“Julia.” Dev thrust into her as his hands caressed her arms. “Baby doll, you’ll make me lose control.”
“Me, too,” Drew said.
His hands clutched her hips with a strength that thrilled her, that added to an arousal that soared higher than high.
She surrendered completely to the feral, becoming a woman of Eros. She flexed, she swayed, her hips assuming a dance to music only the three of them could hear. Basic, primal, their mating harkened back to the dawn of humankind, to the scent of the campfire and the call of nature, to the very essence of the animal within.
“Jesus…I can’t control…”
Drew’s words could have been Dev’s as well for she felt both men fighting to hold back the force with which they took her.
“Don’t hold back. Just take me. Damn it, take me hard!”
She heard the snap of their control as both men shouted, cursed, and began to thrust in her hard and fast and deep. From deep inside, from that place where she felt two hard cocks nearly meet, her orgasm erupted, bubbling, roiling, an explosion so intense, so beautiful, Julia could only shiver and scream.
Wave after wave of rapture captured her, melding her into her lovers. It burned their essences into her. Never again would she be alone, or lonely. Never again would she feel unloved.
They came inside her, flooding her body as they’d already flooded her heart and her soul, and the heat, the racing of their seed took her to a new level of ecstasy.
Slowly, gently, the orgasm ebbed. The pounding of hearts—hers and Dev’s—and the struggle for breath as they all three luxuriated in the aftermath filled her hearing, the sweetest symphony she’d ever heard.
“You’re going to kill us, sweetheart. Swear to God.” Dev’s words puffed against her hair.
Drew tented her, though he didn’t give her his weight. “No one has ever made me lose control. Only you, kitten. You’re the only one who’s managed that.”
“You rob me of control, my darlings. So right back at you.”
“Julia.” Drew bent down and kissed her shoulder. He eased out of her and then got off the bed. She listened to the sound of his bare feet padding in the bathroom. In moments he returned and gently cleaned her with a warm cloth. He bent down and dried her by blowing warm air on her. She shivered, and both men chuckled.
Dev lifted her and set her on the bed beside him. Drew lifted the top sheet from the floor and covered them before crawling in so that Julia was in her favorite place to be—between them.
“How’s your head and shoulder?” Dev asked. He turned so that he could look down at her.
“Headache is a dull throb and the shoulder is tender, I won’t lie to you. But I’m stronger than you think,” she teased.
“Pretty hard for you to be, since we both think you’re the strongest woman we’ve ever known,” Drew said.
“Damn straight.” Dev bent down and placed a chaste kiss on her lips. “Which is why I have no qualms telling you, as soon as that shoulder bruise fades and you no longer need aspirins, we are going to spank you.”
“You scared the living hell out of us, kitten, facing off against a drug dealer.” Drew also kissed her.
Lying on her back, she could look up and see both men’s expressions. They looked smitten—and fierce.
“I’m sorry you were scared. I love that you were scared. And you probably should know that if a similar situation ever arises, I’d likely do the same thing all over again.”
“Because it’s the Benedict way?” Dev asked.
Julia shrugged her shoulders and then winced. “Partly because it’s the Benedict way. And partly because I’m mostly wired that way. If someone I love is in danger, or in need, I’m there.”
Dev sighed. He looked over at Drew. “It would seem our woman matches us in spirit, brother. I predict she’s going to give us fits, over and over again for the next sixty or seventy years.”
“I think you’re right,” Drew said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Would you?”
“Hell, no.”
They both grinned at her. Julia tried to contain her own smile. “That all seems only fair. I have a feeling that the two of you are going to prove more than a handful, and will keep me hopping for just that long.”
“And would you have it any other way?” Dev asked.
“Hell, no.” She mimicked his words.
“At least our lives together won’t be staid and boring,” Drew said.
Julia couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Trust me, there just might come the day when you wished it was.”
Her two lovers looked at each other, then down at her. Their eyes held so much love she felt her own eyes tear.
