twelve!”
“I know,” he whispered. “He hitchhiked out of town and ended up in front of a hospital a few towns over. In a few weeks, he was sent to his foster mother, Beth, and he never talked about it again.”
“How do you know then?”
Landon dropped his head down, propping his chin on the top of her head. She felt each breath he took in her hair, and the sensation soothed her. “He told me.”
Of course he had. They told each other everything. “Why are you telling me then? He is going to be livid.”
“That’s the thing,” Landon responded. “His father’s murder case has been reopened because new evidence has come to light.”
Shit.
Katie-Anne didn’t realize she had spoken aloud until Landon grumbled, “My sentiments exactly.”
“Other than the obvious, what does this have to do with Shane?” Katie-Anne asked.
“He has to testify this time,” Landon answered.
Her heart sped up, tripling its beats in less than a millisecond, and she closed her eyes. This had disaster written all over it. “Does he know?”
“No,” Landon said. “Deke found out through a private investigator friend of his. Reed keeps his eyes peeled for Deke, Adam, and their best interest. So he called Deke as soon as he heard and, of course, Deke called me. I asked that he w
ait to tell Shane until...”
And she knew what Landon wanted, what he was going to ask. Her head swam, and she had to breathe slowly to avoid passing out in the Jeep. “Please don’t ask me to.”
“I have to.”
Chapter 14
Landon’s words hit her square in the chest, and she couldn’t bear to look at him any longer. She glanced out the front windshield of the SUV, staring at nothing in the lot at Dewey’s Drive-In but pretending to anyway.
Her unfocused eyes couldn’t lock on any one item, not even the giant, white movie screen or the concessions stand she knew were close by. Everything around her just looked blurry and blobby through the tears filling her eyes.
“We have to tell him together,” Landon told her. “He is going to need both of us. Surely, you know that.”
No, she didn’t. Shane made no sense whatsoever to her. Then again, what man did? She knew one thing, though. He wouldn’t care if she was there, not really. He would be fine. He would deal. Right?
Landon sighed. “He won’t say he needs you. He won’t say he needs me, either. But he does, and he will. You know it, but you’re afraid that he’ll push you away or that he’ll reject you.”
“So, let me get this straight,” she said. “You are willing to stand by his side and risk getting hurt all over again?”
“Absolutely,” he said so simply, so honestly.
Katie-Anne’s heart clenched, and she felt a sliver of jealousy come to life. I wish I was as strong as him. It must be nice to be able to risk pain and accept it, all in the name of love. She didn’t understand it. Or, if she did, she couldn’t do it. Either way, it didn’t help her or their situation.
“Why?” she inquired, hoping she didn’t sound too curious. The foreign concept befuddled her and so did his acceptance of it. “Loyalty only goes so far.”
Landon put his finger under her chin, tipping her face up to his. He smiled at her gently, the sweetness of his expression making her grin right back at him. “This isn’t about loyalty. It’s about love, and love never runs away.”
Sure, it does. We’ve been doing that for several months now. Her thoughts popped out of her mouth before she censored them. “Doesn’t it? That is what we’ve both been doing.”
“Yeah,” Landon conceded. “It didn’t work, though. Did it?”
Damn it. He was right. It hadn’t worked. She’d still wound up back here, back in their arms, and he was still in limbo with both her and Shane.
“I guess not,” she agreed, looking up into his gorgeous blue eyes. She knew fear had to be in her own eyes, and he could see it. Yet amazingly, it didn’t bother her. This was Landon. She didn’t have to worry about what he thought. He would love her anyway. “I’m scared, Landon.”
He brushed her hair to the side before placing a nibbling kiss to her jaw line. “I know. I am, too, but there is nothing else to do. I love him, and I can’t walk away from him when he needs me. Can you?”
Can I take the Fifth Amendment? Please?
Landon lifted his head up and gave her a look, a hot look that dared her to deny the truth. She had a feeling that she would regret lying to herself, but her ass would regret her lying to him.
Finally, she gave in to the God’s honest truth. She would never leave him, not when he needed her. If he admitted that he needed her, she would probably keel over dead. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t faze her. She wanted to be there for Shane because Landon hit the nail on the head—love didn’t run away. And neither would she. Not this time.
“No,” she finally mumbled then spoke louder, more clearly when she asked the questions plaguing her. “What about after? What about when he walks away from us again?”
“He won’t,” Landon denied quickly with a sharp edge and an undertone that made no sense to her.
Watching him closely, she inquired, “What makes you think that?”
Landon’s lips twitched as he seemed to be fighting off an arrogant grin. “Because I know him, and I know you. I’ll change both of your minds before either of you walk away.”
His expression was contagious, and she quickly found herself grinning from ear-to-fucking-ear. “You are awfully sure of yourself.”
He lost his fight to keep his conceit to himself. A cocky smile spread across his face, and he replied, “It’s called confidence. Besides, I know something you don’t.”
