“I may not have been an Army Ranger, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t learned a few tricks over the years,” Luc warned her. “You’re not getting away.” Satisfied she was in good hands, Deke fished a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door to Jack’s secret room at the end of the hall. He wound his way past the computer and desk, to the door at the back of the room, and flung it open.

A dominant’s paradise with every manner of toy, paddle, dildo—and, of course, restraint—known to man.

He grabbed a pair of velvet cuffs and some silken ties to wrap around Kimber’s dainty ankles. He paused to contemplate a pair of nipple clamps.

Focus, he told himself. Keep her safe. Right now, she’s going to be too pissed to fuck you.

Putting the toys in his pocket and in the later category, he rushed back down the hall to see that little had changed. Kimber was questioning Luc’s parentage and masculinity with insults she’d probably heard from her brothers over the years.

Luc looked unfazed.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, sweetheart. How much worse would I be if I cared more about your name-calling than your safety?”

Rushing back into the room, Deke reached Kimber’s side, took her wrists from his cousin and cuffed her in two seconds flat. He quickly discovered that the silken ties were plenty long to reach from her ankles to the thick posters on the antique bed. Only when she was fully restrained and spread out on the bed did Deke realize she was also totally naked.

And at their mercy.

Deke had never been a huge fan of bondage; he could take it or leave it. At the moment, the idea held appeal. He stifled the impulse.

“Okay,” he said, dragging his gaze away from her breasts.

They really were beautiful, and the memory of their tender nipples… Damn, he had to focus! “I don’t like letting you out of hiding yet, but I understand it. I will find a safe way for you to visit your father. Give me a day or two.”

“What if he doesn’t make it that long? Please.” Her eyes teared up, and it tore at him. “Can’t we go now?”

Deke wished he could say yes. But he couldn’t give in to his wish to be the good guy. His job—his responsibility—was to keep her safe. “No, but as soon as possible.

I promise.”

“But—”

“If your father was awake to put in his two cents, kitten, you know he would agree with me.”

She sighed with resignation. “Please hurry.”

Deke stepped out of the room. Damn it, he didn’t want to do this, but she was close to the Colonel. Denying her was hurting her, and he couldn’t do that. With a sigh, he picked up the phone and called Jack Cole and Logan, along with another buddy. He was gone five minutes, tops.

When he returned to the bedroom, Kimber was no longer tied up. She lay in Luc’s arms, listening to his whispered reassurances. Deke couldn’t help but look at her, and he was sure his eyes glazed over with lust. Damn, he had to get his mind off sex and on protecting her.

“Jack and Logan will contact us soon. You’ll see your father. We’ll have a plan quickly, I promise.” He kissed her mouth gently.

With a cry, she opened to him, arched to him. Deke hesitated, surprised. Then he dove into all the kiss offered and tasted her thanks, as well as her desperation for reassurance.

He lifted his head. “Kimber?”

“Hold me. Please.”

The pools of tears gathering in her eyes tore at Deke’s heart. He wasn’t really good with cuddling, but how could he say no to her now? Why would he, when he take any excuse just to be near her?

He relaxed his body at her side again, nuzzling his face in her neck, his arm across her middle. “I’m here.”

“Touch me.”

If he touched her any more, he’d be groping her, and his mind—along with all the blood in his body—would go south. But she needed comfort, so he stroked her side in a soothing caress. Or tried. He just wasn’t good at being a cross between a teddy bear and just a friend. He got lost in her eyes, her scent, that sexysoft skin. He couldn’t be around her and not get hard. Feeling like a perverted shit, he closed his eyes.

“Deke,” she murmured.

“Yeah, kitten?”

“Make the worry go away for a while. Please.” She arched her hips toward him.

“Love me.”

God, temptation. The offer of fucking paradise. Deke swallowed. “Kimber, honey…”

“I know what I’m asking for. Touch me. I know you can. Make it better.” On the other side of the bed, he glanced at Luc. His cousin didn’t say a word, but he went hard in an instant.

Kimber noticed, too. “See. You want me.”

Always. But she was upset now, and only a class-A prick would take advantage of her now, right? On the other hand…distracting her might take the edge off her worry. Yeah, he was probably rationalizing because she was naked and whenever he gazed at her, he was horny. But it was either sex or watch her cry, agonize, and panic over something she couldn’t change.

Deke voted for sex. In wordless seconds, he stripped. He didn’t have to look up.

Just the rustle of clothing told him Luc was doing the same.

“Kitten, if this is what you want, I’ll get inside you and touch you deep until you can’t remember your name.”

Deke stretched out on the bed, raised himself above her, and stared. She was so fucking beautiful, she hurt his eyes. The ache in his chest torqued up.

Luc crawled onto the bed, stopping when he reached her other side, and his palm took up residence at her breast.

“I need this, need you…”

“We know. You need to feel alive, sweetheart. We’ll take care of you, in all ways.” With that, Luc skimmed his thumbs across her nipples, they hardened, flushed.

Pretty and alluring, a sight Deke couldn’t resist. It was a race to see which of them could get his mouth around a tempting bud first. Deke was pretty sure he’d won. It sure felt that way when she drew in a sharp breath and arched toward them.

Her poor little nipples had to be sore. And he tried to be gentle. Difficult when the sweet tips just kept getting harder against his tongue. Every time he laved, sucked, or nipped at her, they hardened more.

“You guys are so good,” she moaned.

Yeah, her voice was losing its starch. It sounded low, a little scratchy. Perfect.

As much as he enjoyed the hard berries tipping her breasts, he was dying for a real taste of her.

Glancing his way down her body, he was startled to see Luc’s hand between her thighs, her hips surging in search of his cousin’s teasing touch. With a hard-on that wouldn’t quit, he watched as her breath grew harsh. Her panting filled the room.

