by Elle Boon
“Excuse me, Mr. King. Could you please move your great hulking form out of the way?” She smiled around his body, inserting herself in front of him with a slight wiggle.
“I do have male employees also, but it’s really none of your business. You obviously don’t know a thing about my clubs.” Shaking her head, she continued, “I have work to do, so please, if you don’t mind.” She gestured at the women flapping her hand in a dismissive gesture toward him. Of course he chose to ignore her not-so-subtle hint to go back inside. The man exasperated and excited her in equal measures.
Max couldn’t believe his eyes. She was his Fated. Selena was the dream girl and the one who completed him. He rolled her name around on his tongue. Selena Ramos…She was also the same woman who starred in his twin’s fantasies. Shit! Their dream woman and Selena were one and the same. Fucking Fates. They were probably up in the heavens laughing their asses off, he thought with a twist of his lips.
He wanted to give them a double-handed, one-finger salute, but didn’t want to tempt them, and besides that was more Malcolm’s style than his. Shit!
For thousands of years they’d searched. He’d actually begun to give up hope of finding her, what with the world coming to an end soon and all.
The line of employees all took a collective step backward at his scowl, so Max did what he did best. He smiled and turned on the charm. “Welcome, ladies.”
By the way Selena’s body reacted to his touch earlier she’d felt the power that flowed between them. Oh, she was good at hiding her reactions, but he was so in tune with her every breath, he would have felt her blink those amazing silver eyes without even looking at her.
He kept his palm flattened on the bit of exposed skin of Selena’s stomach. The waiting throng of women still had a bit of fear etched on their faces, mixed with awe. “I apologize for keeping you waiting. Please, come inside.” He kept his expression warm and inviting.
Selena welcomed each lady by name. He memorized their faces even as he probed their minds as they passed him, only able to relax as the last employee entered and no threat was found.
“Thank you for letting them in, Your Highness,” Selena groused.
He laughed. A full-bellied laugh that seemed to irritate her, if the way her shoulders went up along with the narrow-eyed look she gave him over her shoulder was any indication.
She pulled away from his touch, her hips swaying in low-cut, tight fitted jeans with a top so small he could see her muscles flex. Damn, but the woman made him hard.
Tamara watched him with an intensity that, if he’d been a lesser man, would have made him squirm. He met her with a stare that had her dropping her eyes to the gun she still hadn’t tucked away.
It seemed like hours had passed, but in reality only moments had, from the time he’d felt a jealous rage at the embrace he caught Selena and her friend in. The other woman seemed to come to a conclusion before the group of ladies was close enough to see her or the big weapon. She tucked it into her back where she’d had it, adjusting her shirt, and went over to the group.
He still couldn’t believe how quick she had drawn the weapon.
Not wanting to delay the one call he needed to make any longer, he walked over to the group. “I’m going to step outside and make a call. I’ll be right back.”
The blush at his words that stole up Selena’s face made him want to throw her over his shoulder, and to hell with what the other ladies thought.
His brother’s phone rang several times. He was just getting ready to hang up when he heard Malcolm’s annoying voice.
“Yo.”
“When are you arriving in Kansas City?” Max asked without preamble.
“I’m great. Terrific really, thanks so much for asking.”
“Mal, shut the fuck up and answer the damn question.” Max growled.
“Dude. What’s got your panties in a bunch?”
Max sighed. He really didn’t have time for his brother’s shit. “Malcolm, really, when?”
“Actually I was just getting ready to board. What’s going on?”
“Couldn’t you just demat here?” Max cursed at the whine he heard in his own voice. “Never mind, just get your ass here.” He disconnected before Malcolm could say something to piss him off anymore. His world had been knocked off its axis while his brother was still completely oblivious for now. He scrubbed his hands through his hair, breathed deep, and tried to get his emotions under control before he started acting like a whipped boy.
Max knew he should just leave and put some distance between himself and Selena, but he couldn’t make his feet listen to his mind. With a glance at the sky, he turned and stomped back into the club. Yep, he stomped. He was so whipped.
All eyes turned to him, but the only ones he cared about pretended to ignore him, which just made his inner beast roar.
He walked up to her, invaded her space, making her look at him.
She had on a pair of fire engine red cowgirl boots that gave her an extra couple inches, putting her at about five feet six inches. He tried to hide his grin as she stood tall and puffed out her chest, but all the action did was push her breasts out, showcasing her hard-tipped nipples. She tried to act unaffected by his presence, but her body couldn’t lie. He turned her on every bit as much as she did him.
“I need to get going, but I’ll see you tonight.”
He leaned in, brushing his lips across her open mouth. The sound of her gasp along with the way her breath hitched, before she snapped her eyes up to his, had his dick twitching in his jeans and made him want to go all caveman again.
The color of her eyes fascinated him. He wanted to watch them while she came. If his cock didn’t become permanently scarred from his zipper, he planned to find out tonight.
With reluctance he let her go. He gave a nod to the other women, a sardonic smile to her watcher Tamara, and then he pivoted and walked out without looking back. A man only had so much strength. Every step he took felt like a battle. She made him feel like a lovesick teenager with his first crush, which was ironic since he’d never been a teenager.
