STORY EXCERPT

Taking notes and measurements, Caleb made his way around the building while talking to Boone and Chase Jackson, his friends and the fathers of two little girls. “I don’t care if Stormy’s carrying a boy or a girl. I just want her and the baby to be healthy.”

Because they were friends, Caleb found himself spitting out the truth. “I never thought we’d ever be fathers. I want to give this baby a stable homelife.”

Boone frowned and glanced up from the large paper where he’d penciled in his own measurements, marking electrical and plumbing. “You and the others grew up in foster homes, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” Caleb’s stomach knotted. “We never knew when we’d be transferred to another house. No security at all. I want Stormy and the baby to feel secure. We all do. Love and security are things we never knew, and we all want to make sure Stormy and the baby never go without either.”

Boone inclined his head and made another notation before looking up again. “Understood. Chase and I didn’t have your rough upbringing, but we want the same for Rachel and the girls.”

He looked up with a smile, his smile falling when the door flew open and Cord Preston, one of the owners of the grocery store in town, rushed toward them.

“Caleb, there’s been an accident. Stormy’s down on Second Street. She was hit by a car.”

Icy fear stabbed his stomach and gripped him by the throat. “Jesus!”

His feet were moving before Cord had even finished speaking, with Boone and Chase hot on his heels. A crowd had already started to gather, and frustrated at trying to fight through it, he ran into the street and went full out until he reached Rafe Delgatto, who spoke on his cell phone, raising his voice to be heard over the sirens. “Dark blue four-door coupe. License plates covered with mud. Driver, Caucasian, mid-forties, dark hair.”

He pointed toward the ground where Krystal knelt over Stormy, running her hands over her.

Stormy remained absolutely motionless.

Caleb couldn’t breathe as he knelt at his wife’s side. “Baby?” He felt for a pulse, Krystal’s voice getting to him just as he felt his wife’s weak pulse.

“She’s alive, Caleb. Scraped up pretty good and her leg is broken. Serious bump on her head. Christ, I heard it when her head hit the pavement. I’d be amazed if she doesn’t have a concussion. I just hope she doesn’t have internal injuries.”

Caleb leaned protectively over her as Ace Tyler, the town sheriff, and Linc, Krystal’s other husband and another of Desire’s deputies, blocked traffic and had the crowd back off. “The baby?”

Krystal looked worried as hell as she gathered clothing that Stormy had obviously bought and used it to pillow her head. “I don’t know, Caleb. I’m sorry. She was hit hard and hit the ground hard. She’s alive. Let’s just hold on to that right now.”

Caleb helped Krystal pillow Stormy’s head and leaned over her, stroking her hair and face, avoiding the red scrape where her face had met the pavement. “Come on, baby. Open your eyes for me. Wake up. Let me see those beautiful green eyes.”

He held her hand, wincing when he noted that her wrist was broken. “Krystal—”

“Yeah, I see it. I’ll ride with her in the ambulance. I can splint it there.”

Caleb’s phone started beeping, the ice of fear in his stomach accompanied by the edge of anger.

Krystal continued to check Stormy’s pulse and breathing, glancing up when he pulled his phone from his pocket to shut off the alarm. “An alarm?”

“Yeah. Somebody’s breaking into the house.”

Rafe crouched next to him, closing a hand on his shoulder. “This was intentional, Caleb. I’m sorry. I tried to reach her in time, but I couldn’t.”

Fighting not to tighten his grip on her hand and risk hurting her worse, Caleb kept his focus on Stormy. “Intentional? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Rafe blew out a breath. “Can I call Lucas for you?”

“He should be calling any minute. The alarm went off at the house. Someone’s trying to break in.”

Rafe’s hand tightened on his shoulder. “What? I’ll go check it out.”

Caleb ignored him and bent lower, touching his lips to Stormy’s hair. “I don’t care about that. Hey, baby. Please wake up for me. Please, baby.”

Krystal touched his arm. “At least she’d not in pain right now. When she wakes up, she’s gonna feel it.”

“I never should have left her alone. I should have been with her.”

His phone rang just as the ambulance pulled up, and when he looked up, it was to see that Ace had disappeared. Marshall and Joe Garrison rushed toward them, and Clay and Rio Erickson, along with Cord and his wife, Isabel, kept people back, Isabel doing so with tears running down her face.

Boone stood at his other side, blocking their view of Stormy and turning his head to yell at someone behind Caleb. “Hurry up with that gurney!”

Erin came rushing up, shaking off the hold of Jared, one of her husbands. “She just left the store. She was so happy. What can I do? What do you need?”

