by Susan Hayes
“Nice going,” Diego grunted and shot Beau a disgusted look. “She was nervous enough already. He was kidding about the speeches. This is just a party to celebrate everything. Our engagement, the arrests, you coming home, all of it. John Simons’s cohorts, including that little shit of a dock boy that was working with Simons, are all going down for drug trafficking and a laundry list of other offences. We’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of Simons, you’re wearing our ring, and Sunset Point is getting back one of its long lost residents. If that’s not a reason to celebrate, I don’t know what is.”
Both men leaned in and brushed a soft kiss to her cheeks. “You’re beautiful, Lexa. A black eye and a few stitches aren’t going to change that,” Beau whispered in her ear before straightening up again.
“We love you, querida. Now, get your ass moving before I have to carry you into your own party.”
Lexa laughed and let them lead her inside, to the waiting arms of the friends and family she’d never thought she’d find, her men standing by her side every step of the way.
THE END
WWW.SUSANHAYES.CA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan lives out on the Canadian west coast surrounded by open water, dear family, and good friends. She’s jumped out of perfectly good airplanes on purpose and had lunch next to royalty by accident. She’s worked for local law enforcement, been a freelance wordsmith, and bakes what she claims are the world’s best double-chocolate-and-caramel brownies. She’s passionately in love with the written word (and a few of her more hunky creations). Writing is her joy, her escape from reality, and the only way she knows of to quiet the nagging harridan of a muse she claims the universe assigned to her.
For all titles by Susan Hayes, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/susan-hayes
Sunset Point
Point of Seduction
Built around the premise that love can be found with multiple partners, the island of Sunset Point has always been Gabriella Larkin’s home. She respects the open -minded community, but her own past relationships have left her burned, and she can't overcome her doubts about love. Throwing herself into her clothing boutique, Designs By Lark, she makes it her number one focus, until she meets Austin, Michael, and Kendrick.
Brothers Austin and Michael Curtis, along with their best friend Kendrick McClure, are new to the island, but not to the idea of ménage. A chance meeting with the gorgeous Gaby has sparks flying and the men planning on seduction. Enthralled by the intense sexual attraction between the four of them, Gaby embarks on a tumultuous and passionate relationship with the trio, but reaching the point of seduction will mean facing off with her past…
Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 57,680 words
Chapter 1
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Austin?”
Austin Curtis looked up from where he was unpacking a box of dishes in the kitchen. Scattered around him on every surface was the evidence of his and his brother’s recent move from Apache Crossing, Texas, to the island paradise of Sunset Point. His younger brother, Michael, held yet another box of miscellaneous kitchenware in his arms as he stood waiting for Austin’s response.
Austin sighed heavily and lifted the stack of plates up into the cabinet in front of him. “No, but are you sure that it’s not?”
Michael’s blue eyes narrowed, and a frown line appeared between his eyebrows. “Don’t get bitchy. I’m just second-guessing all of this. I mean, it just seems too good to be true. People like us don’t get job offers out of the blue or get the opportunity to move to paradise with no questions asked.”
“People like us? Oh, you mean veterans with no stable income? Or rednecks with no future? What people like us are you talking about, Mike?” Austin knew he sounded like a prick, but he couldn’t keep the words from spilling out of his mouth.
Michael had been acting like a petulant child ever since Jackson Stone called them and offered them a job. Jackson Stone, aka Lieutenant Stone from their Army days, had talked them into taking a job with the Sunset Point Police Department on the idyllic island of Sunset Point, just off the coast of Florida.
The island held an unusual community that embraced alternative lifestyles, allowing everyone to live the lives they chose to as long as it harmed no one else. For Michael and Austin, it was ideal finding a new home that was so similar in mindset to their birthplace. Apache Crossing was a mecca for the alternative, and ménage groupings were popping up all over the place for their friends and neighbors.
It sounded like Sunset Point would be the perfect place to start anew for the brothers. The island had been used for a century by the wealthy to get away from the politics of high society on the mainland, and it maintained a very tight-knit and exclusive population.
The fact that Jackson was a lieutenant on the police department, second only to the chief, meant that he was able to offer his Army buddies jobs. Once they had jobs, they were automatically granted residency on the island, but from what Jackson had described, everyone else who wasn’t already a resident of the island had to go through an application process. There was even a council and a registry for all residents. Austin was just relieved that they hadn’t had to go through all of that, too. Moving from Texas to Sunset Point was a big enough undertaking without any added hang-ups.
Apache Crossing hadn’t been the same comfortable place for him since his parents died when he was eighteen. Sure, it was where he was born, and he still had plenty of friends there, but everywhere he went there were reminders of that awful night, and the life they had missed out on.
That was why he and Michael joined the Army in the first place, to escape the misery that seemed to surround them like a cloud when they were at home. He detested the pity and sympathetic expressions that graced the faces around them. It was a daily grind of doom and gloom, and then reassurances that their lives would get better. How exactly did the lives of two teenagers get better after they lost everyone they loved? Austin couldn’t stand another “How are you?” or “How have you been?” and just like the Army, Sunset Point had allowed him to escape.
