Siren_Beloved_Google

by Lexi Blake, Sophie Oak

  “Goddamn it, I haven’t touched that woman. I have no interest in touching that woman.” He was lucky apparently Taggart had done what Julian had told him to and stayed away from the people on the outer edges of his life or he would have discussed this with Jack.

  Dwight sighed. “I know that, but the people around here are starting to talk. You know how it is here. People expect things. She’s hinting at a spring wedding.”

  He’d escorted her to exactly two events, both charity gatherings where he’d networked all night long. He’d made it plain to her that they weren’t dating. When she had tried to come on to him and invite herself in, he’d been gentle and gracious about turning her down. It looked like he was going to have to be a bit more forceful. “I’ll talk to her when I get home, but that could be a week or two.”

  There was a long pause. “Damn it, Aidan. We need you here. What the hell is so all-fired important in Dallas?”

  “Lexi.” He let the name drop like a jewel, his voice getting soft. He steeled himself because he wasn’t hiding anymore. Aidan O’Malley was done playing roles other people tried to force him to play. “Lexi and Lucas. I’m getting them back.”

  A low whistle came across the line as the elevator doors opened, and Aidan started walking down the hall to his room. “Damn, Aidan, that’s going to cause a stir in this town. I don’t know that Deer Run, Texas, is ready for you and your, uhm, partners. Maybe if it was two hot chicks you were trying to bring home, it would be, you know, eccentric. They would say your time in Austin corrupted you. You know the church ladies here like to blame everything on marijuana and Austin.”

  “Let them,” Aidan said sharply. “I don’t care. I love Lexi and I love Lucas, and I’m not hiding it or pretending it’s less than it is. If the citizens of Deer Run, Texas, can’t handle it, then they can go to hell.”

  He was damn sick of trying to live up to other people’s expectations. He’d lost the best thing in his whole damn life because he feared the potential fallout. He knew what real pain was now, and he knew that the only thing that healed it was genuine, pure love for another human being. He’d been lucky enough to find two soul mates. He wasn’t letting them go because society deemed he was only allowed one. The world could go to hell as long as he had Lexi and Lucas in his life.

  “Well, I admire you for your conviction, Aidan. I hope it doesn’t bite you in the ass in the end.” Dwight was silent for a moment and then seemed almost hesitant. “Are you sleeping okay, buddy?”

  He stood beside the door to his room and felt his soul sag. He didn’t even like to think about sleep. When he slept, he was back in hell. “Sure.”

  “That doesn’t sound reassuring.”

  He sighed and decided that honesty was the word of the whole damn day. He didn’t like talking about how he’d been injured, mostly because he couldn’t remember anything about the day. “Lately, I can’t seem to stop dreaming about it.”

  “The doctors said you wouldn’t be able to remember that day, Aidan.”

  “Well, they also said I wouldn’t walk.” They had been firm on that point. He’d been stubborn, and exactly six months after he’d been sentenced to life in a wheelchair, he’d stood up and walked. He’d walked because he loved them. They would never know it, but Lucas and Lexi had been his crutches, the very thought of them spurring him to move. And they were going to be his reward. “It’s nothing, really. Just flashes of the team and the firefight. I don’t even know if what I’m seeing really happened. Probably not.”

  But he wished it would go away. Every night, it was the same dream. Darkness and then that terrible sound. In the dream, he rushed out to see what was happening, and he felt the bullets hit him, agony overtaking him. Then Dwight looking down at him and he couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t breathe. He wanted it to stop. He wanted to dream about his loves, not that terrible day.

  “The dreams are coming even when you take your sleeping pills?”

  He groaned and wished Dwight would leave him be. “I didn’t bring them with me. I’m trying to get off of them.”

  He hated the fact that he didn’t sleep well without them. He was going to break free of those pills. It was all a matter of discipline, but he knew Dwight disagreed. There was a long pause, and he was happy when Dwight didn’t argue.

  “How long will you be gone?” Dwight asked.

  “Like I said, a week or two. Hire some more hands if you need it. The money is there. And tell Bo to keep his hands off the emergency funds. I’m not paying for his drinking binges.” Taggart had been right about one thing. His younger brother was a pain in the ass.

