STORY EXCERPT

Nancy couldn’t look away from Rebecca’s gaze. Whatever emotions had been playing across her own face, she suspected her cousin had recognized and understood them, because she’d experienced them, too.

“The thing is, I knew that if I wanted to be happy—really down deep in my soul happy—then I had to risk looking like a fool. I had to decide to take that step.”

Nancy mentally stepped away from her own wrangling and focused on her beautiful cousin. She didn’t have any doubt that decision—to try—hadn’t come easily for Rebecca. “From what I heard, those two adventurers came to you.”

“Yes.” Rebecca very pointedly looked over at the table where Kate was still talking to Eli and Jeremiah. Then she met Nancy’s gaze again. “We seem to have that much in common, don’t we? The question is, why are you still sitting here with me?”

Nancy sat back and exhaled. She didn’t like that Rebecca was suggesting—gently, but suggesting nonetheless, that she was a coward.

She liked even less that it was true.

She’d thought to come home to pursue what would make her happy. She’d also thought to take some time to get over the two men who’d walked through the door of Lusty Appetites just a half hour before.

If they were telling the truth, and they had quit their jobs and come to her—maybe she didn’t have to keep trying to get over them.

Well, at least, not just yet. She’d have to, of course, eventually. Those two were far too big-city slick to be happy in a place like Lusty for very long.

But, until then maybe we could explore the possibilities.

Nancy thought about that cheeky grin her cousin was sending her. Being a woman married to two men likely provided Rebecca with all sorts of things to grin about.

Nancy had never experienced being the filling in a man sandwich, but she’d certainly imagined it. It was kind of hard not to, growing up in Lusty.

When Rebecca nodded, Nancy shrugged. There was no time like the present, was there? “Okay, wish me luck.”

“That’s not what I’m gonna wish you.” Rebecca winked. Nancy had a hard time controlling the urge to laugh.

Nancy didn’t for one minute think there could be anything permanent between her and those two lobbyists. But she should at least go and talk to them, instead of being such a shrew. And who knew? Maybe they could make a memory or two before they headed back—as they inevitably would—to the district.

She got to her feet and directed her steps over to where the men were sitting and chatting with Kate Benedict. They all three turned to watch her approach.

In Kate’s eyes she read approval. Eli’s gaze was cool, but Jeremiah…Jeremiah looked as if he could already see her naked, and actually liked what he saw.

“Gentlemen, may I buy you a cup of coffee?”

Kate stood. Showing their manners, both Eli and Jeremiah got to their feet when she did. Kate reached for Nancy’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “You sit, sweetheart, and have a nice visit with your friends—they’ve come a long way just to see you.” As an admonition, it was fairly mild. The fact that it had come from Grandma Kate increased its sting.

Kate smiled at the men, and then turned that smile on her. “I see Emily Anne looking this way. I’ll send her over with coffee and some of those lovely pastries that Tracy makes.” She turned to look at the men again. She winked at them and then said, “I’m more than a little fond of my granddaughter’s pastries.”

“Thanks, Grandma.” Nancy kissed Kate’s cheek. She couldn’t help but grin in response to the woman’s wide smile and twinkling, mischievous eyes.

“Ma’am, it was a real pleasure meeting you,” Eli said.

“Thank you for welcoming us so sweetly to your town,” Jeremiah said.

Both men sent Nancy pointed looks.

Kate nodded. “It was a real pleasure meeting the two of you, too—at last. But one thing you need to understand. If I didn’t already know that Nancy was partial to you, you can be sure the welcome you’d have gotten from me and the rest of the family would have been quite a different one.”

Nancy felt shock ripple through her. How does Grandma always know these things? To cover her shock, she laughed. “Grandma, are you carrying your Colt tonight?”

Kate patted her handbag. “I am. I am, indeed.”

Nancy watched her grandmother head toward Emily Anne, and then turned back to look at the men. Both wore shocked expressions.

“Tell me your grandmother was joking. She isn’t really carrying a Colt—as in a handgun?” Jeremiah’s sexy Kentucky drawl, subtly different from a Texan one, did something delicious to her girl parts.

“She wasn’t joking. It’s a beauty, too, ordered and made especially for her by her late husbands. It has a pearl handle—and she used it just a few months ago to shoot a very bad man in the leg. Within an inch, I’m told, of his dangly bits.” If she wasn’t mistaken, both men’s complexions paled slightly. Satisfied that she had the upper hand at least for the moment, Nancy sat down, folded her hands, and prepared to see just what was what.

