Cade's Dare (Crime Tells)

by Jory Strong

  Grace looked as if she belonged here, not as a private investigator, but as a student.

  He could live what that.

  Avery changed directions. He used it as an excuse to kiss Grace.

  “It’s not as good as being back at your place,” he said. “But tailing her has its perks.”

  “Better than most stakeouts.”

  He pulled her flush against him. “Just most of them?”

  “It’s hard to beat the stakeouts that involve a stop by Angel’s.”

  “You’re saying I can’t stack up against ice cream?”

  “A scoop of chocolate and scoop of coffee are hard to beat.”

  Color crept up her neck and into her face. She looked away.

  He cupped her cheek and brought her gaze back to his. “Am I missing something here?”

  “I was just thinking about chocolate and coffee ice cream a little while ago, that’s all.”

  Hardened nipples pressed against his chest explained the blush. He grinned though his dick instinctively retreated.

  She was fantasizing about ice cream and sex. He could go with it. Who said it had to be licked off his skin.

  He gave her a slow, thorough kiss then released her.

  Avery ambled for another six or seven minutes, seemingly aimless.

  And then she wasn’t.

  The body language was subtle. But he saw the shift at the same instant Grace said, “She’s got a destination now.”

  The destination was a big, clean-cut guy, the kind Army recruiters and NFL scouts both liked the look of.

  Avery reached him. Talked to him for a couple of minutes then pulled something from her purse. She handed it off and walked away.

  Grace had her phone up to snag a picture of the guy. “One of us needs to stick with him.”

  Cade’s guts went hot. First response: Put Grace over his shoulder and haul her back to the car. Second response: This is it. Time for Mace to step up and have her back, time for his brother to make his final call as to whether he was in or out when it came to Grace. The clock on that was about to stop ticking.

  He halted Grace with an arm around her waist. Pulled her against him, her back to his front, like he wanted to see the cell screen.

  At the moment the guy was stationary, talking and laughing with a brainy-looking guy.

  “I’ll take him and keep the Beetle,” Cade said. “You stick with her. But I’m calling Mace. I want you with him, Grace.”

  He felt the slight trembling that signified her need and had to choke off a moan. If they weren’t standing in a public place he’d push his hand beneath the waistband of her panties. He’d cup Grace’s sweet little pussy and he’d bet everything he owned that he’d find her wet because he’d told her he wanted her to be with Mace.

  So she knew they shared women. Of course she knew. It was a measure of the number she did on his head that he’d managed to convince himself she might not.

  She wanted Mace. Even after being with him, she still wanted his brother.

  For the first time in his life it brought a flare of possessiveness, a flash of something that’d turn into pain and jealousy if Mace made a play for Grace later on and she said yes.

  Yeah. The clock on that being something he could handle was winding down. Did he want to let it?

  That he even asked the question had him taking a minute instead of automatically slamming the mental door shut with a hell no.

  Time to move on from the past? To completely move on?

  Is this what Mace meant when he’d said he wasn’t ready for the complication? Was he saying he couldn’t handle sharing Grace?

  Cade pressed his mouth to Grace’s neck. He inhaled her scent, felt the tremble of desire that went through her and the softening of her body.

  It brought a soul-deep rush of pleasure. Being with her was like coming home.

  He wanted Mace to have this same feeling. He wanted to make it easy for Grace to say yes to Mace—assuming it went that way.

  He wasn’t sure it would. Not anymore.

  The only things he was sure of were that Grace was it for him, and he needed to know whether Mace was in or out.

  Cade rubbed his cheek against hers. “You’ve got a tell, Grace. When I said I wanted you to be with Mace, you trembled and you weren’t thinking about the case. You were thinking about sex.”

  She stiffened in instinctive denial.

  He kissed her neck. Stroked a hand upward to just beneath her breast. His fingers teased the underside of it and he felt a shiver of needy pleasure go through her.

  “Just like that,” he said. “A tell.”

  He brushed her ear with his mouth, flicked his tongue across her lobe. “Admit you want him. Admit that if I pushed my hand into your panties I’d find you all hot and wet at the thought of being with Mace, of being with Mace and me at the same time.”

  “And if I am?” Grace managed, struggling desperately to keep her eyes open, to remember where they were and what they were supposed to be doing.

  “Then say yes to Mace if you want to.”

  Cade’s mouth and tongue sent another rush of heated pleasure through her. And then their leaving her ear made her whimper and press backward, pleading for their return.

  His arms tightened. His lips touched her neck. He found the spot he’d marked, sucked then released her, breaking the contact and leaving her feeling needy and desperate.

  “I’ll call Mace,” he said.

  She went after Avery, fighting the urge to turn and look back at Cade. Failing.

  Heat blasted through her at seeing him on the phone, at having his words slide through her mind. Say yes to Mace if you want to.

  She wanted to.

  But would she? Could she really do it? Should she?

  Cade might have claimed she was going to be the only woman in his life, period, but that didn’t mean Mace wanted anything more than casual.

  Could she really handle casual?

  Deal with this later.

