Playing Hardball

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Playing Hardball ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Playing Hardball Copyright © 2009 Madison Hayes Edited by Pamela Campbell. Cover art by Syneca. Electronic book Publication March 2009 The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

PLAYING HARDBALL

Madison Hayes

Trademarks Acknowledgement The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Hummer: General Motors Corporation

Playing Hardball

Chapter One Colt straddled the wooden bench that ran the length of the dugout he shared with his brothers, Cord and Bolt, as well as his sister’s husband, Dalton. He lifted his beer to his mouth and took a long swallow. As the chilled liquid scoured an icy path down his throat, he plunked the glass bottle down between his legs. Absently, he gazed at the golden brew while his thoughts gravitated to his wife of ten months. Renny had left four days earlier on a business trip and Colt was ready for her to be back. He missed her. He wished she could have been there that afternoon to see his grand slam that had clinched the game. Letting a sigh hiss slowly through his teeth, he shook off his somber mood and transferred his gaze to his oldest brother. Bolt had come up from Santa Fe for the weekend to fill in for one of their teammates who’d sprained his ankle. Naturally he’d brought Tavia and the baby along with him. They were bunking with April and Dalton. With Bolt’s help, their recreational league baseball team had won the first game of their spring tournament. After their victory, as the rest of their teammates had sauntered off, Bolt, Cord and Dalton had walked their wives across the field to the parking lot. Tavia had been anxious to get Royal out of the sun and the wind. The twomonth-old boy had swiftly captured all the female hearts in the family and of course all of the women had wanted to go home with him so they’d packed Cindy and April, along with the baby, in the back seat of Tavia’s Hummer. With Tavia driving, the girls had headed off across town. But not before Bolt had retrieved a cooler full of beer from the back of the Hummer. Swinging the big red cooler in one hand, he’d carried it back to the dugout where they’d discussed their victory in considerable detail. Afterward they’d drawn up the roster for Sunday’s game, deciding that Dalton would play short again and Bolt would

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replace Colt as catcher while Colt took his place on the mound. Of course, Cord would be on first base as usual, wearing his cowboy hat instead of his baseball cap, if he could get away with it two days in a row. Colt rubbed a hand over his thigh and brushed away some of the dirt he’d picked up on his last slide into home. Lifting his head, he checked out his brothers’ gray uniforms which didn’t look any better. After his face-first slide into second, Cord even had some of the red ballpark dirt darkening his hair. Dirt couldn’t do much to darken Colt’s collar-length hair which was as black as the crack of hell. At least that’s how Bolt described it. Both of his older brothers had thick brown hair bleached blond by the sun while his sister April’s hair was a long sheet of orange fire. And though both Cord and April had green eyes like his, their irises didn’t have the heavy flecks of gold that Colt had inherited from his mother. As Colt lifted the bottle to his lips again, Cord sent him a quick wink from where he leaned against the dugout fence. Without any further warning, he slid his gaze toward Bolt, who was seated at the far end of the bench, his long legs stretched partially out the doorway. “How does it feel to be number two in Tavia’s life?” Cord asked. “What are you talking about?” Bolt drawled as though disgusted anyone would suggest such a thing. “I’m not number two.” “No?” Cord challenged him. “Are you kidding?” he snorted, jabbing a thumb at his pinstriped chest. “I’m the guy responsible for making number one. Tavia couldn’t be happier. Or more grateful. And, when it comes to handing out the ‘thank yous’, that woman of mine holds nothing back.” “Yeah?” Cord taunted him while sending Colt another sly look. “So, if Royal is Tavia’s number one, then what does that make you?” “One and a half,” Bolt said, his square chin lifting resolutely while Cord laughed. “A very firm one and a half. But I’m hoping to worm my way back into first place when the kid gets older.” 6

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“Older?” Cord asked, reaching up to resettle his straw cowboy hat on his head. “I’m thinking eighteen,” Bolt confessed without rancor. “He sure is a tiny thing,” Dalton pointed out after the men had a good chuckle at Bolt’s expense. “He’ll grow,” Bolt grunted certainly as he slanted a look at April’s husband, sitting beside him. “He’s got big genes.” “Well, in the meantime, aren’t you scared to death of dropping him?” Dalton asked, his teeth flashing white in the shady dugout. Bolt rolled his doublewide shoulders and grinned. “Nah. I just pretend I’m carrying a football. I’ve never dropped a football.” “You don’t do too badly with baseballs, either,” Cord said, his smile revealing the warm glow of pride he felt for his sibling. “That was a hell of a snag you made on that line drive.” Bolt squinted at his brother, whose thick brush of sun-streaked hair was so much like his own. “Which one?” Cord lifted his bottle toward the mound in the middle of the baseball diamond. “Third inning.” “You didn’t do too bad, yourself,” Bolt grunted absently, his gaze drifting down the first-base line, “tagging the base before the runner could make it back.” Cord gave his hand a shake and grimaced. “You about put that ball right through my mitt.” But Bolt’s attention had wandered. His gaze was fixed on a slim figure making her way across the outfield toward them. “Isn’t that your Renny?” he murmured without looking at Colt. Colt narrowed his eyes on Renny, her tangled mass of light brown hair lifting in the breeze and tumbling over her shoulders. She was a sight for sore eyes and his cock

