STORY EXCERPT

Mandaline cocked her head, listening as he pounded up the stairs. When she heard the door of Brad’s room open, she leaned in, a scowl on her features. “What the hell’s going on with him?” she whispered.

He shook his head and kept his voice low. “He’s been like this all day. He spent all night cooped up in the attic working. I’m really worried about him.”

Sachi spun toward the door but Mandaline caught her arm. “No,” Mandaline firmly said.

Sachi looked enraged. Or maybe scared.

Perhaps both.

“You said!” she hissed at Mandaline. “I’m getting it!”

“No, it’s okay.” She nodded to Ellis. “We have him here.” Sachi tried to jerk free, but Mandaline wouldn’t let go of her arm.

“I don’t care what you say, I’m getting it.”

“Getting what?” Ellis asked.

“Sachi brought her peacemaker,” Mandaline explained. “Her skeet gun.”

It didn’t take much for him to board her train of thought after what they’d just been through with Julie. He glanced up at the ceiling. They heard Brad opening and closing dresser drawers. “I have a concealed carry permit. I’ll go grab my .38 from my gun safe. Will that relax you? And I won’t leave him alone with either of you.”

Sachi frowned, looking from Mandaline to Ellis and back again. She hooked a thumb at him. “Is he acting normal?”

She shrugged. “He seems to be.”

Sachi leaned in close to look at him. “Then what the hell are you waiting for? Move your ass.”

He couldn’t suppress his smile as he took off. Despite her prickly nature, Sachi was fiercely loyal to and protective of Mandaline, of that there was no doubt. Maybe if he could win her over, he could win back Mandaline’s trust.

* * * *

Mandaline watched Ellis hurry from the room. She released Sachi. “Happy?”

“No. Not until we’re done and out of here. Do you not feel it?”

“Feel what?”

“There is something super funky going on with Brad, and I’m not talking funky town, funky chicken, or play that funky music, white boy.”

“I don’t feel anything wrong with the house.”

“I didn’t say the house.” She tapped Mandaline on the forehead, between the eyes. “Open your ears, boss. I said with Brad. Even you noticed it.”

They both looked up as they heard Brad open his bedroom door again. Then the sound of muffled voices as Ellis said something to him. Followed by the sound of Brad moving around and even going up to the attic.

Ellis quickly returned, slightly winded and now wearing a baggy T-shirt over his jeans. “I sent him to turn on all the lights upstairs for us to delay him getting back down here.”

“You packing, chief?” Sachi asked.

He turned and lifted the hem of his shirt, exposing the holster clipped to his belt in the small of his back. He dropped his shirt and turned around to face them again. “Good enough?”

She nodded, satisfied. “Allrighty then.”

Brad returned a moment later, wearing a goofy grin. “All set!” He rushed over to Mandaline again and gave her another hug. She looked at Ellis, who shrugged at her what the fuck expression. This was the less-there side of Brad, for sure. But something did feel off, now that Sachi mentioned it. Not…well, not bad off, just…off.

Disconcerting, sure, but nothing dangerous or dark the way Julie had sensed with Steven Corey, according to what Matt and Sami had told her.

They put Brad to work stringing extension cords throughout the house, since he knew where all the working outlets were located. It also kept him out of their way and allowed Mandaline, Sachi, and Ellis to talk in low tones without Brad hearing.

Still, even in the deepening gloom due to the weather, Mandaline didn’t feel anything …negative. Not about the house. She felt no fear, not even the slightest bit of trepidation.

Nothing set her witchy senses off in the slightest.

She almost didn’t want to start with the EMF sensors. She suspected they wouldn’t find anything out of the ordinary in that department, either. Usually she was hypersensitive to high EMF levels. So was Sachi. Even an initial walk-through, first floor to the attic, didn’t ping any of Sachi’s internal warnings.

Mandaline desperately didn’t want the issue to be Brad’s already traumatized brain. She wanted something she could grab, hold on to, produce as evidence that they could fix.

Because I love him.

Hell, as crazy and irrational as she knew it was, she loved both of them. She also remembered how she thought she loved Carl, and the world of hurt that gave her. Until she felt for sure Ellis wouldn’t end up demanding changes she couldn’t make, that he would be able to fully accept all of her the way she was, and that he wouldn’t throw another hurtful hissy fit, she didn’t feel safe letting go of her heart to them.

ADULT EXCERPT

Mandaline’s eyes popped open to find the first edges of morning’s grey light trying to work their way through the bedroom window. On her left, Brad slept, his head tucked against her shoulder, his handsome lips slightly parted.

