Wet

by Angel Payne

  Lani grabbed the edges of Shane’s coat and pulled them tighter as tears came again. She bowed her head, needing to be alone with this crazy moment. Tait loved her. Yet he stood there, trembling from the effort of reining back his murderous rage at Shane.

  “I wouldn’t have let that happen,” Shane leveled, “and damn it, you know it.” While Tait flung back only a bitter silence, the man slowly straightened and brushed off his pants. “I have to leave now, Tait. And you’re going to let me.”

  Tait chuffed. “Right. You have to leave. Because Cameron fucking Stock is waiting for you, isn’t he?”

  Shane clenched his jaw. Sharper lights intensified in his eyes, almost turning them pure gold with his anger. “There’s more at play here than you understand. You’re going to have to trust me.”

  The guy didn’t say anything else. Lani gawked again at Kellan as Tait visibly shook, clearly abhorring himself for every step Shane took back up the beach. Tait stayed that way even after the man disappeared around the curve in the shore. Lani stepped toward him, but Kellan shook his head a little, indicating Tait had to wage his own battle with this particular demon—who, in the end, hadn’t been much of a monster at all. She ran her knuckles down one collar of Shane’s jacket. It smelled a lot like the cave, at least before the universe started to barf inside it, with a faint touch of cedar and citrus.

  “Tait?” she finally murmured. “Talk to me…please. What’s going on? Do you know Shane?”

  Tait lowered to the sand next to her. His gaze was still fixed at the darkness that had swallowed up Shane. “Yeah,” he stated. “I do know him. But his name’s not Shane. It’s Shay. Shay Bommer. He’s my brother.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “I never thought six weeks could feel like six years.”

  Though Lani meant every woeful note of it, all she got in the way of sympathy from Franz was a snort and a long eye roll. “Heaven help us,” he muttered, keeping half an eye on the baseball game playing on his new widescreen TV. “Little sister’s gotten herself some regular kissin’ on the kahakai, and now we all have to deal with the moony-faced fallout.”

  “Psshh.” Leo flopped onto the couch next to him. “You’ve only been here a few days. Try living with the wahine. And no, the new kitchen remodel isn’t keeping her occupied enough.”

  Franzen chuffed. “Better you than me, little broheim.”

  “Hey.” She locked hands to her hips and flashed an accusing glare. “Who’s made all the Johnny Franzen favorites for dinner tonight?”

  Franz rolled his eyes the other way. “Only because they happen to be Bommer and Rush’s favorites, as well.”

  “Bah.” Lani tossed a dish towel at them as she moved through the living room but was unable to prevent a playful smile from breaking through.

  “There she goes again,” Leo mumbled.

  “Yeah,” Franz concurred. He cocked his head at her. “And it’s always worse when she walks this way.” His eyes widened. “Heeyyy… The three of you didn’t do anything crazy on my couch back in July, did you?”

  “Crazy like what?” Leo scowled and took a sip of his soda—before choking on the liquid and leaping to his feet again. “Oh yeezuss, no! I do not need a visual on that shit.”

  Lani snapped her fingers. “Language.”

  “Seriously? After what you did on this couch?”

  She was saved from the downward spiral of the conversation by a crunch of tires in the drive. “They’re here.” She didn’t intend it to sound like a teenybopper squeal, but she wasn’t going to waste time on an apology, either. “They’re here, they’re here, they’re—”

  She was cut off first by Tait, who swept her up into his arms and mashed her lips in a tongue-twister of a kiss. Kellan barely gave her a moment to breathe before he swept in, repeating the assault with fierce hunger. She finally pulled back to stare at them both, a little stunned to see them still wearing their BDUs, complete with boots, dog tags, and regulation caps.

  “Errr…wow. I didn’t realize your side trip to Honolulu meant you’d be working.”

