by Jenny Penn
He slammed out the back door, no doubt headed for the main pipe’s cut-off valve. It was an asshole thing to do, but then Brett was known to be an ass. Hailey was known to be meaner, which was just why Mike turned his attention back to the paper in his hands.
He was content to let his siblings settle their dispute between each other. Besides, there was actual news in the newspaper for a change. Lana Vey had confessed to arson last night. Lana Vey. Now there was a looker. She’d been real friendly during high school. Hell, more than friendly.
She’d been creative.
She’d also been Brett and Mike’s first shared girl. That wasn’t shocking. Lana had been a lot of men’s first something. She got around and her reputation had preceded her. Apparently, though, the scarlet letter A they were pinning on her wasn’t for adultery, but arson.
As if that wasn’t weird enough, she hadn’t just confessed to any fire. Lana had confessed to setting the barn fire that Patton Jones had nearly died in. Mike didn’t need the paper to tell him that Lana and Patton were long-time archenemies. He knew their story already and could well imagine how Chase was feeling that morning because he was the thing that the two women fought over.
Unfortunately for Lana, she’d never stood a chance of winning that war. Mike, Brett, and Chase had been friends from the cradle. Mike knew that the only woman Chase had ever or would ever love was Patton, which was a little weird actually.
They’d known the Davis brothers since they’d been in diapers. Their bond went deeper than mere friendship. They’d formed a family of sorts, all five men having the same problem in common—no-good dads and ailing mothers. That meant it had been up to all five of them to watch out for Patton and Hailey.
It might have been years since Mike had seen Patton, but he still thought of her as another little sister. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t anybody’s sister, at least not by blood. That was the way he felt. That made it weird for him to think of her with the men considered to be almost like brothers.
Weird, though, seemed to be the mood of the day. As if Lana’s confession weren’t enough to keep the gossips’ tongues wagging for the next several weeks, there had also been a murder in town. There hadn’t been a murder since Chase’s daddy had stuck a knife into Patton’s daddy’s heart all those years back.
Nobody knew what that had been about, but there were a lot of rumors. Mike figured there would be even more now, given there was no suspect or person of interest as of yet. There was no doubt it was a murder, too. Gwen Harold had been found with her head bashed in, which was just a damn shame, given the picture the paper ran.
She was quite a looker, and Mike was looking. After three weeks spent on a boat with nothing other men and fish, he wouldn’t have turned down a little female companionship right about then. An easy woman, one who knew how to make a man sweat, that was what he needed. That was what he liked. Mike knew of a club full of just the right type of women.
The sound of running water in the background falling silent had him glancing up as, a second later, Brett slammed back into the kitchen. His twin paused to catch Mike’s gaze and issue a maniacal-sounding laugh. Brett was enjoying himself, which wasn’t shocking. Harassing their sister had always been one of Brett’s favorite pastimes, one he indulged in with glee.
Brett took off for the bathroom, hollering out to Hailey as he taunted her with a bold gloat that would, no doubt, have their sister squawking all over the place as she pitched a fit like she was still eight…or, maybe, she wouldn’t.
Mike glanced up in confusion as Hailey stepped in through the back door. She shot him a smile and opened her mouth to offer him a greeting that got cut off by the sound of Brett demanding she get her ass out of the bathroom now. As the words echoed through the house, Hailey’s smile took on a wicked curl, and Mike knew instantly that Brett was walking into a trap.
“Brett! No!”
Not even certain what the danger was, Mike still nearly fell out of his seat as he scrambled to catch his brother before it was too late. All he managed, though, was to get ensnared in Hailey’s trap himself.
Mike burst into the hall at the very same moment the bathroom door flew open. There stood Angelina Montes, wearing nothing but the towel wrapped around her head and the sunlight beaming through the bathroom window. She was all golden tanned and curved to perfection with long, silky black strands of hair dripping water down her body.
