by Lora Leigh
“Alyssa, do you still love them?” her father asked then, tipping her chin up with one finger and staring down at her with all the love and understanding that had seen her through twenty-six years and all his gray hairs, as he told it.
“From the first week I knew them,” she whispered. “But I love strawberries too,” she sighed. “Until I start swelling up and choking.” Her allergy to strawberries could be life threatening. As they’d learned more than once.
For a second, her father’s expression was completely blank before his laughter escaped.
“Alyssa, sweetheart, you never fail to remind me why I have so many gray hairs.” The amusement could have been offensive, she told herself, but after years of putting him through hell with one scrape or another she imagined he deserved a moment of laughter.
“Well, I’m glad to know I can at least provide you with a moment of amusement, Dad.” She shook her head at his laughter. “Don’t you have things to do this afternoon? I’m sure I need to go over Candy’s notes and see how many files she completely screwed up for me.”
Her assistant was still in training, she told herself again. Candy had been in training for over a year now. Her humor and ability to field phone calls while keeping fresh coffee at Alyssa’s elbow often made the screwed-up files less of a hassle.
“She guarded your door like a basset hound,” her father snorted. “All big sad eyes and silent chastisement until someone actually reached for the doorknob. I thought she was going to bite my hand off before I made it through the door.”
Yeah. She was going to believe that one. Just after she started believing in fairy godmothers.
“Try to make it to dinner tonight,” he told her firmly as he headed for the door. “Cook has promised one of his premier meals in honor of your survival. It’s guaranteed to be a good one.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes. “You act like nearly getting run over by some bastard is a monthly occurrence.”
Pausing at the door, he turned back, his gaze still sparkling with mirth despite the concern lurking behind it. “Playing with SUVs in the street, falling from trees, or losing your balance while climbing on chairs. The results are actually rather similar, wouldn’t you say?”
She glared back at him, but she had to admit, the bruises were pretty much in the same places and her head had taken the brunt of the damage. Just as it usually did.
His expression softened then. “You look like your mother when you get that look. You look remarkably like her anyway. She loved you, Alyssa. She didn’t say the words—”
“She showed it in the only ways she knew how,” Alyssa finished for him. “I know, Dad.”
He breathed out slowly. “We were probably the only two on the face of the earth who saw that part of her. Everyone else saw the ice. Only we saw the fires beneath.”
“I know,” she said again, and she did.
As the door closed behind her father Alyssa moved back to the large window, wrapping her arms around herself and staring into the sun-splashed day as she tried to make sense of far too many things in her life.
It all came back to Shane and Sebastian, though. Or did it come back to her?
They had been blackmailed to keep pictures from being leaked to porn sites and the media. Pictures that showed her intimate relationship with two men, rather than one.
To ensure Alyssa didn’t attempt to contact them, the same pictures were sent to her parents and a far different threat made.
It was all designed to keep her and her lovers apart. And Shane and Sebastian had taken the responsibility of protecting her, as her father said. Without her knowledge of the true danger facing all of them.
Her father asked what she would have done if they had come to her and told her. It was a question she couldn’t answer, because they hadn’t given her the chance to fight at their sides. Instead, she had existed. Bound to them, a part of her obviously knowing they hadn’t considered the summer just a brief sexual escape.
She’d never been able to go on because whatever they’d shared in Barcelona had gone too deep. That connection hadn’t died, but the scars it carried still ached with pain.
“Bastards!” she bit out, the frustration she didn’t want to deal with rising so sharp inside her that she knew ignoring it would be impossible. “Damn you, I didn’t need this. Not now. Probably not ever.”
“Talking to yourself again, baby?”
Swinging around, she stared at Sebastian as he stepped past the door her father had left open. Dark, too somber. The playfulness that had been so much a part of him was absent.
Goofy, she’d called him. Because he was always poking fun at something, joking, playing some prank, or making some totally incorrigible comment.
He wasn’t goofy anymore and Alyssa realized she hated that.
“I prefer talking to myself.” She smiled tightly, crossing her arms over her breasts as she glared back at him. “I actually pay attention, whereas the rest of you ignore good common sense.”
“I see.” The mocking thoughtfulness only pissed her off. “So what good common sense are the rest of us ignoring? I’m all ears.”
He was all ears?
He was a damned pain in the ass and none of the pleasure, she thought in disgust. He and his cousin both.
“Go away, Sebastian. I’m busy.”
Go away?
As though he were some peon irritating her royal self? Sweet, deluded little siren. Somewhere in the past eight years she’d evidently concluded that he could be ordered about as though he were the staff.
“Go away?” he repeated the order mockingly. “Siren, you’ve developed an attitude since being away from us.”
The irritated look she shot him caused his jaw to clench, his cock to harden, more. Stiff and throbbing in demand, that portion of his anatomy had always been particularly unruly around her. It was even more so now.
“Go play with Shane for a while and leave me alone,” she ordered him, turning her back on him. “I need a shower and I’m in desperate need of some peace and quiet for a change. And lock the damned door on your way out if you don’t mind.”
