STORY EXCERPT

It’s time to come home.

Suz Bowen Black’s heart dropped to her stomach just before jumping into her throat as she checked the sender of the e-mail. She had to swallow several times to keep from throwing up when she saw her great-grandmother’s e-mail address, although Jubilee, her housekeeper and best friend, had probably sent it. Checking the time stamp, she sighed. Only twenty minutes since delivery. Thank God for the Internet.

Spinning in her chair at the front desk of the pediatric clinic where she worked as medical secretary and receptionist, she nearly ran over Joyce Leyton, the office manager, in her haste to move.

“Whoa there, Suz. What’s happened?”

“I have to take a few days off. My great-grandmother needs me.”  Suz blinked back the tears that pressed hard for release.

Joyce nodded and took Suz’s arm. “Come to my office. She’s the one in North Carolina, isn’t she?”

Suz nodded and allowed Joyce to lead her into the tiny administrator’s office. Suz collapsed into the chair on the visitor’s side while Joyce took her seat and began clicking on her computer.

“New Bern. The family’s owned a farm there for more than two-hundred years. Now that it’s just Great Grandmother Ruth and me, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Is there an airport in New Bern?”

“Yes, I think so. If not, then there’s one in Jacksonville.” Suz pulled two tissues from the box on Joyce’s desk and began to shred them in her lap.

Five minutes later Suz left the office with reservations on the four o’clock flight out of Denver heading to Charlotte, where she would catch a commuter flight to New Bern. She had just enough time to go home, change, pack, set Mac, her six-year-old cat, up with food and water for the few days she’d be gone, and get to the airport. She would arrive in New Bern just before midnight, but it was the best any airline could do.

Before she left the office, she clicked back into her e-mail and replied to Ruth’s message.

Hang on, Ruth. I’m on my way.

* * * *

“She’s on her way.” Penn McKenzie looked over his notebook computer at his twin, Liam, standing at the sink washing dishes.

“When?”

“Doesn’t say. Just that she’s on her way.” Penn spent the next few minutes clicking on the computer. “If she catches the four o’clock outta Denver, she’ll arrive near midnight. If no’, it’ll be noon tomorrow.”

“I’ll tell Ruth when I go up.”

The brothers’ eyes met and held a moment of intense communication passing between them before Liam turned away. “I’m no’ lettin’ her go this time. She’s ours, and it’s well past time we invoked our claim.”

“Aye, but she’s been away for a lotta years, and life’s no’ been easy fer the lass.”

“And whose fault is that, ye great dolt? You refused to fetch her home once she divorced that lout who got her pregnant and then beat her ’til she lost the babe.”

Taking a deep breath, Liam fought for control. Though she would not arrive for hours and it would be days before they could claim her properly, his cock rested against his thigh hard as the stone that made up Spring Castle back home. But if it killed him, he would hold off to give Suz the time she needed to accept them and their love.

ADULT EXCERPT

She felt it there, just beyond her reach. But no matter what Suz tried, relief would not come close enough for her to climb on and ride it to completion. It was as if a glass window separated her from her orgasm. She could see it there on the other side of the glass, but she could not touch it.

She thought she’d heard someone speak, but her lust held her too distracted to figure out their words. She had to come. She had to untie the knots of sexual frustration that grew exponentially every time McKenzie hands touched her since her arrival.

She hadn’t meant to get into this life-or-death pursuit of orgasm now. She’d finished her shower and meant to dress and join the brothers in the kitchen to discuss what needed to be done in preparation for Ruth’s funeral. At least until she pulled the oversized T-shirt and leggings she slept in out of her suitcase and her pink gel vibrator fell out onto the bed.

The lust simmering in her core boiled over. Still naked, she crawled into the center of the bed on yet another quest for the all-elusive orgasm. Here at Dreamer’s Dell, with Penn and Liam close at hand, surely she’d be able to reach fulfillment. But still she ached and remained hot, horny, and in serious need.

When both sides of the bed dipped at once, Suz opened her eyes and looked from one side to the other as Penn and Liam crawled closer and lay down beside her. They edged close enough for her to feel their heat, but not close enough to touch her.

“Help me! Please!” She whimpered as tears rolled from the corners of her eyes. She was so close, but still unable to cross over.

“Shhh, baby. We’ll take care o’ ye. But ye’ve got to calm down a bit.” Liam took her hand off the vibrator and then the one from her breast. He pulled them over her head and held them easily in one hand.

Penn pulled the imitation phallus from her wet pussy and frowned at it. “Ye won’ be needin’ this anymore,” he growled as he turned it off and tossed it over his shoulder.

“Nooooo!” Suz thrashed between them, trying to pull her arms free from Liam’s gentle, but unyielding, restraint.

“Shush, lass. Ye’ve gotta calm yerself. We don’t want ta hurt ye.”

Suz had no idea who murmured to her. She didn’t care. She only knew she had to come before she totally lost her mind. “Please!”

“All right, luv. Let go. Come fer us.”

With that, twin mouths closed over her breasts. Just the touch of those lips on her skin sent shafts of electric pleasure from tit to cunt, and she came. The glass that kept her from climaxing shattered as release slammed through her.

Muscles strained, and her body arched until only her heels and her head remained on the bed. A high, keening cry filled the room and went on and on and on.