“I know I can do that,” he told her then jerked her body against his side. Wrapping his arm around her slender waist, he rested his hand on the sexy curve of her hips. “If you want to see a movie, I know the perfect place to go. And, when we’re done, I guarantee you will be sweating.”
Landon grunted. Instantly, Shane shot his gaze to his husband and felt his stomach drop. The shattered expression on Landon’s face and the pain hovering over him as though it were a cloud preparing to rain evoked a stream of profanities from Shane’s lips.
I’m a motherfucking ass clown. How can I do this to him? And Katie-Anne.
If they went to the movie, Shane was going to force Landon to suffer through a couple of hours where he couldn’t touch either of them, but he could listen and watch. That wasn’t fair to him. Hell, it wasn’t fair to any of them.
“Land—” Katie-Anne said, but Landon cut her a dirty look. Instead of backing down, their woman stubbornly jutted her chin out. “Don’t give me that look. I was
going
to say that I will not go in there if I cannot touch you. You are my husband, too. Damn it.”
Shaking his head, Landon growled, “No. That will only make things worse.” He pinned Shane with a glare that was hotter than the one he’d given Katie-Anne. “It will give him the chance to give this town the finger. He wants to show everyone how he is nothing like them. Well, that’ll do it. I can hear people talking about the perverted McCullough boy and his two bitches now.”
“So what?” Shane snapped. “I don’t get it. Why does it fucking matter to you?”
Landon ground to an unexpected halt, falling behind them. “Because I want all of you, asshole, and so does our wife.”
Shane’s heart iced over as his fury lodged deep inside his soul. “What does that have to do with any of this? You two have all of me, dumbass.”
Katie-Anne snorted.
Landon laughed, sounding way too bitter for Shane’s liking. “No, I don’t. The Shane Jacobs that I know is hiding from his husband and wife. The real Shane Jacobs is putting on a show for this town and pretending to be something he is damn well not to prove that he didn’t become like one of them.”
Frowning, Landon said, “I won’t have all of you until you move past this shit. I’m so tired of this. You need to face your fucking past, Shane. It isn’t going to go away.”
“Are you going to walk away, if I don’t face it?”
Landon snorted. “God, I wish I could, but I’m a glutton for punishment. For some stupid ass reason, I love you. And, as I have told Katie-Anne repeatedly, love doesn’t run.” Sliding his fingers through his thick blond hair, he shrugged. “I guess we are fucking stuck together until you work through all this horseshit with
us
.”
“Don’t sound so damn thrilled about it,” Shane snapped.
“I’m not fucking happy about it,” Landon retorted. “Who would be?”
“Then leave,” Shane blurted out unexpectedly, the horrifying words popping out before he had a chance to control or censure himself.
Katie-Anne gasped, but Shane’s rushed words ran over top of her sudden intake of air. “Oh shit, Landon,” Shane said. “I’m sor—”
Shane didn’t have a chance to finish his statement because Landon stormed right up to him and, grabbing him by the collar, pushed him up against the glass store window behind them. The thud of his back hitting the glass and the grunt he made didn’t even register in his shocked mind. “Landon, what the fuck is wrong with you? I didn’t mean it, and you know it.”
“You want to know what the hell is wrong with me? Well, I’ll show you what the hell is wrong with
me,
” Landon snarled then slammed his lips to Shane’s, not giving him time to take a breath or make a move before thrusting his tongue inside his mouth.
The authority in Landon’s tone didn’t sit well with Shane, and he found the need to dominate rising inside of him. Rather than subdue his lust-filled urges, Shane flipped his and Landon’s bodies around, propelling his husband’s back into the glass. Pushing Landon’s tongue back in his own mouth, Shane plundered inside, controlling their kiss with the pure dominance boiling inside of him, threatening to run over him and everyone in his path.
In return, Landon gave his mouth to Shane. He met Shane’s tongue, touch for touch, clash for clash.
