Love Under Three Titans (11 page)

“I was just thinking that very thing. That doesn’t bother you?”

“Not considering the circumstances.” Kevin’s grin sparked her own. “Our focus, baby, will be on you. Our purpose will be to give you what you’ll eventually come to crave, a sense of being as one with us all at the same time.” He shrugged, and his expression sobered. “That will be intimate, and private, to be sure. But it certainly will not be incestuous.” Then his grin returned. “Besides, having all three of us at once inside you is something we’ll have to work toward. Tonight, we’ll celebrate our first time together with what one might refer to as ‘vanilla sex.’”

“Except for the fact that there will be
three
of you having sex with me.”

Kevin nodded. “Well, yeah, except for that.”

Trevor brought her right hand to his lips. “What we wanted to know, sweetheart, is do you want to use our bed or your own?”

Maggie felt the entire conversation sliding into the surreal. She focused on Trevor’s expression, his head tilted to the side, his eyebrows raised, the very image of interested attention.

He could have been asking her if she liked chocolate syrup or butterscotch on her ice-cream sundae.

And then the implication of his question jumped up and hit her. “The three of
you
have a huge bed at your house that you share?”

The brothers exchanged a look, and Maggie almost had the sense that they were communicating with each other without saying a word.

She’d heard twins could do that sometimes, but she hadn’t known before now that ability extended to triplets.

“There
is
a Benedict-sized bed at the house, yes. It’s in the master suite. There’s also a large shower, claw-foot tub and Jacuzzi in the en-suite bathroom there.”

It seemed that despite their gentle teasing that first night at the reception for the Kendalls, Richard’s brothers
did
look to him as their leader and spokesman. Maggie had no problem with that concept. In fact, it made it easier for her to skewer one man with a focused look when she asked personal questions.

“But you said you’d never shared a woman before, that I’d be your first.” Maggie just barely kept herself from cringing at that petulant tone.
Thirty-five years old and I never knew I had coquettish tendencies, or that my inner child lived so close to the surface.

Richard never blinked, but she knew she’d confused him with her question. She also knew the exact instant when he understood her. His expression cleared, and he gave her that little half smile she thought must be totally unconscious.

“We haven’t, Maggie. We only moved back to town and into this house a few weeks ago.”

“And yet your bedroom—”

“Not
our
bedroom, love. The
master
bedroom. We each of us have our own bedroom on the second floor—which is
not
the master bedroom.”

“Oh. Well, I would have thought, with you being the oldest, that you might have commandeered the master bedroom for yourself.”

Richard looked at her for a long moment and didn’t so much as blink. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kevin open his mouth and thought he was going to say something, but then he shook his head, closed his mouth, and shrugged.

“It’s really too much bed for just one man.”

“Oh.” The expression in his eyes made it nearly impossible for her to concentrate on anything but the swirling, tingling sensations eddying through her. He focused on her, and she literally felt her arousal growing.

Her one-word response sounded vapid even to her ears. She could hardly blame the men for the quick look they exchanged or for the amusement lighting their eyes. She nearly pointed out then that they’d insisted, the three of them, that she have the master bedroom at the inn as her bedroom. And then she understood.

They’d done so expecting to share that space with her. They’d never intended her to sleep alone for very long.

“Sweetheart, we very much need you to give us an answer to our question.” Trevor moved closer, and the heat of his body seared her right side. Richard had already subtly brought her against him so that her left side was equally warmed.

They’re waiting for an answer?
“What was the question again?”

Kevin laughed softly, leaned in, and kissed her lips. “Tell us, baby. Your place or ours?”

Mere minutes later she understood why they’d chosen to walk out back behind the houses. It didn’t take long for them to reach the inn. Before she’d stepped inside the kitchen door, Maggie had begun to tremble.

She wanted these men, as crazy as it still seemed to her, and yet she was having second thoughts that had all to do with her own unsuitability for what was about to take place.

Maggie had never been able to please one man. What on earth gave her the nerve to believe even for one moment she could please three?

She turned around to tell them just that. Richard slid his arms around her, brought her against his chest, and kissed her. His heat surrounded her, and his taste drenched her. Tendrils of erotic need began to sizzle along her nerve endings. She sank into his kiss, a slow delicious slide.
I’ll allow myself this much.
She would take just a little more before confessing the truth. They needed to know.

When Richard weaned his lips from hers, she said, “I’m really no good at this.”

“Love, if you were any better at this I’d come in my pants.”

