BENNETT
* * *
“You ready for this?” I asked Cash, holding my cell up to my ear.
I toed off my shoes in the newly created mudroom, a space I’d had Landon Duke’s construction company create. The ranch house was sprawling—the previous owner had three kids—but needed updating. I had all the money I could ever use and I was slowly turning the place into a home, one room at a time. My home. After the rat race and cutthroat dealings in Miami, I was happy here and I liked the slow pace. I was settled in Raines, doing what I wanted, when I wanted to do it, and how I wanted it done.
Now, seeing Julia, kissing her… I realized I’d been missing quite a bit from life. Seeing her in the doorway earlier had been like a cartoon anvil falling on my head.
I took the stairs two at a time to the master bedroom. Reaching behind my head, I tugged my shirt off, let it drop to the carpet by the bed.
One-night-stands were fine and all. Took the edge off. Relaxed me. But damned if I remembered any of the women’s names the next day. And the others I’d shared with Cash… a wild time but nothing more.
And yet, now, I’d never been so hard in my life. Fuck, I was thirty-six years old, and I was about to have phone sex. Phone sex, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. I undid the button on my jeans, slid the zipper down, reached into my boxers and pulled my dick out. I was close to coming and I tightly gripped the base to hold it off. What the fuck was wrong with me? I wasn’t fifteen anymore.
“Hell, yes,” Cash said, breaking me from my thoughts.
I’d dropped him off at his house fifteen minutes earlier. I couldn’t cut the ride out of town to my property any closer, not wanting to risk being pulled over by Liam Hogan. I had no interest in explaining my speed, or the hard-on in my pants, to a Duke family friend—and the county sheriff. He was dating Jill Murphy along with Julia’s cousin, Porter. What we did with Julia was private and wasn’t her brothers’, or cousin’s, business.
“She’s skittish,” I replied. I thought of the kiss we’d shared. Just watching her kissing Cash had been hot. While he’d initiated, it had been gentle, almost tender. But then she’d practically climbed him like a tree for more. And when I’d gotten my mouth on her… she was so fucking sweet. Like candy. Passionate, a little wild, as if she even surprised herself a little. I remembered the feel of her curves as she pressed against me. Those tits were definitely god given, unlike most ones in Miami. And her nipples, I’d felt those hard tips. Perfection in a tiny little package.
I hadn’t wanted to lift my head from the kiss. All I’d wanted to do was toss her over my shoulder, kick open her front door and take her on the floor. But something hadn’t been quite right.
“She wanted us, but ran hot and cold,” Cash said.
“Yeah, remember what she said earlier… something like a dildo doesn’t complain when it’s fucking her.” I ran my hand through my hair. “I’m guessing some asshole hurt her, and I want to kill him.”
“If her brothers found out about it, he’s dead already,” Cash stated.
I grinned, sitting down on the side of my bed. She had a lot of protectors and I was glad for it, but that didn’t mean she told them everything. I had a sister and, thank fuck, I knew nothing about her sex life, even if she’d been married for five years now. “I want her. Fuck, like air to breathe, but it was obvious we weren’t getting in her bed tonight. I didn’t want to scare her off, so I thought this would be a pretty hot alternative.”
Like a spooked horse, although I didn’t know much more about horses than which end was the front.
“You? I’m the rapist.”
I closed my eyes, took a breath. “For fuck’s sake, you are not a rapist. Kelly was a fucking psycho with entitlement issues. We’ve got a woman with a dildo waiting for us to call her and we’re hashing up this shit again?”
“Yeah, but if some asshole hurt her, then I’m only going to make it worse.”
“Only if you’re an asshole, too, and you’re not. You’d never hurt a woman. Ever.”
He sighed. “You’re right.”
“So get your head out of your ass and your dick out of your pants. We’ve got a girl to phone fuck.”
The sound of rustling had me assuming he was stripping down. “Our goal is to get her off—”
“—and get her to want more,” I cut in. “Hang on. I’ll add her to the call.”
Sitting on the edge of my bed, I swiped my phone, set it to speaker, then connected her into the call.
“Hello,” she said. That breathy word had me lifting up so I could push my jeans and boxers down off my hips.
“Angel,” I breathed. I leaned forward, resting my forearm on my thigh as I held the phone. With my free hand, I slowly stroked my dick. “Cash is on, too.”
“Hey, baby,” he said. “All ready for bed?”
“Yes.”