Katie-Anne’s dainty hand caressed the back of Shane’s head, surprising him and making him jump slightly. Her floral scent filled his nostrils, and it caused his lust, and his rage, to launch to the stars. He turned his unrestrained passion to the man at his lips, ravaging his mouth without compunction.
Shane circled Landon’s tongue. He slid his tongue against Landon’s velvety one. Then he tangled them together, twisting them and twining them. Landon groaned gutturally, which spurred Shane on, but not nearly as much as the brush of soft, feminine lips against his earlobe.
“I’ve always heard that angry sex is the best kind,” Katie-Anne murmured, her sweet voice sounding stern, almost clinical. She nibbled on his ear, her tongue coming out to play with the lobe. “You’re pissed. I’m pissed. Landon’s pissed. You two get the caveman dominance sex out of your system. Then I can tell you exactly what I think of you and this whole damn situation. We should be able to squeeze in my angry fuck before bedtime.”
Shivering as her teeth grazed his flesh, Shane pulled back to warn her of what was to come for her, but she stopped him. Using her hand, she restricted his movements, keeping his mouth on Landon’s. The strength she exerted stunned him momentarily, and Landon took advantage of his distraction.
Using the grip he had on Shane’s sweater, Landon hauled him around until his back hit the glass a second time. Obviously anticipating Landon’s actions, Katie-Anne moved out of their way. But, before Shane could recover his breath, Landon turned on him once again, assaulting his mouth and giving him exactly what they both wanted—an X-rated war.
Their erotic battle turned feral, and he forgot all about Katie-Anne’s attempt at topping from bottom. There would be time for that later.
Shane and Landon both went crazy, fighting with everything they had. Katie-Anne kept them going as she whispered earthy words to them. “Fight him, Landon. Give him hell,” she said. “He deserves it for being such a high-handed prick.”
Shane grunted, but Landon still held strong, not releasing his hold in the slightest.
“Are you going to take this from him, Shane?” Katie-Anne whispered as she moved behind Landon, pressing all their bodies close together. “Push him until he can’t take anymore then make him surrender to you.”
Shane and Landon groaned simultaneously into each other’s mouth. But, still, neither released the other’s. Their kiss just kept going. Their fight kept building toward its peak.
“I dare you to fuck him right here,” she murmured. “That would be the ultimate show of dominance. If you don’t care what the town thinks of us, then bend him over and ram your big cock inside his ass. That’ll show everyone in this town what a big badass my husband is.”
Son of a motherfucking bitch. I’m going to wear her ass out later.
Unable to hold on any longer, Shane let the beast inside him loose. His hands came up, and he ran his fingers through Landon’s blonde hair roughly, not stopping when his fingers snagged in the strands. He just pushed right through, which didn’t seem to bother Landon whose hands came up also.
Landon cupped his face, but it wasn’t sweet, and it wasn’t loving. This was raw. This was power. His hands were so strong against Shane’s skin that it was approaching painful. But, God, Shane loved it. Landon seemed to, too, if his rumbling chest were an indication.
Both men’s deep growls and groans against each other’s mouths filled the desolate street, making them sound more animal than human. Katie-Anne’s voice seemed to change in correlation with theirs. As they sounded more feral, she sounded more breathy. “Landon, teach him a lesson. Show him that he can’t always be in control. Show him that he can’t always win. Sometimes, he needs to let go. He needs to own up to who he is and be the man we love, even if that means he is more like these people than he wants to be. Show him that he damn well needs us more than he needs to prove some stupid-ass point.”
Okay, it is time to stop this.
Using more strength than necessary, Shane pulled his partner’s head backward. Their lips parted with a grunt from each of them. Panting, Shane bit into Landon’s bottom lip mercilessly, tugging it inside his own.
Landon slackened slightly, his breath coming out in short, choppy puffs. “You win, Shane. God, you win.” He closed his eyes and loosened his stronghold on Shane’s sweater. “You are stronger than me. You are more dominant than me. But I want to know something.”
This is not going to be good.
Landon sighed but never said a word. He went absolutely still and eerily quiet. After what felt like eons, he opened his eyes and stared straight at Shane. “Are you strong enough to surrender to me?”
