Protecting Dallas

by Krista Wolf

  “Slow down…”

  I grunted the words more than said them. Dallas only grinned, then shifted her weight so she could reach back and fondle my balls.

  Jesus Christ!

  It was a slow, arduous torment. Watching her beautiful hair, cascading down around her gorgeous face. The feel of her fingernails, tracing lightly over my most sensitive skin. I kept on screwing her, driving deeper and deeper into the warm, wet recesses of her lithe, feminine body…

  Then her hand closed over me, giving my balls a gentle squeeze.

  “Let it go,” she winked.

  My shocked expression was met by another smile, or more accurately, a devilish grin. I was seconds away from flooding her. Milliseconds…

  Not. Yet.

  I threw her off like a bucking bronco, then shoved her back down against the bed. A moment later I had her ankles in my hands, her legs spread high in a ‘V’. I re-entered her with a grunt, pushing and pumping at angles where I knew I’d have all the control. Where I could fuck her properly, and watch her enjoy it.

  Either we all have her or none of us do. There’s no middle ground.

  My own words, as spoken to the others. After what happened that first night, our little impromptu meeting had been necessary.

  We’d all agreed that what happened had been spontaneous and blameless. Totally unplanned. And yes, maybe even a little screwed up. Especially when we factored Connor into the equation. I mean shit, after all—

  “Fuck me…” Dallas moaned, pulling me further inside her. Her fingernails were digging into my ass now, and I didn’t mind a single bit. “Go harder, honey. Please…”

  I picked up the pace, matching her stroke for stroke until her head lolled back with a sigh. With her eyes closed and her full lips parted she looked like a goddess. She had the perfect features of a Greek statue come to life; pink flesh from sculpted stone.

  We all need to be okay with this. Every one of us.

  My words again, stern and commanding. Even though I was talking mostly to myself.

  All of us or none of us.

  Kane had agreed right away, with a grunt and a nod. He’d wanted her for so long there was no way he could ever go back. Austin had been a bit more reluctant, but only in that he was still shocked by what happened. Once we talked it out… discussed the rules and the reasons behind them…

  It’s more natural than it sounds, the inner voice in my head assured me. For the three of you, anyway. Nothing more than an extension of a thousand other things you’ve shared together as soldiers. As brothers-in-arms…

  Yes, that might be true. But this was a person. A person with emotions, a person with feelings.

  We go only as far as she’s comfortable, and not an inch further, I remembered saying. Hell, she could end it immediately. She could pretend it never even happened.

  It was a risk for sure. An obvious out. If Dallas wanted that, she’d have it — no hard feelings, no questions asked.

  And if she does that, we have to respect it. It’s over immediately… for all three of us.

  Four actually, but who was counting? The important part was making Dallas comfortable. Chalking up our lewd little act to just that: a single night of one-time debauchery. A curiosity fulfilled. Perhaps even a fantasy, satisfied.

  Except she enjoyed it. Faced and embraced it, even.

  And she wanted to do it again.

  “MmmmMMmMMMMMM!”

  I stared back into her eyes, at the penultimate moment of her climax. Dallas’s legs quivered violently. Her back arched, her mouth opened, and suddenly she was coming.

  Unfuckingbelievable.

  It was, truly. She was so tight, so breathtakingly beautiful, I couldn’t help but finish at the same time. Her pussy contracted around me, squeezing me like a vice as I drove myself home one final time. Then I was coming too — shooting and spurting, painting her from the inside out with jet after jet of my hot, runny seed.

  Four pulses… five… six…

  Every beat was pure white ecstasy. Every throb sent a new surge of pleasure rocketing through my endorphin-rattled brain.

  I cried out, then began plunging in and out of her again. I kept fucking her… kissing her… crushing her beneath my hard chest while pushing her legs so wide I thought she might split in two.

  Only she didn’t. Dallas Winters took everything I gave her, crying and whimpering and clutching me back. She never stopped screwing for even a single second, squeezing me against her body until every last drop of me had been drained inside her.

  Christ, I want this.

  I knew it back then, the first time we’d been together. Hell, somehow I knew it even before that.

  The others had better be on the same page, I thought to myself grimly. Because… Well, because…

  “Holy fuck…” Dallas choked as we collapsed together. Our bodies remained wonderfully tangled. The whole room reeked of sex. “That… that was…”

  “Life altering?”

  A cute little laugh escaped her pretty throat. She nodded.

  “I was going to say a religious experience.”

  I smiled and kissed her again. “Close enough.”

  Thirty

  DALLAS

  He took me again in the middle of the night, rolling me onto my back. Screwing me hotly in the semi-darkness, by the muted pink light of the motel’s hideous neon sign.

  Half asleep, still seeping from our previous lovemaking, I spread my legs for him. Maddox sank into me like a sexy torpedo, piercing me to my warm and welcoming — yet still very sore — depths.

  And I loved it.

  It was all too wonderful, being used like this. Being pleased like this. In all the years of being alone, I just wasn’t accustomed to the closeness. The physical intimacy of sleeping naked with someone; the proximity of a warm boyfriend, or lover, or whatever the hell he was.

