“With the calories you’ve burned in the last twenty-four hours you should take at least two,” Myan commented, answering her thought.
“Don’t mind if I…” she trailed off, blinking at him. She hadn’t even minded that he’d been in her head. Sure, they were going to have to set some boundaries, but she wasn’t pissed off. She shook her head. “Don’t mind if I do,” she said and chose a chocolate-covered doughnut filled with custard.
The first bite truly was heaven. Fried goodness and custard burst across her taste buds. It also broke through the bottom of the pastry to dribble down her chin and onto the slope of her breast. Kaz was there before she could move. He licked away the filling on her chest, working his way down and sucking on the nipple. Taut awareness pulled through her. She wanted them again. And it was purely because
she
wanted them. She liked that.
Myan moved in and lapped away the custard from her chin before slowly kissing her. Suddenly, as if nothing had happened, both men moved away and sat in the chairs on either side of the table. Kaz pulled her onto his lap.
“You’re safer here,” he said. “I’m dressed.”
“I don’t think safe is a word I’d use,” she laughed as his hand moved up her body. She leaned into his touch, not at all bothered.
“So what’s on the agenda today?” she asked, setting down her doughnut on the edge of the box and licking chocolate from her fingers.
Both men stilled. She thought at first it was the way she sucked the stickiness from her fingers, but the tension on their faces spoke otherwise.
“What?” she asked.
Kaz took a deep breath. “Today, we go home.”
“Okay… Well, when are we leaving? I’ll be ready.” She didn’t understand what they were so upset about. Surely by now, they knew she planned to stay with them.
He kissed her shoulder then stood with her in his arms and set her in the place where he’d been sitting. His long strides ate the length of the floor as he strode to the window on the other side of the door and looked outside.
“No,” Myan said. His voice was strangely quiet and tense. “We’re going. Kaz and me. We have to be back to the tour tomorrow. We’re not making you go with us. You’re free to go back to your life.”
Wait… They were rejecting her? They’d marked her, they’d claimed her, and now they were setting her free in the wilds of the normal human world. What the hell was the point of all this?
She tried to read their minds and see what they were thinking, but their heads were closed to her. Staring, she watched Myan dress.
“Now?” she demanded. “You’re leaving right
now?
”
“It seems best. I’ll have someone bring a car for you,” Kaz said. “They’ll take you to the airport and buy you a ticket to wherever you like.”
“I don’t care about that,” she almost shrieked. “I have my own damn money, and I can find my own damn way. You chased me more than halfway across the country.”
Pain filtered through Myan’s face. “We had to be sure you were okay. The heat…”
“And what if it happens again? What then? I terrify all my neighbors then land in jail for noise nuisance?”
Myan shook his head. “No,” he whispered. He reached in his pocket and withdrew a business card. Kissing her forehead, he pressed it into her hand. “It should never happen again if you’re not with us, and certainly not again until next September. If it does,” he took a breath, “call the number on the card and we’ll come to you immediately.”
Turning on his heel, he walked out of the room and let the door slam behind him. Openmouthed, she stared at the chipped white wood. This couldn’t be happening. She felt as if half her heart had just been ripped from her chest.
“He’s not saying goodbye?”
“We’re not exactly good with this.” Kaz moved from the window. “No matter what you choose, we’ll always come to you when you need us.”
He didn’t touch her. He didn’t offer so much as a half smile of reassurance.
He just walked through the door and left her alone with the deafening silence.
They weren’t good at what? Breaking people’s hearts?
“No,” she whispered, her voice as stolen by terror as the night they’d marked her and she’d thought it was a nightmare. She fell to her knees.
Hanna didn’t know how she’d ended up curled on the floor or how long she’d been there in a ball, but she couldn’t seem to move. Everything was drained from her except the emptiness that echoed in her ears. Was this revenge? Was this comeuppance for what she’d done to them and how she’d made them feel when she’d run away. Kaz had said it was humiliating. Was this punishment?
This hollowness was far worse than any punishment could be, even the clawing need that had once assailed her. They’d left her. They…
left
…her.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as painful sobs racked her body, ripping apart her lungs with each breath. What was she supposed to do now? Go on as if nothing had happened? They’d changed her entire world. They’d shown her things she wouldn’t have believed. They’d made her feel more than she’d ever felt. They’d connected with her.
Every ache, bruise and strain screamed at her as she slowly pushed herself upright and lifted her hand to wipe her eyes. The business card was still curled in her hand. Angrily, she tossed it aside.
They thought they’d seen stubborn? They hadn’t seen anything yet. She just needed a plan. This was not the end. Kaz promised to be there if she needed them? Well, damn it, she did. She needed them a lot.
Determined fury driving her, she wrenched a sundress from the closet and pulled it over her head. She didn’t bother with her hair. If it looked wild, she fit right in with them. They might play it cool, but they were as wild as men came. And they were not going back on the road where they’d be surrounded by groupies, not if she wasn’t by their side.
They were hers. Period.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, she pulled on the sandals she’d kicked off at some point yesterday. The card caught her attention, and she reached for it. She’d need that number a lot sooner than they’d guessed. It wasn’t until she picked it up that she saw the ink…and Myan’s writing.
You have to choose us,
it said.
It has to be your decision.
He’d underlined the
your
. That was it? She had to decide to be with them and until then they’d leave her be? What kind of a messed up system was this? They could have told her rather than killing her.
