Blackmailed (17 page)

“How would we do this, Ty? Legally she can only marry one of us.” He

forced the words out, hoping Tyler wouldn’t fight him for the right to

marry Bri. After all, they each had a vested interest in her.

They’d shared women for many years, but never gotten emotionally

involved with any of them. Bri was the first. Now Cole recognized the

alien feeling that had hit him the first morning. He was jealous. Jealous

of the fact he would probably never fully own Bri’s heart. On the other

hand, he couldn’t imagine not having Ty in their lives. Or their bed.

“On paper, Cole. Nobody can tell us how to live our lives behind

closed doors. And who knows, maybe someday I’ll meet a girl I want to

marry.”

Cole snorted. “I don’t see Bri going for a foursome.”

-110-
Blackmailed

“You never know. Besides, I don’t have anybody in mind, and if you

don’t care about sharing your
wife
, then I’m perfectly happy with how

we’re handling things now.”

Tyler bent and grabbed his jeans from where he’d left them in a heap

on the ground and marched toward the house, naked. He turned and

called back over his shoulder, smiling and laughing, “A carat, Cole, she

won’t want anything bigger, and I get the left side of the bed.”

Cole laughed and straightened the cushion on the lounge chair where

they’d just taken complete possession of Bri’s tiny body. He’d never see

the seat again in the same way. Then he remembered why they’d been

out there in the first place.

They’d made a mistake, not intercepting the letter. He could feel it. As

soon as he’d announced himself, she’d startled and crumpled the letter

before he could get a good look at it. Her telltale swallowing confirmed

his suspicions. She was hiding whatever was in that letter from them.

Something he was sure she didn’t know how to handle herself.

-111-
Annmarie McKenna

Chapter Seven

Tyler drove his sporty black BMW with as much finesse as he did

everything else. His hands caressed the leather steering wheel the same

way they touched her body. With a kind of gentle reverence. When he

shifted gears, his touch was light, the shift smooth. Completely opposite

her own experience in driving a stick. She could tell he babied this car,

just like he babied her. She had to admit, it felt good, for once, to have

someone care about her.

“I’m starving,” Tyler grumbled and rubbed his black-T-shirt-covered

belly. The action caused the hem to ride up, allowing a patch of his

delectable abs to peek through.

Brianna’s mouth watered as she remembered being plastered against

his hard, smooth skin just an hour and a half ago. She was turning into

an insatiable nympho. And to think, her father had threatened to hold

her down while Cole fucked her. She snorted.

It was scary how much she actually liked to be restrained.

“We didn’t get to eat lunch.” Tyler’s stomach spoke for itself with a

loud growl.

“Hmm. I wonder why.” Brianna picked at a non-existent hangnail on

her forefinger and rolled her eyes, then thanked God for the opening she

needed. She would simply suggest they go to Tonio’s for lunch.

She jumped when his big, callused palm landed on her knee before

sliding beneath her skirt. He massaged the delicate flesh near the apex of

her legs. Her knees, wide apart per their “rules”, offered him all the space

he needed. She squirmed in her seat, silently begging him to go higher,

but stopped when he chuckled.

“You saying you didn’t like what we did?”

-112-
Blackmailed

Brianna shifted. “My butt hurts.”

Tyler barked out in laughter. “God you’ve changed. We’ve only had

you for what, three, four days? You never would have said something so

blunt when I first met you.”

Brianna tried to summon up the telltale redness of embarrassment.

She really did. When it wasn’t forthcoming, she shrugged.

“Yeah, well I’ve learned to be that way in the last few days. One of

Cole’s first rules was never to lie. Surely there are better things to get

spanked for.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“You are an imp.” He squeezed her thigh one more time then began

stroking her skin with his thumb. Back and forth, back and forth.

Brianna slid forward in the seat, trying to urge his hand higher again,

but he stopped her by simply pulling his hand away. She blew her bangs

out of her face and sighed.

“So, where do you want to eat?”

She nibbled on her lip. At least she could attempt to look like she was

making up her mind. The hair prickled on the back of her neck and she

knew he was watching her. His eyes were squinted and focused on her

mouth, looking all the world as though he were the one who wanted to be

biting her lips.

“Um, Tonio’s.”

Tyler snorted. “That was definitive. Don’t you women always use that

old standby, ‘I don’t know, where do you want to go’?”

The little shit was mocking her. “Usually, but today I want to go to

Tonio’s.”

“Yeah? Why?”

“Does it matter? You said you wanted to give me whatever I wanted.

Within reason of course.”

“You’re pushin’ it, little one.”

They drove the rest of the way in silence, something Brianna was

grateful for. It gave her time to think about how she would handle her

meeting. Time to stop thinking about how Cole and Tyler were seriously

starting to affect everything about her.

-113-
Annmarie McKenna

Ugh
.
Scottie is your first priority
. In order to keep him safe she would

keep her end of the bargain and stay with Cole until her father returned.

And pray when she had to leave, her heart wasn’t ripped to shreds.

She wouldn’t even think about the silly proposal. Hadn’t that been

said in the heat of passion? He couldn’t have been thinking straight at

the time. Besides, why would a gazillionaire choose her as a wife?

But God, it would be nice, wouldn’t it? To be cherished by not one,

but two men? To never have to hide her brother again? Her heart

thumped just imagining it. Life couldn’t really be so kind to her, could it?

She shook her head. First she had to deal with the small detail about

whatever it was her letter writer wanted. Brianna couldn’t imagine

having something
anybody
would be interested in. She didn’t have a life

outside of Scottie. That wasn’t exactly true. Cole and Tyler were here for

her. Sort of. At least for the rest of the week. And that was the hard part.

