Resistance (15 page)

She could also argue that if Cade hadn’t caught her, then
none of this would have happened. However that didn’t sound romantic, and right
now, fantasizing about these guys really caring about her, enough to save her
life, was what she wanted.

Another blast of wind rattled the window panes and she
burrowed deeper beneath the thick blankets, snuggling closer to both sleeping
men. Their sexy scents teased her nostrils and their strong body heat wrapped
her in a protective barrier. This was the only place in the world she wanted to
be. This safety was good. Just like…home.

* * * * *

Icy pellets stung Will’s face and he quickly jammed his
freezing hands into his coat pockets. He ducked back around the side of the
cabin to retrieve another armload of split firewood from the nearby lean-to. His
shoulder pained him like a bitch, but at least he could move it.

Last night’s sexual escapades with Red and Cade had tired
him out so much he’d slept like a log late into the morning. He awoke to a
stiff, aching shoulder, a damned cold cabin and Red fast asleep, snuggled up
beside him, her warm face burrowed right against his neck. Damned if she’d been
using his wounded chest as her pillow.

To say “ouch” was an understatement. Despite the throbbing
pain of his injuries, he’d experienced an overwhelming urge to continue lying
beneath the warm comforters and simply enjoy the array of enticing scents wafting
from the petite woman.

Soap, flowers and a unique freshness teased his nostrils and
had him hard as a rock and longer than a pole. She’d sponge bathed while he and
Cade had slept. Hell, she could have easily escaped during the night and taken
off into the storm. But she hadn’t. She’d stayed and climbed back into bed with
them.

Blade grimaced as pain danced through his chest and he used
his left arm to hoist some more firewood onto his right. He trudged through the
knee-deep drifts, stomped up the stairs and dumped the firewood onto a dry area
of the porch, adding them to the other armloads he’d already collected.

Having the firewood close at hand would be nice. He wasn’t
one for wandering outside into the freezing cold if he didn’t have to. He
preferred a nice warm cabin and a certain succulent redhead.

Blade frowned as his cock decided to twitch and press boldly
against his pants. Man, every time he thought about her he got one hell of a
hard-on. It had been a struggle walking over the past few months, his cock and
balls so hard whenever his thoughts became focused on her. Now that he’d had
her again, he hoped he’d fucked her out of his system. No such luck. He
couldn’t wait to get back inside the cabin and into her.

Turning into the storm again, Blade cursed as another volley
of ice pellets peppered his cold, sensitive face. Frosty fingers of wind
slipped through his clothes, making him shiver. When he got back inside, he was
going to take her again. It would be the best and fastest way to warm himself.

Giving her some hot and heavy pleasure first thing after
waking her would put them all in a really good mood and, based on the dark
skies, they would need to stay in a good mood…because it didn’t look as if the storm
was going to let up anytime soon.

* * * * *

Reena awoke with a start as a loud crash came from somewhere
outside.

“Easy. It’s just Blade piling up the firewood,” Cade said
from beside her.

At least she thought he was lying beside her, naked, his hot
flesh pressed against her body.

Intense need zinged through her. She couldn’t stop the
anguished moan from escaping her lips upon discovering he lay fully clothed on
top of the blankets. Her arms were once again outstretched and her wrists
bound. Her neediness fizzled flat, instantly replaced by a surge of red-hot
anger.

“I thought we’d moved into the trust range, Outlaw,” she
snapped.

He gazed down at her, momentary confusion flaring in his
eyes. When she pulled against the restraints, he grinned.

Oh! What an irritating man!

“You look too sexy to not be bound and at our mercy whenever
we want to take you,” he said.

Oh my God!

“Don’t look so shocked, Reena. Did you think we wouldn’t
want more of the awesome pleasure you gave us? That we wouldn’t realize you
wanted more?”

Of course she wanted more. But she wasn’t about to tell
him
that.

“I want out of these bindings, Cade. I’m serious.” She tried
to inject seriousness into her voice, but she only sounded breathy. Gosh, she
was all hot and bothered and ready for some more heavy-duty
bedroom
action. From both of them.

“You’re nice and quiet, all of a sudden. Thinking about last
night?” he asked.