Shaking his head, Caleb looked at his phone display, unsurprised to see that the call came from Lucas. “I don’t know.”

He watched as they loaded Stormy, terrified beyond anything he’d ever felt before. After helping Krystal inside, he answered the phone and stepped up into the ambulance beside her. “Stormy’s hurt. She was hit by a car. Rafe saw and said it was intentional. I’m not gonna be able to hear you soon. They just loaded her into the ambulance. Krystal and I are riding in with her. Get to the hospital. Just…get to the hospital.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Lucas nudged Devlin aside, and then her thighs apart, gripped her chin, kissing her lightly but with a punch that tripped her pulse. “Behave yourself today or I’ll paddle your ass when I get home. That should wet you nicely for Devlin’s tongue.”

Shivering with arousal at his cool tone, Stormy ran her hands over his chest, grinning impishly. “You can’t spank me. I’m pregnant.”

She’d never played with a man before meeting Lucas, Devlin, and Caleb.

She’d teased her brother at times, as he teased her, but she’d never been close enough to another man to ever feel even remotely playful.

Devlin and Caleb loved to tease and joke with her and have her tease and joke with them in return, but Lucas rarely did, which made teasing him irresistible.

Lucas raised a brow, his lips twitching. “Our baby is tucked away nice and safe and warm. A little spanking isn’t going to hurt either one of you a bit.”

Their confidence was one of the things she loved most about them, especially Lucas’s. She loved the sense of security that she hadn’t realized she’d needed so badly, but she couldn’t resist pushing against it.

She wondered at times if she did it to check for weaknesses and couldn’t deny that it relieved her to never find one.

Tilting her head to the side, she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned closer, amused by the suspicion in his steady gaze. “You sound awfully sure of that. It’s very possible that it’ll be months, maybe years, before you can spank me again.”

With another raised brow, Lucas slid both hands beneath the hem of her shirt, slowly raising them and sliding them around her to unfasten her bra. “When I can’t turn you over me knee, I’ll have other ways of keeping you in line.”

She hadn’t yet become used to the way any one of them could turn her to mush with just a touch.

As Lucas slid his hands around her again, and knowing just what he could do to her with those talented hands, her breath caught in anticipation.

“In line! You’ll try to keep me in line?” Knowing—knowing— that he wanted to goad her, Stormy nevertheless couldn’t let it go. “You knew who I was when you married me! I don’t take orders from any of you!”

She tried to push his hands away, but she might as well have been trying to move a mountain. Her grip tightened on his muscular forearms, a moan escaping when his thumbs moved lightly over her nipples.

With a cry, she closed her eyes, her head falling back, the whisper of touch setting fire to every erogenous zone in a heartbeat.

Lucas brushed his lips over her neck, working his way upward and finally settled on a particularly sensitive spot just below and behind her ear. “Your body’s so sensitive right now that the lightest touch is more potent than the firmer touch you usually like. You need to be taken slowly now.”

Shaking her head and leaning into him, she pressed her thighs against his, the need to close them overwhelming as the throbbing in her clit became unbearable. “No. I need it hard and fast. Now.”

“No. You can come just like this. Come for me.”

Her entire existence centered on the soft slide of his thumbs back and forth over her nipples and the strength and support beneath her tight grip on his forearms. “No.”

She tingled everywhere.

Trembled.

She opened her eyes to look into his startling blue ones. “I want you.”

Lucas smiled and bent to brush his lips over hers. “You want my cock inside you, and I want more from you than a quick fuck. For now, I want to watch you come. Come for me.”

“No!” She couldn’t hold off much longer, every muscle in her body tight as the pleasure sharpened. “Please! I need you inside me to come.”

Devlin cursed. “Damn. Move and I’ll take her.”

Lucas nipped her bottom lip and continued to stroke her nipples. “No.”

Chuckling softly and moving closer to stand on one side of Lucas while Devlin stood on the other, Caleb reached out to run his fingers over her still damp hair. “It looks like you don’t have any choice, darlin’. You really don’t think you’re gonna be able to hold off much longer, do you?”

“She’s not going to be able to hold off at all.” Lucas captured her lips with his, deepening his kiss almost immediately and making her head swim.

His power over her senses couldn’t be denied.

Every slow swipe of his tongue against hers held a possessiveness and hunger she craved, and she had no choice but to give in while making her own demands.

Demands he met readily, his kiss making her dizzy while his thumbs continued to work their magic.

The pleasure exploded, and when she stiffened and cried out, he swallowed her cry and wrapped one arm around her, gathering her closer and steadying her while he slowed his strokes to her nipple, dragging out the pleasure.