“Good. Today is my day off, technically. So I can use the time to wait with you and see if Curtis emerges. The clock is ticking, but I’ve figured out that if we try to hunt him down, he’ll just dig deeper into his hidey-hole.”
“Especially if he knows someone is trying to kill him.”
“And he’d be an idiot to think Marco isn’t tryin
g to off him as quickly as possible.”
“Damn straight,” Thorn agreed. “And if there’s one thing Curtis isn’t…”
“It’s stupid.” Cam nodded, brushing a long caress down Brenna’s arm, then back up to her collarbone. “He knows that testifying and Witness Protection are his best bets to stay alive. I wish he’d allowed us to provide protective custody, but the minute Judge Nelson granted him bail, I suspected he’d go deep.”
The sight of Cam’s hands on Brenna was damn distracting. “With someone like Marco chasing you, wouldn’t you?”
“Likely.”
“How did my father get involved in all this?” Brenna asked. “It’s not like we have a deep relationship, but I never imagined him to be a criminal.”
“I don’t know.” Cam shook his head. “Curtis wasn’t that talkative when I questioned him. He answered what was asked directly but didn’t offer more. I didn’t ask why. If I had to guess, though, it’s like everyone else. The lure of the easy money is just too strong.”
Brenna recoiled. “It’s so ugly. These are people, for goodness sake.”
“Some people look at other people and see nothing but dollar signs, baby.” Thorn grabbed her and rubbed a soothing thumb over the back. “It is ugly, but Cam and I see the dregs of society every day. It’s nothing new for us.”
“Vice is a regular barrel of fun,” Cam drawled.
She shuddered. “Back in my little town in Texas, the most dangerous character I ever saw was the occasional handsy guy who’d come to the diner and think a free feel came with his mashed potatoes.”
Her words exploded an instant picture into Thorn’s head of some unwashed creep putting his hands on Brenna’s ass, and he tensed, wishing he had heads to knock around. He didn’t like the thought of her having to fend off these assholes on her own.
“Know how to break their fingers?”
She sent him a chastising glance. “Violence against customers would be bad for business.”
“But better for my mental health. Be careful, baby.”
She sidled closer and snuggled up to him and laid her head on his chest. “With you here, I feel completely safe.”
That suddenly, he felt both a hundred feet tall and invisible ties winding around his heart.
Shit, was he hooked? Was love that quick and simple? And what about Cam?
He slanted a glance at the detective, who didn’t look at all unhappy that he had his arm around Brenna’s waist while his fingers removed the towel covering her long honey-brown hair. In fact, that sleepy, sensual expression on the detective’s face conveyed anything but anger.
This whole sharing a woman thing… Looking at Cam’s face, he didn’t think the cop saw it as an isolated event or two. Mentally, Thorn tried on the idea of making this a relationship. Immediately, blood rushed south, pulsing, making his dick throb insistently.
Okay, so that part of him dug it. Shocker… If history repeated, he knew the sex would never be anything but astounding. But there were practical reasons too. Brenna would always be protected. She’d never feel unloved or abandoned again. If he begged or fucked appropriately, there might be some home-cooked meals in his future. And this warm, gooey feeling in his chest that made him weirdly happy might stay. He could be important, not just to one person, but two. He might actually feel like his personal life had meaning beyond orgasms with strangers.
At thirty-three, he finally wanted more than a one-night stand with someone whose name he couldn’t remember. Maybe even something to last.
“You are completely safe,” Thorn assured her, tugging gently on her damp hair to tip her head back. He looked straight into those hazel eyes and swore he could see forever as he lowered his mouth to hers.
Soft, like a cotton blanket on a warm bed—that’s how she felt against him. Petal-sweet lips parted under his, and he dove deep, sinking into oblivion. And he didn’t care. There was something here he’d never felt anywhere else. He wasn’t about to let her get away.
