Ours (2 page)

****

The half-hour class was coming to an end, and Jake was
going around
to check
on the women’s progress. At the
moment, Zack was dealing with two of the short shorts women fawning all over
him. He watched the groups he’d paired off practice, pausing to help position
them better or show them a move up close.

Jake moved closer to his cousin’s woman, and his bear
started to stir inside him, taking deep breaths in, like he smelled a pot of
honey.

Jake focused to control his bear and was startled when his
watch went off to tell him time was up. Heading back to the front of the room,
he boomed out, “Attention. Everyone come back. Before you go, I’m going to test
four of you.”

 
He pointed to a
blonde in the front row, another blonde in the back row, and then a brunette in
the middle. Jake searched around for his last victim, only to notice the little
redhead sneaking to the door and slowly opening it. “The last lovely lady that
will get to demonstrate what she has learned tonight is…the little redhead
trying to sneak out the door.” He grinned as he watched the woman in question
freeze, turn slowly around, and glare at him.

“I’m sure there are plenty of eager women in here willing
to show you how well they have been taught. I’m just not one of them.” She
looked around the room, coming to a stop on another redhead. “What about that
pretty redhead over there with the shortest shorts I have seen, or in front,
the woman with black skintight jeans?” She pointed to each of these women as
she babbled on.

Jake saw Zack had moved towards her and was only a row
away.

“I’m sure I will get a chance for those women to
demonstrate another time, but today I have chosen you.”

He bit his tongue to stop the chuckle as she groaned,
stomped her foot, and turned a death stare at Zack, who now stood next to her.

Jake smiled as she marched towards him mumbling. “Fine,
I’ll show you what I learned. Then you can shove your ‘little redhead’ comment
up your
arse
.”

Zack followed behind her and coughed to cover his laugh.
Once she joined the other girls reluctantly, he started, leaving her to last.

After going through the other three women very easily,
showing them better ways and answering questions, it was his little redhead’s
turn. He paused at that thought, as he watched her storm up to him with a sweet
grin on her face. He knew that grin from his sisters and cousins. That
was the grin all men should be terrified of, but on her it
just made him look forward to the lesson she was about to learn.

His bear growled, and his heart beat faster in shock when
she got closer and her smell hit him. Now that she was away from all the other
smells of sweat or perfume-covered females, her true fragrance was more
pronounced. Honey and strawberries smothered his senses, telling him that she
was special.

 
Her smile grew the
closer she got, and he looked down into sparking eyes that seemed to hold all
the secrets he searched for. A growl slipped from him when Zack come up beside
him and patted him on the back.

“I’ll take this, coz.”

“No, this should be fun.” Jake forgot about everyone else
in the room and focused on the woman in front of him, who he now knew was his
mate. “Turn around and walk away from me.”

He watched her spin and slowly
walk
away. Coming up behind her, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into
his body. She stomped on his foot and elbowed his stomach with surprising
force.

Grunting, Jake moved back a step but still held her as he
spun her around and gathered her body to his. She gave a whine of frustration,
brought her knee up, and hit her target. He groaned and let her go.

She winced. “I shouldn’t have done that, but no one calls
me a little redhead.”

Not caring where he was any more, he grabbed her and lost
his balance. They slid to the floor in a tangle.

A frustrated squeal left her as she landed on top of him.
She whacked his chest. “You idiot, I said I was sorry.”

He looked into flashing dark brown eyes and took a deep a
breath in of her honey-and-strawberry scent. “No, you didn’t apologize.”

She rolled her eyes at him and huffed. “Well, I’m not going
to now.”

She pushed at his chest.

“What’s your name, Little Red?”

“None of your business.
Now let me go.” She wriggled around in his
arms, rubbing herself against him.

“Little Red, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

She stopped her wiggling and gasped. He smiled as her eyes
drew up to his when she noticed the bulge in his pants was growing bigger and
bigger. “I’m going to get up. Stay where you are, please. These pants are too
small for what I have now.”

She pushed at his chest. “And that’s my problem because…”

He raised his eyebrow and cleared his throat. “Really, you
want me to answer that in front of everyone.”

She let out a groan and shook her head. After sitting up,
he stood with his mate in his arms and looked around the almost empty room. He
turned to Zack who stared at him with a glare that made him glad looks couldn’t
kill.

“You can let go of my mate now, Jake. I took over while you
pawed her. You’re lucky there were twenty-something women in here because if
there hadn’t been, you would be dead, favorite cousin or not.”

Jake looked down at the bewildered look on Little Red’s
face as he took a deep breath of her scent and listened to his bear.
Mate. Take.
Yummy.
Eat her. Take her home. Mine. Mine.
No mistaking that she was his mate.
“You must be mistaken, Zack, because she is
my
mate.”

Zack stalked toward him and gave a bitter laugh. “This
sucks. Fate is fucking with our family because I’m one hundred percent sure
she’s mine.”

A small foot kicked him. “Put me down now. This is not very
professional. I knew there was a good reason why I didn’t want to come here
tonight, and I found out why.” He slowly slid her down his body as she
continued, “Your whole family is
friggin
’ crazy. What
the hell is all this crap about mates? I wouldn’t be mates with either one of
you
lugheads
if you were the last males on earth, and
after tonight I pity the women who end up with you. Now let go of me and pray
my friends haven’t left without me.”