Despite the warning screaming through his head to shut his eyes and block out the image, Mike’s gaze locked on a single glistening bead of water and tracked it as it slid down between the gloriously big mounds of her breasts. They lifted with each breath she took, setting more droplets into motion and drawing attention to the luscious-looking pink nipples all puckered and begging to be played with.
God help him, Mike was all but drooling with the sudden intense need to take a taste of those puppies. They looked soft and tanned, just the way he liked his tits. Actually that was the way he liked his women, and Angie fit that bill. She was long and toned and so damn perfectly built that it made him ache to simply touch her, but he didn’t dare.
Angie came with a price.
She wanted a wedding and had made that clear well years ago. Mike could still remember that day. She’d been sixteen and bossy as hell. She sure as shit hadn’t looked like this. Mike’s fingers curled into fists as his eyes slid down over the gentle flare of her tummy and hips to the smooth, naked mound of her cunt. Not a single hair marred the sight of the plump, swollen lips of her pussy and the cream dripping from them.
She was hot and ready to be fucked.
He was hard and aching to give it to her.
“Hey, boys. Bathroom’s free.”
With that, she turned to saunter down the hall, the full globes of her ass bouncing with each step as her hair swooshed, a hypnotic lure. Like a dog on a leash, Brett jerked forward, no doubt ready to either pick a fight or fuck it out. That was just his nature. There was only one way to stop him.
Mike latched onto his brother’s shoulder, jerking him back hard enough to send Brett, flailing, down to the floor. His brother crashed into the wood planks, sending a shudder racing down the walls of the hall. At the end, Angie paused to glance back, and Mike caught the smug smirk that tugged at her lips before she disappeared into Hailey’s room.
Hailey!
This was her doing. Turning with a swiftness that had saved his life more than once, Mike pinned his sister with a glare that would have had most people cowering in fear. Not Hailey. She stood there in the doorway to the kitchen, grinning as if she’d just won the lottery.
“What did you do?” Mike stalked forward, forcing Hailey back into the kitchen in a blatant attempt to intimidate her, a blatant and pointless attempt.
“What?” Hailey blinked innocently, even as she gave way, retreating toward the coffeemaker and snatching up Brett’s mug in the process.
“Don’t what me, young lady,” Mike snapped, not in the mood for Hailey’s games. “Why is Angie walking around my house naked?”
“Your house?” That gave Hailey pause as she turned to snort at him. “Ha! Check the deed, my dear brother, because your name is not on it.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Brett roared as he came charging into the kitchen and into the middle of their conversation. “Why is that woman in my bathroom?”
“It’s not yours,” Mike informed him, drawing Brett’s outraged glare in his direction. “Your name’s not on the deed.”
“What?”
“I’m just saying.” Mike held his hands up in surrender. “Our dear sister is the sole owner of this here house.”
Brett held Mike’s gaze for a long second before he turned back toward Hailey. “You got thirty seconds before I take things into my own hands.”
“And what are you going to take into your hands?”
That bold question came from Angie herself. She strutted into the kitchen, barely dressed in a mini-skirt and a tank top that left a whol
e lot of smooth, golden skin uncovered. She looked good. Good enough to lick. Good enough to eat. God help him he was hungry.
The little witch knew it, too.
Both he and Brett quickly got out of her way as she strutted on past with a shake of her ass and a smile that held all sorts of promises.
“Mornin’, boys. Hailey.”
“Angie,” Hailey returned with an amused welcome as she handed her Brett’s mug. “Coffee?”
“Thank you.”
Mike watched the two women fawn over each other as they both prepped their cups, unable to take his eyes off of Angie. She’d changed from the tall, lanky girl she’d been when he’d last seen her. He knew that, though. He knew it because she’d written to him every day that he’d been gone.
Mike had written back only occasionally, and only out pure boredom and loneliness. Every time he had written to her, he’d pretty much told her to get lost. To get a life and forget him because he wasn’t interested in her.