Striding across the living area, evidently unaware of the incredible mistake she’d just made, she stepped into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Then she locked it.
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed on the locked door before he stalked to it. Irritation flared through his senses that she would dare to lock a door between them. To speak to him as though she commanded him.
He’d only stepped in to see how she was doing, to perhaps tease her a bit before returning to Landra’s, where he and Shane had stayed the past two nights. They’d meant to give Alyssa one more night of rest before continuing their seduction of her.
Testing the doorknob silently, he smiled at its flimsiness.
It wasn’t a seduction that was coming now.
It was time for a claiming. Time to show the siren how much more easily mere mortal men were led around by the nose when a sweet song was sung, rather than the angry tune she was singing now.
It was time to show her whom she belonged to, not just who belonged to her.
A quick, firm jerk of his wrist and the lock slipped, allowing the doorknob to move freely. He’d let her shower, let her have her peace and quiet for the moment. Tonight, though, the quiet would be filled with her pleas for release and her peace interrupted by her screams of pleasure.
And when he and Shane finished, she would know all the way to her woman’s soul who the alphas were in this particular relationship. One thing was for damned sure: she wasn’t one of them.
19
As Cook promised, dinner was absolutely fabulous, as the middle-aged chef was a magician when it came to food. Every meal he crafted was wonderful. The difference was how he came from the kitchen and babied her and made certain dessert was just how she liked it.
It was the laughter her father couldn’t hold back, Landra’s giggles, and her son Jeb’s quiet smiles. The black-haired, green-eyed
Jeb didn’t smile much, and Alyssa was certain she sometimes saw the same kind of shadows in his eyes that lurked in her own when she looked in the mirror.
Cook had been with the family since Alyssa was a teenager. She knew his name was James, knew he could make pancakes so light they nearly floated and that Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without his turkey. And she would kill for his tiramisu.
He spoiled them like they were his own children and the smallest compliment to his food had smiles wreathing his rough face and pleasure filling his brown eyes.
“Cook, the tiramisu made me want to weep tears of joy,” she sighed as he stepped into the dining room, his craggy, often stoic expression suddenly beaming in enjoyment.
“The next time you play with SUVs in the street, no more tiramisu for a month.” He wagged his finger at her as her father turned her head, chuckling. “Your father has ten new gray hairs, he claims.”
She turned her gaze on her father, eyes narrowed before giving Cook a gentle, innocent look. “Cook, you know how Daddy tells tales on me,” she reminded him with mock sadness. “He’s just jealous because you make the tiramisu special for me. You know how vindictive he can get.” She wrinkled her nose in her father’s direction.
Cook sighed heavily, the laughter in his eyes nearly causing her to spoil the act with an uncontrolled giggle. “Poor Miss Alyssa. He’s always told such horrible tales too.” Cook nodded. “I’m certain you don’t climb on file cabinets or chairs, and certainly you would never attempt to rescue snarling dogs or pull terrified cats from trees, either.”
Oh well. She couldn’t lie about all of it.
“I’m certain he exaggerated each of those tales.” She couldn’t stop the grin. “I swear.”
Shaking his finger at her, he laughed at her antics before returning to the kitchen.
Within moments steaming coffee and after-dinner mints arrived, signaling the conclusion of another of his tasty meals.
Once she’d enjoyed an after-dinner coffee and listened to her father and Jeb discuss stocks and politics for a half hour she was bored out of her mind and searching desperately for a reason to excuse herself from the table.
“Alyssa, dear, you look so very tired,” Landra came to her rescue, causing her to blink and look up at the older woman with an apologetic smile. “It’s been a stressful few days for you, hasn’t it, dear?”
That was putting things a bit mildly, Alyssa thought with silent amusement.
“I think it’s time I head back to my suite,” Alyssa admitted, rising from her chair as Jeb moved quickly to help her.
“Jeb, be a dear and see Alyssa to her room,” Landra told him firmly. “After two days of enforced rest by Nurse Shaw, her legs must be feeling a bit weak. We wouldn’t want her to fall before making it to her room.”
Alyssa stared at Landra warily.
“Of course, Mother,” Jeb agreed softly, his gaze meeting Alyssa’s with a little conspirator’s wink.
What the hell was Landra up to?
Was she trying to get her son killed by playing matchmaker? Shane and Sebastian wouldn’t stand for it and she should know that. Cousin or no cousin, they would never tolerate another man interfering with their seduction of her. Which was really kind of funny. Shane and Sebastian had no problem sharing her with each other, but Alyssa knew for a fact they’d never willingly let another man touch her.
“It’s all good,” Jeb murmured as he offered his elbow to her politely and said loud enough for Landra to hear, “Come along, little sister, let’s get you safely to your bed.”
Yeah, he was related to Shane and Sebastian, there was no doubt. But she took the proffered elbow with a little roll of her eyes.
“You like to live dangerously,” she murmured as they left the dining room and headed up the hallway leading to the outer suites.
“Mother likes to shake things up a bit,” he agreed with a low chuckle, though his hand remained where it was just beneath her upper arm. “I like to allow her the illusion that she’s managing to do so. It keeps her from any real trouble.”
