A Man's World 2: Detective Shea (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Becca Van

  Lazy, egotistical asshole.

  She looked up when she noticed the silence and saw all three of them watching her and cleared her throat before speaking. “Thank you for dinner. The honey-baked chicken and vegetables were delicious.”

  “Do you want some more, darlin’?” Colby asked.

  “No, thanks. I’m stuffed.”

  “What were you just thinking about, baby?” Ward asked.

  “My ex-partner.”

  “Why don’t you tell us a bit about him?” Scott said.

  “He was a pig.”

  “What did he do to you, Lori?” Colby pushed his plate away and leaned back in his chair.

  “He didn’t do anything.” Lori fiddled with her knife.

  “What do you mean?” Ward reached out and took her plate and cutlery away before stacking it on top of his. Colby and Scott began to gather up the other dirty dishes.

  “He ordered me around and stood back to watch what I did while I was working and criticized everything I did.”

  “Asshole,” Scott snapped.

  “What else did he do?” Colby asked.

  “He and his best friend Regent called me nasty names.”

  “Is Regent the fucker who nearly knocked you over the first day we started work?” Ward asked.

  “Yes.” Lori felt her face heat and lowered her gaze to the table.

  Ward scooted his chair back and held his hand out to her. She reached for it and when he clasped it he tugged her from her seat and then brought her over to his lap.

  “Nothing they said is true. You don’t believe any of that shit, do you, baby?”

  Lori shrugged.

  Ward gripped her chin between his thumb and finger and tilted her face back until she was looking into his eyes.

  “You are the least masculine woman I have ever laid eyes on. You are absolutely gorgeously, stunningly sexy.”

  Lori opened her mouth on a gasp as she saw the hunger in his eyes. He held her gaze as he slowly lowered his head and then his mouth was on hers. He brushed his lips back and forth over hers, gently, coaxingly questing, as if he was afraid she would push him away, but she couldn’t fight the attraction she felt for him or his brothers anymore. She was tired of keeping other people at an arm’s length. She wanted to know what it felt like to be hugged and kissed, and maybe even loved by another human being. She was just so damn tired of being alone and lonely. She didn’t have the strength or the will to fight them off anymore.

  When she didn’t move away or try to stop him, he slowly deepened the kiss. Lori moaned and clung to his shirt as his tongue pushed into her mouth, swirled, and then glided along hers. She’d thought the desire she’d felt for Ward, Colby, and Scott before had been intense, but now that he was kissing her and holding her it was so much more. Fire raced through her veins as he tasted every inch of her mouth and she felt like her bones were melting.

  His hand moved up to cup the back of her neck and head. His grip firm as if holding her in place, but yet so gentle. His other hand moved to her hip and then caressed up and down her side as if shaping her curves. She whimpered when it stopped on the outside of her breast, and he moaned. And then his hand moved back down and underneath her shirt and his big, warm palm rubbed on her lower belly and then it started moving up over her skin until it stopped just beneath her breast. The tip of his fingers stroked along the edge of her bra and then up to the peak. She moaned when he flicked her hard, aching nipple and then he plucked at it through the lace.

  “Yes, darlin’,” Colby rasped. “Let Ward touch you and make you feel good.”

  Ward broke the kiss, and when she met his passionate, hazy eyes she drew in a deep, ragged breath and then another as she tried to get her panting to slow down.

  “We all want you, Lori. You know that don’t you?” Ward asked.

  She nodded and then held her breath as he pushed her bra up over her breasts and covered first one fleshy globe and then the other one. He tweaked one nipple and then squeezed the other and she couldn’t help but mewl with arousal and arch her chest up further into his touch in her need for more.

  “So fucking responsive and sexy.” Ward released her breast and then palmed her cheek after removing his hand out from under her shirt. “We are all going to make love with you, Lori, but not now. Not tonight. You need to sleep and recuperate. We won’t take advantage of you when you’re not well.”

  Ward shifted his hold on her, placing his arm across the back of her shoulders and then the other beneath the crook of her knees. “Right now you are going to have a bath or shower to help you relax and then you are going to sleep. You’ll be sharing a bed with me tonight since we only have three bedrooms. But from now on you will be sleeping with one of us. Okay?”

  Lori nodded again.

  “Good. Now, we will give you time to get to know us better, but eventually this attraction will take us to an inevitable conclusion and we will end up making love. If you don’t want that, you need to say so before this goes any further, although we will give you a few days to rest and get used to us. All right?”

  Lori was too shocked to be able to form a reply and again found herself nodding. She couldn’t believe how Ward’s and his brothers’ take-charge attitudes turned her on. Ward seemed to be the most authoritative of the three of them and the words to one of Cher’s latest hit songs, “Take It Like a Man,” ran through her mind. She could just imagine these three men reaching into her chest when she wasn’t looking and grabbing ahold of her heart like the song lyrics said.

  She never expected to find such masculine, dominant men who could make her feel soft and feminine, and she liked it. She liked it so much she wanted more.