Luc continued to taunt her with his fingers, brushing over her clit, sinking into her channel, caressing the pouting lips around her sex, delving deep inside her sex to rub her G-spot without mercy.

Deke smelled her, peaches, brown sugar, musk. It drove him insane. Impatience strangled him.

“Hurry the fuck up and get her off.”

Without breaking stride, Luc raised a brow. “I’m having fun.”

“This isn’t about you.”

“It isn’t about you, either. It’s about keeping her mind elsewhere.”

“Oh, trust me. I will.”

Luc paused. Kimber whimpered, writhed.

“You want to be inside her again?”

No shit. “Among other things,” Deke answered.

“Stop talking and do it!” she demanded between rough breaths.

His cousin responded to her command by reapplying himself to his task. Deke watched, aroused beyond belief. God, she was gorgeous. Those rosy cheeks, parted lips, eyes drowsy with need. Men had written sonnets about women like her, and now he knew why. But she wasn’t just beautiful. She was ballsy, too. She walked her own road. Deke respected that. Understood it. She didn’t cringe from his profession—or get turned on by it. He’d had both sorts of women before and couldn’t get into either.

Kimber…she was just her, and she took everything in stride. Sure, she had emotional moments, but she didn’t fall apart. Silk with a steel backbone—that was his woman.

His.

Deke swooped down and plundered her mouth with a desperate kiss. She opened to him, mewling. His lips vibrated with the sound. His cock throbbed in response.

The impatience to have her taste on his tongue again bombarded him again. He broke off the kiss and whispered in her ear, “Come for Luc, kitten.” She gave him a shaky nod and raised her hips, not quite there…but close.

He pushed her closer to the cliff. “That ache building? Burning? Yeah,” he answered for her. “And the minute you let go, I’m going to get down there and lap you up. He’s just making you nice and juicy for me.” He nipped at her lobe. “Once I get down there, you’ll give me more cream, right?”

“Yes. Yes!” she shouted as her body bowed in climax. She thrust her head back, arching her neck, pushing the red peaks of her breasts into the air as she wailed out satisfaction.

Luc was on her nipples in an instant, sucking, squeezing…

Just to make sure Kimber didn’t think about her troubles any time soon, Deke reached into his pocket and dangled the clamps in Luc’s face. “Know what these are?”

Luc’s hungry gaze fastened on them, and he grabbed them from Deke’s hand excitedly, like a kid with a new toy.

“I thought you might.” Deke grinned at his cousin. Then he kissed his way down Kimber’s body.

Deke didn’t tease her or make her wait. He spared her that. Or maybe he spared himself, so damn eager for her taste again and those sweet little hitching breaths she made when arousal began to take her.

Bending her knees, Deke parted her with his thumbs and dove into her rich cream. Hmm. And he took her with his mouth, holding her thighs wide, throwing his shoulders into it with every lash of his tongue. Life didn’t get much better than this moment.

Suddenly, she stiffened and gasped—not all from pleasure. With a pissed glower, he lifted his head to watch her adjusting to the clamps biting into her nipples.

“They look more vicious than they are,” Luc assured. “Give her two minutes.” He looked at his cousin reluctantly, then turned his attention to Kimber. “This hurting you too much, kitten?”

Her eyes drifted open, edgy…but heavy with arousal. She bit her lip, holding in a cry.

“Kitten?”

“Inside me,” she gasped. “Get inside me now.”

He frowned, then licked his way from slit to clit. “But I wasn’t finished—”

“Now!”

Kimber was demanding when she was horny. Deke loved it.

Crawling up the bed, up her body, he slid inside her in one smooth stroke that had her groaning so long and loud, the sound went to his balls and squeezed.

Apparently, it did the same to Luc.

He cursed.

“Yeesss.” Kimber watched him with a serious fuck-me stare.

Deke was totally happy to oblige.

Before he could get down to business, she shot Luc a demanding stare. “Over here.” She gazed at the spot on the mattress beside her.

Luc quickly complied—and she rewarded him by turning her head, parting her lips, and taking his cock to the back of her throat.

The sight tortured Deke—with both resentment and arousal. The sublime look of ecstasy on his cousin’s face wasn’t something he could pretend didn’t exist.

Deke knew exactly why he engaged in ménage. But not for the first time, he wondered what Luc got out of the arrangement. He would—and did—fuck women on his own. But he’d insisted for years that he wouldn’t marry one, wouldn’t be just a couple with a woman. He wanted a committed triad, had long sought a woman both he and Deke could happily share. Why?

Kimber whimpered.

“Take her,” Luc instructed. “Fill her.”

God, his voice was so solemn, as if…it meant something to him beyond great sex.

Was he in love with Kimber, too?

Likely, yes. But Deke couldn’t pursue that now, not when she lifted her hips to him, tightened, and need shot up his cock in the form of pure, liquid need. He reared back, plunged in, cranked up on the feel of her around him. Damn, she was silky perfect. He’d never known anything like this, like her. And he’d bet his soul he never would again.

Deke gave to her, everything he had—pumping, filling, sweating, stroking. The urge to come snuck up on him, tightening his balls. He gritted his teeth. She was going first, damn it. If he had to bite his way through his tongue to keep himself from coming, he’d make sure she found satisfaction before he did.

Luc fisted her hair in his hands. The angle had to hurt her neck, and yet she just kept deep-throating him.

“Yes. Yes. God, yes!” Luc started to chant.

Deke related perfectly.

Kimber moaned in return, lifted to him, swelled, tightened, rippled.

Oh, holy mother of— there was no fighting the tidal wave of sensation that ripped across his senses, stripping him of defenses. He thrust into her, stroke after single-minded stroke. And she met him.