Operation Mustang

The Service Club 3

Operation Mustang Mustang Ducote craves the Rylon brothers’ touch. She can’t give in to her darkest desires or she’ll lose everything. Now they’re on her ranch, and her attempts at resisting are failing. When danger strikes, she’s faced with two options—full surrender or a Rylon brother retreat that’ll take them out of her life forever. As Navy SEALs, Diek and Gunner have been tested. But claiming Mustang proves tougher than any op they’ve faced. It’ll take all their training and focus to accomplish the mission that’ll change their lives. But others are after her, too, and withdrawing might be the only way to keep her safe. Lucky isn’t a SEAL, but he’s got an arsenal of toys saved for Mustang’s pleasure. Loving her is easy. Freeing the submissive vixen from the demons in her mind and those out to get her won’t be. But a lifetime of erotic passion is worth every obstacle tossed in the way. Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings. Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys Length: 41,702 words

OPERATION MUSTANG The Service Club 3

Tonya Ramagos

MENAGE AND MORE

Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK IMPRINT: Ménage and More

OPERATION MUSTANG Copyright © 2012 by Tonya Ramagos E-book ISBN: 978-1-61926-815-9 First E-book Publication: June 2012 Cover design by Harris Channing All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com

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OPERATION MUSTANG The Service Club 3 TONYA RAMAGOS Copyright © 2012

Chapter One Erotic warning drifted into the room with the promise of dark pleasures and even darker desires. Mustang Ducote felt that warning seep into her fingers, sizzle up her arm, and explode in fiery embers of longing through her system. She stared at the paper in her hand, barely containing a whimper as fear collided with her tenuous resistance. Her nipples beaded at the mere sight of the name on the application. Her clit pulsed as the warmth spread, caressing a thin layer of wetness from between her pussy lips. Her gaze flicked to the man behind her desk. Could he smell the arousal turning her panties wet? Did he know the images that sprang to her mind of being bound, blindfolded, and at the mercy of her most devilish needs? She didn’t want to think he could, didn’t want to believe that he knew. The glint in his soft brown eyes confirmed her fears. She’d always known deep in her heart, in her very soul, this day would come. She shook her head and squared her shoulders, preparing to defend what belonged to her, the Circle M ranch and her self-respect. “I won’t hire him.”

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Chester Waverly regarded her with a steady expression of patience and way too damned much knowledge for a man of his sixtyplus years. “I already did.” “You should’ve asked me first.” Mustang tossed the application across the top of the desk and turned, intending to walk right out of the office, conversation over. “I never asked you about hirin’ a hand before.” Chester’s tone remained even and conversational as he pointed out a fact that made her stop in her tracks. “I didn’t see the need to start with this one.” No, but he usually discussed it with her first. At the very least he informed her of his plans before he executed them. He pulled a fast one on her this time, knowing she’d never agree no matter how badly she wanted to. “The last I heard, the hirin’ and firin’ of the cowboys on this ranch fell under my job description. Are you tellin’ me that’s changed?” Mustang closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly turned back to face her foreman. Her entire life, he had been as much of a father to her as her own. She couldn’t remember a day that Chester hadn’t worked alongside her father right up until the day heart disease took her father off the land of the Circle M and planted him in bed shortly before taking his life for good. “No, that hasn’t changed.” The words shouldn’t have tasted bitter in her mouth, but they did. “Pa put you in charge of the ranch crew years ago, and you’ve always done a fine job of picking our employees.” Except this time. Wasn’t it a father’s place to protect his daughter? Didn’t that responsibility fall to the father’s best friend of over fifty years after the father died? Didn’t Chester know the day he and her father had taken on Lucky Rylon five years before that they had blown their duty to protect her up in smoke? Now he wanted her to hire another Rylon brother. No, she simply couldn’t do it.

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Chester nodded, tongue in cheek. “Still am, too. We all but doubled our number of cattle in the last year, took on more horses, and got more land to see after.” “And I agreed to every bit of it.” Even pushed for it, she silently admitted. She had stayed up to the wee hours of the morning many nights checking the books, pondering scenarios, and working up the personal reassurance that, despite the flailing economy, expanding the Circle M was indeed a smart move. “We also lost a helluva cowboy when Trevor quit,” Chester reminded her. Not that she needed reminding. Trevor Bowden had been a valuable employee, and she’d hated as much as Chester to see the man go. She’d also understood the cowboy’s desires to make his own place in the world. She might have taken over the family ranch when her father died, but she’d spent her life doing exactly what Trevor set out to do, make her own place and earn the respect that went along with it. “We did.” Even as she agreed, she knew what direction the conversation would take next. Trouble came in also knowing she couldn’t steer it any other way. “Now I’m shorthanded.” Mustang sighed. She couldn’t argue with that, but putting another pair of Rylon hands on the Circle M was not the solution to the problem. Especially when both Rylon brothers made it clear long ago that the Circle M wasn’t the only place they wanted to put their hands. Fingers of devious desire danced across her flesh, caressing her breasts, tugging at her nipples, and falling to torment her pussy lips. She damned herself long ago for wanting their hands on her, and not just their hands, but their youngest brother’s as well. The price she would have to pay to experience the pleasures the three Rylon brothers offered was entirely too great. “Yes, we’re shorthanded, which is why we ran the ad in the paper.” It had run in Sunday’s classifieds, and she’d posted the

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announcement on the Circle M’s website complete with an online application the same day. “It’s been three days, and I know we’ve had at least five men apply.” “Six,” Chester corrected, “and only one of ’em with the experience I’m lookin’ for.” He tapped the application she’d tossed on the desk. “Tell me the sense in hirin’ two of the others when I can have this one and guarantee you he’s a better cowboy and harder worker than the other five put together.” There wasn’t any sense behind it, so she didn’t bother to try to tell him. “We’ll give it a few more days. I’m sure we’ll get more bites.” She prayed they did. Just one applicant with equal experience to Diek would save her. Hell, she’d even be willing to pay the cowboy more if it meant she could prevent having Diek on her ranch. “I don’t need a few more days,” Chester said stubbornly. “I need another man out there, and I’ve got one right here. Diek is a helluva cowboy. There ain’t likely another man for three counties as good as him. Not one that doesn’t already have a job, anyhow. If I had the option, I’d be hirin’ Gunner, too.” “I’m not hiring another Rylon brother,” Mustang said through gritted teeth. And she certainly wouldn’t hire all three of them! The expression on Chester’s face told her she was being unreasonable. She probably was, but damn it, didn’t he realize what having that man on her ranch would do to her? She spent enough time sidestepping Lucky Rylon on her own damn land. She didn’t need Diek trying to get under her foot and inside—She stopped the thought as a snap of lust shot through her channel and careened on a heated course to every erogenous zone in her body. No, she didn’t need it at all, but she wanted it, and the truth of that made her madder than hell. “You’re gonna have to stop fighting it one of these days, Mustang.” His tone, his words sounded so much like her father it made her throat tight. “Who’s going to make me?”

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“Ain’t gonna be me, but I know of three tough cowboys who’ve been workin’ at it for years.” “They haven’t succeeded yet, and they won’t.” She wished she felt as certain of that as she sounded. “They will.” Chester sounded just as certain and, blast the man, probably felt it, too. “And it’ll be good for you when they do.” How could he say that? The Rylon brothers would break her. They wouldn’t stop until they owned her and everything she possessed. She’d lose everything from her honor and composure to her womanly self-worth, right along with her body and heart. “I already hired him,” Chester said again just as calm and patient as the first time. “Then fire him, for Pete’s sake,” Mustang shot back. She had to stand her ground on this. She might put on a strong front but, in truth, her resistance had been slipping for years. She managed to hold on only because she’d learned to keep a relatively safe distance from Lucky, and the other two Rylon brothers were hardly ever around. “Give me one good, responsible, business reason why I should, and I’ll be happy to.” Mustang didn’t miss the emphasis he put on the word business. She opened her mouth, ready to fire off a dozen and one reasons, and bit her tongue, knowing there wasn’t a one of them that had a thing to do with business. “You think you’re slick, don’t you?” Chester didn’t answer, but his wrinkled lips twitched. “You might want to hurry with that reason, seein’ as how he’ll be in here any second. Then again, I suppose you could wait and tell him yourself.” The unmistakable low rumble of a Mustang Cobra engine joined the warning drifting on the air. Anticipation, completely unwanted and too potent to ignore, zinged through her veins, slamming into a fear that threatened to turn her blood to ice. She heard the engine shut off, the faint sound of the door closing, and the increasingly louder

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sound of footsteps as they moved up the front steps and right into the house. She didn’t turn when he entered the office. She didn’t have to. Any woman with an ounce of estrogen in her veins would feel the man’s presence. It enveloped her, overpowering her senses and leaving her feeling drunk on sheer male power. She stared dumbstruck as Chester pushed himself from the desk chair, adjusted his blue jeans around his hefty waist, and walked around the corner of the desk. “Well, now, sure is good to see our service boys back on American soil where they belong,” Chester commented, his lips stretching into a wide grin that deepened the wrinkles outlining his eyes. “Chester, you haven’t changed a bit.” Diek hadn’t either if the sound of his voice was any indication. Mustang’s heart thudded unevenly as his deep baritone voice rolled over her like hot oil, completely visceral and utterly undesired. “Ain’t much changin’ you can do at my age besides getting older and uglier.” Chester chuckled. “I could add a few things,” Mustang muttered before she could stop herself. More stubborn and nosier, in her opinion, would make fantastic additions to his short list today. Chester’s chuckle morphed into a boom of laughter. “I expect you could. I feel it’s my civil duty to warn you boys, Mustang was just about to give me a good reason why I should fire you, Diek, before you even get started.” Boys? Alarm danced across Mustang’s flesh. That was twice Chester put the word in plural form. She had been in sensory overload from the moment she heard the Cobra’s engine. So much so that she failed to separate the erotic sensations wreaking havoc on her mind and body. She had even failed to realize Diek hadn’t entered the office alone. The mistake would cost her, big-time. The primal, predatory heat oozing from Diek collided with an equally

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recognizable intoxicating dominance that could only belong to his younger brother, Gunner. Christ on a pogo stick! No wonder she felt like she was sinking. “Was she now?” Diek sounded intrigued. “Well, go ahead, darlin’. I’m all ears.” All arrogance, confidence, and authority was more like it, but Mustang thought it better not to point that out. She had one chance to keep her head above water here, and damn if she could come up with even a half-assed business excuse believable enough to fire him. Mustang braced herself, taking a deep breath and doing a quick count to ten before she finally turned to face him. She could’ve counted to a trillion, and it wouldn’t have done her a bit of good. Her gaze slammed into Gunner’s first, and an all-too familiar hunger kicked up in her belly. A black Stetson hid his dirty-blond hair, resting low on his forehead and shadowing his milk-chocolate eyes. An olive drab T-shirt stretched over broad shoulders made for a woman’s nails to dig into and defined the muscles in his chest to pristine perfection. Camo BDUs hugged his narrow hips and long legs. “I hadn’t heard you were in town.” Would it have helped if she’d known? Maybe. Despite her slipping resistance, she had always managed to keep a solid guard in place when any of the Rylon brothers were around, but it had been a long time since she’d had to arm herself against all three at once. “I slipped in undetected.” Gunner’s tone held a hint of amusement and a buttload of supremacy. “Somethin’ all that SEAL trainin’ taught you,” Chester commented. Mustang knew from firsthand experience that no one had to teach Gunner Rylon anything about slipping in anywhere undetected. He’d successfully done it to her, stealthily positioning himself in her every fantasy and etching out a place for himself in her heart. Hell, all three brothers had done it, and she hadn’t stood a chance at stopping them.

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“How long will the two of you be stateside?” She directed her question at both of them, but kept her gaze on Gunner. “A few weeks.” He hooked his thumbs in the belt loops of his BDUs, drawing her focus down to the impressive bulge the camouflage did nothing to conceal. The sight acted like a whip, slashing at her channel and stinging her clit. “Maybe more.” “Indefinitely.” Diek’s response had her snapping her gaze his way. Her attention skimmed over another black Stetson hiding what she knew to be dark hair beneath and perched low over unreadable cobalt eyes. Her gaze lingered on the fading scar marring his left cheek, on the sensual shape of his lips, and on the masculine curve of his jaw. He wore combat boots with a black T-shirt and black BDUs that accented every hard-toned, roughened muscle and plane of his drool-worthy body to distraction. “Define indefinitely,” Mustang said slowly. She was in over her head, always had been. It appeared after all these years, she was getting a true test of her defenses right here, right now, and she felt the wall crumbling piece by piece faster than she could think to stop it. “I’m figuring Mr. Webster did a fair job of that back in the eighteen hundreds,” Diek drawled. Mustang figured Mr. Webster did a fair job of defining doom back then, too. He’d only forgotten one thing, a big, glossy color photo of her right next to the word. She might not have been alive in the eighteen hundreds, but she reckoned any edition of the dictionary made within the last fifteen years could’ve included her picture and given a far more apt definition to the word. Fifteen years she’d been fighting to maintain her dignity, her selfrespect, her resolve against these men. By all accounts, that should go in the record books as the longest war in American history. And it ain’t over yet.

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No, as she held Diek’s gaze and got lost in the confidence and desire swirling in their cobalt depths, she got an intense feeling the real battle was just beginning. “Then you’re back in Horn Hill to stay this time?” No matter how good the dictionary definition of the word, she still needed clarification. Maybe he didn’t really mean indefinitely, but merely awhile, a week longer than Gunner, a month. Hell, she could even find a way to handle two months, but not forever. Please God, not forever. “That’s right.” All her hopes died with the almost imperceptible nod of his head and those two words laden with erotic promises. Help me. She knew there wasn’t a soul on the face of the planet who could really save her. The sound of the back door slamming shut, followed by rapid heavy footfalls, offered her salvation for now. Thomas Waverly came to a halt just outside the office door and peeked his curly red head inside. His gaze landed instantly on Mustang. “Lucky sent me to find you. He said you wanted to know the minute Raven went into labor.” Mustang’s heart skipped a beat as twin zaps of excitement and concern shot through her chest. She’d been reluctant to breed her favorite horse, worried that something could go wrong to harm the animal she’d had since she was a little girl. She likely wouldn’t have gone through with it if it hadn’t been for Lucky. She’d spent far less time sidestepping him on the ranch in the last eleven months simply because of his veterinarian abilities and his mutual love for Raven. “Thank you, Thomas.” She cast a quick glance to each of the men in the room in turn as she headed for the door. “Gentlemen, we’ll have to finish this later.” **** Damn right they would finish this later and a whole lot more.

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Diek barely let her get three steps out the door before he started to follow her. A quick glance at Gunner and Chester on his way by told him the other men would be close at his heels. His much longer strides caught him up to her quickly, but he slowed his pace, allowing her to stay in the lead in favor of admiring the view. And what a view it was, he thought as his attention fell to her jean-clad ass. The woman’s hips rotated like a well-oiled metronome with each determined step. He wanted to feel that gyration as she sat on top of him with her hands bound behind her back, riding his cock while one of his brothers fucked her mouth and the other filled her ass. “Who sired the foal?” Her step faltered at his question, but she didn’t stop. She whipped her head around, casting him a look over her shoulder that had her long chestnut ponytail flying. Resignation moved through her large blue eyes. She obviously hadn’t realized he’d followed her, but Raven occupied her mind enough for her not to put up a fight. “Kinger.” Diek lifted a brow. Well, now. That came as a surprise. “Kinger as in Austin Roscoe’s prize Mustang?” He knew Austin had been after her for years to get the two purebred horses together and produce an offspring, but she’d always refused. She reached the door to the barn, yanked it open, and only then did she stop. She turned half-around to face him, her expression daring him to comment. “Yeah, you got a problem with that?” “I’m shocked you didn’t.” Something moved through her eyes at that. Fear that he realized why she’d fought it so hard, perhaps. It confirmed what he’d always thought. She hadn’t wanted to breed Raven with Kinger because, in doing so, she was offering her most loved mare to the stallion of a member of the Service Club. He knew the way Mustang thought. That simple act, even between horses rather than humans, created a link to her and the club, a club that

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would give her everything she desired and everything she fought so hard to resist. “Kinger is a beautiful horse, as is Raven.” The defensive tone in her voice had Diek biting back a grin. “Both are purebred. They were a perfect match.” “Your horse, your ranch.” Diek let the grin unfold on his lips, knowing it would get her back up even more. “Damn right it is.” Diek sobered. “Nobody’s trying to take that from you, Mustang.” She blinked at him. A world of emotions flashed through her expression too fast to define. She cut them off, hardening her gaze. “It wouldn’t do anyone any good to try.” She spun around and stomped into the barn, letting the door swing back. It would’ve smacked him in the face if he hadn’t been paying attention, which had likely been her intent. He chuckled as Gunner stopped beside him, leaving enough space for Chester to enter the barn first and waiting until the older man walked on before he spoke. “Some homecoming reception she’s giving us, huh?” “What? You were expecting her to get all doodied up in a fancy dress and invite us to a home-cooked dinner?” Gunner barked a laugh. “Hell, no. I’d have turned her down if she’d tried that.” “Yeah, so would I.” Diek liked her better this way. Feisty, stubborn, and sexy as sin, with a tank load of wants and more ammo than any woman had a right to possess. She knew how to use it, too, securely holding her line of defense as she kept herself from giving in to her own desires. “She’s doing fine.” Lucky’s gentle tone drifted from the horse stall inside the barn. Diek motioned for Gunner to enter first, following his brother as they walked softly to the small group peering over the stall door. Mustang stood ramrod straight next to Lucky, his hand splayed on the small of her back as he leaned in close to whisper in her ear. Diek

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struggled to tamp down the jealousy that rose in his gut at seeing his middle brother snuggled so intimately with her. He doubted she even realized how she seemed to be melting into his touch the longer he held her, the longer his undertone delivered the words she needed to hear. Diek noticed, though, and he enjoyed watching her resistance slip even that least little bit despite the twin demons of envy that reared their ugly heads inside him. He shared women with Lucky before, shared with both his brothers. As a trio, they could bring a woman an explosion of ecstasy that would leave her shaky and mindless upon full detonation for hours. Diek wanted nothing more than to watch Mustang’s eyes roll back in her head, to listen to the amazing sounds she would make as he and his brothers pleasured her beyond her wildest imaginings. “Raven is strong, tough, just like her owner.” Diek turned, finding Thomas Waverly standing less than a foot behind him. The younger man didn’t meet his gaze, but kept his trained on Mustang. Diek studied him, saw the yearning in his eyes, the grim set to his lips. He supposed he should’ve expected the man to fall for Mustang. They were the same age and had been brought up together. Thomas’s mother had died when he was a toddler, leaving Chester with the responsibility to raise his grandson. Chester chose to do that on the Circle M. Diek supposed he should’ve expected Thomas to be jealous of Lucky’s affection toward Mustang, too. He shifted his attention back to Mustang. To the best of his memory, she’d always been friendly with Thomas, treated him almost like a brother, but never once had he ever seen her get close enough to touch as she was right now with Lucky. “I see the feet.” Mustang’s face lit up like the sky on the Fourth of July, and Diek couldn’t help but grin. The woman might not be conventionally beautiful, but everything about her, from her slightly crooked nose to her tiny feet, had the ability to drive him wild.

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Gunner moved to her opposite side, his hand coming to rest on her shoulder as he peered over the stable door. “It’ll take about fifteen to twenty minutes before Raven’s through,” Lucky told her as Diek walked closer. “We’re seeing the feet, and that’s the important part. It means the foal is positioned properly and Raven shouldn’t have any troubles.” “I’ve seen foals born before, Lucky. She’s not out of the woods yet.” Despite the excitement on her amazing face, her voice rang with concern. Diek stopped behind her, catching her ponytail and letting it glide through his hand. He needed to touch her. The thought of her warmth, of her sweet flesh had kept him going for more months than he’d bothered to count. He had given up trying not to love her, had given up attempting to find another woman to take her place. She belonged to him, and nothing would change that. He skimmed the backs of his fingers down her spine, loving the way she shivered at the touch even if she pretended not to notice he stood behind her. “This is going to be the longest fifteen to twenty minutes of your life so far, darlin’.” He knew that from experience. Anticipation could make time seem to stretch to infinity. She glanced at him then, nearly brushing noses with Gunner as she turned her head to look at him. Her expression softened, and if he didn’t know better he would’ve sworn he saw a hint of tears glistening in her eyes. “Not quite, but it’ll probably come close.” **** The moment the words left her mouth, Mustang knew she’d made a mistake. She knew what she said didn’t give her away as much as the damn tears she felt burning her eyes. She could easily remember the longest twenty minutes of her life so far, could easily feel the shadow of the terror those minutes had wound through her soul.

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Nearly a year had passed since the night Lucky had received word that Diek had been injured on an op. It had taken twenty minutes that night before he’d been able to find out if Diek was still alive. She’d spent those twenty minutes pacing the floor, fear racing through her veins and hope swelling in her heart. The relief she’d felt when Lucky finally confirmed that Diek would pull through the injuries he’d sustained had driven her straight to Lucky’s arms. She’d almost lost it that night, almost threw every bit of her caution to the wind and given in to what she wanted most. Almost. Somehow, she’d made it through. She’d never admitted to Lucky how close she’d come, but he’d suspected. She’d felt it in his touch, seen it on his ruggedly handsome face. And he’d know it for certain now after she’d all but admitted it point-blank. Damn it! She couldn’t think, surrounded by the Rylon brothers. She knew they weren’t the only ones in the barn. She’d spotted Chester when he’d walked inside and heard Thomas say something mere seconds before Diek came up behind her. Their presence seemed superfluous though. Having them here wouldn’t help her. If anything, it made it worse because others saw, others heard. If she had been sinking in the office when Diek and Gunner arrived, she was definitely drowning now with all three Rylon brothers next to her. Not just next to her, touching her. Lucky’s warm, soothing whispers fanned the fine hairs on her ear every time he spoke. Her mind tried to play tricks on her, too, hearing that voice but altering the words to ones of sultry commands and blunt appraisals. His hand on the small of her back sent excited shivers up her spine. They were shivers Diek’s touch only accentuated, igniting a firestorm in her system that raced through her bloodstream. Gunner’s hand on her shoulder shouldn’t have felt anything more than casual. It wouldn’t have if it had belonged to anyone else. But it didn’t. It belonged to Gunner, and that single contact, coupled with the rest, sent her head racing with ecstasy.

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“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Lucky said softly, breaking the sexualtension-charged atmosphere between them. Mustang slid her gaze over him before locking her attention on Raven once more. The quick image of him standing beside her stayed in her vision for several hormone-stroking minutes. He was beautiful indeed. A black Stetson she’d often thought of as the Rylon brothers’ trademark sat over dark, collar-length hair. He’d tipped the brim back on his forehead, exposing eyes the color of autumn grass. It had been at least two weeks since he’d shaved. She knew because his mustache and close-cut goatee were back around his pale pink lips. She nodded her answer, forcing herself to watch as Raven completed birthing her foal. It gave her time to adapt to the thickness of the air around her, to absorb the primitive possession she felt from each of them and find her resistance once more. They gave her that silence, everyone watching and waiting until the foal was born. When Raven rose to lick her foal clean, she pushed a hard sigh of relief from her lungs. Gunner squeezed her shoulder. “Looks like Raven has a colt on her hands.” “And a very healthy one at that,” Lucky added as the colt stood on shaky legs within minutes and began to nurse from his mother. “How about we give them some privacy? I’ll keep watch on them through the day.” Mustang nodded, wanting to be the one to watch over them, but knowing she had other work to get done. “I can’t move till one of you backs off.” “Well now, you trying to say we finally got you where we want you?” Dierk’s syrupy tone moved over her like warm molasses. His fingers grazed up her back, dipping beneath her ponytail to tickle her nape. Mirroring fingers of desire stroked her nipples to beaded points. Her belly fluttered as a thicker arousal seeped from between her pussy lips. She only had to give in, and they would really and truly have her.