He was handsome. His resemblance to Shane was slight; despite Jeb’s dark hair, his looks were actually closer to Sebastian’s. If Jeb had had lighter hair, she would have figured out they were related before her father began his relationship with Landra.
“It’s rarely a good idea where Shane and Sebastian are concerned, to shake anything up,” she pointed out. “She should know that. Putting her son in the line of fire could become a problem.”
She would really hate to see him hurt.
“They’ve never been known for their jealousy,” he assured her.
“Really?” She glanced up at him in amusement. “Just how well do you know your cousins, Jeb?”
“Well enough to know not to piss them off,” he assured her. “We never spent a lot of time around each other, but when we did, it was an interesting visit. I’ve seen them in a lot of moods, but I’ve never seen them possessive of a woman.”
Briefly she related the incident of them arriving as she talked to Gregory and the resulting confrontation. By the time she and Jeb reached the turn in the hall that led to her suite, he was actually laughing.
“I wouldn’t have minded seeing that.” He chuckled at the end of the tale. “Shane can be incredibly cutting when he wants to be. But, as I said, ‘jealous’ wasn’t one of the descriptions I’ve heard applied to him before now.”
The door to her suite opened and Shane stood in the doorway, his expression dark, his blue eyes narrowed on Alyssa’s hand where it rested on his cousin’s arm.
“I guess it’s all according to how deeply I’ve grown attached,” Shane drawled. “I can be a very jealous man, when the situation warrants it, Cousin.”
Alyssa slid her hand from Jeb’s arm, closed her eyes momentarily, then opened them and stared back at Shane. “There’s a joke in there, right?” she asked, completely amazed that those words had just slipped past his lips.
“Is there a joke in there, Jeb?” Shane asked, though his gaze stayed on hers; the blue darkening, his expression seemed carved from stone.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Jeb assured him, amusement still lingering in his voice. “Should I let Mom know you’re here?” There was definitely an air of familial teasing in that question.
“That’s up to your discretion,” Shane answered, and there was no missing the heavy warning in his tone.
“Then I believe I’ll be very discreet if you don’t care.” Jeb snorted at the warning. “Good night, Cousin.” Turning, he nodded to Alyssa. “Little sister.”
Little sister her ass.
“You and your family are giving me a headache,” she announced, pushing past Shane and entering her bedroom.
She was definitely going to have to see about better locks on all her doors. Earlier, Sebastian had somehow managed to slip the lock between her office and her living room. Now the two of them were just making themselves at home in her bedroom. And no one had ever thought to ask if she gave a damn.
It was going to have to stop. They were making her crazy.
Stepping back, Shane lifted a brow and glanced over at Sebastian. His expression was knowing, brooding, as though to remind Shane that she’d become confrontational.
She wasn’t just confrontational; she was burning with arousal. The feminine need made the gray of her eyes look stormy, gave the lightest flush to her creamy cheeks. The hunger made her irritable. The sensual, carnal need she refused to name or accept, the possession she was dying for, pushing for, gleamed in the very depths of her eyes.
And tonight, she would have it.
There would be no way to deal with the danger they were facing while this lay between them. While the hungers and the needs driving her, torturing her body and her senses, continued to rise inside her.
It was a rare woman who could match the sensual, overwhelming sex drive of one of the cousins, let alone both of them. And few women would be able to commit to owning both their hearts and se
nsual hungers. This woman more than owned them, though. She tempted them. She burned within them.
They’d realized that the night of Landra’s Winter Ball eight years before. This woman was more than a match for them, for both of them and their erotic needs. Watching her become lost in her pleasure between them, feeling those fires flame brighter, hotter, when both of them touched her together, was like feeding the conflagration with gasoline.
“What are the two of you doing here?” As she turned to confront them, the gray in her eyes shifted, shades of it colliding like storm clouds gathering to rip across the skies.
The soft pale cream skirt flowed around her legs, falling nearly to her ankles, where strappy sandals graced her small feet and made her look incredibly delicate. A cream blouse, designed much like a vest, the buttons beginning low enough to show the tempting rise of her pretty breasts, reminded him how sensitive the peaks of those luscious mounds were.
Jeb had enjoyed the view throughout dinner, no doubt. He’d definitely been enjoying it when Shane opened the door, drawn by their laughter in the hall. Bastard. He could have sworn he’d taught Jeb better as a boy. He might well have to loosen a tooth or two with his fist again if the boy wasn’t careful.
“I believe we’re here to see you, siren,” Sebastian stated, his voice smooth, as though the overriding hunger she was only stoking wasn’t ready to burn out of control.
“Well, now you’ve seen me.” Holding her hands out to her sides slightly, she threw them a hard, mocking look. “You can leave now.”
Leave now?
Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared back at her with a smile.
He’d waited eight years. They’d never imagined how they would come back into her life; they’d just known they would. They hadn’t imagined when they did have her back they’d have this challenge. A challenge that fired their blood as well as their lusts.
“Sweetheart, I think you’re well aware that’s not happening. Not tonight.”