Loving the Tigers (8 page)

“Clingy is fine.” Derek smiled. “At least for a while. I’ve found that after several decades of searching for you, I kind of like it.”

“
Big
liar.” She smiled at him to soften her accusation. Standing on her toes, she kissed Derek’s chin and gave him a push. “Go on. I’ll be all right. I think I can survive without your presence for at least an hour and a half.” She did the same to Zach then turned her back. “Besides, this will give me a little time to myself to think about what I’ve just gotten myself into. And...” She paused with a saucy grin. “If you two have any brains at all, that might just start to worry you.”

What kind of shopping could they possibly need to do? Kelly clamped her mouth shut as the two walked through her door and, most likely, out of her life. They’d gotten what they’d come for, hadn’t they?

She’d slept with both of them. Well, she’d slept, anyway. She wasn’t sure what they’d done after they had each fucked her into a stupor. Hell, they could have climbed out of bed and headed to a hotel room, for all she knew.

“Stop it. They love you. They said so.” She wanted to believe that so much it hurt.

But how many other men had said those very words to her throughout the years? None of them had ever meant it. It had always been to get into her bed or her panties. Sometimes they never made it to a bed. God, she’d been such an ignorant slut.

She pressed her lips together, almost afraid of what the guys would do if they found out what she’d been thinking. They really didn’t like her berating herself.

Her mind raced as she thought about the implications of that. If they didn’t care about her, would they give a damn if she called herself names?

“Probably not.”

She twisted her fingers as she paced from one end of her apartment to the other. It could all have been an act, couldn’t it?

Why couldn’t she decide what to do? Why couldn’t she see what they were up to, what they really felt? Was she still so gullible that she could believe them if they weren’t sincere. Had she been so horny that she would have fallen for that ruse again?

“God, I hope not.”

She continued to pace the apartment, her thoughts in turmoil as her mind kept turning back to the men and what possible shopping they would have to do. She had plenty of food, though it seemed as though she had more vegetables than they’d care to eat.

“Tough.” She frowned. “I’m cooking and if they don’t like it, they can just go buy themselves something to eat. I’m not making something special for them.”

Liar.
She frowned at the inner voice that knew she would if it meant pleasing them. She’d always been a people pleaser and she wouldn’t be able to help herself if either or both of them acted as though they didn’t like what she’d cooked.

“Hell, Kelly,” she said, glancing at her watch with a frown. It had been an hour and forty-five minutes and still no sign of them. “They aren’t coming back. You cut up all that broccoli for nothing.”

The sound of her doorbell made her jump. Her heart raced as she hurried over to open the door. She swallowed her disappointment when she saw it wasn’t Zach or Derek but a delivery man with a huge bouquet of flowers.

“You’ve got the wrong house. Marlo Stevens lives two doors down and across the hall.”

Everyone sent Marlo flowers. The woman was the town’s new weather girl. Everyone loved her and she was gorgeous. Some girls just had all the luck.

The man glanced down at his clipboard with a frown. These aren’t for Ms. Stevens. These are for Kelly Williams. Are you she?”

He shoved the flowers toward her when she nodded mutely, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.

“Flowers?” She took the bunch reverently and rubbed one red velvety petal. “Someone sent me flowers?”

No one had ever sent her roses before in her life. She paused on her way to the table. No, that wasn’t true. Zach and Derek had sent her flowers when they and their friends had taken Jessi and her to dinner all those months ago.

She set them in the center of the table and pulled the card from the holder with shaking fingers.

We love you. Love, Us,
it read. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth to contain the sob choking her.

“Where do you want the rest of this?” The delivery man asked as he carried a huge, stuffed red and black striped tiger through the door. Another man followed carrying another. The tigers, one with gray eyes, the other blue stared at her as though they knew a secret. They probably did. At least they knew more than she did. She was sure of it.

The two men carried more flowers in and candy she couldn’t eat. Apparently, Zach and Derek had forgotten she was diabetic or they just didn’t care.

