by Shayla Black
Bingo. Damn Cam. Perceptive son of a bitch. Dissecting his hang-ups was somewhere between uncomfortable and having a dozen rusty nails hammered into his dick.
“And your point is?” he quipped. Telling Cam he was right would only make Thorn feel worse.
“If you want to stay, fix it. Learn how to be honest about your wants and feelings with yourself and us. Otherwise, get the hell out. But decide what you want before Brenna is out of the shower, because I’m not letting you anywhere near her again unless you promise not to hurt her. She’s a one of a kind woman who deserves more than a fuck and run.”
After that little speech, Cam turned and walked toward the master bedroom and Brenna, shutting the door behind him. The detective had been a good guy, which, Thorn supposed, earned him the right to watch the water slide over her soft, pale curves. Maybe help her out of the shower, towel her off, then do whatever he damn well pleased.
While Thorn…he’d be standing here with his dick in his hand and alone for freaking ever if he didn’t get his shit figured out in a hurry.
“Hell.” Thorn rubbed the back of his neck.
Why didn’t Cam just ask him to bend over and take an enema? It wouldn’t be any less personal. Of course, the bastard was also right.
Leaving was tempting, but not an option he wanted to take. He liked what he’d found here with Brenna and Cam more than he didn’t want to endure the pain that would come later. Normally, confronted with this shit, he’d inhale twelve beers, head to a strip club, and pick up Mrs. Right-for-the-night. Or go crack a few skulls when bringing in the bail-jumping trash to Tucson’s finest. But neither of these ideas were going to help him confront his inner demons.
Which only left him one option—he was going to have to rip off the scab and hope he didn’t bleed to death.
Cam eased open the door to the bathroom. “Everyone indecent?”
“Come in.” Brenna shut the shower door, towel wrapped around her wet hair—and everything else bare as the day she was born.
“Damn, I’m too late. I was going to offer to wash every square inch of your body with soap. Twice at least.”
She sent him a soft smile and wrapped another towel around her body, but Cam could see she was still upset, and none of his lame joking was going to undo the hurt of Thorn’s meanspirited words.
Seeing her here in his space, showering in his bathroom, peeking around his kitchen, napping on his sofa all seemed so…natural, it was unnerving. But he liked it. A lot. And hoped like hell that Thorn’s standoffish crap hadn’t made her skittish.
“What a swell offer.” She grabbed his hands and put them around her waist, doing her best to put on an unaffected act, though he knew Thorn had emotionally bruised her. “Want to practice now, sans soap?”
Cam headed to his adjoining bedroom and eased his gun onto the nightstand. When Brenna followed, he wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her against his body. She was a little thing, all of five feet two or three. Probably weighed around one ten. But in that little body was such a big heart. How many people in her situation would have gone to a therapist and paid a metric shit ton of money to learn to tell their father to fuck off? Instead, she came back to the very man who’d hurt her to try to understand him, to get to know him. And after being dumped by her fiancé, she didn’t give up on love either. She just kept going, not pausing to lick her wounds. Cam respected that, loved that about her.
“I’m never going to turn that offer down.”
Her sunny smile went straight between his pecs, piercing deep…and a bit lower. The latter didn’t surprise him. But feeling her in his chest was a stunner. His grandmother had always told him that someday he’d fall in love quickly and irrevocably. It was the way of his mother’s people. But the Apache were a superstitious lot, steeped in some old beliefs, despite the fact they loved technology. His father’s people…they just married and had babies like mad. But his parents were still happily married and living in Albuquerque. They’d made an interracial marriage work, so…
Where the hell was this thought going? He’d met Brenna one day ago and the “M” word had already entered his brain?
“Now is a good time,” Brenna said, bringing him out of his reverie. “If you’re not going to turn it down, that is.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He ran his palm down her back, then edged his hand up under the towel to cup her ass.
She cuddled against him, and it just felt right. Or mostly right. But something was missing.
As he skated soft kisses across her neck and let his free hand roam her skin, Cam knew that it wasn’t something missing, but someone.
Damn Thorn!