  At the moment, I was too ecstatic to care. I was staring up dreamily into the mirrored ceiling, my head just visible above his massive shoulder. I watched the muscles of his broad back twisting in unison as he screwed me into the bed. Remained hopelessly captivated by each movement of his perfect, bubble-shaped ass as it clenched and unclenched, drilling himself home between my outstretched thighs.

  They want to share me. All three of them.

  It was like a dream. A very wet, very dirty, very forbidden dream.

  And yet…

  Could you really do it?

  Hell, I was doing it. The only question that remained was whether or not I could make it work. Or rather, whether or not we could make it work: my three sexy SEALs, plus me.

  But could you really keep all three of them satisfied?

  The jury was still out on that one, that much I was sure of.

  But it sure as fuck would be fun to try.

  They care about you, Dallas.

  They really did. Of that I was absolutely positive. And even better, they cared about me in ways no one ever really had before. Not past boyfriends. Not friends with benefits. Not even Mark, the cute but funny neighbor who stopped by for dinner once a month last year, and who didn’t often leave without ending up naked in my bed.

  Mark, who’d moved away when he was offered a better job in a nicer city. Who’d been snatched away beyond my control… like everyone else in my life.

  Yes but these guys are still here, Dallas.

  It was like the voice in my head wanted to torment me. Or at the very least, get my false hopes up.

  And they’ve been here for you, even when you didn’t know it.

  The sun came up, and I found myself staring at Maddox for a very long time. I’d spent a good half-hour just watching his slow, rhythmic breathing. Recording every line and curve of his broad shoulders, his taut, muscular arms held high overhead as he lay face-down in his own pillow.

  Could you be happy with them?

  It was a fantasy to think that I could. Or rather, that they could be happy with me. All three of them. Sharing the same girlfriend.

/>   I laughed into the fake Hawaiian sunset. I made for a pretty kickass girlfriend, that was for sure. Just… maybe not that kickass.

  “Morning,” Maddox said suddenly, his eyes still closed. He turned sideways, then stretched and grinned. “How was your sleep?”

  “Interrupted,” I smirked back at him.

  “Ah yes,” he said. “The snoring.”

  “Among other things, yeah.”

  He sat up quickly and easily, the muscles of his stomach rippling in a delectable wave. God, I wanted to drop my head into his lap. Stare at those muscles close up, studying them hard before reaching out to—

  “You make coffee?”

  I turned my head toward the Tiki bar and sneered. “In that contraption?”

  Maddox grunted. “It’s a coffee maker, isn’t it?”

  “Not by my definition, no.”

  My lover let out a long hiss of dissatisfaction. Then he rose, reached for his boxers, and began stepping into them.

  “Damn shame,” I said, screwing the cap off a bottle of lukewarm water.

  “What is?”

  “You covering up that ass.”

  He stopped with this thumbs still in his waistband. “Want me to stop?”

  I considered it for a moment. The pleasant soreness between my legs spoke up for me.

  “Not now,” I said. “Later for sure though.”

  He nodded and continued dressing, twisting left and right to pull on the rest of his clothes. Goddammit, I couldn’t find an ounce of fat on his entire body.

  “They have an Emperor room here or something?” he asked casually. “We could play Caesar and Cleop—”

  KNOCK. KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK.

  I perked up instantly. Staring at the door, I went from a hazy half-sleep to wide awake.

  “Relax,” Maddox told me. “It’s only Austin.”

  Relief flooded through me, then confusion. I hadn’t seen him make any calls or check his text-messages. Hell, he hadn’t even picked up his phone.

  “Trust me.”

  I got up and opened the door. Austin strolled right in, followed by Kane. The two of them gave me a brief hug, then glanced around the disheveled room.

  “Hawaii?”

  “Yeah,” grunted Maddox, as he laced up his boots. “It was that or the Moon Room.”

  “Moon room?” I laughed. “You mean we could’ve—”

  “Yes.”

  “Well shit,” I giggled, grabbing for my own clothes. “Next time we’re taking a vote!”

  I stood, letting the sheets fall away from my semi-naked body. I could feel the weight of their eyes upon me. Strangely enough, it didn’t feel weird at all.

  “Ain’t gonna be a next time,” said Kane, his voice sounding distracted.

  “Oh no?”

  “No,” Kane shot back. “They’ve had us on the run for too long now. Been fucking us over at every turn; at your house, at our house….”

  I wriggled into my pants, feeling no shame. It was actually kind of fun.

  “But from this point on,” Kane continued, “after what we found out last night?” His look was grim, but with the hint of a smile.

  “We do the fucking.”

  Thirty-One

  DALLAS

  “Right here. This is as about as close as we get.”

  The truck rolled to a silent stop, three-quarters of a block from the house in question. It looked like every other house in the neighborhood. No bigger, no smaller.

  I leaned forward from my spot in the back seat, straining to see.

  “So what are we looking at?”

  “That house belongs to Evan Miller,” said Austin.

  “And who’s that?”

  “Remember the Jeep you ran off the road two nights ago?” asked Maddox.