He straddled his Harley and with a quick twist of the wrist had it started, feeling the vibrations shoot straight to his balls as he revved the engine with the custom pipes. He rolled his shoulders and strapped on a helmet before pulling out into traffic and heading home. He needed Malcolm to be with him the next time he saw Selena. He needed to see his brother’s reactions to her. Hell, if he was being honest, and Max always tried to be honest at least with himself, he really needed to fuck her, and if Malcolm didn’t hurry the fuck up, he’d do it without him being there.
Chapter Seven
Malcolm looked at the silent phone and grinned. His brother sounded off, and knowing Max was never off put Malcolm on edge. Out of all the Ravens, Max always had his head on straight, and the goal in sight. He waved his hand toward the pilot and the flight attendant, erasing their memory of their intended flight plan.
He tried to reach Max through their shared link but hit a wall that meant his brother was blocking him. His stomach clenched, and butterflies took up residence like they planned to stay. Shit. He was the twin that wigged out, not Max.
Dematerializing for the Ravens was like breathing. One moment he was on a tarmac in Los Angeles, the next he was standing outside his brother’s home overlooking downtown Kansas City.
The mental shields blocking him from Max were gone with an abruptness that staggered Malcolm.
“Why did you shut me out?”
“Sorry, I just had some stuff to take care of.” Max took a deep breath. “Where are you?”
“Standing outside your place.”
“I’ll be there shortly. Listen, there’s something I need to tell you about Selena.”
Max’s husky tone shocked Malcolm. He’d never heard his brother speak a woman’s name in such a possessive manner, and it pissed him off.
“What is she to you, Max?”
The butterflies in Malcolm’s stomach
began doing the mamba, threatening to send the contents back up onto the porch. It would serve Max right to come home to find Malcolm’s lunch all over his deck, Malcolm mused. He swallowed down the bile, not wanting to embarrass himself by actually hurling, and waited for his twin.
When Max didn’t answer the question, Malcolm slammed his own shields down viciously and hoped like hell Max got a headache.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
What the heck was wrong with him? A woman was a woman, as long as she had a pussy, was warm and wet in all the right places and could satisfy him. Right? He nodded his head. His gut clenched like he’d just betrayed someone.
“What the hell is happening to me?”
He could hear the sound of the rumble of a Harley’s loud pipes getting closer. As Max brought his bike to a stop Malcolm walked down to meet him.
“You still riding that piece of shit?”
“Up yours. You still riding that thing you call a bike?” Max asked.
They both laughed and eased the tension that was like a live wire between them. With their right arms extended, they gripped each other’s forearms and rested their left arms on the other’s shoulder. Malcolm peered into identical blue eyes before he pulled Max into a hug, then they each slapped the other’s back hard.
Each man grunted.
Max stepped back and said, “You look like shit.”
“So do you.” Malcolm followed his brother into his home and without being told kicked off his boots. Trailing after Max, he noticed some of his twin’s prized possessions filled the walls and shelves.
“You plan on staying here a while, bro?”
“Yeah, I do,” Max said.
Malcolm followed into the kitchen, absently accepting a beer. With his head tipped back, he downed the cold beverage before tackling the real issue.
“What’s up with Selena?”
“It’s her, the girl from our dreams,” Max said. He finished his beer and retrieved another, holding up his full one to Malcolm.
Malcolm nodded his head, finishing the last of the bitter brew, and tossed the empty bottle in the trash.
“What now?”
“Fuck if I know. Let’s go outside and relax. Maybe meditate.”
“Listen, bro…I love you, but I ain’t getting nekkid with you unless there’s a woman between us.”
Max laughed and flipped him the bird. The strain seemed to seep out of the air.
With beers in hand, they sat on loungers next to the infinite pool and watched the sun go down. Companionable silence broken only by the occasional bird followed. Malcolm was loath to be the one to break it. But he needed to know more about Selena.
“So…” He cleared his throat. “What do you think of her?”
The descriptions matched their dream girl exactly. It astonished Malcolm to hear Selena wasn’t a petite, brown-eyed, brown-haired woman.
Max’s eyes fairly glowed as he spoke of Selena. A light that Malcolm recognized as his twin’s inner power seemed to stretch out of his core, searching, calling out, making Malcolm’s own reach forward.
A puzzled look crossed his brother’s face, a mirror image Malcolm was sure matched his own.
“Did she recognize you?”
“No, I don’t think so. Maybe it was only you and I who shared the dreams.” Max didn’t look pleased with the admission.
That was something neither man wanted to contemplate.
“Go shower and then we will go and meet Selena.”
He saluted Max with his bottle of beer then made a bee line for the guest bedroom. A Jacuzzi big enough for six people was in one corner of the bathroom. He pictured Selena sandwiched between Max and him, and decided a cold shower was just what he needed.
Cold water pounded his body from all sides of the state-of-the-art shower. Looking down, he saw junior was still at full mast, and sighed.
“Son of a bitch,” he whispered. “I’m gonna go blind if I keep beating off.”
