Mountain Darkness

by Vanessa Vale

  “How’s Donovan?” I asked, stepping back, cutting him off.

  He frowned, clearly surprised by the question. “He’s fine.”

  Donovan Nash was the other man who’d hit every one of my hot buttons. The opposite of Nix. Fair, built like a tank. Equally hot. And nice. And funny. And… lots of ands. He’d joined us on a few occasions planning the ball, but nothing had come of it, no matter how much I’d wanted it to. I’d been crazy to lust after two men. Hindsight was twenty-twenty and it was obvious why. It made me feel really stupid. Silly, for thinking not only one hot guy might be interested in me, but two.

  “I can’t let you stay here.” I’d never seen him look at me like this before. Something dark and predatory. Possessive.

  Still, it was misplaced and that was like a knife to my insides.

  “I know you like to protect people—”

  “I want to protect you,” he said, cutting me off. “I thought… I thought we had something going. Before.”

  “Before I left town?” I asked, starting to get pissed. He was messing with me.

  “Why’d you leave, Kit?” he asked.

  As if he didn’t know.

  My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. “Are you serious? You’re asking me that now?”

  “You’ve been back five weeks and the first I learn of it… the first I see you is this morning covered in your friend’s blood.”

  “Like I said, now?” I was tired, scared, panicked and all that bled over into frustration and anger.

  “I thought we were friends.” He ran a hand over the back of his neck. “I thought we were more than that.”

  The office door opened and I jumped. Yup, scared. Nix turned and stuck his arm out, as if shielding me from whomever it was.

  Donovan stuck his head into the office, grinned. My heart flipped. That panty-melting smile hadn’t changed a bit since I’d seen him last, an instant reminder of why I’d left town and that I wasn’t over him either.

  I was interested in both of these men. Still. Crazy. Insane! One of the things I’d thought about during the year I’d been away. Why would I want two men? Why would I want two men who didn’t want me? Who wanted each other?

  “Kitty Kat,” he said, coming into the room and pulling me into a hug. He felt hard… everywhere. Warm. Comforting. God, his scent. I thought I’d forgotten that, but no. It was engrained in my mind. And the nickname he had for me. None of it had gone away. “Nix said you were back, but Jesus, woman, when you come back, you don’t go subtle.”

  He wasn’t smiling when he said it. Of course, he knew what had happened. Working in the DA’s office gave him direct access to whatever Nix and his team uncovered.

  “I’m sorry about Erin,” he murmured, looking me over.

  No doubt he could tell I’d been crying. I was wearing hospital-supplied clothes and looked a disaster. I hadn’t even been able to do more than finger-comb my hair after the hospital shower.

  “Fuck, it’s horrible.”

  He stepped back, stood beside Nix. The two of them—gasp!—together. One dark, the other fair. One serious, the other… playful. Nix had two inches on Donovan, but Donovan had the heft, the bulk of a college football player. Both of them had my heart and they were going to walk out the door, go off to the house they shared and leave me out of the middle. They didn’t want me there, didn’t need me. They had each other.

  He tipped his head toward Nix. “He’ll find out what happened.”

  “I know.” I did. Nix would discover the truth, would find the killer. “What are you doing here?” It was one thing for the detective on a case to show up and question a suspect, but the prosecutor? Oh. “God, do I need a lawyer?”

  I looked to Nix.

  “What?” Donovan asked, a little crease denting his brow. “Hell, no. I’m here with Nix to take you home. Let’s get going.”

  “Going?”

  “You’re coming home with us,” Donovan added, repeating exactly what Nix had said before he’d arrived. So they were living together now. Just great.

  Yeah, that was never going to happen. I couldn’t stay under the same roof as the two of them. My heart couldn’t handle it.

  “She hasn’t agreed,” Nix told him.

  “Why the hell not? There’s a murderer out there. Fuck, just the thought of you sleeping just down the hall while he—” Donovan’s hands clenched into fists, but he didn’t finish his statement. He might be an attorney, but he wasn’t soft.

  Anywhere.

  “I was asking her why she left town,” Nix said.

  “This isn’t an interrogation,” I countered.