Jake let her go and watched her stomp out of the room. She
was a feisty little thing. He was about to go after her when Zack chuckled.

 
“Wow, she is a
feisty one, our Sandy. It explains why she needs two of us. One just isn’t
enough.”

Glancing over at Zack, he nodded. “You’re right, coz, and
I’m glad it’s you. I don’t think I could tolerate anyone else.”

“Right back at you, Jake.
Let’s pack up, and go find our mate.”

Chapter Two

Men were idiots,
Sandy
thought as she rushed into the locker room and breathed a sigh of relief to see
Susie arguing with Blake and Brian. Jane was in the corner chatting with some
of the woman from the class.

Going straight to her locker, she grabbed everything out,
not even bothering to shower. She just wanted to get away from all the mayhem.
She thanked God that she had driven here then met up with the girls.

Sandy
wandered over to Jane and tapped her on the
shoulder. “Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to say I’m beat, so I’m
heading home. Talk later, and say bye to Susie for me.”

God bless her friend when she only nodded and shooed her
away.

Rushing out of the locker room,
Sandy
walked quickly out of the gym and ran
to her car. She sped away to get as far from the craziness as possible. She had
enough of that in her life, thanks to her brothers and father. It wasn’t that
she didn’t love her family. They were way too overprotective and scared away
any man that showed interest in her. She’d only moved out last year, and it was
into a house three doors down from her father’s and next door to one of her
brothers.

Thinking on the oddity of the night, she sighed to herself.
It was such a pity those men were not all there in the head because the two
instructors she’d had were smoking hot. Well, if she went for tall, dark,
muscle-clad, handsome men. The problem was she couldn’t stop thinking about
them. And when she did think of them her body
came
alive and wanted things
Sandy
knew she couldn’t have. Their images flashed before her eyes then the images of
her family. Nope, wasn’t going to happen.

Sandy
would never submit to going out with anyone
even close to her brothers and dad. They were all well over six feet, muscular,
and the bossiest, most irritating men in the world. When she thought of her
family, she always wondered what it would have been like if her mother had
survived the car crash. But thoughts like that just made her sad so she
shrugged them off and focused on the road.

After arriving home, she opened her garage and drove in.
Once out of the car, she opened her door and heard the sound of her television
blasting.
Sandy
dumped her things on the kitchen table and went to see which brother had come
over and invaded her space.

The sight that greeted her made her see red. Her two
brothers sat on her lounge eating the lasagna she’d cooked last night for her
dinner tonight.

Growling, she stormed in front of them and switched the TV
off. “What the hell are you two doing in my house? For Christ’s sake, Philip,
you live next door, and, John, can’t Dad feed you?” They looked anywhere but at
her. “You two better not have eaten all my dinner.”

 
She groaned when two
sets of puppy dog eyes fell on her, and Philip whined out, “Oh come on, sis, I
could smell the lasagna last night when you were cooking it, and you know it’s
one of my favorite dishes that you do.”

Snarling,
Sandy
went over and slapped both their heads. She grabbed the last miniscule piece of
lasagna and walked away yelling, “If you’re not out of my house by the time I
shower and dress for bed, I swear I won’t be accountable for what I do. And
stop eating all my food.”

Shoveling the last of the lasagna into her mouth,
Sandy
slammed her bedroom
door and walked into her bathroom to turn on her shower taps. Placing the empty
plate on her bathroom vanity, she took her clothes off, chucked them in the
hamper, and hopped under the calming hot spray. She rinsed her hectic, long day
off.

Sandy
closed her eyes and knew if she didn’t get out
soon, she would fall asleep in the shower. She turned off the water. Praying her
brothers listened to her for
once,
she grabbed the
towel, wrapped it around herself, and strolled out to her room. Hearing quiet,
she collapsed on the bed so she could rest her eyes for a moment or two before
she cleaned up her brothers’ mess. She moaned as an image of a tattooed, tall,
muscular, sapphire blue-eyed man and an older, taller, tanned man with short
black hair and emerald green eyes came into view the second she closed her
eyes.

Sandy
hadn’t stopped thinking about Jake and Zack
since she met them. They were gorgeous, every woman’s desire.
Sandy
wished she could have just one night
with them. She knew they were out of her league and probably went for skinny
blondes, or at least women who weren’t in double digits. But any time she
thought of Jake and Zack, her body seemed to beg for their touch. It was like
she was in heat.

Groaning, she took a couple of deep breaths and let her
imagination go as she nodded off.

****

 
Zack looked at the
cottage in front of him as he pulled his Harley into the driveway and watched
Jake’s black Porsche pull in behind him. After getting off his bike, he walked
to the front door and knocked. He waited while he heard Jake stomp up behind
him.

“All the lights are out, and you got here a good couple of
minutes before me. Were they out then?” Zack shook his head and his cousin
muttered, “I’ll just open the door. Susie said she would go to bed early as she
had the morning open shift for work today.”

Zack looked to see if his cousin was serous. Yep, there was
no mirth in his eyes. “You have got to be joking. Aren’t you a cop?”

Jake shrugged. “She’s our mate.”

“Really.
You are okay with breaking into our feisty little mate’s
house.
The mate that kicked you in the balls and showed no
remorse.”
Zack groaned as Jake grinned and pushed past him.

“I’m not breaking in. The door is going to open.”