  When they’d last been on Skype together, the guys told her that they’d be returning to the island a few days after Franzen, due to a “necessary stopover” they had to take in the state’s capital. She’d been giddy with the news, thinking they’d gotten word from Kellan’s buddy at the permits office that at last cleared Hale Anelas for B and B status. Her pleas to Franz for information had been met with the man’s smirking silence. He only revealed that the guys had a damn great surprise for her, an offering that went a long way toward earning his approval on their “unique” situation. He’d stopped short of confessing they’d won his complete sanction, but Lani deduced that story would be the same if she brought home the Dalai Lama on one arm and the Pope on the other.

  By noon today, she’d been very ready for her surprise.

  The BDUs were not what she’d expected.

  “Sorry about the work threads,” Tait murmured.

  “We didn’t want to waste the time on changing them,” Kellan added.

  “We had more pressing reasons to get home.”

  “Well, one.”

  Silver lights of mischief danced in Kell’s eyes. Tait countered that with a mocking scowl, twisting his lips into extremely kissable angles. “And technically, we’re not ‘home.’”

  Lani forced herself to ignore his lips in favor of a chastising glare. “That’s because you guys told me to meet you here, remember? And if you tell me it’s because you want to spend the evening watching Johnny’s new widescreen, you can even forget dinner.”

  “We don’t give a shit about the TV, Starshine.”

  Kellan emphasized it by leaning and nuzzling her neck. When he pulled back, they traded a fast version of the broheim-sneaky-spidey look, resulting in their matched set of devious grins.

  Tait explained, “We asked you to meet us here because we wanted to see your face when you walk back home…with this.”

  Lani followed the direction of his nodding head to the sheet of paper now in Kellan’s grasp. The Hawaii state seal gleamed on top.

  Lani gasped and then screamed. She brushed back tears, hardly believing the sheet was real. Their grins grew as she took it with both hands, reading every boring word as if they were a magical incantation.

  “State of Hawaii…official permit…recognition of historical bed-and-breakfast…” She hopped up and down and then tried to jump them both. Neither man complained, since the awkward lunges gave them chances to “steady” her with their hands all over her anatomy. “Thank you,” she sobbed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She looked up to see her brother strolling out of the lanai, pretending to barf all over Franz because of their open affection. “Kaikaina! Look; look! It’s finally happening!”

  Her brother kicked up his chin at Tait and then Kell. “Congratulations, Sergeants,” he drawled. “You’ve turned my sister into a squee’ing ball of joy, and you haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.”

  As wonderful as their chests felt under her hands, she pushed off and planted herself between them. “The ‘good part’?” she charged. Sure enough, they answered with indulgent but secretive smirks. “Assuring I can keep my home isn’t the good part?”

  Kellan took one of her hands. “What if we could make it our home?”

  She gave back a perplexed frown. “It’s already our home, my Sirs. You know that. I’m well aware of the demands that your job carries, and that’s okay. This miracle that the gods have given us…it’s worth it. Whenever you two can make it back here, Hale Anelas will be waiting for you. I’ll be waiting for you.” Tears stung her eyes anew. She didn’t try to hide them. “In the two of you, the gods have given me my mau loa…my forever love. My home is yours, my bed is yours, and my heart is yours…always.”

  Kellan lifted her hand to his mouth and captured her knuckles beneath his lips. “Thank you, my love.” As he did that, Tait tilted her face up and gave her his thanks with a languorous k
iss that had her head swirling and her body swaying.

  “Bleggghh.” Leo’s exclamation coincided with a low roll of thunder from overhead. “Can we get past the sucking face part, please?”

  “Hold on to your panties.” Kellan chuckled. “We’re getting there.”

  “Right.” Lani bounced on her toes, throwing a curious stare between the two of them. “‘The good part.’ You’re ‘getting there.’ Wherever ‘there’ is.”

  Her grin dropped a little when Franzen came out and joined Leo. There was a fresh beer in his hand, yet he looked a little sad. Maybe more than a little.

  Tait slipped one of his hands into hers now too. “The reason we’re in work gear is because we were at the base at Pearl Harbor. For…job interviews.”

  She squeezed his hand without thinking. Kellan’s too. No matter how many times she flashed her disbelieving gawk between the two of them, neither cut loose with a single teasing snicker. “What the hell do you mean?”