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Trouble came in knowing if she did that, she would be putting herself in a position to offer them far more than she would willingly give. “I’m trying to say I’ve got work to do, and you cowboys are keeping me from it.” She started to turn, one hand somehow finding itself on Gunner’s chest. Muscles flexed beneath her palm as his chest rose and fell in steady breaths. A hot thrill skated straight to her pussy. “Not so fast, darlin’.” Diek’s fingers tightened on her nape even as Lucky’s hand stretched to cup her side. Gunner’s hand fell from her shoulder to cover the one she’d placed on his chest. Each of them applied just enough pressure with their grips to prevent her from moving further. “You need to finish what you started in the office.” She couldn’t. Not here, not now, not with their hands on her this way. The time they’d given her during the colt’s birth, the resistance she’d managed to rebuild shattered the moment all her awareness centered on their touches. “I believe Chester said you were about to give him a reason to fire me.” Mustang glanced frantically to where she’d last seen Chester standing, only to realize he and Thomas had left the barn at some time during the last half hour. They left her alone, trapped by her worst nightmares and the products of her darkest fantasies. Gunner’s thumb traced lazy circles over the back of her hand. “I’m betting she can come up with a number of them.” “I’m figuring she can, too, but they’ll be personal reasons. She’d never fire a man for that.” Diek knew her too well. They all did. “I might fire one for continuing to talk about me as if he’s not staring at my back right this moment.” They moved like a choreographed line dance. Gunner released her hand on his chest. Lucky’s arm fell from her side. Diek’s right hand stayed on her nape, while his left arm snaked around her waist. He whirled her around to face him, her front slamming into the hard wall

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of his body. The move surprised a gasp out of her. The feel of his rigid muscles against her pliant curves had a whimper bubbling in her throat. Mustang looked up at him, licked her lips, and watched as his gaze dropped to her mouth, and followed the path her tongue took. Insatiable hunger turned his cobalt eyes dangerously darker. She felt the clear outline of his hard, thick cock against her belly, and an echoing craving rumbled through her body. “You want a reason to fire me, darlin’, I can give you one.” Pain she’d never thought to see in this man’s eyes took her breath away. “I’m injured. My right shoulder is shot. I might go days where it doesn’t give me a minute’s trouble, but it doesn’t happen often. Most times I can’t lift with it. Hell, I can barely fucking move it without cursing a blue streak.” He stopped, and Mustang simply stared at him, her throat tight. It tore her apart to hear him speak that way, knowing what it cost him to admit he was less than his best. Still, she wouldn’t let him see how much his pain affected her. She couldn’t. One ounce of weakness and he’d have her. They all would. “Did you tell all of this to Chester when he offered you the job?” “Yes ma’am. Stubborn old bastard kept interrupting me. He didn’t want to hear it, but I managed to get it all out anyway.” “He won’t settle for hiring anyone but you.” If she pushed it, forced Chester to pick another cowboy, she could very well be in danger of losing her foreman. She wouldn’t put it past the old man to go on strike or even quit if he didn’t get his way on this. “Your ranch. You said it yourself. Chester doesn’t need an ole beat-up cowboy on the land. He needs one that can hold his own.” Mustang lifted a brow. “Are you telling me you can’t?” “I’ve never told a soul I can’t do something.” “You left the teams, didn’t you?” Her gaze slid from his to the scar on his cheek. His shoulder hadn’t been the only thing injured.

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She wondered if there were more scars, other signs left by the explosion that had nearly taken his life. “You retired from the SEALs, from the Navy.” And, in doing so, gave up the one thing he’d worked the hardest for in his life. She knew that. She’d watched him struggle to achieve the impossible just as Gunner had done. She’d watched them fight to become the best of the best against every obstacle thrown in their paths including the death of both their parents and the loss of their own family ranch. “Mark that as the first time, the only time.” The first and only time he swallowed his pride and admitted he could no longer perform the job his country entrusted him to do. Mustang nodded slowly, her heart breaking for him. She wanted to comfort him, to utter those nonsensical words about everything being okay. She swallowed them because she knew it wouldn’t be. She also knew stroking his ego was the last thing a man like Diek Rylon needed right now. He was giving her the perfect out, the business excuse she’d prayed for, and yet she couldn’t take it. Not in good conscience anyway. Injured or not, she knew he was still one of the best damn cowboys in three counties, just like Chester said. They could wait a few more days, even a few more months, and they wouldn’t find anyone better for the job. “I’ll inform Chester that I’ve agreed to hire you for a probationary period of three months.” That meant three months of hiding for her. Three months to build a sturdier defense to face him and Lucky on the Circle M on a daily basis. “I can live with that.” “Good, then it’s settled.” Mustang tried to pull away, but his hold around her waist remained firm. She needed him to let her go, needed to put distance between herself and all three of them fast. Gunner and Lucky might have released their holds, but she still felt them on either side of her, the desire and authority pumping off of them so thick she could hardly breathe.

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Diek slid his hand from her nape and grazed his thumb over her cheek. It was all she could do not to lean into that touch. She closed her eyes, needing a nanosecond to gather her senses. He didn’t even give her half that long. His nose brushed hers, and her eyes popped open. When he spoke, his breath fanned her lips and the warmth did an exotic dance straight to her core. “There’s a meeting tonight. We’d like to see you there.” “Like hell.” She wished the words came out with as much conviction as she felt. Instead, they sounded breathless and betrayed every bit of her longing to attend. She had spent far too many nights over the years standing at her bedroom window, daring to use a set of binoculars so she could watch from a great distance as the members of the Service Club grouped together in the woods of the Circle M. Every one of those nights, she had settled into her empty, lonely bed with her vibrator and the images of what she had seen planted in her fantasies. The exclusive club of men referred to as the Service Club had two things in common. They all worked in a public service profession and got off on the BDSM scene. Some of the men enjoyed sharing their women with other club members. Others liked to make their women perform in front of the men in the club. A devious thrill skated from Mustang’s breasts to her pussy, putting her on the very edge of an orgasm with the mere thought of fucking one or all of the Rylon brothers in front of an audience. An even darker electric shock pulsed in her core to be bound, blindfolded, and fucked by whomever they allowed. “Wear one of those denim skirts that show off those amazing legs of yours and that green tank top Lucky bought you for your birthday.” Diek’s tone left no room for argument. The warmth and authority in his husky words sent slivers of stimulation whipping through her womb.

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“No panties and no bra,” Gunner added, gliding a hand down her left arm and adding to the invigorating sensations already galloping through her system. “Let your hair down, too,” Lucky ordered, giving her ponytail a tug that sent her mind scrambling with even more wild arousal. She couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it. She hated herself for wanting to. Wetness seeped from her pussy lips as the pressure for release built almost painfully in her channel. One touch from either of them to her throbbing clit and she would explode. She wanted all the dirty, unspeakable things she knew they would make her do and do to her. She couldn’t allow herself to give in, couldn’t let anyone know the devilish desires that coursed through her mind and body. “Forget it.” The words came stronger this time, despite the needs wreaking havoc inside her. “I won’t be there. Now let me go.” She pushed back, managing to flatten her hands on Diek’s chest in an effort to free herself. It didn’t do her any good. Before she could utter another word in protest, he crushed his mouth to hers. The kiss bruised even as it threw fuel to a fire that had been burning for a decade and a half. His tongue drove between her lips, taking possession of her very soul through the recess of her mouth. She’d never kissed him, never kissed any of them. She’d come close many times, but always managed to get away. Not this time. He took her mouth with the predatory claiming she’d always known he would, and the certainty that she was losing her long-fought battle began to settle in her soul. She tasted every dark promise and wicked intent she’d ever sensed from him, coupled with a bold, wild arousal that made her feel drunker than any alcohol she’d ever consumed. He wrenched his mouth from hers, breaking the kiss and startling a breathless gasp from her. He licked his way from her mouth to her cheek, trailing his tongue to her earlobe and drawing it between his teeth for a light nip. “You’ll be there or you’ll be punished.” His husky tone rang with a conviction that made his threat all the more exotic and exhilarating.

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“We’ve waited long enough, darlin’. You belong to us. You’ve always known it, and we’ve given you more than enough time to accept it. Keep fighting if you like, but I promise we’ll win in the end.” He released her so abruptly she stumbled back against the door to the horse stall. “He means what he says, love.” Gunner leaned in, brushing his lips to her temple before he stepped back. “I can’t wait to finally see you in the tank top I bought you.” Lucky trailed a finger from her throat down the valley between her breasts. “It will be even better when I take it off of you.” His finger traced a slow circle around her left breast before he stepped back, too, and all three men walked out of the barn.

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Chapter Two They couldn’t punish her if they couldn’t touch her. Mustang stood at her bedroom window, peering through the slightly parted curtains into the night. She couldn’t see anything without the binoculars, but she wouldn’t dare bring them out tonight. Already, she’d come too close to giving in. She’d come in from a long afternoon on the ranch to indulge in a hot bubble bath and a cold beer. After, she’d forgone her usual sleep boxers and T-shirt and dressed in her favorite denim skirt with the green tank top Lucky had bought her. Cut in a V shape that dipped way down, the thin, silky material barely covered her breasts. She couldn’t have worn a bra with it if she’d wanted to. She’d shaved her pussy lips, loving the feel of her bare folds gliding together when she walked. And then she’d made a beeline straight to her bedroom door, locking herself inside before she stupidly followed the orders they’d dictated to her any further. She pressed her fingers to her lips, closing her eyes as she remembered Diek’s kiss, and a single tear trickled down her cheek. She loved him, loved all three of them with every fiber of her being. She’d dated other men, slept with other men, and knew the whole time that no one would ever satisfy her if he didn’t possess the Rylon last name. Still, she fought tooth and nail not to let them know the power they had over her. They knew anyway, of course. Her battle had been in not admitting it aloud, not giving them an ounce of space to get near her, not giving them a chance to truly claim her. Following her heart would be suicide. She prided herself on the reputation she’d

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built as a hard-headed, spitfire cowgirl making it in a man’s world. If word got out that she’d finally allowed the Rylon brothers under her skin and into her bed, she’d be seen as a whore. She would lose the respect from the men on neighboring ranches, respect she counted on and called upon when the need arose. No amount of love or pleasure was worth putting the Circle M in jeopardy. More, no amount of love or pleasure was worth giving up her position as the head of the Circle M. She felt the heat of a body behind her a nanosecond before a hand came around to cover her mouth. She gasped, her eyes flying open, but the hand prevented her from turning her head. “You’re supposed to be out there.” Gunner’s baritone drawl sent goose pimples racing along the surface of her flesh. “Your days of watching from this window are over.” His hand slowly dropped from her mouth, settling loosely on the base of her throat. His body pressed hard against her back, his cock thick and persistent against her lower spine. “How did you get in here?” “Did you really think a little pettily locked door would keep us out?” Diek asked, moving in on her right. He turned, leaned his back against the window frame, and folded his arms across his broad chest. He didn’t look mad. The hard set to his jaw and the dark swirl in his eyes displayed more determination than anger. “I’m figuring she did it to keep herself in.” Lucky appeared on her other side, leaning over slightly to put himself within her view. His gaze slid from her face down her front, obviously taking in the way she was dressed, the fact that she’d followed that order to a tee. “I doubt if you were even thinking of us coming to find you.” She hadn’t been. Hindsight being what it was, she realized she should’ve known they would. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the meeting?” She’d thought she would be safe for the night, seeing as they were supposed to be preoccupied with the Service Club, even if she didn’t show as they had ordered her to.

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“Not without you tonight,” Diek said. “What are you going to do, hog-tie me and drag me down there?” Gunner’s hand slid from her throat to her right arm and continued down, while the fingers of his other hand closed around her left wrist. He pinned her arms to her sides. “Tie you up, yes. Drag you down there, no.” “We figured we’d take care of you in here tonight.” Lucky flattened a hand on her belly and gave her a gentle push backward. Gunner shuffled back, too, as Lucky made room for himself between her and the window. “I knew this top would look amazing on you.” The tip of his finger traced the V of the neckline down between her breasts, leaving a trail of sizzling desire in its wake. Then he moved both hands to her shoulders, hooking his fingers beneath the straps and slowly guiding them down. “Now I want to see you without it.” Mustang shook her head, but she knew she was powerless to stop him. She started to tremble from as much fear as resignation. They wouldn’t hurt her physically, not in any way that didn’t offer her insurmountable pleasure. But they would break her. Inside, she already felt years of resolve crumbling. After they took her tonight, she would never be the same. Her only solace came from the knowledge that no one would know what happened in this room tonight except them. “Later, you’re going to tell us why you were crying when we walked in,” Diek told her as Lucky completed his task of lowering the tank top from her body and Gunner slowly guided her arms behind her back. She shook her head again. She wouldn’t tell them, because doing so would be confessing her love for them. They might take her body tonight, but she wouldn’t let them know they had her heart, too. If she did, they would never let her go. Tomorrow the war would begin again. It would be harder to fight than ever before once her body memorized the feel of their hands on her, their cocks inside her, once she experienced the passion of being with them.

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Diek cupped the side of her face, turning her head to look at him. “That’s something I never want to see again.” His softness surprised her. The concern flittering through his cobalt eyes shocked her more. She started to speak, though she wasn’t quite sure what she intended to say. The coarse feel of a rope encircling her wrists captured her attention. She looked back over her shoulder and watched the intense concentration in Gunner’s expression as he bound her wrists tightly together, leaving a short length of rope to dangle free. Excitement and anticipation zinged through her system, ricocheting off every erogenous spot in her body only to gather in a ball of ecstasy when Lucky covered her breasts with his hands. His fingers flicked over her hardened nipples, sending that collected zing on a straight line of pleasured torment to her pussy. She wanted his hands to stay there. She wanted him to roll her nipples between his fingers, tug and pull on them until she was begging him to fuck her. When his hands fell away, she nearly cried out in protest. Her gaze slammed into his, and the simmering promise she saw in his eyes silenced her. He wasn’t done with them by any means. He stood close enough to her that she felt him reach a hand in his pocket and pull something free. She sucked in a breath on the next heartbeat when something cool and smooth brushed over her heated nipples. “You might want to hold that breath for a second,” he warned her as a bite of delicious pressure replaced the smooth coolness on her nipples. Mustang looked down at the clamps Lucky had fixed on her nipples. A dainty silver chain stretched between the clamps, connecting them. She realized in the next instant the chain also gave him something to toy with, simultaneously delivering a maddeningly pressured tug to both her nipples.

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“Oh, God.” She squirmed, moving her hips as the sensation traveled straight to her pussy. The intense pleasure ended far too soon. Lucky left the clamps in place, keeping a low hum of delight dancing through her system, but he didn’t tug at the chain again. “Come with me.” Gunner pulled at the rope binding her wrists and guided her backward, turning her around when they reached her bed. She saw then that Diek had taken the time to position the sea of pillows she slept with in the fashion he wanted them. Diek moved in front of her, his hand cupping the side of her face once more. “You’ve got one chance to find all that defiance you’ve been firing at us all these years. Otherwise, tonight you belong to us.” Mustang licked her lips, her gaze dancing over his handsome face. He continued to shock her tonight. She never expected him to give her a chance to speak, let alone tell them to get out of her room. “Just for tonight?” The question spilled from her mouth before she could stop it. She was stupid to challenge him. Tonight was exactly what she wanted. She had already made up her mind that tomorrow she would be stronger again. She would spend the time rebuilding her defenses even as she locked away the memory of tonight forever. “You know tonight is only the start.” His husky voice rang with utter certainty. “Say the words, darlin’.” She couldn’t. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Their hands on her, the promises of what they intended to do to her, had short-circuited every synapse in her mind. Just this once, she needed them just this once. “I can’t,” she finally said, and knew the admission would haunt her for the rest of her days. Her gaze shifted to Lucky, who took Diek’s place in front of her, and a slow, pleased smile unfolded on his too-kissable lips. He found the fastening of her skirt and snapped it free. The sound of the clasp scraping along the metal teeth of her zipper echoed through the room. His hands moved to the waistband, his fingers

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gliding along her flesh as he pushed the skirt down and let it fall in a pool of denim around her feet. “You listened well, even if you didn’t follow through completely as we told you to.” He palmed her bare ass, kneading her butt cheeks as he dipped his head. His tongue swiped over her lips, and she parted them on a breath as chemistry sparked in the air between them. Her senses reeled as his kiss filled her with the sweet taste of passion. His mouth on hers made her weak. She melted into him, feeling the bite of pleasured pain in her nipples as the clamps pressed to his chest, delivering more pressure. He drew back far too soon, slowly dropping his hands from her ass and stepping aside. He exchanged a wordless look with Gunner and gave the other man an almost imperceptible nod. Gunner took the lead then, tugging gently on the rope binding her wrists as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “You know we have to punish you for not following through.” He delivered the threat in a tone that sounded so reasonable it sent a fiery lace of trepidation tearing through her. She licked her suddenly dry lips and shot a glance at Diek, her gaze instantly dropping to his hands that worked to free the belt around his waist. “W–What are you going to do?” Neither man answered as Gunner used his hold on the rope to bend her forward over his lap. Humiliation heated her flesh. She turned her head, finding Lucky, who kneeled close to her so she didn’t have to strain her neck to meet his gaze. She wanted to ask him to help her, to stop Diek from what he was about to do. Lucky had always been the softer Rylon brother, the one she could confide in, the one who had held her through the death of her father and comforted her as only a friend could. He’d never used her grief as a way to make a sexual move on her, never used her indecisions as a tool to claim her. When she needed him, he’d simply been there.

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One look in his whisky-brown eyes told her that Lucky wasn’t here with her tonight. This Lucky wanted to watch this, hungered to be a part of it, and anticipated his chance to do more. “I’ve waited to see you this way for years.” Diek’s tone was thick with his own arousal. “I’ve waited to turn this beautiful ass of yours nice and red for years, too.” Mustang’s ass tingled in expectation. “Why would you want to spank me like some disobedient child?” “Not a child, darlin’, but our disobedient woman for sure,” he corrected her. “A woman who doesn’t follow her men’s orders has to be punished.” “I follow my own orders.” The shame of being across Gunner’s lap in perfect display for a whipping allowed her to find an ounce of the strength she couldn’t seem to latch onto earlier. Not that it did her much good. “In some things, perhaps,” Lucky agreed. “When it comes to your body and the demands we put in place, you obey or you endure your punishment.” The words barely left Lucky’s mouth before Diek delivered the first smack. The cool leather of his belt connected with the already heated flesh of her ass, sending a riot of stinging pleasure careening through her system. She sucked in a breath, letting it out on a moan as the next smack landed in a slightly different spot. A hand flattened on her stinging butt cheeks then, gliding over her tender flesh in a smooth caress. The soothing didn’t last long before it lifted to deliver a succession of slaps on its own, each gaining in firmness until she cried out from the brutal wash of pained pleasure that flowed straight to her pussy. The belt returned, smacking her sensitized flesh twice more before she dimly heard it hit the floor. Mustang opened eyes she hadn’t realized she had closed, meeting Lucky’s heated gaze. She squirmed, unable to control the quivering of her body or the thick juices of her own arousal the spanking had milked from her channel.

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“I can smell you,” Lucky told her softly, thickly. “You liked that, didn’t you?” Mustang shook her head. No way would she admit being spanked had created demon fingers of ecstasy that clawed at the walls of her channel. A hand slipped between her legs, one finger dipping between her sodden pussy lips. “You’re soaked, sweetheart,” Gunner drawled as he briefly played in the wetness he’d found. “Did you come for us?” Again, she shook her head. It wasn’t a lie. She hadn’t come, yet, but she was close. So very close. She wiggled her hips, attempting to get the touch of his finger where she needed it most. Her clit pulsed for attention, the orgasm begging to be set free. “Good.” Approval rang in Diek’s voice. “We would have to spank you again if you did.” “You aren’t allowed to come without permission,” Lucky told her. “Do you understand? You have to ask and, if we tell you no, you have to learn to hold it back.” Learn to hold it back? They were insane! “Stand up, sweetheart.” Gunner caught the rope around her wrists and pulled her up to stand on legs that trembled. He got to his feet in front of her and brought his hand to her mouth. “Have you ever tasted yourself before?” The blush that heated her cheeks gave her away. He grinned, a devious tilt to his lips that told her he was indeed her most erotic devil incarnate. She’d expected Diek to be the wily one of the three. As the oldest brother, she knew he possessed more experience. She was quickly learning, however, Gunner might be the youngest, but his brother had taught him far too well. “Did you enjoy your own taste?” She nodded, seeing no need to deny the obvious now. She did like the taste of her own juices. At times she actually craved the thick, sweet flavor of her own cum.

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Gunner dragged his finger over her slightly parted lips, painting them with the remnants of her juices. She licked her lips, circling her tongue around them until she’d tasted the last bit. She swallowed, looking up at Gunner through her lashes. “Fuck, that’s beautiful to watch.” His hand moved from her mouth to snake beneath her hair and cup her neck. “I’m going to watch those lips around my cock next. Are you ready to taste my cum?” Again, Mustang nodded. She glanced at Diek and Lucky, realizing that all three men remained fully clothed. “I’d like to watch you undress, too.” Gunner’s hand fell away as he chuckled. “I bet you would.” “Perhaps next time,” Diek told her. “For now, we want you on the bed. Get on your knees, climb onto the center, and lay down on your stomach.” Mustang hesitated, her gaze sweeping over the bed, noting how the pillows were positioned to lift certain parts of her body for their playing ease. This was it. After all this time, all her fighting, she would finally experience the things she’d only allowed herself to live in her fantasies. She climbed onto the bed and walked slowly on her knees until she reached the center. Gunner’s hands guided her wrists to rest against her lower back as Lucky helped her to lean forward. The bed dipped behind her, and Diek’s hands closed on her thighs. She felt like a ragdoll as they situated her body in the position they wanted, using the pillows to elevate her ass, belly, and head. Her breasts pressed to the mattress, but not as painfully as she’d expected. Instead, the slight increase in pressure to the clamps intensified the low pulse of delight between her nipples and pussy. “Face me,” Gunner instructed, releasing her wrists to dive his fingers in the back of her hair. He fisted her long strands and tugged until her cheek rested on the stack of pillows beneath her head. “You wanted to watch. I can give you that much now.”

