Claimed by the Mate, Volume 1

by Kate Douglas

  “Loved?” He went very quiet, watching her with a feral intensity so powerful it made her ache. “When the two of us were with you, loving you, did you feel loved?”

  She couldn’t speak. Her voice couldn’t make it past the lump in her throat. No one fell in love in four days. It just didn’t happen. It certainly couldn’t happen to her, which meant it definitely wouldn’t happen for Brad. What did he mean? Why did he ask her such a stupid thing?

  “Cherry? Why aren’t you answering me?”

  His gaze never wavered, and she saw in his eyes that same wolf that slept on her bed, the same light of the hunter in that searing intensity.

  “I can’t.” It was all she could do to get those words past her tight throat.

  “You’re not afraid of me, of us, are you?”

  She shook her head. Fear Brad and Cain? Absolutely not. “No,” she said. “Never.”

  “I hope not, Cherry. It would break me if you were afraid of us. You’re the most important person in our lives.”

  He kissed her then, and there was no hesitancy in the way he took her with his mouth, with teeth and tongue and lips, his hands clasping the fullness of her buttocks, pulling her close, breathing her in, and owning her with his kisses. With his strength.

  A knock on the door barely registered. Cain’s voice pulled them apart, both of them breathing heavily. With shaking hands, Cherry turned away from Brad and opened the door. She stood back with her head bowed.

  “What’s wrong?” Cain quietly closed the door behind him and locked it. The sound of the latch slipping into place echoed in the quiet cabin. “Brad? What’s going on?”

  Brad shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m not really sure. I was teasing Cherry and she said she’d never felt so shameless in her life. That even though she was with me, she wanted you here, too. Personally, I think that’s a really good thing. But she…”

  Cherry sighed. “I freaked. Cain, here’s your dinner. You must be starved. Sit and eat. Brad? There’s wine and beer in the refrigerator. Would you pour me a glass of wine? Get whatever you want.” She grabbed Cain’s box of leftovers, checked to make sure they were still hot, and got some silverware out of a drawer in the tiny kitchen area. Brad brought a glass of white wine to the table for her, a beer for himself, and one for Cain.

  She stared at her glass of wine for a moment and thought of how she would have dealt with a situation like this merely a week ago. She wouldn’t have been able to. No, she’d have taken off like a scared rabbit, which was probably an excellent analogy, considering she was having this conversation with two men she was almost absolutely positive were wolves.

  “Give me some credit here, guys. I’m trying.” She raised her head and smiled at Cain and then at Brad, but her gaze locked on him. He looked utterly confused, which made perfect sense. “I hear the l word and react like I expect most men to react. I panic.” Shaking her head, she laughed. It was so stupid. “Brad, you asked me why I didn’t answer you? I couldn’t. My throat locked up. Froze solid. I think it’s the beginning of a panic attack, but I’ve got issues that go pretty deep.”

  “I’m sorry.” Brad wrapped her fingers in his big hand. Strong hands. She loved how they felt on her. Loved what they made her feel. “I had no idea and I pushed you,” he said.

  Cain didn’t say anything. He just ate his dinner, sipped his beer, and paid attention. Sometimes she felt as if he processed so much behind that disinterested look of his. Maybe someday she’d get the chance to figure him out.

  She stared at the way Brad’s fingers wrapped around hers.

  “I’ve told you bits and pieces about that guy in high school. He was my very first boyfriend, which is a huge thing for a girl, especially when she’s fat and nerdy and socially inept. The first guy who pays attention, who’s cute and nice and makes her feel good about herself. The first—and only—boy to ever say he loved me. The first person. Even my parents withheld their love as long as I wasn’t perfect, and that just made me eat more, but I was a needy idiot and I believed him when he said he loved me. Only he didn’t. He needed me to help him pass calculus. Turns out, he’d bragged to his friends that I’d get him through the course and he’d get into me before the semester ended.”

