“We have a name. One that’s not common. This is a small town. We’ll find her.”
My voice is calm and collected, the complete opposite of my two friends’ thunderous expressions, but also of my inner turmoil. I’m playing my usual role as the more reasonable one in our trio of crazy motherfuckers. I just hope I’m right, because that woman is ours. Something very special transpired between us. It wasn’t just the insane physical attraction, the desire to fall on my knees, push that skin-tight dress of hers up her generous thighs and bury my face between her legs till her knees gave in. Not only the effect of her scent, her beauty, the sensual curves that instantly made me dizzy with desire. Not just the vibration of that low, throaty voice hitting me straight in my cock. It had been so much more. The insane pull to get close to her. Not only physically, then and there, but after. Tomorrow, and the day after. A week, month, year, decade from now. Images of a lifetime by her side flashed through my shaken mind, leaving me speechless.
We all fucking felt it. The electricity crackling in the air. The way all three of us had been immediately and simultaneously drawn to her.
Yes, she’s a beautiful woman. But that wasn’t just it. Our instant obsession with Yasin was rooted in something deeper, stronger, and much more unshakable than the craving to play with her luscious body till she begs us to stop making her come.
My gut roared loud and clear, ‘HER!’. And my gut doesn’t lie. It’s never betrayed me. Even saved my ass more times than I can count.
“If you say so,” Chase grumbles, still watching the street like a hawk.
“How fucking stupid are we? Not even asked where or with who she’s staying,” Luca growls under his breath.
He hasn’t stopped calling us all sorts of bird names since we left the mall. I think Yasin may have broken the big guy. Under any other circumstance, I’d be laughing my ass off at him. But Chase is right, we acted like a fucking band of morons and not trained and practiced veteran Seals.
“Not sure we even deserve to find her,” he spits out, voice heavy with disgust.
“Hey, speak for yourself,” Chase cuts in. “I’ve waited my whole life for that woman, Luc’. There is no fucking way this was a one and done. You hear me?”
Chase is standing in Luca’s face, marking his words with jabs of an enraged finger into the air. Looking just as crazed as the man he’s facing off with.Fuck. Okay, time for damage control.
I insert myself between the two fire-breathing dragons, laying a hand at the center of each one of my best friends’ chest.
“Okay, ladies. No need to get your panties in a wad. This is fucking Hopeton. There’s no fucking way our girl, with all her class, that ass, that face, that fucking bedroom voice, went unnoticed. All we have to do is ask around, right?”
I pin them with an intense stare, one after the other, and they each nod. Reluctantly, brows furrowed, jaws flexed, still trading deadly glares. But at least we’re all in agreement.
It’s my turn to nod.
“Good. Now let’s use our fucking brains, gentlemen. Where should we start?”
Luca grumbles something unintelligible, making Chase and I turn our attention to him.
“What did you say?” I ask in a tone that’s stripped of most of its patience.
“That place, the new bakery. It’s Thanksgiving weekend, people are probably still getting pies. We should be able to find someone who knows Yasin, or at least has seen her.”
Chase rubs his chin, nodding. “That could work.”
I watch them exchange a quick glance and chin lifts, our badass macho men way of apologizing for losing one’s temper and moving on.
* * *
This is a tiny town. Almost everything is within walking distance. But armed with our all-consuming need to find our woman, the fifteen-minutes stroll from the mall to the bakery gets cut in half.
Walking down Main, our determined strides pick up when we spot the sign on top of the cute little place,Thankful Cafe. And standing on the sidewalk, looking into the glass storefront, a vision hits us all at once. Yasin is sitting alone at a table in the back of the small seated area, fingers wrapped around a steaming mug, her gaze unfocused, gnawing at her bottom lip and looking so fucking beautiful. Adorable. Lost. Fucking sexy.
The guys and I exchange a quick glance. We understand each other without the need to utter a word. We’ve been operating this way going on close to two decades. There’s a mission at stake. The most important one of our lives. With the highest possible stakes. Claim and care for our girl. Protect her, make sure she’s okay. Whatever it takes. Whatever she needs. And that shit fucking starts now.
2
THANKFUL CAFE
CHASE
We file into the small entrance, needing to duck to pass the door. The friendly woman at the counter greets us with a wide smile, but we barely send her passing glances paired with a curt chin lift. Our entire attention, our sole mission in life, is the insanely beautiful woman sitting alone at a table in the back of the packed place. The crowd parts to let through our giant frames. I can’t even imagine what we must look like. Three big, tall motherfuckers fucking eating up a curvy fantasy of a woman and striding toward her with the intensity of an army in march to conquer enemy lands.
When we reach Yasin’s table, we each claim a chair. Her head abruptly comes up and her beautiful big brown eyes widen, her full mouth falling open in surprise. Fuck, the things I want to do to her plump lips, that supple tongue, that warm, soft mouth. Taste her again. push my fingers into her wet heat, make her suck on other parts of my anatomy…