  “I think we deserve an answer.”

  “Yeah, Kitty Kat, why did you leave?” God, when Donovan called me that…

  I couldn’t look at them. They were too perfect. Too much for my heart to take. This day had been horrible. My life was a nightmare. It couldn’t get any worse by sharing the truth with these two. I didn’t have them. They weren’t mine and never would be. Saying it aloud wouldn’t change a thing. They’d leave, I’d settle into the sofa for the night. Finally, perhaps, let them go.

  “Fine.” I turned, put my hands on my desk, stared down at the glossy surface. “I left because of you two.”

  “Us?” Nix asked, his dark brows winging up. “You should have stayed because of us.”

  Tears filled my eyes as I shook my head. “I couldn’t stay in town. I’d been stupid.”

  “For wanting us?” Nix asked.

  “Both of us?” Donovan added, sounding strangely hopeful about that.

  I nodded, turned to face them. I tipped my chin up, met their gazes. “I wanted both of you, but you guys didn’t want me. You don’t need me. You have each other.”

  The looked at each other, then back at me. “What the hell are you talking about?” Nix asked.

  “You want me to spell it out for you?”

  Donovan set his hands on his hips. Even though he worked in the DA’s office, he wasn’t wearing a suit, instead navy pants and a button-down shirt. Not quite a cowboy, but definitely not a city slicker. “Yes.”

  “You’re in love with each other, not me,” I shouted.

  4

  DONOVAN

  * * *

  What. The. Fuck?

  Kit thought we were gay? She thought Nix and I were together?

  I stared at her.

  Nix stared at her.

  She was serious. Out of all the possibilities she could have come up with, this one never, ever, entered my mind.

  “Kitty Kat, I don’t know if I should spank your ass or kiss you,” I said finally.

  She was so damned pretty. She’d always been a tiny package, not even coming up to my shoulders. Yet she had curves. Lots of them. Even in the drab sweatpants and white t-shirt two sizes too large—which didn’t hide the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra—she was perfect. From her hot pink toenails to her wild hair and every soft inch in between. And it was those soft inches I’d fantasized as I rubbed one out. For years.

  Her chocolate colored eyes were red rimmed from crying, but it was what I could see in them, the honesty, the truth behind her words. She’d wanted us, but somehow, in some fucked up way, got the idea Nix and I were into each other and not her.

  Words weren’t going to work here.

  “Fuck it,” I said, stepping up to her, cupping her face in my hands and kissing her. This wasn’t a sisterly fucking peck. Oh no. I devoured her, swallowed her gasp, claimed that hot, sweet mouth as mine. There was no fucking way she’d think we were gay now.

  Nix growled, an animalistic sound I could relate to. I lifted my head, stepped back, watched Kit sway. Her eyes were closed, her lips red and glistening. Nix nudged me out of the way and kissed her next. Seeing my best friend with Kit didn’t make me jealous. It made me hard. My dick could pound nails. She’d been ours for so long and now we could finally prove it.

  There was no confusion now. I’d wanted her for so long, I was beyond sexually frust
rated. I was just frustrated. A misunderstanding of fucking epic proportions had driven Kit to a different fucking state. Even worse, she’d been back in Cutthroat for five weeks. Five. Fucking. Weeks. Neither Nix or I had known. More time lost.

  And now… fuck, now she was mixed up in a murder? A prime suspect because she had no alibi. She’d been covered in Erin’s blood. Her DNA was all over the body. Nix had shared this much with me, but I didn’t need the details to know she was innocent. What would be her motive? Money? Did Kit want Erin dead to take over the business for herself? Had Erin made her a beneficiary in her will? Life insurance? Erin had been twenty-five, not seventy-five. If there had been a blip on any of these questions, no doubt my office would have heard by now and put Kit behind bars.

  But I’d heard nothing from the Mills family. Nothing from my boss, who no doubt played golf with Keith Mills. As prosecutor, it was my job to see the murderer put behind bars. Using evidence. Motive. Means. It was Nix’s job to find all that, mine to make a jury believe it without a shadow of a doubt.

