STORY EXCERPT

Cody sat up straighter, rubbed his hands together, and nailed him with his patented smile. “Tell me about Rebecca.”

Greg didn’t know where to start. He explained that she was a cousin, but not really a cousin. That she was bratty, but not really bratty. And then, holy hell, the words just flowed. He talked about her bluebell eyes and her ability to see beauty in just about everything. He told him about her accomplishments as an artist, and his pride in her.

He talked about wanting her, and resisting her, until that one time, and he told him how he’d pretty much fucked everything up.

“You’re more screwed up than I am, pal,” Cody said. “But now I understand so much more than I did.”

“What? What do you understand?”

“Not what, but who. You.” Cody sighed. “I wish my body would bounce back, for God’s sake. I hate feeling weak and exhausted.”

“You have to be patient and cut yourself some slack.”

“I don’t feel like being patient.”

Greg felt something snap inside him. “You fucking damn near died from that infection because those bastards let you sit in one cold dank cell after another for six days with a Goddamn bullet in you. You just got out of the hospital three weeks ago, so you damn well better be patient!” Greg pulled in his exasperation as he stopped on the county road, right turn signal on, and edged toward the fencing. He inhaled deeply and exhaled the same way. Clearly, he hadn’t dealt with all of his anger yet.

“Ah, Greg? There’s no road here, babe. There’s just a fence.”

“Watch and be amazed.”

Greg pulled down his sun visor to reveal what appeared to be a garage-door opener. When he pressed a button, the gate that was barely discernible in the fence swung open. He navigated his Jeep carefully over a track that was seen as much in the memory as it was by his eyes with the aid of the Jeep’s headlights.

He took it easy as they drove over the somewhat bumpy and uneven pastureland. Greg could see the path, of course, and he could tell by the way Cody relaxed that he could see it, too. The clock on the dash read three twenty. He watched the odometer, and knew they weren’t more than fifteen minutes out.

He was grateful that the Town Trust inspected this path every month. He thought that might have been done very recently as it seemed to him as if the path was more worn than usual. Likely Robert would have seen to it once I called him to let him know I’d be coming. March typically wasn’t the time of year when family vied for time here at the cabin. Good thing, because he was looking forward to giving Cody and himself this break—for Cody to heal, and for him to figure out what the hell came next.

He pushed aside the whisper of thought that suggested holing up here had all the earmarks of “settling down.” They weren’t settling down, they were just taking an extended and very necessary time-out.

Memories from the last few weeks flashed through his mind. From the moment he’d heard that Cody and that dipshit reporter had been kidnapped just inside Syria until he’d gotten the call to wait on the Turkish side of the border crossing at Bab Al-Salameh for Cody’s return, Greg Benedict had lived in near-paralyzing fear. He’d barely slept, hadn’t eaten much, and prayed more than he had in all the years since losing Daniel.

“Fuck me. That is a cabin? It looks more like a freaking manor house.”

Greg returned to the present and grinned. He parked his Jeep near the front of the building, not far from the porch. He’d never brought anyone here before, but he guessed the word “cabin” really didn’t jive with the structure the families had built here.

“We’d call it a vacation lodge, but that sounds pretentious, and if there’s one thing Benedicts, Kendalls, and Jessops are not, it’s pretentious.”

“Does it have a pool?”

Greg thought of the en suite bathroom off the master bedroom. The spa tub might qualify as a pool. But he knew what Cody meant, so he said, “No, not yet.”

“I’m beat.” Cody looked over at him. “Let’s go inside. I want to fall face-first onto the first soft surface I find.”

Greg knew Cody hated to admit to any weakness. He must really feel like shit. It had been a long day of travel for them, beginning early in the morning—yesterday morning—from Ankara.

Since he also balked at having Greg do anything for him, he said, “Sounds like a plan. I’m beat, too. Let’s just grab our travel bags for now, and get the rest in the morning.”

They’d taken two steps toward the house when the door burst open. Light spilled out the house, silhouetting a woman. The sound of a gun being readied to fire shouted into the night, and a voice he heard in his dreams said, “Hold it right there.”

“Jesus, Becca. Give a man a heart attack, why don’t you!”

“Greg?”

His brain had trouble responding because standing the way she was with the light behind her emphasized the fact that Rebecca Jessop was gloriously naked beneath her light robe.

“That’s Rebecca?” Cody asked.

Greg gave the woman credit. She immediately disarmed the rifle and pointed the barrel toward the ground. The way she’d sometimes treated him these past several years, and all things considered, he thought she might rather just have shot him.

Then she tilted her head to one side. “You must be Cody.”

How the hell does she know that?

“Yes, ma’am. And thank you for lowering that gun. They make me kind of nervous, especially lately.” Then he looked at him, and Greg had the first sense, in a good long while, that maybe things might work out for him, after all. “Hey, there, lover? Can Rebecca count as the first soft surface?”

