Becca Van (2 page)

Janie stepped outside the stables that had hosted the wedding. Winter was over, but snow still lay in sporadic patches on the ground, and she was chilled despite her thick shawl. She had hoped that the cool air would clear her head, but right now someone could dump ice cubes down her dress and it wouldn’t be enough.

That kiss…

All three of their kisses, as a matter of fact. She couldn’t get them out of her mind. As astonished as she’d been, she had to admit that Seton was right. She’d been watching the men and dreaming that they might make a move. But she’d thought it would only be a dream.

Shivering both at the cold and at the memory, she looked back to the light and warmth of the party. Her eye picked out the three Garman brothers immediately.

After spending almost two months with the Elite Dragons and watching Brooke’s relationship develop with her men, Coulter, Trace, and Corbin Thornell, Janie had yearned even more to be in a relationship.

From the first moment she had met the three men, she had been attracted to them. But she wasn’t the type of person to jump in without looking for all the pitfalls first. What she wasn’t sure about was having a relationship with three men at once, and brothers at that. Lately, she’d begun to think it was time to head back to Bismarck. She’d had a harrowing experience and needed to get on with her life. But she didn’t want to leave Seton, Wolf, or Lander behind.

God, Janie, could you be any more messed up?
She’d only had one boyfriend, and she had given him her heart and soul as well as her body, and once he’d had her in bed, he had dumped her as if she was trash. As far as she was concerned, sex was overrated. It was messy, painful, and not something she had wanted to repeat, but after being around the Garman brothers, her body was telling her different. Her pussy was wet constantly, and all it took was a look from one or all of them to get her motor revving. She had caught all three brothers looking at her with such a hunger it was a wonder she hadn’t burst into flames.

They were such handsome men that her body was constantly simmering with arousal. Looking at them now, her eye was drawn first to Seton. As the oldest of the three, he seemed to be the most dominant. When he gave an order he expected it to be obeyed, and even though Janie wasn’t a leader, she wasn’t exactly a follower either. Seton seemed to be able to push her buttons. She was constantly biting her tongue over his arrogant commands and knew it was only a matter of time before she went head to head with him.

He stood around six three in height, and his physique was bulky with muscle. Janie guessed he was in his early to midthirties, which gave him the advantages of not only size but age, compared to her. Every time those deep brown eyes stared at her, she was the first to look away, and she hated that. She craved to run her fingers over his military-cut brown hair and then let her hands continue down his chest to see if he was as hard as he looked. His legs were long and his thighs were sturdy with strength. His hips were narrow and his abdomen was washboard tight. Tonight he’d swapped out his usual wardrobe of tight shirts for a tux, but it did nothing to hide the muscularity rippling beneath the fabric. Janie told herself to stop staring and tried to force her eyes away quickly, only to be transfixed by Wolf.

Wolf was younger than Seton by a year or two and an inch taller than his older brother. He had light-brown hair and amber-colored eyes which seemed to miss nothing. It was a useful trait for him to have as the Elite Dragons team medic, and to this day Janie was thankful. Their captivity in the basement had left Brooke very sick, and Wolf had taken care of her.

And then there was Lander, six foot five and bulging with muscles. He had dark-blond hair and hazel eyes with amber flecks mixed in the midst of his irises. As the indomitable flirt of the three, he was quick witted and liked to tease Janie almost as much as he liked to touch her. But his flirtatiousness hid not only a man of steel but a man capable of deep kindness and passion.

She felt a tingle of awareness, as if someone were watching her. She glanced back to Seton and discovered his brown eyes fixed on her across the arena.
Crap!
Janie stepped deeper into the shadows, but Seton seemed to track her anyway.
He can’t possibly see me
.

Shivering again, she decided to head back to the house. The stud farm was huge, but the Garman brothers’ house wasn’t too far off, something Janie was grateful for tonight. Opening the door, she sighed as warmth enveloped her.

She made her way to her borrowed bedroom. Now that the men weren’t standing in front of her, she thought back to what they’d said to her in the arena. Her mind was in a whirl, and she was so confused. Having experienced only one serious relationship, which had been disastrous, she was feeling as if she had been thrown in the deep end of a pool and left to sink or swim.

She removed the dress Brooke’s husband Trace had bought for her bridesmaid role in their wedding.

