by Decadent
So she’d come finally—under Luc’s hands, fueled by Luc’s touch.
Why the hell did that make Deke want to hit something? Or someone?
He’d be better off not examining it too hard.
Instead, he watched the coffee drip, doing his best to keep his mind perfectly blank and focused on the task at hand—nice little Special Ops trick he could thank the army for.
A few minutes later, Luc emerged from his room in crisp jeans, shirt in hand, and wandered down the hall, his posture relaxed. And no visible raving hard-on. “Morning.”
“Did she get you off with her hands or mouth?”
The question was out of Deke’s mouth before he could stop it. It wasn’t any of his business. Knowing wouldn’t change Kimber’s moans of pleasure still ringing in his ears or the visible satiation softening his cousin’s face.
Luc propped his hip against the kitchen counter, crossed his arms over his chest, and quirked a dark brow.
Before Luc could answer, Deke said, “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
He busied himself grabbing cups in the cupboard above, then retrieving the sugar and cream for Luc. All the while, he felt his cousin’s gaze on him, sizing up the situation, deciding how best to reply. Crafty bastard.
“Neither.”
Something of a nonanswer. And damn it, Luc’s face gave away nothing. All of Kimber’s pleading . . . Luc hadn’t been working his way inside of Kimber when he’d peeked in on them—but he also hadn’t stayed for the grand finale. Had he . . . ?
“You didn’t fuck her.” Deke stated his question as fact, hoping that could somehow make it true.
“What’s eating you?” Luc asked. “If you want her this morning, she’s all soft and rumpled and wet. And she’s still in bed. Go. I’ll babysit the coffee.”
Deke hesitated. Show that he could resist or march down the hall— by himself—and get as much of Kimber as Luc had? If he could, he’d take even more.
He’d take everything.
The coffeemaker beeped, and Luc extracted the fresh pot off the burner and poured a cup, wearing a faint smile, as he knew exactly the options Deke was weighing.
This game playing was bullshit, and he didn’t want to be on either team.
“Fuck! This isn’t going to work. Kimber has to go.”
“Keep your voice down or she’ll hear you,” Luc whispered, irritated.
That would be for the best. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, just make her go away.
“Why do you think she has to go?” Luc asked in low tones. “You can’t think she’s unable to learn what we have to teach her.”
Deke rolled his eyes. “Don’t play stupid. She can learn. Obviously. I know she’s not scared. She should be, but for some crazy reason, she isn’t. But that isn’t the issue.”
“Hmm. I think I know what the issue is, but why don’t you explain it to me in your words.”
“Remember? She’s a virgin.”
“Whose name isn’t Heather.”
“She has nothing to do with Kimber. We’re not rehashing the past again.”
Luc cocked his head and slid him a considering stare. “We never hashed it in the first place, which is part of the problem. But fine, you don’t want to discuss Heather. Tell me another reason you have for avoiding Kimber.”
Deke hesitated, then realized he wouldn’t be telling anything Luc didn’t already know. “Nothing I didn’t warn you about before. She’s blowing past my self-control. If she stays, I’m going to disrespect her wishes. Sooner or later, she’ll beg, and I won’t have the will to say no. I will fuck her.”
“If Kimber begs, we’ll reevaluate the situation. Maybe it would be in everyone’s interest if we give her exactly what she asks for.”
The idea of Luc being the one to take Kimber’s virginity made him feel as if his guts had been churned in a blender then spit back out. But he could never take her, especially not alone. Ever. “You think she’s ours.”
Luc responded slowly. “Anything is possible. I’m hard-pressed to believe that a woman would respond so perfectly the very first time if, in her heart, she belonged to someone else.”
“Has it escaped your memory that she’s here to have us train her to accept the touch of two other men, one of whom she thinks she’s in love with?”
“No. I merely think she’s trying to find her future and hoping that Jesse McCall is the right path. I also don’t think it will take her long to sort it all out for herself.”