“Never going to happen. You’re perfect for us. We’re the luckiest men in the world.”
Julia reached up, and stroked each of their beloved faces with hands that trembled with emotion. She knew the truth, and had to set them straight.
“I’m the lucky one. I’ve discovered I adore making love under two Navy SEALs. That—and the two of you—are worth anything and everything.”
Chapter 22
Had it only been a month since Julia had come here, to Lusty Appetites, to celebrate Tracy and Jordan and Peter’s engagement?
Oh, how she remembered that evening! She’d believed herself finally “over” the two men who’d sailed into her life and turned her world upside down. Until Grandma Kate had announced she’d rented a house to two Navy SEALs. And she’d understood she wasn’t over them at all, and in fact, never would be.
Thank God.
Julia inhaled deeply, the aroma of Tracy’s fabulous cream puffs, fresh coffee, and something positively savory smelling that her cousin Kelsey must have just taken from the oven, making her mouth water. Those scents spoke of comfort and home, as much as the people gathering tonight in celebration did.
Usually, she didn’t enjoy being the center of attention. Tonight was different. Tonight was a celebration—in her mind not of her, but of the enduring legacy handed down, generation after generation, ever since two gunslingers named Benedict agreed to escort a young bride named Sarah from Chicago to Waco, Texas.
Julia let the sense of history surround her, even as the aroma of food surrounded her.
The food smelled really good. Her tummy grumbled, as if begging for a handout.
On each side of her, her big, imposing, and impossibly attentive fiancés snickered knowingly.
Just as she had the last time she’d attended a party here, she’d arrived home later than she’d planned to from work, and had been faced with the choice—making love with her men, or dinner.
Julia smiled. That really hadn’t been much of a choice at all.
“Are you hungry, baby doll?” Dev asked.
“Only for food,” she said. Although if he kept talking to her in that bedroom-sexy voice, that certainly would change.
Outside the large picture window that formed the restaurant’s “storefront,” the lights of Lusty began to twinkle on as dusk fell. The party had just officially gotten underway, and already friends and family gathered, laughing and smiling, bringing hugs and kisses and best wishes, joyfully celebrating yet another new beginning in their town.
Kelsey rearranged the seating, as Julia learned she always did, so that the happy, newly engaged triad could have plenty of room to receive all those best wishes. A flash of movement caught her eye, and Julia looked up and out the front window. Seeing her parents, she smiled. They approached the restaurant, deep in conversation, and walking hand in hand in hand.
Once inside, the Benedicts wasted no time making their way over to her and her husbands to be.
“Well now, I probably shouldn’t say this, but I had almost given up on you, darling.” Her father Michael reached her first and gave her a big hug and a smacking kiss.
“Michael! What a thing to say to your only daughter.” Abigail’s words may have chastised, but Julia thought the effect was negated by the laughter in her eyes.
&nbs
p; Her dad shot her mother a cheeky-looking grin. “It’s only the truth, Abby.” Then he met Julia’s gaze. “I was worried when you seemed intent to only date men with little substance, and then only one man at a time—well, except for that one time back when you were in college. But you’ve proven to us all you were just waiting for the very best.”
To say that Dev and Drew had hit it off with her parents would be an understatement. Her mother, of course, adored them at first meeting. Julia had always known that’s how it would be. If she loved them, her mother would, too.
She’d never felt confident trying to predict what her dads’ reactions would be.
Likely because my brothers are such a reflection of them.
But her fathers surprised her. She wouldn’t have thought the retired oil executive and the retired college professor would have had anything in common with a couple of Navy SEALs—but then they’d all bonded over the engine of Michael’s car, and gone on to cement that connection during a Houston Rockets game against New Jersey.
There’d been occasions over the last couple of weeks when Julia thought that her fathers just might be looking forward to her commitment ceremony even more than she was.