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Gunner caught the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it up and off his head. He tossed it to the floor behind him and went to work on his BDUs, freeing the buttons and shucking the pants down his hips to reveal he didn’t wear any underwear. Mustang’s gaze immediately landed on his cock, impressively long and deliciously wide, jutting out from his body like a come-get-me exclamation point. She licked her lips, dying to do exactly that. She wiggled her hands, silently cursing the rope that bound them together. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to curl her fingers around his shaft and pump his cock as she circled the bulbous head with her tongue. She wanted to taste him with a ferocity that drew a low growl from her throat before she could stop it. “Is the rope too tight?” Diek husky voice came from behind her. “We want it tight enough you can’t get free, but not so much that it’s hurting you.” The part about getting free was the problem. She wanted free. “I want to touch.” Diek’s hands pushed between her thighs, parting her legs and spreading them wide as he situated his body between them. The coarse hairs on his legs abraded the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs, clueing her into the fact that he’d gotten undressed and making her wish she could turn her head more to inspect the view. Cool air drifted over her sodden pussy lips, and she whimpered. Need trembled through her. She should’ve been mortified by the position they put her in. They made sure she was helpless, spread wide and bare for them to do whatever they wished to her body. She wouldn’t be able to stop them, and the knowledge of that sent the most erotic, darkest thrill racing through her system. “You’ll be able to touch, darlin’, soon enough.” ****

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Not soon enough for Lucky. He wanted her hands on him, wanted to let her free, to let her go wild. It wouldn’t do to give into that want tonight. Most of the town thought him to be the softer Rylon brother, and he would admit, next to Gunner and Diek, they were probably right. But there was a time for softness and a time to take charge. The time for the latter was now. Whether Mustang knew it or not, her punishment wasn’t over. She needed to be trained, needed to realize disobedience wouldn’t be tolerated anymore or the punishment would be severe. He pulled off his shirt, shimmied out of his jeans and boxer briefs, and got on his knees beside her, opposite Gunner. The view was spectacular. She lay with her head on a stack of pillows they’d set up for her, her hands tied behind her back, her sexy reddened ass high in the air and her legs spread wide. “Do you know the picture you make?” Lucky asked her. When she didn’t answer, he told her. “You look like a whore ready to be used and pleasured.” “Fuck you.” Her response made him grin like a loon. There was their spitfire Mustang. He’d expected those two precise words to his comment. He knew she might be as internally tough as any man on the Circle M and half as strong physically, but she had her feminist ways about her that would never stand for being called a whore. “The thing is, darlin’”—Diek took over—“it’s okay to be a whore for your men. That’s what we want, your deepest, darkest side. That’s what we’re after to pleasure.” They would pleasure her, too, and use her the way they had dreamt of doing for so very long, but they intended to leave her wanting more. It was all a part of finally cementing their claim on her, and they would have to do it one step at a time. He watched as Diek looked down at the sight on display in front of him, caught the expression of barely veiled hunger that moved through his brother’s face. He couldn’t blame Diek for wanting to

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bury his face in her ass and sodden cunt. If Lucky had his way, he’d be thrusting his cock into her fiery channel tonight. But they’d already decided none of them would get their way. They wouldn’t fuck her tonight no matter how desperately all of them wanted to, no matter how much they made her beg. And she would beg, as much as she could with Gunner’s cock down her throat in any case. “Open your mouth, Mustang.” Gunner didn’t waste any time. Lucky would remember to thank his brother later for that. From his vantage point, he could easily see Gunner nudge at Mustang’s lips with the tip of his cock, encouraging her to follow his order even as he used his grip on her hair to hold her head still. “Suck my dick. Take me in your pretty mouth, and let me feel those lips all over my shaft.” The muscles in Gunner’s thighs flexed as he thrust his cock between her parted lips. Christ, it was a helluva thing to watch. They had shared women this way before many times, but it never felt like this. It had never been their Mustang, the only woman either of them had ever truly fallen for. She didn’t know the power she possessed over them. They would keep it that way, too. If she found out, they would be the ones to lose control, and that simply wouldn’t do. Mustang moaned around Gunner’s cock, the sound loud and hungry as he began to fuck her mouth. His fingers were curled around the base of his cock, preventing her from taking all of his length inside. Her lips met with those fingers, and her moans turned to a groan of protest that made Gunner smile. “That’s all you get for tonight. Use it well. Suck it nice and hard. That’s it. Oh, yeah, that’s my girl.” Gunner’s head fell back on his shoulders as his smile faded, and an intense concentration filled his expression. Lucky’s cock turned to steel as he watched them, listening to Gunner’s commands and the sweet sounds she started to make as she

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sucked his dick. Lucky shifted beside her, putting his hips in line with her bound hands. “Mustang?” He made her name a question and waited for her to respond. When her mouth hesitated on Gunner’s cock and he heard a quiet, muffled hmm, he knew she was listening. He angled his hips forward, settling his cock in her hands. “Stroke me.” Her fingers curled around the base of his shaft, sliding up to his cockhead where she grazed the pad of her thumb over the slit, gathering the bead of pre-cum to spread over his taut flesh. Her fingers trailed down the rigid length of his erection, curiously investigating each shift of his bulging veins until she reached his hairroughened sac. Then she retraced the movement all the way to the tip. He watched her head start to bob once more on Gunner’s cock, felt her grip tighten around his own shaft, and let out a string of expletives when she began stroking his dick as he’d ordered. The woman’s hands should come with a warning label. He knew he wasn’t a small man, none of them were, and she seemed to take immediate pleasure in that. She explored every inch of his cock, using a pressured grip that bordered on pain and sent whips of fire slashing through his balls. “I love watching you,” Diek whispered. “The way you move, the sounds you make, the sounds you’re drawing from my brothers. You must have an amazing mouth and a wicked pair of hands, darlin’.” “You have no idea,” Gunner said through clenched teeth. “Sinful is more like it,” Lucky agreed as sharp sensations of agonized need left him teetering on the precipice of release. “What’s sinful is the sexy ass presenting itself to me right now.” Mustang’s head and hand stilled at Diek’s words, and the brothers exchanged wordless glances. They knew what she expected next, especially after Diek’s comment. The quiver that traveled down her shapely body proved that. She would be surprised when it wasn’t what she got.

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Lucky watched as Diek palmed her ass, caressed her cheeks and pulled them open wide. He saw the struggle on his oldest brother’s face and understood it completely. They devised this plan tonight to punish her, but it was themselves they were tormenting. They all wanted more, all wanted to be inside her, and had all agreed they wouldn’t go there tonight. Diek positioned his shaft in the crack of her ass, not entering her sweet heat, but sliding his length between her ass cheeks. He started to fuck her that way, using her folds to blanket his cock and the rubbing his cockhead along her crack as he jerked himself off. Lucky knew what Diek was doing would keep her on the edge, set her mind reeling on when he would enter her, what hole of her body he would choose. “You’re so wet, darlin’. Hot and sticky and ready, aren’t you?” She responded to Diek’s question with an mm-hmm and slowly eased back into the rhythm she’d set with her mouth and hands. “I’m not going to fuck you.” She jerked at that announcement and made a soft pleading sound Lucky never thought to hear from her. Damn if it didn’t please the hell out of him to get it, though. “This is what you get tonight,” Gunner told her. “I’m about to blow in your mouth. Are you ready to taste my cum, sweetheart?” “Mmm.” Her hand picked up pace on Lucky’s cock, causing his eyes to roll back in his head as Gunner fucked her mouth faster, harder. Lucky heard his brother grunt as he came, felt Mustang’s hand hesitate, but not long enough to pull back his own release. His balls drew up painfully tight as razor-sharp passion sliced through his shaft until he spurted his seed in her hand and all over her lower back. “Shit, I can’t hold on either,” Diek grunted. Lucky threw his head back, breathing like a freight train, and waited for the final drops of his semen to spill from his cock. When he finally lifted his head, he saw Gunner first, sliding off the opposite

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side of the bed. His youngest brother’s shoulders rose and fell in breaths as rapid as his own. He looked to Diek next, his gaze dropping from the other man’s sated expression to Mustang’s sweetly curved ass. She was covered in cum from her ass to her lower back. His attention shifted to her face. Her lashes feathered her cheeks and droplets of cum decorated the corner of her mouth. Gunner apparently hadn’t shot his entire load down her throat. “Did you come?” Diek was the first to speak. “No, but I’m close. So close.” Mustang’s whispered answer rang with plea. “Touch me. Please, Diek. Fuck me. I need—” “I know exactly what you need.” Diek cut her off. “But you won’t get it tonight.” Gunner leaned over her and talked softly in her ear. “You’ll remember this the next time you think to defy us.” Lucky started working the rope on her wrists free, but didn’t release her hands. “Stretch your arms over your head, and roll over.” Diek moved off the foot of the bed and together, Lucky and Gunner helped her to roll onto her back. Gunner took control of the rope, refastening it around her wrists and stretching the excess above her head to tie it securely around the headboard. Lucky lowered himself over her, needing to feel her pliant body against his for a brief moment. It was all the time he allowed himself. Any more and he would lose control. “We’ll see you in the morning.” She gasped in horror as he brushed his lips to the tip of her nose and pushed himself off of her and the bed. He watched as Gunner touched her cheek with the back of one finger and stared down at her with every ounce of emotion Lucky knew he felt in his heart etched in his expression. “You did well tonight. Next time will be even better.” Diek shuffled around to the bedside, resting his weight on his hands as he leaned over to graze his lips over her parted ones. “Sleep well, darlin’.” His mouth tipped in an evil grin as he stepped away.

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She wouldn’t sleep well, and they all knew it. They were leaving her naked, bound, covered in their cum, and still horny as hell. Oh, yeah, she would think twice before not following their orders again.

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Chapter Three Mustang awoke in an empty bed, naked, sticky, and spitting mad. They used her, humiliated her, got their rocks off all over her, and left. If they thought they would get a chance to do any of that again, all three of them were completely mental. You enjoyed it. She ignored the voice in her head, sat up, and caught sight of the rope Gunner had used to bind her laying next to her on the bed. One of them, probably Lucky, if she were to venture a guess, must have found some ounce of his compassion in the night and returned to untie her. If he thought for one second she would thank him for that, he could think again. “Motherfuckers,” she muttered, tossing the covers aside and sliding off the edge of the bed. She paused, turning her attention back as her mind replayed last night in super fast-forward. Heat rushed to her cheeks as she imagined how she must have looked, remembered the words they had said to her, the things they had done. When that heat spread to her pussy, she whirled around and stomped to her private bathroom. See, you enjoyed it. “No the hell I did not.” But even as she said the words aloud, she knew they were a lie. She had liked it. She’d freaking loved it! The way they had controlled her, took away all options, and left her with only the ability to feel what they wanted. She had lain there long after they left, certain they would return. Her body had ached for them to come back, to touch her, to fuck her. The orgasm had flamed in her core, raking claws of need down the

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tender walls of her channel. With her hands bound above her head, she’d been unable to touch herself, unable to relieve even a miniscule of the torment they had left to eat away inside her. She didn’t know when she’d finally drifted off to sleep, but she had awoken later to realize sometime in the night one of them had returned to untie her. Too bad for her that she hadn’t caught them in the act, awoken with all her defenses and strength in place and let them have it. But deep down she knew she wouldn’t have done anything of the sort. She would’ve begged and, damn it, she wouldn’t have stopped until they fucked her, one right after the other. She twisted the faucet knobs with a hard yank. Water almost hot enough to scald flowed from the showerhead, and she stepped under the spray, closing her eyes and letting out a heavy sigh. The image of last night wouldn’t leave her. She put her hands behind her neck, trailing her fingers down the sides of her throat, letting them fall lower to cover her breasts. Her nipples felt tender to the touch. Remnants of the clamps Lucky had placed on them, she knew. He’d removed them, too, when he’d untied her, but the clamps had left her nipples slightly bruised and easy to arouse. She flicked her fingers over the ultrasensitive points, and the same zing of erotic pained pleasure shot through her system. She let one hand linger as she dragged the other down her body to her pussy and slipped a finger between her swollen lips. That single touch to her aching flesh was enough to reignite all the anguish her pussy had felt at being left alone when there had been three pairs of hands available to pleasure her. Not only hands, but three cocks, too. She remembered the way Diek had rubbed his rigid length down her butt crack, how he had teased her pussy and her asshole with the bulbous head of his cock. She mimicked that movement now with her fingers, dipping them inside her channel as she wished Diek had done with his cock last night and massaging her clit with the juices. The erotic pictures in her mind mingled with huskily whispered commands in the voices of her men, and the orgasm tore through her,

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out of her. Her body convulsed, her legs quivering until she collapsed against the shower wall, breathless and still unsatisfied. **** “Since when did Mustang start sleeping late?” Gunner glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall as he pulled a coffee mug from the overhead cupboard and poured himself a cup. “She never does. One of us should probably go up and check on her.” Lucky latched onto the back of one of the chairs at the round kitchen table, spun it around, and straddled it, planting his hands on his knees. Diek lifted a brow over the rim of his own coffee mug. “Are you volunteering?” Lucky barked a laugh. “Hell, no! Not after the way we left her last night. I’m thinking she’s gonna need a good long time to cool down before I get close to her today.” “She’s gonna be madder than spit,” Gunner agreed. And she would be sexier than hell with it, too. If there was one thing he loved to stand back and admire, it was Mustang Ducote when she got her mad on. He’d never liked passive women. Mustang’s spunk, defiance, and guts turned him on way more than it probably should have. But believing that under that tough, no-bullshit shell of hers lay a woman that needed a man—or in their case, three—and needed protection also really appealed to him. “Probably at herself as much as us,” Diek commented. “She’ll get over it fast.” Gunner hoped she did. She might have sucked his cock off well and good last night, but he was harder than steel just thinking about her this morning. “Think about it, woman gets worn out enough to sleep past sunrise on a work day after our little fun last night. Just wait until we really get a hold of her.” “It’ll be a cold day in hell before any of you get your hands on me again.”

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Mustang stormed into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee pot. She wore faded jeans that hugged her delectable ass to pure perfection with a hideous plaid, Western-style shirt that showed off every gorgeous curve she possessed. Her long chestnut strands were back up in their usual ponytail, her bangs flirting with her eyebrows. And he’d been right. He didn’t need more than a glimpse into her large blue eyes to see the lightning bolts of anger flashing through them. He didn’t need more than a quick sniff as she walked by to smell her lingering arousal either. He would even be willing to bet she had gotten herself off at some point, most likely in the shower this mor— “Good morning, beautiful. How was your night?” Diek grinned at her. Diek hadn’t realized something was wrong, but Gunner did. He studied her wrists as she moved. Her smooth flesh looked unmarred. “It might have been wonderful with you by my side, but since you up and left…” Mustang let the rest of the sentence trail off, completing it instead with a shrug. Yes, Diek had actually led the way for Gunner and Lucky as they exited her room last night. And left her tied to the bed. Gunner easily recalled the image of her sultry naked body sprawled in the center of the mattress, arms stretched over her head, hands bound securely to the headboard, nipples decorated beautifully with the clamps Lucky put on them. “Leave that one to the country singer, Diek,” Mustang went on. “This morning is your loss, cowboy. Not mine.” She got a large to-go mug out of the cabinet, filled it three quarters of the way up, and sidestepped to the refrigerator where she topped it off with an ample amount of French vanilla creamer. Being that she was raised on a ranch full of cowboys, Gunner figured the woman didn’t have much choice but to grow up a tomboy.

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He thought the cream was likely the most girly thing he ever saw her do. “Shouldn’t you be working by now?” She shot a glance at the kitchen clock. “I figured Chester would’ve informed you of the way things are around here. Hands generally start work with the rooster’s crow.” “While the mistress of the ranch lies around in bed until—” Diek stopped in midsentence, his eyes narrowing to slits. Took you long enough to catch up. Gunner had tied the rope around her wrists himself, fastened an even tighter knot around the rung in the headboard. For her to get free, she would’ve injured herself in the process or at least needed help. “We’ve been at it about that long, too.” Lucky, still oblivious, nudged his Stetson further back on his head. “Raven and her colt are doing fine. I thought you’d like to know that.” Mustang nodded. “I’m planning a stop by the stables next to see for myself, but thank you.” “Who untied you?” Gunner asked, keeping his tone soft, casual. No need to get worked up until he knew for sure there was a reason. Mustang turned her attention on him slowly, blinking at the shift in subject. “Seems one of you would know that better than me.” Gunner knew neither of them had untied her, but he looked to his brothers for confirmation anyway. “Shit,” Lucky breathed as the realization set in. Diek shook his head. “We didn’t do it, darlin’.” All color drained from Mustang’s face. “What do you mean, you didn’t do it?” “Exactly what he said, we didn’t untie you.” Gunner moved to her when the mug in her hand started to shake. He took it from her, setting it on the counter as he drew her against him. It didn’t bother him to think of someone seeing her bound, helpless, and in the perfect position for fucking as long as he or one of his brothers had allowed it. There would come a time when they

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would put their woman on display for the men in the club, but it would be at their say-so, on their terms. “Then who did?” She gazed up at him, the look in her eyes imploring him to give her an answer. Diek gave her one, but it didn’t help. “No one has been in or out of this house since last night.” “You left.” She pinned Lucky with a hard stare. “You said you checked on Raven.” Lucky nodded. “But Gunner and Diek stayed here. They would’ve known if someone came in while I was gone.” “Chester…” she started, but trailed off when Diek shook his head. “Chester bid his good-nights before we came to your room last night and caught me on the walkie-talkie this morning. He hasn’t been near the house, darlin’.” “The three of you stayed all night?” “We each took a guest room,” Gunner told her. “We would’ve never left you all tied up like that and alone in the house.” Even if it meant laying in torment a few short feet down the hall, knowing all they need do was return to her and they’d find all the paradise they’d ever fantasized about. “You don’t remember seeing anyone come in your room, hearing them speak to you, anything?” Lucky asked. “No. I woke up, and my hands were free. The rope was beside me on the bed, and I had a sheet covering me.” That was definitely not how they left her, Gunner thought. “What about the clamps?” Lucky asked. Mustang hesitated, obviously thinking back to how her bedroom looked when she awoke. “They were gone. My God, someone took them,” she whispered, horror lacing her voice. “Someone saw me like that.” Yeah, someone had, but who? How did someone get into the house, into her room, and out again without Gunner or his brothers hearing them?

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“It was probably Chester,” Lucky said after a moment. Gunner knew his brother was grasping at straws with that one, trying to comfort Mustang even when he should know she wouldn’t buy it. “Diek just said the three of you watched him leave last night. Two of you are Navy SEALs, for crying out loud. You mean to tell me neither of you heard anything, sensed anything?” Her voice quivered, and Gunner knew she was close to tears. The glimmer in her beautiful eyes tore at his heartstrings. It was the second time in less than twelve hours that he’d seen her this way. Forget that last night’s tears when they found her in front of her window had most likely been brought on by a different fear, a different longing. This morning, the terror was running bone deep, and he didn’t like it one bit. He needed to distract her, to get her mind off the possibilities until he, Diek, and Lucky could figure out who the hell managed to get past them. “You want to know what my senses are telling me now?” he asked, tightening his arm around her waist, drawing her closer against him. She smelled of strawberries and arousal, an acute mix that wound around his stiffening cock like a band of satin. “You came this morning. What did you do, finger yourself in the shower?” “I…what? Are you kidding? Gunner, I don’t have time for—” Gunner didn’t let her finish. “You apparently had time to disobey a direct order again.” “Didn’t we tell you last night that you must ask for permission to come?” Diek pushed away from the counter, obviously instantly understanding Gunner’s intentions to sidetrack her, give her something else to concentrate on before she fell apart on them. Gunner had never seen her fall apart. He didn’t aim to start now. “You left me!” She all but squeaked the accusation, her eyes growing wide with indignation. Gunner let his arm fall from her waist as Diek moved in, backing her against the counter. He rested his hands on the countertop on either side of her hips, caging her in.

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“Did we give you permission to come?” Diek asked, sounding as casual as he would if he were inquiring about what kind of horse feed she wanted to purchase for Raven’s new colt. Gunner smiled and stepped back, folding his arms over his chest as he waited for Mustang’s response. **** Diek damned himself for his big mouth. He wanted nothing more than to comfort her right now. He wanted to turn back the clock, rewind the conversation to the point before they assured her no one but them had been in the house the night before, skip over the truth and fast-forward to the moment they realized something was wrong. Then Lucky’s attempt at convincing her it must have been Chester would’ve worked. She would’ve been embarrassed at having the old man find her naked and bound to her bed, but she wouldn’t have been worried. She wouldn’t have been truly mortified. If he’d thought fast enough he could’ve even told her it had been Justin, Ben, Gavin, Randy, Austin, Tyler or any of the men in the club. They could’ve claimed they gave permission for the club to see what they’d done to her. She still would’ve been embarrassed, but she would’ve been turned on, too. Instead, she was terrified. He locked his gaze with hers and waited for his answer. When she didn’t give him one, he asked again, adding a more sternness to his tone. “Did we give you permission to come?” “No.” She said the word so quietly he doubted he’d have heard it if he hadn’t been almost nose to nose with her. Any other time that act of defiance would’ve earned her more punishment. He didn’t tell her that now, though. He didn’t want her to start thinking about last night’s punishment again, about how someone knew, how some currently unknown someone had seen her. He moved his hands to her hips and lifted her until her body was in perfect alignment with his. Heat seeped from her pussy through the

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denim of her jeans and his to torment his cock. “Did you need to come, darlin’?” “Yes.” She didn’t look away from him, didn’t flinch at her admission. Diek supposed that cold day in hell had come, because he had his hands on her again, and he wasn’t close to being through with her yet. “How about now? Would you like to come again?” He ground his cock against pussy, driving himself insane with the friction, knowing he might make her come, but another release for himself would wait until later. “Don’t tease me.” Her eyes flashed with challenge even though her words came out more a breathless plea than a command. “Don’t tell me what to do, or I will,” Diek warned. “I’m your boss. I’ll tell you what to do, and you’ll listen or lose your job.” Even as she spoke, her hips gyrated in his grasp, intensifying the friction stroke for stroke. “You’re my boss on the ranch,” he corrected her. He eased her back down, setting her on her feet and pushing his hands between their bodies. “When it’s your body in question, I’m the boss.” He worked the button of her jeans free, found the clasp to her zipper and pulled it down. Her fingers closed around his wrist. “Stop.” Diek lifted a brow. “Is that really what you want?” “We’re in the kitchen. There is work to be done. And I believe I already said I didn’t want either of you putting your hands on me again.” Diek turned a hand over, delving his fingers inside her jeans and finding her pussy lips super hot and spectacularly wet. Her eyes drifted shut as she let out a low-throated moan. “For someone who doesn’t want to be touched, you sure seem to be enjoying it, sweetheart.” Heavy-lidded eyes fluttered opened at Lucky’s comment. She opened her mouth to speak. Diek didn’t give her a chance. He

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silenced her with a kiss. She didn’t fight him. Instead, she surrendered to his kiss and rocked his world. She tasted like minty toothpaste and hot desire, like a woman who’d lived far too long holding herself back from what she truly wanted. She wasn’t through holding back. He knew that. Each step they took only chipped at the vicious wall she’d built to imprison herself from them, from her needs and the ideas she’d constructed in her head that to hold true to the woman she wanted to be meant she couldn’t embrace the darker side of her soul. Diek worked her jeans down her hips, taking the thin string of her panties with them. He broke the kiss, trailing his tongue over her jaw. He painted a path down her neck and pulled away only when he ran out of flesh to taste. “Diek, please.” Her plea sounded of equal parts fear and need. “We’re in the kitchen. What if someone comes in? What if someone sees?” “Lucky and Gunner will keep watch.” He pushed her jeans and panties to her ankles and bundled the tail of her shirt in his fists as he lifted her to sit on the counter. “Lucky and Gunner are watching us, not the door.” Diek grinned. He moved his hands to her knees and pushed them apart. The sweet, hot scent of her pussy fueled his hunger for her. “It turns you on, doesn’t it? Knowing they’re watching us, being on display like this?” She shook her head as he kneeled between her legs, but her hips slid forward in his grasp, offering him the pussy he craved to eat. “You say no, but your actions are telling us something different,” Gunner drawled. Diek fixed his attention on her pussy. Her pale lips glistened with juices. He swiped his tongue over them then dived between them for a quick lick that went straight to his head. “I could eat you for hours,” he told her, letting his breath sizzle over her bare, sensitive flesh. She shivered. Her lips contracted at the warm breeze, and he smiled.

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“Please.” She delved her hands in his hair and pulled his face into her sodden folds. “Want me to do something about those hands?” Gunner offered. Diek gave his head a quick shake as he allowed her to bury his nose and mouth in her pussy. He should’ve bound her hands, shouldn’t allow her the liberties he was giving her. Just this once, he didn’t care. He wanted her to feel free, to let her body take control even as it surrendered to him. He plunged his tongue in her channel, finding it drenched with her sweet juices. He licked inside her, raked his tongue along her inner walls and wiggled it, fucking her with it until she started to shake against him. Her hands remained in his hair, tugging, holding him tightly where she wanted him. She was strong. He’d give her that. But he was stronger. He pushed against her hold, pulling back enough to sink his teeth into her pussy lips. She cried out, her hips bucking even as her fingers fisted his hair tighter. He heard a thud that sounded like she’d hit her head on the cabinets behind her. He raked the tip of his tongue over her swollen clit, drew it between his lips and sucked it hard. When she cried out next, it turned to an instant plea. “Diek! Oh, God, please.” “What is it you want, Mustang?” Gunner asked, saving Diek from having to leave his feast to answer her. “I want…I can’t stand it…I…oh!” Her stammering turned to a pleasure shriek as Diek gave her clit a pressured bite. She was on the edge. He could feel it. If she didn’t ask for permission to come, he would have to stop. Either that or punish her again. As he drove his tongue deep inside her drenched channel, he decided punishment sounded best. No way in hell would he stop until she spilled all her desire for him to lap up. “Ask, sweetheart,” Lucky implored her. “You have to ask, and you might get what you want.”