  “Bastard.” Cain glanced at her and his jaw clenched. He shoved the chair back, abruptly stood, paced across the room, and then returned. Grabbing the back of the chair, he stood there, hanging on with his head bowed. “I am so damned sorry, Cherry. I had no idea.”

  Cain’s words meant a lot to her. It was the only thing he’d said since they sat down, and he already knew most of the story. Though not the worst of it.

  Brad’s grasp on her hand tightened. Knowing these two men—men, not boys—sympathized gave her the courage to tell the rest. Raising her head, she focused on Cain. On his anger. Somehow, it strengthened her, the fact that he was so blindly furious for her. “The thing is, he didn’t just tell his friends; he showed them. This was before Facebook was popular, but he’d hidden a camera in the car and posted nude pictures I didn’t even know he’d taken. They were up on another social networking site that was popular at the time, and I only heard about them when one of my friends, a boy in that same class, saw them. Christa freaked when I told her what happened, but not as badly as me. I tried to kill myself. Christy stopped me and told my parents what had happened. They were able to get the pictures taken down, but the damage was done. My parents and I have hardly spoken since. There was no recourse against the boy, since the sex was consensual and I was eighteen.”

  “That is so fucking wrong.” Cain glared at Brad, who nodded silently in agreement.

  “It is what it is. I was supposed to be valedictorian, but once the pictures got out, my name was removed from the list. I quit school, but I already had enough credits to graduate. I’d been accepted to college with scholarships to pay most of my expenses. My parents gave me the money they’d put away for my education, but then they cut ties and so did I.”

  “That explains why Christa and you are so close, why she’s so protective of you.”

  She wiped tears off her face with her free hand. She wasn’t about to turn loose of Brad’s “Exactly, Brad. Cissy is an absolute saint. She had to put up with so much crap in high school and it was all my fault.”

  “None of it was your fault.” Cain grabbed her hand, rubbed his thumb through the tears on her fingers. She raised her head. He was absolutely furious.

  “It was that bastard’s fault, and the school’s for not protecting you. Your parents failed you. They should have stood by you, supported you, not ‘cut ties’ with you. Damn it all, Cherry. Was that prick allowed to graduate?”

  When she nodded, both he and Brad cursed.

  “Cherry?” She turned to Brad. “Do you see how wrong that is? That you, the victim, suffered, and the asshole who attacked you and your good name got off without any repercussions at all?”

  “He didn’t force me.”

  “He lied to you,” Cain said. “He set you up and victimized you. You told me you were a virgin when that happened, which means he stole something very precious from you. Don’t let him keep winning. When you make decisions based on what he did to you, you’re letting that son of a bitch win. Never again, Cherry. No matter what happens, you’re never to feel like a victim. You’re better than that, and you’re a damned sight better than him.”

  She almost laughed. It was either that or cry. “I’ve been telling myself that for years, that I’m better, but unfortunately I’m not very convincing. In the internal debate, my inner coward appears to hold the upper hand.”

  “This one week may not be enough time to reprogram your inner coward.” Cain smiled at her when he pushed his chair back under the table. “You’ll need to stay with us at least another week to turn you into a powerful Amazonian warrior.”

  He was teasing, but she really wished … “I doubt my boss would agree. I didn’t give her much warning when I took off for this week.”

  Cai
n dumped his empty box and paper plates in the trash and rinsed out the silverware in the sink. Then he turned and leaned against the counter with his arms folded across his chest. He really looked like he needed to be leaning against a big Harley, not the cute little kitchen counter in her cabin. There was something so elemental about the man. Brad had that same sense of wildness, but where his was gentle and kind with merely a hint of the beast, Cain was the alpha in the room.

  Which was another thing—one she was still too cowardly to ask. Was he an alpha wolf? If she had to choose between Brad and Cain, she’d pick Cain as the more dominant, but if she were to look at the group of men here as a whole—the pack, in wolf terms—she would name Trak as the alpha. He was a big man, though not the biggest. So far, that would be Tuck, the vet, but there was something about Trak, an indefinable sense of leadership, that set him apart, whether human or wolf. Except she had no proof. These two terrific guys probably already thought she was certifiably nuts. If she was wrong and asked them if they were werewolves they’d probably run for the hills.