Even with his eyes closed, he felt a sudden surge of heat near Brenna. Cam. The detective pressed himself against her backside and wrapped his hands around her waist. He caressed slowly, palms rising to her breasts, dragging his knuckles across her nipples. She groaned into Thorn’s mouth. That, coupled with the soft abrasion of the back of Cam’s fingers caressing his torso, juiced his blood in a flash.
Thorn’s kiss turned from an affirmation to a conquering in the span of a heartbeat as he turned on the heat. Under him, Brenna melted. Then an unexpected touch as Cam’s fingers brushed his shoulder, sending electricity straight to his dick. The touch drifted away and returned to Brenna but the effect lingered.
Just from that, Thorn suspected Cam was going to push his boundaries. And instead of being freaked, he was feeling very bring it on. Quickly, he laid his gun on the dresser just a lunge away from where he currently stood, just in case. Then the turned back to the others.
Brenna removed her hands from Thorn’s body, and before he could protest, she tugged at the towel around her body, baring herself to them. Thorn took advantage of the sudden access to soft skin and glided his palms over her back and downward.
The backs of his fingers brushed the thick ridge of Cam’s erection on the way down.
The detective hissed, and Thorn smiled inwardly. Take that. Then he focused on Brenna’s prime ass, trailing his fingers over her cheeks, between her legs, between her lips. He smiled. Wet. Just the way he wanted her.
Easing his fingers inside her, she closed around him silky hot and tight. She was going to be a delight for his dick. And Cam’s. The thought of both of them sharing one pussy should have pissed him off, grossed him out—something. Nope. He was so jacked on desire, he was a step from throwing her to the bed, tearing off his jeans and working his cock straight in.
But he wanted to draw it out, make her scream and beg…and see whether Cam would contribute to her sensual torture or succumb to the towering need to fuck her immediately.
Cam continued to toy with her nipples, pinching, turning, sensitizing. Brenna’s little moans were eating at his resolve. And when Cam sank passionate kisses across her shoulder, then up her neck, to her lobe, Thorn felt his heat, the jagged need in his exhalation.
Fingertips brushed down his chest, full of electric sizzle. Brenna’s? Cameron’s? Did it matter?
He groaned and clutched Brenna tighter, his fingers pressing into her soft flesh as he slanted his mouth in a new direction to delve deeper into the kiss.
The live wire touch kept drifting lower, stopping at the waistband of his pants. A tug, a jerk of the material, then the jeans sagged away from his waist. The fingers continued, easing down his zipper. Slowly, so damn slowly it was all he could do not to growl at whoever to hurry the fuck up. His dick was like an insistent toothache, refusing to ease up. Pressure was building in his balls. With his fingers still inside Brenna, he knew she was growing tighter, wetter, and all Thorn could think of was getting inside to ease his ache and feel her flesh all round him rippling in release. And Cam watching.
Brenna broke from the kiss and began to trail her open mouth over his shoulder, his chest, until she latched around one of his nipples. She sucked, and the sensation was like fire-laced lightning. He threw his head back, gritted his teeth, and tried to hang onto his self-control.
“Feel good?” Cam asked, his voice low and rough.
“Fuck yeah.”
Cam chuckled. Thorn wasn’t remotely tempted to join in, especially when the hand tugging down his zipper finally succeeded and pushed his jeans and underwear down around his hips. Cool air wrapped around his cock.
Followed by a hand. A large hand. A firm hand.
A man’s hand.
As much as Thorn wanted to deny that it felt good, he couldn’t, not when liquid heat shot down his spine, into his balls, broiling him. Then the hand stroked up his shaft, thumb brushing over the head, and he nearly lost it.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Thorn groaned.
r /> “Watching you fight the urge to come.” Cam didn’t say that he found it sexy, but his voice said it for him.
Knowing he was affecting Cam just imploded Thorn’s self-control that much more. His mind railed. He should be revolted. He definitely didn’t go for guys, had never once felt an attraction to one he even remotely wanted to heed. But Cam stroked down to the root of Thorn’s erection then brushed over his balls. Amazing. Thorn moaned long and low.
All rational thought stopped except it felt good, so what the