Lara’s jaw dropped and horror filled her eyes as she stared up at him. “Dead?”
John nodded. “Yeah.” He waited a beat before he went on with the story. “Phay started a new enterprise of narco-terrorism, trading drugs for weapons and trafficking liquid opium by the boatload onto the coastal soil through the docks in Silver Springs. He got his hands on a crate of military-issued weapons, stashed them in the jungle in Cambodia, and Team Six was sent in to retrieve it. What we didn’t know at the time was he’d also gotten his hands on the girlfriend of a DEA agent in Silver Springs.”
“So your mission once again turned from a simple takedown to a takedown and rescue,” Lara guessed.
“Not quite. The DEA and FBI took care of the rescue. It all got kind of crazy after that, but one thing we learned on that op was that Phay had someone on the inside, someone connected with a government agency who was feeding him information. He was always one step ahead of us. A leak was the only explanation.”
They followed the sidewalk around a curve that put them on the street leading to her cottage.
“Did they find the leak?”
“Yeah, but not after blaming me for it first.”
She stopped walking again, this time so fast it jerked him back in mid-step. “They thought you were the leak?”
“He, Nelson,” he qualified, “the real leak, set it up to make it look like it was me. He did a damn good job of it, too.” It had taken him months to prove his innocence, all the while being put on leave and awaiting a dishonorable discharge before being tossed in jail for treason.
He used his hand on the small of her back to get her walking once more, needing the movement to offer some amount of distraction from the feelings still so raw and angry inside him. “Let’s just say the whole experience left a bitter taste in my mouth for Navy policy, investigation, and procedure. I couldn’t get anyone to listen to me. Not anyone whose word meant a damn, anyway. They finally caught Nelson and I returned to the team with a clean record, but it wasn’t the same after that. I guess you could say I lost faith in most of the people I served with and especially those in command. I finished out the term I’d signed up for and I left the Navy.”
* * * *
He missed it. Lara could see it in John’s eyes and hear it in his voice. He might have found some semblance of happiness on Silver Island, but he left a big chunk of his heart with the SEALs.
“I’m so sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say. For all intents and purposes, the Navy had betrayed him. She could understand why he would feel that way, even if the Navy had been merely doing its job.
He smiled down at her, but it didn’t hold the power of his usual high-wattage grin. “Hey, it’s done. Now you know why I left the SEALs.” He slid his hand up her spine, the casual caressing touch sending shivers down to her toes. “Look at it this way, if it hadn’t have happened, I wouldn’t be here tonight.”
He stopped walking and she realized they were standing on the sidewalk in front of her cottage. His arm dropped to her waist and he reeled her in against him. Still holding Brandon’s hand, she tightened her fingers around his, unwilling to let him go even as she wound her free arm around John’s neck. If he noticed she hadn’t yet let go of Brandon, he didn’t let it show.
“Believe me, Lara. There’s no place I’d rather be than here with you.”
She smiled as he sang the last part. Brandon had moved to stand beside them. She glanced at him and lifted a brow, waiting for him to tell John to cut it out like he always did. Instead, Brandon grinned and shook his head.
“The man just told a painful story. I’ll cut him a little slack tonight.”
John half chuckled as he sang what was obviously the next verse of the song and started swaying right there in the middle of the sidewalk.
Dancing with him while holding another man’s hand proved to be a challenge and she let him know it. “This is complicated.”
He slid a pointed look at Brandon before meeting her gaze once more. “It wouldn’t be if he was standing behind you where he should be.”
Her heart flip-flopped in her chest even as butterflies exploded excitedly in her stomach. That single statement confirmed what she’d already begun to realize. They were sharing her. Holy blissful hormones! They weren’t going to make her choose between them.
Her body’s reaction to that realization confirmed something else for her, too. She wanted them to share her. She wanted to be sandwiched between them, to be held by both of them, and so very much more.
