STORY EXCERPT

“Your birthday isn’t until tomorrow.” Eighteen. Jesus, Rick still couldn’t believe it had been five years since their mother had passed away. At thirteen, Emma had been half-grown when he and Adam had taken over raising her. He was still convinced they’d gotten the worst years when it came to parenting.

“And we all agreed we would celebrate it together tonight so I could spend the weekend at the lake with my friends starting tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah, about that. I’m still not crazy about you going off all weekend that way.” Anything could happen when a group of teenagers got together for a weekend at the lake. Rick should know. He’d been a teenager once.

Emma narrowed her eyes. “Crazy about it or not, you said I could go. You’re not backing out on me now.”

“I’m not backing out. I’m just thinking about locking you in your room for another decade.”

That made her smile. “But you won’t and you and I both know it. I’m growing up, Dad,” she said mockingly because she rarely called him or Adam dad. “It’s just something you have to deal with.”

Rick scowled. “That doesn’t mean it’s something I’ve got to like.”

“Welcome to parenthood, or so I’ve heard.” She made a considering face. “It’s not that late, you know? We can hop in the truck and go to a Japanese restaurant if you’ve decided you don’t feel like cooking tonight.”

No, they absolutely could not. The closest Japanese restaurant was in Birmingham. If Rick never stepped foot in that city again, it wouldn’t bother him a damn bit.

It would if you knew you’d run into her the minute you passed into the city limits.

Triple fuck! Would he ever get Elizabeth out of his freaking head?

“Why can’t you be like a normal eighteen year old and want pizza or hamburgers or some shit for your birthday dinner?” Rick grumbled.

“Because I want hibachi chicken and steak with sautéed onions, zucchini, and broccoli.” Emma’s smile stretched far too sweetly. “You promised, remember? And a Wilder never breaks a promise. You taught me that.”

Right now, he was cursing the days he’d done it, too. “All right, I guess I’m headed to the grocery.”

“You might want to grab another six-pack while you’re there,” Adam suggested. “I drank the last beer last night.”

Rick scowled. “I noticed.”

Emma drew her eyebrows together. “Did somebody give you a shot of grumpy at the hospital today? You sure are in a foul mood for a man that’s got the next two days off. Or did you agree to cover another doctor’s shift and spoil your weekend fun?”

What weekend fun?

Rick’s weekends were like every other day of the week. He worked, came home, polished off a couple of beers, and went to bed where he’d lay there until the wee hours of the morning fantasizing and longing for a woman he’d never see again. The only difference the next two days would bring was he didn’t have to go into the hospital.

“He got another ticket on his windshield this afternoon.” Though Adam pretended to whisper the words to Emma, Rick heard them loud and clear.

Emma rolled her eyes. “You parked in the fire lane again, didn’t you? Wow, and I thought I was a slow learner. How many doesn’t that make now, three, huh?”

Rick ignored her and pinned his brother with a steely glare. “Did you call Parker Ferrell?”

Adam nodded. “He said he’d talk to the deputy.”

“Good.” Problem solved. The sheriff would make sure his new deputy learned the ropes of their little town.

“He also said to remind you it’s illegal to park in a fire lane and, if you don’t stop doing it, your truck is liable to get towed next time.”

“Bastard,” Rick said under his breath, which, of course, made his brother and sister chuckle. “I wouldn’t be getting the damn tickets if that new female deputy he hired would leave me the hell alone.”

“So spank her,” Emma said, obviously serious, as if it were the most reasonable explanation in the world.

Rick glared at her and saw Adam pull back to look at her with the same expression of disbelief on his face that Rick figured was on his.

“Go to Adam’s office on Monday, park in the fire lane, and wait for her,” Emma went on before either brother could find the words to respond. “When she shows up to give you a ticket, bend her over the hood of the truck, and turn her butt red. That’ll teach her. She’ll probably get real turned on, too. Then you can take her in Adam’s private office and the two of you can have your way with her. I haven’t seen her myself, but the town grapevine is saying she’s really pretty.” She waited a beat and her gaze danced from Rick to Adam and back again before she asked, “Why isn’t either of you saying anything?”

Rick didn’t know what the hell to say. “Maybe we were waiting to see if you were finished?”

Adam was more honest. “Maybe we can’t believe the things you just said.”

Emma rolled her eyes again, pushed off the doorframe, and walked out of Adam’s embrace into the kitchen. “Please. I’m not dense and I know the two of you aren’t either. You’re the smartest men I know.”

“Here’s hoping she doesn’t know many men,” Rick muttered.

