Flash Bang (13 page)

Graham pushed off the wall and shoved Zach back. “Calm the fuck down. It’s not like that.”

Zach rubbed his face with both hands before lacing his fingers together and gripping the back of his neck. “Oh really? Then what the fuck is it like? Because I
like
this girl. She could be the one. And you want to extort our way into bed with her?”

Graham leaned back against the building. Zach shook his head in disbelief at Graham’s casual pose.

“Did you see how she reacted to the idea before?” Graham asked.

“Yeah, she freaked the fuck out.” Zach started pacing.

“That might have been her initial reaction, but if you were paying attention, she was intrigued. Curious.”

“What’s your point, man? Because I seriously think you fucked this one up. I mean ... after the experience she had …”

“This gives her the right motivation to let go of all that and give it—hell, us—a try.”

“By forcing her?”

“No one is forcing her to do anything. She says no, then it ends there.”

Zach stopped his pacing and waited until Graham met his gaze. “If she even
thinks
no, then it ends there.”

Graham nodded. “Just wait and see. Give her a little time to mull over the idea. What do we have to lose? You want her. I want her. We only have a few days to make it happen. If we can’t tie her to us, she walks away forever. I didn’t figure you’d let that happen without a fight, and ...” Graham paused meaningfully. “I’m not willing to let it happen either.”

Zach eyed his friend, amazed that he’d given voice to his feelings about a woman. It had only taken a fucking apocalypse. Zach’s thoughts went back to Ro. “She looked so ... fragile or something … when she told us what went down before.”

Graham inclined his head. “She didn’t look fragile when she devised and executed her escape, did she? And she sure wasn’t fragile when she grabbed a backpack and left Chicago by herself.” Graham paused. “That girl is gutsy as hell and willing to take a risk. Why shouldn’t she take a risk with us?”

Zach exhaled a long breath. “I still think you’re an asshole for the way you set this up. Just know that the second she says no, which could be as soon as we walk back in that door, I’m backing off.”

“Agreed. Now, this is what I’m thinking …”

Ro clenched and unclenched her fists while she replayed the conversation in her head. Each time, it seemed like the roar of the blood in her ears got louder and her heart pounded harder. Her initial stunned silence had given way to anger at Graham’s highhanded declaration. And then to curiosity. And then to arousal. Apparently Graham and Zach were her one-way ticket on the crazy train.

Zach had promised to come back within the hour. Ro couldn’t begin to imagine what she’d be feeling in an hour. At this point, she put fifty-fifty odds on homicidal or horny.

She grabbed the pillow on the end of the couch and hugged it. How the hell was a girl supposed to respond to something like that? Total meltdown? Hunger strike? Striptease? Her mind raced with the possibilities. She had options. Hell, she had a
taser
. She could suck it up and mount another escape attempt. Except the scariest thought running through Ro’s head was that she didn’t want to run from this. She sort of ... wanted to reach out and grab it with both hands. Or she could tell them both to fuck off. It would work. She was confident they’d back off. And then they could refuse to provide the escort Graham had promised.

Dammit. She wanted to smack that “I dare you” look off Graham’s face. Cocky asshole. She glanced toward Graham’s bedroom. Memories of last night—before she’d had her mini breakdown over Zach’s comment—came rushing back. She’d been drowning in the heat from Graham’s kiss. Graham had claimed to be up front about what they wanted. Was that what this was? Their declaration of intent? Way to score perfect tens on the shock factor, Conan. He had to be expecting her to balk. Ro thought she’d made it pretty damn obvious that she wasn’t down with taking orders from anyone. Exhibit A: her escape attempt this morning. She couldn’t really call his bluff, because she didn’t think he was bluffing. But she could turn the tables on them—make her own demands. She’d been branded a slut in her past life for something she hadn’t done. Why not earn that scarlet letter now? Everything was different. She had nothing to lose. And maybe a hell of an experience to gain ...

Graham. Zach. One hundred percent focused on her. Naked. Ro shivered at the thought. And it wasn’t a shiver of disgust.

“I have terms.” Zach pulled up short as he and Graham entered the cabin. Graham grunted as he rammed into Zach’s back. Zach had considered whether they’d need to wear protective cups to confront her. Based on the no-nonsense tone of her voice, he might not have been far off.

“Terms?” Zach responded, glancing to Graham, who’d taken a seat on the couch next to Rowan. Brave man.

“I don’t do well with being told what to do. Call it a personality quirk.”

“Rowan,” Graham started, but Ro cut him off.

“You had your say. Now it’s my turn.” She shot them both a silencing stare, before muttering to herself, “I can’t believe I’m really going to do this.”

Graham quirked an eyebrow, and Zach barely restrained his own grin.

“This is how it’s going to go down, boys. You called it earlier: I’m in no shape to travel at the moment. I get it, and I see the wisdom in waiting. But I need you both to promise that when
I
say I’m well enough to travel, you
will
get me home.”

Graham started to speak, but Ro’s gaze hardened, and she continued, “I think what we’re about to do requires a hell of a lot of trust, and if you can’t trust me to know when I’m fit to travel, we have a serious problem.”

