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STORY EXCERPT

“You guys didn’t have to walk me to the front door.” Shannon smiled hesitantly, staring straight ahead at the buttons on Jared’s dress shirt. “I appreciate it, though.”

Jared ran a callused finger down her right cheek and under the side of her jaw, trailing slowly to her chin. He lifted her chin high enough that she met his heavenly blue eyes. “We wanted to, princess.”

Princess. She was no princess, and she didn’t want to be one. Being a princess in a far-off kingdom where a title was only a title held no appeal. But, with him, she wanted to be a princess. With him, she was one.

Jared was her fairy tale. And so was Drew. And Randy. They were her princes, and she was their princess. If it weren’t for the villain, she would have had her happily ever after years ago.

I can have my happily ever after starting now, damn it. If she wanted them, she had to tell them. They put themselves on the line for her—time and again. Why couldn’t she do the same?

Throwing aside fear and gathering her courage, Shannon blurted out, “Do you want to come in?” She slapped her hand over her mouth, surprised that she finally said the words she wanted to say, not what was expected of her or what she had to say to protect them and herself or what her guilt told her to say. She said what she wanted and needed. It might not be everything she wanted to say, but it was a start. “I, um, don’t have any coffee or anything like that. But I baked homemade cookies yesterday. Oh, and I made some tea.”

“We would love to,” Jared said, his eyes boring into hers. The intensity of his gaze stole her breath. Without words, he told her he knew what she meant. He understood this was more than cookies and tea, and he loved her for it.

Randy appeared to be on the same page as his brother. With a grin, he held out his hand for her keys. She dropped the bulky key chain into his palm without hesitation. This felt too right to be wrong.

Randy grabbed her hand before she pulled it away and brought it to his lips for a poignant kiss. “Thank you.”

Startled and confused, she asked, “For what?”

Neither man answered her. Instead, they jumped into action. Randy unlocked the door and pushed it open while Jared swung her up into his robust arms and walked into her apartment. Following them inside, Randy closed the door behind him.

Unable to wait another minute, she had to know, “When will Drew be here?” Her impatient question came out too sharp, making her sound abrupt and insolent. She truly didn’t want to sound rude, but she needed him. The night couldn’t begin without their final link, Drew.

Randy’s startled, “Oh,” made her stomach drop to the floor. He wasn’t coming. Of course he wasn’t. She felt stupid and hurt and angry with herself—all at once.

“Don’t say it,” she choked out, her voice wavering with each passing word. Hearing their inevitable answer would only do damage. She didn’t need a confirmation. “You don’t have to. I know.”

Jared strode over to the old, beat-up couch. Sitting down gingerly, he held her close in his arms. “Princess,” Jared said, his voice soothing her, slowing her heart rate and relieving some of the tension in her chest. “He wants to be here, but he isn’t ready.” He pushed a stray strand of her red hair away from her face. “You weren’t ready and now he isn’t. Give him the time he needs. He’ll come around.”

An enormous, looming presence came up behind her and plopped down next to them, squishing the mustard-yellow cushion under his fine ass. Unlike his older brother, Randy wasn’t careful or hesitant. He was just there. She loved that about him. Randy wouldn’t let her sulk or treat her with caution. He understood her need to steer clear of the pity parties. “Baby doll, stop worrying or beating yourself up or whatever you are doing in that pretty head of yours. It will work out. Just relax.” Randy laid his warm hand between her shoulder blades, rubbing up and down. The slow, methodical way his hand moved aroused her as much as it relaxed.

Clenching her thighs together, she prayed for the ache in her pussy to go away. She couldn’t fuck them without Drew. She wouldn’t. No. No. No. This wasn’t going anywhere, at least, not tonight and not until Drew was with them. Yeah, keep telling yourself that, sister.

Without thinking of the consequences, she squirmed in Jared’s lap.

The cock pressed against her ass jumped, and Jared growled. “God. Shannon, don’t move. I am trying to be sensitive to your feelings. Keep that up, and I won’t stop until I’m between your sexy legs. Fuck sensitivity.”

She froze and so did Randy. His hand halted midback, and he leaned closer to her, whispering wickedly, “Keep that up, baby doll. Be a bad girl and give us a reason to stop being the considerate gentlemen.”

Whipping her head around, she peered at Randy. The sensual promise in his heavy-lidded, blue eyes drew her in, making her hormones override her good intentions. She trembled, her body vibrating with the need to be closer to his. “I’m tired of being well behaved. Can’t I be bad for just a little while?”