  She sped up, shaking off the heat, the pleasure-induced mind-numb that Cade’s sudden, deepened insertion into her life had created and maintained. She should have been the one to leave Cade’s arms. She was better than this. Way better. She was a Crime Tells detective and a damn good one, current appearances aside!

  Yes, this was her first solo case, but she’d proven herself by helping Braden and Cruz on several of theirs. She’d won the right to work for Bulldog with some killer poker, beating him at his own game!

  She was not going to become a guy—in the sense of Shane and Braden, who tended to think with the equipment between their legs instead of their brains. Avery had nearly been out of sight by the time she emerged from a Cade-induced sensual fog.

  Not happening again.

  Absolutely not happening again.

  Avery pivoted, heading toward her.

  Grace began pretend-texting, not looking up when they passed within several feet of one another though she arced her course to allow her to watch Avery while apparently going in a completely different direction.

  Maintaining the visual got easier as she became certain Avery was returning to the Cabriolet.

  Grace texted Cade. Mace on the way?

  Should be close. Will call.

  A few minutes later that call came.

  Heat blazed in her stomach. Her heart tripped into a wild beat and her body hummed. There was no denying that her hand shook just a little as she lifted the phone to her ear.

  “Where are you?” Mace said, hard voice, hard attitude.

  A blast of cold water wouldn’t have done a better, faster job of dousing the heat and eradicating the hum.

  Be grateful the voice of self-preservation whispered, but it didn’t stop the wild beating in her chest from launching into a slow, tumbling roll.

  Mace was not happy to have gotten the call from Cade. He did not want to be dragged into this, and this was not the case. This was her.

  Fine. It was better that way. She absolu
tely did not need her heart shredded. It was bad enough she was involved with Cade.

  A spark of feminine pride made her want to say, Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve made other arrangements. But she didn’t have the spare key to the Beetle and she could hardly tail Avery in a taxi.

  Reluctantly she told Mace where she was, where she thought she was heading and where he could pick her up. It’ll be fine. I can handle being around Mace. It’s not like I haven’t been around him plenty of times.

  But she’d never been around him after having lived part of her fantasy, after having other parts of it exposed. Had Cade told Mace what he’d said to her, what she’d pretty much admitted to him?

  Why am I even worrying about this?

  The instant she saw Mace she knew.

  Everything inside went hot and needy. The attraction was even more intense after having been with Cade.

  She slid into Mace’s dark gray Roadster, trying to limit her breathing so Mace’s scent wouldn’t fill her lungs. She was careful to keep her head ducked so he wouldn’t read her expression, see the truth in her eyes, though there was nothing she could do about the very visible outline of her nipples.

  “Thanks,” she said, partially turning toward the window, as if she actually needed to do that in order to find the seatbelt and get it pulled across her lap and chest.

  Fuck! Mace thought. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

  He’d had a long, miserable night in his own company instead of taking any number of offers to spend it between a woman’s thighs.

  He’d had a long, miserable morning imagining his brother with Grace while Cade’s dare looped through his head with the powerful roar of a Formula-1 engine.

  And here he was. One look at Grace and he knew he’d take that dare.

  Just once.

  One time alone with Grace.

  One time sharing her with Cade.

  That’d be it. Then he’d go back to playing the field. He had too. Better that than to risk Cade and him ending up hating each other—that’s what Cade didn’t get about this, just how badly it could go.

  One time alone with Grace. One time with the three of them together. That’d prove to Cade that I’m out meant I’m out.

  But it also meant there was no point in denying himself a taste of her now. No point in ignoring the heat shimmering between them, though Grace was doing her best to pretend it didn’t exist by trying to hide tight nipples with a slouch and by having a stare-down with her cell phone.

  Fuck that. She wasn’t going to ignore this. She wasn’t going to ignore him.

  He reached over, collared her neck, the gesture sending a streak of pure fire to his dick and burning an opening in his heart big enough to allow a hot surge of possessiveness.

  Usually he was the easygoing brother, the put-the-ladies-at-ease brother, the easy come, easy go brother. Right now he didn’t feel any of that shit.

  A few minutes in Grace’s presence and it felt like those masks he played behind had been ripped away, leaving him raw in a way that turned instantly sexual because of her.

  “You will not fucking ignore me,” he said, forcing her mouth to his.

  And fuck, the first taste wrenched the opening in his heart wider and flooded him with more heat, more possessiveness, more everything. The first sound of her pleasure stroked his dick and had him wanting to drag her onto his lap and force her to straddle his thighs so he could get closer.

  He explored her mouth, thrust against her tongue. She yielded, her hands balling in his shirt, her body softening submissively, her whimpers sliding down his throat.

  He rubbed his palm against her hardened nipple. Felt the rush of satisfaction when her back arched, pressing her breast into his hand.

  The roar in his head to get them both out of their clothes grew louder. He wanted Grace. He’d wanted her since the moment he’d first seen her.

  He forced his mouth from hers. Found a great deal of satisfaction in looking at her kiss-swollen lips and needy expression.

  “On the phone you sounded like you didn’t want to be dragged into this,” she said, question in her eyes, the need for reassurance.

  Tell her it’s just a one-time thing.

