STORY EXCERPT

The knock on the front door echoed in the living room, and in the instant before Perry stepped forward to answer it, he tried to analyze the sound of that knock. Was it annoyed, impatient? Eager? Ready to roll around naked on the floor? He shook his head. I honestly have no idea how that thought got there.

The truth was that he couldn’t tell, had no idea, and because he had no idea, he wasn’t certain what would happen next. He always knew what would happen next or, barring absolute certainty of same, had at the ready, fixed in his mind, the top three possibilities, ranked in order of most likely to occur.

But a knock on the door wasn’t much to go on and—

“Brother?”

The sensation of Tom’s hand on his shoulder, and that one, cherished word—brother—was enough to pull Perry out the mental rabbit hole he’d just tumbled down.

“Right.” He stepped forward and opened the door. It was just after seven in the evening on the very same day that they’d moved into this house next door to the incomparable and very yummy Ruth Kendall.

They’d been told to call Ruth if there were any problems with the house and, while he and Tom had chatted between them, once all the cousins who’d helped them move in had finally left and they were finally alone in their new house, how they might be able to run with that if they had to. And then it turned out they hadn’t needed to connive anything at all.

“Hey, Ruth, thanks for coming over. I’m sorry we had to call but…”

“The kitchen sink drain is clogged?” Her right eyebrow raised just enough that Perry had no trouble whatsoever interpreting that. Why, she’d said that as if she suspected that we’d…um…done exactly what it was they’d been thinking of doing.

Then she sniffed. “Have you been baking?”

“Peanut butter cookies,” Perry said. “And usually, I do up the dishes as I go along, but this time I waited until I was done baking, and then…”

“You didn’t use the dishwasher?”

“Sometimes I like to just do the dishes by hand,” he said.

“It’s good thinking time,” Tom said. Then his brother nodded to Ruth. “Good to see you again, Ruth. And good will change to fabulous if you can manage to get the drain working for us.”

Perry mentally sighed in relief because Tom’s words snapped Ruth’s attention to him, and there seemed to be a light of…battle…in her eyes.

It only took Perry a moment to figure out what had riled their Ruthie.

I know we haven’t even officially taken the first step with her, but I’ll be damned if she isn’t already our Ruthie.

Tom had said “if” and not “when” with regard to the fixing of the drain. Perry wasn’t the least bit surprised that their woman would be prone to being combative and easily take a word in a way it wasn’t necessarily intended. From what Perry had understood over his years of associations with the Kendalls in Wyoming, there had been only two girls and a shit-load of boy cousins. Although looking at the expression on his brother’s face he thought it altogether likely he’d said that “if” on purpose.

Tom did that because he thinks she thinks we’ve pranked her, which we would have done if we’d had more time to figure out how.

Perry blinked and told his inner imp to shush. At this rate, the little bugger was going to give him a massive headache.

Ruth didn’t harrumph at Tom, but Perry figured it was close. Instead, she looked around and appeared to figure out which way the kitchen lay and headed straight for it.

He and his brother followed her there. She stopped in front of the sink and appeared to be judging the depth of the water that had not only not drained out the wash sink but had ended up in the rinse sink.

“You’ve a clog.”

“We do.” Perry stood beside her and mimicked her pose. “If we’d had any drain cleaner, we would have used that, but we don’t. I didn’t try the bathroom plunger because Tom said not to.”

“I was concerned the pressure from the plunger could do more harm than good,” Tom said. He stood against the adjacent counter, out of the way, his arms folded across his chest in a deceptively relaxed manner. Deceptive, because Perry knew without a doubt that Tom Rogers was not a relaxed man at the moment.

Perry felt bolstered knowing his brother was as tense as he.

“On the ranch, in my younger days, I tried that once,” Tom said. “It didn’t end well. Which is why I discouraged using it now.”

“Wise decision.” Ruth said.

Perry felt the urge to snort. He looked to Tom, hoping the man would do or say something, anything, to stop him from giving in to the growing need to laugh.

“Been known to make those every now and then.”

Ruth sent him a look that must have said he’d lost her, because Tom said, “Wise decisions.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“Your nipples are like hard little peachy beads, and I can see your pussy lips glistening with your nectar.” Tom had said that while he’d had his eyes focused on her body. Then he met her gaze. “You do want us.”

