STORY EXCERPT

Shane couldn’t bear anymore. Witnessing her tears, hearing the pain in her voice as she huddled on the drenched ground and talked to a grave, was more than he could take. “I feel as though I’ve been waiting my whole life to get to this point and place in time.”

Katie-Anne’s eyes widened and her face paled, every ounce of her color leaching from her tanned skin. “How much did you hear?”

“Does it matter?” Shane asked, eager to hear her answer. Like a teenage boy asking out his first crush, Shane held his breath, and waited.

“I guess not.”

His heart soared as soon as those three words escaped her flawless peach lips. And he wanted to grab her up and swing her around. But he didn’t. Not yet. “Katie-Anne—”

“No, Shane,” Katie-Anne said, cutting him off, then patted the space next to her on the red and black flannel blanket. “Come here and let me explain some things to you. Then you can have your say.”

Shane joined Katie-Anne on the damp fabric, but he didn’t sit beside her. Instead, he went around behind her and opened his legs before pulling her entire body back until her ass bumped into his already hard cock. Circling his arms around her slender waist, he held her close. When she didn’t try to fight him, he smiled.

“I love you, Shane.” She sighed. “I love you, and I want you to love me, too.”

He opened his mouth to refute her, but she stopped him by pivoting her head and putting one soft finger to his lips. She shushed him so sweetly that he couldn’t refuse her. He could barely speak. So he kissed the tip of her finger. “Go on, little one.”

A smile kicked up both of the corners of her lips before she put it away. “I want you to love the real me. I want you to get to know me then fall head-over-heels in love with me. Being with you and Landon means more to me than either of you could know. But I need for it to be real.”

Opening his mouth a second time to answer her, he received an elbow to the ribs. “Let me finish,” she snapped but he heard the amusement in her tone. “I haven’t given you a chance to get to know who I am. I’ve barely given Landon a chance, but I want to do it now. I want to try.” She coughed, sounding more nervous than real. “I’m scared out of my mind.”

“Now can I talk?”

“I guess.” Turning back around, she sighed dramatically and fell into his body. “If you must,” she teased.

“You were wrong for not letting me in, but I was just as wrong as you were. I didn’t push you to open up to me. Shit, I fought you a hell of a lot harder than you fought me because I didn’t get to know you. I didn’t know who you were”—lifting his hand, he paused to tap the spot on her breast that resided directly over her tender heart—“inside. I chose to let my shitty past color my vision of you.”

Shane tipped her chin up and to the side with his index finger, forcing her to meet his eyes. “But it was more than that. I was frightened, too. I need you, and I need Landon. That scares the hell out of me.”

“Join the club,” she sassed with a half-hearted smile. “You know, we should make a When It Comes To Love, I Would Rather Fight It Than Live It So I Don’t Get Hurt club. Since you have such strong leadership skills, you should run it. I’ll be the second in command.”

Shane stared down into her face, taking in every single detail. Her tear-streaked cheeks, her puffy greenish-blue eyes, and her pert, red nose were so cute yet beautiful in a way that tugged at his soul. His heart skipped a beat, and he nearly took her lovely lips, but it was hardly the appropriate time or place.

“Watch out or I might,” he teased back. “Then you’d be stuck with me and my dysfunctional self.”

Katie-Anne snorted. “I think it would be you who was stuck with me and my dysfunctional self.”

“Or we could just be dysfunctional together?”

“Shane, I want us to be together—all three of us—but we need to be realistic. You haven’t seen the real me, and I suspect there is a lot more to you than I know.”

You have no idea, little one. Shane knew that he needed to share with her just how much more there was to him, just how dysfunctional he really was. But it was not the time, not with her emotions all over the place. He believed that she wouldn’t handle it well if he told her now.

He was rapidly learning, and seeing, that his Katie-Anne felt things deeply, very deeply—painfully so. And he didn’t want her hurting any more than she already was. He would have to wait, but he couldn’t wait for too long. He wanted her to know the story. He wanted her to understand him, to know the real him, yet he had to do it at the right time. Patience.

ADULT EXCERPT

Sighing, Katie-Anne pranced inside like she owned the place. As soon as she flipped on the light, she froze. Oh double dog horseshit. She’d just stumbled into one of the judge’s chambers. Swinging back around, she prepared to fly right back out, but it didn’t happen.