ADULT EXCERPT

Nancy moaned when her breasts fell into Eli’s waiting hands. Her eyes, half-lidded, focused on his expression. “Oh, look at these beauties.” The look of awe on Eli’s face was undeniable.

Using his thumbs to caress her nipples, he began to drive her insane. She’d never received so much pleasure from having her breasts handled. Eli dropped his left hand from her, but before she could complain about that, Jeremiah’s took his place.

They cupped and caressed, arousing her. Nancy let her head fall back against Jeremiah’s stomach and gave herself over to enjoying the sensations.

Finally she’d found two men who knew how to handle a woman’s breasts. They weren’t rubber balls to be squeezed to exercise male hands. They were delicate, life-giving girl parts, and oh, yes, the sensation of Eli’s and Jeremiah’s hands on her breasts felt wonderful.

Nancy jolted when Eli reached down and brushed his fingers against her cotton-covered pussy.

“Sweetheart, you’re damp.”

“Gosh, I wonder how that happened?” It took some effort to sound surprised.

Eli’s grin said it all, but then Jeremiah bested him. “Maybe she’s having an allergic reaction to those panties,” Jeremiah said. “We should probably take them off her. Just to be safe.”

“Good thinking,” Eli said.

Nancy giggled and then squeaked when this time Jeremiah lifted her. Eli wasted no time whipping the tiny scrap of satin from her body.

“I’m not sure this is going to be safer.” Nancy couldn’t prevent the breathlessness. She was naked with two men who clearly knew what they were about. Tiny quivers of lust ran through her, wrapped in threads of excitement.

Now that she’d stopped pushing Eli and Jeremiah away, and pushing away the way they made her feel, she knew the truth. She was more than just a little attracted to these two men. Nancy put a stop to her train of thought. She was attracted, as they were, and they were about to act on that attraction. That was all that was going on here. Wishing for anything more would just be asking for trouble. She had the emotional scars as proof of that.

“Do you want to be safe, Nancy?” Eli’s voice had gone deep, and the sexy tone not only pulled her out of her own spiraling thoughts, it got her hotter.

He followed up his question with a gentle up and down stroking of her slit. She could feel her pussy’s reactive moisture coating his fingers.

She deliberately took his question a different way. “I am safe,” she said. She could give them this much. She could let them know that she trusted them not to hurt her—at least not physically. “With the two of you, I know I’m safe.”

“Yes, you are.” Jeremiah bent over her at the same time he lifted her face. His mouth covered hers, and she drank him in.

Wet and wonderful, the slide of his lips seduced her, the glide of his tongue teased her, and his flavor—oh, his flavor just melted her and made her yearn for more.

Nancy reached up and laid her hand on his cheek. She loved the slight bristle under her fingers, and the way the hot aroma of him—pure man—enveloped her.

Eli cupped her breasts, continuing his gentle caresses. And then an approaching heat warned her of what he planned next. She whimpered even as he lapped at her nipple with his tongue. He drew the nubbin in, and she rolled her hips as a wave of pure lust swamped her.

She gave herself over to the sweet pleasure of hands and tongues and lips, and to the joy of having something she’d convinced herself could never be hers.

Even if this doesn’t last, I’m making memories.

The thought, unbidden, wrenched a sob from her soul.

“Hush, sweet baby, we’ll take care of you.” Jeremiah placed butterfly kisses on her cheeks and over her eyes.

“Mine,” Eli whispered.

“Of course. Just like we agreed.” Jeremiah sounded happy. Nancy didn’t have more than a moment to wonder what they were talking about, because Jeremiah stepped back and away from her.

Eli lifted her and turned, and laid her on her sofa. “We’re going to take very good care of you, sweetheart.” He spread her legs and settled his mouth on her pussy.

Sexy and silky, sleek and seductive, Eli slid his opened lips back and forth across her slit, dipping his tongue into her for a quick taste before drawing it out again and sliding it over her clit. So many sensations drenched her at once that Nancy couldn’t focus and could hardly breathe. So much pleasure flooded her, such tingling arousal that seemed to come alive with a will of its own inundated her, she could only surrender. Surrender, and press her pussy against her lover’s mouth and beg for more.