“I’m sorry about the things Thorn said, and I hope you don’t—”
“I’ll do my own apologizing, Cop.”
Brenna gasped, and Cam whirled. In the doorway, Thorn stood looking both tense and arrogantly male.
Cam resisted the urge to smile. He honestly hadn’t believed Thorn would come around. The bounty hunter ran through women faster than a gallon of water through his taps. If Thorn came around, Cam had never expected it to be this quick. Maybe that meant he was hooked more than anyone suspected.
At least Cam hoped so.
Until Brenna had come along and they’d spent their first night as a trio, Cam had never noticed Thorn as anything but a bounty hunter and pseudo-friend. But now… He hadn’t been attracted to another guy since college. What he felt now was a complicated mix of curiosity, anger, and pity. There were layers to Thorn and a lot of hurt, Cam suspected. But no way was he letting Thorn stay here if he intended to use the sex to hide.
He’d wait to hear what the bounty hunter had to say, but if it was another load of bullshit, Thorn was going to feel the door on his ass. If he said the right things…well, Cam had a plan to make sure that what was inside Thorn’s heart backed them up.
“I’m sorry, baby.” Thorn stood in the bedroom doorway and looked down as he shuffled his feet. His heart knocked against his ribs like a woodpecker with a fresh tree. “I’m no good with words or feelings. Lack of practice. But, um… You’re not just a fuck to me. I’ve had enough of them to know the difference. I wanna keep you safe but it’s more than that. And I…have no idea what else to say.”
Brenna slipped from Cam’s embrace, took his hand, and led him to Thorn’s side. He tensed as they neared. She was totally within her rights to slap him. If their positions were reversed, he’d beat the shit out of himself.
Not Brenna. The woman dragged him into the middle of the bedroom and brushed a soft kiss over his mouth, her small hand gliding over his bare shoulder in gentle understanding. Damn, everything about her amazed him.
“I know what it’s like to be afraid to be hurt again. I don’t know who or what happened to you, and you don’t have to tell me until you’re ready. But I want you to know that I’m nothing but honest. I care about you, and I will never hurt you on purpose.”
Holy shit. Under her touch, her words, Thorn tensed. He closed his eyes, drew in a deep, shuddering breath, trying to regain control. It was either that or bawl like a goddamn baby. Tears jabbed at the back of his eyes like a pickax. He wanted to throw his arms around her, beg forgiveness, then spend half the night inside her. But he didn’t dare indulge in his last wish. He hadn’t earned the right. And Thorn suspected that if he tried, he and Cam would argue again.
Finally getting his shit under control, he met her soft stare and caressed her cheek. “That means a lot to me, baby. I’m a bastard by nature, but I’ll try not to lash out when I’m uptight or whatever. You, um…matter. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I know.” She smiled.
Thorn wanted to ask how she knew but didn’t. Maybe it was a woman thing or a been-there, done-that thing. Whatever it was, he was grateful.
“But this isn’t just about me,” she said. “I think you two had words, probably some harsh ones. You have to work together after I’m gone, so you need to bury the hatchet.” Brenna stepped aside and
pulled Cam closer.
The cop was big and dark and smelled like danger in a way that made his heart pump. Thorn didn’t want to call the reaction sexual, but he’d be lying if he didn’t admit there was a bit of that in the mix. At the moment, he admired the hell out of Cam’s honesty with himself. Thorn knew he needed to learn that, not flinch every time he had an emotion. It wasn’t like his old man was going to be there to mock him or beat the shit out of him for it.
“Sorry, man.” He extended his hand. “You got nothing to apologize for except being right all the damn time.”
Cam took his hand, and Thorn felt a weird jolt of attraction. God, he’d never really looked at guys. He’d always been about women since his first at thirteen. But this wasn’t sex. Thorn couldn’t break this down, but it was complicated. A bit of respect, a bond of friendship, a jolt of sexual zing—and still more he couldn’t classify.
The detective tugged on his hand, pulling him in until their bare chests collided. Cam’s arm came around his shoulders until he clapped him on the back. Thorn returned the gesture. Something both glad and forbidden streaked through his blood.