  “Will do, boss. Tell me something. Have you given any thought to bringing Lucas and Lexi here?”

  He sighed. He would love that. “Only if I can figure out a way to drag them.”

  He hung up his phone, opened the door, and started to get ready for the most important night of his life.

  * * * *

  Dwight Creely shoved his cell in his back pocket, cursing under his breath as he did it. He’d thought he could get Aidan to come home. Aidan had explained to him how important these two people were to him. He understood that. When they were in the Army together, he’d talked about his ex-fiancée and their best friend. It was only after the “incident” that Aidan admitted he was involved with Lucas, too. Something had changed after Aidan had gotten out of the hospital. He had purpose. First, he’d fought hard to get back the use of his legs, and then he’d thrown himself into the ranch.

  Dwight had stayed close, managing to get himself hired as the ranch’s foreman. He’d known a bit about ranching having grown up in Wyoming. His uncle owned a ramshackle ranch where Dwight had spent a couple of years after his father kicked him out. It was a stroke of luck since he needed to stay close to Aidan. He had to keep a watchful eye on the big bastard or everything could fall apart.

  “Hey!” Bo O’Malley swung down from the horse he’d been riding. It still surprised Dwight how much the boy looked like his brother. Well, he looked like his brother before he’d gotten shot up in Iraq. Bo was a younger, slightly thinner version of Aidan, with sandy hair and a square jaw. “Have you talked to Aidan? Did you tell him Karen came around again? She tried to get me to tell her where Aidan went, but I didn’t think that was such a great idea. I don’t know what he’s doing in Dallas, but I bet he doesn’t want Karen around.”

  Dwight hated Bo. Every word that came out of the younger man’s mouth was like nails on a chalkboard. Bo had been given everything, but he whined about how his brother didn’t pay enough attention to him. Spoiled fucker. It was fun to come between him and his precious brother. A few words here and there and both brothers thought the other hated them. It was so easy. It also made him glad he’d never been saddled with a sibling.

  “I talked to him a couple of minutes ago. He’s pissed at you. He says the paperwork you did sucked, and he won’t let you near the business side of the ranch again.” Aidan had said nothing of the sort, but those two didn’t talk, so there wasn’t a lot of worry that they would find out about his lie. They would simply yell at each other about other things, never getting to the heart of the matter. “You need to watch yourself. I think he’s close to getting rid of you. The only reason he’s kept you around is he doesn’t have money for new hands. You have to understand, your brother is trying to make this place work again. If you get in the way, he’ll cut you loose.”

  “He can’t do that.” Bo’s jaw went rigid, his face flushing with obvious emotion. “This is my home. He can’t kick me out.”

  Actually, Aidan had said exactly that when he’d suggested kicking the annoying pest out. But he wasn’t about to admit that to Bo. “Look, you have to see where your brother would be pissed off at you. He got the ranch, but you took all the money. He had to sell out a piece of his ownership to Barnes-Fleetwood to have the cash to operate.”

  Bo’s stare had gone stubborn. “He didn’t have to do that. I offered to buy shares a couple of months ba
ck.”

  And Dwight had convinced Aidan that Bo would cause trouble. It had been easy. Bo had been pissed about the terms of the will. He’d been making trouble. Now he was more reasonable, but Dwight still wanted to keep them apart.

  “And Aidan doesn’t want you to have anything to do with the business end. He wants to keep the ranch together in one piece. He’s never going to share it with you. Not knowing how useless you are at anything but manual labor.”

  Bo’s face fell. He was an easy mark. One minute he was all sad puppy dog, and the next he was pissed-off boy. It was a turbulent combo that Dwight had used to his advantage. “Well, if he wanted me to do the fucking paperwork, he should have taught me how. Screw this. I’m going into town.”

  Bo stalked off, leading the horse toward the stables.

  That was a good thing. If Bo was out getting drunk, he wouldn’t notice that Dwight was gone. Aidan needed to come home where he could watch him.

  He sighed as he entered the house. He needed a plan. He wouldn’t be so fucking worried if Aidan had taken his sleeping pills with him. Those pills kept him from dreaming. When he didn’t take them, he dreamed about what had happened the day he was injured.