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“Please. For God’s sake.” She groaned as Diek fucked her with his tongue faster, retreating only to suck and nip at her clit before diving inside again. “Diek, please, let me come.” “No,” Gunner said firmly. “That’s not how it works. You have to say, Diek, please can I come?” Diek caught her pussy lips between his thumbs and forefingers, squeezing and rolling the slick flesh and parting them wider as he returned to tormenting her clit. He circled the bud with his tongue, nipped it, licked away the pain and started all over again. She wouldn’t last. He knew it. She would be mindless with her need to come right now, delirious with the pleasures moving through her body. But was she too crazed to follow their orders? “Damn it, please, Diek, can I—” Her words broke off in a sound Diek never thought to hear her make as she exploded. Her body shook violently. Her thighs closed tightly on either side of his head as the orgasm spilled from her. Thick, milky juice drained from her channel, and he lapped it up, going delirious himself on the tantalizing taste of her. He continued to lick her until there were no juices left and then slowly pulled away, rising to stand straight. She stared at him through eyes glassy and darkened by her release, and he felt his body temperature rise several more degrees. He didn’t want to stop here, but he knew he must. He cupped her cheek and smiled when she leaned into his touch. “You didn’t quite make it, darlin’.” “You didn’t give me a chance.” Feisty even when exhausted and sated, Diek thought. God, he loved this woman. “You should get dressed.” He kissed her, only half-surprised when she took the liberty of running her tongue over the outside of his lips to taste her own juices. “We’ve got work on the ranch to see to, but don’t be surprised if you end up with those jeans around your ankles again before noon.”

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**** Work always helped Mustang get her head straight. She took a few minutes to do a quick cleanup of herself in the downstairs bath, grabbed her walkie-talkie from the charging station on the hallway table, and headed out the back door. Surprisingly enough, Diek and Lucky had listened to her in the kitchen when she all but ordered them out of her house and onto the ranch. Then again, she was their boss. At least there were some things she didn’t have to fight them about. The fact that they listened set her to wondering. Could she really have everything she wanted after all without putting everything she was, everything she possessed in jeopardy? If only that were truly the case. What would it feel like to stop fighting, to stop worrying and simply allow herself to feel? She’d done it last night, but only for a while. She’d been certain she’d be safe even if it meant fighting a harder battle come morning. And she’d gotten caught. Someone knew. Someone had seen her. “Want some company?” Her step faltered at the slow, lazy drawl delivering the offer. She spun around. Her narrowed gaze landed on Gunner. He stood with one knee bent, his booted foot propped on the wall of the house behind him. A sprig of hay stuck out of the corner of his mouth, bobbing up and down as he gave it a leisurely chew. Her attention dropped to skim his solid T-shirt tucked into drool-worthy Wranglers. Like Diek, it didn’t matter if he went for Navy fatigues or blue jeans, the man was still heart-stopping and gorgeous from his Stetson to his boots. And you’re cowgirl-hat-over-your-own-boots in love with them all. Yeah, she was, and thinking about it now wasn’t gaining her a bit of ground in getting her head straight. “Don’t you have something to do?”

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Gunner tossed the sprig of hay on the ground and straightened. He hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans as he swaggered toward her. “Can’t think of anything, seeing as how you didn’t give me anything to do when you were dishing out orders in the kitchen a bit ago.” Mustang turned and started walking again. “You don’t work for me.” Shit, shit, double shit, why didn’t she think about that before now? Sidestepping Lucky and Diek didn’t take a lot of fancy footwork during ranching hours. She could easily send them clear off on the other side of the property at sunrise and not have to deal with them again before sunset. Gunner was apparently a whole different line dance. “I’m here, able, and bored. If you’ve got something you want done, lay it on me.” He shot her a look filled with innuendo and mischief. Mustang refused to touch that comment with a ten-foot pole. She could think of a number of things she wanted to lay on him. Herself being the first, damn it. A hard right hook to his chiseled jaw would be another. “I suppose you could talk with Chester, see what kind of work he has for you to do while you’re here. We’ll pay you, of course.” “That won’t be necessary.” She stopped at the door of the barn and looked back at him over her shoulder. “It will be if you’re working this ranch. Nobody works for free around here.” He nodded. “Fair enough. ’Course, I could always be your assistant.” Laughter concocted of equal parts hilarity and insanity bubbled in her throat. “I don’t need an assistant, Gunner.” She needed space, time to get her bearings, time to find herself again. “Diek and Lucky are on the back spread. Grab a horse or take my truck, and head out

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there. Tell them I said to put you to work.” His lips kicked into a grin that sent a cluster of butterflies fluttering to life in her belly. “What?” He shook his head. “You’re sexy as hell when you’re dishing out orders.” Mustang rolled her eyes. “Please.” “Just thinking it might not be a bad idea to try a little role reversal sometime. See what you’ve really got in you.” The idea didn’t hold the slightest bit of appeal for her. Gunner, Diek, and Lucky might be putting her every fear on edge right along with her every desire, but she wouldn’t have them any other way. Dominance on the ranch was one thing. She knew her own mind well enough to realize she would never find satisfaction in controlling them in bed. “What I’ve got in me right now is a million things to do and less time than I need to get them done.” Mustang pulled open the barn door. “Now, go find your brothers. We’re wasting daylight standing here jabbering.” “Yes ma’am.” Gunner tipped the brim of his Stetson. His milkchocolate eyes danced with amusement as he turned and sauntered away. Mustang let the bubble of laughter pop as she entered the barn. So much for her plans of reconstructing her wall of defense today. She’d be doing good if she managed to keep the Rylon brothers from under her feet until lunchtime. “Men are far too much trouble. You know that, Raven?” she asked as she made her way to the stall at the far end of the barn. “You should be proud to be a horse. Sometimes I wish I was instead of merely being named after your breed.” Boy, wouldn’t that solve all her problems? Mares could fuck and leave and wouldn’t be shunned by society. “You’d have your hands full if Kinger had stuck around. Take it from me. I’ve got three men just like Kinger’s daddy biting at my heels and…”

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Mustang trailed off as she reached the stall. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end in warning. She peered over the door, and everything inside her went cold.

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Chapter Four Gunner glanced back at the barn, toying with the idea of following Mustang inside. He’d rather spend the day with her than working on the back spread with his brothers. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she needed the help. She took far too much of the work around the ranch on herself, spending most of her days on the land and her nights in her office handling the paperwork. Not to mention, he’d love to spend some time alone with her. He didn’t mind sharing her with his brothers, wouldn’t think of having it any other way, but he couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten more than ten minutes tops of her attention all to himself. She had made a point in the past of never allowing that to happen. That past was changing now. She didn’t trust herself alone with him, with any of them. He’d always known that, just as he’d always known eventually they would get through her line of defense, one well-aimed missile at a time. “Gunner!” The bloodcurdling scream stopped him in his tracks. He spun around and bolted to the barn at breakneck speed. The memory of how they had left her last night, of her waking untied this morning when none of them had anything to do with it, slapped him in the face. He had a flash of icy realization. He never should’ve left her alone. Intense training collided with the deep-set need to protect his woman, and he forced himself to slow his steps as he moved soundlessly into the barn. I’m not armed. Why the hell would he be in Horn Hill, Alabama, for Pete’s sake? As a Navy SEAL, he knew he

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had been born with all the weapons he needed. He’d been trained to take a man down with his bare hands, with the aid of his feet if necessary. Raven’s whinny nearly mirrored Mustang’s scream. A loud bang that sounded as if the horse had rammed against the stall wall followed it. Through all the commotion, Gunner heard Mustang yelling into her walkie-talkie. “Lucky, I need you at the barn. Hurry, something is wrong with the colt.” Though her voice shook with fear, it sounded like music to his ears. He pulled himself from SEAL mode and picked up his pace, reaching the horse’s stall in a matter of strides. “What’s wrong?” Mustang was struggling to calm a frightened Raven and juggling her walkie-talkie even as she attempted to reach the floor with her free hand, to reach for the colt lying on his side. “The colt. Something is wrong with him.” Gunner moved inside the stall, stepping carefully so he didn’t spook Raven any further. “And Raven?” “I scared her when I screamed.” “You calm her down.” Though he knew her concern was focused on the colt, he also knew she could settle Raven better than anyone. “I’ll see what’s up with this little guy.” He kneeled beside the colt and placed his flattened hand on the colt’s side. “His breathing is erratic. Is this how he was when you walked in?” “Calm down, girl. I’m sorry I frightened you.” Gunner waited as Mustang continued to soothe Raven, gently stroking the horse’s mane and talking to her softly. As he’d known, the horse calmed within seconds under her master’s touch. Mustang turned slightly toward him, still caressing Raven as she averted her attention to the colt. “He was on his feet, but he was shaky. He tried to walk toward me when he saw me, and he collapsed.”

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Gunner wasn’t a veterinarian like Lucky, but he’d been trained as a medic in the SEALs. He leaned over the colt and studied the horse’s eyes. “He’s disoriented,” he muttered more to himself than Mustang. “He’s acting like he’s been tranquilized.” Mustang shifted hard as Raven tried to move her out of the way. “I’m going to have to take her in another stall.” Gunner gave her a noncommittal nod as the colt attempted to stand. The horse didn’t make it halfway up before he collapsed again. “If it’s a tranquilizer, somebody gave you a helluva dose, partner.” “I can promise you that somebody wasn’t me,” Lucky stated as he stepped inside the stall. Gunner looked up. “I thought you and Diek were on the back spread.” “We hadn’t made it that far yet. Woman liked to have scared me to death calling over the radio like that.” “You should’ve heard her scream.” Gunner knew it would stay with him for a long time to come. “He’s right, isn’t he?” Mustang pushed past Diek who stood in the doorway of the stall and fell to her knees beside where Lucky now knelt. “Yeah, Gunner’s right.” Lucky examined the colt more thoroughly than Gunner had done, checking the colt’s heartbeat with his stethoscope and shining his penlight in the foal’s eyes. “About the tranquilizer and it being a helluva dose. He’ll be fine, but it’s going to be a while before it wears off. Diek, grab me a muzzle off the wall out there. I don’t want him hurting himself.” “You think he might have a seizure?” Gunner gave his brother points for being subtle even though he should’ve known it wouldn’t work. When a woman lived her whole life on a ranch like Mustang had, she didn’t have to be a doctor to know the signs of an overintoxicated horse. Lucky frowned at her. “You know as well as I do, it’s possible. I’ll have to stay with him until he’s alert enough so I can watch him.”

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Mustang nodded as she got to her feet. She blew a breath up her face, fluttering her bangs over her forehead. “Gunner, you were looking for something to do. You can take Lucky’s place out there with Diek.” Back to business, Gunner thought. He wondered, not for the first time, if she ever gave herself a moment to truly feel anything. Images of last night replayed in his mind, and he hid a smile. Yeah, he supposed she did, at least when they made her. “Yes ma’am.” He stood, brushing his hands on his jeans. “And what are you going to do?” “Work.” Her answer came simple enough, but he didn’t miss the strain in her tone. “There’s still plenty to be done, and Lucky’s got this covered here. I won’t do much but get in his way.” **** Mustang fully intended to work, though her plans for the day had been greatly altered. She doubted her new definition of work was anything close to what Diek, Gunner, and Lucky expected, either. Someone had come into her room last night. Someone had tranquilized Raven’s baby colt. She aimed to find out who that someone was before sunset. She left the barn and headed straight for her truck, figuring Chester would be the best place to start. She found him mending fences on the far side of the ranch. Thomas was with him. “Mustang,” Chester greeted, taking off his cowboy hat and slapping it on his thigh as he walked toward her. “What brings you out this way?” Mustang propped an elbow on the hood of her truck and regarded her foreman. Sweat beaded on his bushy gray brows. His tanned complexion was reddened by heat and exertion. He moved quickly for a man of his age, but she couldn’t say he moved easily. Each step revealed the arthritis setting in his bones. She didn’t want to think it,

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but her gut feeling told her if she had him another ten years, it would be a gift from God. “As it happens, you do,” she told him when he reached her. “Can you take a break for a minute, and let’s talk?” “I reckon I can spare a couple.” He put his cowboy hat on the hood and raked a withered hand through his wiry gray hair. “What’s on your mind?” Mustang pushed a hard breath from her lungs, dreading what she had to say, what it meant she would be revealing. But it has to be done. “Some things have happened since last night.” Chester nodded. “I know somethin’ happened at the horse barn this mornin’. Heard you callin’ for Lucky over the radio.” Mustang told him about the colt, how she’d found it stumbling around until it fell over, how Gunner and Lucky agreed the horse had been tranquilized. Anger flashed in Chester’s soft brown eyes. “Coulda killed that colt. ’Specially if the dose was too much, like you say.” “I’m not sure he’s out of the woods yet. I left Lucky watching over him.” It had pained her to walk away. She had wanted to stay herself, to be there when the colt regained his alertness. Living on a ranch her whole life had taught her about horses, but she was woman enough to admit Lucky knew far more when it came to what ailed them. “Best thing you coulda done.” Mustang nodded her thanks, the only indication she gave of how much his approval meant to her. “Did you see anyone this morning going in or coming out of that barn?” She shot a look Thomas’s way. He’d stopped a few feet from them and kneeled, resting his forearms on his knees as he watched them. “Did either of you see anyone?” Chester rubbed the back of his neck. His eyes narrowed as he gave her question a moment’s thought. “Naw,” he finally drawled. “Didn’t see a soul.”

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“I saw Lucky comin’ and goin’ just after sunrise,” Thomas volunteered, plucking a blade of grass from the ground by his boot. “Didn’t think nothin’ of it, though, what with the new colt and all. I just figured he’d be in there checkin’ up on it.” “You figured right, which means whoever went in there did it between the time Lucky came out and I went in.” “Had to have been shortly before you went in,” Chester commented. “Usually don’t take more than twenty minutes for a sedative to kick in.” “True.” Mustang nodded. “But the effects of a normal dose can last for one or two hours with residual signs long after that. That colt wasn’t given a normal dose, Chester.” “Fair enough,” Chester conceded. He moved a half step, turned and spat on the ground before facing her again. “You thinkin’ it was one of my hands, ain’t ya?” Mustang sighed. “I don’t want to think it. Every man we have working for us has been with us for a number of years.” “Everyone except Diek,” Thomas pointed out. Mustang slid him an incredulous look. “Really, Thomas? Diek wouldn’t hurt a fly.” “I’m not saying it was Diek,” Thomas said quickly. “He might be a trained killer, but I can’t see the man doing that to that colt any more than you can.” “He’s a trained protector,” Mustang corrected. “He’s a solider taught to defend our country by whatever means necessary, not to tranquilize an innocent horse for no flipping reason.” “Come on, Hot Rod,” Thomas said as he straightened, sounding every bit like the little boy she grew up with. “Don’t get so defensive. I’ve known that man just as long as you. Like I said, I’d never believe he’d do such a thing either. I was just statin’ a fact.” “What else happened since last night?”

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Mustang turned her attention back to Chester. “Someone was in my bedroom last night.” She kept her expression blank, her tone neutral. “What?” Thomas closed the distance between himself and the front of the truck in four quick strides. Mustang glanced at him. The little boy had morphed instantly into the protective surrogate brother. “Who?” Chester asked. “Well, if I knew that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” “Were you hurt? What happened? How do you know?” Thomas fired off questions, his eyes blazing. With his red hair, freckles, and fair complexion despite countless hours of working in the sun, he’d always reminded Mustang of JohnBoy Walton. They’d even kidded about it growing up when he and Chester stayed in the main house for many years before relocating to the cabin her father and Chester built on the backside of the Circle M. She shook her head. “I wasn’t hurt.” She hesitated, not knowing how to answer his other two questions without telling all. “And how I know is irrelevant. Whoever it was got past all three of the Rylon brothers without any of them hearing a sound.” “They stayed in the main house last night?” Chester asked evenly. Mustang locked gazes with him and saw a world of knowledge and understanding in his eyes. “They each took a guest room.” Intrigue and what might have been a trace of disappointment moved through Chester’s expression. Did he think her strong enough to resist them in her bed when they planted themselves in her house? Maybe she hadn’t revealed as much as she feared, seeing as how they hadn’t stayed in her room. “How do you know it wasn’t one of them?” Thomas asked. “Because they told me it wasn’t.” Thomas made a disgusted sound. “And you believed them?” “Yeah, I believed them.” Mustang couldn’t hide the sarcasm in her tone. “Why in hell wouldn’t I?”

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“Those men have a reputation in this town.” “And a damn good one, too.” “Not when it comes to that club they’re in,” Thomas argued. “Fuck, Mustang. They could’ve let any one of those perverts they call friends into your room last night.” “Watch your language, boy,” Chester reprimanded him. “They wouldn’t do that.” A sliver of doubt stabbed into the certainty she felt. Would they? No, she was almost positive of it, at least not without telling her. They would have wanted her to know, would have used it as a way to heighten her arousal. “Wouldn’t they?” Thomas pushed. “We haven’t had a minute’s trouble on this ranch in years. Diek and Gunner are here less than twenty-four hours, and already you’re being defiled and your brandnew horse is nearly killed. Tell me it ain’t connected somehow.” “Fine, it isn’t connected.” But he had her thinking. Could the incidents be linked in some way? Did it have something to do with the Rylon brothers? The sliver of doubt turned to a familiar dart of fear. She knew of only one way it could be connected, and it had every bit to do with the Service Club. **** “This is some room you’ve got here.” Justin Bryan tipped back his cowboy hat as he studied Lucky’s living quarters. “I bet Mustang loves it.” “She will,” Lucky predicted. He propped his elbows on the rail and looked down into the barn. From where he stood, he could see the colt—steadier now after his episode that morning—feeding from Raven. He could see the door leading outside, too, and silently beckoned it to open, for Mustang to come inside even though he didn’t want her present for the conversation they were about to have. “As soon as I get her in here. So far I haven’t managed to get her to

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look up when she’s in this barn, let alone climb the stairs. She acts like this room is a quarantine cave or something.” Gunner barked a laugh. “That probably isn’t far from the truth.” Lucky turned and rested his back against the rail. He couldn’t disagree. He’d claimed the loft over the horse’s stables when he came to work at the Circle M and turned it into a studio apartment. He kept it simple, furnishing it only with a small table, television, minifridge and a superking bed. The accents, as he often thought of them, were where his simplicity ended. He’d made sure he had everything he could want to use to pleasure a woman at his fingertips. He had quarantined passion before his very eyes, and he couldn’t wait to put all his fun toys into play with Mustang. “Where is she, anyway?” Ben Hoffman stepped to the only window in the room and peered outside. “I saw her truck out front when we pulled up, but no sign of her. Then again, she does tend to keep her distance from us.” Lucky knew the distance had nothing to do with the fact that Justin and Ben were part of Horn Hill’s finest and everything to do with their membership in the Service Club. “She’s probably holed up in that office she keeps in the main house.” Diek propped a booted foot on one of the chairs at the table and rested his forearm on his bent knee. “The woman busts her ass on the ranch all day and then buries herself in the office half the night.” “You won’t change that,” Justin told Diek. “She’s always worked harder than any woman I know. Hell, harder than half the men, too. And she’s been working even harder since her Pa died.” “We’re not aiming to change that.” Gunner plopped down on the end of the bed and propped his feet on the nearby spanking platform. “She lives and breathes this ranch. Take that away and we might as well slice out a piece of her heart.” Ben nodded. “Marissa is the same way about her store.” “How is that doing now that she’s got it back open?”

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Marissa Schultz owned a high-end children’s clothing store in town. Several months back, her store had caught fire. Fire investigators determined the cause had been arson. As far as Lucky knew, the police had yet to catch the person who did it. “Damn good. Real damn good.” Pride rang in Justin’s voice. “She’s got a knack for it, and she’s great with kids.” “I’m surprised the two of you haven’t gotten her pregnant yet,” Diek commented. “She wants to wait, wants it to just be the three of us for a while.” Ben shrugged. “Hell, I can’t say I’m ready to share my time with her with a baby yet, anyway.” “Georgia’s pregnant,” Justin said. “No shit?” Gunner’s feet fell from the spanking platform to the floor with a thud. “They told everybody last night at the meeting,” Justin said. “Of course, you three would’ve known that if you’d been there.” “We ended up with a training mission that took priority,” Diek said. Justin grinned. “It’s about time you SEALs got your ops straight.” “Covert operations take lots of planning and skill, man,” Gunner said impishly. “And it’s worth every minute when you catch the naughty girl in the end,” Justin added. “You got that right,” Diek agreed. “Did you ever catch the guy who burned Marissa’s store?” A muscle ticked in Ben’s jaw. “No. We didn’t catch the fucker who showed up naked on her doorstep either.” “You still thinking her ex was behind it?” Lucky asked Justin, knowing the man had been picking through Richard Schultz’s whereabouts during the times in question. “Thinking it, yes. Can I prove it? No.” “Is he the type to go after other women, too?” Lucky had never met Richard Schultz, though he’d heard enough about the man to

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know he got off on verbally abusing Marissa. He’d made her ashamed of her desires to the point that Ben and Justin had to fight a hard battle to erase what she’d been taught to believe before their relationship truly began. “I wouldn’t put anything past the bastard,” Justin scoffed. “Why all the questions about Richard?” “We didn’t call you two out here to chitchat.” Diek straightened and shoved his fingers in his pockets to his knuckles. Ben nodded once, almost imperceptivity. “I think we both had a feeling you didn’t. I’m getting the vibe this isn’t an official matter, either.” Lucky thought about that a minute. Breaking and entering was a matter for the law. As far as that went, attempted murder of an animal was, too. “Some might consider it to be, but we didn’t call you out here to file a police report.” “All right, I’ll bite. Why did you call us out here?” Justin asked. “We’ve had a bit of trouble on the ranch,” Lucky started, intentionally being vague because he still wasn’t quite sure what to do about it or how it all fit in with his brothers’ suspicions. Ben visibly stiffened, and Lucky all but saw him switch into cop mode. “Define trouble.” Diek, apparently being the master at definitions these days, took the lead. Lucky settled against the railing and listened as his brother filled the men in on the events that had occurred since they left Mustang in her room last night. “Someone was in her bedroom?” Justin pinned Diek with a hard gaze that shifted to Gunner and Lucky when he asked, “You don’t know who? You didn’t hear anything?” “Not a fucking peep.” Anger simmered in Gunner’s tone. Lucky was pissed about that, too, but no more so than Gunner and Diek. Being SEALs, both former and present, Lucky knew the fact they hadn’t heard anything chipped at their training and everything for which they stood and lived.

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“Gunner and I haven’t been around in a while, but we heard word some things had happened to some of the women affiliated with the men in the club.” Diek settled his attention on Justin. “Also heard you had a half a mind to think whoever’s behind all of that was out to get Marissa, too, even though you’d give your left nut to put it on Richard.” “That bastard is the only fucking suspect I’ve got.” “It’s personal,” Ben commented. “The strikes have been directly aimed at their reputations, at the things that mean most to them.” “It’s more than that.” Lucky’s statement drew all attention to him. “Think about the timing. Do you think it’s a coincidence these women were fine, to some degree at least, until something sparked between them and members of the club?” “Sasha Coleman, Annett Hewitt, Georgia Cooper, Marissa…” Gunner ticked the names off on his fingers. “And now Mustang.” Justin nodded slowly as understanding and agreement finally took hold. Diek nodded. “All women associated in some way with men in the club.” “Now that you gentlemen figured that out, what are you aiming to do about it?”