  Of course, they were already in the hills, but—

  “Cheraza?”

  Jerked out of her wandering thoughts, she looked at Cain. “What?”

  He laughed. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

  She shrugged and improvised. “That I’m tired of rehashing my old news and I’d really much rather see you naked.” She turned and pointed at Brad. “And you, too.”

  “Works for me,” he said. Shoving his chair back from the table, he stood—and very methodically began stripping out of his clothes.

  Chapter 18

  “Now look who’s the only one dressed.” Brad raised an eyebrow and glanced at Cain, who nodded. Then they both focused on Cherry, and she felt that damned blush crawl across her skin. The two of them watched her for a moment longer. Once again they looked at each other.

  Then they stalked her.

  Brad came in from her right, Cain from the left. Each of them took hold of an arm. Her gaze flashed right then left and right again. “What are you doing?”

  “This.” Cain nodded to Brad and they both leaned over and caught her beneath the back and thighs and then carried her to the bed.

  Giggling, she pretended to struggle, but they dropped her on the bed and methodically stripped all the clothes off of her. Holding down her shoulders and thighs, they gently restrained her, but she was still totally immobile.

  Of course, she wasn’t trying to get away. Her heart was thundering, but it wasn’t fear.

  It was arousal, pure and simple.

  Brad offered a suggestion. “Should we tie her up?”

  “What?” They wouldn’t. Would they? Maybe they would! She shivered—anticipation, not fear, and that alone was a turn-on. She’d never thought she’d enjoy being restrained, but with these two …

  “It would be more fun.” Cain gave her an innocent look. “Well, it would.”

  “Fun for whom?” She was not going to give in easily. She stared at Cain, then at Brad.

  “For us,” he said. “That’s two out of three who are guaranteed a great time.” He gave her a wide-eyed look. “Not to say you wouldn’t enjoy yourself. I’m almost certain you would.”

  “Almost.” Cain shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Depends on what we do to … uh, with you.”

  She knew they were teasing, and yet the most delicious shivers raced through her when she imagined what they might do.

  Then a new idea filtered into her head. She’d loved sex with the two of them when she was their focus. What if the two of them had sex with her assistance?

  The mere thought made her wet and tied her feminine muscles into a knot.

  Cain’s nostrils twitched. So did Brad’s. She kept her mouth shut, but knowing they were aware of her arousal turned her on even more. Knowing they didn’t realize she was on to them—or at least she thought she was on to them—was an even bigger turn-on. “Do I get a say in this?”

  “I don’t really know,” Cain said. “I guess it depends on what you say. Right, Brad?”

  “Of course. I mean, we’re basically democratic, right?”

  “Except when we’re not.” Cain’s smirk sent more shivers that—even though he wasn’t touching them—originated in her nipples and shot straight to her clit.

  “What if I want to watch something?” She first gazed at Brad and then settled on Cain.

  He cleared his throat. “Watch what?” He shot a nervous glance at Brad.

  “You. And Brad. You sat and watched me having sex with Brad. It seems only fair.”

  “Brad and I are holding you prisoner. Fairness doesn’t enter into the discussion.”

  She looked at each of them again, only this time she lowered her gaze. Eyes could lie, but those erections looked like the real thing. “True, but honesty should. I mentioned me watching, and both of you, uhm … reacted. Most dramatically.”

  They were holding her shoulders, but her hands were free. She grasped both men’s hard shafts in her hands and gently squeezed.

  “Oh, shit.” Cain’s hips thrust forward. “You’re cheating.”

  Brad didn’t speak, but the hiss escaping his parted lips was fairly eloquent. And why was it, lying here naked with two naked men standing over her, she had all the confidence in the world? They’d given her this awareness of herself as a sensual woman, but how the hell did she get past the emotional issues? Freezing up at the l word she couldn’t think, much less say, and yet she was lying here hanging on to the cocks of two aroused men, calmly trying to convince them they should let her watch them together.

