STORY EXCERPT

Movement caught her eye and she looked to her left. The door to the restaurant opened and two hungry and hunky-looking men stepped in.

Both hunks were built with muscles to spare. Blond hair, blue eyes, the older one’s features slightly more edged, they were enough to make any woman melt into a pile of hormonal goo. Their images were in her mind, morning, noon, and night. She knew, for example, that the younger one’s hair was a lighter blond, his face almost cherubic, but his older brother’s eyes were a shade darker and far more piercing in their stare.

Oh my God, I just thought them into coming in here. Of course she knew she hadn’t, but that wasn’t how it felt. As those two minor mountains surveyed the restaurant, she knew their gazes would land on her. Check. And then, likely, they would exchange a look she couldn’t read and then head right over to where she’d so recently set herself down. They’d think nothing of simply strolling over and joining her at her table.

Check and double check.

I’m not ready for this! I need more time! As they drew near, she fixed a scowl on her face and told her inner imp not to ask why, if she truly wanted to be left alone, she’d chosen to sit at a table that could seat four, instead of one of the smaller tables scattered throughout the restaurant that would only seat two.

“Hello there, Chloe, love.” Andrew sat down beside her and gave her one of those heart-melting smiles he seemed to have in endless supply.

Grant simply sat across from her and said nothing. But his laser-like blue eyes stared at her, arrowing straight to her soul, while stoking her fires and stroking her feminine parts in passing.

That’s one hell of a talent he has.

“We saw you earlier this afternoon, supervising as Gordie hung your sign up,” Andrew said.

“Nice sign,” Grant said. “Pretty, and elegant.”

Chloe had to work at not letting her jaw drop. A compliment, from Grant? That wasn’t something she’d had much practice handling. It took a moment for her manners to kick in. “Um…thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She didn’t know why she always had to be so tongue-tied around these two men.

Andrew edged his chair just slightly closer to hers, and then angled his body toward her. “Almost the only thing our mom, aunts, and female cousins have been talking about lately is how wonderful it’s going to be to have a day spa right here in town.”

Andrew’s angling of his chair effectively surrounded her by placing her between him and his brother. If she knew what was good for her she’d tell him to back off and stop encroaching on her personal space.

The only problem was she didn’t feel hemmed in or trapped or encroached upon. She felt cosseted, and protected.

What happened to that brave self-talk this afternoon, when you looked at your baby sister and saw the happiness all over her? Remember your decision? Here’s your chance. Chat them up, for God’s sake!

“I’ll begin interviewing staff early next week.” Well that certainly wasn’t what anyone could call “chatting up.” Chloe guessed she’d just gotten into the habit of being closemouthed whenever these two firefighters tried to get close to her. She had since she’d met them, which told her that she’d reacted that way to them instinctively.

She’d wanted to be friendly with them because they were friends of Carrie’s, and so she’d done her best to overcome her almost knee-jerk reaction to them.

That’s not it and you know it. You were attracted to them on first sight and it scared you silly. And because she’d been not only scared but attracted so very soon after having turned down Beck O’Malley’s proposal of marriage, she’d thrown up walls against them. She’d told herself she was taking a react-to-no-men personal stance, since there were so many hot-looking men in this town. Of course the problem with that logic was that it was only these damn Jessops who got her heart pounding so.

Beck O’Malley. Maybe it’s time I forgave myself for hurting him, too.

Now there was a thought. It really was way past time for her to do that. Chloe Rhodes didn’t know much for sure, but one thing she knew with bone-deep certainty.

Marrying Beck when she didn’t love him the way a woman should love her husband would have hurt him—hell, it would have hurt them both—so very much more in the long run than breaking things off when he’d proposed had done.

I really don’t want to beat myself up anymore. It really is time to move on.

“Hey, where did you go, beautiful?” Andrew’s hand strummed down her back in a soft caress.

Chloe shot Andrew what she knew was a questioning glance. He met her gaze, never flinching. Strange how she could read the expression on his face, right then and there. He’d used that word on purpose, and definitely wanted her to know that he meant it.

ADULT EXCERPT

“Do it. Oh God, yes, please just do it.”

“Do what?” Grant asked.

The gazes of both men branded her. “Do what?” Andrew asked.

“Fuck my brains out.”

“Christ.”

Both doors popped open, and both men moved. Andrew grabbed her and before she could blink she was over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Hey!”

“You have to know this is what they call a fireman’s carry. And we’re both firemen.”

Chloe giggled. Upside down, bouncing as the man whose shoulder she draped all but ran up the porch steps, hovering a hairsbreadth away from climax, she could only laugh.

For a large man, Andrew Jessop sure as hell could move fast.

She barely blinked and he levered her off him, laying her flat on an enormous, perfectly made bed. She hardly inhaled, and both men had their hands on her, peeling her jeans and panties down, and then off.

Grant reached out and she heard the sound of a drawer sliding open, and then the crinkle of a foil packet.

He didn’t even take his denim jeans off. He just opened them, pulled out his cock, and sheathed it.

“You’ve got us too damn triggered.” He reached down, spread her legs, and knelt between them. He brushed the back of his hand over her pussy and Chloe whimpered.

“Do that again!”

He did, and then he said, “Thank God you’re sopping wet and ready for me.”

Chloe wanted to say something clever, but at that moment she felt the heat of Grant’s cock brush her wet folds and her mind shut off.

He pushed into her and Chloe felt a slight burning as her pussy lips stretched, opening incredibly wide to receive him. Slow, deliberate, unrelenting, he pressed and pressed until finally he slid all the way in. The tip of his cock hit her cervix, his balls brushed the bottom of her slit, and Chloe erupted into orgasm.

A high-pitched cry of bliss tore from her, because the intense pleasure wouldn’t be held in. Grant gathered her in his arms, pulling her snug, and then covered her mouth with his, drinking in her essence and the rest of her scream.

His tongue devoured her, sweeping and caressing with broad, commanding strokes. Chloe wrapped her arms and legs around him and shivered as her orgasm continued to sizzle through her. Her hips began to pump, and she rode his cock as he held still within her. Her tongue slid against his and she reveled in the bounty of this rapture that consumed her so completely.

The last tiny vibrations seemed to leave her body, floating into space. Weak and pliant, her arms slid to his shoulders and then to the bed.

He eased his lips from hers and laid her gently back onto the mattress. “Hell of a first kiss,” he said.

Chloe opened her eyes when the bed dipped. Andrew stretched out beside them, completely naked. Above her, in her, Grant continued to hold himself perfectly still, his smile both tender and fun-filled.

“I hope you’re not finished.” She wanted more, now that the desperate hunger of her soul had been fed this appetizer.

“No, ma’am. I haven’t actually gotten started yet. I just thought I’d let you use me as a sex toy for a few minutes.”

Chloe chuckled. “I appreciate that. You’re a hell of a lot better at it than Bob is.”

Grant scowled and said, “Who the hell’s Bob?”

“Not who, but what. The letters stand for battery-operated boyfriend.” And she gave him the broadest smile she could.

“I think I owe you a spanking for that one,” Grant said.