Outrage dimmed her vision. They picked her, marked her,
mated
with her then abandoned her to pick where she wanted to be? They needed their heads knocked together. How could they not realize that she
had
chosen them?
And they’d left her. Suddenly, she heard Kaz’s words again as she replayed what had just happened.
We’re not exactly good with this…
He wasn’t talking about leaving women. He was talking about leaving her. They weren’t really okay with it. It was what they had to do because
she
had to pick them this time. Myan had been trying to give her a hint with the note.
That was it…
She rushed for the door, hoping the nosy desk clerk would be able to help her get transportation into the nearest city. If she hurried, she might even be able to catch the same flight as Kaz and Myan.
She whipped open the door then froze, staring at the pair before her. The most beautiful men in the world leaned against the railing that ran opposite her room. Their faces were tense as if they were unsure what she’d do. All they’d had to do was listen to her thoughts…
She knew instantly that they’d purposely stayed out.
“You’re still here,” she breathed finally. Life seemed to flow back into her at just seeing them, just having them close enough to touch.
“We hoped that if we waited a few minutes that you’d come after us because you didn’t really want us to leave,” Myan confessed. “When you didn’t… Well, we were just about to go.”
“Don’t. You. Dare,” she ground out.
Kaz smiled. “We were waiting.”
“Hoping,” his brother enjoined.
She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at them, never so happy in her life. But she wasn’t giving easily. “You knew I’d decide for you, didn’t you?”
“Kinda,” Myan confessed. He grinned and reached for her. She went willingly, burying her face in his chest.
“You guys suck,” she grumbled, pushing as close to him as she could humanly get. They sucked, and they were the best men in the world.
Kaz crowded behind her, sealing her between them and right where she wanted to stay forever. “Such loving words, sweetness.”
“Hmph,” she snorted. “Don’t ever leave me like that again. I couldn’t take it.”
“Never,” Myan promised. “We’re connected and unless you change your mind about us—”
“I won’t,” she interrupted.
“Unless you change your mind about us,” Kaz continued, “you’re ours. Forever.”
She bit her lip and let her feeling of joy flow from her and into them. Their minds were open, and she showed them the depth of her feelings and exactly what forever meant to her.
Kaz growled and lifted her into his arms. “I think we have time before our flight.”
“They can’t start without you.”
“
They
don’t matter,” Myan said, kicking shut the door. “
You
are our future.”
“He writes all our songs,” Kaz whispered in her ear.
“He sings in his sleep,” Myan countered.
Hanna grinned, opening her arms to both of them as Kaz dropped her on the bed. “Sometimes I get rides from strangers and take cross country trips,” she said.
Both of them growled, their eyes dark with primal possession, “Not anymore.”
Epilogue
A Year Later
Kaz’s long hair swung around him as he turned and crouched slightly, his guitar over the juncture of his thighs as he let loose a riff that had the crowd screaming. His bare, tanned chest glistened in the klieg lights as they beat down on
Harvest,
and the muscles bulged inside his black leather pants
.
Not to be outdone, Myan stepped to the mic and belted out the wailing bridge of their hit song,
Gonna Get What I Want.
Dressed similarly to his brother, he drew even more screams as he gyrated into the mic stand.
The Ruslan brothers were H.O.T. Hot! She’d said it before and she was blessed to think it every day as she spent time at their side and in their arms. If anyone thought anything of her being with two men, they didn’t say a word, and it never occurred to her to worry about it. If people knew the thing that had initially concerned her, they wouldn’t have questioned her being with two men either. It was small in comparison. And it was their secret.
She pressed her hand to her belly as she watched them perform. She had another secret, too. Kaz and Myan were ecstatic.
Her sister had given birth to twins last month. Hanna had been shocked to learn that both Costin and Petre has impregnated her—though impregnated seemed rather clinical for the fun they’d had. Myan had assured her it was a cat thing. His and Kaz’s DNA would help it happen for her, too.
Would it? She hoped, but even so, she knew she’d be a mom in less than a year. Myan and Kaz had already started coddling her.
They swung off the stage and hustled her to the limo they’d ordered to be waiting for them after their second encore. After they’d climbed in, Myan reached into the mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of water which he thrust into her hands.
“Drink up, love,” he told her. “We plan to keep you busy all night.”
“Oh really?” she asked, thinking that sounded like a wonderful idea.
“Oh really,” Kaz confirmed. His lips brushed her ear. “You might not be affected by the Harvest moon this year, but we are. I hope you don’t have any plans for the next three days.”
Pursing her lips, she looked at the ceiling and pretended to think. She couldn’t quite hold back her smile—it seemed she smiled all the time now. “I can’t think of anything, just getting naked with the men I love. Maybe running with a couple lions…”
“We’ll have the compound to ourselves,” Myan told her. “I’m making love to you in the field this time.”
“And on the kitchen table,” Kaz added.
“And in the hallway.”
“In the music studio. I want to record you…”
Hanna shivered, delighted by it all. “How about in bed?”
“Definitely in bed,” they replied.
She hit the privacy screen to separate them from the driver. It was a long drive across state to the compound. “And how about in the limo?”
Leaning back, she waited, eyes closed. And just as she suspected, they showed her they were kings of
Harvest’s
pride and over her. Definitely over her.
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