“Fine.”
*
Lindsey marched over and flung the door open once more, pushing Alex out of the way. She wasn’t sure who she was angrier with right now, the unrelenting jerks on the inside of the house, or the … well, unrelenting jerks outside.
The priest-looking fellow whipped back around. “Lindsey. Please, a moment.” Pastor Stone motioned toward the street.
“Right here is fine.” She crossed her arms as Ryan saddled up beside her and grasped the back of her neck with one hand.
“We-we’d really prefer to speak to you in private.”
“And I’d prefer to stay here on the front step.” She tapped one foot and glared at the trio. Gripping her hands tucked under her arms, she managed to avoid shaking in front of them. The last thing she wanted was for them to see her fear.
Stone glanced at Ryan over her shoulder and then back at Lindsey. “Lindsey, my lost, lost lamb of God, I’ve known you your entire life. Surely you don’t believe I would harm you? Some privacy would be prudent.”
Exasperated beyond reason, Lindsey shook Ryan’s hand from her shoulder and took several steps forward. The good Pastor and his flanks backed up to accommodate her.
Even without the ability to communicate with Ryan telepathically, she could feel the hostility at her back. His eyes burned into her. He wouldn’t hesitate to pounce given the opportunity.
“What? What’s so damn important, you can’t speak to me in front of my friends? I left your congregation four years ago. I’m done. You’re not going to convince me to return. I’ve moved on.”
“My lamb, it’s customary, at a certain point in our lives, for our members to … grasp their religious convictions fully and with intent.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I’m not grasping anything,” she hissed. She didn’t know why she was bothering to practically whisper just because this asshole chose to.
“Your twenty-second birthday is next week. Traditionally—”
“What business is that of yours? What does my birthday have to do with anything?”
He cleared his throat, looking only marginally appalled by her forceful words.
“Your grandmother, God rest her soul, had made arrangements for your place among our flock…”
“My grandmother? My dead grandmother? She’s gone. Who cares what she arranged. Look,” she lifted both hands, “I don’t care what Grandma Walters may or may not have desired concerning my soul, I’m done with you people. You hear me? Done. D. O. N. E. Done. Stop coming here. Stop terrorizing my roommate. Enough is enough. Got it?” She shook with anger.
One step back and Ryan clasped her arm, dragging her backward. “You heard the lady. Don’t return.”
“Take some time to mull it over, my lamb. God needs you on his side. Pray about it, I implore you.” He held up a worn Bible and bowed his head in silent prayer as Ryan yanked her into the apartment.
“God almighty,” he said as soon as he shut the door. “What the hell was he spouting about? He’s insane.”
Ryan pulled Lindsey into his embrace and Alex sandwiched her from behind.
A sob escaped her, and then another, until she was full-out crying. Sniffling. Eyes watering. Crying. Like she was a toddler.
Both men soothed her with gentle caresses.
“Are they gone?” Jess’s voice forced Lindsey to glance up as her friend handed her a tissue.
“I hope so,” she sputtered.
Jess glanced out the window. “Nope. Not gone. They’re standing in the same spot, arms lifted in the air, fucking praying… Oh, wait, now the tall guy is kneeling on the ground pleading with his fire-and-brimstone God to save us all from our sins.” She let go of the curtain. “At least that’s what I assume.”
She headed for the kitchen before turning back with raised eyebrows. “So, who feels safe? Wanna spend the night, boys?”
Her chuckle trailed out of the room.
Lindsey pulled from the grasp of her men and looked at them both. “Please?”
“What? Stay here?” Ryan scrunched up his face. “We’d all be more comfortable and have more space if we went to my parents. At least we’d have several rooms. No offense, but your apartment is claustrophobic.”
“Come on. Just tonight. Jessica doesn’t want to go to your parent’s, and we can’t leave her here. She’d never be able to sleep.”
Both Ryan and Alex groaned.
She knew she had them. “I’ll owe you one.”