She rose to her tiptoes and peered over John’s shoulder at the house across the street. “Didn’t you say something about having a hot tub on your back deck?”
“I did. Interested?”
“I am.” She tipped her head back and gazed up at the stars. “It’s too beautiful of a night to spend it inside. It’s not all that cool out, but I’m betting you can adjust the temperature to make it comfortable.” She lifted her head and looked at him. “I’m thinking a glass of wine if you happen to have it and a soak in your hot tub would be a great way to end my first evening on the island.”
“I’m thinking you might be right.”
The heat in his eyes mixed with the sudden gruffness of his voice sent erotic sensations of a far different thinking sizzling through her body. They were the kind of thoughts that didn’t involve swimsuits in that hot tub and definitely involved her licking the wine off the solid muscles of his chest.
She turned her attention to Brandon and easily pictured herself doing the same to him. Wow, was she really going to do this?
Damn straight, you are.
“You’re coming, too, right?”
“I’d like to if that’s what you want.”
Jeez, he was just too freaking sweet to take the hint. She giggled to herself as she unwound her arm from John’s neck, flattened her hand on his broad shoulder, and let it glide down his bicep. She unlaced her fingers from Brandon’s and dragged that hand up his arm until she was touching both men the same way.
“Yes,” she told Brandon before dancing her gaze to John’s, “It’s what I want.”
* * * *
Brandon’s attention dropped to Lara’s perfectly shaped ass. He studied the sensual sexy-as-sin sway of her hips as she walked across the street to John’s house and knew without a doubt exactly what he wanted. He knew how he’d get it, too, and found himself perfectly okay with it.
“Are you sure about this?” John didn’t mince words. Like Brandon, he obviously knew precisely what would happen if they followed her into John’s house and he knew the hang-up Brandon’d had about it since he’d stepped onto the island.
“Unless I’m reading the signals wrong, she’s sure about it.” He lifted a shoulder. “What the hell? I’m game if you are. I’ve never done anything like this before, but we’ve always made a hell of a team. Who says we can’t do it for our woman?”
Our woman? The two words slipped out together before he even realized what he was saying. He had to admit, when put together in reference to Lara along with him and John, they had an almost comically great ring to them.
“Hooyah!” John slapped him on the back of the shoulder, his quiet affirmative acknowledgement of what they both knew they were in for proving once again he’d always be a SEAL even if he’d left the Navy. “Just so you know,” he said as they started walking across the street after Lara, “once I get my hands on her, I don’t ever plan on letting her go.”
Brandon shot him a grin he knew was full of smugness. “Just so you know, I’ve already had my hands on her and I don’t ever plan on letting her go.”
John snorted. “You just had to rub it in, didn’t you, you bastard?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll play the nice guy and let you get the first touch this time.”
“You’re always the nice guy, Ace.”
Brandon winced. “Jeez, does everybody think that?”
John barked a laugh as his foot hit the first step leading into his house.
Lara stood on the top step and turned to look at them, a wide smile on her angelic face. “The two of you sound like you’re suddenly having way too much fun.”
“He’s giving me shit about being sweet,” Brandon grumbled and watched the smile on her face widen even more.
“See! Dare I say I told you so?”
Brandon caught her waist, surprising a squeak out of her as he lifted her off her feet and twirled her around. “You better watch it, love. I just might have to show you how naughty I can be.” The words were out of his mouth before he stopped to think about how incredibly forward they sounded. Christ, he didn’t come on to women that way. He always kept his words tender and, well, sweet.
Fuck!
“Mmm, promises, promises,” she purred and he damn near blew his wad right there in his pants on John’s front doorstep. “If that’s supposed to be a threat, Sweet SEAL, you better make it meaner than that.”
Brandon grinned and rolled his eyes as he set her on her feet. “I’m not sure I can.”
She giggled, her eyes dancing with amusement as she turned and followed John into his house.
