He didn’t say a word as he reached down between my legs and moved my panties to one side. I gasped as he slid a finger inside me, twisting and curling it until it rubbed my g-spot.
“Ahh…” A shaky breath escaped.
“Do you like that, Little Red?”
“Yes, yes, yes…”
He added a second finger, pumping them both into me hard and fast. I swayed forward and put out my hands, catching myself on the glass.
“What do you want?” His voice was a quiet rumble, full of the promise of sex. “Tell me.”
“I want to come,” I said immediately.
“What do you want me to do to you?” he clarified.
“Make me come,” I said. “Fingers, mouth, cock, I don’t care. I need to come so badly. I need you to take me out of my head, make me forget about everything else. I just want to think about you and how you make me feel and not have to worry about work or finding a place to live or…”
My run of words disappeared into a yelp as Cai sunk his teeth into my ass. He hadn’t broken skin, but he hadn’t been gentle either. It was exactly what I needed though. The shock of it jerked me out of my head and took me to that lovely place where I didn’t have to think or plan but could simply let go and give Cai control over all of me.
I cried out as a finger invaded my ass, the burn sudden, providing the spark I needed to reach my first climax of the night. He worked both of his hands, using those long, skilled fingers of his to push me from one orgasm into a second without pause.
When he finally removed his fingers, my knees buckled. He caught me around the waist and swung me up into his arms. He carried me into the bedroom we’d claimed and laid me on the bed. My body was still limp as he rolled me onto my side and pulled my knees up to my chest.
I was vaguely aware of him removing his clothes, but it wasn’t until I felt the tip of his cock nudging at my pussy that I completely came back to the present. He leaned over me, one arm under my knees to keep my body folded in half, and he nipped my earlobe.
“We’re going to work that ass open soon, Little Red,” he promised.
Before I could respond, he snapped his hips forward, sending my muscles into convulsions as they struggled to adapt to a position they didn’t understand. I started to wail, but Cai’s hand quickly covered my mouth.
“Shh, Little Red. Don’t want Jax and Syll running up here, thinking you’re in trouble.”
As he drove into me, his body colliding with mine over and over, I didn’t care about Jax and Syll. In fact, I was confident that if they did see us, they’d completely understand why I was making those sounds. This position made me tighter than usual, and Cai was far from small. Still, I wouldn’t trade the pain-edged pleasure for anything.
Time melted away, and all I knew was the feel of sweat-slicked skin slipping and muscles straining and oh my fucking –
“Cai!!” I screamed against his hand as my vision went white.
“Not yet,” he said through gritted teeth.
I could feel the tension in him, everything taut and ready to snap, but he didn’t falter. He was in perfect control as he sent me from brilliant light to a graying darkness, my brain shutting down as it found itself incapable of processing anything more.
When I came to, I was still curled on my side, and he was softening inside me. His cock slipped out as he lay down behind me, wrapping his body around mine. I kissed his arm, too exhausted to reach anything else.
“I love you,” he said as he smoothed curls back from my face.
“I love you too.”
I’d never imagined saying those words or having them said back to me, but now I couldn’t imagine living without them. Not for the sake of the words alone, but because of who said them.
“You know,” he said slowly, “I’ve been thinking. It doesn’t make sense for us to try to find two different places to live.”
I turned my head, so I could see his face. “What are you saying, Cai?”
He rested his forehead on mine. “I want to fall asleep like this and wake up together. I want us to eat our meals and go to work together.”
I tried not to feel too much hope. “I think I’m going to need you to spell this out so there’s no misunderstanding.”
“I want you to move in with me,” he said without any hesitation. “Or, more accurately, I want us to find a place together. I know it’s fast, but you’ve seen Jax and Syll, and they’re engaged after just one month. You and I are just as well-matched as they are, if not better. We’ve shared space before, plus we do it at work too.”
This was crazy, but so was every other part of our lives that had brought us together. It was that, as much as anything else, that made me smile. “Yes.”
“Yes?” His face lit up with a huge smile.
I nodded, rolling over so that we were facing each other. I pressed my mouth to his, a quick, heated kiss. “Yes, Cai. I want to live with you. I don’t care what anyone else thinks. We belong together.”
He slid his hands down to grasp my ass and yank me tight against him. “Damn right we do.”
Our decision didn’t mean everything would magically work itself out, or that the tension between the brothers would resolve itself, but it did mean that we wouldn’t be facing any of it alone, and that was more than good enough for me.
The Hunter Brothers continues in Slade’s story, His Hunger. Turn the page to start reading.
Prologue
Manfred
For nearly two weeks, I’d been debating what to do with the information Officer March had given me.
Some days, throwing out the contact information for private investigator Bartholomew Constantine seemed to be the best course of action. Captain Hartman himself had assured me that the police department had done a thorough investigation and determined that the crash had been an accident. Horrible, yes, but still an accident.
I supposed that was what kept me holding on to the PI’s information. I hadn’t yet decided if it was better that my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter had died in a tragic accident, or if they’d been murdered as Officer March suggested. A mishap, unintentional misfortune, offered a sort of closure that homicide often didn’t. With an accident, there was no one to blame, no wait for justice that might not come.
