Page 4 of Embracing Desire

“Hi, guys,” she said, smiling at their reflections in the glass as her stomach clenched.

“Katie.”Ry’s rich voice sent a shiver of awareness up her spine.

“Kitty Kat.”Jed’s soft-as-butter voice caused her heart to speed up.

Katie took a deep breath and turned only to run into a hard chest.Lifting her head, she gazed into Ry’s eyes.His firm hands framed her waist, guiding her away from the sink until Jed was able to step behind her.

Oh, crap.Her heart fluttered and excitement filled her bones.They were not going slow this time.Jed’s chest brushed against her back, his hands settling right above Ry’s on her waist.Pure molten heat flooded her pussy.She was stuck between two hard bodies, and neither her mind nor her heart was protesting.

Ry nodded.The two men guided her across the room, where Ry reached back and opened the pantry door.Once they were inside, the click of the lock vibrated in her ears.

Why wasn’t she protesting?Because she didn’t want to.The three of them were alone in the small room.Her mouth went dry as the small light flickered to life.Enough light to see things, but not the harshness of the overhead light bulb.

“Welcome home.”Jed’s breath skimmed her neck before his lips touched her skin.

“It’s been too damn long.”Ry didn’t hesitate, his mouth closing over hers.

Her heart pounded as Ry’s mouth devoured hers.Jed nipped at her skin with little bites where her neck and shoulder met, and she gasped.

Two sets of hands roamed over her body.Ry cupped her ass, pulling her against his hard cock.Jed teased the underside of her breasts, making her nipples pebble while he pressed his equally hard erection against her ass.

“My turn.”The words barely registered before Ry released her lips.Strong fingers cupped her chin, her head turned, and Jed took her mouth.His lips were softer, but his kiss was as hard and demanding as Ry’s, just less urgent.

Her brain grappled with the way they tasted.Ry, metal and coffee.Jed, mint and the outdoors.Oh, God.They tasted the same as they had when she was eighteen.

Her body was melting between them.She curled one arm around Jed’s neck, and the other hand began caressing Ry’s chest.Her helplessness to resist these two men was starting again.And did she care?At the moment, no, but she’d come home knowing they weren’t going to play it safe.

A thump against the wall caused Katie to jump, but it also helped clear her head of the sensual web the men had spun over her.They were in her grandmother’s pantry, her grandmother’s house, making out like a bunch of teenagers.This had to stop.Now.Ground rules needed to be put in place.

“Guys,” she whispered after pulling her mouth free from Jed’s and catching her breath.

Lips caressed each side of her neck, hands roaming over her body, making her squirm.But when skin met skin, she had to stop this before they ripped off their clothes.And she knew of only one way to make them stop.

“Red.”

Their heads snapped up, and their hands stilled.

“What did you just say?”Ry stared down at her, his gray eyes flat and cold.

“Red.”An icy shiver slithered up her spine, but she held her ground.

Jed swore softly, removed his hands, and took a step back.Ry kept staring at her, but he, too, released her and pulled away.

Katie took a deep breath and let it out.It helped calm her racing heart, but their scent filled her nostrils instead.Sandalwood for Ry and leather for Jed, and those scents had haunted her every night.It wasn’t fair they could tie her up in knots so quickly, but then she knew what she was getting into by coming home.She feared she couldn’t handle them or what they wanted.

“This is my grandmother’s house.We will not do this here.”She had to be strong if she was going to enter a relationship with these two men.It had to be on terms she could live with, or they could destroy her heart.

Ry cleared his throat.“How did you know the word red would stop us?”

Bracing her back against one of the shelves, she stared at the two men in front of her.“I’m no longer the shy, naïve eighteen-year-old you once knew.”And she wasn’t.Thanks to some of the friends she’d made in New York, she’d learned a lot about the world they described to her.Their world.

“I see.”Ry rubbed his chin, evaluating her with an intense gaze, as if he was assessing a flight risk.

She wasn’t going to run this time.She wouldn’t leave Felton’s Creek; she’d had enough of the big city and chasing a dream that wasn’t possible.She wouldn’t go back to her father’s machinations.She thrust her failure away.This was not the time or the place.

“You do realize what you’re saying?”Jed asked.

“I hope so,” she whispered as doubt crept into her mind.Could she handle them?She almost laughed out loud.Handle wasn’t the right word.No one couldhandlethem.They were their own men.

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