Her cheeks grew hot, giving her away. “When are you going to
release me?”

His eyebrows rose in question. “Why?”

“Because…I’m hungry.”

That awesome gut-twisting grin of his whispered across his
lips again. Gosh, she wished he wouldn’t smile. He seemed way too nice a guy
when he smiled. It chased away all the hardness lurking in the planes of his
face.

“Actually, I’m way ahead of you on that. I’ve got food.”

He reached down to his other side and, to her surprise,
lifted a clump of red globe grapes. She’d brought them along with her and
hadn’t gotten around to eating them. Her mouth watered at the sight. Grapes
were a delicacy these days and the only expensive food treat she allowed
herself.

She held her breath as he plucked one juicy globe from the
vine, raised it to his mouth and bit it in half. Juice dribbled down his chin
and damned if she didn’t want to lick it off.

“Delicious,” he whispered as he chewed.

His eyes darkened and his gaze lowered to her mouth. He
moved the half-eaten grape along her lower lip and she lapped at the sweetness it
left behind.

“That’s it, Red. Tastes good, doesn’t it? You looked really
hot last night, doing that licking thing with your tongue before Blade put his
cock inside your mouth. I can’t wait until your mouth takes me.”

Reena trembled at the lashes of excitement racing through
her. She would like to experience going down on Cade, but she was pissed off at
him for tying her up again.

He fed her the half-eaten grape and she ate it quickly,
savoring the wet, sweet juices teasing her taste buds. He fed her several more
globes, his gaze intense as he watched her eat.

Without warning, his head lowered. When he brushed his lips
against hers with a teasing featherlight brush her senses snapped into
awareness mode. Her world tilted wonderfully and she swore she fell headlong
into a fire pit of longing to have this man fucking her senseless…just like
last night. She wanted to curl her arms around his neck, draw him closer, but
the restraints prevented her from moving. Frustration snapped through her as he
pulled away from her. That sexy half grin of his made her insides boil with
need.

“You taste good,” he whispered in a throaty voice.

They both jumped as the door burst open and Will stalked
inside, his jacket and hat covered in snow. A whirlwind of snowflakes followed
him and he quickly shut the door. As he turned around and spied Cade lying
beside her on the bed, he froze.

His eyes darkened fiercely. She wasn’t sure if he was
jealous or aroused…or both. A muscle spasmed in his left cheek as he stared at
the two of them.

“Am I interrupting something?” he finally asked.

“If you were, I’d be asking you to join us,” Cade replied
casually.

To her surprise, Blade grinned. His smile melted her insides
just as fiercely as Cade’s had done moments earlier.

Oh boy, she was in trouble.

“The snow isn’t going to let up any time soon. It’s too deep
for the snowmobile and almost zero visibility, so we’d get into trouble if we
left. Best to stay here. You may as well let her loose. She won’t be going
anywhere. She’ll be too busy with the both of us.”

He winked at her and she swore her world rocked.

Oh. My. God.

* * * * *

Cade cast sidelong glances at Reena as she washed the dishes.
He stood beside her at the kitchen counter, drying the cutlery and placing it
in the dish tray. Dainty. That’s how he would phrase the way she handled the
cutlery. Dainty and sexy. Yeah, very sexy. And this petite woman was the leader
of the Resistance?

“Your brother mentioned you during the Wars,” she said and
he stiffened in surprise.

Over a dinner of canned meat, vegetables and potatoes, she’d
been very quiet. He’d hoped what he and Will had done to punish her hadn’t
backfired on them. But that couldn’t be the case. Not if the heated way she’d
looked at him after he’d feather-kissed her on the bed was any indication. She
was hot for him. And for Blade.

She shot quick glances to Blade every now and then when he
wasn’t watching. She shot Cade quick looks too. The fire in her eyes was
unmistakable. She wanted more of what they had given her last night. Talk about
a hell of a good way to break the ice between the three of them.

“Nothing better to do than to discuss me?” he asked.

He wondered exactly how much his brother Tyler had told this
woman about him. They’d had plenty of chances to talk during the time Reena and
Tyler had taught together overseas, and then recently rekindling their
friendship after Tyler’s return several months ago.