  Her hands relaxed on his shirt, flattened against his chest, and the willpower for that was lost.

  His mouth returned to hers. “You’ve got to know I’ve been hot for you for years, Grace.”

  Truth without making promises.

  Her lips parted beneath his—

  A loud, long blare behind them had her jerking away and him swallowing a moan.

  “Guess we better get moving,” he said, pulling the Roadster out of the yellow-striped passenger loading zone, the honker sliding into the vacated spot. “Where’s the Cabriolet?”

  Grace retrieved her cell, grimaced at not being able to immediately get the trembling under control, though focusing on the street names and direction of travel helped. She told Mace where Avery was. She kept her thoughts from straying until the red Porsche was in sight, then she allowed a shaky sigh, a glance at Mace.

  He caught the look, his eyes holding a smoldering message. It’s going to go further, a lot further than kissing the next time we park.

  A shiver went through her and he caught that too, his gaze heating then sliding away to focus on driving.

  She licked her lips. Tried not to shift restlessly in the seat. Even if she was willing to grasp her nipples or slip her hand into her panties, that would bring zero relief. Truth, it would only make the need for Mace burn hotter because it was too easy to imagine him watching, even ordering her to do it, the way Cade had.

  You will not fucking ignore me.

  Her panties got wetter. She’d always been sure Mace had a fiercely dominant side. She’d always suspected he and Cade were far more alike than different despite how they played it in public.

  Together they were almost like a carrot-and-stick analogy. Mace easy-going, easy pleasure. Cade harsher, with more than a hint that there’d be pain blended in with the pleasure.

  Heat flared in her pussy at remembering Cade’s spank to it.

  I’m getting in too deep.

  Getting? That’s a lie.

  I’ve always been in too deep when it comes to them.

  She’d cried on their shoulders more than once. But it was the time they’d helped her with a class assignment that completely wrenched open her heart.

  Instead of just Michael accompanying her—at the insistence of their parents—Mace and Cade had volunteered to go with her to interview homeless veterans in San Jose and Oakland and San Francisco.

  The men had talked more freely to her because Cade and Mace had served. But their involvement hadn’t stopped with helping her conduct interviews. They’d tried to help those men. Slipped them money and their phone numbers when they wouldn’t accept that help. Driven the ones who would to shelters and outreach centers.

  Was it any wonder that the instant physical attraction she’d experienced at twenty had morphed into something deeper?

  Her heart fluttered. This could end so badly. Both Cade and Mace were players. They’d been players for a long time and she wasn’t wrong in her read of Mace’s voice when he called—despite the demonstration of dominance, the possessiveness that poured off him in the same way it did Cade.

  You’ve got to know I’ve been hot for you for years, Grace.

  And he’d slept with hundreds of women. He and Cade both had.

  She doubted they even knew how many, though at least that went in their favor.

  They did it because they enjoyed themselves, enjoyed women, not because their egos required it or because they were engaged in a competition to prove who could bag the most babes, as Shane would say.

  She could ignore the ones they’d slept with while she was an undergrad. But he and Cade hadn’t shown up while she took time off, playing poker to earn the money for grad school.

  No, she hadn’t read Mace wrong when he called. A part of him hadn’t wanted to be
dragged into this, but now that he had been…

  She forced out a breath.

  He’d given her fair warning, whether he knew it or not. He wasn’t offering her any more than a taste of pleasure.

  With him, she’d definitely be the flavor of the moment, not the only flavor—period—as Cade claimed she was.

  Say yes to Mace if you want to.

  Cade’s words but this time she put the mental emphasis on the last part. This was her choice. And despite evidence to the contrary, she could say no to letting this go any further.

  But did she want to? Really, really want to?

  She braced herself for the full sensual impact that was Mace. Turned toward him, familiar heat coursing through her, wrapping around her heart, swelling her breasts and sliding downward to coil in her stomach and lick between her legs.

  Devastating. He’d grown a short beard since the last time she saw him. She liked the look, imagined him kissing the insides of her thighs, marking her with mouth and teeth and the rub of his jaw against sensitive skin.

  Cade had grown his hair out. It was hard not to hope the changes signified they were ready for larger changes in their lives.

  It was dangerous thinking. She couldn’t be objective, not when it came to them.

  But even that warning wasn’t enough to quell the desire to be emotionally fearless, to be unafraid of what tomorrow would bring and uncaring of consequences. She wanted to live the fantasy that included Mace.

  Just once. Then she could tell Cade, not again because it’d be too painful going forward, sharing herself with Mace, knowing he was free to pick up other women.

  Cade would understand. He’d accept it just being the two of them.

  Her breath released in a tight sigh. Who was she kidding? Did she really expect the thing with Cade to last?

  No, the voice of self-preservation whispered. But it didn’t suffocate the breathless hope in her heart, the longing that countered no with a yes.

  “You’re staring, Grace.”

  “You should be used to it by now.”

  “Not from you.”

  Masculine lips quirked upward and it was all she could do not to tumble forward and press her mouth to his.

  Mace glanced at her, gaze dark and knowing. “You’re a surreptitious studier.”