STORY EXCERPT

Skye dared to look at him again, though she didn’t look him in the eyes. No, her traitorous gaze did worse than that. It slid down the full length of his front. He wore a solid white shirt that stretched over broad shoulders and a torso that seemed to invite the general public to bite him. The shirt was tucked into cargo pants that, despite their bagginess, still failed to hide the narrowness of his hips and powerfulness of his long legs and, oh, dear God, the sizeable bulge between them.

Skye jerked her gaze to his, found him watching her, and uncomfortable zings of heat ping-ponged through her. Her mouth suddenly dry, she licked her lips, saw his gaze drop to her mouth, noted the way his milk chocolate eyes darkened, and felt perspiration bead between her breasts.

“Thank you, but—”

“Don’t say no, Mommy. Pleeeeaassee.”

Skye broke off at the plea in Sunny’s voice. She looked down at her daughter, saw the hope shining in her light blue eyes, and knew she couldn’t say no. Hadn’t she been giving herself a pep talk in preparation for moments like this? She’d started doing it the second week Sunny had hit first grade. They had sailed through kindergarten without problems, keeping to the solitary life Skye had built for them in Cherish. First grade proved to be different. Sunny was making friends, friends that were starting to invite her to birthday parties and play dates and even sleepovers. The solitary life Skye had so carefully constructed around them was starting to crumble and she knew deep down, for her daughter’s sake, she had to start letting people inside those walls. She didn’t want Sunny to grow up a recluse. She wanted her to have a happy, healthy, safe life.

Making sure the safe part happened while allowing people into their lives was the part that chilled Skye to the bone.

Skye felt herself relent and held up a finger. “One scoop and you have to promise to eat all your dinner tonight.”

Sunny nodded vehemently. “Every bite. I promise. Does that mean we can go?”

Skye felt the corner of her lips twitch. “Yes, that means we can go.”

Sunny beamed an ear to ear smile at her and turned to April. “I can go!” The girls jumped, high-fived, and took off running for the line of trees.

“Slow down,” Bryson called after them in a calm voice that held just enough authority to catch the girls’ attention. “We’re coming, too, remember?”

Skye definitely didn’t need the reminder. She started walking behind the girls at a brisk pace Bryson Niles’s longer strides easily matched. She tried to tell herself going for ice cream really was simple enough. So what if April was with her uncle—her single, uber-hot, and oh, holy shit, why had Skye even noticed that, uncle—instead of a female guardian.

It didn’t work because Skye had noticed that. For the first time in years, she had noticed a man, really noticed him, and horrors of her past she’d tried so desperately to put behind her had surfaced right along with the womanly desires she’d thought had been beaten out of her long ago.

* * * *

Bryson watched her hesitate in the dining room of the ice cream parlor as April and Sunny sprinted to a table near the window, sat, and immediately launched into conversation as they ate their ice cream. The table they had chosen, like all the others inside the ice cream parlor, only had three seats. A fact his arrestingly beautiful, golden blonde-haired companion obviously noted in an instant.

She shot him a glance full of uncertainty. “We can borrow a chair from that empty table next to them.”

Bryson supposed they could, but he had a better suggestion. “Or, we can let them have that table to themselves and sit at the empty one next to them.”

Her slender shoulders rose and fell in a slow, deep breath. She nodded once, the movement almost imperceptible, and headed for the empty table. She took the seat facing the girls, hooked the straps of her backpack over the back of the chair, and reached for the plastic spoon in her cup of low-fat peach frozen yogurt. Her posture was ramrod straight and her fingers gripped the plastic spoon so tightly Bryson wondered how it didn’t snap as she scooped up a small bite.

He’d gotten his favorite, a double scoop of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. He settled in the chair facing the window so he didn’t block her view of the girls and shoveled a large bite into his mouth. Next to them, the girls were chatting rather loudly about which was better, the classic Berenstain Bears or Little Bear. Not knowing much about either show, he decided not to interject and focused on his lovely companion instead.

Lovely? More like exquisite, he thought as he let another scoop of his ice cream melt in his mouth. He’d always had a thing for blondes, especially ones with long hair that separated itself in spirals and framed an angelic face with sky blue eyes, high cheekbones, and light pink bow-shaped lips. This blonde had all of that in spades right along with a body sculpted to make a man drool. He should know. He figured he’d swallowed so much to prevent the drool from escaping since she’d stomped up to him at the park it was a wonder he hadn’t drowned his insides.

“Do you have a name, or should I call you mommy, too?” Her gaze shifted to him, met his, and he swore he saw the corner of her lips twitch at that. It was the closest she’d come so far to smiling and he wondered what he would have to do or say to make her really grin.

“It’s Skye.” Her attention returned to the girls as she picked at her yogurt.