“He said we would make a good match.”

“He did, did he? What do you think, Blade? Was Tyler right?
Do Red and I make a good match?”

Blade gazed up from several pieces of the satellite radio
he’d laid out and was inspecting on the floor by the potbelly stove. “I think
the three of us make a good match.”

Blade’s answer surprised Cade. At first he thought Blade was
kidding, but as Cade looked into the other man’s dead-serious brown eyes, his resistance
to the old ways of one man and one woman in a relationship began to dissolve.
Some of his brothers had been in ménages with the women they loved. Their
relationships were still strong. But was Blade nuts? Or Cade for that matter?
Blade was an assassin. He’d been sent here to kill Red. How could Cade even
entertain the idea of a possible relationship between the three of them?

They’d spent only one night pleasuring Reena. Yeah sure, it
had been fantastic, and today had passed pleasantly enough—Cade and Blade
bringing in armfuls of wood to pile beside the woodstove and fireplace and Rena
doing the cooking. She was a good cook, or maybe he’d just been starving after
their sex workout last night.

“No one is matching up with anyone,” Reena said and he
refocused his attention on her. Her shoulders were tense and her eyes blazed
with anger.

“I am the leader of the Resistance or have you forgotten
that fact? The leader is free to pick and choose what man or what men, for that
matter, she wants in her bed. As all women should be allowed to do,” she
snapped.

Oh yeah, Cade liked the fire flaring in her eyes and his gut
clenched really nice.

Will stared back at her, not saying anything. His intense
gaze silenced her. She tightened her mouth, returning to washing the dishes.

Cade sent Will a warning scowl intended to tell him to back
off, but Will just shrugged, shook his head casually and focused on the
shattered satellite radio.

“No one is going to Claim me,” she muttered. She spoke so
low he suspected her words weren’t meant for him to hear. But he did, and the
isolation and heavy weight she carried with her sank deep into his very soul.

Reena was wanted by the law as well as any group of men who
could catch and Claim her. The odds that she would stay free or alive were
pretty slim, even if she were surrounded by an entourage of bodyguards. Which
she wasn’t. That fact made him believe she had no sensible protection or she
wouldn’t be wandering around alone out here.

She smiled weakly and handed him the last plate, which he
dipped into the rinse bucket and then dried with a towel. A few minutes later,
they joined Will, each of them pulling up a chair beside the woodstove. Heat
blasted them and Cade leaned back against his chair as they all fell silent.

Outside, the storm continued to rage. Icy snow and blasts of
wind pelted the quickly darkening windows and the fire in the stove crackled
and snapped warmly.

“This place belonged to your grandparents,” Blade said,
breaking the quiet lull. Beside him, Reena stiffened. She’d been doing that a
lot today whenever one of them suddenly spoke. He hoped it was a good sign. That
maybe she was relaxed with them around—that is, until they reminded her they
were here. Or maybe she thought Blade was still going to kill her.

“Until the X-virus came and screwed my life, I came here and
spent two weeks with my grandparents every summer,” Reena replied.

Pride and happiness flooded her voice. “It was our
tradition. My grandmother and grandfather built this cabin shortly after they
were married. They were young, but even back then they planned on spending their
elderly years here. When he retired from his job as a butcher, they stayed here
during the summer and fall and had a trailer in Florida where they stayed during
spring and winter.”

“Snowbirds.” Cade grinned.

Reena nodded.

“That was a lot of people’s perfect retirement plan,” Blade
said softly.

Then everyone got fucked, Cade added silently. He knew the
others were thinking the same thing. He could see it in Reena’s sad eyes and
Will’s thoughtful stare. These days there was no such thing as a retirement plan.
Everyone worked until they dropped dead.

There weren’t too many older people around. The feeble ones
succumbed because there were no facilities to look after them. Loved ones died or
did everything they could to survive on their own, leaving the elderly to fend
for themselves.

“How did your grandparents meet?” Cade asked, wanting to
know everything about her. This kind of curiosity had been inside him only one
other time, about the woman he’d planned on marrying.