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responded with a lusty surge that was pretty damn inconvenient, considering he was wearing an athletic cup. Suddenly the rigid cup felt two sizes too small. Shifting his lanky frame into a loose-limbed saunter, Cord stepped outside the dugout and braced his shoulder against the other side of the fence. He squinted against the setting afternoon sun and peered at Renny as she swept toward them. “She looks pissed,” he said as though suggesting it might rain. Colt gave Cord a worried look then returned his gaze to Renny. She did look angry. And Colt had been hoping to avoid angry. Maybe it had been a mistake to suggest she take a taxi home from the airport. Bolt whistled as he stared at her slender legs swinging beneath a short jacket that didn’t quite reach the hem of a skirt…which was a long way from reaching her knees. In fact, it barely covered her white lace thigh-highs. She’d taken to wearing those skimpy skirts now that she was the fashion icon for Campus Miss and their Miss September clothing line. Colt liked the little plaid skirts well enough. He liked the view. He just didn’t much care for sharing the view with everyone else. He threw a leg over the bench and got to his feet, his cleats digging into the sandy soil as he paced alongside the bench toward the opening in the dugout. “Quit ogling my woman,” he grunted as he passed Bolt. “I see you took my advice,” Bolt snickered, his gaze snagging on the four-inch heels Renny was wearing, “and got her some shoes with ankle straps.” “They look good on her,” Cord offered in a speculative drawl. “How do women walk in those heels?” Dalton queried, shaking his head then lifting a hand to sweep his brown hair from his brow. “I don’t know how they do it but I sure as hell love it,” Bolt murmured. As the men watched, Renny marched right up to Colt. When he snaked an arm toward her waist, meaning to draw her into his side, she caught his outstretched hand and slapped her gold wedding band into his palm. Then she pivoted on her four-inch heels and stalked back toward the parking lot. 8

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For several seconds, Colt stared at her back, his emotions a jumble of panic and dread. He’d been afraid of this. Half expecting it even. But now that it was here, he hardly knew what to do about it. “You just gonna let her walk away?” Bolt rumbled, his gold eyes glinting, his timely question shaking Colt out of his daze. “Hell no,” Colt growled. Hell no, he wasn’t going let that woman just walk out of his life. He slanted his gaze at Dalton and barked, “You got a clean pair of socks in your sports bag?” Dalton hesitated, his blue-green eyes widening as though Colt’s question had startled him. Swiftly gathering his wits, he reached for his navy blue bag. “I think so.” “Bolt,” Colt commanded, flicking his gaze at his brother. “Stop her.” With a low, lion-like snarl of glee, Bolt rolled up onto his feet, slipped out through the open doorway and jogged down the first-base line in pursuit of Colt’s wife. When he caught up with her, he hefted a squealing Renny over his shoulder. As she struggled in his hold, Colt caught a brief, mouthwatering glimpse of her black panties. As soon as she was able to free her arms, she reached back with both hands and frantically pulled her tiny skirt tight against her bottom. With a huge shit-eating grin on his face, Bolt carried her back toward the dugout. As Bolt gently set her on her feet in the doorway, Colt was waiting for her. In his hand were two long, white socks. He slapped them against his thigh. “You need a hand with her?” Bolt rumbled as a disheveled Renny scurried behind the bench and backed away. With her spine pressed against the fence at the rear of the dugout and her tumble of light brown hair spilling across her face, she sent a resentful look between the brothers. “If you don’t mind,” Colt answered, keeping his gaze on his wife’s mouth, where several strands of her hair had caught on her soft, pink lips.

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As Colt watched, Bolt carefully caged one of her delicate wrists in his big mitt and pinned it above her head. Cord took care of the other one. Together, the two men held her firmly against the wire fencing while Colt stepped in front of her. “Bolt!” she cried. “Why are you helping him?” Bolt made a rude sound in the back of his throat. “I’m not helping him! I’m helping you, darlin’. You and Colt need to talk this thing out between yourselves. When you’re done talkin’, come on back to Dalton’s. I’ll make sure that you get an even playing field when it’s payback time.” “Payback time?” Colt muttered while arching an eyebrow at his brother. “What the hell are you talking about?” “She sure is a skinny thing,” Cord grunted before Bolt could provide an answer to Colt’s question. “Renny, you need to put some meat on these bones.” “I like her just the way she is,” Colt growled as he went to work on his wife and completely wrapped Renny’s wrist in the soft sock, making sure her skin was protected before he tied her to the fence. Dalton chuckled as he watched. “You guys really play hardball with your women.” Bolt was on his knees at her feet. One large hand held her foot immobile while the other fumbled with the thin leather strap that circled her ankle. “You want both her legs strapped down?” “Bolt,” she squealed from behind the light veil of hair that fell across her face. “Don’t you dare!” Ignoring her, he snaked the shiny leather ankle strap through the fence and buckled her in. After testing the shoe to make sure she couldn’t get loose, he grinned up at her. “Bolt,” she shrilled as he reached for her other foot. “At least leave me one leg to kick him with.” Bolt squinted up at Cord. “What do you think, Cord?” “That sounds fair enough,” Cord drawled, his green eyes sparkling with humor.