Now, Dev extended his hand to Michael Benedict. “Thank you, sir. We both consider the family that we’re marrying into to be the best possible bonus we could ever imagine.”
“It’s not all that common, for two men who aren’t brothers, or who didn’t grow up here in Lusty, to be willing to make a family together with one special woman.” Carson Benedict stood next to his brother Michael, and met first Dev’s gaze, and then Drew’s. “In the last couple of weeks, Michael and I have gotten to know you both. We believe the two of you will be able to manage the sometimes delicate balancing act that will be required of you as you begin your lives together as the husbands to our daughter.”
Drew stroked his hand down Julia’s back while Dev took her hand. In that moment she felt such warmth, and such a connection to both of her men.
“Dev and I have been to hell and back together. As you know, we met in basic training—but for each of us, from that first moment, it was as if we’d known each other all of our lives. And even though we hold the same rank, I’ve always looked to Dev for leadership.” He paused, met Dev’s gaze, and looked back at her fathers. “We’ll both take very good care of your daughter, sirs.”
“We know you will. We’re very proud and delighted to welcome you to our family,” Carson said.
“Thank you, sir. That means a lot to both of us,” Dev said.
Julia thought Dev’s voice sounded more than a little strained. She knew her men, and understood they weren’t used to the parental caring and concern her folks and the aunts and uncles had already begun to heap on them.
Someone turned a radio on, tuning in to the country music station Julia listened to most often, and while no one would likely get up and start to dance, the party atmosphere was now firmly in place.
More family arrived, and the noise level escalated. Laughter formed an opus all its own, a wonderful sound Julia would never tire of hearing. The door opened again and again, and the three of them were kept busy greeting everyone.
“I was just beginning to get used to having you home again.” Her Aunt Bernice hugged her tightly. “But I guess you’ll be pulling up stakes once your men get transferred. It’s only natural, and it’s right.”
“Actually, we won’t be getting transferred, ma’am.” Dev bent down to give her aunt a kiss on the cheek. “We’ll be stationed at Goodfellow for the foreseeable future, as instructors.”
“Then, when this tour of duty is done, we thought we might open a security-training business—there’s a market for preparing people who want to become bodyguards,” Drew said.
“Well, that’s good news,” Bernice said. “What with Carson, Mike, and Abigail moving back from New York, and my own Matt here for good, it looks as if Lusty will once more boast a full slate of Benedicts.”
Aunt Bernice smiled from ear to ear with the prospect of being surrounded by so much family. Julia’s uncles also smiled, but she thought she saw a light of calculation in their eyes—which they confirmed moments later.
“Maybe you’d be interested in doing more than just training other people to do the job.” Caleb Benedict shook Dev’s hand, hugged her, then moved down the line and shook Drew’s hand, too. “You know, your business and ours could complement each other very well.”
“You’re right, they could,” Drew said. “You can be certain that before we make the move from military service to private enterprise, we’ll be sure to speak with the three of you. We’re going to need some pointers on how to go about things.”
“There’s lots of room in that new hangar for another business,” her uncle Jonathan said. “We’d be pleased to have you there.”
There were many things Julia loved about her men, and one of them was just this, the way they both were not only patient, but respectful of her family members. They truly valued the older members of her family, and what a joy that was for her.
Ginny Rose came over carrying a tray filled with soft drinks, a plate of hors d’oeuvres, and a saucer that held a ham-and-cheese sandwich.
“There’s a rumor going around hereabouts that you missed dinner,” Ginny said as she set the saucer down in front of her.
“I did, thanks! I’m starving.” Julia grabbed up the sandwich and bit into it gratefully. Dev reached out and wiped a tiny smudge of mustard off the corner of her mouth.
She loved parties, but one heated look from one of her men was all it took to have her craving some two-on-one time.
It didn’t take her long to polish off the ham and cheese. Sweet tea in hand, she turned when she heard someone whistling “Another One Bites The Dust.” Her cousin Josh, accompanied by his brother Alex and their fiancée Penelope had arrived. Josh had been the whistler, and grinned as soon as their gazes met.
