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God, he didn’t want to lose her again. And he knew he wouldn’t be able to deny the need, eventually, to take her alone.


He wanted her just like this, in his arms. She arched against the knee he had planted between her thighs, rubbing herself against him like a needy little kitten. And for the moment they both ignored Chase.


He had to pull his lips back from her breast and grit his teeth against the hunger burning through him.


His hand slid from her breast down her belly and over the skirt that had bunched at her hips—over it, to her lower stomach, and beneath the lacy elastic band of her panties.


He lifted his head and stared down at her, swallowing tightly as he fought to remember that he was not going to take her without making her realize she belonged to him.


Her face was wild with pleasure. Wild with it. Aubum hair surrounded flushed features. Her eyes had darkened until the green was mossy, the flecks of brown and blue like a hidden fire within it.


“Touch me.” She whispered the words as he edged his thigh back just enough to side his fingers into paradise.


He felt perspiration bead along his body as her nails bit into his shoulders and her head tilted back with a surfeit of pleasure. Her thighs parted farther, allowing his fingers greater ease into the dewdampened folds of flesh between her thighs.


Sweet flesh, tender, it parted for him, the heated moisture of her response spilling to his fingertips. He eased lower, fighting to hold onto his control, until he couldn’t help himself. He could not hold back the need. He pierced her with a single finger, amazed at how snug, how tight her heated pussy was for him, and then worked deeper inside her.


She arched against him, the muscles clenching on his finger, surrounding it with slick, heated syrup and satiny flesh. He pumped into her, watching her take him, the pretty pink flesh and auburn curls parting, wet, welcoming.


Hell, she was hot. Hot and writhing in his arms, reaching up for the fragile penetration, as her cries begged for more. And he was no less desperate. His cock was rigid beneath his pants, fully engorged, and aching for the tight clasp of her pussy.


“Cam.” Her voice was rich, husky. “Oh God.”


A surge of white-hot lust had one of his hands lowering to the belt cinching his waist, while the other, loath to leave the creamy heat of her body, continued to caress and cajole more of her sweet syrup from her.


He wasn’t going to be able to hold onto his control this time. It would be rougher than he had wanted. Harder. And fuck making her face anything except his possession. He had been born for this moment. Born to burn in the fire she ignited inside him.


She stretched beneath him, her arms reaching above her, hands gripping the armrest behind her head as she thrust against him. His finger slid deeper, retreated. Pierced her as her hips lowered, slid nearly free as she lifted.


With her body, with each sensuous movement, she was taking him into her, riding his finger with such voluptuous pleasure that his cock threatened to explode before he ever entered her with it.


He tore the belt buckle free, slid his finger from her, despite her husky, protesting cry, and was working to release his erection, when the shrill demand of his cell phone filled the room.


“No.” Jaci reached for him, her eyes burning into his with the same need tearing through him. “Don’t answer it.”


It rang again, the imperious summons causing him to snarl with impatience as he jerked it from the holder on the band of his pants.


“What?”


Jaci watched the grimace that pulled at Cam’s expression. Blood thundered through her body, the blistering need burned her from the inside out. But the reprieve was a lucky one, she realized suddenly.


She had lost her mind. She had to have. The careful control she had adapted over the years, the firm rein she had placed on her sensuality and her need to be held had slipped with Cam.


It had slipped with the most dangerous man she could have imagined. He wouldn’t reveal her secrets, he wouldn’t betray her—but he could destroy her.


She moved to pull her body from his, ignoring the tightening of his hand on her hip, pushing away his hold, as he watched her with that hawklike stare.


She rose quickly from the couch, ignoring both men now, pulling her shirt around her and straightening her skirt as she rushed to the bedroom. She closed and locked the door carefully behind her.


Her shirt was ruined. Buttons were missing, there was a tear at the shoulders. She ripped it from her body and tossed it across the room before pulling a soft, comfortable pullover from her closet, along with a pair of jeans.


As she finished dressing, there was a soft knock at the bedroom door.


“Don’t make me break the lock, Jaci,” Cam warned her.


Don’t make him break the lock. He was so arrogant, so selfassured. So certain of himself that it oozed from every pore of his body and made her want to scream in outrage, because she couldn’t find that confidence—couldn’t seem to fake even a quarter of that self-assurance whenever he was around.


She turned the lock and jerked the door open.


Standing before them, it was all she could do to rein in the shiver that would have trembled through her body at the look Cam gave her. The way his gaze slid over her body, the mocking quirk to his kiss-swollen lips.


Did her lips look like that? Reddened and swollen and hungry?


“We need to go back to the office,” he told her. “I’ll see you in the morning.”


One hand cupped her neck, his hold dominant, daring her to pull away as his head lowered and he delivered a quick, hard kiss to her lips.


“What was that for?” She jerked back, but only after he released her.


“That was one of those little good-bye kisses lovers share,” he said sensually. “Surely you recognized it?”


She would have had to have a lover first. “We’re not lovers,” she told him through gritted teeth.