That had been a lie.
It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter if he’d saved every one of her letters. It didn’t matter that he reread them over and over again. It didn’t even matter that, at some level, he’d always been anxious to see if another one came. What mattered was what was right. Angie was too young, too naïve, too sweet and trusting. She relied way too much on her infamous intuition.
That scared the crap out of Mike. It made her vulnerable to getting hurt, and he didn’t want to be the one to hurt her. He could. He would if he didn’t control himself. She deserved better than him. That truth had been self-evident in her letters.
Every few weeks Mike had received another one, and as the weeks passed into years, he’d watched her evolve from a wide-eyed teenage optimist to a funny, faithful woman. A part of him had fallen in love with the woman in those letters, but Mike knew better to believe in that fairy tale.
Love was an illusion. So were prophetic dreams. Relationships came at a price. It didn’t matter if he was willing to pay. Mike wasn’t willing to let Angie pay because he knew, in the end, he would hurt her.
That was just the brutal truth.
“Hailey’s grown some teeth,” Brett snarled softly into Mike’s ear as he pressed in close to Mike’s side. “I say we punish them both. They wanted war. War they’ll get.”
“The best thing would be to ignore them.” Mike kept his tone low and turned to pin Brett with a pointed gaze. “Ignore them and prove that we’re not interested in playing along with whatever game Hailey’s dreamt up. Engaging them, on the other hand, is a surefire way to drag things out.”
Brett appeared to consider that for all of a second before he shrugged. “Let the games begin.”
Before Mike could argue with him, Brett brushed past his brother to bark at his sister like the commander he was.
“Hailey!” Brett narrowed his gaze on their sister with a hard look and issued a simple threat. “You’ve got one minute to tell me what the hell is going on here.”
“Don’t take that tone with your sister,” Angie snapped back instantly, drawing herself upright in a mocking imitation of Brett’s stance that drew Mike’s gaze straight toward her breasts.
He couldn’t help but wonder if she had some work done because the last time he’d seen Angie she’d been a little more normally proportioned. She’d also been a giggling teen who ogled them with blatant lust. Now she was shaped like a Penthouse centerfold with attitude to spare.
Where was his sweet Angie? She’d been there in the letters. That woman certainly hadn’t sounded like the vixen strutting past now.
“And you,” Brett snarled as he tried so hard to glare Angie down he looked ready to shit bricks. “What the hell do you think you’re doing walking around naked?”
“Air drying?” Angie shot back with enough of a lift to her tone to leave her words sounding more like a question instead of an answer, but there was no denying the smug satisfaction tugging at her lips. “Why? Didn’t you like what you saw?”
A man would either have to be dead or gay not to like what Angie had to show them. That thought led Mike to wonder if she really had lived up to her vow and saved her virginity for them. If she had, then they were screwed. If she hadn’t, then he’d fallen in love with a lie and he’d screw her.
“So, it’s like that, is it? Okay.” Brett answered his own question as he held his hands up in surrender and began to back up toward the door.
He was chuckling, a sound Mike knew too well. His brother was up to something.
“Fine. You can have the last word for now, but this isn’t over.”
All three of them watched as Brett slammed out the back door.
“Where is he going?” Hailey lifted a brow as she glanced between Angie and Mike.
“Probably to turn the water back on.” Angie shrugged.
“What? Why?”
“It’s a long story.” Angie smiled as she cast a glance over at Mike, who still stood there eyeing her with what he feared was blatant lust. “So, Mike, it’s been a while.”
“Are you still a virgin?”
Mike knew that was a blunt question to ask, but he couldn’t respond to her until he had an answer. He received one almost instantly, though Angie didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to. Her smile and the glimmer that sparkled in her eyes said it all. That was all he needed to hear to sigh heavily and silently curse fate. Things would have been so much easier if Angie was that easy.