Oh really? You know something I don’t know? Give me five minutes, and I will have the rest of your secrets on the floorboard of this Jeep. She managed to keep her smart-ass thoughts to herself, but she couldn’t keep the question burning in the back of her mind from spilling out. “What’s that?”
His hand paused mid-stroke, and then he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back so sharply that a brief pain shot through her hair and her neck at the same time. “Shane has already staked his claim on you and me. He won’t change his mind and neither will I. It’s only a matter of time before we get you in our bed. Two against one, kitten. We are going to take you down.”
That sounded way too good to her, and she bit her tongue to keep from pleading for him to take her to Shane’s this very minute so she could get between their sexy-as-hell bodies. Her cunt was ready to be filled with one dick while her ass was fucked by another.
She’d never had two cocks in her at once, not even on their wedding night. Shane had fucked her pussy first then Landon had fucked her ass. She’d wanted them to fuck her together, but it hadn’t worked out that way.
The thought of them fucking her at the same time had her pussy clenching, and she had to rub her legs together to hide the surge of moisture dripping from it. With the pair of panties she had on, there would be a wet spot underneath her now. How embarrassing is that? I’m trying to have a serious, adult conversation, and all I want is to get fucked so hard by two men that I black out from the pleasure.
Pulling in a choppy breath, she stopped squirming, and asked the obvious question, “I’m fucked, aren’t I? I don’t even have a chance.”
“Nope,” he replied with a smirk. Leaning across her, he dropped his hand to her leg then inched his way upward, sliding underneath her skirt. Instead of touching her pussy as she desired, he squeezed the inside of her thigh. “But you don’t want one anyway.”
“Sure, I d–d–do,” she stammered, opening her legs wider in obvious invitation. “I don’t want to stay here and get hurt again.”
Landon denied her silent appeal for his touch, and said, “Prove it. You have until July to show us how much you don’t want us or our love. If you can walk away, then we’ll let you go.”
She wanted to punch something, anything. Everyone knew she wouldn’t walk away, and everyone knew they wouldn’t let her. Shannon had said it best. Katie-Anne was deluding herself. The moment she drove her convertible back into town, she was committing to staying in this beautiful place—no matter what.
Katie-Anne sighed. “You know I won’t walk away. It’s January, Landon, and I already don’t want to leave.”
“I know,” he replied.
Sometimes his smugness really infuriated her. Okay, not sometimes—all the time. This man understood her in a way no one else did, and it made him cocky. Well, it made her horny, as she remembered how well he’d played her body. Knowing someone as well as he did her made for one hell of a bedroom soiree.
Trying to get her hormones back under control, she glanced away from him. She stared at everything in the SUV but him. She looked at the stick shift in between the driver and passenger side seats which didn’t help her a bit because it reminded her of the stiff dick in his pants. Moving on.
The steering wheel suddenly became fascinating to her, but it made her think of his masculine hands wrapped around it, and that wasn’t good since one was still lying against her inner thigh, only inches from her weeping pussy. Nope. What else?
She peered down at the black leather they were sitting on. This is better. But it wasn’t. The minute she focused on the material. She rem
embered the feel of it against her back when he’d pressed her down into it, the way it had rubbed against her clothes when he’d pushed her back to give himself more room. Fuck it.
Giving up, she peered up at him. “Why the farce? Why even pretend?”
Landon smiled at her indulgently and told her, “Because I plan to enjoy convincing you to stay.” He glided his fingertips over the supersensitive flesh of her thighs, heading straight for her desperate, aching pussy. Instead of stopping, as she’d expected him to, he migrated upward and upward until he reached her cunt.
He slipped his finger underneath the tiny scrap of silk covering her mound and delved between her labia without warning. The tip of his fingertip brushed over her clit, but he kept going until he reached her entrance. He immediately plunged two fingers inside her, and she moaned. Her back arched involuntarily, her legs falling open wider.
Landon stared down into her face as he rotated his hand, turning his fingers in the opposite direction then pumping them deep inside. His thumb came out, and he rubbed her clitoris with more pressure than was quite comfortable. It wasn’t pain, yet it wasn’t quite pleasure.
The more he massaged the pulsating nub, the more her body wound up. She felt the orgasm building in her, driving her to the point of madness and leaving her vibrating with need. “Yes,” she hissed as he plunged a third finger into her cunt.
A devilish grin appeared on his face from out of nowhere, and she knew he wasn’t going to give her what she wanted. He was going to pull back and leave her hanging. Evil, evil man.
Retreating, he slid his fingers out of her drenched channel and from underneath her dress. He lifted his fingers to his lips, looking directly into her eyes as he opened his mouth and sucked them inside, one at a time.
Her pussy quivered from watching the way his cheeks hollowed out, the way his eyes drooped sensually, the way his lips drifted over the rough texture of his skin. It was a shock to find that her lust arose once again, rushing over her. Her orgasm started building, leaving her ready to beg.