Brandon noted the place was set up much the same as his cottage and Lara’s. It was decorated about the same, too, if he overlooked the La-Z-Boy recliner with the clothes draped across the back and over the armrest. Of course, then he’d have to overlook the pizza box left open on the coffee table and the beer cans scattered about. He supposed he couldn’t say much. His apartment wasn’t a whole hell of a lot cleaner.
“Cool bachelor pad.” Lara’s voice was full of the amusement Brandon had seen dancing in her eyes before she’d entered the house.
John stopped in the doorway of the hall that lead to the back of the house and turned to look at her, the corner of his lips twitching. “Hey, you’re on an island full of people that don’t pass judgment on others, remember? I never bring a woman home, therefore I don’t usually worry about what the place looks like.”
One of Lara’s perfectly plucked brows winged up. “Never?”
John’s expression turned serious. “Never.”
Brandon knew that didn’t mean his buddy hadn’t been with a woman since he’d moved to the island. It simply meant he’d taken a trip or two to the mainland for a night of fun here and there, enjoyed a woman’s company for a while, and then hit the Gulf back home. He also knew none of those women had fulfilled the void in John created by all the nights of laying awake at night longing for Lara anymore than the women he’d been with over the last few years had filled the void in him.
“Wow,” Lara breathed. “Okay, well, I should probably tell you it’s been over a year since I’ve been brought home by a man and I’ve definitely never been brought home by two.”
Brandon closed the distance between himself and Lara in four strides. “You wanted a glass of wine and a dip in the hot tub, right?”
She looked at him and nodded.
He couldn’t suppress the urge to touch her, just a gentle glide of the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “That’s all you have to get if that’s all you want.”
“That is now that your host has remembered he’s supposed to be popping the cork on the bottle of wine.” John pivoted and walked to the kitchen.
Lara laughed, turning her head to smile after him, and Brandon felt the tension that had suddenly settled in the room dissipate.
“I don’t have any whisky, Ace,” John called from the kitchen. “You’re stuck with beer or wine, man.”
“Beer works for me.”
“You two go on out. I’ll bring the drinks in a second.”
Brandon gestured with his arm toward the hallway and Lara took the lead.
“I’m guessing it’s this way,” she said, glancing back at him over her shoulder.
“We’ll soon find out.”
Chapter Five
Lara stepped through the back door of John’s house and into another slice of island paradise. A tall, wooden privacy fence surrounded a hardwood deck complete with a small table for three, a grill, three overly wide lounge chairs, and the hot tub. Two huge palm trees jutted up through the deck in the far corners on either side, giving both life and the ambiance of the island beyond the fence.
She stopped in the center of the deck, turned slowly, and landed her gaze on the hot tub. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
As if it truly knew she was talking about it, the hot tub kicked into a quite rumble as the jets came to life, moving the water in ripples that created tiny bubbles on the surface.
Brandon’s chuckle drew her attention his way and she saw him moving slowly away from the back wall of the house. She shot a cursory glance at where he’d been and realized he’d found the control box for the hot tub.
“My back door doesn’t open up to anything like this. How about yours?”
Brandon shook his head. “Nope, all I’ve got is a small yard inside the privacy fence at my cottage.”
“Me, too.” She drew her bottom lip between her teeth. “So, do you think he’ll mind if we start without him?”
“I’m sure he won’t care.” Brandon tipped his head toward the hot tub. “Go ahead. Jump in.”
Lara reached behind her back for the zipper holding her sundress in place and realized her hands were shaking. It was ludicrous! She hadn’t made the decision to come to John’s house tonight on a whim. She wanted to be here. She wanted Brandon to be here. She wanted to be with John and Brandon. So why in hell was she suddenly so nervous?
Shake it off, girl. You’re really going to do this, remember?
Yes, she was. She tamped down her nerves, willed her fingers to steady on the clasp of the zipper and slowly pulled it down. The bodice of her dress gave, falling from her breasts as the zipper reached the end of the line at the small of her back.
