STORY EXCERPT

Mac smelt him before he saw him. All his senses were on alert, and Mac felt his brother tense beside him. The blond Destroyer also had his arms around Gabriella, which didn’t help. It took all of Mac’s control not to transform and rip the man’s neck out.

“He’s a ghost?” Mitch whispered.

“Yes. And he knows what we are, too.”

“Shit.”

The brothers moved slowly toward the other end of the bar, watching Gabriella and the Destroyer.

“He can’t be Zachary,” said Mitch. “Not big enough.”

Mac had already come to this conclusion. It was hardly surprising that there were more. What they had decided to do in Cairns on Friday was get a sense of the size of the problem. Now it looked as though they might have an earlier opportunity.

“We can’t do anything here,” said Mitch.

“No,” Mac agreed. “Gabriella’s safety comes first.” He saw his brother’s expression. Until now he’d tried to hide the extent of his attraction.

“Shit,” said Mitch. “A Destroyer with the girl we both want. Fuck.”

The curse. Mac gripped the side of the bar. Both brothers had death on their minds at the moment. Was this the instinct that the prophecy said they had to overcome?

Mac didn’t reply because at that moment Gabriella was heading toward them. The blond man was leaning against the bar, eyes fixed in their direction.

“So are you boys planning on being social?”

Mac took a mouthful of beer and smiled tightly. “We didn’t want to interrupt.”

“You mean Wilson? He’s an old friend and comes along for the dancing.”

Mac barely heard her. Mitch replied, “Known him long?”

“Pretty much all my life,” said Gabriella. “He’s a local Cairns boy. I went to school with him.”

The brothers relaxed a little.

“Everyone knows everyone up here,” she added, frowning a little.

Mac tried smiling. “Big families?”

“Huge,” said Gabriella, laughing. “And not just the Italian Catholic ones. I have cousins and second cousins everywhere.”

“I guess no one wants to leave paradise,” said Mitch, whose smile looked completely natural. “Dance?”

The band was still setting up.

“I promised the first to Wilson,” said Gabriella awkwardly. “We usually do it as a bit of a show piece.”

“Then the second?”

“Absolutely! See you then.” Gabriella headed off to talk to one of the junior employees who had just dropped a box of cutlery.

The brothers looked at each other. It was going to be a long night, but they’d have to wait until Wilson left before dealing with him.

Guests began arriving, and the band looked ready. Mac watched with Mitch from the bar as Gabriella went to the microphone and welcomed everyone and wished them a “rockin’ good time.” The band hit the first note of “Rock Around the Clock,” and Wilson left the bar with a final warning look at the brothers before then sliding across the floor on his knees to finish at Gabriella’s feet, hands out stretched. Everyone clapped as Gabriella accepted his hand, and the two took off like professionals.

It was hard not to be impressed. Gabriella was wearing a full green skirt and tight white T-shirt that scooped low to show ample cleavage. A wide black belt emphasized her curves. Her deep-red, curly hair was tied back in a large green bow. She looked much younger and smaller against the lean, blond man, who would have been Mac’s height. In an open white shirt with a green scarf he looked like her partner, and they had clearly danced together before. They finished with her being thrown on either side of his hips, across his back, and then through his legs. The applause was breaking out before the music stopped.

“Go do us proud, bro,” said Mac. “I’ll keep an eye on the ghost.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“My brother is very greedy,” said Mitch softly from behind her. Gabriella could feel his lips on her bare shoulder, the heat from his body cocooning her.

“Not as greedy as I’m feeling,” said Gabriella, as she sat back against Mitch, watching Mac. Both men were dressed only in shorts, their bare torsos glistening as if they had run the length of the beach to find her. Her white dress had buttons down the front, and she pulled Mac’s hands to them. He didn’t need any more guidance. As Mitch licked and traced along the edge of her ear with his tongue, Mac undid her buttons slowly. By the third one the tight dress opened and her bare breasts spilled out of its confines. Both men moaned, Mac leaning forward to take each breast gently in his hands, massaging them as Gabriella pushed her head back into Mitch, savoring the feeling of having two men undress and pleasure her while clearly delighting in the experience.

Mac took a nipple in his teeth and pulled and licked as Mitch did the same with each of her ears. She felt hands over her legs and breasts, and she was no longer sure or cared whose hands were whose, only that the feeling was so intense that she thought she might come just from the sheer excitement of being sandwiched between two men. They had asked her what she liked, and she hadn’t known. Now she knew without any doubt that what she liked was these two men doing whatever they wanted with her.

After what seemed to Gabriella like a long, pleasurable sojourn, Mac pulled back and returned to undoing more buttons. He seemed to delight in taking his time, amused as Gabriella began squirming as her imagination inflamed her desire.

“I think she’s getting impatient,” said Mac, grinning at the effect they were having on her. He brushed a hand up her leg, and Gabriella moaned.

“Stop teasing,” she said, trying to sound petulant but only succeeding in showing just how much she wanted them.

“I wonder if she’ll get even more turned on if we go even slower,” said Mitch.

Gabriella turned her head, trying to frown at him, but Mitch answered the look by bringing his lips down over hers. She lost herself in the kiss, in Mitch’s hands cupping her breasts, and then finally in Mac licking her belly button that was now exposed. She felt totally in their control and was more than willing to be so. The feeling was exquisite.

Mac’s hands returned to the remaining buttons. Finally, the last button was undone and Mac pulled the soft, silky folds of her dress away from her legs where until now they had hidden the sliver of her thong and the folds of her thighs. Gabriella had been kneeling until now. Mitch pulled her back into his lap, and she extracted her legs from beneath her. Mac knelt between them, and tickled the inside of her thighs, edging closer to the thong. The anticipation had Gabriella trembling, and the casual brush over the material turned it to a shudder.

“You’re beautiful,” said Mac. “I’d like to stay here forever.”

“Mmm,” agreed Gabriella, not trusting herself to say anything else.

“Do you think we should take off her thong, little brother?”

“Do you think she wants you to?” asked Mitch, one hand from behind slipping under the side of the thong. Gabriella wriggled. Yes please!

“Maybe she isn’t ready yet,” Mac teased, moving his hands down to her calves.

“Oh yes,” Gabriella said, thinking if they didn’t hurry up she might have to jump them.

“Are you sure?” said Mitch, hand now cupping a buttock and finger getting dangerously close to her asshole.

“Yes,” said Gabriella, wriggling all the more, though Mitch pulled her to him so she wasn’t about to move anywhere fast. The brothers were clearly enjoying teasing her, and Gabriella felt torn between the tantalizing anticipation and desire to have them in her. Each time Mac pulled back she could feel more juices running down her leg. They seemed to know her better than she did herself.

Mac leant down and licked her belly button again and then worked his tongue down to the edge of her thong, pulling on the material with his teeth. With Mitch working on the sides, the thong now exposed the reddish hair of her mound. Mac sat back and looked at her, hands this time tracing over the mound and then ever so slightly beneath it to the edge of her slit. The other hand slipped under the side of her thong and caressed a lip of her cunt.