“You’ll owe us way more than ‘one,’ cariña. How big is your bed? Is it even a queen?”
“Yes, and you can’t possibly sleep there.” She lowered her voice. “Jess would have a cow.”
“Uh huh,” Alex hissed. “No way are we sleeping without you.”
“You can’t be serious.” Are they always going to be this pigheaded and argumentative?
“Dead serious,” Ryan added.
“Well, in this apartment, we don’t habitually bring home boyfriends to spend the night, and certainly not two of them. Jess has barely begun to accept Kara’s arrangement. And, although I’m sure she’s suspicious of ours, I’ll not torture her with your nighttime antics.” She backed up. Jeez.
Silence filled the room, the afternoon sun waning in the sky, casting the room in shadows. She watched each man’s face as they engaged in their silent conversation that was gradually driving her bonkers.
She clenched her fists as the seconds wore on.
Alex gazed at her first and whispered, “You’d be privy to everything we thought if we could just go somewhere private and finish the claiming, mi amor.”
She clenched her teeth and sputtered through them. “You said you wouldn’t pressure me.”
“And we won’t.” Alex held his hands out, palms up.
A glance at Ryan showed the same serious expression. “We promised.”
Jessica returned from the kitchen, a bowl of ice cream in her hand, the spoon hanging from her lips. She paused and looked around. “Am I interrupting something? You all look like you just had a heated argument.”
“Observant,” Lindsey muttered under her breath. Even her roommate could feel the tension in the room.
“Hey, I don’t want to be the cause of any distress here.”
“You’re not, Jess,” Lindsey reassured her.
“Maybe it would be better if we all went somewhere else tonight? Back to Kara’s?”
The collective exhales of relief from Ryan and Alex made her smile. “I’ll get my stuff.” Jess headed down the hall.
Lindsey was fuming, and the flames only intensified when she saw the looks of triumph on both men’s faces.
She turned on her heel and headed for her own bedroom. Damn men. Bossy. Controlling. High-handed. Jerks.
*
Five minutes later, Alex watched as both women emerged from the hall, duffles in hand. Jess looked worried. Lindsey—infuriated.
“It’s going to be a long night.” Alex reached for the door handle.
“Let’s head to my parent’s house and try to relax. The tension in this room could be cut with a knife.” Ryan put a hand on Alex. “Does that work for you?”
“It’s a plan.” What he really wanted was someplace the three of them could be alone for twelve solid hours. He groaned inwardly, thinking of where they’d been just this morning. If only they could spend the night engaged in heated make-up sex after the last few hours of walking on eggshells around Lindsey and wake up peacefully with her fully claimed in their arms.
Now he groaned aloud.
No one said a word. When Ryan opened the front door, the three Bible-yielding, God-fearing zealots were still praying on the sidewalk. They jumped to attention at the arrival of their prey and began begging Lindsey to reconsider. “Your grandmother would be so disappointed. Your life is heading down the wrong path. Please, consider coming with us instead of these sinners.”
When the cabrón reached for Lindsey and grabbed her arm, Alex lost it. He somehow manag
He pushed the man back with enough force to emphasize his point, but not enough to send him careening into the street like Alex would have liked.
The hijo de puta simply resumed his praying, his words growing louder with each syllable. Hands in the air, he pleaded with a god that surely didn’t have time to listen to the likes of his kind. “Forgive her, Jesus, for she knows not what she does. Her heart has gone astray—” His words were cut off when Alex had everyone in the truck once again and slammed the door.
He glanced back as Ryan sped away from the curb. All three Bible-thumpers stood in the middle of the street pleading with their hands in the air. He couldn’t get far enough away from that religious hypocrisy.
“I’m sorry,” Lindsey muttered from behind him. “You may have been right.”
When Alex turned to look at her, her gaze was focused out the window in defeat and sorrow.
“It’s not your fault, mi alma. You didn’t ask for this.”