Come Monday, Brianna would be gone. The lump returned with a

vengeance in her throat. She wanted to lash out at someone or

something, hating how she felt so raw inside whenever she thought

about leaving them.

“They proposed to you,” her inner voice whispered.

“You’re awful quiet.”

His words made her jerk in her seat. “Sorry, just thinking.” Her voice

cracked with emotion and Brianna hoped he didn’t notice.

“About what?”

She fudged. “About all that’s happened this week. I’m glad Scottie’s

happy. It’s been a long time since he’s actually laughed when I wasn’t

around.”

“He is happy. He had a blast yesterday when we played blind golf.”

She whipped her head to face him. “What?” She hadn’t known they’d

done anything together.

“Blind golf. I put on a blindfold and we had to putt toward the hole

based on where Cole’s voice was and his directions.”

That did it. She cried. No one had ever done anything like that for

Scottie. They were digging a bigger and bigger hole. One she wouldn’t be

-114-
Blackmailed

able to pull herself out of come Sunday. If Cole and Tyler liked Scottie it

was going to be damn near impossible for her to leave.

“What’s wrong?”

Tyler’s tender-laced concern brought forth a new gush of tears. She

felt the car veer to the right and stop. He wrapped his big, rough hands

around her face, then leaned in and kissed her. His lips were soft and

apologetic in their touch and, at the moment, she would give anything to

remain under his and Cole’s safety net. Except Scottie.

She pulled out of Tyler’s embrace and wiped at her cheeks, removing

the tracks of tears.

“What’s this all about, Bri?”

She laughed. It was either that or cry again. “Nothing.” She sniffed

and shook her head. “It’s just…I didn’t expect you guys to pay any

attention to Scottie. But instead, you’re out there, making your world

just like his.” She raised her eyes to look at him. “Thank you.”

“Aw, little one.” His hand wrapped around her skull, tangling in her

hair as he pulled her toward him and buried her face in his shoulder.

She sniffed again but it was too late. Her tears and snot left their mark

on his T-shirt. He murmured soothingly in her ear.

After a minute, she lifted away from him. She blew her nose on a

tissue that appeared in front of her as if by magic. Tyler sat quietly while

she collected herself but his gaze never left her. It made her feel

enshrouded with protection.

“Did you win?” she asked him, determined to put on a happy face.

“Hell no, he kicked my ass.”

Brianna laughed. Scottie had swindled them. She had been playing

putt-putt with him for years. It was one of his favorite activities.

Something they could do in the privacy of their backyard.

“Ready to go now? Or would you rather turn around?”

“No,” she shouted, then winced. As she suspected, Tyler caught on

and gave her a quizzical look.

He put the car in gear. “I can’t wait to find out what’s eating you,

little one.”

-115-
Annmarie McKenna

There was no reason to deny anything since he’d already seen clear

through her. She sat back and tried to enjoy the rest of the ride. An

impossible feat when her stomach was twisting up in knots over

everything that had happened in the last few days.

Tyler parked the car at the exclusive restaurant, hesitant about going

in. There was a reason Bri wanted to go here. She’d been so adamant

about not going home even though she was upset. He’d never met a

woman who didn’t hem and haw and play up the “you decide” game.

Maybe he’d just hung around the wrong kind of women until now. The

kind who only wanted things that cost a lot of money and made them

look better. Bri was in a different class altogether. Hell, she’d cried

because he and Cole had played a game with her brother.

Tyler grabbed the SIG Sauer from under his seat as he got out of the

car. Tucking it into his waistband at the small of his back, he walked

around the hood of the car. He wondered, not for the first time, if Bri’s

reactions had anything to do with the damn letter. His hand on the door

handle, he surveyed the parking lot and street. No one had followed them

and he wasn’t expecting trouble, but that didn’t stop him from making

sure.

He wasn’t too keen about going into the expensive restaurant in the

first place. It was a Mecca for St. Louis’s influential people. Even if Bri

wasn’t recognized, he would be, as Cole Masters’s security expert, if not

for his own wealthy status.

Tyler opened the door and his heart missed a beat when he looked

into Bri’s red-rimmed eyes. Who knew that a little scrap of a woman with

asthma, and a whole lot of other problems, would be the one to worm her

way into his soul? And Cole’s. Then she smiled at him.

“Are you sure they’ll let you in?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t they?”

He got a peek of her shaved mound as she swung her legs out of the

car. It was all he could do not to lay her across the seat and fuck her.

Instead he grasped her elbow and tugged her out of the car.

-116-
Blackmailed

“I’m positive there’s a dress code that doesn’t include old jeans, a Tshirt that’s been washed ten thousand times, scuffed boots, and…you’re

probably not wearing any underwear are you?”

He shook his head. “Absolutely not. But then, neither are you.” He

reached over the seat and grabbed a lightweight leather jacket.

“Believe me, I am not happy about that fact.”

Tyler shut the door and locked the car with his remote before they

headed across the parking lot. He kept Bri on his left side and guided her

with a hand on her lower back. His right hand was loose and ready if he

needed to go for the SIG. He was ambidextrous when it came to firing the

weapon, but his first inclination would be to go in right-handed.

“You may not be, but I am. Besides, I’ve got a nice watch.”

“Oh, well then,” she scoffed. “You think they have a sign in there that

says, ‘If your watch costs more than our most expensive bottle of wine,

then we’ll welcome any ratty jeans and T-shirt wearing man, going

commando, into our establishment’?”

“Hmm. You have a really convoluted mind, you know that?” He

leaned in close to her ear and squeezed her hip as he opened the door. “I

promise, they won’t turn me away.”

The smell of garlic, oregano and tomatoes bombarded him as they

opened the second set of doors, and his stomach growled again.

“Hungry?” Bri tossed at him over her shoulder, grinning.