  She kept stroking, her hands moving slowly up and down their hard cocks. “You realize, I don’t necessarily want you to do anything all alone.” She tried a sultry glance, at first Cain, then Brad. Her growing proof she’d nailed the look was tightly grasped in both her hands.

  Smiling, knowing they didn’t have a clue what she was thinking, she added, “I want to play, too, but I guess what I want is to see what it’s like when the emphasis is on you guys, not me. When it’s on me, I’m too whacked-out to pay attention to what you’re both up to.”

  “Whacked-out?” Cain’s eyebrow went up and he smirked.

  She shrugged, not easy to do with the two of them holding her down and her still holding on. “I’ve discovered I’m not quite in my right mind when one of you is in me. Which reminds me—I want to see what it’s like to have both of you in me. There are all kinds of things I want to try, and we’re running out of time.”

  “I like that idea. A lot. But what do you mean? We have a lot of time. It’s early.”

  “Brad, I leave Saturday morning. Early. It’s already Wednesday night. Tomorrow and Friday, and then I’m gone. There’s still a lot I want to explore with you two.”

  She caught the look he shared with Cain. She had no idea how to read it, wasn’t sure what it meant. They’d said a lot of nice things to her, about wanting to keep her, wanting her to stay, but nothing she could take seriously. She’d worked so hard to build a successful life on her own. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as life these past few days with Brad and Cain, but it was real and it was all hers.

  She’d learned a long time ago you couldn’t count on dreams. Too often they dissolved with the morning light, nothing more than mist and fantasy. But this? Right now? This was real and her libido was telling her to go for it. They could talk about making love and building things to last all they wanted, but Cherry wanted what she could count on—the here and now with two sexy guys who honestly seemed to find her attractive.

  At least for the immediate future.

  Brad slipped out of her grasp—obviously she hadn’t been paying attention—and lay down next to her on the bed. He rolled half over her and sucked one nipple between his lips. She let go of Cain to wrap her arms around Brad, while Cain walked around the room and dimmed the lights until there was only a small lamp in the kitchen area and a night-light glowing from the bathroom.

  The
n he lay down next to Cherry on the side opposite from Brad. “You are really hard to convince, aren’t you?”

  Cain palmed her breast and rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. “Damn, these are just beautiful.” He leaned over and sucked the turgid bud between his lips, drawing a moan from Cherry. “Tell me more about what you want, sweet Cheraza. What fantasies have you got that two country boys can help make real for you?”

  “Country boys? That’s a stretch.” She gasped when Brad sucked harder and slipped his fingers between her legs at the same time. She had so many fantasies, but it was hard to think of any when they were stringing her tighter than fence wire—and that was definitely a country boy analogy. Where the hell did that come from?

  “Do you kiss each other?” She barely gasped that one out before Brad’s fingers plunged deep inside.

  “Of course we do. I love Brad. He loves me. We kiss; we touch; we make love. When people love each other, they need to touch, want to share that physical connection.”

  “Brad, what do you like the best?”

  He nipped at her breast. “What I’m doing right now. Usually it’s just Cain and me, but adding you makes it all feel better. More meaningful, if that makes sense. As if what we do together is stronger when you’re here with us.”

  “What do you like when I’m not here, silly?” She watched him as he smiled at her, but then he stopped what he’d been doing, raised his head, and gazed at Cain, who stared back, trapped in Brad’s intense study.

  Brad never took his eyes off Cain, and after a moment he smiled and slowly shook his head. “It’s difficult to explain, but when Cain holds me, he makes me feel safe. My favorite? When he tops me. I’m on my hands and knees—it’s a very submissive position for a man and that kind of sex can hurt—but he’s always so careful not to hurt me. I know he likes it rough, but he’s always gentle unless I let him know I’m okay with it. It’s a very sensual experience, very emotional. The way he is tells me how much he loves me. That he cares for my comfort.”