“Stop it, Austin. Mike’s just freaking out because today is our first day on the job. He’ll calm down once they give him a gun.” Kendrick stepped into the kitchen and flung open the fridge. Taking a large gulp out of a can of grape soda, he turned back to survey the disaster in the kitchen. “Hey, I thought you were going to unpack the kitchen?”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing?” Austin’s frustration was peaking, and he was considering throwing the first punch to start a fight just so he could burn off some energy.
“Looks to me like you’re standing there daydreaming. Is the island spirit already getting to you, man? Those dishes won’t unpack themselves. I’m already done in the bathrooms,” Kendrick said with a laugh.
Kendrick McClure was like Austin’s second brother. They were so close that they even called each other brother when introduced to others. Austin and Michael hadn’t met Kendrick until they got to boot camp, but the three men had been inseparable since. Their Army buddies had jokingly called them the Three Stooges. Where one went, you would usually find the other two following. Austin was the oldest of the trio at thirty-six, but Kendrick was only about eight months younger at thirty-five. Michael was the baby at thirty-four. Kendrick’s light brown skin tone left no doubt to his African-American heritage, so there was no mistaking them for blood brothers, but they considered themselves family nonetheless.
“Are you kidding?” Austin rolled his eyes at Kendrick and dumped all of the silverware into a drawer. He grimaced at the metal clang when he shut the drawer and made a mental note to look for one of those drawer separator thingies before he met Kendrick’s laughing gaze. “Unpacking a half-dozen towels, a bar of soap, and a bottle of shampoo isn’t exactly manual labor.”
“Hey
, I had to unpack toothbrushes and toothpaste, and all that hair junk you use, too,” Kendrick said. “You have more hair care products than the beauty salon in town.”
Austin flipped him off, but Michael cut them off before they could start slinging more insults. “What time are we supposed to be there this afternoon?”
“Two. Shift change is at three, so LT said that’s when there would be the most guys for us to meet all at once. It will be good to see him and Garrison again.”
“Shit, I forgot Bannock was from here, too. Yeah, maybe it will finally feel normal to be working with those guys again.” That was the rub of being a soldier stationed overseas. A man built a camaraderie with his fellow soldiers, and once he arrived back stateside, nothing that was normal felt normal anymore. Austin never thought he would miss PT in the morning, or the noise that came with ten guys in one hot-ass tent, but he did. Hopefully he would adjust better here in a new environment. Living back in Apache Crossing had been like pulling on a pair of itchy wool socks that sat in the back of his dresser drawer. He didn’t wear them because they itched, but he couldn’t throw them out because they were familiar.
Kendrick stood staring out the glass sliding doors. “You know, we’re supposed to wear sweats. LT’s going to put us through our paces to make sure we’re still in shape.”
“In other words, he’s going to test your defense skills before he tells everyone you’re the new trainer. Any excuse to whip his ass is a good excuse for me. I could use some exercise,” Austin said with a wicked grin to Michael.
Kendrick’s responding laugh confirmed his assumption. “I’m itching to get on the mats. It’s been too long since I got to knock anyone’s teeth loose.”
“Well just so long as it ain’t mine this time. Shit. I guess we’re going to have to find a new dentist down here, too. God, I hate change.” Michael groaned as he left the room carrying a box that said books.
“What’s his deal?” Austin said to no one in particular, even though he knew that Kendrick wouldn’t be able to resist answering.
“You know he worries about everything. This is a big change, but he’ll adjust. We all will. I mean look out the window, man. It’s beach and ocean as far as the eye can see. We’re in paradise! Missouri never looked like this, I can tell you that, and we are starting new jobs that pay twice what we would have made in Texas working for Paxton. How can this go bad?” Kendrick continued staring out the window at the beach longingly.
He was right, but Austin hated to admit it. The condo they were renting backed up to the golden sand, and Austin would have a sunrise view every morning when he woke up because his bedroom faced the east. They were in the perfect paradise and getting ready to create new lives for themselves. Instead of struggling to find construction work in Texas, they were going to be rolling in the dough and working on their tans on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico.
Watching his friend, he gave a mental sigh. Kendrick deserved this just as much as Austin and Michael. It wasn’t so long ago that they were sharing a tent in Afghanistan. Austin would never forget the day that Jackson came around to tell Kendrick that his mother had suffered a fatal heart attack back in St. Louis. There was no chance to say good-bye or tie up loose strings. It all happened too suddenly. Kendrick had to fly home alone to take care of his mother’s body and belongings, and then too quickly he was whisked back to the never-ending sands of the desert. Grief hadn’t left the man’s eyes until they stepped onto the ferry and made their way across the ocean waters to Sunset Point. Kendrick needed this place and so did Michael. Austin would do everything in his power to make it work for all three of them.
“Do you think there are any beach bunnies down there this early in the morning?” he asked as he tossed another empty box into the growing pile in the hallway.
A smile spread across Kendrick’s face. “What would it hurt to go look? We haven’t been for a run yet today anyway.”
