Silence. No one speaks for the rest of the ride home. What the hell are we doing falling in love? We signed our lives over to the Navy. We have no business signing up for happily ever afters.
Aziel and Gage are out of the doors before I can get our SUV in park. We take the stairs to the porch and storm inside. We all head to the main bedroom only to find the bed empty. There’s nothing but the dildo she used to torture us with and her phone.
“What is this?” I pick up a note tucked under the edge of her phone.
Find me if you want me.
Gage stalks over to the window and his face turns ghost white. “Son of a bitch, she’s going to go swimming.” The sliding door is open and he’s dashing across the backyard, his clothes hitting the ground like grenades.
Aziel and I are right behind him.
“Belle, stop!” Gage’s warning carries away on the evening wind. A storm is rolling in which will only make the waters stronger.
God, no! We can’t lose her. Death claws closer. I’ve had enough brushes with the dark lord of the underworld to know what it looks like. Chills erupt over my arms and the steel spikes driving into my heart sink deeper.
Just last week a woman drowned not twenty feet down the beach. Undercurrents are tricky beasts and can kill men like us trained to swim in the deadliest of waters.
The idea of them tearing her from us puts fire in my legs.
We strip off anything that can weigh us down just as she turns and waves.
She’s a siren with her flowing hair and beautiful body on full display.
“Stop, Belle!” Aziel hits the dock at full speed, the boards rattling and shaking as he pounds them getting to her.
Fear grips her face and the smile drops from her lips. She backtracks and gets dangerously close to the edge. “What? What’s wrong?”
Aziel reaches her first and narrowly misses her hand as she starts to fall back into the swirling waters.
Fuck! My heart is ready to burst. My brother pins her to his chest. Aziel’s red eyes meet mine over the top of her head.
“Thank God. You got her brother. Loosen your hold, man. She can’t breathe.”
“Yes, she can’t breathe,” Belle mutters into Aziel’s chest.
“Fuck, that was close.”
Gage takes her from Aziel and then I gather her in my arms next. We all take turns reassuring ourselves she’s safe. A few inches at a time we start to huddle together until there’s not much space between the three of us and her.
“My God, do you know how close you were to being taken from us?”
I pin her to my bare chest.
Her startled eyes meet ours. “What are you guys talking about? I wasn’t going for a swim. I’m not suicidal. Those waters look sketchy as fuck. And that storm…” She raises her finger to motion toward the dark clouds riding in over the horizon. “...it’s not safe. You think I didn’t know that?”
The fire in her eyes glimmers with irritation. She’s stunning even looking like she wants to kick us all in the balls for going caveman protector over her. She’ll just have to get used to it. Protecting her just became our number one priority.
“What are you doing out here with no clothes?”
The way her lips twitch has my cock jerking. Her eyes dart from Gage’s to his very naked body and then to mine and Aziel’s. I’ve gone from flat-out scared out of my skin to turned on just as quickly.
“Ditto. But you first.”
“Saving your ass if you’d jumped in.”
Her smile falls and I tuck her into me a little more earning a flash of irritation from Gage. “You’d risk yourselves to rescue me?”
“That you even have to ask is insulting.”