by Jayne Rylon
James would probably be sore the next day and he couldn’t have cared less.
Kayla smiled against his parted lips, then threw her head back, tipping into an explosive orgasm she hadn’t even been able to give them a warning about. Dave seemed almost relieved when he followed her lead, shouting their names as he jerked over and over between them.
Kayla went limp, and Dave melted over her, but not James. He stood and inched backward, letting the cool water douse his desire before he approached his own husband and wife. Otherwise, they would set him on fire in an instant.
“Do you have any idea how sexy you are?” Devon asked as she bit her lip, her legs wrapped around Neil, who was fucking her relentlessly, his knees and feet buried in the sand.
“Not nearly as much as you two.” James meant it. He was the luckiest man alive. When Devon unhooked her ankles to make room for James behind Neil, he put his hand over them to hold them in place. “Neil, would you mind very much if I didn’t fuck you tonight? I want Devon to be in the middle this time. If… if that’s what you both want too.”
Devon looked up to Neil then and begged to have James. “Please, Neil. Please. We’ll make it up to you next time.”
“No need.” Neil was already rolling to his side, taking Devon with him, his cock buried deep in her pussy. “I just want to be with you two. I don’t care how or where. Just this. This is all I need.”
James couldn’t have resisted joining them then. He coated himself in lube again, then treated Devon to the same careful preparation, sliding his slick fingers into her one at a time until she could easily hold him without a twinge of discomfort.
The rest of the crew gathered around them, supporting them through touches and softly spoken encouragement. James fit himself to Devon, then pressed inside, groaning when she welcomed him home. Neil lifted her top leg higher, easing James’s way and burrowing deeper himself.
Kayla snuck in and kissed Devon, making her shudder and arch, her body slung tight between the shuttling of James and Neil. James stared across her to Neil and then dipped his head, kissing first Devon and then Neil. And when their mouths collided, they were doomed.
They kissed each other as they gave everything they had to Devon, and the circuit was complete.
The three of them peaked together, at the center of their crew, and rivaled the faux sun for intensity. James shot so hard he was afraid he might hurt Devon as he emptied himself inside her and Neil did the same. He could feel his husband’s jerking cock through the thin tissue separating them. Devon squirmed between them as if trying to get closer to them both simultaneously.
They hung onto the blaze of rapture for what seemed like an eternity before falling back to reality together.
James would have collapsed then, but Neil and the rest of the crew were there to catch him and lower him gently to the sand where he cuddled in the middle of a ring made by Devon and the guys from the crew. The women snuggled up to their opposite sides on the outside of the ring. Right then James felt like he was at the center of their little universe, sheltered and accepted.
And he knew, he was exactly where he’d always been meant to be.
He’d nearly dozed off, the rush of the waterfall and pure satisfaction flooding him with peace, when his stomach growled. It was loud and insistent enough to sound like Moby Dick might be stalking them from the depths of the oasis.
The entire crew cracked up, laughing with him and not at him.
Devon levered herself to a sitting position, kissing the tip of his nose. “I think we might be late to dinner.”
“They’ll forgive us, even if they are jealous as fuck.” Neil laid one last kiss on James’s lips, then helped both him and Devon up. “But yeah, I have a few things I want to say to your new boss.”
Heaven help them all.
16
James walked between Devon and Neil, holding one of their hands in each of his as they meandered from the oasis to the main living area of the mountain mansion. Surrounded by stone and wood beams easily as thick around as he was, James felt as secure as if they were hidden in an underground bunker. Even still, the reality of what he’d signed up for began to sink in.
He was putting himself in the line of more danger than he typically found on a construction site as a member of Jordan’s team. He was pretty sure Aarav’s guns shot bullets, not nails. So he understood why Neil and Devon might be worried, but he had to show them what he’d seen in just that tiny glimpse he’d gotten of their world and the utter nobility and selflessness that inspired it when he’d spied on them huddled around the table earlier.
Their energy had sucked him in even before he’d discovered that Mark truly did need him more than he’d understood.
When they rounded the corner into the living room, light glowed from the kitchen and dining room beyond. That along with the friendly banter and shit talking, which accompanied the clink of plates being set out, lured him closer.
Neil rubbed his flat stomach with his free hand. “Mmm…smells like spaghetti. I’m starving.”
“Worked up an appetite in the oasis, huh?” Jordan waved them into the space. Even with his team, plus Kason and Wren, there was still plenty of room for the crew around the spacious island at the center of it.
“Hell yeah, we did.” James didn’t bother to hide his grin. “Worked out a few things between us too.”
“So they know you’ve lost your mind and you’re trading in your hammer for a bulletproof vest?” Jordan raised a brow, but he wasn’t looking at James—he was watching Devon and Neil. “I can honestly say I don’t recommend having one of your partners be in this business.”
“No one’s ever offered specifics, so I was smart enough not to ask until now. I’ll probably regret this, but… What is your line of work exactly?” Neil asked, leaning against the counter.
