STORY EXCERPT

Maggie Morrison struggled to catch her breath. Her heart raced, her palms sweat, and it felt as if something she’d eaten had decided to roll around in her stomach.

What the hell is going on here?

“Are you all right, Miss Maggie?”

Richard Benedict’s question snapped her back to the present. There he stood, just inches away from her, still holding onto the hand she’d offered him in greeting. The lights above them seemed to shimmer in his blond hair, and his blue eyes reflected concern, and something that might have been mirth. She clearly had his complete focus. A slight smile kissed his lips. She couldn’t help but stare at those lips and wonder what they might feel like against her own. That almost-grin transformed him, made him look younger, somehow, and more attractive. Maggie told herself to banish the thought, but it wouldn’t go away.

At Richard’s left and right shoulders, his brothers Trevor and Kevin, respectively, stood quietly, their gazes locked on her.

Neither man gave anything away in their expressions. Trevor, the darkest of the three with brown hair and chocolate eyes, tilted his head to the right just slightly. She had the sense he was “tuning in” to her. Kevin, blond like Richard, had eyes of the most startling aqua. Something about him told her that he thoroughly loved life. The impact of being the center of attention for all three of them together was potent.

Maggie turned her gaze back to Richard. Her own smile began to bloom then and there, without even consulting her brain. “Yes. Thank you. I’m fine.” She tugged her hand, meaning to end this handshake that seemed to have such a strange effect on her. Richard didn’t seem inclined to let go. “May I have my hand back, please?”

“If you insist.” Richard let go and slipped both his hands into the front pockets of his smartly tailored pants. “I know you’d rather stand with Ginny and the rest of the Kendalls during the ceremony, but as this is a Kendall family Commitment Ceremony, most of them will be at the front, surrounding the celebrants.”

Maggie looked to the front of the community center, and sure enough, the Kendalls, en masse, had gathered, awaiting the guests of honor.

“It occurred to us that, as this is your first time attending one of our celebrations, you might like to have someone act as your guide, as it were. Kevin, Trevor, and I would be happy to serve you in that capacity and answer any and all questions you might have.”

Maggie did have questions, dozens of them. She’d missed the ceremony last week for Penelope Primrose with Josh and Alex Benedict. She’d hoped to have been in Lusty by then, but there’d been a last-minute snag in closing the deal on the sale of her property in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey. She’d only just managed to finally arrive in town this very morning.

Today’s ceremony celebrated the union of Tamara Jones with Morgan and Henry Kendall. The grooms—was that even the right term?—were the brothers of the men Maggie’s own niece Ginny would very soon be marrying.

A part of her felt as if she’d stepped through some fantasy-land looking glass into a world she didn’t recognize.

Maggie looked from the assembled Kendalls at the front of the hall back to the brothers Benedict. She found the entire concept of one woman marrying two men confusing as hell, and she didn’t know how long she could hold off before she started badgering Ginny with questions.

Now that she thought about it, it would be better to ask these three men all those pesky questions, rather than her niece and her niece’s future in-laws.

Some of what she wanted to ask might offend them, and Maggie didn’t want to make things difficult for Ginny, not even one little bit. Not now, when the young woman was finally happy and about to begin living her very own dream come true.

Truth was, she didn’t care if the brothers Benedict were offended by her questions, or not.

“All right. Thank you. As it happens, I do have more than a question or two.”

Richard raised his right eyebrow. “How could you not have questions and be confused, under the circumstances?” He held out his hand to her. “I’ll get us as close as I can, so you can see and hear everything as it happens. We’ll have to weave through the crowd, so take my hand. I don’t want to lose you.”

Maggie didn’t know if she wanted to experience all those strange sensations again. Then she realized that whatever had happened to her just moments before when she and Richard had shaken hands probably had nothing at all to do with him. Likely, she’d simply worn herself out rushing around like crazy the last couple of days. She hadn’t gotten much sleep or even really taken any downtime at all to unwind.

In short, she was completely frazzled, running on empty, and her state of exhaustion was obviously playing hell with her imagination.

Maggie had never fully appreciated how much work could be involved in a long-distance move. Not until she’d decided to relocate from Wildwood Crest, New Jersey, to Lusty, Texas.

“Miss Maggie?”

Richard’s voice dipped low, assuming an intimate tone that rippled her flesh and fluttered her belly.

She met his gaze, and when he looked down at his still-proffered hand, she also looked down and realized he was waiting for her to take it. Well, of course he was. Hell, I zoned out again. That could not be good. Note to self, get to bed and go to sleep as soon as possible.