She swallowed thickly at the stuff that covered every chair and flat surface in her little apartment.

“If you’ll just sign here, we can get out of your way, ma’am,” the man said as he removed his hat and wiped his forehead on his sleeve. “Your man must love you a lot to go to this much trouble and expense.” He took the clipboard from her when she finished scribbling her name and put his hat back on his head. “Have a wonderful day, ma’am.” He grinned and pulled the door closed.

Just after he left, her doorbell rang a second time in less than fifteen minutes and she rushed to the door, with the intention of throwing herself into her men’s arms. Instead, their appearance brought her up short.

Dressed in tuxedos, they’d combed their hair back and shaved the coarse hair from their faces. Each of them held one red rose. She stepped back as they entered her apartment. Derek closed the door and they lowered themselves to their knees.

“Kelly Williams, will you do us the honor of becoming our wife?”

They must have rehearsed that for a little while because they said it at the exact same time with the same inflections. They even wore the same serious expression.

Their moves synchronized, each of them reached into their right coat pocket and pulled out identical, small, square jewelry boxes, which they opened at the same time.

Kelly gasped at the matching sapphire and diamond rings they each held. Tears streamed down her face as she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around their necks. “Yes. Oh, God. Yes!” Pulling back, she met each of their gazes in turn. “I love you. I love you two more than I ever thought possible.”

“And we love you, Kelly, more than life itself.” They took the rings from their boxes and slid them onto the third finger of her left hand. Still speaking in unison, they said, “With these rings we thee wed.”

The action started a whole new bout of tears. Kelly clasped her hands together and held them to the center of her chest. “I—I don’t know what to say.”

“You’ve already said it.” Zach smiled as they both stood and pulled her up with them. “You said,
yes.
”

Looking at the gorgeous rings, she twisted them and marveled at the way they sparkled in the light. “I guess I did, didn’t I?” She smiled and turned to the stove and her almost ruined steak. “You’re late. If your steak is cooked too much, there’s—”

“No one to blame but ourselves,” they both said at the same time.

“Actually, I was going to say that there’s more in the fridge and you can cook them yourselves this time.”

“Hey, you’ve just agreed to be our mate and you’re going to make us cook for ourselves?”

“Begin as you intend to go on, is what I always say. If you don’t like what I cooked, fend for yourselves, boys. Fend for yourselves.”

Kelly grinned up at the two handsome men that had just become a permanent part of her life. They filled her heart near to bursting and she thanked everything good that some lucky turn of fate had brought them into her life that one, beautiful day in October.

Candles sat upon every flat surface. Big, little, short, tall, tapered and fat, they lit the room with soft, flickering light as they entered the room.

They’d offered to do the dishes when Kelly had voiced the need to do something special for them. Not once did they think that she would take every one of the candles they’d gifted her with, along with the essential bath oils they’d planned to use on her themselves and make a veritable Garden of Eden out of the master suite.

She’d worked fast, considering she’d done all of it in the half hour, or so, it took them time to figure out her kitchen and get everything washed, dried and put away.

“Where are you?” Zach moved through the candlelit room, Derek at his side. She wasn’t on the bed. There were only three other places she could be. Hiding under the bed, in the closet, or in the bathroom. He hoped she was in the latter rather than one of the former. He couldn’t wait to see her skin gleaming a dark bronze in the candlelight as the water droplets glistened on her flesh like diamonds.

His cock throbbed behind his fly, tenting the slacks of the expensive tux he’d purchased less than three hours ago. He’d wanted to make her feel special. He’d needed to let her know what she meant to them, just how much they’d come to love her, because he knew her broken heart needed that proof, whether she knew it or not.

A message written in lipstick on her vanity mirror read,
take off your clothes and find the treasure.

Neither of them wasted a moment ripping the clothes from their bodies. The heat of the candles and the scent of their mate drove the mating heat to heights it had never been before.

She has to be in the bathtub,
Derek said through their mind link.
I hear water splashing.