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Chapter Five Mustang topped the stairs leading to Lucky’s loft, and her question died in her throat. In all the years Lucky had lived on the ranch she had never been up here. She had never allowed herself even a peek at the place he called home. Her blood ran cold, then hot as her gaze traveled around the room. The men didn’t scare her even though deep down she knew they sure as hell should. The items she saw sent blades of equal parts fear and acute desire slicing through her very core. She supposed she should’ve expected the superlarge king-size bed and maybe even the spanking platform that sat near the foot. The adjacent wall decorated with floggers, blindfolds, ball gags, and various other sex toys fully out in the open caught her by surprise. She pulled her gaze away only to land it on the opposite wall with the window, on the metal rod stretching from end to end, on the double set of handcuffs dangling from it. “Like what you see?” Diek’s question was a seductive whisper as he walked to her, snaked an arm around her waist, and pulled her against him. She wanted to melt in his embrace. She wanted to wrap herself in the blanket of security his muscled arms offered and forget all about the world outside. She wanted to say to hell with her inhibitions, wave a white flag of surrender, and show any and all just how much of a vixen she could be. The fact that her resolve was slipping that bad, that fast was not a good sign. Somehow she managed to push all those wants aside, grab

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onto that final bit of her resistance, and stand strong. She flattened her hands on Diek’s chest and pushed away. He released her, but not without a flash of warning in his expression. She would be punished for that later, for her show of defiance in front of Justin and Ben. “That’s not why I came up here.” But she wanted it. She burned for a repeat of last night. She ached to experience even dirtier, darker pleasures. “It will be soon.” He said the last low enough only she could hear before taking a step back and giving her a bit of space. She desperately needed that distance. She needed even more if she could get it. She wouldn’t, though. She had put herself here, sought them out to the point of daring to enter a room she had always avoided like the plague. If she walked out tonight with any amount of her resolve intact, it would be a miracle. “You’ve obviously figured out what’s going on has something to do with the women’s associations with men of the Service Club,” she said with a forced patience she didn’t feel. “I asked, gentlemen, what do you intend to do about it?” “Do you want an honest answer or a macho one?” Mustang slid her attention to Lucky and moist little tugs of arousal stirred between her legs. She had never been able to look at any of the Rylon brothers without getting horny, but after what they had done to her last night, her hormones were on high alert despite everything that had happened since. “Honesty please.” Lucky hesitated, running a hand through his already-tousled dark hair. “I don’t know if either of us has a clue what to do about it.” Mustang knew he would’ve rather given her the macho answer. He would’ve rather told her they planned to beat the tar out of the fucker going after the Service Club women. While she didn’t doubt for a second, when they found out who was behind it, the guy would be dog meat, she appreciated the truth.

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“Guy is slick,” Justin muttered, sounding as frustrated by it all as the rest of the men looked. “He’s spreading rumors, taking shots at the women’s reputations, set fire to Marissa’s store, broke into Mustang’s house, attempted to kill her horse, and did it all without leaving even a hint to his identity.” “Stopping him will be the easy part,” Gunner put in. Mustang knew if either man had given her the macho answer, it would’ve been him. The muscle ticking in his square jaw coupled with the determination and anger in his eyes told her he would singlehandedly rip the guy limb from limb if he got half the chance. “We’ll need more than an identity to put the guy away,” Ben said. Mustang had steered clear of Ben Hoffman and Justin Bryan for nearly the very same reasons she kept her distance from the Rylon brothers. Her heart didn’t belong to Ben and Justin, though she silently admitted a secret physical attraction to both men. Their affiliation with the Service Club and friendship with the Rylon brothers made it dangerous to get within ten feet of them. “You’re talking about a motive.” She knew both officers enough to understand they would play by the law book rather than going off half-cocked and taking matters into their own hands. As long, that was, as Marissa stayed safe. Ben nodded. “And a solid one at that.” Mustang rubbed her temples with the index fingers of both hands. The stress of the day, the what-ifs, whos, and whys, were creating havoc in her brain and causing one hell of a headache. “Put yourself in his shoes.” “I’d rather take the bastard out of his shoes,” Diek muttered, and Mustang shot him a withering glance. The look Justin shot him told her he agreed with Diek 100 percent. “I’ve tried that, thinking like he would think, predicting his next move. Before this afternoon, I believed with everything in my soul Richard Schultz was behind this. The worst of the acts were directed at Marissa. He’s repulsed by the life she wants to lead, by the

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desires that make her tick.” He shrugged. “It stands to reason he’d feel the same about any other woman who enjoys the things our baby does. Why not take potshots at their reputations, too?” “He’s not taking potshots at Mustang’s reputation,” Lucky said. “Yet.” It would happen, though. Word would get around that she was with the Rylon brothers, and every soul in town would know the kind of life she led being submissive to her men. In the world she lived, she couldn’t afford for that to happen. She couldn’t afford for men to view her as weak, controllable, nothing more than a compliant piece of ass. “He might be escalating, too,” Justin said. “He started with the potshots, moved to arson, indecent exposure, and now breaking and entering and attempted murder. I’m not sure I want to know what’s next.” “Then let’s not find out,” Diek said. “Back to motive for a minute, repulsion just might be it.” “The choices these women are making in their private lives disgusts him, so he sets out to ruin their reputation and destroy things that mean something to them.” Gunner sounded just as disgusted by the mere idea. “People have been known to go off the deep end and commit crimes for more insane reasons,” Ben commented. “Maybe he thinks he’s protecting them.” Mustang didn’t realize she’d spoken the thought aloud until she focused her attention on Lucky and saw the odd expression of disbelief and wonderment on his face. “Protecting us, I guess I should say.” Lucky lifted a brow. “Do you feel protected?” “Of course not!” She felt violated. The idea that some unknown man had somehow gotten past two Navy SEALs and Lucky last night and into her bedroom sent chills down her spine. “Fuck,” Lucky swore under his breath and moved toward her. He framed her hips in his wide hands and pulled her softly against him. “Stupid question. I’m sorry.”

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The apology swirling in his eyes meant more to her than the words themselves. Mustang swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. Afraid her voice might crack if she spoke, she simply held his gaze and nodded. “She might be right,” Justin said after a long moment. “Maybe he doesn’t see the danger he’s putting them in, but rather thinking he’ll scare them into…” He trailed off, obviously unable to find the right word. “Behaving?” Mustang supplied, turning in Lucky’s arms to face the other man. “I’ve got another possibility for you, too. What if it isn’t a he? What if it’s a woman, someone who either disapproves of the Service Club lifestyle or maybe someone who’s been rejected by some of the members.” She’d done a lot of thinking on it this afternoon, tossing around the myriad of possibilities in what she considered to be an entire town full of suspects. Bianca Tucker came to mind when she considered the women around town whom she knew enjoyed the BDSM lifestyle to the point of chasing after many of the Service Club members. “You’re thinking jealously, revenge,” Ben said thoughtfully. Mustang shrugged. “Just opening doors for all the potential suspects.” Justin pushed a hard, audible breath through pursed lips. “Again, she might be right.” “And all this talking and speculating has gotten us no closer to figuring out who it is than we were before.” Gunner rubbed the back of his neck, then slapped a frustrated hand to his thigh. “So we go into wait mode,” Diek told him. “And take the risk that whoever it is is escalating and goes directly after Mustang next?” Gunner turned on his brother, fire shooting from his darkened gaze. “The bastard, or bitch,” he added, casting a cursory glance at Mustang, “has already been in her room once. Hell, they got by us to do it.”

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“It won’t happen again.” The conviction in Diek’s tone raised the hairs on the back of Mustang’s neck. “Damn right it won’t.” Lucky’s hands tightened on her hips. “Have the attacks toward Marissa stopped?” Ben nodded. “Nothing has happened since the night the guy showed up jerking off on her doorstep.” He hesitated, took a deep breath, and let it out hard. “Here’s the thing, guys. You know Justin and I were pursuing Marissa before her store caught fire. We took a break after that night, held back to give her time to get her life together. About a week before the last incident, we started checking on her again, slowly working our way in.” “And the pervert showed up,” Mustang whispered as realization took hold. “We kept our distance, and he stopped. Once he figured out she wasn’t letting go of us, he stopped.” “So the question is”—Lucky’s breath fanned the fine hairs on Mustang’s ear as he dipped his head to speak softly to her—“do Gunner, Diek, and I keep our distance and make it clear we’re no longer pursuing you, or are you going to make it clear to this bastard that you aren’t letting us go?” Talk about a trap! Either way she would lose. Forget that the chance she’d been looking for was now staring her in the face. She’d wanted space. She’d fought for years to keep from giving in to her darkest desires. She’d struggled all those years to keep her heart in check. All she had to do was tell them to keep their distance, and everything would stop. All her battling and the attacks would go away. And so will their touch. Mustang let her head fall back to rest on Lucky’s chest and closed her eyes. His warmth, the sheer solidity of his muscular chest enveloped her in a comfort she wasn’t sure she needed at that moment. It clouded her mind, made it harder to think even as it made it impossible to lift her head. She’d already allowed herself to get too

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close, allowed herself to experience too much. But continuing to take from him and his brothers, continuing to feel what they offered her meant admitting defeat. It meant putting everything she worked so hard to build and maintain on the firing line. “You were looking for reasons less than twenty-four hours ago,” Diek reminded her softly. She felt him move to her side, felt the backs of his fingers graze lightly down the side of her face. “Here’s another one for you, darlin’.” She’d been looking for reasons to fire him, a way to hold on to her resolve and keep her sanity until she figured out how to win the battle between the world and her mind, body, and heart. She’d never wanted to send him, any of them, out of her life for good. And it would be for good. Something in her very soul told her if they stopped their pursuit now, it would be all over forever. No matter how much they loved her, and she truly believed they did, they would back away to protect her. “You need to keep something in mind while you’re making your decision.” Gunner stepped to her opposite side, slipped a hand behind her neck, and gently pulled her head up. Her eyes fluttered open to meet a gaze more intense, more serious than any she’d ever seen from Gunner’s eyes. “You choose to be with us and you will finally, completely belong to us.” She should have expected that. She should have known that, while they would walk away to protect her, staying would mean her full surrender. She shook her head. Her eyes burned with tears she wouldn’t let fall. Her heart and mind collided in a crash of emotions so violent it hurt. “Damn you, Gunner Rylon.” Fury pushed its way through everything in her system, drying the tears and making her see red. She stabbed his rock-hard chest with her finger, immediately aware of how solid he was. “How dare you waltz back into my life and demand I risk everything to fuck you.”

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He grabbed her wrist before she could pull her hand back and held it between them. His grip was firm, and the hard expression her explosion had put on his face was suddenly fueled by a smoldering gaze that made his eyes appear to glow. “I never left your life, sweetheart,” he said, his voice dangerously low and dripping with every ounce of control he was obviously straining to implement. “I only left your sight for a while. And you’ll be doing more than fucking me.” Mustang swore the fire in his chocolate gaze had her body temperature jumping several degrees. “Oh, yes.” She laughed cynically. She was pushing him, and she knew it, but she couldn’t stop. Every morsel of restraint, fear, and love she’d been holding back came spewing out of her mouth in words she would have never thought she would say. “How stupid of me. Of course I’ll be doing more than fucking you. I’ll be fucking both your brothers, too.” “Diek and Lucky will pleasure that gorgeous body of yours just as much as I will.” Gunner nodded. “But they will be loving you just as much as I will, too. That’s the more you’ll be doing. You’ll be being loved and, God help the three of us, hopefully loving us in return.” “I can’t—” Mustang stopped, suddenly not knowing what she could or couldn’t do as Gunner’s last words sank in. Didn’t they know she loved them? Couldn’t they see it every time she looked at them? Couldn’t they feel it any time she got near them? She had always felt like she was wearing her heart on her sleeve when she was around any of the Rylon brothers. God help them? God help her because she had loved them half her life and it only continued to get stronger. “You can’t what, Mustang?” Diek asked, his tone as steady and dangerous as Gunner’s. “Can’t do this.” She threw her hands in the air in frustration and stepped forward, wrenching herself from Lucky’s embrace. She barely noticed Ben and Justin watching as she whirled to face the Rylon brothers. “I’m tired of fighting, tired of being scared, tired of hating myself.” As soon as the last left her lips, she knew she had

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made a mistake that would cost her. She closed her eyes, heaved a heavy breath, and let it out slow. Her heart pounded in her chest, and damn if her eyes weren’t burning again. She would not cry. She had already showed enough weakness. “Why do you hate yourself so much for the things you want?” Lucky didn’t reach for her, but the softness of his voice drifted over her like a physical touch. “Because I should be stronger than this, damn it. No woman should be in love with three men at once. No woman should want to give herself to them, have all of them at once. No woman should crave being defiled and humiliated and abused.” “Craving pleasure doesn’t make you weak, darlin’,” Diek said. “It makes you human,” Gunner added, his tone gentler now. “You aren’t the only woman on the planet to love more than one man at a time, honey.” Lucky’s expression turned quizzical. “Do you love us?” The point-blank question had her blinking at him. Didn’t he know? She swallowed hard. She had come this far. What was the point in denying it any longer? “Yes.” “Then stop fighting.” Diek closed the distance between them in a single stride. “Stop being scared.” He reached a hand behind her head, tugged at the rubber band holding her hair in a ponytail. “And definitely stop hating yourself for feeling what you do, for wanting what you do.” Her hair fell free, and he tunneled his fingers through it, toying with the strands. She couldn’t stop him. She didn’t bother to try. Whatever happened from this point forward would seal her fate, but she knew it was a fate always meant to be with them anyway. Fighting only prolonged the inevitable. “That’s easier said than done,” she whispered even as she leaned into his touch. “We’ll help you,” Lucky said.

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She felt the heat of his body as he moved behind her once more. His hands rested on her shoulders. His thumbs drew lazy circles just below her nape. “All you have to do is let us,” Gunner added, reclaiming his spot at her side. He grazed the backs of his fingers down her arm, sending slivers of awareness careening through her bloodstream. “Will you do that, darlin’?” Diek dipped his head and brushed his mouth to hers. Her lips parted in invitation, wanting more, needing more. “Will you let us help you?” She didn’t give herself time to think, didn’t allow any of her inhibitions to occupy the forefront of her mind. She nodded. “Yes.” “Say the words for us, sweetheart.” Gunner slipped his hand into hers and laced their fingers together. “We need to hear you say you want this, that you want us.” Mustang looked at him. She saw the swirl of emotions in his eyes and knew, despite her admission of love for the three of them, he still feared she wouldn’t fully stop fighting. He worried she wouldn’t fully submit her body, heart, and soul to them. She licked her lips and watched as a new heated desire joined the swirl in his gaze. “I want this. I want you, all three of you.” She paused, swallowed, and squared her shoulders. “I’m not yours to control when it comes to this ranch.” “Your ranch, your rules,” Diek said easily. Mustang met his gaze. “That’s right.” Lucky’s hands slid down her back to her waist, and he pulled her firmly back against him. Gunner slipped a hand between her body and Diek’s to lightly palm her breast. Diek pushed a leg between hers and lifted his thigh to apply a gentle, tantalizing pressure to her pussy. “Our body, our rules.” This time Diek’s tone left no room for argument. Mustang writhed between them, arching her back to push her breast more firmly in Gunner’s hand. She slowly gyrating her hips to feel more of that delicious pressure from Diek’s thigh. The movement

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treated her to the feel of Lucky’s stiff cock against the small of her back. “That’s right,” she repeated, breathlessly. Need screamed through her system, short-circuiting all rational thought and driving her straight to the point of begging. “Please. I want you now. Take me now.” Someone cleared his throat, and her gaze jumped from Diek’s to land on Justin. She’d been so wrapped up in the Rylon brothers she’d forgotten they weren’t alone. “I think that’s our cue to leave,” Justin told Ben. “Feel free to stick around a few more minutes,” Diek told them, though his gaze never left Mustang’s. “Did I tell you I shared an elevator with Ben and Justin at the station shortly after I got back into town?” Mustang shook her head. Obviously he’d been in town far longer than she’d known. She didn’t bother to ask why he’d kept his presence a secret. He’d been waiting for the right moment to strike, the right opportunity to present itself. He’d been covertly watching, planning, and the job opening had played right in his fingertips. “Marissa was with them. I didn’t know a woman could look so sinfully sexy in a baggy button-down dress until they had her unbutton it for me to show me what she was wearing beneath it.” Twin blades of jealousy and arousal sliced through Mustang’s core. The jealous part of her didn’t want to know what he had done to Marissa Schultz even as the aroused part of her wished she had been there to watch. “She had nipple clamps on both breasts a lot like the ones Lucky put on yours last night. She had clamps on her pussy, too, and a chain that connected the sets.” Mustang’s pussy convulsed at the idea of clamps on her feminine lips. She remembered the bite of pleasured pain the clamps had given her nipples last night. She fantasized about how that same pressure would feel on her sensitive sex.

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“They let me play for a minute and allowed her to come for me.” “Sounds to me like you’re thinking you owe them one.” “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.” “Do you want their hands on you, Mustang?” Gunner squeezed her breast, flicked his thumb over her hardening nipple, and a groan escaped her lips. She looked at Justin and Ben, her gaze sliding down each man in turn. Just like the Rylon brothers, the officers were prime specimens of sheer male perfection. She didn’t confuse the surges of desire moving through her as anything more than sexual. Her men were surrounding her, but the dark side she’d always kept hidden craved more. She met Diek’s gaze again, but couldn’t hold it. Embarrassment made her cheeks hot. Lucky nuzzled his face against her ear. “Honesty, sweetheart. No one is going to fault you for your answer.” “Yes,” she whispered, forcing herself to look at Diek as she said the word. She did want Justin and Ben to touch her. She wanted her men watching as the officers did what they wanted, what her men allowed them to do to her body. “Take off your clothes,” Gunner told her, and Lucky, Gunner, and Diek stepped back to give her room to obey.

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Chapter Six Mustang unbuttoned her shirt with fingers that shook. The heat in her cheeks rained through her body as she shrugged off the shirt, let it fall in a pool of material behind her feet, and reached for the clasp of her bra. Her heart pounded with equal parts excitement and unease as she removed her bra and tossed it to the floor to join her shirt. “Very nice,” Ben commented softly, approval thick in his tone. She didn’t know whether to say thank you or not, so she simply met his gaze and gave him a small, shaky smile as her fingers found the button of her blue jeans. She felt five smoldering gazes on her flesh as she freed the button, lowered the zipper, and pushed her jeans down her hips. She caught the thin string of her panties and pushed them down, too. She kicked off her boots, let her jeans and panties fall to her ankles, and bent over to remove them and her socks. “Damn, that’s one sexy fucking view, sweetheart.” Mustang straightened, shot Lucky a look over her shoulder, and realized only then that she’d just bent over in front of him. Naked now and fully on display for the five men in the room, she didn’t think she could get more embarrassed or more horny. She forced herself to meet each man’s gaze in turn, and wetness pooled between her pussy lips. “She’s one sexy fucking woman.” Justin moved to sit on the end of the bed. “Come sit on my lap, baby.” Uncertainty had Mustang casting a look at Diek. Did she do as these men told her? Should she wait for permission from her men? She’d fantasized about moments like this. She’d lain in her bed with

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her vibrator, imagining the Rylon brothers offering her body to other men, but it had never happened before now. What was the protocol? Diek answered her unspoken questions. “Do as Justin tells you. They are in charge for now.” Justin held out his arms as she walked to him, caught her waist when she reached him, and turned her around. He lowered her into his lap. She felt his cock, impressively large and magnificently hard, inside his jeans pressing against her ass. She started to wriggle, wanting to feel more of his cock. She wished she could feel it against her bare flesh rather than through the barrier of his pants. His hands tightened on her hips, stilling her movement. “Uh-uh, if I understand our boundaries right, we get to make you come. You don’t get to do that for us tonight. We’ll save that for Marissa when we get home.” Tonight. Did that mean she might get to some other time? She forgot all about the question, all about the wonderment if she would want to or not when his hands slid between her thighs. He spread his legs, pulling hers with them until she sat wide-spread on his lap. Movement caught her attention, and she locked gazes with Ben as he stepped in front of her. Justin’s hands skimmed up her belly and abdomen until they found a home covering her breasts. “Won’t Marissa be angry, or do you not plan for her to know about this?” Would she be angry if the roles were reversed, if it were Marissa with her men while she sat at home? No, she realized. She wouldn’t be angry. Jealous, maybe. No, scratch that. Jealous, definitely! And only because she hadn’t been there to watch. Ben held her gaze as he sank between her legs. “We’ll tell her about it as soon as we get home. We don’t hide anything from Marissa. She’ll be jealous, but only because she wasn’t here to watch,” he echoed her exact thought as his fingers danced from her knees up her inner thighs and stopped just short of her feminine lips. “You have a beautiful pussy.” He traced the outline of her lips with

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his fingertips and she shivered in anticipation of a deeper touch. “Nice, thick lips.” He caught her lips between his thumbs and forefingers and squeezed. Mustang sucked a breath through her teeth as a dart of pleasured pain shot through her pussy. Justin’s hands kneaded and squeezed her breasts before catching her nipples in the same fashion as Ben did her pussy lips and pinched them simultaneously. A mirrored dart of pleasured pain shot straight to her center. It slammed into the one Ben created and drew a cry from her throat. Justin rested his chin on her shoulder and nuzzled his nose against the side of her neck. “You like it rough, don’t you?” “Yes.” She drew out the s as both men squeezed again. She bucked in their embrace, writhing from the pain and the intense pleasure. Both of her pussy lips and both of her nipples screamed in a stupendous rapture. Her head fell back on Justin’s shoulder, her eyes closing as sparks of ecstasy sizzled through her system. “Mustang.” She dimly registered Gunner saying her name, but she didn’t respond. She couldn’t. All her sanity had taken a nosedive to her breasts and pussy, to the orgasmic animal growing claws in her channel. “Mustang, look at me.” The authoritative tone in his voice made her struggle to lift her head, to open her eyes and meet his gaze. He’d moved closer, as had Diek and Lucky, no doubt for a better view of what Justin and Ben were doing to her. “Keep your eyes on one of us while they pleasure you,” Gunner instructed. “We want to watch you. We want to know that you know who is touching you and who is watching.” Despite her eyes’ involuntary demand to close, she found following that order to be the easiest yet. Locking gazes with Gunner and seeing how turned on watching Justin and Ben with her made him only succeeded in ratcheting her own pleasure to higher levels.

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Between her legs, Ben released his hold on her pussy lips in favor of pushing a finger inside her sodden opening. She very nearly allowed her eyes to close as relief slammed into a violent need for deeper, wider penetration. Justin eased his grip on her nipples, but continued to roll them between the pads of his fingers. His lips grazed the flesh on the side of her neck in feather-like caresses that sent slivers of acute need raining through her to collect with the cacophony of other sensations driving her crazy. “Damn, you’re wet.” Ben wiggled his finger inside her channel, pulled it almost free and plunged it deeply again. “Do you want more? Are you about to come for us?” “Yes. Yes.” She felt herself climbing and knew she was a few thrusts, caresses, and tugs from the edge. She shifted her gaze to Diek and found him watching her with the hungry expression of a starving predator. “She has to ask for it.” Though Diek’s words were obviously meant for Justin and Ben, the warning in his eyes was meant solely for her. She felt Justin grin against the side of her neck. “Naturally. We wouldn’t have it any other way.” “It’s your choice whether you give her permission or not.” Her gaze snapped to Lucky, and she saw challenge mixed with teasing on his handsome face. Would they really deny her again? She hadn’t done anything this time to deserve punishment, had she? “Does she deserve to come?” Ben pulled his finger free of her channel, and a whimper nearly escaped. That whimper turned to an immediate gasp of pleasure when he drove two fingers side by side in her aching hole. “Yes. Please.” Justin’s assault on her nipples began again, twisting and pinching harder and harder while Ben fucked her with his fingers. He plunged

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three fingers inside her next and sent her very nearly toppling over the edge. “Please what, Mustang?” Justin asked against the side of her neck. “Please, can I come?” The words spewed out of her in the nick of time. Ben pistoned his fingers in her channel, reached with his free hand to catch her clit in a tight pinch, and she exploded. **** Diek expected the green demon of jealously to show his ugly face while he watched Justin and Ben pleasure his woman. He also expected the hunger, the carnal need that soared through his system, hardening his cock to the point of pain. He viewed consensual sex as something to be enjoyed by all parties, those watching and those involved. He knew who held Mustang’s heart no matter who happened to be touching her body. When satisfaction was achieved, she would be back in his arms, and Justin and Ben would go home to their woman. Which was exactly what happened. “Did you enjoy yourself?” Diek pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, loving the content look on her face despite the fire of need still simmering in her eyes. Justin and Ben made her come, but they hadn’t truly satisfied her. That job fell to him and his brothers. She flattened her hands on his biceps and held his gaze. “Is it wrong of me to say yes?” Pride wound around his heart. Her question might have made her sound uncertain, but her gaze and stance told him she had found her strength, let her inhibitions go if only for a while, and truly surrendered to her desires tonight. “Darlin’, after watching you with them and hearing the sounds you made, I would know you were lying if you said anything else.” “So what happens next?”