Was it worth putting Olive and the boys through an investigation that may not yield results? I didn’t know.
As I struggled to remember how to be a father to young children, these were the thoughts that continued to plague me. Olive would have asked me to share with her, to lighten my load, but her grief had consumed her so fully that the only time she was aware of the world was when caring for the boys. Usually so tuned in to my emotions that she often recognized a problem before I did, she only now saw what we’d lost. I couldn’t burden her with this.
“Give it back!”
The angry demand pulled my attention from my thoughts, and I pushed myself up out of my chair with a sigh. Olive had retired to our room for a nap to rid herself of a migraine, and we’d yet to find a nanny who could handle four boys under the age of eight, which left me to deal with whatever was going on in the next room.
As I reached the doorway, I was struck once again with how much we’d all lost, my grandsons’ innocence most of all. The shell-shocked expressions they’d worn for days had faded, but they weren’t the same as they’d been before that day. The loss of their parents and their sister, Aimee, had changed them all on a profound level.
“Blake, you can’t take Slade’s car. It’s his.” The oldest, Jax, crouched in front of his youngest brother as he patiently explained the importance of asking for permission.
“But I want it,” Blake said stubbornly.
“I know you want it, Blake, but we don’t always get what we want.”
A sharp pang of grief went through me at Jax’s simple, but true, statement.
“It’s okay,” Slade spoke up. “Blake can play with it now.”
Slade was the most like their
mother, Abigail, out of all the boys. He had her thick, dark brown hair that refused to obey a comb, and her easy personality. When he smiled, his cheeks dimpled, the same way Abigail’s and Aimee’s had, but I hadn’t seen Slade’s smile since the accident.
“He’s gotta learn,” Jax insisted.
Slade shrugged. “I don’t want it anymore.”
He was lying, I knew, trying to smooth things over so that neither brother would be upset.
“Is everything all right in here?” I asked as I stepped into the room.
Three pairs of blue eyes turned toward me, each one similar enough to their father’s that it made my throat close. Cai didn’t raise his head from the massive book on his lap. I hoped he hadn’t gotten into another one of the old nursing textbooks that had made their way into the boxes of belongings we’d brought into the house. He hadn’t had nightmares, but some of the things in those books weren’t appropriate for a seven-year-old.
“It’s fine, Grandfather,” Slade said. “I’m letting Blake play with my car.”
I waited to see if Jax would counter the point, but he didn’t say a word. I knew I should talk to Blake, but now, everything was peaceful, and I was too exhausted to break that up.
“I’m going to speak with the cook about dinner,” I said instead. “Is there anything special any of you want?”
“Hot dogs and ‘pasketi,” Blake insisted vehemently. Everyone groaned. His menu suggestion had been the exact same every day since the accident.
Jax rolled his eyes. “You can’t keep eating that. You gotta eat good food too.”
“Can’t make me.”
“Can too.”
I held up my hand. “Boys.”
All the boys stared up at me, eyes wide. I’d spoken loud enough to get through to Cai too.
“Blake can have hot dogs and ‘pasketi, right?” Slade asked, anxiety written on his little face. “Mom made it for him all the time.”
“Mom’s not here!” Jax snapped, his face turning red. “Her and Dad are dead, and they are never coming back because Dad crashed the stupid car!”
“That’s enough!” I thundered. “Jax, go to your room!”
He gave me a mutinous look but did as he was told. Cai’s face was pale, but he didn’t say or do anything as Slade sniffed back tears. Blake looked like he was trying to decide between crying and throwing something – probably Slade’s car, clenched tight in his chubby fist.
“I’m sorry for making Jax mad,” Slade said, rubbing the back of his hand across his eyes.
“That’s not your fault,” I said gruffly. I’d never been any good at comfort. “We all just miss your mom and dad and sister.”
Slade turned his face up toward me, tears streaming down his cheeks, and asked, “Why? Why’d they get dead?”
I couldn’t hug him and tell him everything was going to be okay because I didn’t know that it would. I couldn’t offer him the hugs and kisses he’d lost when his parents died.
I could, however, talk to Bartholomew Constantine, and hire him to dig up the truth.
I owed it to myself, to Olive, and to the boys. Whatever the PI found would be better than never knowing for certain what happened that day.
One
Slade
Twenty-Four Years Later…
I’d been kicking myself all day for accepting my brother’s invitation to meet. When I left Boston after Grandfather’s funeral, I’d promised myself that I was done with my family. I didn’t care about the money from the estate or the family company. I had a life in El Paso, and it didn’t involve the Hunter family.
Except now, I was sitting across from my older brother, Cai, and his gorgeous co-worker, wondering how the hell I’d gotten myself here. I’d applied for a DEA position more than half the country away from home…from what had been home. It wasn’t anymore. I was a Texan now. And I’d done it to avoid uncomfortable dinners like this where we all pretended there was anything left of our family.
