Chapter Two
The next day, Katie slipped through the doorway, and into her grandmother’s kitchen, away from her welcome home party. She needed a few minutes to gather her wild emotions after the two men had walked into the house several minutes ago. Ryland McKade and Jedidiah Malloy.
Standing at the sink, she stared out the window. Welcome back to Felton’s Creek. Her heart jumped. She’d run from Ry and Jed eight years ago, afraid of her own sexuality. Now, she was more secure with herself, but what about them? She was putting horse before the cart. They needed to talk first.
From the second she saw them enter the house, Ry and Jed had dominated her thoughts, made her pussy wet, and caused the blood to heat in her veins. Only these two could do that by just walking into her space.
Now she was wishing and praying she’d done the right thing in coming back home. She knew what type of relationship Ry and Jed wanted. They’d made it clear when she was eighteen, and from chatting with her grandmother, it didn’t sound like anything had changed.
Why hadn’t she’d talked to them before coming back?
Maybe because she’d been afraid. Afraid of her own wants and needs.
But she had to try. She’d regret it the rest of her life if she didn’t give them the chance.
The air in the kitchen changed, and she opened her eyes.
It was just dark enough outside she could see their reflections in the glass. Her heart pounded.
Ry and Jed sauntered through the door and over to her.
Her breath caught in her throat. Ry was still taller than Jed and had filled out in the past years.
His features were more serious than she remembered, but there was something else, something…
Oh hell, he was the cop who had pulled her over yesterday.
Jed. She turned her attention to him. He was still taller than her by a couple of inches, his skin tan from the sun, with laugh lines around his blue eyes. His brown hair brushed his collar. He’d filled out over the years, but was still smaller than Ry.
Little sparks of nervous energy caused her hands to twitch. She shifted from one foot to the other. No time like the present. She would have to deal with them on a daily basis.
“Hi, guys,” she said, smiling at their reflections in the glass as her stomach clenched.
“Katie.” Ry’s rich voice sent a shiver of awareness up her spine.
“Kitty Kat.” Jed’s soft-as-butter voice caused her heart to speed up.
Katie took a deep breath and turned only to run into a hard chest. Lifting her head, she gazed into Ry’s eyes. His firm hands framed her waist, guiding her away from the sink until Jed was able to step behind her.
Oh, crap. Her heart fluttered and excitement filled her bones.
They were not going slow this time. Jed’s chest brushed against her back, his hands settling right above Ry’s on her waist. Pure molten heat flooded her pussy.
She was stuck between two hard bodies, and neither her mind nor her heart was protesting.
Ry nodded. The two men guided her across the room, where Ry reached back and opened the pantry door. Once they were inside, the click of the lock vibrated in her ears.
Why wasn’t she protesting? Because she didn’t want to. The three of them were alone in the small room. Her mouth went dry as the small light flickered to life. Enough light to see things, but not the harshness of the overhead light bulb.
“Welcome home.” Jed’s breath skimmed her neck before his lips touched her skin.
“It’s been too damn long.” Ry didn’t hesitate, his mouth closing over hers.
Her heart pounded as Ry’s mouth devoured hers. Jed nipped at her skin with little bites where her neck and shoulder met, and she gasped.
Two sets of hands roamed over her body. Ry cupped her ass, pulling her against his hard cock. Jed teased the underside of her breasts, making her nipples pebble while he pressed his equally hard erection against her ass.
“My turn.” The words barely registered before Ry released her lips. Strong fingers cupped her chin, her head turned, and Jed took her mouth. His lips were softer, but his kiss was as hard and demanding as Ry’s, just less urgent.
Her brain grappled with the way they tasted. Ry, metal and coffee. Jed, mint and the outdoors. Oh, God. They tasted the same as they had when she was eighteen.
Her body was melting between them. She curled one arm around Jed’s neck, and the other hand began caressing Ry’s chest. Her helplessness to resist these two men was starting again. And did she care? At the moment, no, but she’d come home knowing they weren’t going to play it safe.
A thump against the wall caused Katie to jump, but it also helped clear her head of the sensual web the men had spun over her. They were in her grandmother’s pantry, her grandmother’s house, making out like a bunch of teenagers. This had to stop. Now. Ground rules needed to be put in place.
“Guys,” she whispered after pulling her mouth free from Jed’s and catching her breath.
Lips caressed each side of her neck, hands roaming over her body, making her squirm. But when skin met skin, she had to stop this before they ripped off their clothes. And she knew of only one way to make them stop.
