A Summer in Paradise (3 page)

“
I’ll just go back to the
cabin and get it.” She smiled. “Who knows? You might get lucky and
hook your own lines and then we could all fish.”

“
Why don’t you do that,
sweetheart,” Duncan said as he heaved himself out of the water.
“We’ll just wait here and try to dig up some more bait.”

Jarrod watched as she turned and
hurried away. “You know she’s not coming back, don’t you? She’s
probably getting dressed and ready to scurry down the mountain to
tell the good people of the nearest town that there are sexual
predators up here on the mountain.”

“
No, she’s not. She’s coming
back.”

“
I don’t know how you can be
so damned sure of that.” Jarrod shook his head. There was no way to
tell what the woman would do. “Neither of us could smell her. She
could be doing anything right now, including getting a
gun.”

Duncan chuckled. “Can you imagine that
little girl with a gun?” He paused, a startled expression on his
face. “Do you think she could be our girl? She looks
familiar.”

“
I doubt it.” Jarrod stared
toward the cabin, wishing he could see it through the woods. “Why
would she suddenly come back after all these years?”

“
I don’t know.” Duncan
shrugged one shoulder negligently. “To see her sister,
perhaps?”

“
Maybe, but why now after
all these years? Gemma’s been happily married for the last several
years. You’d think she would have come back for the
wedding.”

“
Yeah.” Duncan sighed.
“You’re probably right.” He brought his knee up to his chest and
wrapped his arm around it. “We couldn’t get
that
lucky, could we?”

Standing, Duncan made his way over to
their tackle box. “We could all fish if I made a few more poles out
of tree branches. They don’t have to be long. They only need to be
strong enough to pull in a good-sized walleye.”

Jarrod snorted. “When are you going to
face the facts that there are no walleye in this lake?”

“
When I’m old and gray and
still haven’t caught one. I seeded this lake with over three
thousand of the damned things three years ago. I
know
some of them had to
have survived.”

“
I think you’re
dreaming.”

“
Dreaming about
what?”

Jarrod turned at the sound of the
woman’s sweet voice and smiled. Right about then, the wind changed
and carried her scent to him and his hormones went into
overdrive.

Duncan stiffened and stopped digging
through the fishing gear and looked up, a predatory gleam in his
eyes. “Welcome back.”

“
Yes,” Jarrod said as he,
too, jumped to his feet and stood staring at the woman that he now
knew was his mate. With luck, she was Duncan’s mate as well. If the
gleam in his best friend’s eyes was any indication, she was
his
mate as well. “Welcome
back.” He pointed at his friend. “Duncan was just looking in the
tackle box to see if we had enough gear to make a couple of
makeshift rods. Fishing with one pole will take too long if we all
want to eat any time soon.”

He shot Duncan a look. “Does Adam still
have people plant vegetables at every cabin?”

“
As far as I know,” Duncan
answered absently as he continued to dig through the box full of
lures and line. “I think someone has planted corn, carrots,
potatoes and onions at every cabin this year. He usually has
someone plant vegetables that don’t need a lot of
tending.”

“
If you’re talking about the
garden that someone planted about a hundred feet to the west of the
cabin, it has all of those things, plus beets, tomatoes and green
beans.”

Jarrod looked up at the woman and
smiled. “Wonderful. There should be enough there to make a full
meal for all of us, if you’ll invite us for dinner.” He glanced at
Duncan. “That’s Duncan and I’m Jarrod, just so you’ll know who
you’re feeding.”

Jarrod inhaled deeply, taking in her
intoxicating scent. He knew what he would love to have for dinner
and desert—his mate, laid out on the table with her legs spread
wide so he could feast on her fragrant cunt.

“
Of course I would love to
have you for dinner.”

Jarrod admired her dimples when she
smiled. It made him wonder if she had some on her ass cheeks as
well. He would love to know and if he had anything to say about it,
he would. Very, very soon.

Chapter Five

Pearl swallowed thickly at the
expressions the two men wore. They looked like they were cats and
she was a dish of cream. Her nipples pebbled at the thought of them
loving her the way Gemma’s mates loved her.

Liquid heat pooled low. Her hand moved
to cover her lower abdomen, almost of its own volition, and she
wondered what it was like to have two men love her. She also
wondered what it would be like to live her life in the safety of
their arms.

Instead, she knew that she must take
what she could, when she could and be on her way to Scotland. She
could go tomorrow, or next month. The position was available to her
until the first of the year. She only hoped she’d have some good
memories to take with her when she left.

She wanted to take the memory of making
love to the two men she’d fallen in love with so many years ago
with her. She was here, they were here. There must be some reason
why providence brought them all together again.

Slick cream dampened the crotch of her
swimsuit and Pearl took a deep breath. “We should get busy if we
want something for dinner then. I’m hungry already.”

Heat burned her cheeks when both men
looked down at her chest. She knew her nipples were hard. They’d
been like little rocks since she first laid eyes on them wearing
their skimpy suits. Somehow, seeing them with the thongs was even
more arousing than seeing them totally exposed. Why that was, she
had no idea.

She loved the way Jarrod let his beard
grow just enough to look a little scruffy. She also loved the way
Duncan kept his face clean-shaven. Pearl wasn’t sure which way she
liked best. All she knew was the two men made her elbows sweat,
they were so hot.

Both were the epitome of tall, dark and
handsome. Each had broad shoulders and well-defined washboard abs.
Each ridge made her practically itch to touch them. Both of them
had broad chests, but where Duncan’s was smooth and hairless,
Jarrod had a bit of soft-looking hair on his. It was just enough to
feel the difference.