“Well, yeah.” She couldn’t keep the smartass—or brat, depending—out of her tone. But she knew the time for talk was over. So, she lifted her arms in welcome to them both.

Their cocks, standing straight up, both sporting drops of precum, testified to their hunger. Yet when they moved, it was slowly, smoothly, as they came down on the bed, one on each side of her.

She looked left at Perry and then turned her head to the right and settled her attention on Tom. Ruth wanted them both, needed them both. Yet every instinct within her told her this man—this Alpha—would always be the one to be vigilant and, even beyond the concept of Doms and subs, the one in charge. Something in him bore the look of leader, and she’d known that from the first time she’d laid eyes on him.

The sensation of Tom’s hand caressing her cheek sent sweet tendrils of arousal and comfort through her. His hand wasn’t smooth, and that was damn near perfect. His gaze landed on her mouth just long enough, and when he lowered his head, she lifted hers just a little and gave him her lips.

He tastes so damn good. Like sin and salvation wrapped together. Ruth’s thoughts scattered, and all she could do was feel. Feeling was more than enough. Feeling, in that moment, became everything.

The stroke of Tom’s tongue against hers and the way he caressed the inside of her mouth electrified her entire body. She could not stop the sound that emerged from her soul any more than she could have stopped the earth from turning. His heat and flavor and scent wove around and through her, a powerful potion that fed the woman within. Her hand reached for him, caressing a strong neck, her fingers combing through amazingly soft, if short hair, and still their kiss continued.

She mewed in protest when, finally, his lips left hers and instead began to lay a sweet bussing trail, across her cheek and down her neck, to her shoulder, and then lower. His slight beard stubble tantalized the side of her right breast as he nuzzled her. When his lips opened over her nipple, when he drew tightly on that tiny bud, Ruth felt a tug of deep sexual arousal form a cord between her nipple and her clit. The slight movement of cold air in the room chilled the increased moisture on her labia, and the hungry sound that emerged from her spoke of her growing need.

“So tasty.” Tom’s whispered words reverberated against her flesh, tickling and prickling and drawing a shiver through her.

“Ruthie.”

Perry’s use of what had always been a family nickname sounded so right. She turned her head toward him, and when his mouth settled on hers, she opened, surrendering and yet giving up nothing. No, instead she reveled in the riches he offered and the sweet communion he so eagerly shared. Perry’s taste, his textures, and the drugging way his mouth suckled while his tongue conquered drew her need higher, until it hit the edge of desperation.

As her kiss with Perry drew out, the marvelously moist heat of mouth and tongue continued to travel down her body. When Tom moved, when she felt him opening her legs even wider, she shivered. Perry lifted his lips from hers and looked down her body. She followed suit, because Tom had stopped touching her, and she knew somehow that he wanted her gaze on him.

Understanding of what would come next echoed through her. He was crouched between her splayed thighs. And then he inhaled deeply and licked his lips.

“I’ve always wondered.” She gave him that simple truth. His expression turned tender, touching something deep inside. Touching and…. somehow, healing.

“Wonder no more, baby.” Tom’s gaze left hers and settled on her pussy. She couldn’t deny his expression—a man deeply hungry, one who was about to feed on what he needed more than air. His tongue emerged, and he lapped her from the bottom of her slit to her clit.

“Oh, yes!” Shivers and quivers and total sizzling pleasure cascaded through her. She fell back onto the mattress, and as Tom settled his face against her cunt, as her back bowed off the bed, a new reality flowed over her. This was uncontrollable, a vivid, rich arousal building inside her, and all she could do was relish it.

Perry reached down and tugged on her left nipple, pulling and pinching, and when she snapped her attention to him, his gaze focused on her face. She couldn’t look away, even as the sensation of Tom’s mouth, lips, tongue, and teeth on her sensitive pussy drove her higher and higher still.

The sharp little bite of Perry’s manipulation added a layer to her pleasure she’d never imagined existed.

And then she felt the stroking of fingers at the entrance of her pussy. She looked down at Tom and watched as he moved his hand, inserting those fingers, stroking, stroking…. until they found a live circuit inside her that sizzled and snapped.