  “This latest episode with Tan fleshed out a big concern on the part of the Joint Operations Special Command,” Tait went on. “Hawaii’s viability as an insertion point to the country, by any terrorist state or organization, can’t be ignored anymore. Think about the famous attack on Pearl Harbor. If the Japanese decimated us that thoroughly using nineteen forties equipment, think about the possibilities our enemies have today, with modern technology at their disposal.”

  What he said made sense. Lani nodded her understanding.

  Kellan continued the explanation. “After our debrief in Pearl Harbor about the episode with Tan, JSOC approached us about a new elite team that they’re putting together here, based out of Pearl Harbor. It’s going to be a composite crew under JSOC’s direct command, the best of the best from all the branches: Marine Spec Ops, Navy SEALs, Rangers, and”—he cracked a lopsided smile—“us.”

  Lani probed him with a long stare. “You…how?”

  “Doing what we do best,” Tait filled in. “The bullet ninjas sniper team. At first it’ll be just training and development, but we’ll also be assigned to protect Hawaii as if we’ve been deployed here.” His lips looked even more delectable as he curled them into a shit-eating smirk. “Our job will be, quite literally, to protect your ass.”

  “Along with a million and a half others,” Kell muttered.

  “Yeah, but hers is the most important.”

  “Duh.”

  Though Tait maintained his grin, the corners of his eyes tightened. “In an even crazier twist of coincidence, part of our job will be to help the FBI in following up on Stock’s whereabouts. Hopefully we’ll land the puzzle pieces behind Shay’s shenanigans.”

  Kellan winced. “Did you really just say ‘shenanigans’?”

  “You want me to use something else? Sleeping with the enemy, perhaps? While on paper, he’s still deployed in South America somewhere?”

  “Fine. Use ‘shenanigans.’ Just not any more tonight.”

  The clouds brought a few scattered raindrops, plopping on the ground around them in the same way that understanding began to splash in her mind…and her heart. “So…you’re telling me that…”

  “We’re going to be around a little more.” Tait’s eyes gleamed with golden joy again. “As in, hanging around on most weekends and maybe a few weeknights when we can catch a lift over to Barking Sands.”

  “Don’t forget the bed part.” Kellan’s features smoldered as he leaned in to assert it. “You did mention the bed, Starshine.”

  “Yeah, I did.” The last of it got lost beneath a soft sob. As she expected, the two of them bunched over her, one on each side.

  “Shit,” Tait gritted. “We made her cry.”

  “I told you not to bring up Shay.”

  “Like that had anything to do with it, asshat.”

  “Shut up.” It tumbled from her on a giggle, which made her tears come even harder.

  “Sweetheart, we’re sorry. It was too much to dump on you all at once.”

  “We can ease into things. We’ll keep most of our stuff at the base. We don’t have to have drawers in the dresser or anything.”

  “Well…we’ll need one drawer.”

  “Why?”

  “Toy storage?” Kell’s voice dipped, conscious of the fifteen-year-old standing ten feet away. “Floggers? Lube? Rope?”

  That snapped her head way up. She grinned at Kellan. “Yes, please!” she whispered eagerly. Neither of them had put their Dominant hat back on since the night they’d taken such beautiful control of her in the cottage at Barking Sands. She was crawling out of her skin with need for their hands—and their lips, and other body parts—all over her like that once more.

  Tait’s features were still cautious. “We can take it slow, baby.” He ran a hand through her hair. “We have our whole lives to pleasure you, to love you. This doesn’t have to happen to—”

  She jammed all four of her main fingers over his lips. “Shut. Up. Right. Now.” She swung her head around, including Kellan in her glower. “Listen to me. Both of you. I haven’t just been waiting six weeks for you two. I’ve been waiting my whole life for you. I’ve been seeing my therapist regularly since the shit went down with Tan. My mind is good. My body is healed. The only thing I need right now is you—and you—in my bed, in my body, in as many drawers as you want and need…

  “But most of all, in my life. Forever.”

  “And ever.” Kellan lifted her face for a kiss as silken as his voice.