Aghast, Shane barked, “What?”
“Now, Shane,” Katie-Anne murmured as she stepped back and away from him and Landon. “I’m sure he didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
Landon winced. “She’s right. That didn’t come out right. I don’t want you to submit your body to me. I want you to open yourself up to me in other ways. I want you to stop shutting me out.” Releasing Shane, Landon pushed himself away then turned and started pacing around in a circle, moving fast enough to make a stationary person dizzy. “Fuck, Shane. I was always your person. You told me everything, and you shared everything with me. You’ve done it for years but, now that we’re here, it’s gone. I can feel it. The moment we stepped off the plane, you changed. You shut me out and became something you’re not.”
“It’s not the same, I know,” Katie-Anne said softly, “but you are treating me like a stranger you just happen to be married to and fuck at night. You don’t talk, and you don’t share anything other than your dick. I can’t live like that. I’m not saying that I’ll leave because, at this point, I can’t. I’m just saying that we deserve more than you are giving and so do you, Shane. I’m proud of who we all are. We’ve all gone through hell to get to each other. Don’t send us back there. Don’t let these people and this town win.”
“I’m back in hell now,” Shane snapped. “Look around us.” He panned his hand from one end of the block to the other, indicating all of the places nearby. “This is my own personal hell.”
“I know, Shane,” she replied, “but it doesn’t have to be. You are choosing to let this place haunt you. You have to let it go.”
“I don’t know if I can,” Shane countered, repeating the exact words he’d said to Katie-Anne earlier when she’d practically begged for him to stop locking them out.
Landon cursed. “Fucking hell. Not again.”
Bending down, Katie-Anne removed her high heels with a sigh then walked over to a bench next to the street and plopped down. Placing her shoes on the seat beside her, she muttered, “It looks like we are going to be here a while. I might as well get comfortable.”
“Don’t worry about getting comfortable,” Landon told Katie-Anne. “We’re going home.”
Shane’s heart stopped, and Katie-Anne gasped.
Home?
They’re going home?
Son of a motherfucking bitch.
Unable to hold back his sarcasm, Shane sneered, “I thought love doesn’t run.”
Landon shook his head, obviously not going to rise to Shane’s bait. He walked over to Katie-Anne and swung her up into his big arms. “I’m not the one running away,” he said. “You are. And I did not say a damn thing about Serenity. I meant that we were going back to the
room
.”
Brushing a kiss to Katie-Anne’s forehead, Landon went on, “Unlike
some
people, I believe that my home is with you two. It’s not a town or an apartment. It’s with you.”
Shane put his hand out to stop Landon, but his partner shook it off. His rejection hurt far more than he wanted to admit right now. With the tension this high, he preferred to not ratchet it up anymore without a pretty damn good reason. Although, he figured Landon would provide a reason soon enough.
“No,” Landon said coldly. “You need to think long and hard about a lot of things before we continue this conversation. I think it’s time for you to take a few steps back before we all get in any deeper. Katie-Anne and I have said we won’t run, and we won’t. But we cannot make you stay. We can’t force you to let us in.”
A sob filtered through the air around them, the sound so forlorn that Shane wanted to cry along with her. But he couldn’t, and he wouldn’t.
Turning away, Shane ignored Landon’s shushes, his loving whispers, and his unconditional comforting. He couldn’t bear to witness it right now, not like this.
“It’s okay, kitten,” Landon crooned. “We’re leaving.”
Leaving, leaving, leaving.
The words tore at his heart, and he could barely breathe. The sudden urge to cry filled him, but he warded it off, refusing to shed even one tear. He had to be the strong one. His job was to take care of Landon and Katie-Anne, not the other way around.
Isn’t that what got you into this mess with them? Isn’t that what they want? They want to take care of you.
With a sigh, Shane turned a deaf ear to his thoughts and said, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Landon eyeballed him in patent disbelief. In the past hour, his partner appeared to have aged at least ten years, and it was Shane’s fault.
I should be fucking shot.