“Neither did you. We just met. Can you believe what a quacked history I have? Bet you never thought you’d encounter skeletons like this in your lifetime.”
The car jolted to a stop, forcing Alex to look back out the front. They were pulled over and Ryan was livid.
“Alex is right, Lin. I don’t want to hear another word of self-recrimination. You did nothing to ask for this, and no one is blaming you for anything.” He reached across the seat between them and stroked a lock of Lindsey’s hair.
Jessica coughed. “Um, why don’t you guys drop me at Kara’s and maybe, um…”
Lindsey looked at her with worry. “You don’t want to come with us to Ryan’s?”
“I feel like a third, or fourth, wheel.” She gave a wry grin. “It’s okay, really. Obviously you three have some stuff to discuss. I’ll bunk at Kara’s and you can … do whatever you need to do.”
Alex felt bad for Jessica. She’d been caught the entire day in the middle of this circus of an unfinished mating. The woman had her own secrets and clearly wasn’t interested in discussing them, with anybody, yet. Whatever her reasons were, Alex would respect her privacy, for now.
Ryan pulled back out into traffic and Alex resumed a stare out the front window, counting the minutes until they could drop Jess off and get back to what was really important.
A time that should have been filled with unparalleled cravings for sex, had instead been tamped down with several hours of tension. As soon as the three of them relaxed, there’d be some serious ground to make up.
Alex couldn’t imagine how he could avoid ripping his mate’s clothes off, flipping her onto her stomach and slamming his rock-hard cock into her moist sheath. He was that horny.
Ryan groaned his own frustration into Alex’s head.
Chapter 14
“Home sweet home.” Ryan pulled his truck off the end of the paved road onto the gravel parking area. The crunch of rocks under the tires was a sound he associated with home.
“Does anyone in your family do anything in moderation?” Lindsey asked.
“Not if we can help it.”
“The place is enormous.”
“Well, my parents raised six kids here. We needed a lot of space.”
They all three climbed down from the truck, but before they could even take one step toward the sprawling ranch, the screen door squeaked open, announcing the bombardment of siblings and parents to greet them.
Tessa was the first. She’d probably been watching out the window, knowing her. As the oldest and only girl in the family, she’d always felt the need to protect and mother the five younger boys. Well, in reality Ryan’s mother had only given birth to five kids, but Trevor had moved in with them at a young age and became a member of the family and Justin’s best friend in less than a heartbeat.
Tessa made a direct path to Lindsey and wrapped her in a gentle embrace. “Welcome,” she said when she leaned back. “I’m Tessa. Glad to be adding more women to the family. The testosterone around here is thick.” She laughed and then turned to Alejandro.
Ryan wondered what her reaction would be. This was certainly not planned. Sure, Justin and Trevor had mated with a single human woman just months ago, but everyone had at least been used to those two sharing women. They’d always shared. It had been a coincidence of fate that they happened to find a mate to share for eternity.
This was different. Ménages were rare among their species, and Ryan hadn’t previously been inclined toward threesomes.
Tessa took Alex’s hand in both of hers. Her warm smile was all Ryan needed to know. “Of course, it hardly helps to add a woman to the mix if we’re just going to double the testosterone anyway.” She chuckled in delight and hugged her new brother-in-law.
Alejandro, rather than release Tessa, leaned in and kissed both cheeks before melting Ryan’s sister with his Latin accent. “Mucho gusto. Pleased to meet you.”
Tessa’s husband appeared behind her and wrapped his wife in a long arm. “You’ll have to excuse my mate. She’s a sucker for a Spanish accent. Or Italian, or French, it doesn’t really matter which one.” He laughed and stuck out a hand. “Aaron. Welcome.”
Alex shook his hand. “Thank you. For everything. I know this wasn’t in the cards for anyone, us included, but—”
“No worries,” Tessa waved a hand in the air in a zigzag motion. “Come in. Come in. But I’ll warn ya, there’s a lot of people waiting to pounce. Hope you’re up for the crowd.”