To her right, Ellis lay on his left side, his fingers laced through hers. His eyes opened and met her gaze.

“Good morning,” he whispered.

She rolled on top of him and kissed him, hard, before she could lose her nerve and talk herself out of it. She didn’t give a shit about morning breath or grabbing a shower. She wanted him. Them.

And she wanted them now.

He briefly resisted before his hands settled on her hips and he returned her kiss. She felt his cock harden between them and she wanted it inside her, right then.

His hands traveled up her back, pushing her T-shirt up, until she had to sit up and pull it off. She dropped it on the floor and bent down to kiss him again, but he grabbed her wrists and stared up at her.

“I’m not looking for a quick romance,” he said. “I’m looking for life. For him and for me.”

She nodded. “Yes.”

His eyes searched her face. “We can work out all the legal details later,” he said. “I’ll sign whatever Grover puts in front of us to protect you and your assets.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need or want that. I trust you. Both of you.”

“But you’re worth a lot of money.”

“Are you going to ask for a disclaimer every time we make love? Because if you are, that’s going to get really old really fast.”

“Oh my god, dude, shut up and scrump her already,” Brad mumbled from beside them.

They both looked over at him. He peeled open one sweet brown eye. “If you don’t hurry up, I’m going to take her away from you and you’ll have to wait until tonight when you get back from work.”

Mandaline and Ellis looked at each other and laughed. Ellis reached up, grabbed her hair, and pulled her mouth down to his.

Her nipples rubbed against the dusting of hair on his chest as he kissed her, adding erotic friction to the sizzle already rippling through her body. His cock pressed between her legs, against her clit, through the fabric of her underwear and his shorts.

She lifted her head. “Both,” she whispered. “I want both of you. Now.”

Brad, apparently now wide awake, threw back the covers and dove for the side table. He grabbed condoms and a bottle of lube they’d apparently stashed there. He leaned in and kissed her. “Get those panties off now,” he ordered.

His commanding tone sent yet another wave of heat through her, stealing her breath. He jumped out of bed and rushed from the room, returning seconds later with a towel and minus his shorts. She rose up to push her panties down her thighs, but Brad pushed her off Ellis, onto her side, and yanked them off her.

“I want to do something first,” he said, his tone growly with desire. He pushed her thighs apart and dove between them, unerringly finding her clit with his tongue.

When she opened her mouth to let out a moan of pleasure, Ellis covered her mouth with his and swallowed her cries. There was nothing slow or gentle about Brad’s motions as he eagerly flicked at her clit with his tongue, relentlessly, determined.

Ellis grabbed her hands and raised them over her head, gently pinning her in place and setting something inside her heart and soul free as her need took over. She rocked her pussy against Brad’s mouth, wanting and needing even more.

Reading her body, he slowly worked two fingers inside her pussy, filling her and driving her close to the edge. Just as her orgasm was ready to break, he stopped.

She let out a desperate cry.

“Don’t worry,” he said with a laugh as he grabbed something. “I just want you ready for the fucking you are about to receive.” She tried to lift her head but Ellis kept her pinned, distracting her with his kisses, his tongue fucking her the way she wished their cocks were fucking her.

She felt something cool against her ass and realized what Brad was doing. Tendrils of worry started to fill her when she realized she was about to fuck both of them at the same time and didn’t know if her body could handle the fantasy. Then his mouth returned to her clit, rendering her unable to think coherently. He slowly pressed one finger into her ass, the delicious things he was doing with his mouth distracting her from the strange sensation of her rim being stretched. She’d had anal play before, mostly with toys, but it’d been a long time.

And both these men were bigger than the toys she’d ever used back there.

He kept her coasting, surfing the edge of release, refusing to let her fall over as he added a second finger to her ass. She whined, at first uncomfortable with the intrusion until his mouth on her clit once again distracted her.

Ellis switched her wrists to one hand and used the other to begin gently rolling first one nipple, then the other, between his fingers, back and forth and adding to the erotic torment.

She wanted release. Right then. But Brad wasn’t about to grant it yet. He backed off again as he worked a third finger into her tight ring of muscle. This time she froze, trying to breathe through her kiss with Ellis as the pinching burn overrode the pleasure center of her brain.

Brad began flicking at her clit again with his tongue, waiting until her body relaxed and she started moaning again to make more progress in her ass. It wasn’t until she felt him pick up speed with his hand that she realized he was fucking her ass with it, loosening her body. Then he added his thumb into her pussy and lightly bit down on her clit.