He might have seemed casual, but James could feel the tension radiating from him. He knew the rest of Jordan’s team could sense it too, because they kept cutting glances at them while dishing themselves out some spaghetti and meatballs and drawing up stools at the island. The rest of the Powertools did the same, trying to play it cool.
“Well, it’s not any one thing exactly.” Jordan shrugged. “Most of us have worked for governments or militaries before. We’ve been in situations where the right thing was obvious but not always sanctioned for various political reasons or because we were constrained by protocols and regulations. Now we work for ourselves, but we help other people slice through red tape.”
“So you’re vigilantes?” Devon asked.
Jordan pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What? What’d I say?” she wondered, tipping her head.
“Damn you two. First him with the M word and you with the V word.” Nolan pointed at James and then Devon with his fork before scooping up a giant mouthful of pasta and downing it in a couple chomps. Must have been that learned-to-eat-fast-in-the-military thing.
“M?” Neil asked.
“Murder,” James shielded his mouth from Jordan and whispered in the crew’s direction. Kate dropped her fork and stared at him.
“No. That’s not what we do.” Aarav shook his head once. Though he spoke quietly, James could picture exactly how deadly he might be if cornered.
“Sorry.” James winced.
“If someone’s a terrible excuse for a human being, we make sure they can’t hurt anyone else.” Sola acted like they were discussing the weather as she nabbed a garlic roll out of a gorgeous hand-blown glass bowl on the island.
“Okay, well, that I can get behind.” Neil looked to Dave and Kayla, who were also nodding.
James sighed dramatically. “Fine. If we’re not allowed to say the M-word or anything like it, I need something better to call you than my righteous assassin buddies, which is how I’m thinking of you in my head.”
Jordan cringed. “You know, we do handle situations in a lot of different ways. Sometimes we’re needed for recon or for smuggling witnesses to safe locati
ons not even government agencies know so there’s no possibility of a leak. It’s only a last resort that we do…you know, that, really. So Cox Security Services works.”
Even Morgan snorted at that. Aarav studied his meal intently.
“What?” Jordan shrugged. “I took Kason’s last name when we got married.”
James rolled his eyes. “Get out of here. That sounds like you’re bouncers at a strip club or some shit. You need something catchy. Something we can market. I’m going to call you the Shields.”
“It’s not bad, actually.” Nolan tapped his index finger on his lush lips, then realized he had some sauce there and licked it off. James figured if they hadn’t just enjoyed themselves so thoroughly in the oasis, there might have been more than one person with too-tight pants after the maneuver.
“It has a superhero ring to it.” Aarav didn’t seem upset about that. “Emphasizes that what we’re doing might be someone’s dirty work, but it’s for a good purpose.”
“Don’t expect me to wear fucking tights. I’m over that stage of my life.” Sola tossed her long brunette hair over her slender shoulder, then propped her hand on her hip, but she wasn’t vetoing the label either. James couldn’t wait to get to know her better and find out what was under that tough exterior of hers. She reminded him a lot of his wife.
Devon grinned, then grabbed her dinner and took it over where Sola was sitting, hopping up on the empty stool beside her. “I like her. I can see why you chose this, James.”
“So it really doesn’t bother you, what we do?” Aarav asked James quietly enough that he suspected it might sometimes bother Aarav, what they were forced to do.
“Are the people you’re fucking with evil bastards?” James asked point blank.
“Yup.” Nolan bobbed his head, his perfect hair never falling out of place and his bright white teeth gleaming as he grinned. Damn, he was hot.
“And are you super careful to make sure that’s true before you take action?” James was a little wary about that part, but he trusted Jordan.
Jordan whipped a glare in his direction. “Of course. We only take ironclad cases and we vet every piece of intel we’re given before we agree to a job. We verify what our clients tell us through several independent sources including—but you didn’t hear this from me—a tech wizard named JRad from a high-caliber police squad, the Men in Blue, who can access pretty much any system in the world if he feels like it.”
“What if something goes wrong and you get caught or tried for your part in these assignments?” Joe didn’t seem to be one-hundred percent sold yet.
“We have written immunity agreements from most of the government agencies we work for and promises of clemency from others. Of course it’s not a guarantee, there’s always fucking politics to worry about, but…it doesn’t behoove the people we work for to break a very valuable tool.” Jordan didn’t try to sugarcoat things.
James considered carefully as he scanned the crew, who seemed more concerned with stuffing their faces than anything they were hearing from the Shields. They trusted him and his gut was telling him he was meant for this. So he shrugged. “Then no, it doesn’t bother me at all. Let’s take out the fucking trash.”
Something shifted in Aarav’s gaze. Like maybe he’d never considered that someone could accept what they did, or see him as a hero instead of as a villain. James immediately wanted to play matchmaker for the dude. He wondered if he was into guys, or women, or maybe both. He added it to his mental to-do list to find out. Maybe to enlist Devon’s help. They loved setting people up and had a nearly perfect track record so far. With Aarav’s thick, onyx lashes and a build that said he spent a lot of time keeping active if not outright lifting weights, there would be no shortage of volunteers for the experiment.