Oh, fuck. He’d gone hard. Thorn gritted his teeth. Now what?
Cam backed away slowly. Thorn tried to train his stare just on Brenna, standing beside Cam. But the cop’s heavy gaze compelled him, and Thorn felt his stare creep over to those dark eyes. Knowing eyes. Sexual eyes.
Cam knew he was hard and was aroused by it?
Thorn drew in a deep breath. Flow with it. It’s nobody’s business what you do in the bedroom but yours.
Brenna approached them both and wrapped her arms around their waists. She pressed a quick kiss to Cam’s mouth then turned to him.
“Feel better?”
Oddly, he did. Usually others…he really didn’t give a shit. Cam was the closest thing to a friend he’d had in years. And Brenna, with her kind hazel eyes, was impossible not to adore. But it wasn’t just them. A sense of belonging seeped under his skin and into his bones. That itchy, restless feeling that usually dogged him after he fucked a woman and lingered more than three minutes was remarkably absent.
“Yeah.”
A smile broke out across her face, and her arm tightened around his waist as she leaned in and placed a sweet kiss on his mouth. “I’m glad.”
“Do you have bounties to catch today?” Cam asked.
He shrugged. “Lars can handle it. I went on a tear last week, so I’m pretty caught up. He can handle whatever is outstanding. That’s what older brothers are for.”
“Call him and make sure. I think we need to hang loose in case Curtis calls back. I have a feeling that whatever happens next is going to be fast.”
Thorn nodded and grabbed the phone at his belt, punching numbers as he drifted out the door. In a few short words, he’d arranged a day to do nothing but lay low.
He stepped back into the bedroom to see Cam pressing whispery kisses on Brenna’s cheek, jaw, neck, his bronze skin brushing over her milky paleness. The sight of them was an adrenaline shot to his dick.
Damn if he didn’t want to join them. Now.
“You cool?” Cam asked, barely dragging his mouth away from Brenna and turning her in his arms so he could rub his palms over her delicate shoulders.
Just a little lower, and Cam could be dissolving that towel from her body and fondling her breasts…and he could be watching and salivating and hoping he got the chance to taste heaven, too.
But he did his best to play cool. Business first. “Lars agreed that fifty K was more than enough money to justify giving the bond my all. So I’m dedicated to it for the next day or two.”
“Good. Today is my day off, technically. So I can use the time to wait with you and see if Curtis emerges. The clock is ticking, but I’ve figured out that if we try to hunt him down, he’ll just dig deeper into his hidey-hole.”
“Especially if he knows someone is trying to kill him.”
“And he’d be an idiot to think Marco isn’t trying to off him as quickly as possible.”
“Damn straight,” Thorn agreed. “And if there’s one thing Curtis isn’t…”
“It’s stupid.” Cam nodded, brushing a long caress down Brenna’s arm, then back up to her collarbone. “He knows that testifying and Witness Protection are his best bets to stay alive. I wish he’d allowed us to provide protective custody, but the minute Judge Nelson granted him bail, I suspected he’d go deep.”
The sight of Cam’s hands on Brenna was damn distracting. “With someone like Marco chasing you, wouldn’t you?”
“Likely.”
“How did my father get involved in all this?” Brenna asked. “It’s not like we have a deep relationship, but I never imagined him to be a criminal.”
“I don’t know.” Cam shook his head. “Curtis wasn’t that talkative when I questioned him. He answered what was asked directly but didn’t offer more. I didn’t ask why. If I had to guess, though, it’s like everyone else. The lure of the easy money is just too strong.”
Brenna recoiled. “It’s so ugly. These are people, for goodness sake.”
“Some people look at other people and see nothing but dollar signs, baby.” Thorn grabbed her and rubbed a soothing thumb over her back. “It is ugly, but Cam and I see the dregs of society every day. It’s nothing new for us.”
“Vice is a regular barrel of fun,” Cam drawled.
She shuddered. “Back in my little town in Texas, the most dangerous character I ever saw was the occasional handsy guy who’d come to the diner and think a free feel came with his mashed potatoes.”
