That was true enough. “Didn’t you do some designs for them a few years back?” Chase asked.
She smiled. “A cabin in Colorado. They weren’t there. I don’t think Margaret trusted me around her husband. I’m a home-wrecker, remember?”
Cam’s teeth ground together at the mocking retort. Damn her, he didn’t need a reminder of the damage the Robertses had tried to cause her. He was ready to kill them, as it was.
“You’re pushing me. I’ve never in my life killed a man without reason, Jaci, but if I keep seeing the damage Richard Roberts and his wife have done to you, then I might break that little rule.”
An edge of panic flared in her eyes, causing him to watch her suspiciously. Why the hell would she care if his wrath fell on Richard Roberts?
“Annalee is a bitch. That’s no reason to kill Richard. Besides, neither of them is worth the effort or the cost of a bullet.” And before you start threatening others, consider how you affect me everytime you leave me in my bed, alone.”
His eyes narrowed as she turned and moved farther away from him, the silk of her gown rustling against the silk that covered her legs. “That bed doesn’t define us,” he bit out.
“It will soon.” The silk of her stocking rasped against her gown as she turned.
He had ordered smoky thigh-highs. Silk. Smoke and fire was the image he had in his mind, and that was the image that met his eyes when he saw her at the party. Jaci was pure stubborn. He knew it. Chase knew it. And Cam was determined to find a way around it.
Cam had to forcibly restrain himself from following after her, from pushing her against the wall, and thrusting as hard and deep inside her as possible. He had wanted her, until it was like a fire in his balls; but seeing her tonight, seeing the confidence and determination in her eyes when he glimpsed her across the ballroom, the challenge she had silently thrown to Annalee and given him as well, it was as though he had always sensed the woman he was seeing now. The hunger that tore at his guts was nearly painful in its intensity. He looked at Chase and acknowledged the fact she might be strong enough to defy him entirely.
This was the woman he had always sensed inside her. The woman that could walk away from him.
He glanced at Chase again, seeing the lust, the obvious anticipation. His brother would fight or f**k, whichever Cam chose in this battle he and Jaci seemed to be waging now. It was going to have to be the latter, because he’d be damned if he could think with this need clawing at his insides.
He swallowed tightly, his fingers going to the buttons of his shirt as he watched her nimble little fingers grip the tab of the zipper at her lower back.
The snug material parted, revealing the silken line of the thong he had bought for her.
He felt his mouth go dry, then water, as she turned to him, gave her shoulders a little shrug, and let the dress slip down her body until it pooled at her feet.
He tore the shirt from his shoulders even as he moved, striding across the room and jerking her into his arms. He heard her gasp as his lips covered hers, and he barely restrained his own primal growl.
She met him hunger for hunger, need for need. Her lips parted, her tongue mingled with his. Slender, silken fingers dove into his hair and pulled, jerking free the dark band that held it back.
His hands were on her ass, gripping the rounded globes and lifting her to him. Long legs wrapped around his hips, the heated folds of her pu**y heated his cock, even through the layers of clothing, as he stumbled backward from the pleasure. He kept her in his grip, held her lips with his, and caught himself with his shoulder against the wall.
“Dammit, don’t fall,” Chase growled. Somehow his brother had actually managed to get in front of them.
Shit. Control. Where the hell was his control? He was going to spank that pretty ass for being so daring. He was going to teach her to follow his lead. But hell, he’d have to release her lips to do that. He’d have to unwrap those gorgeous legs from around his waist, and he just wasn’t willing to do that.
He could barely stand to pull his lips away long enough to taste her jaw, her neck, as he struggled to get to the bedroom. He was not going to take her on the f**king couch.
Then she moved. Her legs tightened around his waist, shifted, heat raked across his dick, and he found himself flat on his ass on the couch.
Okay, he could do this here.
He gripped her ass, moved her against his cock, and ran his lips over the upper swells of her br**sts. She tasted like the finest sugar, sweet and lickable. Fucking addictive.
When she lifted against him, her legs drawing from behind his back to kneel astride him, her sweet ni**les were just below his lips.
Berry ripe. They were tight and hard, tempting him to taste, to savor. How the hell was a man supposed to resist that temptation? A temptation he had denied himself for—how long now?
More than seven years. Long before she had turned twenty-one. He had noticed her when she was a sweet, tender sixteen, and he had known she was going to be his. He hadn’t been more than twenty-one or twenty-two himself. He’d been a man for years by then. A soldier moving into the Special Forces. He’d thought he knew what he wanted, thought he knew what life was.
How damned wrong he had been.
This was what life was all about. This woman in his arms, this fire burning inside him, unlike any fire he had ever known in his life.
“In the bed,” he groaned, though he couldn’t resist those ni**les. He licked them, sucked them into his mouth, and made no move to leave the couch.
Behind her, Chase turned her head to the side and lowered his lips to hers as Cam devoured her br**sts. They were going to take her. Right here. Right now. They would still that defiant fire raging inside her, then attempt to reason the truth out of her. Maybe.
She was a fire burning through him, and he knew he was lost. This time. This time was going to be hard and fast, he knew it, knew there was no fighting it. He had waited too long this time. This time . . . this time, they’d take her on the damned couch.
He lifted her and bore her back onto the couch as Chase released her, watching as she stretched out beneath Cam, her witchy eyes glittering with passion, with lust, her face flushed with it, her br**sts swollen, rising and falling with her quick, hard breaths. Beside the couch, Chase was undressing quickly, his expression a mask of desire and interest, as he watched the battle raging between Cam and Jaci.
Cam tore at his belt, the fastening of his slacks.
He rose long enough, just enough to shed his slacks and underwear and to notice that Chase had done the same, then, kneeling by the couch, he spread Jaci’s legs, spread them wide, and ran his fingers over the damp silk, the wet silk that covered the soft swell of her pu**y.