“I have to.”
Landon’s words hit her square in the chest, and she couldn’t bear to look at him any longer. She glanced out the front windshield of the SUV, staring at nothing in the lot at Dewey’s Drive-In but pretending to anyway.
Her unfocused eyes couldn’t lock on any one item, not even the giant, white movie screen or the concessions stand she knew were close by. Everything around her just looked blurry and blobby through the tears filling her eyes.
“We have to tell him together,” Landon told her. “He is going to need both of us. Surely, you know that.”
No, she didn’t. Shane made no sense whatsoever to her. Then again, what man did? She knew one thing, though. He wouldn’t care if she was there, not really. He would be fine. He would deal.
Right?
Landon sighed. “He won’t say he needs you. He won’t say he needs me, either. But he does, and he will. You know it, but you’re afraid that he’ll push you away or that he’ll reject you.”
“So, let me get this straight,” she said. “You are willing to stand by his side and risk getting hurt all over again?”
“Absolutely,” he said so simply, so honestly.
Katie-Anne’s heart clenched, and she felt a sliver of jealousy come to life.
I wish I was as strong as him.
It must be nice to be able to risk pain and accept it, all in the name of love. She didn’t understand it. Or, if she did, she couldn’t do it. Either way, it didn’t help her or their situation.
“Why?” she inquired, hoping she didn’t sound too curious. The foreign concept befuddled her and so did his acceptance of it. “Loyalty only goes so far.”
Landon put his finger under her chin, tipping her face up to his. He smiled at her gently, the sweetness of his expression making her grin right back at him. “This isn’t about loyalty. It’s about love, and love never runs away.”
Sure, it does. We’ve been doing that for several months now.
Her thoughts popped out of her mouth before she censored them. “Doesn’t it? That is what we’ve both been doing.”
“Yeah,” Landon conceded. “It didn’t work, though. Did it?”
Damn it.
He was right. It hadn’t worked. She’d still wound up back here, back in their arms, and he was still in limbo with both her and Shane.
“I guess not,” she agreed, looking up into his gorgeous blue eyes. She knew fear had to be in her own eyes, and he could see it. Yet amazingly, it didn’t bother her. This was Landon. She didn’t have to worry about what he thought. He would love her anyway. “I’m scared, Landon.”
He brushed her hair to the side before placing a nibbling kiss to her jaw line. “I know. I am, too, but there is nothing else to do. I love him, and I can’t walk away from him when he needs me. Can you?”
Can I take the Fifth Amendment? Please?
Landon lifted his head up and gave her a look, a hot look that dared her to deny the truth. She had a feeling that she would regret lying to herself, but her ass would regret her lying to him.
Finally, she gave in to the God’s honest truth. She would never leave him, not when he needed her. If he admitted that he needed her, she would probably keel over dead. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t faze her. She wanted to be there for Shane because Landon hit the nail on the head—love didn’t run away. And neither would she.
Not this time.
“No,” she finally mumbled then spoke louder, more clearly when she asked the questions plaguing her. “What about after? What about when he walks away from us again?”
“He won’t,” Landon denied quickly with a sharp edge and an undertone that made no sense to her.
Watching him closely, she inquired, “What makes you think that?”
Landon’s lips twitched as he seemed to be fighting off an arrogant grin. “Because I know him, and I know you. I’ll change both of your minds before either of you walk away.”
His expression was contagious, and she quickly found herself grinning from ear-to-fucking-ear. “You are awfully sure of yourself.”
He lost his fight to keep his conceit to himself. A cocky smile spread across his face, and he replied, “It’s called confidence. Besides, I know something you don’t.”
Oh really? You know something I don’t know? Give me five minutes, and I will have the rest of your secrets on the floorboard of this Jeep.
She managed to keep her smart-ass thoughts to herself, but she couldn’t keep the question burning in the back of her mind from spilling out. “What’s that?”
His hand paused mid-stroke, and then he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back so sharply that a brief pain shot through her hair and her neck at the same time. “Shane has already staked his claim on you and me. He won’t change his mind and neither will I. It’s only a matter of time before we get you in our bed. Two against one, kitten. We are going to take you down.”
That sounded way too good to her, and she bit her tongue to keep from pleading for him to take her to Shane’s this very minute so she could get between their sexy-as-hell bodies. Her cunt was ready to be filled with one dick while her ass was fucked by another.
She’d never had two cocks in her at once, not even on their wedding night. Shane had fucked her pussy first then Landon had fucked her ass. She’d wanted them to fuck her together, but it hadn’t worked out that way.
The thought of them fucking her at the same time had her pussy clenching, and she had to rub her legs together to hide the surge of moisture dripping from it. With the pair of panties she had on, there would be a wet spot underneath her now.
How embarrassing is that? I’m trying to have a serious, adult conversation, and all I want is to get fucked so hard by two men that I black out from the pleasure.
Pulling in a choppy breath, she stopped squirming, and asked the obvious question, “I’m fucked, aren’t I? I don’t even have a chance.”
“Nope,” he replied with a smirk. Leaning across her, he dropped his hand to her leg then inched his way upward, sliding underneath her skirt. Instead of touching her pussy as she desired, he squeezed the inside of her thigh. “But you don’t want one anyway.”
“Sure, I d–d–do,” she stammered, opening her legs wider in obvious invitation. “I don’t want to stay here and get hurt again.”
Landon denied her silent appeal for his touch, and said, “Prove it. You have until July to show us how much you don’t want us or our love. If you can walk away, then we’ll let you go.”