ADULT EXCERPT

“You’re very responsive to us each, and to us both.” Greg kissed her cheeks, her forehead, and then leaned in and kissed Cody.

Lying as she was between them, with them kissing over her, she felt the heat of their hardened cocks pressing against her, felt the way those impressive organs flexed as the men’s lips locked with each other’s and their tongues mated.

The look in Greg’s eyes when he lifted his mouth from Cody’s made her heart melt. Joy, such absolute joy wreathed his face. She didn’t think she’d ever seen Greg look so happy.

“Lover, I like that look on you,” Cody said. “I like it a lot.”

“I had this dream once,” Greg said. He kissed her lips chastely then did the same to Cody. “Hell, I’ve always had this dream, because to me paradise always meant loving two people—but I didn’t know if I would be given the chance.”

“It wasn’t just the chance you doubted,” Cody said.

Rebecca counted this a rare moment, for in this place and at this exact time, the two men seemed to have reversed the roles she’d already grown accustomed to seeing them occupy.

They’re both of them wounded souls.

That realization was an “aha” moment for her. They both had healing left to do. Yes, Cody’s wounds were fresher, and in a way, more immediate. But Greg had suffered, too—and likely still was.

Her personal revelation continued on, in a direction she hadn’t expected. For wasn’t she a wounded soul, also? Hadn’t she lived without her heart’s desire, without the sense of completeness she knew her parents, aunts, and uncles had found? Hadn’t she feared that she would be forced to live her life, lonely and alone? Hadn’t she practically resigned herself to that fate?

“No, not just that.” Greg acknowledged his lover’s point, but said nothing more. What he did was move so that now he was on Cody’s left. The two men put their hands on her, arranged her on them so that she was mostly out of the water. She didn’t feel at all cold because the heat of their bodies warmed hers, and the searing passion in their eyes as they looked and touched heated her soul.

“You have such a pretty little pussy,” Greg said. “I thought so that first time, when you gave me your virginity. I didn’t expect to see it bare.” Greg ran his hand over her flesh. “But I like it.”

They each traced their fingers over her mound, then down, to stroke her labia and tease her clit. “Mmm, there’s…a new day spa in town.” She could barely form the words because they made her so damn horny. She pushed her cunt closer to their roving fingers, and the men both chuckled and continued to tease her unmercifully.

“A new day spa, is it? So you’ll be waxing on a regular basis?” Greg’s tone conveyed his interest even as he kept his eyes where his fingers played.

“Maybe.” Rebecca let her eyes drift shut as the amazing sensations washed over and through her. She licked her lips, and whimpered because their touch came close, so very close to where she needed it the most.

“What’s the matter, Blue Eyes? Need something?”

She opened her eyes and Cody gave her his teasing grin, but this time all she felt was frustration. Did he think she wouldn’t speak plainly? Oh, but she would. To get what she craved she would likely say anything, do anything. At the moment they held her down, spread open, her hands behind their backs, her legs held apart so that they could play at will. They both were out of reach of her hands and her mouth—unless she counted their shoulders. She just might possibly be able to lick—or bite—their shoulders.

So Rebecca returned his smile and prepared to drive them both crazy the only way she could at the moment—with words.

“Yes. I need something. I need a couple of things, actually. I need your cocks.” She felt a twinge on either side of her hip and mentally fist-pumped the air. “I need your hot, hard cocks fucking me. I need you to fuck my cunt and fuck my mouth. I need to taste your flesh. I want to drink your cum.”

“Vixen!” Greg reached around and pinched her left nipple, not too hard but hard enough she knew it was meant as a mild rebuke. “I seem to recall you like to call the shots and rush the play,” Greg said.

“You know, lover, we ought to tie her down and drive her crazy. Take her just to the very edge and then stop.” Cody used two fingers to stroke rapidly over her clit. Rebecca cried out as arousal surged, as she came close, so very close, to orgasm. “Over and over again,” he finished. He lifted his fingers from her cunt and Rebecca couldn’t hold back the sound of disappointment.

“Babe, you have a diabolical mind. I like that about you.” Greg turned Rebecca’s face toward him. “But we can do that another time. I want to watch her come, right now.”

Greg grinned. He slid his hand down her body, brushed over her mound and slid his fingers between her labia. Slowly, oh so slowly, he thrust two fingers into her cunt.

“Sounds like a plan. Allow me to do my part in this effort,” Cody said.

Rebecca thought they must have some sort of telepathic communication going between them because they moved, at once and together. She found herself splayed across Greg’s lap, his fingers in her cunt, while Cody slid off the bench, put himself between her legs, and lowered his mouth to her pussy.