Emma shot him a withering look on her way across the kitchen. “You’re miserable, both of you.” She glanced at them over her shoulder as she pulled a glass from the cabinet. “You’ve been miserable for years and, no matter how much you loved our mother, her dying didn’t do this to you. That stupid promise you made did.”

Rick jerked around to face her, but not before he saw the shock pass through Adam’s expression.

“What promise?” Adam asked dumbly.

ADULT EXCERPT

His arm tightened around her as he dipped his head and kissed her. That might have been the only thing that kept her from running for the door. Sirens blasted through her head. The man was too damn handsome and too damn sweet. It felt way too damn good being in his arms and his kiss, have mercy on her soul, the way the man kissed could easily pave the way for him to drive right into her head and other parts she knew she shouldn’t dare let him inside.

Still, as his tongue moved over hers, licking the palate of her mouth, and then settled into a possessive, controlling dance that turned her mind to mush, she could only sigh into his mouth and kiss him back. She skimmed her hands over his biceps, wound her arms around his broad shoulders, and rose to her tiptoes as the world around her seemed to tilt.

Absently, April registered the heat of Rick’s body as he moved in at her back. His fingers danced beneath her hair and pushed it aside as his lips moved in to plant kisses on the back of her neck and shoulders. His hands pushed between her body and Adam’s to cover her breasts and she moaned into Adam’s mouth. Rick’s palms were callused and huge and they molded to her tits, squeezing them in a way that ignited a blazing trail from her breasts to her pussy.

April didn’t know how they did it, but one moment she was standing between them, and the next, the three of them lay in a molded heap on the bed. Rick remained behind her, his legs spread to accommodate her body and Adam’s on top of her.

Only then did Adam break the kiss, pulling back enough to lick his way down her jaw, her throat, and her collarbone as he slid down her body. He lifted his head, looked up at her from beneath lashes that would make many women jealous, and then met his brother’s gaze over her shoulder.

“Keep her on the edge for me while I get a condom.”

Rick nuzzled his face in the side of her neck and she felt him smile before the warmth of his breath fanned her flesh. “It’s about time he got out of the way for a minute so I can touch you.”

Something told April that Rick hadn’t been waiting for Adam to get out of the way. He’d simply been holding himself back while he let his brother run the show. His hands were still on her breasts and he shifted them, cupping the mounds in his palms as he caught her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. He rolled her nipples with the pads of his thumbs and fingers until they beaded to achingly hard points and then increased the pressure until the sensation skated along a thin line of pleasure and pain. Her back arched from where it rested against his front, her nipples throbbing and yet still searching for more of that pain-laced pleasure as he released them and danced his fingers down her abdomen.

“Easy now, darlin’.” His Southern drawl had thickened with his own arousal. “We’re only just getting started.”

Holy hormones, they were just getting started and she was already wanting to beg. Her gaze flicked from his hands as they flattened on her belly to Adam who now stood at the foot of the bed. She watched Adam rip the foil-wrapped condom open with his teeth and then suck in a breath as he quickly rolled the rubber down the impressive length of his cock.

Her pussy spasmed with the anticipation of taking Adam’s cock inside her even as one of Rick’s hands reached further down her body to cover her mound.

“You have a beautiful pussy, darlin’.”

April turned her head to find Rick looking down her body, watching his fingers as he buried them in her pubic hair.

“Have you ever thought about shaving it?” He caught one side of her labia between his thumb and finger and gave it a much more gentle pinch than he had her nipples.

The sensation still had her closing her eyes as her mind reeled. Instinct told her if she had been anything more than a one-night stand to Rick, he would’ve had her shave her pussy right then, likely while he watched.

“This hair is gorgeous, but it keeps me from seeing how juicy you are, darlin’. Are you wet for us? Is your pussy creaming at the thought of our dicks being inside you?”

“Yes.” She couldn’t deny it. She wouldn’t have tried even if Rick’s finger hadn’t chosen that moment to slip between her folds. His fingertip grazed over her pulsing clit, circled it once, and then dipped lower to delve inside her opening. “Ah, God.”

“Mmm, your pussy is drenched.” Rick pumped his finger in and out of her and then pulled it back and added a second, driving them both in side by side. With his position folded over her, he couldn’t quite get the digits all the way in, but he fingered her deeply enough to have her teetering on the edge of release. “You’re tight, too, darlin’.”

She should be. It had been more than two years since she’d had sex with anything other than her vibrator. She started to tell him it had been a long time for her, too, but she felt the foot of the bed shift. She lifted her head from where it had fallen back to rest on Rick’s chest to see Adam crawling on his knees toward her.

Adam situated himself between her legs, his hands gliding over her flesh. He stared at her, his green eyes dark with arousal and full of emotions she didn’t want to attempt to define. “Are you ready for me?”