by Becca Van
“They don’t look at me like that.”
“Yes they do and when you think no one is looking you do the same.”
“No I…”
“You can lie to yourself all you like, but I’ve seen you. You’re attracted to them.”
“Okay,” Prue sighed and then covered her mouth when tears threatened. “You’re right, I am attracted to them. They are so damn handsome and hot, but even if they are interested I don’t know if I could handle being with them, especially not after what that man did. I’m scared I would freak out and then they wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me.”
“I think you’re wrong.” Sara hugged her. “I think if you talked to them they would totally understand.”
“I’m not even sure they like me that way, Sara. God, I am so messed up. I’m having nightmares. Every night it’s the same. That asshole is standing in the door watching me and he gives me that cold, evil smile and stare, except he doesn’t stop. I wake up on the verge of screaming the house down. I can’t sleep more than a couple of hours at a time.” Prue sobbed and clung to Sara. “I don’t know how much more I can stand. I feel like I’m going around the twist, going insane. I want those men but I’m too damn scared to do anything about it. My mind is in turmoil and I don’t know what to do.”
“Shh, Prue.” Sara hugged her tighter. “Maybe, now that you’ve talked about it, you won’t be so stressed. I can talk to Dalton if you want. Maybe he could give you something to help you sleep?”
“No. That’s the last thing I want.” Prue released Sara and stepped back while wiping the moisture from her cheeks. She did feel like a bit of the load she had been carrying was lighter but still didn’t know what to make of the fact that Sara thought the three Lathan brothers were attracted to her. She had spent the last eight weeks in their presence, living in their home, and not once had she been given the impression that she was appealing to them.
“Sara, is everything all right?” Dalton walked out the door and eyed Sara before glancing at Prue then back to Sara again.
“Yes, we were just talking about some girl stuff.”
Dalt smiled but held his hand up, palm out. “I don’t want to know. Have you finished, because I have something I want to show you?”
From the color that suffused Sara’s cheeks and the smirk Dalton gave Sara, Prue had a pretty good idea what Dalt wanted to show his fiancé.
“Are you all right now, Prue? Do you need more time?”
“No, I’m fine. Thanks, Sara.”
Sara gave Prue’s shoulder a light pat, “Get some rest, Prue and try not to worry so much.”
Prue nodded and watched as Dalton took Sara’s hand and led her inside. He leaned down to whisper into her ear and Sara giggled just as they disappeared inside. She so wanted to have what Sara had with her men, and then sighed with resignation.
Well, it didn’t matter anyway. Prue didn’t think a relationship between one man let alone three men and herself would work. It wasn’t that she was appalled or judging the others for being in a ménage relationship. She had no care how others lived their lives as long as everyone was consensual and happy, but she just couldn’t see how she, normal, boring, Prudence Peters could keep one man satisfied let alone three.
Maybe the best thing she could do was move into the guest bedroom of the main house and put those men and herself out of their miseries. Then hopefully the Lathan brothers could get back into the normal semblance of a routine and a normal life.
Prue began to feel better as her mind spun with plans. She would move out of the Lathan’s home tomorrow and then she would talk Whit, Dalt and Hay into letting her go back home to her small one bedroom apartment in Alliance, Nebraska.
At least she would be able to see the only person who had ever really given a shit about her. Her best friend, Yvonne Butters, would go ballistic when she saw that she was safe and sound. Then she realized that wasn’t true either. She was good friends with Sara and Nicole and May was like a mother to her, but she couldn’t stay in limbo forever. Something had to give and she thought it was time to take control and get her life back. Even if she was going to be alone and lonely.
Prue had been on her own for so long now whenever someone showed her kindness or friendship like her best friend Yvonne had she held on with both hands. She’d lost her mother to cancer at the age of ten and had never met her father. He had been killed while serving in the US military. Prue had ended up in foster care and even though she was lucky enough to have been placed with kind families she’d never felt liked she truly belonged. Meeting Yvonne at the real estate office she worked for had been a godsend. Usually she wouldn’t have befriended someone like Yvonne since she was so brash and full of confidence but Yvonne had persisted and she was so glad she had. Yvonne had garnered her self-confidence and Prue wouldn’t be without her friend now.
Prue got her wayward thoughts back to what she had decided. She wasn’t going to take no for answer. With her mind made up she hurried down the steps and toward the house. First thing tomorrow morning she was leaving.
Chapter Two
Hunt heard Prue’s footsteps on the timber deck just before the front door opened. Thorpe and Adam tensed as if they were about to rise from their seats but he held up his hand to stop them.
“We don’t want to overwhelm her. Let me go meet her by myself.” His brothers gave him a slight nod of their heads and he headed out of the dining room/kitchen and met Prue as she walked into the living room.
The first thing he noticed was that her eyes were red-rimmed like she had been crying. Why would Prue cry? She stopped in the doorway and froze like an animal caught in headlights. She looked into his eyes for a brief moment and then glanced down to the floor.
“Are you all right, Prue?”
“Yes.”