  And that was precisely what he was trying to stop. If Aidan ever remembered what happened to their squad, Dwight’s life would be over. He had to get Aidan home and get him back on his pills.

  Maybe a little chaos was in order. What if Aidan had a reason to do just what he’d said? What if he needed to bring Lexi and Lucas back home to Deer Run?

  He sat down at the computer in the office and in a few moments pulled up information on one Alexis Ann Moore. He wrote down her address and printed out a map to her house and one to the club where Aidan was staying.

  Then he gave old Karen Wilcox a call. Chaos. That girl knew a thing or two about chaos. She was exactly what he needed. Well, Karen, and a high-powered rifle. He’d have Aidan back in Deer Run in no time at all.

  * * * *

  Lexi adjusted her bustier and stared at herself in the mirror. She saw a woman closing in on thirty and utterly unsure of her place in life. What the hell was she doing? By this time in her life, her mother had a career and was raising a child. Sure, she hadn’t planned on giving birth to a bastard daughter, but she’d done it with grace and pure stubborn will. Lexi would have done anything to…

  She took a deep breath. Not going there tonight. Tonight was about the future, not the past. She had to move on so she and Lucas could be happy.

  “You’re so fucking gorgeous.”

  She smiled at Lucas in the mirror of their room at The Club. He was heartbreakingly handsome in nothing but a pair of boots and leather pants. His gloriously cut chest and that ridiculous six-pack were on display. She loved his movie star face, and that silky black hair completed the perfect picture of masculine beauty that was Lucas Cameron. “I’m glad you think so.”

  “You’re always fucking gorgeous to me.”

  She sighed and turned to him. She was wearing nothing but a bustier and a black thong. Lucas had seen her like this a hundred times, and yet he’d never been overwhelmed by her. She had to think that maybe her charms weren’t what pulled Lucas in. Maybe they had simply been close for so long that she was a habit for him. “That’s what you always say, babe.”

  His face turned hard, and he was on her in an instant. He put one hand on her waist and another behind her neck, pulling her close. He pushed his crotch at her so she couldn’t miss his erection. His cock was long and hard and insistent. “I want you. I want you every minute of the day and twice as much when I’m sleeping. There isn’t a second that goes by that I don’t dream of shoving my cock deep inside you.”

  His lips hovered right over her mouth. She could feel the heat of his breath mingle with hers. His emerald eyes bored through her. He was so frustrating. She’d wanted him forever, and he’d held her off. God, she wanted that to change. She wanted to be with Lucas in every way possible. “I want you, Lucas.”

  “Tell me you love me.”

  That was easy. Now that she’d made the decision to be brave, it was a simple thing to tell him the truth. “I love you, Lucas Cameron.”

  “I love you, too. Do you understand why I’ve waited? Why I’ve forced both of us to wait? It has nothing to do with how much I want to have sex with you. I want this to be forever, and you haven’t been ready for that. Tell me something, baby. If we had slept together when you first asked me to make love to you, what do you think would have happened?”

  She leaned into his strength. She remembered the night so well. It had been about a month after she’d been released from the hospital. She’d gone to Dallas to see Lucas because she couldn’t seem to move forward. She’d thrown herself at him. He’d kissed her and held her and he’d gotten her off with his hands. He’d shoved his fingers into her pussy, his thumb worrying the nub of her clit. He’d put his tongue on her and made her quake as she came. But when she urged him to come inside, he’d said no. She remembered how pissed off she’d been at the time. She’d flown into a rage and called him all sorts of names. She’d even flung a coffee mug and caught him on the shoulder. He’d taken all of it, and when she’d calmed down, he’d held her hand.

  Do you feel better now, baby? Can we go to bed?

  He’d held her all night, and in the morning they were friends again. She’d left her job in Austin and moved to Dallas shortly after. What would have happened?

  “I would have walked away,” she admitted. “I wasn’t ready. I probably would have avoided you.”

  He turned her face up and kissed her nose, a gentle touch. “I know. I couldn’t risk that. I couldn’t handle it if you weren’t with me. I’ll take your friendship if I can’t have more. I was always willing to do that. I haven’t been celibate since I met you, you know that.”

