Page 13 of Nauti Boy (Nauti 1)

“Hell, and here I was hoping it was just my overactive imagination,” Dawg grunted. “But if he’s watching, it’s the first time he’s watched close. I’ve only had the willies once or twice since all this hit the fan. ”

The willies. It was the perfect description for that odd, warning tingle at the back of the neck, the knowledge that something, or someone, intended to take your head off if they had the right chance.

“Dawg and I made sure we were both fairly free this summer,” Natches stated. “We’re staying on the boats. We’ll watch for unusual movement or watchers. We haven’t seen anything so far, but with crazies like this, who the hell knows what set them off. ”

They knew each other too well sometimes, Rowdy thought. His cousins had already anticipated what he would need.

“I’ve been thinking,” Dawg said, his voice graveled, suspicious, “whoever he is, he has to know her. Kelly’s not a creature of habit. She’s impulsive, unpredictable, and never where you expect her to be. He knew she would be home. He knew she liked to crack her window at night. You can’t tell it’s cracked from the street. He had to have known. ”

“He studies his women,” Natches said. “Gets to know them somehow. We’ve been talking about this. ” He nodded to the others. “Playing it out. I think he’s local. ”

“Why?”

“The rapes are in a four-county radius around Somerset. Until Kelly, Somerset hadn’t been hit. She fits the profile of the other girls, though. The others he’ll call every now and then from what the detectives on the case told me, and ask if they’re being ‘good girls,’ but he hasn’t called Kelly. The only reason he wouldn’t call her, is because he’s close enough to watch her,” Natches pointed out.

“The guy lost it when he was interrupted. The others”—Dawg cleared his throat, fury flashing in his eyes—“he made them beg. First to live, and then for him. Kelly wouldn’t beg—”

“And he was interrupted—Shit!” Rowdy ran his hands over his head.

“But she’s still a ‘good girl,’” Natches pointed out. “When she stops being a good girl, what will he do?”

Rowdy felt his stomach pitch at the thought of that. This was why Ray was so pissed at his son’s return. Because he knew Rowdy had returned to claim Kelly, which was most likely the one thing guaranteed to push her stalker over the edge.

“The redneck code, cowboys,” Natches drawled. “You don’t fuck the good girls unless you mean it. He doesn’t rape them normally, he takes them anally. He’s not serious ’bout them. And he’s not going to ‘dirty’ a ‘good girl. ’”

It was sickening, and the truly horrifying part was it all made sense. There were unwritten rules sometimes, a code, a way of dealing with women. Good girls versus “bad” girls and the rules of engagement. This rapist was twisting those rules. Perverting them in ways guaranteed to give a sane man nightmares. He was targeting good girls, or his perception of a good girl.

And Kelly gave the impression of the perfect good girl. But she was his naughty girl. He had seen it in her eyes eight years ago; he saw it there now. She wasn’t a fool, and she might very well be a virgin, but Rowdy knew that his naughty girl was in there, waiting for him. And he was going to claim her, love her, protect her.

No matter what it took.

“Rowdy, you start fooling with her and the bastard is going to come after her stronger,” Natches pointed out. “We can control it if we use it, control him and take him. ”

“But only if he thinks Kelly isn’t a ‘good girl,’” Dawg injected. “Good girls can tame the bad boys. Unless he thinks Rowdy is up to his past games with Kelly, it might not push him over the edge in time. ”

Rowdy stared back at his friends. He heard the question in Dawg’s voice, the suspicion. He leaned forward, bracing his arms on the gas tank as he watched them. He ignored the tightening, low in his stomach, the vague disquiet he felt at the thought of sharing Kelly. Of allowing his cousins to touch her, to hold her. He had waited for six years, ever since she turned eighteen, for the chance to show her just how much pleasure he could give her when he took her to his bed. He refused to remember the arousal she inspired two years before that. You didn’t lust after babies, and sixteen-year-old, wide-eyed virgins were just that. Babies. But the minute she turned eighteen, he had known his days of freedom were numbered.

“I haven’t changed. ” He stared back at them with an edge of humor, of determination, as he ignored the odd, unfamiliar tightening in his chest. “Have you?”

Snorts of wry amusement met his question.

“Yeah right, and pigs started flying over the lake when it happened. ” Natches laughed. “We’ve been waiting on you, Rowdy, you know that. You think that little girl would have stayed unclaimed if any of us had changed over the years?”

They were unique, maybe. Sexual fulfillment and pleasure wasn’t a game. It was something they took seriously, something they worked at. They all cared for Kelly, in different degrees. She was Rowdy’s life. But the others, hell, they loved her too, and they always would.

Loving Kelly himself didn’t change that. He’d kill any other man who dared touch her, but he hoped, prayed, he wasn’t wrong about Kelly and the fact that her needs would mirror his own.

The need was an enigma, even to the three men. Maybe they were too close, left on their own too much as teenagers—who the hell knew. They didn’t question it, they didn’t fight it. If Kelly didn’t want it, then it was a no-go, but he had a feeling about Kelly. She was a little sex kitten waiting to purr, and they were ready to stroke her.

So why was he suddenly tensing at the thought of Dawg and Natches inspiring that pleasure, that need within her?

He nodded slowly. She was his; there was no contest there. He would fight any man for her, even a friend. But here, there was no need to fight. Dawg and Natches didn’t own her heart, Rowdy did. And the pleasure he knew the three of them could bring her outweighed the subtle warning shifting through his chest.

“Will she agree?” Dawg asked the hardest question to answer.

“Before the attack, I would have said yes. ” Rowdy sighed roughly. “Now, who knows?” He shook his head before wiping his hand over his f

ace in a gesture of frustration. “We’ll see. It will have to be her decision. ”

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