Pearl found herself wanting
to know how it felt to have each of them rubbing against her. She
wanted to feel the disparity of their touch. Most of all, she
wanted them to sandwich her between them so she could experience
their passions and celebrate
all
of their differences.

Her stomach did a little flip when they
both closed in. They watched her with keen eyes as they continued
to move closer. Pearl almost felt like running and knew that one
day she would, but not today. Today, she would stand here and watch
them stalk her with the predatory gaze of their beasts and revel in
the fact that for one moment in time, she held their undivided
attention.

For years, she’d waited for this. A
decade and a half had passed since she left Paradise and it had
been longer still that she’d wanted these two men. Back then she
hadn’t known it was considered normal. Back then, Camulus and his
gaggle of goons had made women into little more than sex objects
and baby factories. That was why she left, dragging Crystal with
her.

Pearl took a deep breath and
stood her ground. The animal part of these men would enjoy a
chase.
She
, on the
other hand, could never outrun them on even ground, though one day
she knew would try, but not today.

“
What are you looking at?”
Pearl nervously licked her lips. God, she wanted them so bad she
could almost feel their lips upon her skin.

“
We’re looking at you.”
Jarrod said as he moved closer. He widened his approach, moving up
on her left side, while Duncan took her right.

“
Is there a problem with
that?”

“
No.” She shook her head at
Duncan’s question. “Why would I have a problem with it?” Was that
her voice sounding so husky, so breathless? Pearl cleared her
throat as they continued to stalk her. “It’s just that…” She paused
to lick her lips. “You both look so intense all of a
sudden.”

Duncan smiled as he moved to her side.
“Has anyone ever told you that you smell delicious?” Leaning
forward, he inhaled deeply. “Good enough to eat, even.”

Pearl’s knees almost gave out when he
said that. She imagined herself between them, her body bare as they
worshipped her body, taking turns while tasting, even feasting, on
the slick flesh between her legs.

Her clit throbbed with anticipation of
what these two would do with her. She found her mouthwatering with
the desire to do the same to them. While her sense of smell wasn’t
nearly as keen, she wanted to press her face against their skin and
inhale their unique scents. After all of the years lusting after
these two men, she had no idea what either of them smelled like.
What was their favorite cologne? What kind of soap did they
use?

Leaning forward, Pearl took a deep
breath, hoping to learn something about them. Duncan smelled a
little of the musky scent of sweat, lake water, and sundrenched
man. She suspected that Jarrod smelled the same.

Her fingers tightened around her
collapsible fishing rod that had, until then, gone forgotten. She
raised her hand and held it out to them. “Here’s my pole.” She felt
her face heat at her words when something crude popped into her
thoughts and almost made her giggle.

Jarrod took it from her with a smile
that told her he knew the direction of her thoughts. “I’ll get this
baited and tossed into the water.”

Pearl watched as he turned. A thin
layer of sweat covered his skin with a soft sheen and she wanted to
grab his arm and turn him back so she could touch his tanned skin
and feel the light coating of hair on his chest.

Instead, she curled her fingers inward
and held her fists against her thighs. Whatever this was that had
come over her was overwhelming and she didn’t know what to do—what
to think. Shaking her head to clear it, Pearl turned toward the
small river that fed the lake. “I’m going to go for a swim while
you two are fishing.” She reached up to pull the hair away from the
back of her neck. “I’m hot.”

She wasn’t sure, but Pearl could have
sworn she heard Duncan say, “Yes, you are, baby.”

Whatever it was he said, she didn’t
stick around to ask. She hurried to the river as quickly as she
could. She needed to cool off in more ways than one. What was it
about those two that always seemed to make her blood boil? Every
nerve ending, every inch of her skin, always seemed to know when
they were near.

She had even felt it when she
approached the lake for the first time today, but she’d ignored it.
She had even called it wishful thinking. Yet, there they were when
she got there, sunning themselves on the rocks the way they always
had. The only difference was the addition of the skimpy swimming
suits.

Whatever it was that had her knowing
they were near. It was different this time around. Some strange
heat built in her stomach, flaring outward to her extremities until
she felt as though she was burning up from the inside
out.

She first felt it when she went back to
the cabin to get her fishing rod. Now she felt it again. Only this
time it seemed even greater in intensity than the first
time.

When Pearl reached the riverbank, she
didn’t hesitate. She threw herself into the cool water in an
attempt to arrest the growing heat within her.

She’d be the first to admit that the
two men were hot, but she shouldn’t react this way to any man. What
was this burning she felt the two times she’d exposed herself to
the two men since she returned to Paradise? And why did she feel so
damned horny?

Chapter Six

“
What do you think?” Duncan
removed the fish he’d just pulled from the water, placed it on the
stringer with the rest of those he had caught and cast his line
back out into the lake. He didn’t know what it was, but the fish
had been biting, one after the other since their mate left. “Which
sister is she?”

He didn’t really care one way or the
other. All that really mattered was that she belonged to them.
They’d known all along it was Gemma Alexander’s sister that ogled
them at the lake during their visits so long ago. They just didn’t
know which one. At first they’d thought perhaps it was Gemma and
that was why she’d stayed, but then realized it wasn’t. That was
when they realized it had to have been one of her younger sisters.
He grimaced at the thought that they may have bared themselves to a
fourteen year old Crystal and almost gagged. Neither of them were
pedophiles.

They should have known it
wasn’t Gemma.
She
had always had a thing for the two men who eventually became
her mates. What was it about the two Alexander girls that made them
able to be around the men who would eventually become their mates
without triggering the
el
calor
? Was it the fact that they were
human, or was it because they hadn’t been mature enough?