Brett banged in through the back door, drawing everybody’s gaze in his direction. He knew it, which was why he stuck his chin in the air and marched straight through the kitchen without a word to anybody. A second later, the bathroom door slammed and was quickly followed by the sound of water running through the pipes.
“So…” Mike breathed out that word, trying to release the tension and the frustration along with it, but Angie wouldn’t give him the second to gather his thoughts.
“When did your brother go crazy?” She directed that question at Hailey, who just shrugged and pointedly looked toward Mike.
“Oh, no.” He shook his head at them both. “I’m not playing this game. I got nothing to say to you, virgin.”
That gave Angie a moment’s pause, and Mike could sense her amusement as he turned pointedly to address only Hailey.
“I’m assuming you didn’t have a fight with those two blockheads you’re dating, right?”
“What can I say?” Hailey shrugged. “I tried to resist Cole and Kyle, but they can be very persuasive.”
“And so you…”
“Rented my room to Angie,” Hailey filled in cheerfully.
“Hi, roomie!” Angie waved at him, but still he refused to look in her direction.
Mike didn’t dare. It was clear she wasn’t wearing a bra, and it was a little cold in the kitchen. Unfortunately, there was nothing little about his body’s response to the sight of those luscious tits straining beneath the cotton of Angie’s tank top. She didn’t have to know that, though.
“Since when did the two of you become besties?” Mike prodded. “I thought you were all pissed that she got you arrested.”
“That?” Hailey looked taken aback, as if she hadn’t held a grudge for years. “That was forever and a day ago. Really, Mike, you’ve got to learn to let things go.”
That was rich coming from her, but before Mike could comment on that fact, the water running through the pipes cut off, and a second later, the bathroom door slammed open. Brett strutted out, dripping wet and naked as a jaybird with his dick pumped up nice and hard so it could lead the way.
“Oh for God’s sake,” Mike groaned as Hailey shrieked and clenched her eyes closed.
Angie, on the other hand, just stared and grinned as Brett walked right into the middle of the kitchen. Without a word of explanation, but with a bold laugh, he started shaking, spraying water in all directions. That included Mike’s.
“Hey, man, this is the kitchen!” Mike complained, not that his twin seemed to care.
/> Brett stilled, fisting his hands on his hips and grinning triumphantly back at Angie, who hadn’t flinched. Her gaze had remained locked on Brett’s dick with a hungry look that was so damn sexy it was hard to remember that turning her down was for the best. It didn’t matter how hot Angie was or how much he wanted her. It would end only in disaster.
How could it not?
After all, it had started as a crazy dream years ago. It had seemed like such a simple thing at the time. Angie had been harassing them as usual about her dream and how one day they’d all live happily ever after together. Brett and Mike had found the whole thing funny, at first.
Angie hadn’t let it go. She’d pestered them every day for several years before they’d finally broken down. It had been on the last night before they headed out for boot camp. Both Brett and Mike had been looking forward to having a wild send off, when Angie had crashed the party and chased away their dates.
It had been a joke, but they hadn’t been amused. So, full of annoyance and outrage, they’d sworn they’d never touch her, and if they did, they’d marry her.
Who knew the woman would actually hold them to it?
Angie had done more than that. She’d responded with her own overly dramatic vow, promising to save herself for them. And according to Chase Davis’s frequent calls, she had. Angie had waited for them. Never in his life had anybody waited on him. That made Mike feel things that honestly scared the crap out of him. He didn’t like being scared.
“Okay,” Hailey said, interrupting Mike’s thoughts. “As the landlord around here, I’m instituting a house rule. No naked people in the kitchen. Now out!”
Hailey issued that order without ever opening her eyes. She even jammed a finger blindly in the direction of the door, but Brett didn’t move.
“As the bigger, stronger, older brother, I’m instituting a new rule. All women must be naked in the house at all times…except for you, Hailey,” Brett qualified after a second’s hesitation in which he seemed to recognize just what he was demanding.