“I’m a Northern myself.” The redhead Cai had introduced as Addison Kilar leaned on the table. A moment later, she blushed and leaned back, glancing around as if worried that someone would chide her for poor posture. “Was it difficult to adjust when you moved here? I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the differences between Minnesota and Georgia.”
I shifted in my seat, giving her the lazy smile that had always made girls and women melt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cai’s eyes narrow, and he reached over to twist a few wild curls back behind her ear. He’d been touching her every few minutes since the moment they’d arrived, and whether he realized it or not, he was staking a claim on her.
Not that he had anything to worry about from me. I wasn’t interested in her. Sure, if I’d seen her sitting alone at a bar or in a club, I’d have hit on her if I was in the mood to fuck, but I’d never consider going after a woman who was connected to one of my brothers.
“I spent my first eight months after boot camp in a place that makes Texas summers feel like a cool spring day.” I chuckled even though I didn’t really find anything amusing. Sometimes, I felt like it wasn’t even second nature anymore, but that the mask I wore was my true nature.
“What made you decide to go into the army?” she asked.
The interest on her face was genuine, but I wasn’t foolish enough to mistake it for interest in me. They might have said that they were colleagues, but if they weren’t more than that soon, then Cai wasn’t as intelligent as I’d always thought.
I shrugged, picking up the last pear and popping it into my mouth. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school, but I did know what I didn’t want to do, and that was work at Harper Enterprises.” I gestured to Cai. “He was always the smart one, always wanting to be a doctor or scientist. The army seemed like it’d give me something to do while I figured stuff out.”
Addison laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone describe the army quite like that.”
“Stick around,” I said with a wink, “I’ll say a lot you’ve never heard before.”
Cai shot me a dirty look, and I wondered if I’d pushed him too far. Well, maybe he needed a kick in the ass to make him go after the woman he wanted. And if he didn’t, then he shouldn’t have called me.
* * *
That was…interesting.
After the first half hour or so, Cai had started to relax – or at least as relaxed as my big brother ever got – and I realized why he’d wanted us to meet. He was reaching out. After twenty-four years, he was finally reaching out to me. Not just me though. He’d called Jax. Twice. That was almost as shocking as the fact that Jax had taken the call.
The only person I’d ever seen work more than Jax was Grandfather. I hadn’t been surprised at all when I’d walked into Grandfather’s hospital room and had seen Jax sitting in a corner with a laptop and a stack of paper.
And now Jax was engaged and planning to build a BDSM club with his fiancée.
Seeing my brothers for the first time in three years, I’d been more convinced than ever that nothing would change. Even the short conversation we’d had about Club Privé hadn’t been enough to make me think that we’d ever be at the point where Grandfather’s stipulations for our inheritance would be fulfilled.
I’d felt justified in my decision to isolate myself, but after seeing Cai trying to get to know me again and hearing that Jax was opening lines of communication…I didn’t want to hope, but I couldn’t help myself.
It was still early when I arrived home, and the sounds of the kids playing outside made me smile. The complex where I lived was average when it came to price and quality, and about half of the people who lived here had kids. I’d taken one of the smaller units, cheaper than what I could afford, but a perfect size to convey to any woman I brought home that I wasn’t searching for someone to start a family with.
“Slade!”
I turned just in time to catch the wiry six-year-old who launched himself at me, laughing. He smelled like c
hlorine, and I swallowed a scowl. Temperatures in the mid-sixties in February didn’t make for good swimming weather. It was still cold enough at night that the water wasn’t going to be warm.
“I did a cannonball!” he practically shouted in my ear.
“You did?” I shifted his cold, wet body to one side. “Why?”
He grinned, his enthusiasm infectious. “Mickey dared me to.”
Ah, things made sense now. Mickey was his ten-year-old sister who was forever getting him into trouble.
“Dennis,” I said, giving him my serious look, “do you remember what we talked about? About Mickey and her dares?”
He ducked his head. “That just because Mickey dares me to do something, doesn’t mean I should do it.”
“And why is that?”
“‘Cuz Mickey thinks it’s funny to get me in trouble.”
I nodded, then ruffled the boy’s hair. “So, when Mickey dares you to do something, what are you supposed to do?”
“Think first,” he answered obediently.
“Exactly.”
I held out my hand for a fist bump. Once the bump ritual was complete, I put Dennis down and sent him running down the sidewalk to where his harried-looking mother waited. I waved at her, and she made a motion with her hand that might’ve been a wave too.
I let myself into my apartment, tugging my shirt over my head as I went. I liked the kid, but I couldn’t remember how many times I’d had to change my clothes because he’d jumped into my arms covered with mud or sand or soaked like he was tonight. Still, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
On the occasions when his enthusiasm and boundless energy annoyed me, I just remembered how I’d met him, and it put things into perspective.
I’d been living here for a week but hadn’t had time to get my bearings until a sunny Saturday morning. It’d been early enough that not many other people had been up, and I’d been enjoying the relative quiet. My walk had been taking me toward an apartment with a patio full of toys when I’d heard something from above me.
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