ADULT EXCERPT

Smashed chest to chest with Jared on the couch, Shannon’s nipples beaded behind the fitted bodice of her dress. With each downward grind of her pelvis, her breasts bounced, the sensitive peaks nearly painful as they rubbed the fabric against his brawny chest. Cursing the clothes separating them, she pulled back enough to jerk her strapless dress down, revealing her aching mounds to Jared.

Jared’s eyes widened dramatically as his naked gaze feasted upon her breasts. “My God, they’re beautiful.” He grabbed her face, crashing his lips against hers, his hard to her soft, his demanding to her giving. He kissed her as though she were both his first meal and his last. The gluttonous melding of mouths short-circuited her brain, halting her movements and stealing her breath.

With her control wavering, Randy seized the upper hand. He brushed her hair aside then caressed the delicate skin on the back of her neck, just below the hairline, with his callused fingertip. He worked his way lower, trailing his finger down her back languidly and causing her body to arch as one shiver after another slithered along her spine.

She broke Jared’s kiss, throwing her head back and moaning for all she was worth.

Randy’s hand met the lacey fabric of her thong and hastily thrust it aside. He caressed the indentation above her cleft, drawing invisible circles inside. Each loop of his finger brought him closer to her ass, teasing her until she cursed him vehemently. “Damn you, Randy Dalton. Touch me!” His finger slowed drastically, the torment of his being so close yet so far, driving her to begging, “Please, Randy. I need you. Touch me. Please just touch me.”

“I think our woman wants you to touch her tight, little asshole,” Jared informed his brother smugly.

She grunted an agreement despite her compulsion to smack the smugness right out of Jared. If she wasn’t burning inside and in dire need of an orgasm, she would have.

“Okay,” Randy acquiesced.

Shannon realized a moment too late that he’d complied too easily, too readily, and without protest. A biting pinch to her ass reminded her. She yelped in agony, but then a warm, radiating feeling bloomed in her ass and, within seconds, her blood pumped through her veins with the ferocity of a freight train. She glanced over her shoulder at Randy, giving him the evilest eye she could muster in her aroused state, and snarled, “You fucking asshole.” Don’t stop. Give me more.

Jared slapped his hand across her mouth, swallowing up a sizable portion of her face. “Princess, don’t dig your grave any deeper.” Rather than heed Jared’s wise advice, she scowled at him and then bit his palm as hard as she could.

“Tread carefully, Shannon.” Jared’s reasonable tone vanished, his voice taking on a harshness that would scare most sane people, not that it affected her in any way. When it came to the Dalton brothers, she wasn’t of sound mind or body. Her wet panties drove that point home. Smiling devilishly, Jared added, “I bite back.”

“As do I,” Randy informed her, illustrating his point with a nip to her ass.

Pissed off, she ranted at the two men, regardless of the hand muffling her tirade and their complete disregard to her temper tantrum.

Randy lifted up and pressed his lips to the back of her neck where his finger had been only moments ago. He moved downward with wandering lips, his tongue licking an identical path from her neck to her ass as earlier. He stopped to lave the hollow spot just above the crevice, giving her a taste of the forbidden, but not the feast she craved.

Jared removed the hand covering her mouth. “I want to hear you moan,” he murmured, giving her a lingering kiss. “I crave the sound of your lusty cries.”

“Yes,” she hissed. “Make me scream.” And Randy did just that. His mouth dove into the cleft between her ass cheeks and found her rosette easily. He swiped his warm, velvety tongue across her rear entrance before rimming her forbidden hole. His tongue teased the responsive bundle of nerves there, evoking violent tremors from her body.

“Randy,” she screamed as a fire started inside her and raced through her veins. Blood pounded in her ears, drowning out all sound around her. She closed her eyes, riding the swells of ecstasy rolling through her body, but she didn’t have much time to enjoy his carnal actions before he removed his lips from her ass. She lifted her too-heavy eyelids and protested, wanting more of the taboo act he’d committed.

Randy smirked, casually commenting, “We may fight over your pussy, but I know who gets dibs on that sexy ass of yours. Drew has an anal fetish and even I’m not a brave enough man to stand in his way.”

Drew’s name sobered her, snatching her from the sexual haze that clouded her mind. Her head fell forward and landed on Jared’s wide chest, the fabric of his shirt muting her as she mumbled, “I’m so sorry, but I can’t do this without Drew. I need him, too.”

“Well, I guess it’s a damn good thing I’m here then.”

Shocked, she snapped her head around, seeking Drew’s deep voice. He stood in the doorway, his six-foot-one-inch body dwarfing the frame, a mask of pure, unadulterated lust on his handsome face. She shivered, her arousal returning full force plus some. He was here. They all were. Everything she had ever dreamed of was about to come true.