by Lora Leigh
“I understand,” Alyssa assured her with a confidence she didn’t feel.
Thankfully, Gia dropped the subject as they neared the crowd. Collecting a glass of wine, Alyssa moved to the outskirts of the slowly growing throng, the number increasing as the night wore on and the wine loosened inhibitions. The beach party was becoming a bit wilder than she’d expected. So much so that she found herself retreating farther into the shadows as the night wore on.
No doubt she would have not been hiding in the dark had Shane and Sebastian been there. Of course, if they had been there, she’d be having more fun either way.
A little more than an hour or two into the party Alyssa began slipping away. Things were becoming just a little too wild to suit her. The flagrant sexual exhibitionism already beginning was enough to make her uncomfortable. Damn, sometimes being that good girl virgin could be a hell of a drawback.
“Hey, leaving?” The swarthy Mediterranean suddenly blocking her way as she began to step onto the sidewalk from the beach had her heart jumping in her throat.
Where the hell had he come from?
“Excuse me, my friends are waiting—”
“What friends?” He snickered, staying in the shadows but continuing to keep her from passing as she tried to get to her apartment. “Baby, there’s no one here but me and you.”
“You’re wrong.” She was normally quite good at bluffing. “And you don’t want to make them angry. Trust me.”
“Stuck-up bitch.” Grabbing her arm, he jerked her to him, despite her instinctive attempt to jerk back. “Too good for me, are you?”
As the words left his lips she found herself suddenly free.
“Actually, she is.” The icy threat in Shane’s voice sent a chill down her spine. “Now, do you want us to prove to you how much better she is than the likes of you?”
“You’re giving him an option?” If Shane’s voice was lethal, then Sebastian’s was pure, black vengeance.
Before Alyssa could fully comprehend everything that was going on Sebastian had one hand wrapped around the thick neck of the younger man and he was slowly wilting, trying to claw at Sebastian’s hands, fighting for air.
“Stop. Stop this now.” Rushing for Sebastian, she gripped his arm, glaring up at him “I won’t have it.”
The man dropped, gasping, freed from a grip guaranteed to choke the life from him.
Scrambling while spewing curses, he scuttled back, made it to his feet, and raced around the apartment building. Not that Alyssa had a chance to make certain he left. In the next breath she was thrown over Sebastian’s shoulder as he walked rather calmly up the steps.
“What are you doing?” Bracing her arms against his lower back, she struggled to lift herself enough to gain some leverage to break his hold. “Let me go!”
A swift little slap to her rear had her freezing in outrage a second before he stepped into the apartment, bent, and deposited her on her feet.
“How dare you!” Shaking, glaring up at him, she adjusted the snug top she felt like stomping her feet in anger.
“How dare I?” His head lowered, eyes as black as coal and glittering with fury suddenly only inches from hers. “Let me tell you how I dare, Alyssa. I dare because that son of a cocksucker thought he could put his damned hands on you. That he could take what you most likely would refuse to allow him to touch. That is how I dare. And if he makes the attempt again, don’t even bother demanding I let him go. You won’t have time. I’ll break his fucking neck.”
Shock exploded through her. This wasn’t the goof he pretended to be. He was stone cold. Hard. Vengeful.
Alyssa stepped back from him slowly.
“’Bastian, easy,” Shane murmured, coming to stand next to Alyssa. “She’s scared enough.”
“Easy, my ass.” Straightening, he shot Shane a fulminating glare. “She could influence me to many things, Shane. God knows I’m so fucking enchanted with her I let that bastard go before I realized I was obeying her,” he snarled, obviously quite put out. “But some things are better understood from the beginning. I’ll kill anyone stupid enough to attempt to hurt her. And God help them if they actually succeed.”
Alyssa stared up at him with wide eyes.
All this fury for her? Because someone had frightened her in the dark? Okay, so maybe he’d terrified her. But all this protectiveness, even as arrogant and irritating as it was, was something so new, such an alien concept to her, that she could only stare up at Sebastian, fascinated and confused.