“Which is Luc-speak for you think that Kimber belongs with us and she’ll come to that conclusion quickly.” Freakin’ amazing. Deke shook his head. “You’re delusional, you know that? At best, Kimber is really applying herself to learning all about ménage so she can live it with someone else. At worst, she’s just horny. But you’ve got to get rid of this idea that there’s some perfect woman out there who wants to play house with us until death do us part.”
“She’s out there.” He sounded confident. “But that somewhere may be miles away or just down the hall. We don’t know yet.”
Deke shook his head, poured himself a cup of coffee, and counted to ten. Which did absolutely no good. The frustration still boiled up inside him, rising, drowning good sense and restraint.
“I don’t want a wife. I don’t want anything but a good fuck, and she isn’t it.”
Luc said nothing for a full ten seconds. “Then you have nothing to worry about except keeping your word. She’s overcome her anxiety about being here and forgiven you for the terrible way you treated her when she first arrived.”
Shit. Luc didn’t just state that they couldn’t go back on their promise to teach her all about ménage. But he implied it in every syllable.
“Besides,” Luc added. “It’s not as if we’re her only options. Have you forgotten the Catrell brothers?”
No. The sight of Adam and Burke with their hands on her was burned into his brain.
“I don’t think she wants them.”
“But she may be determined enough to learn to go with them, anyway.”
True. Deke sighed. Kimber had him by the balls—in more ways than one.
“Think of it as keeping her occupied so we can protect her from the Catrell brothers, whom we know far too much about to kid ourselves,” Luc said.
Yeah. They were hard on their women. The tag team that never quit. They’d use her, grind her into little pieces, and spit her out when she couldn’t keep up.
Basically, he was screwed if he let her stay and screwed if he let her go.
“Fine. She’s here for the next thirteen days. Not a minute more.”
Luc smiled as he shrugged on his shirt, took another swig of his coffee, and shuffled over to the sandals he kept by the back door. “I have to run to a local radio interview. We’ll have this chat again in thirteen days. In the meantime . . . Kimber is all sleep-soft and very sweet this morning”—he licked his lips—“help yourself.”
As Deke watched his cousin grab his car keys and head out the door, he restrained the urge to hit walls, blocks of wood—Luc’s head—and cursed.
Help himself? Deke would love to. But it wasn’t going to happen. There was way more at stake than Kimber’s virginity and sophomoric crush on Jesse McCall. Way more than petty jealousy. And damn if Luc didn’t know it and plotted to tempt him.
He might as well start counting the days, probably on one hand, before he wound up breaking through Kimber’s barriers—mental and physical. It was inevitable.
And when it happened, everyone was going to suffer, Kimber most of all.
SHE woke for the second time that morning alone in Luc’s cozy, downy bed, tossed on someone’s discarded shirt—Luc’s?—and padded down the hall. Heavy-limbed and flushed, Kimber made her way toward the smell of fresh coffee. But she couldn’t pretend anxiety didn’t claw her.
When she reached the kitchen, the sight of Deke hunched over a cup of coffee, lost in his thoughts, brought her to a stop. Especially since they didn’t look like happy thou
ghts.
Of course they weren’t. She was underfoot, and he didn’t want her here. She hadn’t heard any other part of his argument with Luc, but that sentiment had come through loud and crystal clear.
Which explained why she’d fallen asleep last night with Deke by her side, only to awaken twenty minutes later to find him gone. And why each time she’d awakened during the restless night, she’d found only Luc beside her. Not only had Deke chosen to sleep elsewhere, but he’d refused to come within five feet of her this morning after Luc had devoured her. The why behind that pressed sadness and shame down into her chest with crushing intensity.
Despite Deke’s seeming eagerness last night, after the orgasm he’d apparently lost interest in her. Because he still saw her as a teenager? Because he liked and respected her dad too much? Maybe. But those hang-ups would be easy. A little nudge from her would get him past either. He wouldn’t be staring morosely into his coffee about those issues. The real problem would be harder to get past, especially if it was the one she’d had her entire dating life.
“Hi,” she murmured.