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She asked the question so innocently Diek couldn’t help but laugh. “What do you want next?” “You.” She turned her head, finding Lucky and Gunner and added, “All of you. No more games, no more teasing. I’ve waited for years to feel you inside me. I want that now.” “You’ll get it,” Gunner promised her as he moved in behind her. He exchanged a wordless glance with Diek that told Diek they had the same things in mind. “After your punishment.” Mustang whirled completely around in Diek’s arms to face Gunner. “What the hell do you think you’re going to punish me for this time?” The woman was stunning, Diek thought, but her beauty downright topped the wicked-sex-vixen charts when she got angry. “Same thing we punished you for last night, not following orders.” “I obeyed every command you gave me tonight.” “Almost,” Lucky told her, moving closer to put himself in her line of sight. “You came for Justin and Ben.” “I asked permission, too, damn it. It was humiliating and childish, but I did it.” “Did you hear either of them give you the permission you asked for?” Diek kept his tone even and easy. “I—” She stiffened in Diek’s embrace, and he knew she had realized her mistake. “No, but—” “Do you know why we demand you ask for permission to come?” Gunner took her hand and eased her out of Diek’s arms. “Control,” Diek answered for her as he let her go. “Not over you, but you over your body. When you learn to control your releases, the pleasure you experience each time we’re together will be more intense, more satisfying.” “It’ll be earth-shattering.” Lucky moved in behind her, reached around her head, and held up a black silk scarf for her to see.

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Diek heard her quick intake of breath, saw her head tip back slightly as she obviously studied the cloth. “What are you going to do?” Her voice quivered slightly with a hint of trepidation. “We’re blindfolding you,” Lucky answered as he commenced to covering her eyes with the scarf, tying it securely at the back of her head. “I thought you wanted me watching you.” “That was with Ben and Justin. There’s no one watching this time. It’s only us, and we want you to do more feeling than seeing.” Lucky gave Gunner an almost imperceptible nod, and Gunner started leading her to the wall across the room. “Where are we going?” Mustang’s steps were shaky, slow, but she didn’t offer any resistance. None of the men answered her. Diek followed and saw her head tip back as she apparently sensed where Gunner had taken her. He had stopped her beneath the bar anchored between two walls, beneath the cuffs Lucky had left dangling from it. Diek flattened his hands on her back, skimmed his palms down over her firm ass and the backs of her thighs. He slid his fingers between her legs, urged them apart until she stood with her feet at shoulder width. Gunner slipped in front of her, guiding her arms above her head as Diek sank to his knees behind her. He could smell her, that innate scent of female arousal, thick and hot. It moved through his system, taunted the animal inside, and sent his need for her skyrocketing to the moon. She jolted when he put the metal bar between her legs and secured it with the leather bands around each ankle. He skimmed his hands up the inside of her legs as he stood and heard the click of the cuffs as Gunner bound her wrists. The shiver he felt move through her made him smile. “You know what we’re doing, don’t you?” “I’m hoping you’re about to have your wicked way with me.”

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Diek’s smile spread to a full ear-to-ear grin. This was the Mustang he had longed for all these years. No fighting, no hiding, no lies. She had finally, truly surrendered. “You’re at our mercy now, darlin’.” He turned a hand over between her legs and palmed her pussy. “Now the dark pleasure begins.” **** It had already begun. Wicked, insane need collided with a sliver of trepidation as awareness flittered through her from her bound wrists to blindfolded eyes to bound ankles. Gunner traced a finger along the flesh of her wrists, testing the cuffs. “Are they too tight?” Mustang shook her head. The fur lining helped to keep the metal from biting into her skin. She felt the blood draining from her arms and knew it wouldn’t take long for her to lose circulation in both of them, but she had a good idea that in a few seconds she would forget all about her arms. “How about this?” Pleasure danced the thin line of pain around her nipples in a simultaneous rhythm that drew a whimper from her lips. The nipple clamps were back, she realized as she struggled to take shallow, steady breaths around the delight zinging through her system. She shook her head again. Flames licked the walls of her channel, tormenting her pussy and demanding pressure there, too. Her legs attempted to close involuntarily, but the unyielding object they had lodged between her ankles wouldn’t allow it. Every morsel in her soul sizzled in intense excitement for what they would do next. “Do you know how many nights I’ve laid in that bed staring at this very spot and picturing you in mind just like this?” Lucky had taken Diek’s place behind her. His voice was thick, his breath hot against the back of her shoulder.

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“No more than I spent looking out my bedroom window wishing I was in here with you.” It felt good to admit that aloud, like a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “And yet you resisted for so long.” She shivered as he outlined her shoulder blade with the tip of his finger. “You know why.” “You have nothing to lose with us, darlin’.” Diek’s lazy drawl came from her right side. He touched her face in a featherlight caress, starting from just beneath the blindfold and skimming down to her jaw. “And everything to gain. You don’t believe that now, but you will. I promise.” She wished she could believe it now. She wished she could trust in his words and grasp hold of that promise, but she still had her doubts and fears. She would keep them to herself tonight. For now, she had surrendered everything to these men, and tomorrow she would start dealing with the fallout. She may not have done so well with that plan this morning, but for the pleasure she was about to experience, she’d give it a second chance. A hand splayed on her ass and sent all her thoughts scrambling as wonderment took hold. She sensed one man still in front of her and guessed it had to be Gunner since she hadn’t registered any movement from him. That left Lucky and Diek behind and beside her, but she couldn’t tell which man was touching her. The mystery excited her. It spread through her system and created a devious darkness that called upon her most wicked desires. “Your ass is perfect.” The hand—Diek’s hand, she realized— glided over her flesh, caressing, teasing. His finger slipped between her cheeks and taunted her anus. “Have you ever been fucked in the ass, darlin’?” She didn’t want to answer him. She didn’t want to remember how she had given her body to other men in an attempt to drive her need for the Rylon brothers from her soul. No one had ever truly satisfied

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her. No one had ever reached the deepest parts of her that these men could. “Did you enjoy it?” Lucky asked, obviously taking her silence as an admission. She wouldn’t answer that question either. While she had found pleasure in the act, she hadn’t found true contentment. She had walked away still feeling lost, lonely, and out of her mind in need of the Rylon brothers. “It doesn’t matter. You know that, right?” Diek pulled his hand away. Anticipation made Mustang’s heart skip a beat. She sucked in a quick breath in the next instant as a cold gel squirted between her cheeks. “Whatever you’ve allowed other men to do to you has only been foreplay for us.” Foreplay, a buildup to what they had planned for her. She could easily agree with that considering all sex had done for her in the past was made her burn for them more. She started to tell Diek so, but the word turned to a moan as he began to spread lube around her anus. It felt good, too good as he massaged the gel around her most sensitive entrance. She wiggled her ass, seeking more of the caress, wanting it deeper. “Do you like that?” Lucky asked, sounding as turned on as she felt. She didn’t think to deny it. “Yes. I want more.” “Hmm, do you now?” There was a hint of amusement in Diek’s otherwise thick tone. “Lucky, give our woman what she wants.” She expected his cock, longed to feel it inside her for the very first time. She didn’t expect the thick, lubed object he buried deep inside her anus. A mewling sound escaped her throat as the pain lit into a pleasure so wickedly bright she was instantly teetering on the edge of release.

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“How do you feel now?” Gunner asked, his voice controlled and husky. “Oh, God,” she half whimpered, half gasped. Talons of razorsharp need clawed the inner walls of her pussy. It threatened to take her over the edge she had been ordered to avoid. “Don’t come, Mustang.” The authority in Diek’s words told her the punishment for disobedience this time would be harsher than any she had ever imagined. She fought her release, somehow finding a recess of her mind not clouded by sex and using it to divert her thoughts. It worked only for a minute, just long enough to ease the ominous need before the first smack hit her already-smarting ass. Her body jerked forward. The cuffs on her wrists and binds on her ankles prevented her from any real escape. It wasn’t a hand or even a belt, she instantly realized. The second smack of the firmer, far more unforgiving weapon confirmed her suspicions. The cane came down on her bare ass a third time, crisscrossing the previous two stinging strikes, connecting with the plug inside her ass, and she cried from the pleasure of the erotic pain. “Hold on to it, darlin’,” Diek commanded as a fourth and fifth smack followed in quick succession. “Control it.” Control it? He was insane. With each smack whatever semblance of control she had managed to fool herself into believing she possessed faded drastically. The cane connected with her stinging ass yet again, and an unintelligible sound escaped her lips. She bowed her head and squeezed her eyes shut behind the blindfold. Everything became a struggle, thinking, breathing, existing. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t hold on. Her pussy dripped with juices. The constant stinging rocketed straight from her ass to her toes, climbed back up, and settled in her pussy. She felt mindless, on the verge of madness, and yet the vixen demon inside her wanted more. “Please.” The plea left her on a whimpered gasp. She had craved this for so very long, denied herself this intensely erotic pleasure until she was ravenous for it, starving for them.

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“What is it you want, Mustang?” Gunner’s question came softly in her ear. The brush of his bristled cheek to hers ignited yet another fire in her bloodstream. “I can’t hold on.” She knew it. She felt it. “You have to,” Lucky told her, his tone as firm as the cane he used on her ass. “I can’t control it.” Each passing second brought her release closer and closer to spilling. “Yes you can.” Gunner’s voice again. Gunner’s soft urging timbre. She tried to concentrate on that voice. She tried to forget about the calamity of emotions surging through her, the vicious claws of the orgasm demanding escape. He made it all the more difficult when he tugged on the clamps attached to her nipples. “No.” New, torturous flames zipped through her body and caused her to jerk against her bindings, to cry out from the train wreck of pleasure and pain. “Please. Oh, God. Can I please come?” “No.” Diek’s answer, spoken in a tone firmer than any she had ever heard, sent twin chills of horror and delight racing down her spine. **** Lucky knew they were pushing Mustang to her limits. Hell, they were pushing themselves to their limits. He couldn’t think of a deeper, more vicious torture than watching her come for other men then continuing to hold himself in check while he, Diek, and Gunner took her to heights of arousal they were certain she had never experienced. They had planned to drive her even further, play with her more, and make her beg. He had an arsenal of toys at their disposal for her pleasure and erotic torment. As he met his brothers’ gazes, he knew they were in a silent agreement to alter those plans. They didn’t worry they might push her too far and deliver her things she wasn’t ready to

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handle. They made it a point to know women and, more importantly, to know their Mustang. They could sense what she craved. They could see the hunger in her to be pleasured in the darkest of ways that she had always kept tightly veiled until now. “Please.” The word hitched on the softest spoken whisper. Her body visibly quivered from the momentous need for release. Yet she held on, kept it in control despite her declarations that she couldn’t do it. That’s our girl. Pride swelled inside him as he caressed the flat of his hand over her bare ass and gently soothed the light welts the cane left behind. Their agreement to end her torture notwithstanding, he couldn’t keep himself from giving her one more tiny taste of demonic pleasure. He covered the end of the plug with his fingertip, gave it a pressured tap, and listened as she made quite possibly the sexiest sound he had ever heard. “Take a deep breath,” he instructed her and watched her entire body shake as she inhaled a ragged breath. He eased the plug from her ass and tossed it to the floor. “You’re still hanging on,” Gunner told her, “controlling it as you were told to do. You’re doing great, sweetheart.” “I can’t.” Her whimpered denial tugged at Lucky. Yet he heard an underlying strength in the words he doubted she even realized was there. “Just a little longer, darlin’.” Diek sank to his knees on her right side and reached for the straps binding her ankle, but apparently thought better of it. He tipped his head back, meeting Lucky’s gaze but speaking to her. “I can smell you. You’re so horny, so close.” He skimmed a hand up her inner leg and stopped just short of her pussy. “Your thighs are drenched. Did you enjoy your punishment that much?” “Yes.”

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The fact that she didn’t hesitate made Lucky smile. Training her wouldn’t be battle they initially thought it would be. Already, she was truly surrendering, obviously doing her best to obey. “Darlin’, you don’t know how much hearing that turns me on.” “Show me.” That made Diek laugh. “Still attempting to dish out the orders, huh, boss?” She took three full seconds to answer, obviously thinking on the right retort, the one that would get her what she wanted rather than garner her more punishment. “My ranch, your body.” Perfect response. Approval passed through Diek’s expression. Lucky saw his brother make the slow glide with his hand back down her inner leg to the leather strap around her ankle. Lucky shifted and bent to free her left ankle as Diek went to work on the right. “What is it you want, Mustang?” Diek got to his feet and started untying the blindfold. “Tell us what you’re burning for.” “I want to come.” “How?” Lucky made the question short and simple. He wanted to hear her say it. He needed to hear the explicit words in that vixen melody she used that stroked his shaft and sent him close to begging. “With you inside me. All of you inside me. I want a cock in my ass, one in my pussy, and one in my mouth.” Sweet baby Jesus. Lucky met Diek’s gaze as the other man pulled the blindfold from her face and saw the erotic party going on in his brother’s eyes. His attention slid over Mustang’s shoulder to Gunner, and he saw a mirroring fiesta as his youngest brother reached for the cuffs binding her wrists. The instant the restraints let loose, she tipped backward and slithered like a snake into Lucky’s embrace. “Easy now.” Lucky turned her around and gathered her close, steadying her as Gunner and Diek moved aside. He lifted her, guiding her legs around his waist. A single inch closer and his aching cock would be buried deep inside her pussy.

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She blinked at him. Surprise flittered through the darkened desire in her eyes. “You’re naked.” He grinned. “Isn’t that how you want me?” “Well, yes, but when?” “Does it matter?” They had all rapidly shed their clothes the moment they had her bound and waiting for their attention. “Not a bit.” She turned her head, obviously searching for Gunner and Diek. A dazzling, mischievous smile lit her face. “You’re gorgeous. All of you. Have I ever told you guys that?” “You’re telling us now, darlin’,” Diek answered. “That’s all that matters.” She wriggled in Lucky’s arms, ground the wetness of her pussy lips against his throbbing shaft, and elicited a low-throated growl from his throat that he couldn’t swallow in time. “I want this inside me.” “Hmm, is that a demand?” he asked as he walked to the bed, turned, and slowly lay down, taking her with him. “It’s a request.” She wiggled again, attempting to gyrate on his tortured cock between their bodies. “You’re getting good with smart answers.” He tightened his grip on her hips, stilling her and holding her that desperate fraction above his cock that prevented her from taking him inside. She made a frustrated sound and blew a breath up her face, fluttering her bangs. “Apparently not good enough. I’m still not getting what I want.” The mattress dipped at the foot and on the side as Diek and Gunner crawled onto the bed with them. “You’re about to, darlin’.” Diek peppered the backs of her shoulders with kisses. His hands moved around beneath her arms to cover her breasts. Lucky watched her eyes flutter closed. Her lips formed a silent O as Diek’s hands kneaded her breasts. His brother slowly bent her forward. She extended her arms, reflexively catching her weight with

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her hands on either side of Lucky’s head. Her eyes didn’t open, but a soft moan escaped as Diek pushed her hair aside with his nose and continued to kiss the backs of her shoulders and neck. Whips of heat emanated from her open-wide pussy, slashing at the head of Lucky’s cock and sending tingles of devious need racing to his balls. His fingertips bit into the tender flesh of her hips with as much intention of keeping her still as preventing himself from pulling her down. He wanted to sheath his shaft in the satiny walls of her channel. He wanted to watch her beautiful face as he filled her. But he wanted to watch as they filled her more. Lucky met Diek’s gaze over Mustang’s shoulder and gave his brother an almost imperceptible nod. The sounds Mustang made as Diek entered her ass topped the sexo-meter. Lucky felt her body tense, saw a swirl of concentration mix with a whirlpool of pleasure and pain in her face. Then he felt her relax, heard Diek’s low growl as the man’s cock obviously slid home, and smiled. “Damn, you’re incredible.” Lucky couldn’t take his gaze off her. The way her lashes fanned her cheeks, the way her lips moved everso-slightly with each slow thrust of Diek’s cock into her anus made her sinfully gorgeous. “Wait till you feel her,” Diek grunted. “I’m about to.” Lucky saw the strain on his brother’s face as Diek stilled himself. Mustang’s eyes flew open, and he could all but see the protest on the tip of her tongue. “Are you ready to feel my cock inside you now, too?” She looked down at him, the protest dying as a glimmer of excitement and a wash of desire consumed her eyes. “Please.” She wiggled her hips. Her eyes rolled back as the move obviously jostled Diek’s cock inside her anus and she let out another of those dickteasing moans. Lucky couldn’t wait another nanosecond. He pulled her hips down, sheathing his cock in her sodden channel in a slow intrusion

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that nearly killed him. He wanted to pound inside her, to bury his cock balls deep in her pussy in a single, vicious thrust, but concern he might hurt her held him in check. “Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.” She started a whispered mantra as he pushed inside her inch by inch, her inner muscles tightening and then giving as they made room for his cock. He marveled at the way her muscles squeezed at his shaft, drawing him in and begging for more even as Diek’s cock remained lodged deep in her anus. “Are they hurting you?” Gunner reached a hand between Lucky’s face and Mustang’s, hooked a finger beneath her chin, and tugged her head up. Her gaze locked on him, and the corners of her lips unfolded in a dazzling smile of pure satisfaction. “You’re kidding, right?” Her attention returned to Lucky. “More.” She blinked and seemed to realize she’d once again stepped into the role of giving orders. “Please.” “I’ve got more waiting here for you.” Gunner shifted closer. His fingers curled around the base of his cock. “I didn’t get enough of being in your mouth last night. I want more. I want to feel those sexy moans you’re making vibrate down my shaft while they fuck you.” He slid his hand from her chin, tunneled his fingers through her hair, and pulled her head toward his rigid cock. Mustang’s mouth opened without further discussion. She eagerly took his dick between her lips and sucked him deep. The sounds she made before were nothing compared to the ones she made now as they started fucking her together. Lucky found himself lost in his own personal porno, watching her devour Gunner’s dick with her mouth as Diek pounded her ass, and he let himself go wild in her pussy. They let Diek set the pace from behind, settling them into a rhythm of pure animalistic sex. Each thrust of Diek’s cock into her anus pushed her further down on Lucky’s cock and drew Gunner’s dick deeper down her throat.

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Mustang’s hands found purchase on his shoulders. Her nails dug into his flesh and likely drew blood. The sharp sensations sent twin darts straight through his system to collide in his tightened balls. His cock pulsed painfully with the need to release, but he held back, not yet wanting it to end. His attention flicked past Mustang’s shoulder, then up and over. He saw the same struggle for control on his brothers’ faces. “Damn, she feels too good,” Diek groaned. Lucky gritted his teeth and tried to think about anything except how her inner muscles were milking his cock. Her pussy tightened around his shaft, drew on his length, and brought him to a level of helplessness he’d never allowed himself to come close to feeling. Mustang didn’t give him a choice. They might be in control of the movements, but she’d taken control of their souls with her body. Mustang looked at him through heavy-lidded, passion-filled eyes, and he saw the plea she couldn’t speak with Gunner’s cock down her throat. She wanted to come. He couldn’t tell her no any more than he could hold back his own release now. “Now.” He nodded and watched the relief wash through her expression. “Come for us now, baby.” Lucky’s resolve shattered as the most sensational erotic sounds he’d ever heard mixed with his own grunts of release. Mustang’s hot juices joined his as she shattered around him. He spewed his seed deep inside her. Her inner muscles gripped his shaft with an intensity that milked him to the last drop. He heard Diek growl with his own release, heard Gunner’s quiet, tight-lipped curses as he came, too, and Lucky lost himself in the moment of finally experiencing Mustang’s full surrender.

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Chapter Seven “Still thinkin’ we could’ve hired a better cowboy to take Trevor’s place?” Mustang wiped a layer of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and shot a look at Chester. She shielded her eyes with her palm and followed the old man’s gaze to Diek. Pure feminine appreciation fluttered in her belly at the sight of corded muscles flexing with each move he made. “I knew we couldn’t.” Diek hefted a bale of hay off the truck trailer and winced, and he tossed it to the ground. Pain etched his chiseled face, and he grabbed his right bicep with his left hand. Mustang took a half step toward him before she stopped herself. She dropped her head, took a breath, and turned back to Chester. “You could’ve used that.” The old man tipped his chin Diek’s direction. “All that yammerin’ you were doin’ about me firin’ him. That right there’s as good an excuse as any you could’ve come up with.” “He’s injured.” Mustang nodded and wiped her palms on her jeans. “He was honest about that upfront. He’s nearly a month down in his three-month probationary period, and he’s handled himself, handled the work pretty well so far.” He’d been handling her pretty well, too, but she didn’t add that in her comment to Chester. Three weeks had passed since he and his brothers had torn through the final shreds of her resistance, and they hadn’t let up. She spent her days working the ranch as she’d always

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done and her early evenings dealing with the office work that came along with it. Her nights belonged to the Rylon brothers. “He won’t slack off either. Gotta say it’s been right handy havin’ Gunner around, too.” Mustang wouldn’t disagree. Gunner had jumped in, working the ranch alongside his brothers as if he were an employee, too. Neither brother gave her any lip about anything she wanted done, which she appreciated more than they likely understood. They had not only moved into her life, but into her bedroom as well, and she knew word of that had gotten around fast. So far she hadn’t been slapped with any ridicule by any of the other ranch hands. She’d been privy to a few looks she’d dismissed more as concern than disapproval by those who’d been around awhile. She knew everyone on the ranch watched out for her same as they always had. “It has, but we can’t get too dependent on him to carry the workload. We never know when he’ll go wheels up again.” A knot twisted in her gut at the thought of him leaving. He lived for the team just like Diek had done. And, just like Diek, he could come home injured next time or, God save her, come home in a box. Mustang shook her head. She couldn’t think about that now. She knew, as she’d always known even before she let the Rylon brothers completely into her life, that each time Diek or Gunner left, there was a chance she could lose them forever. “Make the most out of it while you got it, girl.” Chester stared at her with those knowing eyes that told her he saw straight to her soul. “’Bout time you’re doin’ that. ’Bout time you’re lettin’ yourself be happy.” She opened her mouth and started to say she’d always been happy, but she closed her lips before a word spilled, knowing it would be a lie. She’d been content with her life on the ranch, but being in the arms of the men she loved had made her life complete. Her days were a hell of a lot easier, too, now that she didn’t spend every waking hour fighting to keep herself from taking what she wanted most.

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The sound of an approaching truck pulled her from her thoughts. She flicked a glance over her shoulder and spotted Lucky’s pickup coming to a stop a few feet away. Her gaze slid to the passenger seat and narrowed on Stewart Roscoe. She turned full to face the men as they got out of the truck and headed her way. Stewart tipped his worn cowboy hat in greeting. His gaze moved past her to Diek and Gunner before locking onto hers once more. Mustang squared her shoulders even as she sighed inwardly. She’d pretty much stuck to the ranch these last three weeks, venturing into town only to make a short supply run here or there. When she’d left, she’d been alone. She hadn’t caught wind of any rumors flying about her even though she believed the news of her hooking up with the Rylon brothers had already spread. In truth, the majority of the townspeople and their opinions had never concerned her as much as those of her neighboring ranchers. Those were the men she faced, the men she worked with, the men for whom she’d worked to gain their respect as a rancher. Stewart Roscoe was one of those men. He was also Austin Roscoe’s older brother. “Stewart.” Mustang smiled and did her best to appear happy to see him. “What brings you out this way?” The man shook hands with Chester when he reached them, then extended his hand to her. “Well, I’d like to say I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by, but truth is I came to talk a little business with you if you’ve got a minute.” “I’m sure I can spare a few.” Intrigued, Mustang hooked her thumbs in the pockets of her jeans and glanced at Lucky. He shrugged and gave her a look that clearly indicated he didn’t have a clue what Stewart had in mind. “Is this something we can talk about out here or do we need somewhere more private?” “Here’s as good a place as anywhere. I stopped by the barn first, took a peek at that new colt Kinger and Raven made together. He sure is a beauty.”

