“Adam’s on his way to see her right now. We’re cleared to leave.”
“Good. Let’s move it.”
As Anthony drove, Toby ordered himself not to worry. Sometimes he could even manage to follow such a self-directed order. It didn’t take him long to know that today wasn’t going to be one of those times. He couldn’t stop himself from worrying.
Mary had had a very close call back in New York. That, and her feelings about what they all were facing with this virus? As far as he was concerned, she’d been through enough.
He let his mind form the picture of that moment when Mary had faced Thorncliffe. He’d often heard people boast that they were trained in the martial arts, and that was all well and good. But he’d come to a conclusion in his life about that very thing. A person could study self-defense for years, as Mary had, and even gain a proficiency, as she had. Mary held a second-degree black belt. But unless one was in a position to use that acquired skill in a real-time, real-life situation, it remained basically an untested quality.
Their woman had been caught completely off guard when Thomas Northcliffe had broken into her apartment. And because he had done that, because she had had to fight for her life, Toby knew one thing without a doubt.
Mary Kendall wouldn’t be caught off guard in that same way ever again.
He knew from his years of cop work, from years of dealing with people who’d been through close experiences like Mary’s—those experiences changed a person. In a way, it’s as if they lose their innocence. He hated like hell that Mary had experienced that. But in this circumstance, he was grateful, because now that she’d been tested, she would never again be in a situation where she wasn’t aware of her surroundings.
Toby figured he’d been silent long enough. “It's going to be all right,” he said. Not sure which of us I’m trying to convince, here.
“That’s been my mental mantra since Adam called. But I don’t feel as if it is, so I’m just getting us there as fast as I can.”
“Okay. So we’re both not convinced.” He turned and focused on Anthony. “Are our feelings of doubt based on something substantive, or do you think it’s just our feral-man fear for our woman?”
Anthony barked out a laugh that told Toby just how on edge his partner really was. “How the hell should I know? I always figured I knew how this was going to work out for me. I’d pretty much guessed a while ago that I was a lot like the men in your family—meant to share a woman. A wife. But then life tossed us a few extra curves at the same time we were setting our sights on her, and I honestly don’t know which fucking end is up anymore.”
“It does give me some comfort, brother, that we’re on the same page about everything that’s important.”
“Back at you. Okay, division of labor here. I drive. You pray.”
Toby wasn’t fooled. His partner was perfectly capable of doing both at the same time. Still, he immediately gave his assigned part his all.
* * * *
Mary had driven Kate back to the Big House and gone in for just a moment to say hello to Aunt Abigail. Two of the uncles, Caleb and Jonathan, had headed off earlier to meet with their friend and business partner Mike Murphy at the offices of Benedict-Murphy Investigations—a good-sized office housed at the Lusty airfield. Carson and Michael had driven to Dallas for the day, so she made a note to pop back in at another time to pay her respects to the men.
It was amazing how much better she felt. All it had taken was speaking up, saying how scared she was and finding a person in her Grandma Kate who listened, and who understood. I guess Kate’s right. If a person’s smart, they’re smart enough to know when to be afraid.
Fear wasn’t a bad thing. Mary had always believed that. It was a tool. A survival tool, one that had been instilled in human beings since the dawn of time. On the short drive back to her house, she wondered that she should have been so slow to get it. After all, as a writer of mysteries, she often delved into those instincts that caused humans to do what they did. The fight-or-flight instinct was a coping tool, one born out of fear and one that was a friend to every author who ever penned a suspense plot.
Even as she put her turn signal on, she saw him.
“Huh. I wonder what Adam wants.”
Mary pulled her Buick into the driveway. It didn’t surprise her that Adam came over and opened her door for her. Unlike back in New York, there was never a shortage of good manners here in Lusty.
“Hey, Mary. I hope you don’t mind that I was waiting for you.”
“Not at all. I took a few minutes to give Aunt Abagail a hug when I dropped Grandma Kate off.” She knew she didn’t have to explain more than that. There were times over the last month or so that she’d begun to wonder if her cousin Adam had a computer for a brain. His ability to keep apprised of where everyone was through the day totally astounded her.
“I heard you and Grandma Kate had lunch together at Kelsey’s. And that you insisted on driving her there and then home again.”
“She walks plenty and can certainly manage the few blocks from the restaurant to home, but…” Mary shrugged because she didn’t quite know how to finish that sentence.
Adam grinned. “Grandma Kate tolerates our looking out for her. There are days—most of them—when I believe with all my heart that she, in fact, is taking care of all of us instead of the other way around.”
“I think so too. I have some tea in the fridge. Would you like to come in?”
“I would, thanks. It’s technically springtime, here. Must seem hot to you, though.”
“There’s no seems about it, cousin. Mid-eighties edging into the nineties is hot at any time of year anywhere.”
“Ah, the glib certainty of my northern-born cousins, just before experiencing their first real Texas summer.”
Mary chuckled. She led the way up to her porch and unlocked the door. Because she knew Adam well, she stepped inside, knowing he’d shut the door behind him.
“I’ve heard I may be in for an experience in that regard,” she said. “Makes me want to take you on a February vacation to Upstate New York, kind of to return the favor.”