Zach’s skin burned with the need to feel his mate’s touch. His cock throbbed, growing larger than it ever had before until he felt as though the blood engorging it would burst through his skin.

I think you’re right.
He moved away from Derek and headed for the bathroom door. This was the night they would complete their triad bond.

Every breath he took ratcheted his need higher and higher until there was no thought left in him but having his mate, possessing her and burying his cock so deep inside her they would become one being instead of two or three.

The bathroom door stood slightly ajar. Steam from the bath concentrated her scent, held it hovering in the air. It surrounded them as they entered the room.

Zach swallowed thickly at the sight of her sitting along the back wall of the garden tub, her legs spread, the glistening hair at the juncture of her thighs, beckoning him to go to her, to touch the wet, silky flesh of her waiting slit.

She took a deep breath, drawing his attention to her full breasts and large, dark nipples that he couldn’t wait to taste. He loved to see their differences—how their lighter skin contrasted with her coffee and cream complexion.

Kneeling, he reached out and cupped the generous weight of her breast, reveling in the contrast of his hand against her skin.

Kelly leaned toward the wall and arched her back, closing her eyes. A moan escaped her full lips and his cock, already standing at attention jerked as he thought about how it would feel to have those luscious lips wrapped around his thick length as he drove deep into her beautiful mouth.

“This is it, isn’t it?” She stared up at them, her expression filled with love and just a little trepidation. “Making love with you both won’t change things between us, will it? You’ll both still love me afterward, won’t you?”

The uncertainty in her voice nearly brought Zach to his knees. “Is that what you think, baby?” he asked around the lump in his throat. “You’ve felt the heat. You at least have a good idea how we would feel without you in our lives. Do you really think our feelings for you could ever go away?” He brushed his thumb over her nipple and smiled at her sharp inhalation.

“Our feelings will surely change once we have completed the bond, but they will never go away.” Derek stepped into the tub, lifted her and set her on his lap, his arms circling her, holding her close against his chest. “If anything, our coming together will make our feelings more intense than they already are. We’ll love you more, need you more, than we already do and let me tell you,” he said with a grin. “It’s already pretty intense. I can’t fathom what it will be like to love you more than I already do. A part of me thinks it’s not possible, yet I know it will happen.”

She met their gazes and thrust her shoulders back. They groaned as her breasts lifted, her nipples bouncing as though begging to be sucked.

“I love your courage to face this head on after so many rejections. Mostly, though, I love you because you are the one woman nature made for me, for us, and you have the courage to face your fears and accept us.” Derek leaned down and drew one of her dark cherry nipples into his mouth.

“You humble us and make us question whether or not we are good enough for you, baby. Never question that you’re good enough for us. Never.”

Zach stepped into the tub, lowered himself to his knees and slid his hands beneath her thighs. Lifting her, he buried his face between her lovely thighs and licked the line of her lower lips, his tongue delving between them, tasting her thick cream and circling her clit before sucking it into his mouth.

Fingernails scraped his scalp as she thrust her fingers through his hair and held tight. Her low moans and cries of ecstasy drove him on as her hips bucked against him.

He lifted his head after her body stiffened and she screamed into Derek’s mouth as he covered her lips with his.

Her hair fell around her face in a riot of natural waves. She’d washed it earlier and hadn’t taken the time to straighten it. Sexy and disheveled, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Licking his lips, he gazed into her glazed eyes. “You taste delicious.” He smiled at her frown.

“I most likely taste the same down there as any other woman.”

“I will be the judge of that.” He met her stare. “You do not taste the same as every woman. I think I would know that more than you unless you’ve also experimented with women.”

“Uh... no. I haven’t.” Her face darkened in a blush and he grinned as she lifted herself from Derek’s lap enough to lower herself back down on the other man’s cock. “What makes you think I swing that way?” She tilted her head and raised a brow. “Do I
look
as though I like women?” She bounced in Derek’s lap as though to emphasize how ridiculous the possibility seemed.