  But then her insecurities came to the fore again.

  Is that what they were doing? Trying to steal her heart right out of her chest? And if she did relent and let them make love to her? What then?

  Would they leave her alone like she had been for her whole life?

  Chapter Six

  Ward glanced at his brothers as they cleaned up the dishes from dinner. He was still mad as hell at Lori for concealing evidence, but it wasn’t really the hidden evidence that pissed him off. It was the fact that someone had broken into her apartment and threatened her and she hadn’t told anyone about it.

  From what he, Scott, and Colby had learned from Darius over the last six or so years about Lori, she was used to being alone and independent, but he wasn’t going to let her get away with that anymore. He didn’t want to take her independence away from her, but he certainly wanted her to lean on them when she needed to. But how the hell they were going to get her to do that, he had no idea.

  One thing he did know for certain was that he and his brothers weren’t about to let her out of their sight or their lives until the fucker raping and murdering women was incarcerated and she was in their beds. Permanently.

  Colby finished wiping the counters and table down and after rinsing the cloth, he hung it over the tap to dry, and then he headed out of the kitchen.

  “Where are you going?” Ward asked in snarly voice as he glanced toward the door.

  “Fuck, Ward, what crawled up your ass?” Colby snapped right back.

  “The same thing that has your balls tied in knots,” Scott replied calmly.

  It surprised Ward that his brothers seemed to have reversed their roles. Usually it was him and Scott who were the hard asses and Colby always managed to get between them and calm them down with his tranquil demeanor. But it looked like his younger brother was just as anxious and enthusiastic about having Lori in their home. He just wished it was under different circumstances. But at least he knew she was safe with all of them there to protect her. Oh, he had no qualms that Lori was quite capable of protecting herself, too, but it never hurt to have someone at your back, and Ward didn’t think she’d had that security with her other asshole of a partner. In fact he knew she hadn’t.

  “FYI, I was going to check on Lori to make sure she doesn’t fall asleep in
the tub and drown,” Colby finally replied to his question.

  “Shit!”

  “Exactly.” Colby spun around and hurried away.

  Ward looked over at Scott and without saying a word they both hurried after their brother. When they entered the bathroom Colby was standing beside the tub staring at a very delectably naked Lori and she was indeed fast asleep in the bath.

  “Fucking gorgeous,” Scott whispered.

  Ward nodded and adjusted his inflating dick as the fit of his jeans became uncomfortable, and without taking his eyes off the beautiful, sexy woman fast asleep in their bath. Still, without taking his eyes from her sensual curves, he reached back behind him and pulled a clean towel from the rail.

  “Pull the covers back on my bed, Scott. We need to get her dried off and into bed so she can sleep comfortably.”

  Scott sighed as if in reluctance but he turned and headed to Ward’s bedroom.

  Ward licked his lips as he perused her naked body up and down. Her mound was totally bare, which he and his brothers absolutely loved, and her nipples and areolae were a dark dusky rose color, her hard nipples glistening with moisture as they stood up in the cool air of the bathroom. He had to restrain himself from reaching over and touching the tip of his finger to those hard peaks, or from kneeling beside her and sucking them into his mouth to see if they tasted as good as they looked. But he couldn’t do any of that, not yet at least.

  As he reached down and gently stroked a finger down her face, her eyes fluttered open and the soft sultry smile she gave him had his heart stuttering in his chest, his breath catching in his throat and his hard cock jerking in his pants. With a gentleness he’d never felt in his heart or in his actions, he placed his hands beneath her arms and lifted her from the bath. She swayed on her feet, still groggy with sleep, and then she plastered her wet body against his and she snuggled her face into his chest and breathed deeply.

  “You smell so good.” Her voice was muffled, but he still heard her comment and that made his heart lighten with joy. Maybe she wouldn’t fight him and his brothers, or herself, against the attraction they all felt.

  Ward pulled at the towel he’d slung over his shoulder and started drying her, and when he was done with what he could reach, he nodded to Colby before passing the towel over to him. He held her by her narrow waist while his brother finished drying her off and then he lifted her up into his arms and carried her into his bedroom. He didn’t want her wearing anything when she slept in his bed, but he wanted her to feel comfortable and let her guard down with them and the only way he could see that happening was by gaining her trust.

  So he asked the question he didn’t really want to. “What do you like sleeping in, baby?”

  “Hmm?” she murmured and her eyes closed again.

  Ward carefully lowered her to the bed and then glanced at Colby. “Did you pack any nightwear for her?”

  “There were a few large T-shirts she pointed out. Maybe that’s what she sleeps in.”

  “Okay, you’d better get them and some panties out. She’s so exhausted she’s not even aware of what’s going on around her. I can see us catching hell if she wakes up naked tomorrow in my bed.”

  “I don’t think that’ll make a difference,” Scott said as he sat on the edge of the bed and brushed a few strands of hair back off her cheek. “I think she’ll give us hell when she realizes that we dried her off and dressed her.”

