Kimber’s heart all but stopped. “Ohmigod. Is he in custody now?”

“Absolutely. Hunter is down with the police. At the moment, he’s denying the bomb, but he’s been made. I think it’s just a matter of time before he ‘fesses up.

What else can he do?”

“Yeah,” she murmured. And all sorts of implications raced through her brain.

Someone had tried to kill her dad. He was not only alive, but conscious and out of danger. She was out of danger. They could leave the swamp. Today! No more hiding or worrying or…Staying under one roof with Deke 24/7. He loved her, he claimed, but he wasn’t ready to be with her. Just her. She either had to decide to leave him or stay and hope that things between them—the three of them—

changed. But she couldn’t think about that now. Today had to be about Dad.

“This is great news, all of it! It’s like someone poured miracle juice on us.” Her voice cracked; she couldn’t keep it together.

“You okay, sis?” She could hear the frown in Logan’s voice. “It’s not like you to cry.”

“Just really…happy.” And miserable at the same time. She squeezed her eyes shut, but damn, they still leaked.

“Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced. “We’ll call you later and let you know for sure about Dad’s discharge. Cool?”

“Absolutely. Thanks.”

“Take care, sis.” Then he hung up.

Kimber followed suit, sagging against the kitchen counter, barely noticing how cold the wood was against her skin.

“Your Dad is awake?” Luc prompted.

“They caught the psycho threatening you?” Deke demanded.

“Yes.” Her voice shook as she looked at both of them.

“Yes.”

Luc wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her against the clean, steely flesh of his torso. He covered her mouth softly with his own, lingering, then whispered, “That’s great, sweetheart. I’m so thrilled.” Deke stood. Watched. Unblinking. Unmoving as Luc kissed her again and leaned her against the cabinet, then covered her body with his. The erection at her belly was impossible to miss.

The way his lips brushed, teased, aided by his tongue—it was like art. She felt the stirrings of desire. Luc was amazing, and he could make her want. But not love.

Why, damn it? Why couldn’t she love the man who was prepared to be with her and only her? Kimber broke off the kiss, trying not to cry. Luc interpreted it as emotional overflow.

“Hey, no tears. This is all good. We can leave this swampy paradise, go home, and get back to normal. You, me, Deke.” He framed her face in his hands and offered her a gentle smile. “I can’t wait.”

Then he kissed her again, deeper, with a hint of demand. As he did, Kimber opened her eyes. Deke’s stare was glued to them, harsh, vivid, angry, but still aroused.

Backing away, Luc took her hand and headed for the bedroom. “Come with me. I want to celebrate by loving you.”

God, did she have it in her? If Deke tagged along, could she share herself, knowing that he considered this a status quo that would never change? Or take the chance he’d simply sit there and watch, so that sharing didn’t become an issue? Either way, she had to make him see this threesome wasn’t a workable, long-term solution.

Kimber stood on her tiptoes and planted a long drugging kiss on Luc’s mouth, until the man grabbed her hips and brought her right against the hard staff of his cock. When he groaned and ripped away his bath towel, baring himself completely in the kitchen, she backed away with a vixen’s smile. “Come with me…” Deke didn’t say a word; he watched her with burning eyes, his fists clenched at his sides. So he didn’t like it. Good. Now it was time to fuck Luc so thoroughly, Deke could no longer stand to watch. He’d better get ready for one hell of a show.

Kimber had yet to look Deke’s way—not once since Luc had suggested they celebrate horizontally and she had agreed. Damn it, he should be glad that she was willing to accept something he couldn’t change. But looking at Luc run big, bronze hands all over her body, sliding over stiff nipples, gliding into damp crevices… That just wasn’t acceptable. Not when the news about the Colonel being conscious and the whacked-out freak responsible for the bomb behind bars made a hell of a reason for all of them to celebrate together.