“Why?” she asked.
Sebastian stilled, a brooding frown crossing his face as he pushed his fingers restlessly through his hair.
“Why what?” He finally shook his head as though he didn’t understand the question.
“Why would you kill someone for hurting me? You don’t know me—”
“Well, by God let me show you why.”
He lifted her to him. His head lowered, but when his lips came over hers there was no violence, no fury, expended into the kiss.
The results were devastating all the same.
Senses spinning, focused entirely upon the kiss, her lips parting beneath his and a moan escaping her throat, she knew she’d never be the same.
Firm, calculatingly masterful, and filled with a dark, rich hunger she could never have expected as he kissed her, Shane’s lips brushed over her shoulder, against the side of her neck. As he tenderly gathered her hair from her shoulder and held it out of his way, his teeth suddenly raked against nerve endings in her neck that shattered her concepts of pleasure.
Her cry came with the jolt of fiery, shocking sensation racing from her neck to between her thighs. Sebastian’s kiss became hungrier, steadily building each erotic sensation until she could barely breathe, until she was shaking, shuddering.
This was pleasure? Fiery bolts of sensation that threatened to obliterate reality? The need for something closer, something she’d never had before and had no idea how to ask for.
“Easy, Alyssa. Shhh, just this kiss,” Shane promised. “Nothing more. Nothing taken. When you want to be released you’ll be free.”
Did she want to be released?
What did she want?
Her fingers dug into the material of the shirt covering Sebastian’s shoulders, fisting into it as she tried and failed to still the erratic storm she sensed gathering inside her. Needs and hungers never known before. Sensations she had no idea how to ease, which only gathered and grew until she was suddenly struggling against them, desperate to be free.
Just that quickly, they released her.
She wasn’t left to try to stand alone, though. Sebastian did no more than release her lips and allow her to rest her weight on her own feet as she leaned against him for support.
What had they done to her?
Shane stood behind her, his forehead resting against her outside shoulder, his body so tense, so wired, she was terrified to move.
“That’s why,” Shane said then. “That’s why he’ll kill, why I’ll kill, if anyone tries to harm you. Because the pleasure you’re so confused by you’ve obviously never felt before. Because it’s ours. We brought it to life—”
“And now, it’s ours,” Sebastian finished for him. “We may not deserve it, but I promise you this: we claim it.”
He didn’t say she belonged to him. She would have fought that immediately. Instead, he said he was claiming her response to them. That was okay, she decided hazily. That would work. Because Shane was right: they had brought it to life.
“Let’s just hope you figure out what to do with it,” she stated unsteadily as she moved away from them. “Excuse me, I think I need to go have my nervous breakdown. I’ll be back in a few days, ’kay?” Lifting one finger rather facetiously, she turned and all but raced to the bedroom.
She needed just a few years to figure out what the hell was wrong with her body and how to control that storm she’d felt rising inside her. The flesh between her thighs was swollen, so slick and wet she had no ide
a how to handle it. She’d never been that wet.
She’d never felt what she was feeling now. The overwhelming need to demand his kisses and his touch in places other than her lips.
Along with it was the sudden, fierce demand for the right to claim them as well.
Yep, it was nervous breakdown time.
3
WEEK ONE
Seduction was a fluid thing.
It was never the same from one woman to the next. Some women, even those experienced in the sexual tastes he and Shane practiced in, were still sometimes hesitant. Being with two men with sexual appetites such as theirs could be a bit discomfiting. In more ways than one.
Seducing Alyssa was pure pleasure, though. Her innocence and unknowing sensuality hinted that her lovers could have been no older than she was herself. Groping, inexperienced boys who had no clue how to ignite the hunger Alyssa was capable of, or how to satisfy it.