“Went to Alaska once to visit Sean and Noah,” Adam said. “I hadn’t understood the concept of cold-to-the-bone until that visit. Once, as they say, was enough.”
Mary didn’t waste any time heading to her kitchen. One good thing about the house being on the small size, the air conditioning worked well.
While Adam did his usual thing—walked through the rest of the house causal like, all the while checking that there was no one else lurking about—she got down some glasses, filled two of them with ice, and pulled out her jug of tea. We’re a well-timed pair. Adam came back into the room just as she poured the tawny liquid into their glasses.
“Have a seat, Adam, and tell me what brings you to my door today. Please.”
“I do appreciate your following our social conventions of easy conversation first and not jumping right in with the questions I see dancing in your eyes.”
Mary shrugged. “When in Lusty.” She took a moment and met his gaze. “You checked out the place. Do you think I’m in danger?” That’s better. She’d been tucking away the ickiness that was happening in the larger world, pretending there was nothing going wrong anywhere. But it really wasn’t her nature to live in denial.
It felt much better dispensing with that particular coping mechanism, at least for whatever it was that would bring the sheriff of Lusty to her door.
“Perhaps not. But in an abundance of caution, I think it might be a good time to review your…um…. personal safety protocols.”
“My panic button and my can of pepper spray are in the bedroom, tucked away in a drawer. Do you want me to start carrying them with me again?”
Adam actually shivered. “Good Lord, no. It chills me to know that all the time you were in New York City you actually carried those around with you.”
“Except of course within the sanctity of my own home—and look how well tha
t turned out for me.”
“Now you’re just trying to give me nightmares.” Adam was good at distraction, Mary decided, when he shivered again, purely for affect.
Because just then the front door opened and her guys arrived, looking a tad hurried and worried but trying not to, and a whole hour and a half earlier than expected.
Mary had set two more clean glasses on the counter and was able to reach over for them and the bowl of ice.
“Get yourself some sweet tea, guys. It’s good for calming fraying nerves.”
Toby looked over at Anthony, who just shook his head. “You’ve got a smart mouth, woman. I have to admit I kind of like that about you.”
“Even when it’s not well aimed for your purposes?”
“Even when.”
“Since I’m the only person who appears to be out of the loop, it would be nice if someone would tell me what’s going on.” Mary was losing her patience, but she did realize the arrival of Anthony and Toby was what Adam had been stalling for.
Adam looked at Toby then settled his gaze on Anthony.
Mary swore she could almost see the lines of mental communication—a few grunts punctuated by a crotch scratch—pass between the two men.
Then Anthony turned to her. “Apparently, just after we got together, the three of us, Thomas Northcliffe managed to swap places with another inmate who was due to be released. The two men did share a passing resemblance. No one apparently checked fingerprints, or any other fucking thing else, because he was successful. And he’s been walking around on his own—location unknown—ever since.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Did you think I was going to swoon? Have some sort of what they used to refer to as a fit of ‘female hysteria’? Or maybe go sit in the corner and shiver in fear?”
Mary gave her guys full credit. They didn’t flinch, and they didn’t waver. Because she had begun to expect it in moments when they thought their asses were more or less hanging out there, it didn’t surprise her when Anthony was the one to answer her.
“No. We did, actually, expect you to demand somebody’s head on a pike—somebody at that so-called facility where they’d fucked things up and let that psychopath go free.”
“What good would that do?” Mary sighed. She really hated it when her inner bitch emerged. “Sorry about my pissy attitude just now. I am furious, but it’s not on you guys. Now, having Adam babysit me until you got home…that could be another matter.”
Anthony lifted up his hands. “He just told us he was going to find out where you were and make sure you were safe. We were incredibly grateful for that, because we were scared shitless that asshole Thorncliffe might somehow be here, and we were too damn far away to do that little thing ourselves.”
Mary looked from one of her too-handsome-for-her-own-good men to the other. What she’d heard during the unplanned meeting with Adam that had just wrapped up was their anger. The three men were furious with the people in charge of the institution in New York. Adam had gone into the details of what was being done to locate Northcliffe. Unfortunately, several days had elapsed between when the man had eluded the authorities and they’d realized he had and begun to look for him, and it had been several weeks until they’d notified the NYPD.
Now, with just the three of them there, Mary noticed something she should have seen right away.
“You guys really were scared.”
“Of course, we were scared.” Anthony looked at Toby, and then he stepped forward and captured her left hand. “I love you, Mary Kendall. You’re my heart. I honestly don’t think I could go on living if you weren’t in this world.”
“I love you, Mary. You’re it for me, too.” Toby took her right hand and brought it to his lips. “You’re the first one I think about in the morning and the one who’s on my mind when I fall asleep each night. And the idea that you could be in danger tears my fucking guts out.”
No equivocations here. Just raw, naked emotion. And hearts, full hearts shining through glassy eyes.
“I love you.” The emotion inside her was too much to be contained. It brimmed over the rims of her eyes and made her heart race and her face flush. “I love you both so much. Thank you for coming into my life, for loving me and saving me from ending up with a dozen cats.”