His head snapped up, and he drilled her with a stare that seemed at once hot and accusing. He drew in a deep breath. Bracing himself?
“Coffee?” he asked finally.
“Sure. I’ll get it.”
“Cups are in the cupboard above the coffeemaker.”
Kimber nodded and retrieved her cup . . . and wondered what to say next. What was there to say? Should she apologize for the fact her tomboy ways seemed to turn him off? Once the skirt and lacy under-things had come off and he’d seen the real her, maybe it had been too . . . masculine. He wouldn’t be the first guy in her life to think that—just ask her prom date.
Cursing reality wouldn’t do a bit of good. She couldn’t escape the fact that after being raised motherless by military men, the Colonel and her two Navy SEAL brothers had been her role models. She liked fatigues, enjoyed a good five-mile run at o-five-hundred, hated panty hose, lace, and makeup. Most guys swore she had testosterone running through her veins. But the fun of flipping one over her shoulder and straight onto his back or drinking him under the table had lost appeal long ago. She wanted men to see her as a real female, not one of the guys who happened to have breasts.
With Deke and Luc, she’d been as girly as she knew how. By all appearances it hadn’t been enough. All that want Deke said he he’d been harboring for her for years . . . More than likely, she’d cured him of it last night.
Changing wasn’t an option. She liked herself. Screw anyone who didn’t, Deke included. Yes, he turned her on. A lot. A hell of a lot. Even when she’d been seventeen, he’d fueled some dark fantasies in her adolescent brain. But in two weeks, she’d be with Jesse. He accepted her tomboy ways, even told her he found it adorable. This . . . fear eating at her hardly mattered.
So why couldn’t she shake it now?
“Sleep good?” she asked into the thick silence.
“No.”
She noticed he didn’t ask her in turn. Probably didn’t care. “Me, either.”
Deke grunted and sipped his coffee. He avoided looking at her.
Damn, she had to get this off her chest. Stewing in self-doubt wasn’t her style.
Taking a fortifying sip of her own coffee, she sank into the chair across from him. “You didn’t sleep with us last night.”
“So?”
“Why?”
“We covered why last night.” A muscle in his jaw ticced.
“And your insomnia is the only reason?”
He paused, and those deep blue eyes flashed with something— anger?—but he dropped his gaze to his half-full coffee cup before she could be sure.
“Kitten, don’t dig into my psyche on this. You won’t like the answer.”
That, she didn’t doubt. If she dug, she’d probably find out that he’d once wanted her but realized last night that she was nothing like whatever feminine fantasy woman he’d conjured up in his head. And now he wanted her gone because he didn’t want to repeat last night. His honor, along with Luc, had bullied him into letting her stay.
Fine. Just fine. She could live with that. Revel in it, in fact. All she cared about was what he and his cousin could teach her. Deke didn’t have to actually desire her. It was probably better if he didn’t, since she was responding to him more than physically.
But she couldn’t just leave it. Not her style. “I probably won’t like the answer, but if it’s going to affect your ability to live up to your end of the bargain to teach me—”
“I’ll keep up my end. You’ll learn everything you need and probably more than you want.”
“Good.”
But Kimber’s relief was both uneasy and short-lived.
“Don’t be too happy.” Deke picked up his coffee cup and stared at her over the rim. “Luc has this fucked-up notion that you’re going to fall in love with us and want to ditch your pop star boyfriend to marry us and have our babies.”
Marriage? Babies? Kimber gasped. She did want those things someday, but she was set on Jesse. He’d known the real her for years, accepted her as is. That wasn’t true of Deke or Luc. “Seriously?”
Deke nodded sharply. “I don’t want to encourage that notion. You shouldn’t want to, either. So that means, unless there’s something sexual going on at the moment, stay the fuck away from me.”
No one would ever fault Deke for beating around the bush. Kimber had known from the start that he was anti-relationship. Not that she wanted one with him, but if she was going to allow him incredible intimacies with her body, touch him skin to skin, and live under his roof, shouldn’t they at least be able to talk?
“Is Luc here now?”
“No.”