She wanted to punch something, anything. Everyone knew she wouldn’t walk away, and everyone knew they wouldn’t let her. Shannon had said it best. Katie-Anne
was
deluding herself. The moment she drove her convertible back into town, she was committing to staying in this beautiful place—no matter what.
Katie-Anne sighed. “You know I won’t walk away. It’s January, Landon, and I already don’t want to leave.”
“I know,” he replied.
Sometimes his smugness really infuriated her. Okay, not sometimes—all the time. This man understood her in a way no one else did, and it made him cocky. Well, it made her horny, as she remembered how well he’d played her body. Knowing someone as well as he did her made for one hell of a bedroom soiree.
Trying to get her hormones back under control, she glanced away from him. She stared at everything in the SUV but him. She looked at the stick shift in between the driver and passenger side seats which didn’t help her a bit because it reminded her of the stiff dick in his pants.
Moving on.
The steering wheel suddenly became fascinating to her, but it made her think of his masculine hands wrapped around it, and that wasn’t good since one was still lying against her inner thigh, only inches from her weeping pussy.
Nope. What else?
She peered down at the black leather they were sitting on.
This is better.
But it wasn’t. The minute she focused on the material. She remembered the feel of it against her back when he’d pressed her down into it, the way it had rubbed against her clothes when he’d pushed her back to give himself more room.
Fuck it.
Giving up, she peered up at him. “Why the farce? Why even pretend?”
Landon smiled at her indulgently and told her, “Because I plan to enjoy convincing you to stay.” He glided his fingertips over the supersensitive flesh of her thighs, heading straight for her desperate, aching pussy. Instead of stopping, as she’d expected him to, he migrated upward and upward until he reached her cunt.
He slipped his finger underneath the tiny scrap of silk covering her mound and delved between her labia without warning. The tip of his fingertip brushed over her clit, but he kept going until he reached her entrance. He immediately plunged two fingers inside her, and she moaned. Her back arched involuntarily, her legs falling open wider.
Landon stared down into her face as he rotated his hand, turning his fingers in the opposite direction then pumping them deep inside. His thumb came out, and he rubbed her clitoris with more pressure than was quite comfortable. It wasn’t pain, yet it wasn’t quite pleasure.
The more he massaged the pulsating nub, the more her body wound up. She felt the orgasm building in her, driving her to the point of madness and leaving her vibrating with need. “Yes,” she hissed as he plunged a third finger into her cunt.
A devilish grin appeared on his face from out of nowhere, and she knew he wasn’t going to give her what she wanted. He was going to pull back and leave her hanging.
Evil, evil man.
Retreating, he slid his fingers out of her drenched channel and from underneath her dress. He lifted his fingers to his lips, looking directly into her eyes as he opened his mouth and sucked them inside, one at a time.
Her pussy quivered from watching the way his cheeks hollowed out, the way his eyes drooped sensually, the way his lips drifted over the rough texture of his skin. It was a shock to find that her lust arose once again, rushing over her. Her orgasm started building, leaving her ready to beg.
Before she could open her mouth to plead for more, he brushed one juice-coated finger across her bottom lip. Her breathing sped up, tiny puffs coming from her chest. He smiled at her carnally before leaning forward and licking the moisture off. He swiped his tongue across her lip several times, pausing occasionally for nibbles.
Once he got every last drop, he stuck his finger into his mouth and cleaned off the remaining cream. Pecking a kiss to her mouth, he declared, “And because I think you deserve a little chasing.”
Katie-Anne was taken aback. Her eyes lifted up so she could see his entire face, not just those so-sexy lips, and she inquired, “I deserve it?”
“Yes, you do,” Landon told her, his eyes softening as he looked at her. “You have spent your entire life wanting to ask for affection, but you were too afraid to ask for it. You have shut yourself off from love because you feared the pain that came along with it. It is time for you to find out what it feels like for someone to love and take care of you without you having to say a word. You need to see that love doesn’t always hurt. Shane and I are the men to do that, kitten.”
She had no doubt they could, and they would, if she let them. Could she forget her past? Could she live in the present? Could she embrace the future? According to Svetlana Sokolov, she could.
The town’s resident psychic had sent a note to her, Jaycee, and Shannon when they’d gone to Tennessee for Gray, Cade, and Jaycee’s wedding. At the time, Katie-Anne had balked at what the note had said to her:
This special trip change life.
You play game.
Game play you.
Follow heart.
Not mind.
It lead you home.
Fly free little bird.
Forget past.
Live in present.
Embrace future.
Never let go.
You not alone.
They your home.
You their home.
Big home.
Big love.
— Svetlana
Now, Katie-Anne wasn’t so sure how she felt about the note. In both of her friend’s cases, Svetlana had been right on the money. What if Katie-Anne could make the psychic’s prediction three-for-three? What if it really was her time to fly free?
There was only one way to find out.
Using his old key, Landon made his way into the apartment he used to share with Shane. He probably shouldn’t have strolled right in like he owned the place since he didn’t anymore, but he did it anyway.
The apartment was like the key in his hand. He couldn’t bear to give up on the way they had always been. Giving back the tiny hunk of metal to Shane or knocking on the front door just seemed to be final somehow. It was like he would close a door that he wasn’t ready to close. After the last time, he and Shane had talked, it appeared that he wasn’t the only one.
“Shane,” Landon yelled as he worked his way out of his boots, pushing them to the left side of Shane’s where they always sat. He took off his jacket before he hung it on the coat rack. Dropping his keys on the marble table in the entryway, he walked down the hall slowly. He peered into the rooms, swinging his head left and right then back again. “Where are you?”