In the middle of swamp central, what better way than sex and lots of it? It was a hell of a way to climb down this three-week adrenaline rush he’d been on. Except it went deeper than that. Deke had to touch her before they returned to civilization and her family. And not just touch her body. He’d done that plenty. This time, his mission was to touch her heart. Infiltrate and capture, if possible. He had to bond with her. He had to make her understand that, even if Luc touched her, she was his.

Sure, she said she loved him. He prayed like hell that was true. He’d even stripped his own defenses and admitted out loud that he loved her. But a woman like Kimber deserved a whole man.

He wasn’t it. But he was too fucking selfish to just give her up.

“I want to hold you, sweetheart,” Luc said. “I’m—”

“We,” Deke cut in. “We want to hold you.”

“Absolutely.” Luc caressed her cheek. “We are every bit as relieved as you are.

Thrilled. We can’t wait to express our gladness with you.” It was partly true. Mostly, Deke just wanted to get Kimber under him so she could feel him, see and taste and smell him. He wanted to seep into her pores so that if she really was rethinking her part in this ménage, she wouldn’t just turn her back and simply walk away. How big would the hole in his chest be if she left and never looked back? So huge, it would make the Grand Canyon look like a tiny pinprick.

His best bet was to remind her—vividly—about all the positives of being with him. And even though she’d rather be an exclusive couple, Deke knew for a fact that he and Luc managed a hell of a one-two punch on her libido.

Luc beat him to the bed and sprawled across it, arms open. Kimber hesitated, for just a moment. Deke put a hand at the small of her back, and even though the thought of letting his cousin around her—inside her—was like scraping his balls on a rusty blade, he urged her forward.

With a furious glare over her shoulder at him, she dove onto the bed, onto his cousin. The neon temptress inside her burst out, full of sizzle and come-hither, and shined her bright light all over Luc. She curled her body around Luc’s, and didn’t waste a second before plastering her lips over his, seeking, hungry, desperate.

Kimber pushed her way into Luc’s mouth with her tongue, purring with feminine moans that both stroked Deke’s cock and ripped at his heart.

She straddled him, fisting Luc’s dark hair as she sank even deeper into their rough, frenzied kiss. Holy shit!

Surprise passed across Luc’s face, but it didn’t last long. Desire hit his cousin like a tornado, whirling him up in the promise of mind-blowing sex that dripped from her kiss. Luc met that kiss with every ounce of finesse in his arsenal and clutched the curves of her body—breasts, waist, hips—as he poured himself into answering the raw demand radiating from Kimber.

Moaning, she placed herself right over the length of his cousin’s cock, which was already more than hard for her. And with female hips swaying, she undulated, rubbing her soft, wet pussy all over Luc’s cock and letting out a high, pleading groan that asked him to make it better. To make her come.

The sounds, the view, his woman gyrating her clit over the head of another man’s cock… He swallowed. It was hard to watch. Bullshit! He ground his jaw. Seeing Kimber turn her back on him and flash Luc the raw, raging need burning in her eyes, seeing her kiss, which demanded he satisfy her hunger…that was a tearing pain, like ripping his motherfucking entrails out with his bare hands. God, he couldn’t watch. But Deke forced himself.

Watching the slide of Kimber’s pussy against Luc’s cock quickly became a wet, silken torment. She broke the kiss on a gasp and tossed her head back.

“That’s it. Rub yourself all over me,” Luc growled as she ground down on him.

“You feel how hard I am for you?”

Kimber whimpered, and the sound stabbed at Deke like a hot blade in the balls.

“Yes,” she mewled, a violent flush spreading across her skin. “I’m wet. So wet.

Luc…”

“You want to come?”

A wild nod sent her auburn waves tumbling across the pale skin of her back, her breasts arching. Damn, she was so fucking beautiful—and so fucking aroused by another man. They looked perfect together. And he’d encouraged her right into Luc’s arms. Deke suddenly wanted to break those arms.