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“Yes, he is.” Mustang waited. She watched the way Stewart’s gaze continued to move from hers to each of the Rylon brothers as he took his time getting to the point of his visit. “I heard you had a little scare with him the day after he was born.” Mustang nodded. “He’s made a full recovery. There don’t seem to be any lingering side effects. Lucky has been keeping a close eye on him and, as far as he can tell, the colt is as healthy as, well, a horse.” She grinned at her own pun. Stewart chuckled. “So Lucky tells me. That colt is actually what I want to talk to you about. I know Lucky sees to the horses on the Circle M, but all the decision makin’ falls to you.” Mustang relaxed at those few little words. Not so little to her, she realized, but truly monumental ones. The respect she’d worked to earn remained despite the choices she’d made in her love life. Business and pleasure weren’t mixing a horrid concoction, at least not with Stewart Roscoe. She’d expected scorn from him above all others. She knew he didn’t approve of his brother’s dealings with the Service Club and looked down his nose at the lifestyle the members chose to lead. Yet, this was ranching business, not sex. He wasn’t allowing his personal views to cloud his work ethics. More, by coming to her, he was proving he still saw her as head of the Circle M ranch regardless of how many men shared her bed. “Yes, they do,” she confirmed. “So what kind of business proposition do you have for me to chew on?” “Like I said, it’s about the new colt. I want to make a racing horse out of him.” Mustang blinked and started to speak, but he rushed on before she got the chance. “I’m not lookin’ to buy him, at least not yet. I didn’t figure you’d be up for sellin’ him anyways. Besides, it’ll give me somethin’ to keep on you about later down the road.” Mustang smiled at the glint in his eyes. Stewart was a damn fine cowboy and a hell of a horse trainer and racer. She’d been half

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expecting a similar offer from him when it pertained to the new colt. She believed as well as he did that the colt would make a fine racehorse. “Tell you what. I’ll give it some thought.” She already knew she’d do it, but a good businesswoman didn’t make impulse decisions. “Give me a few days, maybe a week.” Stewart nodded. “Fair enough.” He seemed to hesitate. His gaze once again slid to each of the Rylon brothers in turn. “The trouble with the colt”—he stopped and licked his lips—“I heard it wasn’t the only problems you had on the ranch lately.” “There was another incident that occurred the night before.” Obviously, somehow the news someone had broken into her bedroom had gotten around, too. “Things have been pretty quiet since, though.” Since she’d let her relationship with the Rylon brothers become public knowledge. It happened just as they’d suspected. If the two events had been somehow connected to the Service Club as they’d believed, then their making it clear they weren’t backing down had driven the culprit back into his little hiding hole. “That’s good to hear. It ain’t nobody’s damn business but your own what you do in your personal life, and you shouldn’t be subject to danger because of it.” His response rocked Mustang back on her heels. Stunned, she couldn’t think of a thing to say to that. “You let me know if you need anything around here. We ranchers have to watch out for each other.” Mustang didn’t need to glance at any of the men surrounding her to know they were all grinning like loons with big fat I told you sos on the tips of their tongues. She extended her arm, shook hands with Stewart, and held his gaze. “Thank you. And the same goes for you, if you ever need anything.” ****

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Your ranch. I told you that wouldn’t change. Mustang smiled as Diek’s softly spoken words reverberated through her memory. They’d advanced on her after Stewart Roscoe left that afternoon, not caring that Chester stood on watching. Each of them had pulled her in for three of the tenderest kisses they’d given her yet. She hadn’t told them how much she appreciated them holding back in Stewart’s presence, letting her take care of the business at hand without so much as a word from any of them. Thinking back now, she realized she hadn’t needed to say it. They already knew. “And you should have, too,” she told herself aloud, tying the belt of her robe as she walked to her closet and pulled open the double sliding doors. All the years she’d spent fighting and she should’ve known it wasn’t necessary. She should’ve had faith in the Rylon brothers that they would never want to change her, never want to take away the life she’d built for herself. They only wanted to be a part of that life, to give her the love and sexual pleasures she craved. Your ranch, our body. Diek had told her that more than once, too, and he was right. She belonged to them, mind, body and soul, but they wouldn’t break her, wouldn’t put into jeopardy the ranch she so loved. “So how does it feel to have everything you’ve ever wanted?” she asked herself aloud, giggling girlishly as she rifled through her hanging clothes in search of just the right blouse to wear tonight. Excitement zinged through her along with a bolt of trepidation as her thoughts switched to tonight, to the meeting with the Service Club that she would finally attend. It hadn’t been a month since the club last met. Not that they generally stuck to any particular time frame in the past. She had a feeling why they’d chosen to meet again barely three weeks after the last time, though, and that reason was her. She shivered as anticipation burned a sizzling path through her system. She settled on a low-cut teal blouse with her favorite denim skirt. Pulling them from the closet, she gave her head a backward toss to

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dislodge the towel wrapped around her damp hair. She froze, her heart clogging her throat when the back of her head connected with a solid body behind her. Before she could turn or even utter a sound, a hand covered her mouth. “Are you sure you have everything you’ve ever wanted?” Fear turned her blood to ice in her veins. That wasn’t Gunner’s, Diek’s, or Lucky’s voice. Her mind registered that in an instant. There was a slight familiarity to the voice, though the speaker was obviously working to disguise his tone. “Only a whore would do the things you’ve been doing. You’re not a whore, but you’ve let them turn you into one. Do you know what happens to whores?” Her mind reeled, trying to put a face to the voice. She forced herself to take deep, steady breaths, willing herself not to panic. The hand over her mouth smelled faintly of Irish Spring soap and a hint of cologne she knew she’d smelled before, but couldn’t place. “Do you, Mustang?” He gave her a hard jerk. “Do you know what happens to whores?” Unable to speak, refusing to move her lips against the callused palm covering her mouth, she shook her head. “They die.” Oh, Dear God. Mustang caught the wrist over her mouth and balled her free hand in a tight fist. She put all her strength in the turn, wrenched his hand from her mouth, and managed a solid connection with her fist to his jaw. She’d caught him by surprise, but he recovered quickly. He caught both her wrists in one of his larger hands even as he covered her mouth once more, stifling her scream before she could let it loose. She hadn’t even gotten a look at him before he had her pinned again. His grip on her wrists tightened like a vise, cutting off the circulation to her hands and giving her a good indication of his strength. His breath smelled rancid as he growled in her ear. “Try that again, and you’ll die, too.”

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Mustang stilled and tried to calm her rapid breaths as her mind raced for more options of escape. Hindsight being what it was, she realized she should’ve gone low, lifted her heel and kicked him in the balls. She’d been raised around men, taught to fight like one, but when it came to matching strength for strength, her legs possessed the most power. All she needed was one more chance. If she screwed up again, he might follow through on his word and kill her, but damn if she would go down without a fight. “I don’t want to hurt you.” Maybe not yet, but he would. She felt a bone-deep certainty that, despite his claim, this would end very badly if she didn’t get away. “Time to get out of here,” he said, sounding as if he were talking more to himself than her this time. Bullshit, it is. The more time they spent in her room, the better chance she had of getting out of this alive. She’d left Diek, Gunner, and Lucky in the horse barn, but they would be returning to the main house any minute to shower for tonight. “Can’t take a chance on those bastards you’ve let between your legs finding us before I’ve had the chance to save you.” Save her? A part of her mind latched onto the insanity of the comment even as the largest part of her thoughts realized he’d allowed himself to become distracted by his own babbling. She felt him shift, felt a precious inch of space move between them as he stepped back. His hand stayed on her mouth, but the one holding her wrists fell away. Mustang flexed the muscles in her right leg. She took a deep breath, lifted her foot off the floor ready to strike back, and froze at the definite chill of metal that pressed into the center of her back. “I’m going to let go of your mouth now. If you scream, I’ll shoot you. Don’t think I won’t, Hot Rod.” “You said you don’t want to—” Hurt me, she was going to say, but the last of the words caught in her throat when what he’d called her registered. Only one man she’d ever known called her Hot Rod.

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Visions of a long-ago Christmas morning when she’d unwrapped a cherry-red Mustang Hot Wheel sprang from her memory. They claim you were named after the breed of horse, but we all know they named you after the car. It’s a hot rod, just like you. “Thomas.” She whipped her head around. Her gaze collided with a pair of wild, seemingly unseeing eyes. “What are you doing?” Utter disbelief raced through her fear. Laughter bubbled in her throat at the absurdity that this was Thomas, a man she’d grown up with, one she’d always viewed as a sort of surrogate brother. “I’m saving you.” Her own words came back to haunt her. Maybe he thinks he’s protecting them. She’d had no idea how close she’d been with that comment made in Lucky’s loft. As she stared at Thomas now, she knew she’d hit the nail on the proverbial head. This was the man who’d been terrorizing the women affiliated with the Service Club, and he truly believed what he was saying. The certainty in his voice, the hard set to his lips, the determination swirling with the wildness in his eyes, left her no doubt about that. He’d flipped. Some synapse in his mind had obviously misfired, leaving little of the man she thought she’d always known. “Holding a gun to my back is not saving me.” “It will. As long as I’ve got this gun on you, you won’t fight me.” No, she wouldn’t, at least not until she could figure out how to fight him without getting shot. She realized he had a double advantage over her. He knew her. He knew how she thought and could likely anticipate the moves she’d make. She, on the other hand, might as well have been staring at a stranger. Never in her craziest imaginings had she ever thought Thomas was insane and certainly not to the point of holding a gun to her back. “Thomas, I appreciate you trying to protect me,” she told him, forcing a calm she didn’t feel into her tone. Maybe if she could play on the years they’d grown up together, she could reach some sensible

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part of him, if he had even an ounce of sensibility left. “You’ve always been there for me. I’ve always known I could count on you.” “I failed you.” The tears that glimmered in his eyes scared her more than the craziness she saw in his face, heard in his voice. “You’ve never failed me.” She started to turn slowly, wanting to face him fully. If she could talk him down, somehow get through the madness twisting in his head, she could get the gun away from him, and then she’d stand a chance of escaping. “Don’t turn around!” He stabbed the gun barrel harder into her back, stilling her movement. Mustang closed her eyes briefly and counted to five. She needed to approach this situation calmly, coolly. Pushing him too far too fast was definitely not the way to go. She opened her eyes again. She kept her head turned with her gaze on him and the rest of her body still facing the closet. “You’ve never failed me,” she said again. “I did!” he spat. “And I’m not in danger now.” Except from you. “Yes, you are. You’re a whore.” Mustang gritted her teeth. Being called that by the men she loved was one thing, it actually turned her on, but being called that by a raving lunatic really pissed her off. “You let them do this to you, and I didn’t do anything to stop it.” He shook his head. “It’s not too late, though. I can save you. I’m gonna save you. Now let’s go.” The fingers of his free hand closed on her upper arm, and he pulled her back. He steered her toward the closed bedroom door. “Where are we going?” She stumbled forward two steps when he pushed her before catching her balance. She dug in her heels then, deciding he’d have to physically force her from the room. No way would she walk out on her own free will. Either way might prove to be suicide, but if she remained here, she still had a better chance of

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the Rylon brothers finding her than if she allowed Thomas to take her to some unknown location. “Somewhere so we can talk.” He pushed her again—one step closer to the door, one step before she utilized every ounce of leg strength she possessed to plant herself firmly in her new spot. “We can talk right here.” “No. They’ll come looking for you soon. You won’t listen to me then. I’ve got to get you someplace alone, someplace where you’ll listen. It’s the only way I can save you.” He tried to push her again, but her standing held firm. Her thin cotton robe didn’t offer any cushion to the barrel of the gun. It bit into her flesh, reminding her how easily he could pull the trigger, how quickly she could be dead if she said the wrong thing, made the wrong move. “Lock the door,” she suggested, her mind working frantically even as she forced herself to remain calm. “They won’t be able to get in.” Her memory flashed back to the night they’d let themselves into her locked room. Thomas didn’t know about that, although it was obvious to her now that he’d been the one to come into her room later and untie her. “They’ll knock, and I’ll tell them to go away, that I’m still getting dressed.” She sensed him hesitate and didn’t give him a nanosecond to reconsider. She kept talking. “Let’s work this out now, Thomas. You want to save me. I want to be where I feel safe. This is my room, my haven. I feel safe here.” She stopped, swallowed, and forced the next words through her dry lips. “I feel safe with you.” “Why did you do it, Hot Rod?” Mustang felt the gun at her back waver, heard the hitch in his voice and knew she’d won, at least for now. She dared to move, taking it slowly. She turned her head, saw that he’d taken a miniscule step back, and eased herself around to face him. He didn’t lower the gun, but he didn’t shoot her for turning around.

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Baby steps, she told herself and took a deep breath. “What did I do?” “You let them corrupt you. Why would you do that? You fought them. All your life, you pushed them away, showed them you were better than what they wanted to make of you. Then, all of sudden, you let them tie you up and defile you.” “You came in here that night. You untied me and covered me up while I slept.” She suppressed the shiver of revulsion that sped down her spine at the idea of him seeing her naked, vulnerable, and still aching for a release at the hands of the men she loved. He whirled around, paced several steps away, and jammed his free hand through his red locks. “I tried to take care of you, but I was too late.” He spun back to face her, the gun still trained steady on her chest. “You’d already let them in.” “They didn’t hurt me, Thomas.” She moved slowly toward him, small and even steps before it clicked that she was moving farther from the door. She needed to be back stepping. She needed to be setting herself up to bolt out that door at the first opportunity. She stopped in the center of the bedroom floor. At least he wasn’t standing between her and her most obvious chance for escape. “Gunner, Diek, and Lucky would never do that.” “How can you say that?” Tears spilled down his cheeks. “They did hurt you. I saw it! I saw what they did to you.” “I wanted it,” she admitted simply, meeting his anger with a calmness that surprised even her. “I wanted them.” “No!” He screamed the word, rocking back several steps as if she’d physically slapped him. He shook his head violently. “No, you didn’t. You couldn’t. That’s the whore talking. They brainwashed you, made you believe you wanted that.” “Thomas, they love me. They—” “That’s not love.” He stabbed the gun in the air toward her. She hadn’t heard him cock it, but she saw it was locked and loaded and his finger rested shakily on the trigger. Somehow she had

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to calm him down. Whether or not he intended to shoot her, as angry as he was getting, he could easily pull the trigger by accident. “Tying a woman up, putting weapons on her nipples, beating her, that’s not love. I saw, Hot Rod. They handcuffed you, spread your legs apart so you couldn’t move them and beat you with a cane.” Mustang’s head spun. Her gaze leapt from the gun to collide with his cold, furious eyes. Her own eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open as shock rendered her speechless. He’d watched that night in Lucky’s bedroom, too. Dear God. “They gave you to those bastard cops, too. It’s not enough they have their own whore. I tried to save her, too, you know? I tried, but she was a bigger whore than I thought.” “You did those things to Marissa? You set her store on fire? That was you on her front porch that night?” Thomas scoffed and wiped his running nose with the back of his free hand. “Of course that wasn’t me on her porch. I paid some homeless sap to do that shit.” “Why?” Baffled, Mustang stared at him, realizing he was far more dangerous than she’d given him credit for. “For the same reason I tranquilized that colt out there. To scare you. To scare her. I wanted both of you to see the kind of treatment whores get. They lose things precious to them. Men use them, abuse them, treat them like property to be scarred and fucked. She should’ve realized. She should’ve listened. She was such a good girl. Richard tried. I know he did. He tried to keep her a good girl, but she’s wicked inside. She was beyond hope. But you’re not. I know you’re not.” “There’s nothing wrong with Marissa or me. She loves Justin and Ben the same as I love Gunner, Diek, and Lucky.” “You don’t love them. You can’t! They’ll hurt you more. They’ll kill you. They’ll make you think it’s what you want, make you think you’re a whore, and they’ll strangle you.” He steadied the gun on her and started closing the distance he’d put between them, causing her to

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step back. “I can’t let that happen. I won’t, Hot Rod. I won’t lose another woman I love that way.” “Who did you lose, Thomas?” Mustang’s mind took a rapid race through time, back through their childhood and speeding forward to the here and now. He’d never had a girlfriend, never had a female in his life at all except for her mother. “My mother! You know that. The old man doesn’t think I remember. He doesn’t think I know. But I do. I saw her. I saw what they did to her. They killed her!” He reached her in two quick strides, and she realized she had nowhere to go. If she backed up any more, she’d pin herself against the door. “I won’t let them do it to you. We’re leaving.” He caught her upper arm in a painfully tight grip and jerked her around. Mustang relied on reflex and instinct more than thought, knowing it was now or never to put a stop to this madness. She threw her body into the turn, sweeping out with her right leg as her left hand went for the gun. She felt the heat of the bullet sail past her temple as they both went down.

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Chapter Eight “Think she’s ready yet?” Lucky ran his hand down Raven’s back, smoothing the horse’s hair before easing back to close the stable door. “By she I’m guessing you mean Mustang and not Raven.” Gunner leaned a shoulder against the wall of the barn, a playful grin tilting the corner of his lips. Lucky slid him a look out of the corner of his eye. “Duh.” “It’s only been an hour.” Diek slung the saddle they’d just removed from Raven over the wall of the stable and muttered a curse when the move caused his shoulder obvious pain. Lucky shifted his gaze to his oldest brother and lifted a questioning brow. “Arm is giving me hell today. Nothing I can do about it but grin and bear it.” He forced a goofy grin that made Lucky chuckle and shake his head. Nothing he could do about it except stop working it so hard, which was something Lucky knew his brother would never do. “How much time does the woman need?” Gunner made a raspberry sound with his lips. “Mustang might be a tomboy, but she’s still a woman. I’m betting right now she’s just crawling out of that garden tub she’s got in that private bath of hers, probably covered in bubbles and reaching for bottles of lotions and creams with scents designed to drive us crazy.” “We’re already crazy for standing around here yabbering when we could’ve been in that garden tub with her for the last friggin’ hour.” Lucky’s dick swelled at the images that came to his mind of Mustang at their mercy in a tub of warm soapy water.

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“We still had work to do,” Diek reminded him. “And we’re not done yabbering yet.” “We’re not?” Gunner asked. “No, we’re not. This has been a helluva op, and I’m thinking it’s time we figure out how to wrap it up for a complete victory.” “Op?” Gunner repeated. “We’ve been on a mission for the better part of our lives to claim Mustang as our woman. I don’t know about you, but it’s sure felt like the toughest op we’ve ever been assigned. Hell, we even had to enlist a civilian to get this far.” Lucky grinned, enjoying his brother’s play on words. “I take it I’m that civilian.” Diek nodded. “That’s an affirmative.” “And, if I’m following you right, you’re thinking that civilian should be the one finish the mission,” Gunner said. “No, I’m thinking you should.” Lucky couldn’t remember a time when he’d ever seen his youngest brother look so surprised. Gunner straightened. His attention bounced from Diek to Lucky and back again. “We are talking about the same thing here, right?” “Putting a ring on Mustang’s finger.” They already had the ring, a four-carat diamond set in a silver band that had been handed down in the Rylon family for generations. Gunner leveled his gaze on Lucky. “I always figured you would be the one to marry her.” Lucky shrugged. For a long time, he’d expected them to agree that Diek should be Mustang’s legal husband. It had simply seemed right, seeing as Diek was the oldest of the three. He knew what Diek was thinking, though. Gunner was still an active-duty SEAL. He could provide Mustang with benefits Diek and Lucky couldn’t. But, more importantly, marrying him might offer her a security for all those days, weeks, months that he could be gone.

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“If I had my way, we would all marry her,” Lucky said. “But that’ll never fly with the legal system in this country.” “It doesn’t matter whose name goes down on the paperwork. We’ll all be her husband. We’ll know it and so will she.” Diek turned to Gunner, and his lips twitched. “You aren’t afraid of the commitment, are you, little brother?” “Hell, no. I’ve been as committed to that woman as the two of you for just as long.” Gunner shrugged. “If we all agree I’m the one who’s going to marry her, I’ll be more than happy to get all doodied up in a monkey suit for a few hours and tie the knot.” He hesitated and winced. “You don’t think she’s going to make me get down on one knee to propose and all that?” Diek badly disguised a laugh with a cough. “I’d almost stake my life on it. Mustang might be a tomboy, but she’s still a woman.” Gunner shot him a look. “Very funny.” Lucky glanced at his wristwatch. “If we’re done yabbering now, we do need to get to the house. The rest of the club is likely already at the pond by now.” “Are we sure she’s ready for tonight?” Gunner asked, leading the way as they started walking out of the barn. “Are you thinking she’s not?” Diek asked, following close behind Gunner. “I’m thinking we’ve fought a long battle with this woman and we’ve finally got her where we want her. Still, I don’t want to push her into anything she isn’t ready for yet.” “You really doubt that she’ll make it clear if we push her beyond any limit she has?” Lucky didn’t doubt it for a second. She may have surrendered, may have even agreed she belonged to them, but deep down they all knew the control she really possessed. “Good point,” Gunner conceded. “I just—” He broke off as the low sound of a gunshot split the air. Lucky stopped short. His mind registered the sound, caught the direction from which it came. “The house. Son of a bitch.”

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All three men broke into a dead run for the back door. Lucky saw Diek snag the rifle he kept near the barn door on the way out. Lucky grabbed for his cell phone and hit the speed dial for Justin Bryan. The man picked up on the second ring as Lucky reached the house. “Bryan.” “You and Ben at the pond yet?” “Yeah, along with the rest of the club sans you guys. What’s—” “Get your asses to the main house.” Lucky cut him off. “We’ve got trouble.” **** The air whooshed from Mustang’s lungs as she went down. She rolled with the momentum, landing on top of Thomas, her hand gripping the barrel of the gun for dear life. She straddled him, channeled every ounce of her strength into her hand, and attempted to pin his arm to the floor. But her strength was no match for his. He fought her, singlehandedly pushing her back. She toppled over, hitting the floor with a thud that had her seeing actual stars as he changed their position and pinned her to the floor, rendering her unable to move. “Stop it!” he screamed at her, spit flying into her face. He slapped her with his free hand, and more stars exploded in her vision. She didn’t listen. She flailed beneath him and attempted to buck him off her even as she tried to gain control of the gun. The sound of the next bullet locking into place as he cocked it and aimed it unsteadily at her head made her freeze. “I told you not to do it. I fucking told you!” Tears streamed down his cheeks as venom spewed from his words and madness darkened his eyes. This is it. He’s going to kill me. She’d heard tales that people’s lives flashed before their eyes when they knew they were about to die,

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but all she saw was Thomas glaring down at her with hate-filled, purely demonic eyes. “Why did you do it?” He hung his head. Tears dripped from the tip of his nose onto her chest. “Why did you do it? Why?” He shook her hard enough to rattle her brain in her skull. “You’re crazy!” Well, now wasn’t that the pot calling the kettle. “Let go of me.” She panted the words as each breath came in a ragged burst of exhaustion and fear. “You shouldn’t have pushed me, Hot Rod. You should’ve listened to me. You should’ve made them stay away.” Mustang shook her head. “I love them, and if that means I’m going to die for that choice, then so be it. Go ahead, Thomas. Pull the trigger. Then you better turn that gun on yourself, because when the Rylon brothers get hold of you, you’re going to wish you were dead.” “Damn right he will. Put down the gun.” Thomas startled at the sound of Diek’s calm, steady voice behind him. With her hand still closed around his wrist holding the gun, she felt the gun waver at her head. She felt the slack come into his grip and knew this would likely be her last chance for freedom. She pushed up and aimed the gun away from her head as she bucked her lower body. Her moves caught him off guard. He grunted. His wild gaze returned to her as Gunner and Lucky rushed in at his back. Lucky gained possession of the gun as they yanked him off her. He wrenched Thomas’s arms behind his back hard enough to make him cry out in pain. “Are you okay?” Gunner gathered her into his arms and checked her for injuries even as he brushed his lips to her forehead. “No she’s not okay,” Lucky snapped through gritted teeth. “Look what this bastard did to her face.” “Diek, put the gun down, man.” Mustang lifted her head from where she’d let it rest on Gunner’s chest and saw Diek standing just inside the room, a rifle cocked, loaded, and aimed at Thomas. Justin stood next to him in full cop

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uniform, one hand on Diek’s shoulder and the other reaching for the rifle. “Lucky’s not letting him go,” Justin said easily, calmly. “Give me the rifle.” For several heartbeats, Mustang feared Diek wasn’t listening. She saw the rage in his eyes, the utter intent to kill, and knew it was going to take more than soft words from Justin to tamp down his warrior instinct. “It’s not worth it, Diek.” His gaze shifted to her as she got to her feet, but his aim with the gun didn’t waver. “Justin and Ben are cops. Let them take it from here. I need you with me.” “Get that fucker out of here.” Diek lowered the rifle, but didn’t put it down. Ben moved past him, pulling a set of cuffs from his belt as he reached Thomas. “I tried to save her,” Thomas muttered as Justin and Ben took him from Lucky and snapped the cuffs on his wrists. “I tried to save Marissa, too, but you bastards already tainted both of them.” “You did what?” Justin yanked Thomas around, fury and disbelief fighting for paramount expression on his face. “He was behind it all,” Mustang told them as her men surrounded her. Diek snaked an arm around her waist, and she cuddled against him. She felt him quivering from the rage he barely kept contained. “Bet you wish you’d let me kill him now,” Diek said. Ben shook his head as he met Diek’s gaze. “The law will take care of him.” Mustang listened halfheartedly as Justin read Thomas his rights. She turned her attention away, unable to look at him a second longer. “I need to find Chester,” she told Lucky, Gunner, and Diek. “He needs to know what’s happened.” “We’ll find him on our way out,” Ben said. “He may want to follow us to the station.” Mustang nodded, her heart already breaking for the older man.