Trevor turned her so that she came into his embrace and into his kiss. Hot and wet, wild and wonderful, his flavor enticed her, his aroma seduced her. Richard’s words echoed in her ears, and the press of Trevor’s denim-covered cock against the juncture of her thighs seemed to be his answer to her fears.

Then she was being spun around so that Kevin could gather her in. He held her close, his arms snug, his hot, broad hand stroking down her back and across her ass.

She couldn’t help the roll of her hips nor the moan of pleasure as her clit came alive, tingled, and reached out for him.

He eased her back so she could see his face. His gaze mesmerized her. “Baby, you’re so fucking hot and so fucking tasty, it’s been all we could do these last few days to
not
strip you bare, lay you down, spread you wide, and plunder. So here’s the real truth. The ones who weren’t very good at this were those two poor excuses for men who were your first two lovers, because neither of them took the time or the care to light your fires.”

Maggie had no chance to answer that, because Kevin’s mouth took hers. His tongue stroked hers over and over as he drank her in. She kissed him back, needing the taste of him to make her own personal ambrosia cocktail complete.

The flavor of all three men on her tongue combined to arouse her, bringing her to a height of awareness and need she’d only experienced once before, and so very recently.

“We’ve waited long enough, sweetheart.” Trevor’s hand seemed to tremble as he stroked her back. “We’re going to have you now.”

Kevin’s lips left hers, and she slowly lowered her arms to her sides. Kevin and Trevor both stood before her, their gazes so hot they made her burn with need. But it was Richard who lifted her into his arms.

Maggie had tried to warn them. They wouldn’t listen, and that was just fine with her. She might never again have the chance for this kind of fantasy come to life. How could she pass it up? She wanted them, and by damn, she was going to have them, too. This one time, at least, she was going to have these three men as her lovers.

She looped her arms around Richard’s neck. “I guess I should have known I was in trouble when I realized you intended to serve me pasta for dinner.”

Kevin laughed. “You got it, baby. Any marathoner will tell you that you need to load up on carbohydrates for stamina.”

“And that was as much for us as it was for you, sweetheart.”

“You’ve already got us triggered, love. We’re going to need all the help we can get, because we plan to have you over and over again.”

Connor Talbot didn’t like working blind.

He understood more than most the necessity for secrecy and fully endorsed the general principal of “need to know.” But when his sixth sense started to quiver and the rest of his instincts were vibrating along with it, then he paid close attention and stepped back to get a better look at the big picture.

Two cases in a row with a connection to Lusty, Texas?
Coincidences happened, but he didn’t like them.

Connor leaned against the rail overlooking the Brazos River as it made its way through the city of Waco. This was as good a place as any to meet up with Frank.

The sound of a car door slamming drew his attention. Frank Freeman, Connor’s partner for the last six months, joined him and copied his pose. He supposed they made a strange pair—Connor the former Army Ranger and Frank the former Fed. Connor had spent his last few months in the military in covert operations, under the Joint Special Operations command. They’d both been tagged by an agency that operated under the radar. Their mission was to identify and isolate those criminals who made their coin supplying arms and/or money to terrorists operating in the US and around the world.

Goal one was to establish themselves as mercenaries who could be counted on to get the job done. Miguel Ramos had been a stepping stone in the process, nothing more. They’d taken the job he offered them to help build their reputation. Of course, when the drug lord had gone down, there’d been no connection between them and the arrest.

Their legitimacy as mercs for hire had been cemented. Since contacts sometimes came from unexpected quarters, anyone who put out feelers directly to them potentially was a person of interest. Frank had gone off on his own that morning to contact a couple of his confidential sources for some background information on the man posing as Edward Clarence.

That meeting in New York had come out of nowhere, and bothered the hell out of them both—especially when they’d so quickly and easily discovered the man calling himself Edward Clarence had used an alias.

Frank huffed out a breath. “None of the three-letter agencies will admit to listing Conrad as a person of interest. I find that interesting since the man
did
contact us.”

Connor agreed. “It’s not like we’re listed in the yellow pages. So, either we have a leak—a possibility that chills me to the bone—or someone on the target list owns Conrad.”

“I’m betting the latter. Intel can be slow to catch up to the status quo, we both know that. Of course that means we could potentially have players on the field we don’t even know about.”

“Yeah, leaving us to work blind. I fucking
hate
that.” Connor turned his back on the river and scanned the park. “Okay, I’m with you. Someone owns Conrad. So the question we need answered is whether Conrad’s interest in Lusty, Texas, in general, and Richard Benedict in particular, is his own business—or someone else’s.”

“What are the odds we have two cases in a row that touch the same place?” Frank reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of gum, offering a piece to Connor. He’d given up smoking just the month before, replacing that habit first with suckers and now with gum.