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As Colt secured her other wrist, his brothers stepped away from her. “We’ll see you at Dalton’s place,” Bolt said as the men collected their gear and sauntered through the dugout door. Finally alone with his wife, Colt stood before her and raked his gaze down her slender body while he slowly, deliberately, unbuttoned his baseball pants. Reaching inside, he popped the snaps at the top of his jock strap and worked the cup out of the pocket. He groaned as his cock unwound and stretched inside the elastic pocket, testing the limits of the stretchy white fabric. With one hand, he rearranged his length then pushed the top of the jock strap down, allowing his dark cock head to poke out the top. Reaching inside, he stroked himself while he waited for Renny to lash out. His little pixie was so cute. When she kicked, she aimed for his shins. She didn’t really want to hurt him and she certainly knew better than to damage his goods. He caught her by the ankle, folded her leg and settled her knee high between his thighs. With a careful jerk, he nudged her knee up beneath his sex. “If you want to stop a man,” he advised her, “you don’t aim for his shins.” “This isn’t fair!” she exclaimed, her bottom lip puffing out into a sulky pout. “You know I don’t want to hurt you.” “No?” he murmured, reaching up with his free hand and jamming her wedding band down her finger. He tugged away the strands of hair that were caught on her moist lips then gently rubbed his thumb against the corner of her mouth. “I’m guessing you don’t really want to stop me either,” he growled softly. He lifted her knee with a short jerk and rubbed it into his sac. The sensation of that slim, dangerously hard knee tucked against his balls sent a surge of excitement through his groin, thickening his blood with a delicious thrill of urgency that felt too damn good for words. Her annoyed glare narrowed first on her ring finger then on him. “As if you care!” she spat. “Oh, I care,” he rasped as he angled her leg upward and pressed the folded limb tight against her body. 11

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“Colt!” she squeaked as his hand scraped inside the leg of her panties and over her ass, straight to the soft, damp stuff between her legs. “That’s playing dirty!” The feel of her dainty, ruffled sex made him feel tight, right from his heart down to his balls. “Oh baby, you have no idea exactly how dirty this is going to get.” “You’re not going to…” she wailed without finishing the sentence. “Not here, where anyone can see.” He flicked his gaze over his shoulder. “The road is three hundred feet away. Nobody’s gonna see any of the details. If they happen to look this way, they’ll just get a general idea of what’s going on.” “And what are they going to see?” she quavered, her beautiful blue eyes round with panic. “A man who is deeply, irrationally, hopelessly in love…fucking his wife,” he rumbled in answer, his fingers trailing through the delicate folds between her legs. “Yeah?” she cried, trying vainly to squirm away from the intrusive drag of his fingers in her pussy. “Well, if you love me so much, why couldn’t you be bothered to come down to the airport and pick me up after your baseball game instead of leaving Layla and me to take a taxi?” He didn’t tell her why. He didn’t tell her how badly he wanted to be with her every minute of the day. Instead, he covered her mouth with his. The kiss—a violent slash of eating lips and grazing teeth—silenced her pretty damn effectively as deep, bear-like sounds rolled up from his chest. With his mouth dominating hers, he worked on the buttons of her lightweight coat then attacked her starched cotton blouse. Only when he had her chest bared did he desert her lips to bury his face between the petite tits he’d come to adore. They were so exquisitely sensitive. His wife might have small breasts, but they were the sluttiest damn things he’d ever seen, her nipples shooting up like bullets at the slightest provocation. More than anything in the world, he loved to suck on her tits until she begged for his cock in her pussy. 12

