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And I shared that woman. Because I thought that pleasure was the greatest gift I could give her…”

He tossed back the rest of his drink before meeting Rowdy’s eyes once again.

“Kelly should have been your sister, Rowdy. If I hadn’t been so stupid, I wouldn’t have lost Maria all those years ago. She chose the lover willing to love just her, rather than his own selfishness. Willing to give her all of himself, without the childish need to have it all his own way.”

Rowdy’s jaw bunched tightly.

“Dad, let it go.” Rowdy shook his head sharply.

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Lora Leigh

“You’re figuring it out, I can see that in your eyes. The same way I thought I was figuring it out. But I let that bond I thought I had with my buddy get in the way. I was torn between the loss of friendship, and my own wants. And I thought the woman would be there either way. It wasn’t the friend I lost, Rowdy. It was the woman. And trust me, when it comes right down to it, Kelly is no different than her mother.”

Rowdy breathed in deeply. Damn, he had known he hadn’t wanted to hear this. He lifted the whisky before tipping more of the liquor into his glass.

His father was silent then, finishing his drink as Rowdy sipped from his.

“I love her,” Rowdy finally breathed out roughly. “I didn’t expect this though.”

“Love changes us, Son.” Ray rose to his feet, crossing the room slowly to set his empty glass on the bar. “Don’t make the same mistake I did, Rowdy. Once it’s over that first time, once you’ve let another man claim what’s yours and yours alone, you lose a part of your soul. Getting it back is hell. A hell I hope you never know.”

Rowdy stared back at his father silently, finally hearing what the other man had always tried to teach him. What was fair, what he wanted alone, wasn’t all that mattered. He had begun learning it in the Marines, but it was slapping him upside the heart now.

“James Benton was still a friend when he died, Rowdy. And I grew up and learned some damned hard lessons. Maria gave me a second chance, but that chance came at a cost. A very high cost. The daughter that should have been mine came from another man, and the son I love more than life is about to fuck up not just his own life, but that girl’s as well.

Watching it and knowing I can’t stop it is hell. Remember that while you struggle between what you love and what you want.”

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NAUTI BUOY

As Rowdy watched his father leave the room, a heavy sigh slipped past his lips. Maria’s objections to his relationship made more sense now. He shook his head, realizing how well his father, James Benton and Maria had kept that secret. Reputations. Theirs was intact, but his wasn’t. And now, he was risking Kelly’s as well.

Tipping the glass to his lips once more he finished his drink before grimacing tightly. Kelly obviously had no idea of her mother’s past, and she didn’t need to know, he decided. They had fought to protect themselves and their children, and Rowdy wouldn’t betray the trust. But damn if he didn’t wish his father hadn’t beaten some sense into him years ago.

Then he grinned mirthlessly, knowing the chances of even that working would have been slim. Some men just had to learn their lessons the hard way.

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Kelly was awake when he returned to the bedroom a little after midnight. Sleep wasn’t coming, no matter how hard she sought it. Each time she closed her eyes she saw…herself…surrounded by the Mackay cousins, their hands touching her as pleasure whipped around her. But it wasn’t pleasure she felt in the memory. She felt the dark swirl of shame.

The same emotions she had felt each time she swore she wasn’t waiting one day longer on Rowdy and she was going to find someone to love her. To stick around and be with her. Each time she had tried, each time she had attempted to allow another man to touch her, shame had eaten her alive for days later.

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Lora Leigh

The door closed behind him, the click of the lock causing her to open her eyes, to stare through the darkness as his shadow moved toward the bed.

God, she loved him. If she could give him his every desire then she would do it in a second, but some things she knew she couldn’t do. Dawg and Natches she couldn’t do. And she had no idea how to tell him. No idea how to broach what she knew could destroy the relationship she had dreamed of.

“Everything’s quiet,” he said softly as he pulled his shirt from his body.

The room was dark, too dark to make out his expression, but she could hear his voice, see the gleam of his eyes.

“I was waiting on you.” She could feel the tension between them, and wished she knew why it was there. Was it hers or his?