Hunt moved closer, until he was only a couple of feet away. He slowly reached out, giving her time to react, to step back if she wanted to and gently nudged her chin up until she met his eyes again. There was a little wariness in her gorgeous blue eyes but also a vulnerability that went straight to his heart. He wanted so bad to pull her into his arms and offer comfort but until she gave him and his brothers a sign she would welcome their attentions he kept his needs on a tight rein.
“Why were you crying, honey?”
Prue shrugged and then looked off to the side and then back at him. When she shifted on her feet he studied her body language. Her breathing was escalated, her nipples were hard little points and her pupils were larger than normal. It took everything Hunt had not to shout Halleluiah, pick her up, and go racing toward the bedrooms.
“My brothers and I would like to talk to you for a bit,” Hunt released her chin and stepped back. “Can you come into the kitchen?”
Prue nodded her head and when he turned and began to walk she followed him.
“Would you like a drink, Prue?”
“Yes please. Tea would be nice.”
“Go and sit down and I’ll bring it over.”
Prue took the seat at the end of the table and closest to the door. Hunt cursed under his breath and wondered when she would relax around them. Neither he nor his brothers had done anything to make her so wary, and after they had explained about their enhanced skills he was going to try and get to the crux of her nervousness. He gave a slight shake of his head. No, it would be better to try and find out first. Once they told her about their abilities she may not want to have anything to do with them.
Hunt fixed her tea and then brought it over to the table. He sat down in the chair on her left. Adam was across the other side from her and Thorpe was on her right.
“Why are you so frightened of us, Prue? Have we done something to make you scared?”
“I’ve heard you pacing the floor at night, sweetness,” Thorpe wrapped one large hand around his coffee mug. “Do you want to talk about why you’re having trouble sleeping?”
Prue shrugged and then placed both of her little hands around her cup as is
they were cold and she was trying to warm them.
“We can’t help you if you don’t talk to us, baby. Please, we are only trying to help.” Adam reached across the table and clasped one of her wrists. His brother’s whole expression changed and then his shield came tumbling down. The images slammed into Hunt’s mind and no doubt Thorpe’s, too. The sight of Prue naked and tied to a bed while a big, muscular Asian man touched her in a sexual way flooded his brain and so did the fear that Prue had experienced.
Prue shifted, dislodging Adam’s hand and the connection was broken. Fury like he’d never felt before permeated his body and into his soul. Hunt wanted to curse and rage against the Japanese Underworld criminals but he kept his ire contained in deference to Prue. If he started spewing out blasphemes he would in all likelihood make her even more scared. And it was really hard to put his mental shield back in place. Hunt wanted to know what she was feeling but it wouldn’t be right to invade her privacy that way, especially since she had no idea about their skills.
Taking a deep breath, trying to calm his anger, he looked at both his brothers and gave them a nod.
“Prue, we need to tell you a few things.” Thorpe rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “What we are about to tell you is top secret, but I want you to remember that none of us, or any of the other men of the Elite Dragoons would ever do anything to hurt you. Okay?”
Prue nodded.
“We spent just over five years in the Marines and fighting for our country.”
“Thank you,” Prue smiled at each of them and when they smiled back she blushed and looked down at her mug of tea.
“You’re welcome, honey,” Hunt said then nodded to Thorpe to get him to continue.
“As I was saying we served our country in the Marines. Our teams had a high success rate with our missions and just as we were due to finish up our time the government approached us and asked if we would be interested in volunteering for an experiment.”
Adam shifted in his chair until he was sitting straight and facing Prue. “Once we asked all the questions and found out what it was we would be doing we agreed to their experiment. Over a period of three weeks, we were injected with a cocktail of drugs that even Dalton, our medic, wasn’t aware existed and couldn’t pronounce and by the end of the program we had abilities beyond the normal human male.”
Prue sat up in her chair and looked at each of them. Hunt had expected to see trepidation or fear on her face but there was none of that. In fact she looked downright excited and eager to hear the rest of the story.
Hunt took over the telling. “By the time we had finished we had enhanced senses. We did training with the Rangers, SEALs, Green Berets and we’d already been through the Marines, and we beat them all on mock missions and obstacle courses. Our eyesight is better than the normal 20/20. Our sense of smell and hearing are more advanced. We can move faster, are stronger and can jump higher than any man alive on the Earth. And we are also empathetic.”
Hunt and his brothers waited to see what her reaction would be. He expected her to be worried about the last part of their abilities but yet again she surprised him. The smile that crossed her mouth and lit up her whole face made her so fucking beautiful he drew in a ragged breath. His cock twitched and then began to rapidly fill with blood. He nearly groaned out loud as the ache intensified. It had been pure hell living with her for the last couple of months and not be able to do anything about the attraction he and his brothers felt toward her. But hopefully now that she knew about their skills and when they told her how they felt, she wouldn’t be averse to exploring the attraction between them.
“Is that how you were able to find me, by using your empathetic abilities?”
“Yes,” Thorpe answered. “When the report came into the sheriff’s office of another blonde-haired blue-eyed woman being kidnapped, an alert we had set up on our computers went off and we headed out to Chadron and searched where you’d been seen last and the surrounding area. The toe of your sandal was peeking out from beneath the dumpster and when one of us touched it the three of us were able to see what had happened to you and where you’d been taken and immediately came after you. The rest you know.”