Shane and Landon prowled into the room, not looking away from her. She wasn’t even sure that the library-like office with extravagant furniture showed up on their radar. They stalked her, and she backed up. Throwing her hands up, she shook her head. “Not here,” she squeaked. “We have to go.”

Neither man acknowledged her words. They continued her way, pushing her back and back until her ass hit the massive desk. Her minor collision caused a not-so-minor reaction. The entire desk drifted across the floor, bumping and grating as it moved. Papers flew in every direction, and the pen holder toppled over, spilling the pens helter-skelter on the desk.

“They...they,” Katie-Anne sputtered, “they have cameras in here. Um, we can get arrested. This is a judge’s chambers for God’s sake!”

“I don’t give a damn,” Shane muttered without breaking stride. “How about you, Landon?”

At his side, Landon murmured, “Nope.”

“I–I–I don’t like exhibitionism,” she lied boldly. “I c–c–can’t let people see me naked. I–it just can’t happen.”

“You chose the venue, little one,” Shane informed her with a sinful smile that had her juices deluging her pussy and running down the inside of her thighs. “Deal with it.”

The temperature rose in the room, and she felt compelled to rip her own damn clothes off. But she held on to that last bit of sanity, keeping her dignity around her like a shield.

Landon reached her first. He didn’t give her preliminaries, and he gave her no warning. He merely reached around her and grabbed her ass cheeks then hefted her right off the ground. Sitting her on the papers lying atop the desk, he lowered her down until her back hit the hard top. “No one has to see you naked, kitten. We’ll just leave your clothes on. It isn’t like this is going to take long. We all need each other too badly.”

With that statement of intent, Landon captured her lips with his own. He kissed her mindlessly, making her forget the stack of papers underneath her and the pens pressing painfully into her back. All of the complaints she’d made earlier and her fears of being caught disintegrated.

Landon kissed her passionately. The carnal onslaught of his mouth on hers caused her heart to race, beating out of control. Her cunt throbbed, pounding to the rhythm of her pulse, and more moisture inundated her.

The sound of belts being unbuckled then zippers being lowered drifted into her ears, evoking a second spike in her heart rate. The clink of buckles settling and the rustle of fabric left her pussy frantic for the cocks being released from the cages they had been in.

Landon’s intense kiss ratcheted up. There was no fight in his mouth and hers, only a powerful sense of emotion. The lust charging through her ate that up with as much voracity as if he’d been declaring war on her body.

Big, masculine hands slid beneath the bottom portion of her dress. They wandered teasingly up the outer side of each leg, leaving the fabric mostly in place. Landon’s hands met the bare side of her hips, and he groaned into her mouth, obviously approving of her lack of underwear. He tightened his hands against her flesh, holding her captive, then yanked her to the edge of the desk.

Landon’s lips never left hers as he poised himself over her, pressing his naked cock to her agonized cunt. He penetrated her swiftly, and she screamed, “Landon,” into his mouth.

Sinking his dick all the way inside her pussy in one glide, Landon ripped his mouth from hers. “Quiet,” he growled then groaned loudly. “Fuck me.”

It took her a second to catch up to what had just happened. When Shane’s carnal face appeared over Landon’s shoulder, she knew. “All right,” Shane murmured. “I can do that.” Then he did. He fucked Landon, and Landon fucked Katie-Anne. They worked together in perfect accord.

Landon’s monstrous cock shoved its way inside Katie-Anne’s much smaller hole repeatedly, one plunge melding into another, the full feeling inciting uncontrollable writhing from her. Katie-Anne’s body fought against his dick, rebelling from such a massive invasion. Yet her body yielded to his strength, surrendered to his demands.

Each of Landon’s forceful thrusts drove her higher, pushing her toward the sun. She felt her wings spreading, ready to fly. All she needed was one tiny push, and she was free.

Watching Shane over Landon’s shoulder, Katie-Anne saw the barbaric wildness etched into the lines of his face. He sweated, the moisture running in rivulets down his temples and jawline then dripping onto the shoulder of Landon’s button-up shirt. Curling his lip back, Shane bared his teeth and growled. “Make her come.”

Oh, yes, Landon. Make me come.