“Yep, we’re dropping like flies.” Josh Benedict winked to show he was only kidding. He gave her a huge hug, lifting her off her feet to plant a loud, smacking kiss right on her laughing mouth.
“It’s shocking,” Alex agreed. “Like some kind of killer plague or something. Maybe we should have the water tested. What do you say, sweetheart?” Alex looked at Penelope. “That would be right up your environmental alley, wouldn’t it?”
Julia shook her head and her finger at her cousins once she was on the ground again. “I’d have thought that being engaged, and mere weeks from getting married would have somehow improved your social graces,” she said.
To her credit, Penelope didn’t seem the least bit offended by the geeks’ tactless observations.
“This is improved,” the petite black-haired beauty said. She gave Julia a hug, and then stood back. Julia understood the woman was taking in the picture she, Dev, and Drew made.
“You have to hand it to Grandma Kate. She sure knows how to pick ’em,” Penelope said.
Julia had heard the whispers about her grandmother somehow playing matchmaker to all and sundry. She shook her head.
“No, Grandma Kate had nothing to do with our getting together. I met Dev and Drew when I worked on one of the committees connected to Fleet Week in New York last year. They were assigned by their boss to be the Navy’s liaisons. ”
Penelope tilted her head to one side and gave her a look she could only characterize as “pitying.” Then she raised one eyebrow and looked rather pointedly at Dev.
Julia caught the almost blush, and the way both men seemed suddenly fascinated by the floor.
She felt her jaw drop as she set her gaze on each of her lovers in turn, and then looked back at Penelope. Something was definitely up.
“Do you think it was just a coincidence that Grandma Kate rented the house next door to yours to them?” her almost-cousin asked.
Julia looked at each of her men in turn, and saw the truth of Penelope’s assessment on their faces.
“You never did ask us, kitten, ho
w we came to be in Lusty,” Drew said. “If you had, we would have told you.”
Obviously having decided that staring at the floor wasn’t going to win them any points, her Navy SEALs now looked at her, each wearing smiles designed to soften her heart.
They were working, too.
“And just how in the world did you find my grandmother in the first place?” Julia asked.
“Oh, they didn’t find me, sweetheart. I found them.”
Julia spun around, because she hadn’t seen Grandma Kate come in, and hadn’t noticed the diminutive woman had come to stand behind her.
“You found them?”
“Why, of course I did. Since they were looking for you, it wasn’t very hard. After you came to visit me on the Fourth of July weekend, why, then, I knew I had to do something.”
Julia appreciated that her grandmother was trying to be diplomatic and not reveal every little detail of that visit to Dev and Drew.
Both men looked at Julia with curiosity alive in their eyes.
So, too, did fully half of the family members in attendance.
Julia recalled very well how upset she’d been that weekend. It was the weekend after they’d simply vanished, the weekend after they’d spent the night together and Julia had awakened to the truth. She’d fallen in love with them. Julia remembered crying on her grandmother’s shoulder, and her grandmother pouring hot buttered rum into her to help her sleep.
Of course her grandmother would have felt she had to do something. That was the Benedict way.
Julia felt the eyes of her unattached cousins on her as they watched, waiting for what she would say. She looked over and saw some of her other cousins—Matt and Steven, Morgan and Henry, Josh and Alex, all looking at her, laughter in their eyes.
“Thanks, Grandma Kate.” Julia wrapped her arms around her. The strength of Grandma Kate’s hugs always surprised her. She kissed the aged cheek, soft as baby’s skin, and stepped back. “Thanks for looking out for me. Thanks for making sure I had a second chance to grab my happiness.”
“You’re very welcome, sweetheart.” Grandma Kate reached up and cupped Julia’s cheek. “I only want you, and all my grandchildren, to be happy.”
Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Navy SEALs [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 22