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“This isn’t the first time you’ve acted as if you couldn’t care less about being with me,” she complained breathlessly. He didn’t answer. Her comment just made him feel more irritated and edgy. He stripped the cup of her lacey bra down below the small weight of her breast and sucked one of those nail-hard nipples into his mouth. “You couldn’t be bothered with the bikini photo shoot in California,” she panted petulantly. He clenched his teeth. The bikini photo shoot. If she only knew how hard it had been for him to give up a photo shoot featuring his wife outfitted in a tiny bikini! “I had to work,” he growled as he worked his mouth over her puffy, rose-colored nipple. “Then there was the Campus Miss Christmas party, which you totally blew off.” “I don’t want to talk about this,” he snarled, giving her tit a rough, punishing lick while sinking his fingers more deeply into the seam of her sex. With his index finger, he carefully tested the tender rim of her opening. “You’re not very wet,” he muttered. “Yeah, well I haven’t exactly been thinking about sex.” He lifted his face from her breast and challenged her with a look. “You haven’t been thinking about me?” “Only how mad I am at you.” “And that stops you from thinking about sex?” he demanded, his brow arching upward. “What do you think, Einstein?” He sent her an evil grin. “I just know it doesn’t stop me. I think of you and I think of sex. Every. Single. Fucking. Time.” “Well, I guess I’m just not built like you,” she snipped. “No,” he breathed, raking his eyes down over her breasts again. “You’re not. And every morning I wake up and thank the blessed Lord.” “Well, you may have to ask His help if you expect me to—” 13

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“I don’t need his help,” he snorted. “I’ll have you creaming in no time. Lord or no Lord.” “Colt,” she whimpered apprehensively. “Wh-What are you going to do?” “Just this,” he grunted as he hooked her heel through the fence and buckled her in. With her foot trapped just beneath her butt, he dropped to his knees, got her skirt up over her hips and pushed her lace-clad leg wide. He snagged the cotton panel on her panties and tugged it to the left, exposing all the delicious pink details she kept hidden between her thighs. When he touched his mouth to her luscious, hot flesh, a jolt stiffened her frame and he couldn’t help his smile of satisfaction, which he very tactfully hid against the pout of her pussy lips. “Colt,” she squealed. “We need to talk.” “Well, see now, that might be a problem, honey. Because I’ll be using my tongue in a minute. But I won’t be using it to talk.” After that he just had to ignore her complaints and comments so that he could devote his full attention to the work that faced him, to her delectable pussy. With one hand pressing her leg open and the fingers of his other hand tugging the cotton panel out of his way, he threaded his tongue through the parting in her plump labia. She tasted of sex and heat and sweet innocent arousal. As he laved the fragile flesh and got a deeper taste, his cock stiffened to the point of rigid agony. Jesus, she made him hot and horny! Well, if he had to suffer, he was damn sure gonna make certain he didn’t suffer alone. After ten months of marriage, he knew exactly what Renny liked and where she liked it. He used his entire bag of tricks—first licking a hot line through her slit then sucking at her clitoris with gentle precision. When he had her clit nice and plump, he gave it the firm lashing it deserved. Gradually, Renny’s arguments dissolved into an incoherent garbled mess of helpless sobs and whimpering cries. He pulled her wider and angled his head back so he could put his mouth against her opening, which spilled a warm, delicious rush of liquid down his throat. He growled as he sent his tongue 14

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deep and pulled more of her flavor into his mouth. When he figured she was approaching the peak of arousal, he pulled back, sending nothing but the teasing touch of his heated breath across her sex. She shuddered beneath his hands then used the brief respite to renew her attack. “You’re just doing this to avoid arguing.” “Actually,” he countered with a dark chuckle, “I’m doing this to make you ready for my cock.” “So you’re not even going to try to explain yourself?” He straightened before her and wiped his mouth on his shoulder. “I don’t want to be around other women,” he muttered, the words sounding tight as they made their way through his clenched teeth. “What?” “You know how I feel about women—women other than you.” He was lying but he figured she’d believe the story, considering his history. After what had happened with his first wife, everyone had known he didn’t want anything to do with women. Since falling in love with his beautiful Renny, that was no longer the case. But it was better for her to think he still hated all women, than to know the truth. “So your hate for women is so great that it keeps you from spending time with me? Half the population is made up of women, Colt! Are you going to refuse to spend any time with me unless we’re alone?” “That’s about it,” he insisted stubbornly. Renny’s elegant eyebrows pulled together as she considered him speculatively. “Do you not want me to have friends, Colt?” “No!” he barked as his entire frame jerked in horror. He knew she’d grown up pretty lonely. He wanted desperately for her to make new friends. He’d had plenty of friends in his time, not to mention two brothers and a sister who were always there for him. More than anything, he wanted his Renny to know that joy of camaraderie.