“I’ll get changed. You get Mike,” Austin said as he took the stairs two at a time, headed for his new bedroom.
The condo was a small two story, with the top floor consisting of one large master bedroom and bathroom. The other two bedrooms were smaller and on the ground floor, and they shared a Jack and Jill bathroom. Otherwise, there was the kitchen with its tiny dining space off to the side that looked out the back of the house onto the beach, and the living room that ran along the front of the house. The place came furnished already, which worked out well, because shipping furniture from Texas to an island wouldn’t have been cheap, and none of the three of them had any interior design skills at all. The neutral shades of greens and beiges suited them for the moment.
They had shipped all of their other possessions, so when they first arrived yesterday it was to a massive stack of boxes in the living room that needed unpacking. Once they were able to sort the boxes into the rooms that they belonged in, the task didn’t seem quite so daunting, at least until Austin reached the kitchen and all those unused dishes they owned. He would have been happy with using paper plates and plastic forks, but he also couldn’t bring himself to part with his mother’s white china plates with pale yellow daisies painted on the edges.
After throwing on a pair of sweats and dropping the clothes he removed onto the bed, he headed back down the stairs shirtless and began searching for his tennis shoes.
“Come on man, let’s go.” Kendrick hurried him as Austin managed to locate the missing shoes under the sofa and shove his feet into them.
“I’m coming, damn. What’s got you in a hurry all of a sudden?” Austin asked, following Michael out the back door onto their small patio.
Kendrick just pointed down the beach, and Austin felt his own smile widen as he caught sight of a trio of pretty young women about a hundred yards away setting up their beach towels for some morning sun. With a wink at Kendrick and Michael, he set off jogging down the beach determined to meet some of the locals and settle in to his new home.
Sunset Point
Cross Point
Former IAD agent Katrina “Trinity” Cross is in desperate need of a vacation. When a friend asks for a personal favor, Trinity agrees to fly to the island of Sunset Point, only to find that things in paradise aren’t what they seem…
Jackson Stone is a man who likes regulation and order, but when Katrina Cross arrives on his island, life as he knows it'll never be the same.
Falling behind schedule is not allowed in Maxwell King’s orderly world. Missing money, cheap materials, and a dead foreman top of the list of his problems, but nothing shakes him more than the sexy siren that sets his body on fire…
As the investigation heats up, Maxwell and Jackson both fall for Trinity, but she can’t choose between the uptight corporate mogul and the rough and ready police lieutenant. Can she find a way to keep them both, or will their love become a casualty at the Cross Point?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense
Length: 60,263 words
Chapter One
“I need a favor.”
Katrina “Trinity” Cross heaved out a sigh at her friend’s words as she answered her phone. Staring out at the dreary sight of the Chicago street outside of her apartment window, she wished for sun and warmth. Instead, winter seemed unwilling to completely release its hold on the city and blanketed it with a cold, icy rain. And this phone call did nothing to improve her mood.
Why oh why had she answered it?
Even from miles away in Las Vegas, T-rex could make Trinity very leery. “You know, every time I hear those words from you someone ends up trying to kill me.”
Her friend and fellow IAD agent Tara “T-rex” Toshi had the nerve to laugh at that. “Oh yeah, good times. This is slightly different though. It’s a totally innocuous situation I need you to look into. No one will try to kill you…at least I don’t think they will.”
“Gee, how positively encouraging,” Trinity said dryly.
Both women worked for IAD, a specialized intelligence
agency and counterterrorist taskforce that very few people even knew existed. The International Alliance of Defense was an extremely covert branch in the intelligence community, more like a transnational agency. They were the ultimate warriors of global warfare with agents stationed all over the world. The members of NATO had formed IAD with a policy of “get it done, no matter the cost.” IAD handled their own problems and discourses internally, and that was just the way they liked it. They were the elite, and only the best were chosen to serve.
For the highly skilled select members of IAD it was a dream come true, since most of the agents had been disillusioned with the rules, regulations, and red tape of the regular intelligence branches. Only the highest, most qualified candidates were chosen for IAD, given a kind of worldwide immunity for their actions. Government agencies around the world looked at the members of IAD with awe, not to mention a great amount of envy. Not that it didn’t piss off other agencies when they had to defer to IAD agents if the situation called for it.
Well, former agent in Trinity’s case.
Born Katrina Briars, Trinity was an interesting mix of contradictions. At thirty-one years old, she had been through a lot in her life. She considered herself a tomboy at heart, but with her long, light-brown hair, intense hazel eyes highlighted with long, thick lashes, full pouty lips, and a perfect body, she looked more like a sex bomb. Still, she would rather play with her guns than go shopping. An adrenaline junkie to the core, Trinity had found her calling in covert work.
Growing up in Chicago, she had never known her father and had been forced to deal with her raging alcoholic mother until she was thrown in jail when Trinity was five. Lost in the foster care system, Trinity had fallen into the wrong crowd until her life had changed at thirteen when she had tried to steal a car belonging to Homeland Security agent Ben Cross. Ben and his wife Veronica had taken one look at the bruised and battered young girl and had welcomed her into their home.