Okay, so that turned out to be an epic fail in the let’s-start-a-conversation department. Jesus, the woman had caution all but pouring out of her perfect ears. What was it about him that had set her on full scale red alert?

ADULT EXCERPT

“Which room is yours?”

He’d already carried her out of the kitchen and was stepping into the hallway before his question registered in her sex-fogged brain.

“The last one at the end of the hall.”

He took a couple of steps, paused at the closed door to Sunny’s room, and looked down at her. “Should be check on her? Does she get up in the middle of the night?”

His concern for her daughter catching them tied a knot around her heart. She shook her head. “She shouldn’t as long as we’re quiet.”

Seemingly satisfied by her answer, he started walking again.

Skye lifted her head from where it had fallen to rest on the front of his shoulder, looked behind him, and saw Dustin following. Her heart drummed double-time at the sight of him, the realization of what she was about to do really sinking in. She was allowing two men into her bedroom, her sanctuary, the only private spot she called hers. Even Sunny wasn’t permitted to enter her bedroom after she’d been put to sleep unless there was an emergency. She had instilled that rule, wanting her daughter to grow up feeling a safety in her surroundings she, herself, had never felt.

Bryson stopped in the doorway of her bedroom. Dustin reached inside and flicked on the overhead light. That’s when reality really hit home.

Skye scanned the room, grateful that she’d picked up her dirty clothes that morning and put them in the clothesbasket. Nothing was out of place and the bed was neatly made.

Not for long.

The thought had her racing heart skipping a rapid beat even as juice leaked from between her feminine lips. Bryson started walking again and each long stride he took that brought him to the side of that bed made her pulse pound furiously and more juices escape her body.

He carefully lowered her to her feet in front of him, but his hands didn’t leave her. Instead, the closed on her hips, glided up to fist the hem of her blouse, and tugged it slowly up and over her head.

Dustin. Where was Dustin? She refused to forget about him again. He was there, closing the door quietly behind him before making his way to her and Bryson. He touched her, just the littlest brush of a fingertip to her bare shoulder as he walked around her. He stopped at her back, freed the clasp of her bra, and gently slid the straps down her shoulders and off her arms.

Naked from the waist up, her gaze locked with Bryson’s heavy-lidded eyes, the first dregs of uncertainty attempted to rear its ugly head. She wouldn’t allow it. She ruthlessly slammed the door of the green eyed monster’s cage, determined to allow herself this moment, this time, and worry about the consequences of her actions later.

“Will you think I’m a pig if I admit that I’ve been fantasizing about seeing you naked since the minute you stomped up to me at the park?”

Skye smiled despite the shiver that rushed through her as Dustin’s hands moved around to her front, found the button of her slacks, freed it, and went to work on the zipper. “It would be wrong of me if I did, because I’ve fantasized about the same thing with you,” she admitted. “Although the park and the upstairs deck at your place took turns for top spot after you introduced me to Dustin.”

It was true. Though she hadn’t wanted the visions to come, those were the things she’d been seeing nightly since she’d met the two of them. In those fantasies, she had been the one to come, over and over, with one or both of them inside her until they’d found their release, too. Then, the fantasies had started all over again.

“Christ, Skye,” Dustin whispered, his hands pausing in the act of lowering her slacks as he rested his forehead on the back of her shoulder.

Bryson was looking at her and the expression on his handsome face turned quite possibly more serious than she’d ever seen it. “You don’t know how much we needed to hear that.”

No, she didn’t. She didn’t even understand why they had needed to hear it. Deep down, she didn’t believe either of them had been hanging around simply to get her into bed. Still, why did it seem to matter so much to Dustin that she’d been dreaming of having sex with them?

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s okay,” Dustin told her as he lifted his head and resumed his act of tugging her slacks down her legs. “You don’t need to.”

“Don’t question it. Don’t question anything tonight.” Bryson’s hands floated up her body, turned when they reached her breasts, and palmed them. “Just let us make you feel alive tonight.”

The pad of his thumbs grazed over her taut nipples and whatever questions might have remained in her mind vanished. Lower, Dustin had pushed her slacks to her ankles, sent her panties to follow, and reached a hand between her legs to cover her bare pussy.

“Are we on the right track?”

“Yes.” Skye let her eyes close and her head fall back on his shoulder as one wide finger slipped between her sodden folds and pressed lightly over her clit.

“Are you sure?” Bryson’s hands moved to cover her breasts, squeezed, and drew a low moan from her throat.

“Definitely.”

Both men chuckled softly, but it was Dustin who spoke.

“Do you know what we want?”

Even as he asked the question, the pad of his finger began a pressured massage on her clit. With his finger doing that and Bryson’s hands manipulating her breasts, she couldn’t even fathom a guess. She didn’t bother to try. She settled on shaking her head.

      “We want you to come for us, Skye,” Bryson told her as his thumbs and forefingers closed lightly on her nipples and gave them a gentle pinch.