  “You mean obliterated? Yeah.”

  “Well it was registered to him.”

  I stared on in silence, looking over Kane’s big shoulder. The house was dark, the driveway empty. It was only nine o’clock, too early for bedtime.

  “So where is he?”

  “Probably a morgue,” Kane grunted.

  The thought was a little morbid, even for me.

  “Maybe a hospital,” Austin offered, “but based on our inquiries it would have to be somewhere under the radar.”

  “A third possibility also exists,” said Maddox.

  “And what’s that?”

  “He left town.”

  Maddox nudged me with his leg, from where he was seated next to me. “Dallas, think hard. Evan Miller.” His eyes bored into mine. “Do you know the name?”

  I shook my head slowly, thinking. I was drawing a complete blank.

  “Did Connor mention him maybe? Talk about him in passing?”

  “Not that I can remember. Sorry.”

  The two men in the front seat glanced at each other. I could tell they were holding something back.

  “Come on now,” I said. “Out with it.”

  “With what?”

  “You know something. Something you’re not telling me.”

  It was almost infuriating, that they’d keep anything from me at all. That even now, after all we’d been through — after all I’d been through — they could try leaving me in the dark about something.

  “Miller is a Navy SEAL, like us,” said Maddox. “Special ops. Really covert shit.”

  “So?”

  “So he’s involved in things we wouldn’t know about. Only maybe Connor knew.” He looked uncomfortable. “Because…”

  “Because he and Connor bunked together,” Kane said coldly. “When they were stationed out in New Orleans.”

  My throat constricted a little. The thought of Connor being betrayed by a friend… much less a fellow soldier? It just wasn’t something that had ever crossed my mind.

  “Do you remember when Connor was in New Orleans?”

  “Yes,” I said numbly.

  Austin scratched at his chin. “It was an unknown assignment, a few years ago. He was there six months I think.”

  “Eight,” I corrected him.

  “It was one of the few times he’d been stationed apart from us,” Kane added. “Maybe the only time.”

  “I— I don’t know what he was doing there,” I offered. “If you’re asking me what his duties were, he never told me.” I paused. “And I never really asked.”

  I’d learned not to ask, actually. The one time Connor told me an operations story I’d been scared shitless of the things he’d done. Not scared of the people he’d hurt or killed either; I assumed they were all enemies, and the enemy naturally had it coming.

  No. Instead I’d been scared of the danger he was in.

  It drove me mad with worry, knowing how close I’d come to losing him. Knowing that my brother was a bullet or a grenade or one terrible move away from being taken from me forever, like everyone else. As a Navy SEAL, I was always aware of the possibility he could get hurt. But this was stark, detailed reality…

  It had kept me up for nights on end, that single story. And even though he’d emerged victorious, I’d asked him not to tell me stuff like that again. True to his word, he hadn’t.

  And now it was going to bite me in the ass.

  “FUCK.”

  Maddox’s hand closed over mine. “What?”

  “I don’t know!” I exclaimed. “Shit, I don’t anything about what he did, or where he went, or what the fuck happened to him!” I was growing angry now. I could feel a familiar resentment welling up from that empty place inside me. A resentment I hadn’t felt since Connor’s death.

  “I’m useless,” I growled. “He never told me anything. He never told me—”

  I stopped cold, mid-sentence. My head cocked to one side.

  “What?” asked Austin. “What is it?”

  “I— I think I remember…”

  Maddox opened his mouth to speak, but Kane’s gaze halted him. He remained silent, while I searched my the big messy file drawer of my brain.

  “Connor swit
ched apartments twice,” I said, “while he was stationed out there. He said it was because he was following his roommate.”

  Austin squinted. “Following?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is that the word he used?”

  “I… I think so. I remember thinking it was weird at the time. But I just assumed he met a guy he got along with. Someone he liked enough to switch apartments with,” I shrugged. “Maybe to grab a bigger place, or they had a landlord problem, or—”

  “Yeah, but twice?” asked Maddox. “So he moved into three places within eight months?”

  I was still nodding, still remembering. The guys were communicating with each other silently, the way soldiers who spent a lot of time around each other often did. By looks. By expressions.

  “I never heard him mention the guy’s name,” I said. “But Connor talked about his roommate sometimes. He said they were on the same assignment. They were permitted to live off base, but they spent a lot of time doing the same kinds of things.”

  “He was onto him,” said Kane.

  “What?”

  “This guy Miller. Your brother wasn’t just in it for the shits and giggles, he was following this guy to keep an eye on him.”

  I looked past him, scowling out at the house again. The anger had drained away with recollection, but the resentment was still there.

  “Do you think this guy… is the reason…” I tightened my jaw. Swallowed the growing lump in my throat. “That Connor is dead?”

  No one said anything. Finally, Austin nodded.

  “One of them, yeah.”

  It was all I needed. I popped open the car door and stepped outside.

  “Then let’s go fuck his world up.”

  Thirty-Two

  DALLAS

  I was halfway to the house when they finally caught up with me. I felt one hand on my wrist, and another on my shoulder.

  I was surprised at how easy it was to wrench myself away.