“You saw what I did?” Prue asked breathlessly.
“Yeah, we did, baby.” Thorpe stroked a finger down her forearm. “And I’ve never been gladder that we had those skills. Otherwise we may never have found you.”
“Wow. That is so awesome.” Prue removed her hands from her now empty mug and then her face turned a slight pink color and she began to nibble on her lower lip. “Have you seen…did you…”
Hunt placed his hand over hers and squeezed, offering her comfort because he knew what she was trying to ask.
“Yes, honey, we saw what that asshole did to you.”
“Oh, God.” Prue pulled her hand from beneath his and covered her face. When he saw tears leaking out from between her fingers his heart broke for her.
Hunt rose to his feet and helped her up from her chair. She kept her face covered, trying to hide the fact that she was crying. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight, offering her what comfort he could.
“Shh, Prue, we won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.” His words of comfort seemed to be what broke the camel’s back. Prue lowered her hands from her face and buried her head between his pecs and began to cry in earnest. She sobbed and sobbed, drenching his T-shirt in the process. Not that he cared one whit about his shirt, but what got to him was the pain she was in. He looked over to his brothers and saw their concern and just as he was becoming worried she wasn’t ever going to stop, his brothers got up from their seats and came over. They surrounded her with their heat. Thorpe began rubbing her back between her shoulders in soothing circles and Adam stroked his hands up and down her arms. Her crying finally slowed until she hiccupped occasionally and finally her breathing slowed.
“I’m sorry,” Prue whispered, but with their enhanced hearing they all heard her.
Hunt nodded to his brothers to back off and they did. He moved his arms, then lifted her up, with an arm beneath the crook of her knee and the other around her shoulders, and then walked back over to the table and sat down.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, honey. You’ve been to hell and back. We knew you were bottling everything up inside. Why didn’t you come and talk to us?”
“I didn’t know you then. I didn’t feel comfortable talking to strangers and then it just became too hard to even think about it.”
“That didn’t work though did it, baby?” Thorpe asked as he sat in his chair again. “You haven’t slept the night through since you came here.”
“Are you having nightmares, Prue?” Adam asked as he sat down.
“Yeah. I just can’t get what he did to me out of my head.”
“Did he rape you, honey?” Hunt tensed as he waited for her answer and was surprised yet again when she began to stroke a hand down over his chest.
“No, but I think if you all hadn’t rescued me when you did, he would have,” Prue drew a ragged breath and then rested her head on Hunt’s shoulder.
Hunt loved having her in his arms. She felt so right cuddled up against his body. His cock twitched and began to grow. He shifted and hoped she didn’t feel that he was getting a hard-on and scare her even more. Prue shifted on his lap and he swallowed the groan forming in his chest as she wriggled on his erection. She froze for a moment as if she felt his woody but then she shifted again. He closed his eyes and bit the inside of his cheek trying to keep his arousal under control but it didn’t help much, not with her little delicate hand still stroking over his chest. Hunt wondered if she had any idea what she was doing.
“Do you feel better now, baby?” Thorpe asked.
“Yeah.” Prue sighed and snuggled into him some more. “I feel as if the weight on my shoulders has gone and so has the knot in my stomach.”
Hunt was glad that she was feeling better and wanted to tell her that they were all very attracted to her. But then
he realized it was more than that. Over the last eight weeks or so, Prue had managed to work her way under his skin and into his heart. He was already a little in love with her. He couldn’t speak for his brothers of course, but by the looks on their faces as they stared at her he would guess they felt the same. He heard her yawn and then all the tension seeped from her body and her breathing evened out.
“Is she asleep?” Hunt looked at Thorpe and he nodded in affirmation. Hope and joy filled his heart. She wouldn’t have fallen asleep on him if she didn’t trust him at least a little. Would she?
“She is so fucking beautiful,” Adam rasped. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. I want to be with her.”
“We all do, Adam, but she needs time,” Thorpe said quietly. “She’s only just beginning to open up to us. If we push her beyond her comfort zone she could end up running.”
Prue sighed and rubbed her cheek against Hunt’s chest. “Hmm, Hunt.”
Hunt couldn’t believe she knew him even in her sleep. He was determined now more than ever to court her and have her in their lives permanently. She was the woman he and his brothers had been waiting for and he would do anything to keep her safe and to keep her in their lives.
She shifted again and whispered his brothers’ names. “Thorpe. Adam.” Maybe there was hope for them yet. Now they just had to convince Prue that they were the men meant for her. He hoped like hell when they told her they wanted to explore the attraction between all of them that she agreed.
Hunt rose to his feet and carried Prue out of the room. Thorpe and Adam rushed ahead of him toward her bedroom. By the time he got there they had the covers on her bed pulled back. He carefully lowered her to the mattress and smiled when she sighed and turned onto her side, bringing her knees up toward her body and one of her hands beneath her cheek. She looked like an angel sent down from the heavens just for him and his brothers. Thorpe and Adam removed her shoes and socks and he pulled the covers up over her. After one last look he led the way out of her room and partially closed the door.