  Getting involved with the prime suspect of a murder investigation? Not a smart move. Ever since my mom had been hit and killed by a drunk driver—ever since the guy had gotten off with a slap on the wrist and a few points on his license—I’d made it my mission to see bad guys get the justice they deserved. Everything I’d done since then had been to see that happen. It wouldn’t bring my mom back, but it might give others the peace of mind, the ability to sleep at night, that I didn’t get.

  Besides all that, my dad would shit a brick if he knew I was getting myself in deep with Kit Lancaster. Since he was mayor, he was probably tugging at his shirt collar worrying that a killer in Cutthroat wouldn’t be found. That wouldn’t sit right with the voters. Oh, he loved having a son in the DA’s office—to him our two jobs were like peanut butter and jelly for keeping the town safe—but not one who fucked the prime suspect.

  Regardless of her being called that, Kit was innocent. Sure, if she were on trial, being with her would be a disaster, not only for the case, but for my job. The defense team would cite anything from conflict of interest to tampering with the defendant. The case would be thrown out. I’d be fired. Hell, I’d probably be disbarred.

  But Kit was innocent. This wasn’t some easy lay. Fuck, no. This was Kit Lancaster. I was marrying this woman. She wasn’t a murderer. She was mine. Ours.

  She wouldn’t be arrested. She wouldn’t go to trial. There was no conflict of interest. Nix would prove she wasn’t involved, that she was innocent. That would come. Tonight? I was going to make sure Kit did. On my cock. On my tongue. All night long.

  When Nix stepped back, he leaned down, picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. Fuck, yes.

  “Nix!” she squealed as she pounded his back, one of her flip flops falling off, but he didn’t stop, carrying her out of the office and down the hall. “Your truck,” he called to me as he headed toward the stairs, not waiting. “And don’t forget her bag.”

  Grinning, I grabbed Kit’s keys, the bag and the flip flop, turned off the lights, locked the door, then followed, shifting my dick in my pants so I could walk comfortably.

  We didn’t say anything as we drove to Nix’s house, which was closer than mine. I wasn’t sure how long I could last with her soft scent filling the cab. Kit seemed stunned into silence by the kisses, by the truth behind them. I got harder thinking about how she’d react when we did more than kiss her.

  Nix’s place was an old—as in serious fixer-upper—bungalow a few blocks off of Main, thankfully not more than a mile from the event planning office. He’d bought it a few years earlier and had been restoring it in his free time. The guest bedroom had no walls at the moment, which worked fine since we had no intention of using it. We’d be with Kit in Nix’s bed.

  Nix opened his front door, and I took Kit’s hand, led her to the couch, tugged her into my lap.

  “Donovan,” she breathed, trying to wiggle off.

  I held her still with my hand at her belly, my fingers slipping beneath the t-shirt and pressing into the silky skin. Everywhere, she was soft, warm. So small, yet a perfect fit. “Kitty Kat, keep moving your ass like that and we won’t be talking.”

  It was then she felt my dick pressing against her hip, hard and thick and ready to fuck, and stilled.

  I wanted her. I wanted her naked and beneath me. Above me. Between me and Nix. But I wanted answers first. She’d thought we were into each other, and that meant we needed to get some shit straightened out.

  Nix grabbed a chair, slid it so it was directly in front of us. Sat. One of his knees bumped her thigh. Penned her in so she couldn’t flee again. “Explain.”

  I watched her swallow, look up from her lap to me, then Nix. Besides kissing her earlier, we’d never been this close before. Her eyes were dark, but a chocolate color. Freckles dotted her nose, her cheeks were flushed and her lips… I remembered just what they felt like now. Her hair, usually long and sleek, was a little wild. So were her emotions. Mine, too.

  “Before I left, you invited me over to work on the Policemen’s Ball.”

  Nix nodded. “I remember. Early December. We were on the committee together.”

  “I… I was interested in you.” A blush crept up her cheeks. “A lot. Both of you actually.”

  Hearing her say that had my dick throb. “Kitty Kat,” I growled.