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“Because it seems like, whenever my personal assistant is around, that’s when you disappear.” He shrugged, trying for some nonchalant body language. “I don’t have anything against Layla per se, Renny. I’m glad you’ve made friends at Campus Miss. I just…don’t want to be around women if I don’t have to.” “Even if it means not being around me?” Grimly, he nodded. “Even if those women are important business associates as well as my best friends?” “I thought I was your best friend,” he growled. “You know what I mean,” she snapped, clearly exasperated. He was feeling pretty exasperated himself. He really did not want to discuss a situation about which he could do absolutely nothing, other than exactly what he was doing. He really just wanted to fuck the woman he loved. He covered her mouth again, sharing her pussy flavor with her as he pressed his lips against hers and reached with his tongue for the back of her throat. She responded with a melting whimper that sharpened the ache in his groin. God help him. Of all the women he’d had in his lifetime, nobody could melt like Renny. And once she started melting, her inner nympho wasn’t far away. And that provocative, naughty, impish nymphomaniac drove him right out of his ever-lovin’ mind! He pried the cotton panel from her pussy again and fingered her folds, his hand shaking as he reached deep for her opening and collected her slippery heat. His fingers coated with her silky moisture, he dragged his hand back through her slit and smeared the creamy hot stuff over her clit while she arched and gasped. His fingers slipped over her delicate sex as he searched out all the lush details inside her soft pussy lips and Renny sobbed at the wet friction he forced between her legs. Oh yeah, she was excited all right, her clit thick and full, her pulse threading through the tag of flesh in sharp

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surges. He knew he had only to flatten his thumb over that tiny bit of feminine flesh and she’d come right in his hand. “Oh!” she sobbed, her body shivering against his. “I’m going to come. Colt! I’m going to come right now!” “No, you’re not,” he snarled. “Not until I get inside you.” She gulped at the air, clearly willing her body to wait for him and his full, hard, hot penetration. “Colt,” she whimpered, the need in her voice almost destroying the hold he had on his control. With his thumb holding aside the cotton panel and the fingers of his other hand buried in the crease of her ass, he set his cock head at her tender opening and felt her cunt flutter at the edge of climax. “Not until I’m inside you,” he commanded warningly, feeding her the first thick inch of his erection. Again, she shuddered around him as though the walls of her channel were trying to pull him deep inside. A careful thrust took him another few inches inside that delicious heat. It wrapped around the top of his shaft and teased his glans so disturbingly that he began to wonder who would break first, him or her. Sweat dampened his brow as he grasped her bottom and tilted her pelvis into his groin. With a taut grunt, he shoved into her another tight, hot inch. “Fuck,” he muttered, dangling at the edge of his own barely held release. “Can you take the rest of me, sweetheart? All at once?” “Not without coming,” she cried, her teeth buried in her bottom lip as she gazed up at him, her slight frame trembling beneath the hard press of his body. “Then let go, baby. Because here I come.” With those words, he straightened his legs and jerked upward, the edge of her panties scraping painfully along his entire length as he entered her, his cock drilling right up against the velvet cushion of her cervix. As he watched her face, her eyes lost in pleasure, a small broken sound came from his chest—the sound he always made when he watched her come. The one he always hoped she never heard. Because, if she ever did, she’d know how completely she’d enslaved him. 17

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Her cunt knotted around his length and he experienced that perfect moment of black pleasure in which nothing else exists. Wrapped up inside her precious, squeezing heat, his orgasm crushed down around him while her silken sheath wrung the release from his balls. Like a line of fire, it surged through his shaft, the pleasure immense and amazing and lasting forever before finally leaving him spent and drained and so much in love that it hurt. Feeling utterly destroyed in the aftermath of his passion, he buried his mouth against Renny’s neck and kissed her with the careful press of his teeth. It was hard for Renny to stay focused and angry with her husband when he had her pressed against a fence, his big hand gripping her ass and angling her pussy to take the full, hammering impact of that wickedly wide shaft, drilling the pleasure so deep inside that she could feel his heavy weight banging at the door to her heart. But Renny had a legitimate gripe with her intensely handsome husband and she wasn’t going to be derailed by a little dirty sex, no matter how hot it happened to be. Lately it seemed as though Colt refused to go anywhere with her, especially to company functions where she’d made new friends and wanted to show him off. It was mortifying, really. Layla and Nina and the rest of the women who worked at Campus Miss probably thought theirs was a marriage of convenience. It was getting so bad that Renny was beginning to doubt Colt’s love for her. If it weren’t for the fact that he grabbed her so hungrily when they were finally alone, she’d have thought he didn’t want her at all anymore. “Still doubt that I love you?” he asked, the words gritty and rasping against her ear. As he nibbled distractingly on her earlobe, she pushed out her bottom lip. “I know men can have sex without involving their hearts,” she answered sulkily. A grim snort heated her neck. His voice was bitter as he said, “If that was the case, sweetheart, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.” Immediately Renny flared to anger. “Is that supposed to remind me that you can have any woman you want, Colt? Because if it is, you can just shove it, Mr. Har—”