  “And ever.” Tait’s echo possessed more gravel, weighted by the gratitude that shined from his eyes. As he claimed her lips, a palpable breeze glided over Lani’s spirit. A smile washed over her soul as she felt Luna dance to her lips, transforming her breath into a sigh of connection and joy. The answering sound from Tait’s chest, resonant and rough with his deep emotion, conveyed how he’d felt it too. When they pulled apart, he worked his lips, trying to form words. Lani shook her head. Sometimes miracles were best without labels.

  “Are you three going to stand there in the rain playing smoochy hoochey all night?”

  As they laughed at Leo’s charge, the sprinkles turned into a steady downfall. Lani tilted an impish smile at her brother. “Maybe we will,” she teased.

  “In that case, I’m staying with Franz tonight.”

  Franzen chuckled. “That’s just fine by me, kid. I’ll introduce you to the magic of Stephen Schwartz. You can pick from Pippin, Wicked, or Godspell.” As Leo’s groan echoed out to them, Franzen looked to Tait and Kellan, the sadness clinging to his gaze. “It’s going to suck to replace you two, despite your blatant middle finger to my orders the last time you were here.”

  Lani arched both eyebrows. “A decision that saved my life, Johnny.” In more ways than the man would ever realize.

  “Yeah,” the man drawled. “That’s why they lived to brag about it.” He replaced his sarcasm with a respectful tilt of his beer bottle. “On a more serious note, I’m proud as hell of you both at being tagged for the JSOC venture. Congrats, Sergeants.”

  The guys conveyed their thanks for the praise before Franzen returned to the house. The rain kept coming down, soaking all three of them, turning the steamy Hawaiian twilight into a brilliant baptism for their new life together. Lani laughed and lifted her face, rejoicing in the shower from the sky the same way she finally accepted what destiny had brought in the form of these two incredible men. All it had asked in return was her openness, her passion, her courage to embrace it all. It bade the same of both Kellan and Tait, in overcoming their own walls: for Kell, in recognizing he even had walls, and for Tait, in realizing that Luna wanted him to be truly happy again.

  They’d all come so far.

  Yet it was only the beginning.

  The rain surely masked her tears now, but somehow she knew the guys could tell the difference anyway. She peered up at them through the mist of her happiness and whispered, “Let’s go home.”

  None of them turned back toward the car. Arm-in-arm, they took the beach r
oute back to Hale Anelas. As they started to walk along the sand, the last rays of the sunset burst through the clouds and across the sea, guiding Lani and her warriors through the rain with a perfect symbol of the spirits’ blessing on their love.

  A triple rainbow.

  Continue the Honor Bound Series with Book Six

  Keep reading for an excerpt!

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  Excerpt from Hot: Honor Bound Book Six

  Damn it.

  Zoe almost spat the words aloud, despite risking another heart-halting “look” from Mr. Shane Burnett. She could ignore her animal-level attraction to everything else about the man—his thick chestnut hair, sinful gold eyes, model-perfect jaw, and linebacker-wide shoulders—but when he turned on the look, something strange happened to her bloodstream.

  Strange. And magical. And terrifying.

  It had been a long time since she’d had some scary magic in her life.

  Too long to be projecting such feelings onto a stranger in an airport bar.

  She’d first seen him use “the look” on his phone, glowering at the thing as if willing the texts on it into submission. He’d likely succeeded too. God knew how her knees went weak, surrendering to the heat that flowed between them and the most tender folds of her body, from just watching him. Caramba, the man was all her favorite flavors, and none of them were vanilla. She would’ve bet her favorite shoes he was a lifestyle Dominant—and imagining him in a Dom’s skintight leathers, holding a flogger in his hand instead of a phone…approaching her across a dungeon with that look on his face…

  Ohhhh, yes.

  Ohhhh, no.

  She couldn’t foster that fantasy again. Ever. The near-disaster with Bryce had taught her that much. Her submissive dreams were doomed to be just that. Dreams. If she had a drop of truly submissive blood in her body, fate had dried it up well before she could do anything about it.