Their dream girl on her knees is what he pictured as he reached down and gripped his balls in one hand and fisted his dick in the other. He pictured her mouth opening wide to suck him down, her tongue licking the pearly fluid from the tip. The vision seemed so real his nuts drew up, and before he could brace his feet, his cum boiled up and shot out of the top.
He panted, and caught himself with one arm on the tile wall above his head before he fell on his ass.
At his will the temperature raised enough for him to finish his shower.
When was the last time he’d reacted like this with a female? The more he thought about her, the more possessive he became.
Their Fated. The thought should have stunned him.
Max was waiting by the door with a stretch hummer running outside.
It amazed Malcolm how without speaking they both tended to dress similarly. He’d donned a pair of loose white slacks and a black button-down top, while Max was just the opposite in a pair of similar pants in black and a button-down white top.
He shook his head at the absurdity.
“What are you laughing at?” Max asked as he settled on the seat across from him.
“Us.” Malcolm chuckled.
The trip downtown took forever in Malcolm’s mind, and not nearly enough time. A moment of panic lit his insides when they pulled up outside Selena’s club. On the radio the song “If You Could Only See” by Tonic was playing, and Malcolm wondered if this were what it felt like when a man’s destiny awaited him.
“I’m becoming a pussy,” he muttered, following Max out of the vehicle.
“Yeah, well so am I,” Max snarled.
They’d both stopped at the door like it was a snake about to bite them. Max quirked his lips then muttered, “You first.”
“Age before beauty,” Malcolm joked.
“Fuck it…Let’s get this over with.” Max jerked the door open, taking several steps inside before stopping abruptly.
“What the hell, Max?”
Malcolm looked around Max to see what made his brother stop, and saw an angel standing on top of the bar, swaying her hips from side to side with her arms above her head.
“Holy mother of gods and goddesses alike,” Malcolm whispered.
The change in the atmosphere was a palpable thing to Selena. One minute she’d been watching her employees go through the different routines on the bar, and the next she was on top the glossy surface and showing them it was okay to do a little improvisation.
With her favorite jean skirt and tank top with the bar’s logo bedazzled across the front and a pair of well-worn, fire engine red cowgirl boots, she started stomping to the beat. By the time the chorus began, she’d shuffled across the bar with her arms up, and the straw hat on her head bobbed along with the words. She stopped abruptly and did an exaggerated hip swivel, facing her bartenders, and smiled. It wasn’t a sweet, “aww look how cute I am” lift of her lips. No, as Tamara was fond of saying it was her “girl’s gonna do something crazy” look.
Selena raised her left arm in the air and brought her right arm out, swooshing her hand through the air as if she were slapping something. The tempo increased, and with each slap of her hand she moved her ass back and forth, increasing the pace as the beat to the music became faster and faster.
When the last note blared out she stomped first one booted foot then the other, the sound echoing around the now silent bar. She shrugged her shoulders, looked over at Tamara and winked. Not stopping to think, she jumped, flipping off the mahogany surface, landing in a crouch onto the matching floor.
The stunned silence that met her little show was a bit disarming, but Selena was anything but shy.
All eyes had turned toward the entryway and the two men who filled the space with their presence. Both men’s eyes glittered with a feral light that sent a shiver of fear down her spine. With their hands fisted at their sides, they looked like warriors who were barely holding themselves in check.
Light and dark filtered through her befuddled brain. Although
they were clearly identical outside with dark hair and the bluest eyes she’d ever seen in real life, there was a difference inside.
The vague sense that she knew these two men intimately gave her a start, but she lifted a shoulder and dismissed the crazy images flashing in her mind. Selena couldn’t very well meet the two men while having dirty daydreams.
Making her way to where they stood frozen to the spot, she tried to control the full-body shake that ran through her. With her heart threatening to burst out of her chest, she put on a brave face.
All her being wanted to make everyone in the club disappear so she could lay claim to the men whose sole focus was pointed straight at her.
“Howdy, boys,” Selena said in her best southern drawl. With her hand extended and smile firmly in place, she reached out to greet the one she believed was Max first.
The first to recover grasped her hand, and with the same ability she’d always had she knew it was Malcolm who gripped her fingers in a gentle embrace. For such a large man he was surprisingly gentle, just like Max had been earlier.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Selena,” Malcolm said.
“You must be Malcolm?”
He looked at his brother, then turned a wide grin back to her. “Yep…that’s me. I’m the better looking, smarter and all around best twin.”
A muscle ticked in the other’s jaw before he took a deep breath and reached for the hand still enclosed within Malcolm’s.
“It’s very nice to see you again Selena, you look amazing,” Max murmured. “Do you usually get up there and um…dance like that?”
Selena wasn’t sure if he sounded angry or jealous, like he wanted to toss her over his shoulder and hide her away. The notion sent a thrill to her core, which worried her. She tugged her palm out of his grasp, tossed her hair over her shoulder to cover her nervousness or whatever she was suddenly feeling for them. Wanting two men she’d basically just met to go all Neanderthal on her ass wasn’t her.
She snorted. “As often as I can, yes.”