Zach and Graham both nodded, albeit Graham more reluctantly.

“Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we’ll let you make that call. Within reason. If either of us thinks that you’re putting on show to get out of here faster, we will call you on it,” Graham said.

“Then I guess you’ll just have to give me a reason not to want to get out of here faster,” Ro countered.

“Done,” Zach said. “You tell us when and where, and we’ll—”

She took a deep breath, as if digging up her courage, and interrupted him. “Here. Now.”

She glanced at him and then to Graham and seemed to lose a little of her newfound bravado. “But I have to admit, I am completely out of my depth here. Should we … um ... flip a coin to see who ... um ... goes first?”

Zach couldn’t hold back a chuckle at her hesitant, yet practical, suggestion.

“Not necessary.” He pushed off the wall and rounded the table to stand in front of Rowan. Bracing one hand on the arm of the sofa, he leaned down, invading her personal space. Her pupils dilated and her breathing accelerated. “I get first dibs on fucking that smart little mouth of yours.”

Holy shit. This was really happening.

Ro could feel her mouth drop open, liable to catch flies, at Zach’s blunt declaration. She’d pegged him as the beta in this triad, but she was wrong. He was just as much of an alpha as Graham.

Zach caught her chin in one hand. “Just like that, doll.” He slid his thumb across her bottom lip, and she couldn’t stop her tongue from darting out to lick it. Zach slid the digit in her mouth.

Graham slid in next to her, and picked her up, resettling her on his lap. He pulled the hair away from her face and spoke directly into her ear. “Suck him, baby. Show Zach how you’re going to suck his cock like a good little girl.” Zach groaned at Graham’s words. Ro’s nipples puckered under the thin material of the t-shirt, and heat gathered between her legs.
They really knew what the hell they were doing.

A hand slid up and brushed over the hard buds pressing into the cotton. Zach’s eye’s burned with a predatory light. “You like that idea, don’t you? These tight little nipples say you do.”

Zach removed his thumb from her mouth with a
pop
and dragged his wet digit down her chin, sweeping down the arch of her neck. Ro moaned, and her head fell back against Graham.

Graham nipped her ear before cupping her breasts and lifting them toward Zach like some sort of pagan offering. One that she hoped Zach accepted. She could feel wetness seep from her center. She heard a rustle of clothing, and her eyes snapped open, hoping Zach was dropping his cargos. No such luck. Zach was now kneeling before her, his look more intense than she’d ever seen it. She looked down to see him gripping the hem of her shirt.

“Look at me,” he said.

Almost drowsily, she lifted her eyes and met his gaze.

“Are you sure you’re good with this? Everything stops the second you say so.”

The offer, although thoughtful, was completely unnecessary. Ro wanted this.
Wanted them
.

She nodded, but Zach didn’t move.

“He needs the words, baby. Tell him that you’re good with him pulling off your shirt and sucking on your gorgeous tits,” Graham said.

Ro swallowed. Moment of truth.

Zach studied her face as she said, “Yes.”

“Tell him,” Graham demanded softly. “Tell him exactly what you want him to do to you.”

Feeling the heat rising in her cheeks, Ro knew she was turning red, in a completely unsexy way.

But Zach just smiled at her embarrassment.

Oh fuck it.

“I’m good with you stripping me naked and sucking my nipples before you fuck my mouth.” Her words came out in a rush, like water bursting from a collapsing dam.

Both men groaned at her bold declaration.

“Thank God, doll. Because I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you,” Zach said.

Ro wasn’t sure what came over her, because her next words seemed to come out of someone else’s mouth. “Big talk. I was hoping for some action.”

The gaze that she’d thought of as so friendly and easy-going sharpened with greed.

Oh, hell. Ro was pretty sure she’d just said the exact right thing to unleash a beast she had no idea how to control.

Zach lifted his chin at Graham, and Graham’s voice rumbled in her ear, sending chills up her spine. “Now you’ve done it, babe.”

In seconds, her shirt was yanked over her head, leaving her naked from the waist up, sitting on the lap of a man she’d known for less than twenty-four hours, in front of a second man she’d also known for less than twenty-four hours.
Shit just got real.

Without a bra to corral them, as soon as the t-shirt was gone, Ro’s breasts were exposed for only a moment before Graham shifted beneath her and his big, rough palms slid around her ribcage to cup them. His thumbs flicked her puckered nipples, and the shafts of pleasure had Ro going from wet to dripping in the span of a moment.

Zach’s tawny head bent, and with his amber eyes on hers, he reached out to gently grasp her left nipple between even white teeth. And tugged. Ro jumped when a finger and thumb pinched her other nipple, and gently rolled it one way, and then the other. Skip dripping, Ro headed straight to drenched. The fingers dropped away, and Zach caught her right nipple and gave it the same attention.

Ro’s eyes were starting to drift shut, so she could just focus on the pleasure when she felt a callused hand skim down her ribcage to the waistband of her sweats.
Oh, sweet baby Jesus, this is really happening.