  “That’s why I volunteered, a reason to be with you. We’d met before for coffee and stuff to plan, but you invited me over… here.” She pushed an errant strand of hair that had escaped her messy ponytail away from her face, her elbow bumping my chest. “God, I was a mess. So nervous. I was going to tell you how I felt, that I was crazy because I was interested in both of you. I mean, two guys. I got here, went to the door and was about to knock, but I saw you guys through the window.”

  She tipped her head toward the window to the right of the front door.

  Nix frowned. “What did you see?”

  She glanced up at me through those dark lashes. A hint of pain. Embarrassment. “You came out of Nix’s bedroom in just a towel.”

  I thought back. Nix had called me, told me Kit was coming over. That it was the night to tell her how we felt. To hope she felt the same way. But she never came, and we never saw her again. Until now.

  “I remember that,” I replied. “I helped someone with a flat tire on the way over. The weather had warmed up so the snow had melted some. It was sloppy. By the time I was done, I was muddy and wet. I got dirt and grease all over myself and my clothes. I took a shower to get cleaned up.”

  “My guest bathroom was gutted then in the remodel,” Nix added. “He used the master.”

  “But I saw you,” she said to me. “You said something to Nix. I couldn’t hear obviously since the windows were closed, but you were both smiling. Then you… you—”

  “I what?” I asked, watching her blush furiously.

  “You were hard. Even from the porch, I couldn’t miss it beneath the towel.”

  I grinned. “I’m big, Kitty Kat.”

  She rolled her eyes and smiled a little.

  “I was hard for you. To finally tell you how I felt.”

  “How we felt,” Nix clarified.

  I sighed. “I’m sure we were talking about how we were going to get you naked and in bed. Which one of us was going to eat your pussy first.” Shifting my hips, I prodded her with my dick. “See? Just talking about it makes me even harder.”

  “But then… then you went into the bedroom together,” she added. “What was I supposed to think?”

  “That I pulled a pair of gym shorts and t-shirt from my clean laundry pile for him?” Nix asked.

  I could see her mind starting to work, to doubt what she’d believed. “Besides that, there was the table.”

  “Table?” Nix wondered.

  She looked to him, pointed toward the dining room table. “Wine. Fancy plates. Like a date.”

  “Exactly. Three place settings,” I said on an ex
hale, having set the table myself before I got in the shower.

  “You invited me for chili!” she all but shouted at Nix, pushing off my lap.

  I let her get up, let her pace. She was realizing the mistake had cost us all. I felt her frustration since it matched my own.

  “Then there were candles! With Donovan in a towel and with a raging hard on, I thought you were into each other.”

  I could see where she could have jumped to the conclusion.

  “I figured you were going to tell me your secret, that you were… together. In a way, I was happy for you, that you found each other, that you were together, but sad because I’d misunderstood. I left because I felt like a fool, but also to give you space to do your thing.”

  I glared at Nix. “I told you, fucker. Chili isn’t what you serve the woman you want to claim.”

  Nix ground his teeth together. Took a moment before he spoke. “Donovan told me off about the stupid chili earlier in the day, that it wasn’t good enough for our first pseudo-date with you. He made me pull out the candles my mother insisted I have in the house. Donovan brought carry-out out from that Italian place you like.”

  She looked between us. “Then you’re not… you don’t… you’re not gay.”

  I grinned, pleased to see how relieved she was at the idea, that we knew now—from her very lips—that she was into both of us. Still.

  “The only time I’m getting buck naked with Nix is if you’re between us.”

  Her mouth fell open and she looked down at the two of us. Stunned. Happy. Something.

  “Weren’t those kisses earlier enough proof?” I asked. We’d talked. We’d clarified. It was time to move on to more pleasurable things. My dick had been blue since the night she mentioned over a year ago. I’d wanted her then. I wanted her now.

  She grinned then. So fucking beautiful. She shook her head. “No. I think I need more.”

  Reaching out, I grabbed her hand, tugged her into my lap again, one of her knees settling on either side of my hips so she straddled me. “That can be arranged. Right, Nix?”

  It was my turn to pick her up and carry her. This time to Nix’s room. To his bed. Nothing was going to keep us from making her ours now.