Arriving at her apartment, Shane was fully looking forward to giving her the gifts he and Sebastian had purchased for her that morning. The erotic toys were sure to stimulate and build her need if she chose to use them while the cousins weren’t there. They fully intended to convince her to allow them to use the toys on her themselves, though.
“Dinner’s almost ready,” she assured them as they stepped through the French doors. “I’m not much of a cook, though, so I hope you’re not expecting anything fancy.”
“We told you, sweets, anything was fine,” Sebastian assured her as Shane slipped into the living room and laid the bag he carried in one of the wide chairs facing away from the kitchen. Turning, he leaned against the back of it, watching as she moved about the large kitchen preparing the meal.
She wore another of the ankle-length chiffon skirts that flowed around her legs and emphasized the feminine fragility of her small form. This one was white, the same as the racer-back cami she wore with it. The shirt wasn’t snug; instead it whispered over the curves of her breasts and midriff, leaving the tiniest hint of skin to flash between the low-rise band of the skirt and the hem of the shirt.
Sun-kissed blond hair, now lighter than it had been when she arrived, was piled haphazardly on her head and secured with a wide clip. Wisps escaped and framed her inquisitive features and made Shane want to force Sebastian to paint her right at that moment, as she looked now.
Glancing at his cousin, Shane had a feeling he wasn’t going to have to harass him to paint her. He was watching her with a studied intensity normally reserved for the nature-scapes he could become lost in.
“It’s almost ready,” she promised them, the intriguing scents of the meal teasing his senses.
“It smells delicious,” he assured her. “Is there anything we can do?”
The table was set, bread sliced and layered into a basket. Fresh butter rested in the crock she’d purchased it in from the farmer they’d taken her to the day before for his fresh milk and exceptional cheeses.
The wine sat next to it, uncorked and breathing, along with a platter of fresh vegetables that had been seared before baking.
“Walnut-encrusted chicken and baby tomatoes,” she announced, opening the oven door and bending to reach inside.
The view was striking. Shane could feel his entire body tightening at the sight of her curved little rear perfectly outlined by the skirt.
He was about to start sweating despite the comfortable temperature of the apartment.
The meal was perfect. The chicken, baked with walnuts, baby tomatoes, and the fresh cheeses she’d bought from the farmer, a surprising delicate flavor. She was a much better cook than she gave herself credit for.
After the meal Sebastian and Shane urged her to finish her wine as they cleaned the kitchen for her, aware of her amusement as they bickered back and forth.
“You two sound like brothers,” she accused them.
Sebastian grimaced at the charge. “I’m nothing like my brother. Lucien’s the eldest. He’s five years older but far too serious and quiet. He’s rarely accused of being anything like me.”
“Or you like him?” she guessed as he shot her a little wink.
“I am quite proud to admit I’m nothing like him,” he assured her, though his fondness for his brother went deep.
“And you, Shane?” she asked.
“Like ’Bastian, Murphy’s around five years and some odd months older than I,” he admitted. “He looks more like Sebastian, while I resemble Lucien more, I guess. The resemblance ends there.” He chuckled. “Murphy loves the ranch, lives and breathes for those damned cows he’s always talking about.”
“The two of you are very fond of your brothers, though,” she guessed. “That’s good. Families should be close.”
“Oh, we’re close to our families,” Sebastian assured her teasingly. “So much so that they often ship us out of the country just to find a little peace.”
She laughed at that.
“Brothers or sisters in your family?” Sebastian folded the dish towel he’d used to dry the pans and laid it on the counter as he and Shane watched her.
“Only child,” she admitted, propping her chin in her hand, her expression a bit whimsical. “An older brother would have been really nice, but Margot declared I was more trouble than three toddlers and stopped with me.”
Ah, already he liked her mother even less than he had before, Shane thought.
“I can’t believe you were any trouble at all.” Sebastian tipped his head to the side. “I would guess you were a quiet child.”
