“But—”
“Daddy told you they were, huh?” Holt asked. “Come to the station, and I’ll give you the report. You can read the truth. Don’t even have to hear it from me.”
I pursed my lips. Doubt crept in, and that made me angry. How dare they make me doubt my family? But if they were doing bad things…
“Can we get that sample, sweetheart?” Theo asked.
I blinked, snagged on the endearment.
They were right, it was better for these guys to take their samples and rule us out than to come back and set my dad off, especially when he’d been drinking all afternoon. They’d find out there wasn’t any chemical residue, that this was most likely an unfortunate lightning strike-caused fire.
The data would be impartial. It wasn’t Holt and Theo’s words against my dad’s. “Sure, that’s fine,” I said.
Theo lowered his hands and wandered closer. “I really am glad we bumped into you again.”
My heart beat faster. To hide my attraction, I pulled an attitude and raised an eyebrow. It was hard to be angry with them when they were just too… too… them. “Yeah, why is that?”
“I wanted to apologize for last night. I’m sorry if I—we—came on too strong. We didn’t mean to scare you off.”
“I wasn’t scared,” I countered. “I was… enticed.” Oh God! Did I just admit that? What was wrong with me?
Theo was near enough—he reached out to rest a hand lightly on my waist. “Were you?” His deep rumble activated all my nerve endings, making them vibrate and tingle. Holt finished putting his samples in little baggies and came over to stand behind me so I had one guy in front of me, one on my left. He lightly touched the other side of my waist.
They were showing me what it would be like to be sandwiched by them.
I swallowed, and tried to calm my racing heart.
“Can we entice you some more? How about dinner tonight?” Holt suggested, his voice low and rumbly.
Wind kicked up and brushed a wayward curl across my face. He reached up and tucked it behind my ear.
“Okay,” I said before I thought things through. As if my pussy had answered instead of my brain. “Er, actually, maybe that’s not the best plan. It’s a small town, and my dad really does not like you, Sheriff. I would hate—”
“Holt,” he prompted, clearly not wanting to be called by his job title right now.
“—for gossip to get started and find its way back home.”
“How about dinner at Holt’s place, then?” Theo offered. “I’ll barbecue some steaks. Say, six o’clock?”
I licked my lips, and Theo’s gaze tracked the movement. “Wow, you guys do come on a little strong.”
“But you’re not scared.” Theo said it as more of a statement than a question. A confirmation.
Maybe I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. This was my town, and it was a small one where everyone knew everyone else. Plus, these guys were law enforcement agents. They wouldn’t force me into something I didn’t want to do.
I shook my head. “No. Should I be?”
“Never,” Holt said immediately, his presence warm and strong at my side. “We want to make you feel good, Ali. We are both completely entranced by you.”
I turned to face him and he was closer than I expected, which meant I found myself standing in his arms, my palm against his chest. Theo closed in from behind. I felt so small, so protected all of a sudden. “Entranced?” I sounded breathless, like I was the one being entranced.
God, how could it feel like this? So intense? So… right?
“Enticed.” Holt’s rumble was just as seductive as Theo’s. I felt it viscerally in every part of my body. He slid a thumb across my cheek, then gently took the rifle from my hand and passed it to Theo. “May I kiss you, Ali?”
I might have liked to read about women being kidnapped by aliens and forced to do all kinds of dirty things, but in real life, consent was sexy. The mere question had me soaking my panties.
A half-dozen different answers flitted through my head—all affirmative—before I managed to let out the single syllable. “Yes.”
The moment I spoke it, Holt’s lips crashed down over mine. Theo’s hand—at least I thought it was Theo’s—squeezed and massaged my ass the entire time Holt drank from my lips. Heat bloomed in my core, spreading in all directions, setting me on fire. I gripped the rough fabric of Holt’s t-shirt. I wasn’t sure whether it was to pull him closer or keep my balance. All I knew was that I was lost in the kiss. In drinking in this experience, in feeling both seductive and seduced at once.
“Mmm, let me have some of that,” Theo rumbled behind me after Holt and I had been going at it for a long moment. I didn’t want to break the kiss with Holt, but I wanted to taste Theo, too. Holt did me the favor of breaking the kiss and turning me around to face his friend. Theo was a little taller. He looped a large palm behind my neck and tipped my face up to his, slowing the second before he made contact, as if he wanted to savor the moment.
My nipples tightened and burned inside my bra, my legs quivered. Holt reached around the front of me and stretched a palm against my belly, slowly traveling south as I moaned into Theo’s mouth.
Oh. My. God.
Holt’s fingers found home, coasting down the inseam of my jeans and pressing in over my clit. I was suddenly feverish, burning up in the warm July sun, sandwiched between two passionate lawmen.
I gasped when Holt slid his fingers all the way down between my legs, and rubbed. I bit Theo’s lower lip as the need for a little aggression, a little release, washed over me.
He chuckled and hooked an arm behind my back, drawing me right up against his body. It was hard with muscles, his frame sturdy and large.
These men would make fine fathers to those boys I’d been imagining in my future. That thought flittered into my head with surprising ease.
Wait… what? I couldn’t have children with two men. I’d have to pick. And also… whoa. Too fast. These guys were out for sex, not to settle down and run a ranch with me with little kids running around.
Obviously. A guy didn’t pick up a girl with a friend looking for the woman to settle down with. That should have knocked some sense into me. Slowed me down. But it didn’t. I was young and hungry for this experience. I was twenty-three, and not ready to make babies. I felt safe. These guys turned me on, and seemed to want to give me pleasure. I was going to let them.
“That’s a yes on dinner,” I said breathlessly when Theo finally lifted his head.
Both men chuckled, and I couldn’t help but smile. Was I being reckless? Did I even care?
4
HOLT
I was in love. Madly, crazily, ferociously in love.
One kiss, and I’d never been more sure of anything in my life. Not that her scent hadn’t been tantalizing enough. But now that I’d tasted her?
I couldn’t go on.
Not without Theo and me claiming her.
I didn’t want to let her go. I had my hand between her sexy thighs, listening to her breathy moans. But now wasn’t really the time or place to take things further. We could make it work—of course we could—but I wanted our first time with Ali to be a bit more finessed. Not standing up in a field. Or bent over a fence rail at the site of a burned-out meth lab.