  “Doesn’t matter. She can rant and rave all she likes, but there was no way in hell we were going to leave her in there to drown.” Ward took the panties from Colby and stared at the lacy blue material before meeting his brother’s eyes. “Is all her lingerie this sexy?”

  “Yeah,” Colby replied in a husky voice, then he cleared it and adjusted his hard cock.

  Ward didn’t say anything else as he and his brothers dressed Lori for bed, placed her on the mattress, and covered her with the quilt. Once they were done, they headed back out to the kitchen. He needed a few hours to calm down after seeing her all wet and naked before he even thought about climbing into bed with her.

  Just as he snagged three bottles of beer from the fridge, his cell phone rang. He passed the bottles over to Colby and answered Darius’s call.

  “How’s my girl?”

  “She’s sleeping.”

  “Good. The surveillance team isn’t able to come out until the morning to fit her place with cameras and mics. They’ve been called out for a special job and are hoping they can set up first thing, but that depends on how things go tonight.”

  “Damn.” Ward sighed. “Don’t worry, Darius, one of us will sleep at her place just in case this bastard decides to come after her.”

  “That’s what I’d hoped. Someone will bring all the case file info over in the morning.”

  “Okay.”

  “Um…I was just wondering…”

  “Yeah?” Ward asked.

  “What are you intentions toward my girl?”

  Ward was surprised that Darius had picked up on his and his brothers’ attraction toward Lori, but he should have known he would. He’d served in the marines, and he was a damn good cop and should have realized that he didn’t miss a trick.

  “We want it all with her.”

  “Does she know that?” Darius asked.

  “Uh, sort of.”

  “You’re going to need to spell it out for her, Ward.”

  “We’ve told her we are attracted to her and want her.”

  “That’s not going to be enough for Lori. You’re going to need to tell her from the start what you want. That young woman has had no one except for me. From the age of sixteen when we met, she hasn’t stopped working. First it was getting her degree in high school, and then she worked her way through college and finally the police academy and then she spent all of her time being a cop and working her way up to become a detective. Far as I know she’s never even been on a date.”

  Ward gulped and then he asked in a hoarse voice, “Never?”

  “Never.”

  “How can you be so sure? She could have had someone.”

  “I know that girl better than she knows herself. When she has her eye on the ultimate goal, she doesn’t let anything or anyone stand in her way. She totally focuses on what she wants and goes after it and doesn’t let herself deviate from the path she’s set out.

  “She kind of reminds me of you and your brothers, but you know how to play. She needs someone like you three to show her how to enjoy life, but make damn sure you don’t hurt her in the process or you’ll be answering to me.”

  “That’s the last thing we want. We want the picket fence and two point five kids, but don’t for one minute think we will push her too hard too fast. Slow and steady wins the race. At least I hope it does.”

  “I’ll be in touch. Keep her safe.”

  “We will.” Ward disconnected the call and then twisted off the cap on his bottle of beer and took a long slug. He skirted around the counter and sat on the stool next to Colby.

  Scott got up from his perch on the stool on Colby’s other side and began pacing. Ward knew his brother was working his way up to grilling him, but he waited him out. He didn’t have to wait long.

  “What the hell was that all about?” Scott didn’t give him a chance to respond, but started snapping and snarling at him. “Why the hell did you tell Darius what we want with Lori? Damn it all to fucking hell, Ward. She doesn’t even really know what we want with her yet.”

  “Calm down, Scott,” Colby said, and then glanced at Ward before looking back at Scott. “You only heard one side of the conversation and knowing Darius like we do, he was probably grilling Ward. He’s not stupid you know.”

  “I never thou…”

  Colby continued to talk right over the top of Scott. “He probably saw the way we looked at Lori and put two and two together and was grilling him about our intentions. That’s what it sounded like to me.”

  Scott blew out a frustrated breath, but Ward saw the ten
sion leave his brother’s muscles and then he sat back down, picked up his beer, and took a long pull on it. “Is that what happened?”

  “Yep,” Ward said before taking another sip of his own beer.

  “Shit. How did he take it?” Scott asked.

  “Rather well, really, since he considers Lori the daughter he never had.”

  “What else did he say?” Colby asked.

  “That as far as he knows Lori has never had a date.”

  Colby froze, the hand holding his beer bottle stopped halfway to his mouth, and he looked at Ward in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”

  Ward didn’t answer, just raised his eyebrow and waited.

  The excitement, anticipation, and hunger he saw in Colby’s eyes let him know that his brother had caught on quickly, but what he was about to ask of him would no doubt wipe that look from his eyes.

  “The surveillance crew can’t get here any earlier than tomorrow morning. I want you to stay in Lori’s apartment tonight.”

  A cold hard look came into Colby’s eyes and he knew his brother was thinking of the threat to their woman and even though he probably wanted to spend the night in their apartment to be close to her, he knew he wouldn’t argue. Finding this fucker before he tried to get to Lori was paramount.

  Colby finished off his beer and then tossed it in the recycle bin before turning to face him again. “I’ll do it, but I don’t want to hold back with her anymore.”