At that he smiled. A slow, sexy curve of his lips, rife with promise. “Of course we are, sweetheart. I told you, you can’t go back now. The only question in this relationship is when we’ll go forward.”


“There is no going forward.” She had made a grave tactical error with him, and she knew it. He had taken control from the first moment, and he wasn’t letting it go. “I’ve decided enough is enough. It’s more than obvious I can’t handle you, let alone both of you.” She waved her hand toward the silent, amused Chase.


Amusement glittered in his eyes. “You already have.”


Jaci stared back at him in disbelief, and she had to admit to the temptation rushing through her at the amused passion, the arrogance in his eyes.


“You couldn’t handle it seven years ago. You were too young then, and I knew it. You’re not too young to understand it now, Jaci.”


“No. Now, I’m old enough to know a disaster walking when I see it,” she said, her voice scathing. “And that’s what you and Chase are to any woman’s heart, Cameron Falladay. A disaster walking.”


He chuckled, the deep rumble of amusement stroking across her senses, despite her determination to remain resolute.


He leaned closer, and rather than retreating, she felt frozen before him, staring back at him, mesmerized by the fire in those light green eyes.


“So much pleasure,” he whispered. “Remember how good it was last night, Jaci. How hot and sweet, and so good you thought you were going to die from it.”


She could feel the sizzle in her womb, the need for that pleasure further dampening the flesh between her thighs. Dangerous. The potential for destruction was rising daily.


“You have to leave, remember?” She forced herself back from him, but she couldn’t force back the images raging through her mind, or the fire it built low in her belly.


Just the thought of last night. The thought of being wanton, sexual, of taking all the pleasure she had ever dreamed of and knowing she was safe within it, was a temptation she found hard to deny, now that she had experienced it.


“We’ll see,” he murmured, stepping back to return to the living room.


“You’ll see,” she informed him, rather pleased by the strength in her voice. She didn’t sound as though she were ready to submit and lay prone before the Falladay brothers, as they covered her in nothing but lust.


He smiled at her declaration. That sexy smile. The way his slightly fuller lower lip tempted her to taste it, and the way his eyes encouraged her to be bad, was a potent combination.


“I’ll see you in the morning.” He turned on his heel and headed for the door. “I’ll pick you up on my way into the office and take you home tomorrow evening. If you need anything or need to go into town at any time, Chase or I will take you.”


“Why?” Stunned, she followed after him. “I can rent a car.” She would rent a car. She didn’t need to spend any more time with the Falladay twins than she absolutely had to. That was a recipe guaranteed to wear away at her resistance.


“Why rent a car? I pass by here daily on my way into Ian’s home office. The hotel charges an outrageous price for parking, and it would be inconvenient.”


“Then I’ll get a cab.”


He was silent for long moments, just watching her, those eyes piercing inside her.


“Don’t push me,” he finally said softly. “I’m walking away now because I understand that pushing you too fast right now isn’t a good idea. But I won’t give up the few chances I’ll have to get to know you again. And I won’t let you throw them away.”


“You would have to invest yourself first, Cam, and we both know you can’t do that,” she accused, hearing the roughness in her own voice, the fear in it.


She was weak, too weak to spend any more time in his company than she absolutely had to.


“However you want to see it.” Powerful shoulders lifted in a careless shrug. “But you don’t want to fight me too hard right now. My self-control isn’t at its best when you’re around. It never has been. And if push comes to shove, we both know, the lust is going to win. So let’s not tempt that beast today.”


For a second, the savagery of his determination held her speechless. And it wasn’t fear that caused it. It was the incredible need to do just as he had warned her not to. To tempt the lust raging in his expression.


“I’ll see you at nine in the morning.” His fingers grazed her cheek, the incredible gentleness in that touch at odds with the battle she saw raging in his eyes. Because he wanted to tempt it as well. He wanted to push it and see how hot they would both burn, and she knew it.


Unfortunately, the fallout was going to be destructive.


Before she could argue, he unlocked the door and jerked it open, and as she stood there watching, he and Chase left the suite, closing the door behind them and blocking the sight of the worst temptation she had ever known in her life.


Cameron Falladay had the power to make her forget who she was and the lessons she had learned over the years. That was dangerous. He was dangerous to her heart and to her soul, and she had to force herself to remember that.


Nine o’clock the next morning came way too soon, as far as Jaci was concerned. The night before had been spent tossing and turning, visions of Cam and Chase moving through her dreams. Both twins filled with hunger, touching her, easing her into an embrace that sent fear roiling through her—because behind them, she could sense Richard and Annalee watching, waiting.


Not that she gave a damn what the two knew, she told herself repeatedly after she awoke. Unfortunately for them, a promiscuous reputation wouldn’t destroy her career. It could hamper it mildly at this point, because she was finally establishing herself. She didn’t give a damn about gossip; she had learned early not to. But they were a threat.


She could feel it in her dreams. They were waiting, watching, determined to destroy her. She had no idea how a relationship with Cam and Chase could affect the congressman and his wife. According to Courtney, Ian detested the congressman, though he had a mildly friendly relationship with Richard’s father-in-law, the senator.