Connor waved off the offer. “Math was never my strong suit. We both know that despite popularly held beliefs, coincidences
do
happen. We latched onto Ramos, remember, mostly due to his obsession with avenging himself against Peter Alvarez.”

“And all things being equal, we’d likely not even know that Lusty, Texas, existed otherwise. Tell me about Conrad. What was your take on the character?”

Connor laughed. “Character is the perfect descriptor for him. I don’t think I’ve ever met a more stuck-up son of a bitch in my life. Personally, though he tried to act otherwise, I think he’s really got a hard-on for Benedict. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was his obsession with the man that got him in with… Well, whoever it is he’s in with. If a man’s desperate enough for revenge, he’ll deal with the devil.”

“Truer words. So, a snob, is he?”

“The kind who thinks those of us in
the colonies
are nothing but minions—and his minions, at that.”

“Well, from what I’ve found out so far, Clarence Edward Conrad, Esquire, has spent most of his life in England and Europe. He’s actually only been in this country twice. Now, and about a year ago, when he arrived on business. But Interpol didn’t have him on their watch list, so I’m not sensing career criminal here.”

Conrad had told Connor he’d got his name from a business associate in Europe. They had only one major player in Europe on their list. They’d thought it would take them a while to draw
that
man’s attention. Connor looked at Frank. “What do you want to bet that Conrad is in bed with in LeClerc?”

“Well, hell, of course! I should have thought of him first off. Phillip LeClerc, based in Antwerp. Now
he’s
on Interpol’s list. And everybody else’s, too.”

“He’s a well-known arms dealer who’ll sell to anyone who has the coin to pay his price. He hasn’t actually set up shop over here, but his business has killed a lot of Americans.”

“That’s why he’s on our list. He’s probably using Conrad as a front to make inroads into this country. On the face of things, Conrad looks good and smells good. Who would suspect him of being a patsy for a bastard like LeClerc when he’s not even on anyone’s list?”

Connor grinned. “We would.”

“Damn right we would. So what’s our next step? Do we contact this Benedict and give him a heads-up about Conrad?”

“I think we need to know what it is Benedict did to piss Conrad off, first. We only have part of the picture at the moment. Then we can revisit that.” Connor exhaled. There were times when tough decisions were called for.
Life would be so much easier if I was a fucking rancher, like my dad.
Easier, yes, but not nearly as satisfying. “It could be that LeClerc has ordered Conrad to use us for something unrelated to his business as a means of checking us out—to see if we have the chops or not. I figure we have to balance the danger to noncombatants against the advantage of impressing LeClerc.”

Frank nodded. “If we impress that bastard sufficiently enough, perhaps we’ll break into his organization sooner rather than later. Sure would like to get him off the streets. I can do some more digging. If Conrad
is
tied to LeClerc, then we need to keep an eye on him. Do you read him as being a sly and clever man, or a dangerous one?”

“Not particularly, but I only met him the once. I do know where he is, of course, thanks to the tiny piece of modern technology I put on his rental car.” Connor had gone with his gut and tagged the car not long after Conrad had rented it when he’d touched down at DFW. “He was still there as of a half hour ago. I’ll see what I can do about getting ears on him, too.” There hadn’t been a need to before. Connor began working the logistics in his mind. He could put something in the man’s car
and
hotel room.

“Okay.” Frank straightened, scanned the park, and then nodded. “While you’re doing that, I’ll contact a few more people I know and see what I can unearth with regard to whatever there might be between Benedict and Conrad. I’ll join you as soon as I can. Where are you headed?”

“Conrad’s staying at the Hilton, and so am I.”

“Bastard likes to live high.”

“My impression is he believes he deserves only the best.
That
could turn out to be his Achilles’ heel.”

Frank headed toward his car. “No such thing as too much information.”

Connor agreed completely. He watched Frank head off, and then made his way to his own car. Conrad had gotten very cozy with a bottle of scotch the night before in the hotel bar, so Connor doubted the man would be out of bed quite yet.

He’d check the tracking device just to be sure. Then he’d shower and play with the idea of giving a former comrade, who happened to be a Navy SEAL with ties to Lusty, Texas, a phone call.

Like Frank, Connor had contacts that he kept to himself. He hadn’t mentioned encountering Dev Wakefield a few weeks back during the Ramos job.

It had been a piece of information Frank didn’t need to know, and considering Wakefield got the drop on him—an embarrassing turn of events and one that could potentially have been fatal had Wakefield not been one of the good guys—one Connor would just as soon keep to himself.