“Oh, sorry. Of course.”

She put her hand in his and nearly wasn’t able to control the shiver that slid through her with the touch of his flesh pressed so closely to hers.

“You don’t have to apologize for anything.” Richard flicked a glance over her shoulder, and she knew he was looking at his brothers for a moment. Then he met her gaze again. “You need to take better care of yourself. You’ve pushed yourself too hard, moving home.”

She decided to ignore his first point and focused instead on his second one. “You mean moving from home.”

“No. Lusty’s your home now, isn’t it?”

She didn’t know if she’d ever seen such a serious expression on a man’s face before. It almost seemed to her as if the point he’d just made was of great importance to him.

In the face of such sobriety, she felt a little flustered. “I… Yes. I guess it is.” She sensed a power in his stare and wondered why it was so hard for her to look away from him.

ADULT EXCERPT

“Come here, baby. Come lie with us.” Kevin lifted her as if she weighed nothing at all and laid her on the bed. He sprawled beside her on her left, turned her head, and kissed her.

Hotter, wetter, this kiss mimicked the carnal act of mating Maggie craved, and she took and gave in equal, greedy measure.

Trevor snuggled in on her right, and she broke her kiss with Kevin and turned her head, seeking his lips and his taste.

Hands petted her breasts and stroked down her stomach as she traded kisses with Trevor and Kevin. Maggie felt wild and wanton and more than a little naughty. Yet another sensation burst over her, one that eclipsed all the others.

Maggie felt free. She felt free to give and take and enjoy. She felt free to love and laugh and live. Oh, God, how could she never have realized how entrapped she’d become? She’d never been free to truly make her own choices, to live her own life instead of the one set out for her by her mother.

She’d never been free until now.

Maggie moaned, closing her eyes to better focus on the pleasure as hands stroked breasts and plucked nipples, as fingers touched and teased her slit, as they brushed back and forth through her short curls, enticing her clit to quiver and tingle and reach up and out for the caress of a lover, any lover.

Two strong male hands caressed the inside of her thighs and then spread her legs. Maggie opened her eyes when the bed dipped by her feet and a stream of warm breath caressed her wet and waiting feminine folds. She looked down and once more encountered Richard’s fierce gaze. Naked, his magnificent cock sheathed in a condom, he seemed poised to pounce, the ultimate hunter about to devour his prey.

“I’ve known every time you’ve been aroused, love. I could smell it on you, this wonderful fragrance that is just Maggie. It feels like I have been craving the taste of your juices forever. Now I’m going to feast on you.”

Richard set his mouth on her, lips open and wet and sliding as his tongue stroked and delved and drank. Maggie cried out, the pleasure so sharp, so intense, she didn’t know what to do with it. The sensation felt better than in her wildest imaginings, and Maggie could do nothing but push up, pressing her pussy closer to Richard’s mouth.

Trevor and Kevin played with her nipples, pulling, pinching, and then, oh God, sucking them, first one, then the other into their hot, wet mouths.

Lips and tongues sipped and lapped, fingers and hands cupped and caressed, as Maggie became the center of the most erotic of storms. She whimpered, helpless to even speak a single word as each new touch assailed her. Interspersed with the tactile treats, deep, sexy male rumbles—sounds of encouragement and approval and delight—wrapped her in a cocoon of caring, dipped her in a cauldron of carnality until her thinking woman hushed and her feral woman emerged, fierce, strong, and demanding.

She shoved her cunt even closer to Richard’s wonderfully talented tongue as arousal soared and her climax teased, just out of reach. The snap and sizzle of unbridled horniness vibrated through her entire body, and she wanted, needed, to come.

“Mm.” Richard’s utterance electrified tantalized the already saturated flesh of her pussy, amplifying the sensation like an electric shock. Maggie cried out, a needy, begging kind of sound.

“Oh, baby, look how beautiful you are. Come for us, Maggie. Give us your rapture.”

Richard moved without taking his mouth from her cunt, and then he slid his fingers inside her pussy, moving them in and out at a fast and furious pace.

“Yes!” Maggie arched off the bed as her climax exploded, as wave after wave of sheer rapturous pleasure drenched her over and over again. Nothing existed except for this bliss, and Maggie surrendered to it completely, unable to do anything but let it consume her.

Just as the thrill began to ebb, Trevor and Kevin moved away from her. Richard moved, too. He crawled up her body and plunged his cock into her in one strong, steady thrust.