“And you guessed wrong.” Delight filled the little laugh in her voice. “Especially whenever my friend Summer was allowed to spend time in D.C. with us. She was a hoyden. And always getting me into trouble.” She pouted. But her eyes told a far different story. Filled with the irrepressible spark of a prankster and a child who found wonder in the world.
God, he wanted to paint her. Just as she was now, her expression both innocent woman-child and emerging sensualist. With her elbow propped on the table, her chin resting in her hand as the softness in her gaze hinted at the secrets behind the soft curve of her lips.
“Not Summer Bartlett?” Mock horror filled Shane’s voice as Sebastian grimaced and shot Alyssa a surprised look.
Surely not.
“So you know her?” Delight filled Alyssa’s voice now. “Isn’t she wonderful? She’s always causing trouble. Margot never knows quite what to do with her or what to say whenever Summer flashes her one of those little-girl looks and assures her that she deserves all the credit, mind you, for whatever catastrophe we caused together. It’s the only time I can’t convince her that I was behind the disaster myself.”
“She should be burned at the stake,” Shane muttered, and Sebastian well agreed with him.
“The world would lose so much laughter if you did that.” A hint of seriousness stroked over the amusement. “I would be very bored, Shane.”
“Honey, I promise, we’ll keep boredom at bay.” Moving toward her, his expression hinting at the hunger raging beneath the surface, he gave her a slow, sensual smile. “We bought you some presents, just for those times when we might not be here. Would you like to see them?”
Alyssa swallowed tightly. Presents? She had a feeling it wasn’t some charming little keepsake.
“Will I know what to do with it?” she asked almost fearfully. She had no doubt it had better come with instructions as well as batteries.
The fact that she could just look at them, no matter how bland their expressions, and often guess what they were up to was scary. Barely a week into the sort of relationship, as she called it, and sometimes it felt as though she’d known them far, far longer.
“Well, if you don’t, we’ll help you learn,” Shane assured her, his expression at once teasing and as hungry as any starving wolf.
She turned to Sebastian. “Is he serious?”
Why had she bothered to ask him? The look on his face was pretty much identical.
She was going to blush. Alyssa could feel it comin
g. She would start stuttering and they’d get that dazed expression they always got when that happened, which only made her feel more self-conscious.
Breathing out heavily, she stared at the two men. How could hungry wolves get those flashes of male Christmas anticipation at the same time? These two had their moments of incredible contradictions. And frightening sexual intensity.
“Okay, let’s get it over with,” she told them. “What kind of completely inappropriate presents did the two of you bring me?”
The edible panties she’d hidden hours after they’d left several nights before. The day before, they’d actually brought her edible body oils. She’d not said a word. She took the box to the bedroom and shoved it into an empty drawer.
Shane retrieved the dark gray bag from the chair and approached her with such sexual anticipation she could feel the blush already coming on.
“Sure you don’t want to just open it for me?” she suggested.
His grin was positively devilish. “No, but I really think you should let us help you try it out.”
She accepted the bag cautiously.
“The two of you are going to have to stop this,” she sighed. “Before I die of overexposure to lust.”
“That’s possible?” Sebastian’s completely false look of shock had her shaking her head in exasperation.
Well, hell, she might as well be a good sport about it. She’d learned that fine art when Summer hit sixteen and decided they were dinosaurs for still being virgins and they should just take care of things themselves. She’d even bought the tools required to do so and left Alyssa howling in laughter.
Steeling herself, she glanced in the bag, then reached inside cautiously.
“I promise it doesn’t bite.” Sebastian was about a breath away from dying of laughter.
The ass.
“Says who?” She had to make herself pull the first item free.
Lifting it from the bag, she stared at it for long minutes. She turned it sideways, upside down, then right side up, and tilted her head as her lips pursed thoughtfully.
“Baby, it’s not rocket science,” Shane assured her as Sebastian snickered, coughed, and tried frantically not to laugh.