Her words exploded an instant picture into Thorn’s head of some unwashed creep putting his hands on Brenna’s ass, and he tensed, wishing he had heads to knock around. He didn’t like the thought of her having to fend off those assholes on her own.
“Know how to break their fingers?”
She sent him a chastising glance. “Violence against customers would be bad for business.”
“But better for my mental health. Be careful, baby.”
She sidled closer and snuggled up to him and laid her head on his chest. “With you here, I feel completely safe.”
With her words, he felt both a hundred feet tall and invisible ties winding around his heart.
Shit, was he hooked? Was love that quick and simple? And what about Cam?
He slanted a glance at the detective, who didn’t look at all unhappy that he had his arm around Brenna’s waist while his fingers removed the towel covering her long, honey-brown hair. In fact, that sleepy, sensual expression on the detective’s face conveyed anything but anger.
This whole sharing a woman thing… Looking at Cam’s face, he didn’t think the cop saw it as an isolated event or two. Mentally, Thorn tried on the idea of making this a relationship. Immediately, blood rushed south, pulsing, making his dick throb insistently.
Okay, so that part of him dug it. Shocker… If history repeated, he knew the sex would never be anything but astounding. But there were practical reasons, too. Brenna would always be protected. She’d never feel unloved or abandoned again. If he begged or fucked appropriately, there might be some home-cooked meals in his future. And this warm, gooey feeling in his chest that made him weirdly happy might stay. He could be important, not just to one person, but two. He might actually feel like his personal life had meaning beyond orgasms with strangers.
At thirty-three, he finally wanted more than a one-night stand with someone whose name he couldn’t remember. Maybe even something to last.
“You are completely safe,” Thorn assured her, tugging gently on her damp hair to tip her head back. He looked straight into those hazel eyes and swore he could see forever as he lowered his mouth to hers.
Soft, like a cotton blanket on a warm bed—that’s how she felt against him. Petal-sweet lips parted under his, and he dove deep, sinking into oblivion. And he didn’t care. There was something here he’d never felt anywhere else. He wasn’t about to let her get away.
Even with his eyes closed, he felt a sudden surge of heat near Brenna. Cam. The detective pressed himself against her backside and wrapped his hands around her waist. He caressed slowly, palms rising to her breasts, dragging his knuckles across her nipples. She groaned into Thorn’s mouth. That, coupled with the soft abrasion of the back of Cam’s fingers caressing his torso, juiced his blood in a flash.
Thorn’s kiss turned from an affirmation to a conquering in the span of a heartbeat as he turned on the heat. Under him, Brenna melted. Then an unexpected touch as Cam’s fingers brushed his shoulder, sending electricity straight to his dick. The touch drifted away and returned to Brenna, but the effect lingered.
Just from that, Thorn suspected Cam was going to push his boundaries. And instead of being freaked, he was feeling very bring it on. Quickly, he laid his gun on the dresser just a lunge away from where he currently stood, just in case. Then he turned back to the others.
Brenna removed her hands from Thorn’s body, and before he could protest, she tugged at the towel around her, baring herself to them. Thorn took advantage of the sudden access to soft skin and glided his palms over her back and downward.
The backs of his fingers brushed the thick ridge of Cam’s erection on the way down.
The detective hissed, and Thorn smiled inwardly. Take that. Then he focused on Brenna’s prime ass, trailing his fingers over her cheeks, between her legs, between her lips. He smiled. Wet. Just the way he wanted her.
Easing his fingers inside her, she closed around him silky hot and tight. She was going to be a delight for his dick. And Cam’s. The thought of both of them sharing one pussy should have pissed him off, grossed him out—something. Nope. He was so jacked on desire, he was a step from throwing her to the bed, tearing off his jeans, and working his cock straight in.
But he wanted to draw it out, make her scream and beg…and see whether Cam would contribute to her sensual torture or succumb to the towering need to fuck her immediately.
Cam continued to toy with her nipples, pinching, turning, sensitizing. Brenna’s little moans were eating at his resolve. And when Cam sank passionate kisses across her shoulder, then up her neck, to her lobe, Thorn felt his heat, the jagged need in his exhalation.