Kimber frowned. “He can’t get the wrong idea if we talk while he’s gone.”
“I don’t want to talk. You came to learn all about ménage. We’re going to teach you. But we’re not best friends, I don’t give a shit what you think about, and I’ve got nothing to say.”
Defensive and closed. Those were the best words to describe Deke. Oh, the offense came through, but that was his defense. He wasn’t just morning crabby; she knew him well enough to know that he liked mornings. He hadn’t been troubled by anything last night.
He hadn’t been troubled until he’d gotten a firsthand taste of how feminine she wasn’t.
His instinct had been to refuse her request. Now he was probably kicking himself for letting her and Luc manipulate him into this arrangement. He was probably thinking it was going to be the longest two weeks of his life.
Her brothers often congratulated her on being one of the few females they knew who could contain their emotions, but the unruly things snapped up and bit her now. And she felt wretched. Hurt. She hated it.
“Fine. I’ve got nothing to say, either. Be an asshole. As long as you’re a good tutor, I don’t care.”
Kimber stood and waltzed past Deke, toward the exit.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her down damn near into his lap. “Kitten, I’m going to be the best tutor you could possibly imagine. Don’t you doubt that.”
“Glad to hear it.” She yanked free of his grip. “I’ll respect the fact you don’t want me to talk to you when we’re not in bed, as long as you don’t touch me unless you’re teaching me. So until tonight, you leave me the fuck alone.”
Deke hesitated, a bitter smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “Kitten, that’s the best idea you’ve had since you walked through that door.”
DINNER passed in silence, despite the fact Luc had grilled damn fine pork chops and brushed them with a delectable maple-cranberry glaze. Luc shrugged off the chilled silence. The army had taught Deke to eat anything—mess hall grease, MREs, the side of a raw goat—as long as it kept him alive. Luc’s palette was a bit fussier. And Kimber . . . The way she darted venomous glares at Deke through the meal told Luc that she and his cousin had exchanged unpleasant words earlier that day.
And the way Deke watche
d her told Luc that his cousin’s hunger wasn’t going to be sated by scrumptious pork or the blackberry-peach crisp he’d baked earlier.
Behind his napkin, Luc smiled. Cross words aside, everything was falling into place perfectly. Time to add a little fuel to the fire . . .
Luc reached across the space separating him from Kimber and caressed his way up her arm, which was bared by a small spaghetti-strapped tank top. Then he brushed the back of his knuckles over her cheek. Hmm, soft. So sweet. And so pissing Deke off, a slanted glance in that direction told him.
“More salad, sweetheart?” Luc asked.
“No.” She relaxed enough to smile at him. “I’m stuffed. With all your wonderful cooking, I won’t fit into my pants soon.”
He leaned in to steal a slow, gentle kiss right on her lips, still tasting faintly of the tangy glaze he’d prepared with the meal. Across the table, Deke tensed. His fork clattered to his plate. Luc ignored him.
“With the two of us around, you really don’t need pants. Isn’t that right, Deke?”
Luc curled his hand around Kimber’s naked shoulder and softly stroked her, all the while watching her nipples peak under the little white shirt and his cousin’s gaze heat dangerously.
“Is everyone done eating?” Deke barked, standing, hovering over the table.
Kimber pushed back and shot Luc an uncertain glance. Worry; he saw that in her gaze. Uh-oh, what the hell had Deke said or done to put her on edge?
“That’s up to Kimber. We can sit for a bit longer, if you’d like, sweetheart.”
Deke tossed down his napkin. “If you want your tutoring tonight, kitten, it’s now or never. I’ve got better things to do than sit here and chat.”
Luc registered Kimber tensing under his hand. Oh, the fireworks are about to begin.
“You’ve made that clear. I don’t want to be a bother to you. Maybe I should just follow Luc down the hall to his room. You can . . . run along.”
Chin held high, Kimber stood and, despite wearing a fatigue-print mini skirt and a tank top sans bra, breezed past him as regally as a queen.
The stunned look on Deke’s face was priceless.