  She smiled up at him, relieved to still be close to him. She let her hands wander across the strong muscles of his back. Things were changing, and she was ready for it this time. “I know you have horrible taste in women.”

  He laughed, pulling her close to his heart. “I have not been picky about women or men, because I’ve only ever loved you and—”

  He paused as though shocked he’d been about to say the name.

  “Say his name, babe. He’s not exactly Satan, you know. He’s a man who was too stupid and uptight to be able to accept the love that was handed to him.”

  Lucas took a deep breath. “I’ve only loved you and Aidan. Everyone else was just a body in a bed. I slept with people who didn’t want more from me than sex. But you should know that for the last year, I haven’t slept with anyone. After what happened with Jeremy, I couldn’t touch someone else. I thought you were dead when I walked in that fucking cabin.”

  Lexi tightened her arms around him. Almost a year before, Lexi had been kidnapped by a man who wanted revenge on Lucas and Julian. She’d survived the experience because Finn Taylor had shot the man before he’d managed to kill Dani, Julian, and herself. When Lucas had found her, she’d been drugged to unconsciousness. She’d come to in a hospital, and the first thing she’d seen was Lucas sitting next to her bed. He’d fallen asleep in a chair, his hand tangled with hers.

  “It’s over.” She’d been holding on for far too long. It was all over. The stuff with Aidan was over. The accident was over. The kidnapping was over. It was past time to move on. “We’re together now, and that means you have to find a way to sleep with me. I know it’s going to be hard, but I’m demanding sex, and I won’t take no for an answer.”

  His hand was suddenly in her hair, pulling her head back, and a hard look fell on his face. Her pulse started to race.

  “You’ll take what I give you. And I assure you, I have a lot to give.” He pressed his erection against her belly, rubbing himself against her. “But you’ll beg me for it first.”

  She curled her lips up. He wanted to play? She could do that with him. “I’ve been begging for a long time, babe. Begging never got me anywhere with you
.”

  “Because you’re a greedy sub. You want everything, but you don’t want to earn it. Let me tell you something, baby, that’s about to change. Our play is about to change. I told Julian I want in on your punishment. You want to see what it would be like if we brought in a Dom, well, we’re going to find out. Julian says this Master A is hard, but fair. I’ve negotiated terms with him through Julian. He tops me, but we both top you. He won’t make a move sexually unless I indicate it’s all right. You have your safe word, and I expect you to use it if you need to.”

  “Would we want that?” This was the only part that made her nervous. Could they bring this other man into their sexual relationship? Lucas was bisexual. He would enjoy having a man now and then, but could she really share him? It had seemed natural with Aidan. She’d loved them both, but a stranger?

  The hand on the back of her head eased, and he was back to tender, his role tossed away the minute she faltered. “Not if you don’t want it. Not at all. If you want to walk away, we’ll do it. Baby, this is all about you.”

  But it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. It had been all about her since Aidan had left, and she needed to give back to him. “Let’s give it some time and see what happens. I want you to know, though, that our relationship is the most important thing to me.”

  He gave her a soft smile. “Me, too. You’re always the most important person in the world to me.”

  There was a light knock on the door, and when Lucas opened it, Leo walked in.

  “It’s time, you two. Julian is almost finished with Dani and Finn. Master A is getting ready. He would prefer to not meet you beforehand.”

  She thrust her hand in Lucas’s, and he immediately threaded their fingers together. “We’re ready.”

  She walked beside Lucas, nervous, but sure that this was the right path. They needed to break free. Lucas led her from the private room Julian had designated for their use for the evening into the dungeon.

  Julian’s dungeon was a rich mix of torture and elegance. She’d never been in another dungeon before, but she couldn’t imagine one quite like The Club. The four-inch heels she wore clicked neatly against the hard wood of the floor. She normally didn’t wear heels, preferring comfortable shoes, but the sexy stilettos did something for Lucas. Aidan used to love her legs in heels. He loved her in a pair of red shoes and absolutely nothing else. He would prop her ankles up against his shoulders and press his dick into her pussy.