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A fierce sound ripped from his throat as he grasped her head in both hands. “You’re the only woman I want,” he snarled. As he nailed her with his glowering green gaze, it was hard for Renny not to believe him. Of course, she wanted to believe him. But if he truly loved her then why hadn’t he gotten his butt down to the airport to give her and Layla a ride into town? Why had he refused to go with her to the California photo shoot? Why had he blown off the Christmas party? And why did he ignore her new personal assistant to the point of rudeness? She knew that after his first wife had cheated on him with his two best friends, Colt had decided that he hated all women. But since Renny had married him, she thought he’d put all of that hostility toward the opposite sex behind him. Now it seemed as though that dark, unhappy side of him was resurfacing and it troubled Renny on so many different levels. Did it mean that he was jealous of the new friends she’d made? Or had he decided that he just really didn’t like women? If that were the case, how long would it be before he didn’t want to be around Renny anymore? She was, after all, a woman—a small, skinny one who looked more like a boy from the rear view, maybe. But she was still a woman. As Renny worried her bottom lip with her teeth, Colt pulled away from her, a frustrated growl vibrating in his chest. He tucked his thick cock back into the pocket of his jock strap and fastened the buttons on his pinstripe pants. As he turned away from her and his cum soaked through her panties, she watched with a growing feeling of helplessness. Trapped against the fence with one of her ankles fixed beneath her butt, she couldn’t press her thighs together to halt the thick, heavy flow that seeped down between her legs. But she wasn’t alone. Without a word, Colt pulled a dark towel from his sport bag, turned and knelt in front of her and slowly, gently, cleaned the inside of her legs while

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pressing soft, warm kisses into her thighs. She should have felt like a mess. Instead she felt like the most treasured female on the planet. “I love you like this,” he murmured in his deep, rough voice. “I love it when you smell and taste of me.” Giving in to an apparent tug of emotion, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the silky black fabric that stretched across her mound. “I love you, Renny. Never doubt it.” Renny wished she could just accept those words at face value. But she couldn’t help challenging him one more time. “How much, Colt? How much do you love me? Will you come to New York with me next month for the Central Park photo shoot?” His head moved the slightest bit…in the wrong direction. “No,” he answered, his tone so melancholy that it was hard to believe he didn’t want to be in New York with her.

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Chapter Two When Colt herded his pretty little wife through the front door of Dalton and April’s home, Bolt took one look at Renny’s face and plunked Royal into her arms. Knowing Bolt, he probably figured it was impossible to look unhappy when holding a twomonth-old baby. Whatever his motive, his strategy seemed to work. Renny’s mouth softened into a beautiful smile as she gazed down at the little newborn wrapped in a fluffy blue blanket. With Renny effectively distracted, Bolt grabbed Colt’s elbow and steered him into the dining room where several of Dalton’s colorful pastels brightened the walls. “What’s up?” Bolt demanded the minute he had Colt alone. “Didn’t you tell Renny about her so-called friend at Campus Miss?” “How can I tell her?” he groaned, lifting his hands out to his sides. “She needs these women, Bolt. She needs to be successful at making friends. She’s never really had any before! Did you know that when my little Renny was fifteen years old, her two best friends stopped coming around the minute her brother left for college?” “Why on earth would they do that?” Bolt asked, a bewildered look falling across the blunt angles of his face. “I don’t know,” he growled, shaking his head. “I mean, I guess she was always a bit shy and nerdy but…” “But she’s wonderful,” Bolt insisted, though he must have known he was singing to the choir. “She’s just…fucking wonderful.” Colt leaned back against the heavy dining room table and crossed an arm over his chest. Grabbing his own biceps, he buried his fingers in the heavy muscle and kneaded it angrily. “I know that and you know that. What I don’t know is why fate has always been so damn cruel to her.” 21

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Bolt swept his hand toward the open archway that led to the other rooms. “Tavia. April. Cord and Cindy. They all feel the same way about her. Dalton too.” Colt smiled gratefully. “I know,” he said softly. “I’m tellin’ you, man. You need to come clean with Renny.” “Come clean?” Renny asked, the sound of her voice jerking Colt’s attention to the wide archway behind him. Her expression was both determined and fearful as she stepped into the dining room and fixed her baby blues on Bolt. “What do you mean?” Moving to Colt’s side, Bolt frowned at Renny, who was supposed to be holding Royal in the living room. “Tavia had to change the baby,” Renny explained briefly while twisting her fingers together in an anxious knot. “What does Colt need to come clean about?” Colt flicked his gaze at Bolt and threatened him with a look that was meant to shut him up. Unfortunately, Bolt was a hard man to intimidate. In fact, trying to get Bolt to do what you wanted him to do was kind of like trying to steer an avalanche. Colt smothered a curse as Bolt said, “He needs to tell you why he’s been reluctant to attend certain functions with you.” “Certain functions?” she echoed uncertainly. “Bolt,” Colt snarled warningly, balling his fists at his sides as he transferred his weight to his toes and got ready to launch himself at his brother. Not that it would do him much good. He’d never won a fight with his oldest brother before and he didn’t reckon that was going to change any time soon. But he was willing to risk a nosebleed— or worse—if it would shut Bolt up for a little while longer. As Colt took the first menacing step toward his brother, Bolt swiftly sidestepped and got around him. About half a second later, Bolt was standing behind Colt and had him trapped in a great big bear hug. As Colt strained in his grip, Bolt tightened his hold and told Renny, “Your friend Layla has been hitting on my little brother.”