Not for the first time, Deke wondered why Luc stayed in this ménage relationship when he was a whole man who could easily take a woman to bed all by himself. But seeing Kimber and his cousin together, Deke feared he knew the answer. He stood frozen. It was like rubbernecking a traffic accident; he knew he shouldn’t watch, and yet he couldn’t tear his gaze away.

Perched on her hands and knees over Luc’s body, she rubbed her clit over the head of Luc’s shaft. Sweating, trembling, she looked back down into Luc’s eyes.

“Tell me you want to come,” Luc whispered, clutching at her hips to hold her still until she answered.

Her cry of protest and need pounded down on Deke. He took a step forward to give Kimber what she needed, to make that building orgasm his, to tear her out of Luc’s arms so that—

“Yes,” she shouted. “Yes. Make me come!”

Then she went wild on Luc, arching, wriggling, crying out, until her whole body trembled for release. Kimber clutched him, dragging her sweet pussy—the one that belonged to Deke—all over Luc’s dick, doing her best to find the wild release Deke knew he should be giving her.

No more. Deke couldn’t take it. She was his. This orgasm was his to give. He reached out to drag Kimber off of Luc, throw her on the bed, and mount her. He needed to give her the spinning, explosive sensations of a whirlwind climax. Before he touched Kimber, her body jolted, as if she’d been shocked. She let out a long, harsh cry of guttural satisfaction. And she screamed something guaranteed to destroy him: “Luc! ”

Deke’s guts imploded as she came in a fiery tirade of need.

For another man.

His insides bubbled, like he’d been filled up with acid. A need to fuck Kimber and claim her all over again warred with a violent urge to beat the living shit out of his cousin. He’d gone volatile. Felt unstable. On the fucking edge of something he couldn’t predict. He’d never experienced this wild and uncertain violence. Deke tried to deep-breathe through it as Kimber collapsed against his cousin’s chest, a panting mass of sweat-slick arms and legs. She held Luc tight, buried her face in his neck.

Suddenly, she let out a wail of tears that split the air with anguish. She looked so damn sad. Defeated. It snapped Deke out of his trance.

As she dragged in a jagged sob, hot tears flowed down scalding cheeks that burned rage and helplessness through him. He wrenched her from Luc’s embrace and against his own body.

“You don’t fucking touch her without me,” he snarled to Luc. “She’s mine. Mine! ” Immediately, she started fighting him, struggling and writhing to break free. Sobs overtook her, but Deke understood what she didn’t ask. How could he allow another man to touch her body?

Oh God, what had he done to her?

Shame crashed in on Deke, crushing and bleak. Fury— mostly at himself—

followed. Deke suddenly knew the meaning of the phrase “seeing red.” The whole bright, blood-sharp color filled his gaze, saturating logic. Rational thought—gone.

Instinct ruled as he lowered Kimber to the bed, took her thighs in his hands, and spread her wide. Glistening, sticky-sweet, and oh-so-wet, she was spread out before him. The pink petals of her flesh had gone red, swelling with arousal. Those folds still looked full and aching for more. And she made him so goddamned hungry just lying there.

“I’m not just yours. I’m his, too,” she flung at him.

He raised his head from between her thighs and drilled his stare deep down into her tear-drenched eyes. Bravado. Anger. A silent fuck you. Oh, he’d fuck her, all right. He’d make sure she understood that, no matter who touched her, she belonged to him.

In one leap, Deke covered her body, gathered her legs above his hips, and slid the aching-hard length of his cock deep into her pussy. To the hilt.

She gasped. Out of surprise, pleasure, or pain, he didn’t know. Probably all three.

The feel of her closing around him like a hungry little mouth burned away anything that might have resembled a conscience.

He bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile. “You’re going to learn differently, kitten. Right now.”

CHAPTER 17

With long, harsh strokes, Deke groaned out a rough breath as he plunged deep into Kimber, stretching her around his cock, moving against her cervix. Under him, she bucked, gasped, softened.