Rowdy sat at the edge of the bed, pausing before he sighed tiredly and bent to take off the sneakers he had laced onto his feet before they left the boat.

His broad back shifted, muscles rippling beneath dark flesh as she sat up in the bed.

“Rowdy?” She whispered his name, uncertain what to say, what to do as he rose to his feet and shucked his jeans.

He was naked. As he turned to her she glimpsed the heavy, engorged length of his erection a second before she was suddenly jerked to him.

“Rowdy?” She gasped his name as his lips covered hers, stealing her breath, her startled cry.

And from there, her strength. His hands were hard, dominant as he tore the shirt from her body, tossing it carelessly to the floor before his lips took hers again. Her muted cries built in her head as he bore her to the bed, spreading her thighs, sinking into her.

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NAUTI BUOY

There were no preliminaries. No foreplay. One moment she was empty, the next she was full, her pussy stretched to its limits as he groaned into her mouth.

She fought to breathe, and she could feel his struggle as well. The harsh sounds that tore from his throat were almost animalistic in their hunger, their intensity. His lips held back both their cries as he began to move, hard, furious strokes inside her, sending her nerve endings into shock, the pleasure ripping through her with the same desperation that his erection thrust into the slick, heated depths of her body.

Her arms wrapped about his neck, fingers pushing into his hair as one hard hand gripped her hip, holding her in place as he moved. The other arm curled beneath her as he supported himself on his elbow.

He surrounded her. He possessed her. Pleasure became a burning, consuming need as he fucked her with a hunger that swept through her soul. She could almost touch his soul. Then her eyes opened, widened, shock and ecstasy exploding through her as the orgasm overtaking her stole a part of her very spirit. Stole it and merged it with his. Melded them together as he stiffened above her, his cock swelling then pulsing as his release jetted inside her. Deep, almost violent spurts of his seed heated her, triggering another, deeper orgasm, sending stars to explode around her as she screamed soundlessly into his kiss.

“Mine!” The hard, throaty growl that left his throat had to have been her imagination. “Mine.”

Possessive. Consuming. His.

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Lora Leigh

“Rowdy, we’re not going to be able to keep her here.” Dawg moved through the living room, checking the windows and their latches the next afternoon. “Your dad’s security system is good, but it won’t stop a bullet.”

“Don’t know many that will,” Rowdy muttered, tamping down his impatience as he pushed his fingers through his hair and surveyed the living room.

He had been through the rest of the house, just as Dawg and Natches had been over the hill above it. The bastard was hiding there at night, watching the house, and he had a clear shot into every room from one point or another, if one of them messed up and didn’t close the curtains well enough.

And that didn’t change the fact that his dad and Maria were refusing to leave. As was Kelly.

“He’ll come back at us quick enough to keep us from making headway into security here,” Natches drawled from the entryway. “He was in that clearing across from her room last night. I never caught sight of him, but I could feel him. He was out there. And he’s damned good.”

Shit.

“We have to get her out of here, Rowdy,” Dawg reiterated. “Now. My gut is going crazy with this. Whoever the bastard is, he’s lost his damned mind. He won’t care who he kills to get to Kelly.”

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NAUTI BUOY

“Your place?” Rowdy’s eyes narrowed on Dawg’s expression. He could see the expectation there, the excitement.

Dawg’s house was an underground masterpiece built by his parents.

The outside was cement and stone overlaid with roughened wood siding.

The windows were extra thick and after Dawg’s return from the Marines, bulletproof. As far as anyone knew, there was only one way in or out. No one knew about the hidden entrance except for the three of them.

Dawg nodded. “It’s the most secure.”

Rowdy braced himself. He could feel the sexual tension beginning to heat up in the room. His cousins had waited years for this. Hell, they all had.

“I’m not sharing her.” The words were out of Rowdy’s mouth before he could stop them.

His head snapped up, his jaw tightening as Dawg and Natches stared back at him in surprise.

“Is that your decision or Kelly’s?” Natches tipped his head to the side and watched him curiously.