Sola glanced at him from the corner of her eye, and James noticed her gripping her fork a little tighter than necessary, as if keeping herself from giving Aarav the hug he so desperately needed. James tucked that tidbit away in his mental files for later.
“So you get our mission. But why the hell would you choose this for yourself?” Sola asked James. “I’m sure you won’t be shocked to hear that while you were busy in the oasis I combed through your personal information, including your financials. The company you own with your friends is pretty damn successful, especially lately. You don’t need this kind of headache in your life.”
She spun around on her stool and waited for his answer even as Jordan looked on, remaining silent and letting the Shields do the cross-examining for him. He figured on a team like this, everyone had to be comfortable or it couldn’t succeed.
“Well, if you didn’t do a half-assed job of your research, then you know all about my sister Laurel already.” James tried not to flinch as he brought it up, but…there it was.
“Are you hoping we can help you find out what happened to her?” Nolan wondered. “’Cause we might be good, but we probably aren’t thirty-year-old-missing-person-cold-case awesome. Especially if she simply chose to leave a shitty upbringing to make herself a better life.”
James sputtered. “I hadn’t even considered that you would be able to find her. But now that you said it, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t wonder every damn day where she went and if she’s okay. If she’s happy.”
Damn it. Now his eyes were burning.
He slammed them closed and took a few deep breaths before opening them, staring at the Shields and saying, “What I really want is to keep anyone else from experiencing the pain I’ve lived through. The injustice of it all. I know firsthand how limited some official resources are. And that’s in what should have been a pretty straightforward case like Laurel’s. They couldn’t even spare a cop to do more than show her picture around at a few local places before assuming she took off of her own free will.”
“And you doubt that she did?” Jordan asked, leaning in.
“Maybe I was naive. I was just a kid. But I think she would have let me know she was okay and come back for me if she could have instead of leaving me behind without a second thought.” He reached for Neil’s hand, which was already on its way to his. “Then again, maybe she never made it to a safe place where that was possible.”
He cleared his throat and took a few deep breaths.
“Anyway, I’ve also endured my fair share of bullying and violence. If someone else is suffering worse than my sad but endurable experiences, if someone’s life depends on us taking out a bully on steroids, then I want to help.” They knew he was referring to Mark even if the rest of the crew might not. He hoped someday he could fill them in on that at least. Maybe when they’d hauled him out of whatever hellhole he was trapped in and given him a safe place to finish growing up.
“Good answer.” Jordan nodded, finally plucking a plate from the stack and piling it high before taking the seat between Wren and Kason. “I’m still telling you it’s not in your best interests, but… Welcome to the Shields.”
James beamed, looking first to Devon and then to Neil, who both smiled back, their eyes shining with adoration and…was that pride? Damn.
Jordan wiped his mouth on a black cloth napkin. “There’s a ton of shit we need some help with, starting with that mess you saw before. We could also use some new storage in the basement for our equipment. Have you ever built a gun rack before? Check with the Men in Blue if you need specs for dedicated cabinetry. I have another camera install job that’s been on the backburner waiting for us to have availability. Some project management skills and communications training will help with the dispatching duties too. Amber is good at that shit. Next time you’re at Hot Rods, hire her to beef up the abilities you’ve taught yourself organically while wrangling your crew. Offer her enough money that she can’t say no. We have plenty of funding.”
“Oh. Um, sure. That all sounds great.” James’s head was spinning.
It only rotated faster when Jordan said, “And as for this first op, stay here overnight. We’ll review the detailed plan with you and get you p
repped in the morning when the rest of your Powertools go back to work. But until then, I want to talk to Devon and Mike.”
“Us? Why?” Devon wondered.
“Because I’ve got a funny feeling about the trouble at your site and I want to figure out why before we’re distracted with other, more serious matters the day after tomorrow.”
“A couple of teenagers screwed with my supplies because there’s nothing to do in this town…yet, and now both you and James are all paranoid about it.” Devon groaned.
Mike was masterminding an entertainment and tourism hub downtown that would be centered around a massive tattoo shop. Kayla’s resort and spa was another part of the future they envisioned for Middletown. But James had to admit, there was mostly a lot of nature and nothing for younger residents to occupy themselves with at the moment. Maybe she was right about who had messed with her stuff.
“Could be. But something’s not sitting right with me about that. Not at your site instead of Mike’s. And I learned a long time ago not to ignore my gut when it tells me something.” Jordan frowned.
“My gut is telling me I need another plate of spaghetti.” Nolan swooped in with the giant serving spoon, and even Aarav chuckled at his antics.
But James couldn’t quite shake the unease that accompanied Jordan’s warning.
17
“We’re heading back to Middletown. Have a good day. Rescue the world and shit!” Devon called from the main living area on the other end of the top-secret hall at the ass crack of dawn the next morning.
“First rule of this job: never let someone you care about leave without telling them you love them.” Jordan jerked his chin toward the front door. James didn’t argue. He jogged to the crew just in time to give Devon and Neil a hug and kiss goodbye with a little extra ass-grab for the hell of it.