Their laughter reflected their hearts as well, not mockery, but perfect love, perfect understanding. They got her and loved her for who she was. Someday, maybe, she would make them understand what a miracle that was for her.
She really had believed she would be the family’s first twenty-first-century crazy cat lady.
Someday she would tell them everything, every thought and fear and hope and dream—a dream that would now come true.
But for this moment, there was only one thing she needed, and when they stepped forward, when they tucked her in between them, she knew they understood her, completely.
What she needed, all that she needed, was them.
No inner music strummed, no ethereal touches aroused. This moment was basic, feral, and so uniquely them. Without another word, they led her to the bedroom, and when they reached the bed, they let go of her hands.
Mary wasted no time getting naked. She didn’t need to be seduced. She was on board, one hundred percent, and couldn’t wait to get her hands on her men. She wanted to give them everything and take all they offered.
There were words she wanted to tell them here, too. She wanted to tell them she had believed she was asexual—before them. She wanted to tell them that she couldn’t imagine living without them, either, and that if anything happened to one or the other of them, if they were somehow taken from her, she would likely die of a broken heart.
But the looks on their faces as they stalked her, two magnificently naked and supremely ripped men…well, she knew that talk wasn’t what they wanted or needed from her just then.
She didn’t want their words now, either. She wanted them. Their flesh on hers, their hands on her body and hers, reaching down, as they settled on the mattress on either side of her, fisting their hard and glorious cocks.
Anthony on her left and Toby on her right was her favorite way to be—unless, of course, she was on one and under the other. Soon. That day will come soon.
Both men surged their hips, helping her pump their cocks—their hard and growing harder cocks. Toby held her gaze as leaned over her and lowered his head. Letting her eyes drift shut, Mary opened her mouth and feasted. Lips melded while tongues danced. Slick, savory, sharing and sliding as nerve endings tingled and electric-like pleasure skittered. Love this.
When Toby lifted his head, and fingers moved her head gently, turning her until she faced her other lover. Anthony’s mouth covered hers. That flash of a moment when both men’s flavor coated her tongue soothed and aroused as no other moment ever could. His passion became her passion and his need, her need.
The give and take of kisses and the glide of hands, hers and theirs, fueled this inferno within her. So good. More. Thought no longer came in sentences or even in words. Images, ideas, and a hunger born of a life lived alone and empty painted a panoramic tableau. Mary’s mind stilled, but her heart, her instincts soared. Images bled into reality, a wondrous kaleidoscope of sensual reality.
The blended aroma of them, three sexual beings, scented the air. Flesh slickened with sweat, and the slide, the roll, the press wrapped them in a bower of need.
Time flowed around them, and as they pleasured, as they devoured, reality changed. Sacred. This new reality, sacrosanct, became their personal haven. Home. This is home.
Toby moved and settled his body between her thighs. His eyes searched her gaze as if searching for a treasure. She felt the heat of passion and the aching need for acceptance. With her right hand she caressed his cheek, a loving gesture, a yearning gesture. His hips moved subtly, and then she felt his hard cock push into her.
She couldn’t hold back her sigh of joy. His quick grin gave her just a heartbeat’s warning. And then he rolled them so sh
e was on instead of under.
“Hands flat on the mattress on either side of him, love.”
Anthony’s whispered command, his close presence in this moment when she held Toby’s cock deep within her body, became the kind of thrill she’d never cease reveling in or needing.
Obeying, she met Toby’s gaze and held it as he helped her ride him. Slow, rhythmic, she canted her hips, rubbing her throbbing clit against the curls that nested his cock. She shivered with each thrust, with each trail of friction inward and outward.
Anthony rubbed lubed fingers over her anus. Sounds of pleasure emerged from her soul as drops of her dew coated Toby’s shaft.
Mary knew Toby felt her moisture because he shivered. He took over completely, raising her and pulling her down, thrusting harder and faster as they began to chase their rapture. Then Anthony pushed his fingers into her anus, breaching her sphincter, and Mary cried out in orgasm.
Wave after wave of shivery, tingly excitement spilled over her and through her. Her pussy gushed, and her nipples drew tight. The clench of her vagina around Toby’s hard cock triggered some inner nerves that sent her eruption even higher. When Toby groaned, when that groan turned into a roar and he held himself so very deep within her, Mary imagined their pleasure in that moment merged and eddied into a pool of ecstasy.
Before her last gasp of climax faded, Anthony eased his fingers from her and moved up until his naked cock brushed the side of her face.
Eager to give him pleasure and to drink his release, she opened her mouth and sucked his cock in deep.
Mary shivered with the masterful way Anthony fisted her hair. She used her tongue to stroke his shaft even as she suckled, and when he began to thrust, she gave over. She felt the way his body trembled as he gentled his trusting, his fucking of her mouth careful, despite his obvious need. All she wanted, needed, was to give him everything.
The increased heat, the subtle shattering of control warned her. She drew on him, long and strong, and when he cursed, when that sob of release filled the air, her throat filled with his cum and she swallowed every drop he gave her.
Love Under Two Detectives Page 14