“Red.”
Their heads snapped up, and their hands stilled.
“What did you just say?” Ry stared down at her, his gray eyes flat and cold.
“Red.” An icy shiver slithered up her spine, but she held her ground.
Jed swore softly, removed his hands, and took a step back. Ry kept staring at her, but he, too, released her and pulled away.
Katie took a deep breath and let it out.
It helped calm her racing heart, but their scent filled her nostrils instead.
Sandalwood for Ry and leather for Jed, and those scents had haunted her every night.
It wasn’t fair they could tie her up in knots so quickly, but then she knew what she was getting into by coming home.
She feared she couldn’t handle them or what they wanted.
“This is my grandmother’s house. We will not do this here.” She had to be strong if she was going to enter a relationship with these two men. It had to be on terms she could live with, or they could destroy her heart.
Ry cleared his throat. “How did you know the word red would stop us?”
Bracing her back against one of the shelves, she stared at the two men in front of her. “I’m no longer the shy, na?ve eighteen-year-old you once knew.” And she wasn’t. Thanks to some of the friends she’d made in New York, she’d learned a lot about the world they described to her. Their world.
“I see.” Ry rubbed his chin, evaluating her with an intense gaze, as if he was assessing a flight risk.
She wasn’t going to run this time. She wouldn’t leave Felton’s Creek; she’d had enough of the big city and chasing a dream that wasn’t possible. She wouldn’t go back to her father’s machinations. She thrust her failure away. This was not the time or the place.
“You do realize what you’re saying?” Jed asked.
“I hope so,” she whispered as doubt crept into her mind. Could she handle them? She almost laughed out loud. Handle wasn’t the right word. No one could handle them. They were their own men.
“Then let the games begin,” Jed said.
They started toward her, and Katie threw her hands up. “Nope. There are things we need to discuss, and you two need to back off.”
Both men stood like statues.
She had to hold back a nervous giggle at the surprised and hungry look on their faces.
Her body trembled, but she had to do this.
It was difficult for her to deny them, but she had to.
Her rules. “This is my grandmother’s house.
I will not do this here. There is no discussion around it. It’s a hard limit.”
“Who the fuck taught you?” Ry took a step forward.
“Ry.” Jed grabbed his arm. “Katie is right. This isn’t the time or place.”
Jed’s hard stare made Katie shiver. Okay, so maybe Jed wasn’t as easygoing as she remembered.
“Tomorrow night. Our house. Seven.” Ry ground the words out.
Katie nodded. At least they were taking her seriously. She squeezed past them to the door of the pantry. Her skin felt singed from the contact.
“And if you’re late, you will be punished,” Jed said as her hand curved around the knob.
She froze, her heart doing triple time. “Punished? No. We haven’t covered all the bases yet, and until we do, don’t overstep. And I’m always on time when I make a commitment.”
She slipped out and closed the door behind her, resting her back against the solid wood. Oh. Dear. God. She was going into the lion’s den.
* * * *
Ry stared at the pantry door, willing the acute hurt rolling through his veins to subside. “I want to know who taught her.” His voice vibrated.
“We’ll find out, and you need to calm down, Ry.” Jed’s calm tone wasn’t helping Ry control the beast inside him.
“Someone else taught her, Jed. Not us. It should have been us.” Ry ground his teeth together.
And if he had taught her? Would he have scared her with his demands?
His need for control? He’d been a baby Dom when she left, just twenty-one, and he knew only what his parents had taught him about a poly relationship.
Since then, he’d learned what it meant to be a good Dominant.
But the moment he saw her, his emotions took over.
“Just because she knew the one word to stop us cold doesn’t mean she’s fully educated.
” Jed leaned against a shelving unit, taking deep breaths, watching Ry.
Ry reached down and adjusted himself. It was then Ry noticed Jed’s cock was as hard as his.
“Information about safe words and hard limits is easy enough to find on the internet.”
Ry blew out a breath. “Damn, you’re right.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just the thought of another man…” His teeth snapped together, and Jed winced at the sound.
“Yeah, I’m with you there.” Jed rubbed his stomach. “If another man has taught her, we will deal with it. She’s been gone eight years. We can’t expect her not to have experimented. It’s not like we were celibate while she was gone.”
“I lose all reason when I’m around her.”
“You always did, and that’s why you have me.” Jed punched him in the arm, and they both smiled. “Shall we discuss how we want to handle Katie tomorrow?”
“Yes, when we get home. Because this time, I’m not letting her run.”