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“The rest of the club followed us,” Justin said. “I think they’re downstairs in your living room. We’ll ask them to leave, but would you watch after Marissa until we can get back to get her?” Lucky nodded. “She’ll be safe with us.” “Don’t ask anyone to leave.” Mustang realized what she wanted now more than anything was to be surrounded by friends. “I’ll need a minute to—” Get dressed, she started to say, but an excited heat spread through her system at the thought of staying in her robe, of how she could turn this horrid night into something far better. “Freshen up,” she said instead. “Then I’ll be down.” Diek squeezed her waist. “Are you sure?” She gazed up at him, into the eyes of the man who had been ready to kill for her, and everything in her world felt absolutely right for the very first time. “I’m positive.” Gunner slid a hand down the back of her shoulder. “Do you want us to stay up here with you?” “No, you guys go ahead down. I just need a minute.” Lucky leaned in and kissed her lips. “Take all the time you need.” **** The Service Club was more than a group of men and women who shared the same sexual tastes. They were friends, first and foremost. Diek had always known that, always felt the same closeness to them as he had with his SEAL team. He and Gunner sat on the sofa with Mustang between them. Lucky stood chatting with Austin Roscoe, Tyler Moses, Gavin Scott, Georgia Cooper Scott, and Randy Pope by the fireplace. Others were scattered about the room conversing and laughing about who knew what. Diek looked around the living room, at the men and women gathered now not because of a club meeting, but because his woman had needed them. He knew he might not be a SEAL any longer, but he was still a member of one hell of a family.

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“Drink this. It will help.” Marissa Schultz handed Mustang a snifter of brandy and giggled girlishly when Mustang wrinkled her nose. “I’m not crazy about the stuff either, but it’s not so bad if you sip it.” Mustang took a sip, gave a little shudder, and took another sip. “You’re right. The burn feels good if nothing else. Good medicine.” Marissa grinned. “That’s what my grandmother always said.” “You’re not mad at me. I’m surprised.” Diek suppressed a grin of his own. That’s my girl. Leave it to Mustang to say precisely what was on her mind. Marissa moved to a nearby chair and folded a leg beneath her as she sat down. “You shouldn’t be.” The grin on her angelic face turned to one of pure wickedness. “If you’d been there to see the things my men did for me when they got home after leaving here the other day, you wouldn’t be.” Mustang laughed, and the sound was like music to Diek’s ears after everything she’d been through tonight. “Then maybe I should say I’m glad I could help.” “Honey, you can send Ben and Justin home to me that way any time.” Marissa’s gaze slid to Diek and saw the memory of him and her in the city hall elevator flash through her eyes. “Of course, if you ever want to include me in the fun, I’m game for that, too.” “You’ve come a long way,” Diek commented, remembering how Marissa had once shied away from her desires after being taught to believe the things she wanted were sinful and disgusting. Mustang turned, met his gaze, and cupped the side of his face. “We both have.” She smiled before shifting her attention back to Marissa. “And I’m game for that, as well.” Hoo-yah! Diek’s cock flexed in his jeans, and he wondered just how far these women would go. No doubt about it, they’d put on a hell of a show. “Hell, we’re all game. Promise me we get to watch.” Austin Roscoe stood by the fireplace with his own snifter of brandy. He set

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the glass down on the mantle and rubbed his hands together, a devious smile tilting his lips that made everyone laugh. “Glad to see you nuts are in good spirits.” All laughter died as Justin and Ben entered the room. Marissa stood, let Justin take her seat, and folded herself in his lap. Ben perched on the arm of Marissa’s chair. “At least they were until we got here.” Mustang sat up straighter. Her gaze locked on Ben. “What happened?” “He’s been booked, charged with arson and attempted murder, and will be held in the city jail until his arraignment.” “Chester stayed at the station,” Justin added. “He said to tell you he’ll be back sometime tomorrow.” Mustang nodded. “He’ll need some time to himself. Will they let him in to talk to Thomas at all?” “They will,” Ben said. “Thomas will likely plead insanity, Mustang. Any lawyer with an ounce of credibility would recommend that.” Mustang sighed. “At least then maybe he can get some help.” “I still can’t believe it’s been him all along,” Georgia said. “What would make him go off like that?” “His mother’s death.” Mustang stared thoughtfully into her snifter. “It never hit me until he went berserk in my room. I don’t know why it didn’t. I guess I had simply put it out of my mind like the rest of us. I don’t even think anyone realized he knew the truth behind her death.” “What happened to her?” Marissa asked. “She was heavy into the BDSM scene. I don’t know all the specifics. Thomas and I are the same age. We were both barely out of diapers when she died. I remember overhearing my parents talking about it when I was little, something about his mother being in a relationship with two, or maybe it was three, men. They loved her. I know that much. One of them was Thomas’s father.” She paused,

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took a sip of her brandy, and shook her head. “Asphyxiation that accidently got out of hand.” “They strangled her,” Marissa whispered, her hand going to her own throat. Mustang nodded. “Completely unintentionally. From what I remember hearing, it tore them up. I think Thomas’s father even committed suicide. That’s how Thomas came to live with Chester.” Georgia sighed. “He kept all that rage bottled up.” “And put the blame for it on the lifestyle and anyone who lives it,” Mustang added. “He was trying to save me. That’s what he kept saying.” Diek put his arm around her and pulled her close. “You know we would never take those kinds of risks.” “Oh, I know,” she said quickly. “What happened to his mother was quite literally a crime of passion and apparently something he simply couldn’t bring himself to understand. It ate away at him all these years, and I guess he finally snapped.” “We almost lost you tonight.” Gunner turned on the sofa toward Mustang and pushed her hair behind her ear. Diek met his brother’s gaze and understood the turmoil, the fear, and the sheer love he saw swirling the other man’s eyes. They had come close to losing her. If the shot hadn’t missed, if she hadn’t fought back so hard, if she hadn’t possessed the strength she did, if Thomas had taken another shot—He shut off the “ifs” and forced himself to think about the facts. The first shot had missed. Mustang had fought back. She was quiet possibly the strongest woman he knew. And, because of all that, Thomas hadn’t gotten off another shot. Mustang turned slightly in his arms and cupped Gunner’s cheek. “But you didn’t.” “I couldn’t stand it if I did.”

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Neither of them could, but Diek didn’t correct his brother on that. This was their moment, Gunner and Mustang’s, Gunner’s time to reveal to her exactly how intensely she held his heart. “And I couldn’t stand losing you, so you better make sure when you leave again, you come back, okay?” **** Gunner wanted to tell her he’d always be back, but he knew that was a promise he couldn’t honestly make. He also knew that he held his life, held heaven in the palm of his hand with her, and everything he’d worked for paled in comparison. “I’ll quit. If it makes you feel safe, if it keeps you from staying awake at night, if it’s what you need, what you want, I’ll quit.” He never thought he would be willing to give something that meant so much to him. He’d busted his ass in the Navy and conquered obstacles few men could in his climb as a SEAL. But looking at her now, feeling her silky flesh beneath his hand, absorbing her warmth and staring into her fathomless, emotion-filled eyes, he knew she meant more to him than any career. “You would quit the teams?” She shook her head and dropped her hand to his thigh. “I would never ask that of you any more than you would ask me to sell my ranch. I might have believed it once. I might have thought that accepting you, Diek, and Lucky into my life would cause me to sacrifice that part of me. It didn’t. It won’t. I know that now. I already have one of you dealing with the loss because of something he couldn’t control.” She glanced at Diek and snuggled a little closer in his embrace before looking back at Gunner. “I won’t have that happening to two of you.” Gunner nodded and skimmed the pad of his thumb over her mouth. Her lips parted at the touch. Her tongue peeked out to lick his thumb. The sensation of that lick traveled a sizzling path straight to his cock. “What would you have happen now?”

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The corner of her lips tilted in a wicked smile that sent his system on a speeding ride to Hormonal Happy Land. “I’d have you inside me.” She scanned the room until her gaze locked on Lucky and then Diek. “All of you. Right here. Right now.” She untied her robe as she pushed to her feet, turned to face him, and shrugged off the garment. “Damn, that’s beautiful.” Gunner flicked his attention past her. He saw the lust and appreciation on Austin Roscoe’s face as the other man’s gaze skimmed down Mustang’s naked body and did a slow climb up again. “Define all of you,” Diek said, his voice thick with his own arousal. Mustang lifted a brow as she settled her gaze on him. “Are we back to Mr. Webster again?” Diek chuckled. “Just looking for clarification, darlin’.” “While I’ll admit that more is definitely appealing, my definition tonight is you, Lucky, and Gunner.” She shrugged and shot a glance over her shoulder at the other people in the room, then leveled her stare on Gunner. “I don’t care how many people watch. However, I also understand that this is your body.” She gestured to her naked flesh with a flourish of her hands. “And it abides by your rules.” “She learned fast,” Tyler commented, his voice ringing with approval. “No, she just finally allowed herself to accept what she wanted, to go after what she craved,” Gunner corrected. “And tonight she’ll get it,” Lucky added, moving up behind her. His arms came around her. His hands covered her breasts. Mustang leaned her head against his chest as he started kneading her breasts. Her eyes fluttered closed, and a quiet, “Oh, yeah,” escaped her lips. Gunner caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He saw Justin and Ben starting to undress Marissa and Gavin and Randy doing the same to Georgia. Austin and Tyler appeared to be settling in for the show, as did several of the others. He could relate to the

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pained expressions on the single men’s faces. He remembered a time not so long ago when he, Diek, and Lucky had sat back at these meetings and watched the other couples with their women. Sometimes they’d joined in, sometimes they hadn’t, but every time they’d longed for Mustang to be there with them. Just like she finally is tonight. Diek got to his feet. His hands glided over Mustang’s abdomen, her belly, and continued on a direct path to her pussy as Gunner unfastened his jeans and pulled out his rigid cock. Gunner watched her, loving the way her body moved ever-so-slightly into Diek’s and Lucky’s touches. He loved even more when she lifted her head. Her heavy-lidded gaze instantly landed on his cock. The hunger that filled her expression darkened to something wicked and immensely enticing when he curled his fingers around his shaft and started to pump his dick. Everyone else in the room was instantly swept away as the sexual desire between them mounted to torturing levels. Gunner drank her in with his gaze. He felt utterly intoxicated by every inch of her satiny flesh, by the sight of his brothers’ hands working her incredible body, by the knowledge that in a few more seconds his cock would be sheathed inside her sopping channel. “I should be doing that.” The hunger he’d noted in Mustang’s eyes sounded thick in her tone. She licked her lips. Watching her tongue glide between her lips made Gunner’s cock and balls sting as if she slashed the tender flesh with a whip. He knew the paradise he’d find in the sweet, hot recess of her mouth. He knew the pleasure she would send rocketing through him with her hand around his shaft. But the sodden alcove of her body was where he wanted to be most. Gunner shook his head. “I’ve got other plans for you tonight.” Excitement lit her eyes. Diek’s hand pushed between her legs and covered her bare pussy lips. She widened her stance, offering her

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pussy to his touch. “I hope those plans include you being inside me,” she said breathlessly as Diek sank a finger between her folds. Gunner scooted to the center of the sofa, sank into the cushions, and reached for her. **** Mustang wanted to go to Gunner, but Diek’s wicked fingers plunged into her pussy, and she melted. Lucky’s hands did wondrous things to her breasts. He squeezed and drew on them, rolled her beaded nipples between his fingers and pinched until twin bolts of electrically charged pained pleasure shot straight to her sex. Those bolts collided with the storm of need Diek’s fingers created in her pussy, making her mindless, unable to control the movements of her body. She writhed between them, seeking more, the need so acute it made her want to weep. She cried out when Diek pulled his fingers free of her sodden channel. He pinched her labia, then tugged and rolled the tender flesh, and animalistic claws of release sliced through her very soul. “I believe our brother wants you on his lap.” Lucky released her nipples, flicked the callused pads of his thumbs over them then latched onto them again. His fingers were more devious than any clamps he’d used on her. The pain and pleasure slammed together to rain fiery embers down her body, stroking her rapidly growing need to come. “Are you going to keep him waiting?” She didn’t want to. She opened eyes she hadn’t realized she’d closed and stared down at Gunner’s stiff cock, waiting for her to mount. Her inner muscles convulsed in excitement, knowing how stupendous it would feel when he sank balls deep inside her. The difficulty came in moving away from Lucky’s and Diek’s touches to allow it to happen. “Do you need a cock inside you, darlin’?” Diek’s question turned husky, hot against her neck as he leaned in opposite Lucky and nipped

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her collarbone. His fingers continued to work her pussy lips, squeezing and pulling on them in the same manner Lucky’s fingers did to her nipples. “Please.” She ached from the tips of her toes to the roots of her hair. Their hands tortured her, drove her to the very edge of the release her body screamed for, only to snatch her back each time they paused. “Don’t tease me. God, I can’t take it. I can’t stand it.” “Neither can I.” Gunner leaned forward enough to reach her hips. His hands flattened on her flesh, and he pulled her closer as Diek’s fingers retreated. Mustang straddled Gunner’s lap. Her hands found purchase on his broad shoulders as she situated her body over his rigid cock and prepared to sink down. Lucky’s and Diek’s hands stayed on her. Each took a breast to massage and please as their lips glided over her face, neck, back, and chest. She felt the head of Gunner’s cock pushing at the entrance of her wide-spread pussy and paused to savor the moment. He held her hips in a firm grasp, and she fully expected him to use it to maintain control. Instead, he allowed her to make the moves. Mustang locked gazes with Gunner and kept her eyes open despite the intensity of the sensations as she lowered her hips. She wanted to watch him, wanted him to watch her. She let him see everything in her eyes, the pleasure he gave her, and the love she felt for him, the fear that every time might be their last. She took her time as her body accepted the full length of his massive cock inside her channel inch by gloriously hard inch. Only when their bodies met flush did she feel his grip on her hips tighten. His fingers dug into her flesh. “Right there,” he said through gritted teeth. “Stay right there. God, I love the feel of being inside you.” His head fell back as his hips lifted to push his cock deeper still, and then he lifted his head and met her gaze again. “It’s a perfect fit.” Mustang smiled and cupped the side of his face. “We’re a perfect fit.” She let go of his shoulders and reached back with one hand to

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snake her fingers through the back of Lucky’s hair. She reached to her side with the other hand to cup Diek’s nape. She wanted them to know when she said we she meant all four of them. “Sure as shit took you long enough to realize that,” Diek muttered against the side of her neck. Mustang playfully slapped the back of his neck and turned her head. “Oh, shut up, and kiss me.” He lifted his head and shook it slightly. “Gunner’s not through with you yet.” Mustang blinked her confusion. Since when did she only get attention from one brother at a time? The question stayed on the tip of her tongue as she shifted her focus back to Gunner. “Marry me.” Though he worded it as more of a command than a proposal, she didn’t miss the uncertainty lining his tone. “Say yes, darlin’,” Diek whispered in her ear. “Make us a perfect fit forever, Mustang,” Lucky chimed in and nipped the lobe of her other ear. They did understand, just as she understood Gunner might be her legal husband, but she would be marrying all three of them. Still, she couldn’t let them off the hook so easily. She lifted a brow and glanced at each of them in turn. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” “Nope, there’s a ring. You’re just sitting on it.” Mustang glanced down, already knowing Gunner had only pushed his jeans down far enough to free his cock. She easily deduced the ring was in his pocket. “As much as I’d love to see it right now that would require letting you pull out of me. I think I can hold out a few more minutes.” “Minutes?” Diek sounded skeptical, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Minutes, hours, days, however long you guys can last inside me.” They could live inside her, and she would never get enough of them. “But I wasn’t referring to the ring.”

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Gunner stared at her, his confusion evident in his expression. She didn’t bother to look at Lucky or Diek. She already figured she’d find mirroring expressions of bafflement on their faces. She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hold back another chuckle. “Three words, guys. Sometimes a girl needs to hear them, and now is one of those times.” “I’ll take the proposals category for one hundred, Alex.” Mustang recognized Tyler’s voice without looking behind her. Her lips twitched even as her cheeks flamed. She’d managed to forget they weren’t alone in the living room. At least two other couples were enjoying their own moments of passion, and several single men were watching her enjoy hers. “Would you like to buy a vowel, gentlemen?” Georgia’s question came on a breathless sigh of pure pleasure, a clear indication Gavin and Randy were satisfying their woman in some lovely way. Gunner ignored them. His hands slid from her hips to glide up and down her thighs. “I love you.” His tone was equal parts honesty and hesitation, but Mustang felt herself grin like a loon. For all their toughness, all their authority, all the emotions they allowed her to see in their eyes and feel in their touches, they obviously didn’t get how important that declaration was to her. They’d learn, though. They’d said it before, and she’d make sure they said it many, many more times to come. All it’ll take is a little training. “We love you,” Lucky and Diek said simultaneously. Mustang turned her head, tipped it back, and found Lucky’s lips close enough to kiss. “I love you, Lucky Rylon.” She lifted her head, looked to Diek, and brushed her lips to his. “I love you, Diek Rylon.” She focused on Gunner then, wiggled her hips, and barely suppressed a groan as the move gyrated his cock inside her pussy. “I love you, Gunner Rylon.” She dipped her head and caught his mouth in a kiss that ignited her world in a blaze of pure ecstasy. “Yes, I will marry you, all three of you.”

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Gunner buried his fingers in her hair and held her head close. “Then our mission is finally complete.” Intrigued, Mustang lifted a brow. “Mission?” “Darlin’, you’ve been the most difficult op we’ve ever faced.” Diek’s hands once again roamed her body. It wasn’t enough. Having Gunner inside her felt just this side of Heaven, but she knew of only one way to make it to full paradise. “I need you, all of you. Please, I want you all inside me.” They didn’t make her ask twice. Diek and Lucky backed off as Gunner got to his feet with her in his arms. She locked her legs around his waist, keeping his cock buried impossibly deep in her channel. He turned with her, knelt on the floor, and lay back, taking her down with him until she was once again straddling him. The sounds of zippers releasing and clothes shuffling sounded like bliss to her ears as Diek and Lucky shed their clothes. She felt one of them settle behind her, but didn’t know which one until Diek moved into her vision. He knelt next to Gunner’s head. Her attention immediately focused on his cock, and her mouth started to water. Lucky palmed her ass, kneaded her cheeks, and spread them as he wedged a dry finger between them. She felt him jostle, heard a soft smack as if he’d caught something flying toward him, and his finger retreated. A nanosecond later, it returned, bringing with it a cool gel that he slowly worked inside her anus. Mustang moaned at the cool contrast of the thick lubricant to her needy flesh. She rocked her hips back. Her anus opened for his finger as he drove it inside her. He pushed the lube deep and greased the way for his penetration. “Damn, I love the way you fuck my finger like that.” Lucky added a second to probe her asshole. Mustang hung her head, breathing shallowly as delirium threatened. She wouldn’t go mindless yet. She couldn’t until she had all of them. She lifted her head, turned it slightly and found Diek’s cock exactly where she wanted it. She didn’t wait for permission. She

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closed the distance between her mouth and his cock, closed her lips around his cockhead, and swallowed down his length. “Son of a bitch.” Diek fisted a hand in her hair and pulled at the strands. A delicious pain sizzled through her scalp as she drew on his cock, tightened her lips around his shaft, and sucked hard. She screamed around his cock in protest when Lucky pulled his fingers free of her questing ass without warning. “Hang on, sweetheart,” Gunner told her softly. He lifted his hips and slowly glided his cock in and out of her aching channel. “He’ll be back.” She wanted it faster, needed the penetration everywhere. Her pussy burned. Her ass felt empty, and her throat longed to swallow deeper. Then, blessed heavens, she finally got what she wanted. Lucky thrust the bulbous head of his cock into her anus, pushed straight past the tight ring of muscles, and buried inside her to the hilt. Euphoria washed over her, making her dizzy as all three cocks pulled back and plunged again. They filled her ass, her pussy, and her mouth to sheer blissful satisfaction. Exquisite electric bolts zinged through her, speeding her pulse and taunting the orgasm she’d fought to hold back. She quickly realized there would be no fighting. She wouldn’t ask for permission. She would endure, and most likely enjoy, the punishment later. Tonight, she would let her body come at will. They fucked her with a ruthlessness that drove her past the brink of spectacular pleasure and straight through the gates of paradise. She exploded, screaming around Diek’s cock as the release left her blinded, her head spinning. “That’s it, darlin’. Scream for us. I want to feel your pleasure vibrating down my dick. God, yes, get ready to drink.” Even as Diek said the words, hot spurts of semen filled her mouth and shot down her throat. Beneath her, Gunner bucked harder. He rammed his cock in her pussy, pushing her back to meet Lucky’s cock

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plunging into her ass. Lucky reached around her. His hand flattened on her belly as he held her tight and spewed his load into her ass. On the brink of rapturous insanity, Mustang took a final pull on Diek’s cock as she felt Gunner’s body tense beneath her. He shuddered, and a low roar rumbled from his chest as he finally let himself go. They collapsed in a heap of sweaty bodies, all fighting to catch their breaths. The smell of sex lingered thickly in the room. Distantly, Mustang heard moans and grunts as other members of the club reached their releases. The most difficult op they’d ever faced, huh? Mustang smiled. If they thought the war was over, they could think again. She had ways of putting them through the ringer they hadn’t even considered yet.

THE END HTTP://WWW.TONYARAMAGOS.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tonya Ramagos is a bestselling author of contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and cowboy novels. She spends most of her time in a fictional world dreaming up hot hunks and headstrong heroines. When she’s not writing, she’s reading. Anything from legal and military nonfiction to any genre of romance can be found on her bookshelves and flash drives. Her music tastes are just as varied, with artists ranging from country to rock to heavy metal loading her MP3 player. Her idea of relaxing is curled on the sofa or on her back deck with a book and her favorite beverage. A single mother of two fantastic boys, she enjoys playing games, dancing, and walking the nature trails around her home in Tennessee.

Also by Tonya Ramagos Ménage Amour: The Service Club 1: Forty-Eight Hour Burn Ménage Amour: The Service Club 2: Marissa’s Rights

For all other titles, please visit www.bookstrand.com/tonya-ramagos

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