“It doesn’t matter whose decision it is.” Rowdy pushed the words past his lips, attempting to contain the anger rising from his cousin’s question. “It’s not happening. We’ll move her to the house, but hands off.

Period.”

Dawg sighed heavily, a grimace contorting his expression.

“Now son of a bitch, how did I know you were going to go and get all dog-eared fucking jealous?” he griped, his blue eyes narrowed in irritation. “Hell Rowdy, talk about blue balls going on here.”

“Talk about too damned bad,” Rowdy muttered as his muscles bunched and flexed beneath his flesh in rising tension. Damn, this shit sucked. As though the possessiveness, the emotions he felt for her were a separate being living within his flesh and bone.

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Lora Leigh

“Hell, we can argue over this later,” Natches finally grumped. “After I take out my mad on that son of a bitch stalking her. Then we can fight over sharing rights.”

“No sharing rights. Period,” Rowdy snapped. The only thing that restrained him from taking his cousins apart limb by limb was the fact that he knew them. They weren’t pissed, at least not yet. But Rowdy admitted he was getting there fast.

“Chill out, cuz,” Dawg breathed out roughly. “Hell, it would have been nice, but no one’s pushing here. Wouldn’t be worth a shit if both of you didn’t want it anyway.”

Rowdy narrowed his eyes on his older cousin. There was a vague restlessness in his voice, and he realized it had been there for a while.

“What the hell do you two think you’re doing? Growing the fuck up?”

Natches snapped then, disgust lining his voice. “If I wanted to grow up I would have stayed in the fucking Marines.”

Rowdy rolled his eyes. Trust Natches to get to the heart of the matter.

“I guess it was bound to happen eventually,” Dawg sighed. “Come on, let’s get the little troublemaker hid out in the house and see what we can do to make her life a little safer before she takes on the resident grouch here.” He flicked his hand toward Rowdy.

“This falling in love crap obviously sucks,” Natches commented as he turned and headed out of the room. “Remind me to steer clear of it, why doncha, guys? God only knows what kind of fool I might end up making of myself if I made that mistake.” His mock shudder had a grin pulling at Rowdy’s lips.

“Careful, Natches, you know what happens when we tempt fate.” How many times had they assured themselves the fun and games would never end. And now look where they were.

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NAUTI BUOY

“Fate can kiss my ass,” he grumbled. “Better yet, she can suck my dick. I’m footloose and fancy-free, my man. And that’s how I’ll stay.”

Rowdy eyed his cousin warily. There was lightning striking somewhere, he was certain, and at that moment he decided he didn’t want to be nowhere around when Natches finally did manage to fall in love.

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The sun was well into the sky that morning before they arrived at Dawg’s house. Kelly knew the moment she saw the house why they had chosen Dawg’s as a secure location. She had forgotten about the underground home, built by Dawg’s parents, and set into the base of the mountain that ran through their property outside Somerset.

It had been meant to be a vacation home, private, out of the way, and as unique as his parents had been. The face of the house was warm wood, covering steel and cement, with large windows looking out from the kitchen on the left, and the large living room on the right.

It wasn’t opulent, or expensively furnished, but it was a huge underground dwelling with four bedrooms, accompanied by private baths. There was an exercise room and a basement pantry-wine room larger than some apartments she had been in.

The house was built in three levels—kitchen, living room, and exercise room on the first level, two bedrooms above and below it, and the basement on a third level. She now understood why Dawg’s father, Chandler Mackay, had been considered one of the finest architects in the nation.

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Lora Leigh

It had been surprising when Dawg had entered the Army, then began his own security firm after being discharged. Everyone had expected him to step into his late father’s shoes.

Rowdy led her through the large open living room to the wide hallway that opened at the back of it. There, two sets of curved wooden steps led to the other levels. He moved aside as they reached the stairs that led to the upper level, allowing her to move ahead of him.

The steps were narrow, but comfortable, and led into another short hallway and two open doors.

“The left.” He nudged her toward the open door, his voice brooking no argument as they moved into the room.

A huge king-sized bed took up the center of the room, draped with sheer curtains that hung from a steel ring in the center of the ceiling and tied at each corner of the bed.