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“What?” she whispered, looking stunned at first, then horrified, then inevitably hurt, which was exactly what Colt had been trying to avoid. As Colt watched those wide blue eyes fill up with pain, he could have killed his bigmouthed, meddling brother. At the same time, he could have kicked himself for sharing his secret with a man not generally known for his diplomacy. But most of all, he wanted to wrap his arms around Renny and shelter her in his embrace and protect her from a world that was far too ugly for a sensitive soul like hers. “Hitting on him hard,” Bolt added, blundering ahead, his deep voice grim but determined. “She’s been groping him every chance she gets, the minute your back is turned.” “I told her that I love you,” Colt insisted, the agony crackling in his voice as he struggled to free himself. “I told her to keep the hell away from me.” “He told her to fuck off,” Bolt offered bluntly. “But when he didn’t rat her out to you, she obviously took it as encouragement. She won’t leave him alone.” “And that’s why you’ve refused to go to any of the company functions or anywhere…that Layla was scheduled to be?” she stated faintly, her lowered gaze fixed on the charcoal gray carpet at her feet. “Oh, honey,” Colt explained, his heart lodged in his throat so hard that it hurt, “I’m sorry. I thought that I could just avoid her for a few months until she got the message. Until she got a chance to get to know you the way I do. And maybe that way…maybe that way…” “Maybe that way, I wouldn’t have to know about it?” she suggested as she lifted her gaze back to his eyes. “Maybe that way I wouldn’t get hurt?” “Let me go!” he roared as Renny’s face crumpled and she started to cry. When Bolt freed him, Colt scooped her up in his arms and pulled her into a chair with him, his lips moving against her cheek as he tried to console her. “Don’t cry, baby. I’m sorry.” “It’s not your fault,” she croaked. “It’s not your fault, Colt.”

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“You’re right,” he growled, sending a glare in Bolt’s direction. “This is all your fault, Bolt. You should have kept your big mouth shut!” Renny shook her head, clearly unable to speak for several seconds. Finally she sobbed, “I’m not crying because I’m sad, you big silly hunk!” “You aren’t?” he breathed, his hand on her nape, pulling her forehead against his. “No,” she cried. “I’m happy! I thought that you were getting tired of me. Instead, I find out that you were just trying to protect me. Oh, Colt!” She dissolved into tears, burying her head against his shoulder as she sobbed her heart out. “I don’t want to be Miss September anymore. I just want to be with you!” “Well,” he murmured gruffly, his eyes burning with tears he refused to shed in front of his brother. “I’ve sure as hell missed your help with the advertising agency.” After that, the situation evolved into a litany of whispered promises fitted between tender kisses. Colt was only vaguely aware of Bolt padding silently from the room. At that point, Colt had other things on his mind. Like what he was going to do with the outrageous hard-on that was growing beneath Renny’s bottom in hot, insistent surges. He was just about to suggest to her that they snag one of Dalton’s back bedrooms when a flicker of movement drew his eye to the dining room archway. Colt’s lips were buried behind her ear when Renny felt his frame stiffen slightly. Opening her eyes, a languorous smile of arousal no doubt on her lips, she looked at the two tall men who stood in the arch. Cord’s green eyes glittered with mischief and Bolt’s lips turned upward into a hard smile as he announced in an ominous rumble, “It’s payback time.” It took a substantial amount of wrestling and swearing and laughing, and the two brothers had to enlist Dalton to drive the getaway car, but when they were done Colt was firmly attached to the back wall at the baseball dugout across town, his arms spread wide at his sides, the laces on his cleats securing his feet to the bottom of the fence. His head hung forward, his black hair spilling over his jungle green eyes as he