Alejandro took Lindsey’s hand and followed his new family members inside. Ryan beamed at his good fortune from the rear. His sexy mate’s slender body swayed in front of him. And how had Alex become so easily a part of his life?
Instead of the jealousy he thought would never subside upon first meeting these two, he now felt a calm sense of peace washing over him, warming him inside and out.
Never would he have to worry about Lindsey’s well-being because there would always be two of them to cherish and protect her. And when they made love to her, the look on her face divulged her intense pleasure, a level of satisfaction he’d never seen before on the face of a woman being loved by just one man.
Yep, the two of them were going to rock her world and turn it upside down, every day.
As soon as they entered the house, the volume increased tenfold. Everyone in his family started talking at once and crowding around the entrance hall.
A sharp whistle brought the bustling to an abrupt halt. Ryan smiled. It was the only way his mother had ever gained the upper hand in that house. Her high-pitched shrill signal could freeze a polar bear in his spot.
Nancy Masters plowed through the throng, her five-foot-two-inch frame daring anyone to accuse her of being petite.
“You must be Lindsey.” Her voice was calm and low and welcoming, belying the decibel she’d used just seconds ago to get her way. “Welcome to our family. Pardon the bad manners of my shouting sons.” She took Ryan’s stunned mate in her arms and hugged her briefly.
“Thank you.”
She turned to Alex and took both his hands in hers. “Alejandro.” Her sincere gaze melted another piece of Ryan’s heart. His parents were going to be okay with this. He’d not expected otherwise, but still … it was unconventional, and unexpected for him to bring home a second mate for his woman. “I’ve spoken with your aunt and uncle several times in the last few days. Feel like I know you already. Please, make yourself at home. This is as much yours as anyone else’s now. We want you to know we support whatever the three of you decide for your future together.”
Alejandro appeared to choke back his relief. “Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate your hospitality. And thank you for letting us stay here while we make some decisions.”
“Take as long as you need.”
“Your mom is an angel.”
Ryan smiled at the silent exchange. He stared at his small new family and thanked God for his good fortune. “That she is.”
“Now, if everyone would stand still, I’ll introduce you all and maybe, just maybe, the poor lass won’t run screaming for the woods before we even get in the living room.”
Ryan watched Lindsey for her reaction to the mayhem. And Alex didn’t let go of her hand, although Ryan wasn’t altogether sure which one of them was actually gripping the other more firmly in silent moral support.
“I’m Nancy,” his mother began. “That tall man behind everyone is my husband Richard. It’s our fault all this chaos exists in the first place.”
“Welcome, we are honored to have you,” Ryan’s father stated. He reached around everyone and extended his hand to Alex. After a brief handshake, he took Lindsey’s palm is his own and looked her in the eye. “Lindsey, you’re as beautiful as my son described. Welcome.”
Lindsey blushed and bit her lip, nodding her thanks.
Ryan’s mother gave a brief smile and continued from left to right, pointing at each person gathered. “You met Tessa outside? And her husband, Aaron. The two little ones circling everyone’s feet are theirs.
“My second child is Justin, whom you’ve met. He’s the only one not here and the only one who doesn’t live here, so far. Next is Ryan, obviously. Fourth is Charles.” She pointed at Charles who nodded. “And the youngest is Michael.”
Michael shuffled his embarrassment at being singled out if even for an instant. At just twenty, he was far younger than the next brother, Charles, twenty-five. And hated being called the baby.
“And you’ve met Trevor also, right? He’s just as much my son as any of these rascals.”
And the volume level rose once again to a decibel that made even Ryan want to cover his ears. He tickled the kids as he made his way to his mate’s free side and wrapped an arm around her before leaning in to whisper in her ear. “Let’s find a place to sit.”
“You’d think they’d give us some room to breathe, but no…”
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