Her gaze locked with Brandon’s, she saw him watching her every move, noted the heat that sparked in his eyes, and stifled a giggle when disappointment doused those sparks. She hooked her thumbs in the dress at her waist and shimmied the material down her hips, letting it fall in a pool around her feet.
“Is something wrong?” His gaze had traveled down her body and it did a slow climb back up until it met her eyes.
She couldn’t help but grin at him as she stood before him in a strapless yellow bikini top and matching thong bottoms.
Brandon blinked at her and then shook his head as if attempting to snap himself out of a trance. “No, it’s—”
“A swimsuit,” John finished before Brandon could as he walked on the deck, one hand balancing a bottle of wine chilling in a bucket with two glasses perched on the tray beneath it and a six-pack of beer hooked on the finger of his other hand.
Brandon shot him a withering look. “I was going to say it’s very pretty.” He turned his attention back to Lara. “It looks amazing on you.”
“Thank you.” Her smile turned to laughter when John rolled his eyes and mouthed the words too fucking sweet behind Brandon’s back.
Brandon narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t look at John. “He’s making jabs at me again, isn’t he?”
Lara bit the inside of her cheek. These guys were just too much. “I’m betting he’s thinking I’ll look even more amazing out of this swimsuit.” She shifted her focus to John and lifted a brow. “Aren’t you?”
John moved to the table, set down the tray and the six-pack, and proceeded to pour two glasses of wine. “How many points do I get, or lose, for honesty?”
Lara made a show of looking around. “I don’t see anyone keeping score.”
He walked to her, a beer in one hand and his long fingers of the other curled around the stems of two wine glasses. He passed the beer to Brandon and held out one of the glasses for her. “In that case, yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Lara took the wine and sipped, watching him over the rim of the glass. She let the sip linger in her mouth, drawing out the moment, and gathering her nerve to strip. She didn’t have to go through with
this. She knew both of them would be perfectly okay, even if they were disappointed, with a few hours of conversation and wine while they took a dip in the hot tub.
She, however, would be greatly disappointed. She’d fantasized about this for years, longed to be with both of them, and cursed herself for passing up the opportunity to be with at least one of them when she’d had the chance. It was that knowledge, and the understanding that neither of them were pushing her to do anything she didn’t want, that compelled her to hand her glass back to John.
“Hold this, please.” She turned, making sure her body was visible to Brandon, too, as she reached a hand behind her back and found the clasp of her bikini top. She flicked it free and glanced from John to Brandon and back again as she let the top fall from her breasts.
She’d never been self-conscious about her body. She ate right and worked out to stay trim and fit. Still, getting naked in front of the two men she’d been fantasizing about being with for so many years had her heart hammering against her breastbone as she hooked her thumbs in the strings of her bikini bottom on her hips and pulled them down her legs.
“Damn,” John breathed, his light blue eyes darkening to the color of the deep sea as they filled with carnal desire. A sly grin tilted his lips as he studied her body with a gaze that felt almost tangible. “I love it when I’m right.”
That grin coupled with his words made her laugh. “I take it your thought was correct.”
“More than I realized.” He took a step toward her, stopped, and frowned down at the glasses of wine in his hands. He shook his head once, pivoted, walked back to the table, and rid himself of the glasses before walking to her again. Two long strides brought him so close she could feel the heat radiating off his body. “Geezus, you truly are amazing.”
Lara swallowed, her thudding heart skipping a beat as mystification warred with intense pleasure in her system. It was the same reaction she’d felt when she’d been in Brandon’s arms in the ocean that afternoon. It was the same perplexity-mixed happiness she’d experienced when he’d told her he was crazy about her. As she’d done with Brandon then, a small part of her couldn’t help but wonder now if John was just saying she was amazing to get what he wanted. Except, he had to know he was already well on his way to fucking her without any fancy talk. She was standing in front of him as naked as the day she’d been born, after all.
Safe and SEALed with Ecstasy [The Heroes of Silver Island 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 9