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glared at his brothers. Though he was trying hard to look angry, the effect was ruined somewhat by the grin on his face. Night was closing in but Bolt had thoughtfully brought a flashlight along. He set it down on the bench then rested his heavy hand on Renny’s shoulder. “There ya go, Renny. I promised you an even playing field. Make him pay.” They left her on her knees on the sandy ground in front of Colt. As they strode away across the ball field toward the parking lot, Renny worked on Colt’s pants. She took her time and slowly plucked open each button while letting her fingers trail over the thick mound behind his fly. The last two buttons, she worked open with her teeth and tongue, ignoring his ragged groans as she directed her breath in a hot spill across his groin. When she finally had all the buttons undone, she opened his pants and licked her lips as she eyed the thick flesh that bulked inside his jock strap. Her husband sure did a fine job of filling the stretchy white pocket. “Renny,” he demanded while a strained panting sound heaved from his chest. “What are you going to do?” “Don’t you know?” she purred. Lifting one finger, she hooked it in the top of his jock strap and pulled down, slowly revealing the long, delicious length of his cock. Leaning forward, she pressed her lips against a wide vein. Beneath the burning heat of his skin, it pulsed thickly as it pumped blood to his erection. “I’m going to suck you off, Colt.” “Baby,” he rasped, his cock jerking in response to her suggestion, “you don’t want to do that.” She smiled to herself as she licked a wet line from his root right up to the slit in his cushioned cock head. Clearly, her husband didn’t know what she wanted. Though she’d had his cock in her mouth often enough before, he’d always pulled back before he climaxed. She’d never felt the full power of his release rushing down her throat. She’d never tasted more than a small sample of his cum. “You know what your problem is,

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Colt?” she murmured then continued before he could offer a guess. “You’re too much of a gentleman.” “Me?” he barked. His glorious green eyes widened in surprise as he muttered, “Nobody ever accused me of that before.” “Well, it’s true,” she answered. “You worry too much about what’s good for me. You should have told me about Layla.” “I’m sorry, Renny. I just didn’t want to hurt you.” “Your silence hurt,” she explained in a gentle whisper as she worked her lips over the fever-hot skin that stretched tightly around his rigid shaft. “Maybe not as sharply as the truth but thinking that you didn’t want to be with me was steadily dragging me down. You should know by now that what’s good for you is good for me.” She lifted her head and sent him a coquettish look before she said, “And you should have come in my mouth long before now.” Then she covered his cock head with her lips and took his straining erection as deeply as she could. Bolt could hear his brother shouting as he and Cord rejoined Dalton in the parking lot. Together the three men climbed into Tavia’s Hummer. “Sounds like Renny knows how to play hardball,” Dalton chuckled, turning the key in the ignition. “I just love a happy ending,” Bolt said, his chest expanding on a big, heartfelt sigh as he lifted his arms and threaded his fingers together behind his head. “Don’t you?” Cord grinned at his brother as he pulled his seatbelt across his chest. “He does sound happy doesn’t he?” Dalton cocked his ear toward the dugout. “Actually, he sounds like he’s coming.” “Same thing,” the two brothers said together. Cord arched one tawny eyebrow and slanted a look at first Dalton then Bolt. “Cindy ought to be home by now. Can you give me a lift over there? And when we get there, maybe you could tie me down before you leave?”

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“What are brothers for?” Bolt drawled as Dalton pulled the Hummer out of the parking lot and headed for Cord’s place.

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About the Author I slung the heavy battery pack around my hips and cinched it tight—or tried to. “Damn.” Brian grabbed an awl. Leaning over me, he forged a new hole in the loose belt looped around my waist. “Any advice?” I asked him as I pulled the belt tight. “Yeah. Don’t reach for the ore cart until it starts moving, then jump on the back and immediately duck your head. The voltage in the overhead cable won’t just kill you. It’ll blow you apart.” That was my first day on my first job. Employed as an engineer, I’ve worked in an underground mine that went up—inside a mountain. I’ve swung over the Ohio River in a tiny cage suspended from a crane in the middle of an electrical storm. I’ve hung 30 feet in the air over the Hudson River at midnight in an aluminum boat—suspended from a floating barge at the height of a blizzard, while snowplows on the bridge overhead rained slush and salt down on my shoulders. You can’t do this sort of work without developing a sense of humor, and a sense of adventure. New to publishing, both my reading and writing habits are subject to mood and I usually have several stories going at once. When I need a really good idea for a story, I clean toilets. Now there’s an activity that engenders escapism. I was surveying when I met my husband. He was my ‘rod man’. While I was trying to get my crosshairs on his stadia rod, he dropped his pants and mooned me. Next thing I know, I’ve got the backside of paradise in my viewfinder. So I grabbed the walkie-talkie. “That’s real nice,” I told him, “but would you please turn around? I’d rather see the other side.” …it was love at first sight. Madison welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

Tell Us What You Think We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email us at [email protected].

Also by Madison Hayes Alpha Romeos with Rhyannon Byrd Calendar Girls: Miss April Calendar Girls: Miss August Calendar Girls: Miss December Calendar Girls: Miss February Calendar Girls: Miss January Calendar Girls: Miss March Calendar Girls: Miss May Calendar Girls: Miss September Calendar Girls: Miss October Dye’s Kingdom: Wanting It Forever Enter the Dragon anthology Gryffin Strain: His Female Gryffin Strain: His Mistress In the Arms of Danger Kingdom of Khal: Redeeming Davik Kingdom of Yute: Tor’s Betrayal Made For Two Champions Made For Two Heroes Made For Two Men Made For Two Rivals Zeke’s Hands

Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.

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