She headed to the adjoining bathroom to take a shower. By the time she’d finished and pulled on her sleeping attire of sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt, she had just about convinced herself not to overthink anything. They’d said she could give them an answer in the morning, so she’d sleep on it.

Janie came to that conclusion as she reached for her face cream. Her fingers slipped, and the jar went tumbling to the floor. Janie yelped, jumping back to keep the jar from landing on her bare toes. The lid flew open, spattering face cream all over the floor.

“Crap.” Janie bent over to start cleaning it up. Her hand hadn’t even closed over the jar when the door burst open behind her.

“You okay?” Seton asked. “I heard you shout.”

Janie squeaked and stood. She straightened up her T-shirt as she turned toward him. Seton filled the doorway, those intent eyes fixed on her.

“Just dropped something.” She held up the jar and added skeptically, “I didn’t hear you come back.”

“We just got in.” Seton’s eyes raked her, and Janie felt her face heating. The sweats and T-shirt she slept in weren’t her most attractive look, but Seton asked in a growly voice, “Need any help?”

“No thanks.”

Seton said, “Come outside when you’re done.”

He closed the door, and Janie let out the breath she’d been holding. Wadding up some toilet paper, she wiped up the spill. Her temporary resolution to stop overthinking things was shattered. How
had
they gotten up here so fast? It hardly seemed likely that they were lurking in the bedroom when she dropped the jar. Nothing had broken, so it surprised her that they even heard the sound.

She was still considering this mystery as she returned to the bedroom a few minutes later.

Seton was sitting on the side of her bed, Wolf was lying across her bed resting his chin on his hand, and Lander was lounging against the door to her room.

“Come and sit down, sugar. We have something we need to tell you,” Seton said and patted the space beside him.

Janie walked over and sat down, keeping her eyes averted as she clutched her hands in her lap. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, darlin’. We just have a few things we need to tell you,” Wolf explained as he shifted on the bed and moved to sit beside her.

“I thought I had until morning to make up my mind,” she protested.

“Honey, you have all the time you need. But there are some other things you should consider,” Wolf said.

“Janie, we want you. But we want you to know what we have become before you made your decision,” Seton clarified.

She looked up when Lander made his way toward her and squatted down on his haunches in front of her.

“Baby, you know already that we’ve worked for the military for a long time and we have only just decided to semiretire,” Lander said.

Janie nodded. She’d been around the stud long enough to know that the Elite Dragons had a unique role in national security. The twelve men had spent years honing their skills and were considered to be a combination of Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, and Marines. The Dragons were sent in where no others would dare go. She had also observed that despite their close military ties, they were more or less free to do as they wished. Now Lander explained that, as a reward for their patriotism and their willingness to go anywhere, anytime, to keep their country safe, the Elite Dragons were free to work and live as they liked. Thus their cover of a stud breeding farm had been set up and hands had been hired to keep the business side of things running when the team was out on assignment.

Seton picked up the story from his brother. “But it won’t be a cover for much longer. We are sick of all the fighting and want the opportunity to start a family.”

Janie nodded again. “Okay.” She didn’t quite see why they were all acting so serious about it, but she had a feeling the other shoe hadn’t dropped yet.

“What you don’t know,” Lander said, “is that the Elite Dragons is a secret operatives program which doesn’t exist on paper.” Lander took a deep breath and looked over to Seton and Wolf.

“What Lander is trying to explain,” Wolf said, “is that when we entered this program ten years ago, we volunteered for some government experiments. We were injected with a concoction of drugs, things that aren’t available or even known to the public. Hell, I can’t even pronounce some of those chemicals. As a result we have abilities beyond the normal human male.”

“What sort of abilities?” Janie asked curiously.

Seton answered, “We have enhanced eyesight and hearing, and we are much stronger than the normal male. We are also empathetic.”

“What? Do you mean you can feel other people’s emotions?” she asked nervously.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Oh my God.
Was that how he’d reached the bathroom so fast? Some sort of super speed? Did that also mean he’d—they’d—been reading her mind the whole time she’d been here? Janie was too freaked out to keep sitting between them, but Seton reached out to stop her from rising to her feet. “Hear me out, sugar, I haven’t finished. At no time have we used our abilities on you. We were taught how to block out others’ emotions in our training, and we rarely let those guards down. The only reason we do is if it is necessary when we are on a mission or we believe someone is lying to us. The others have the same abilities. You can ask Brooke if you don’t believe me.”

Shit!
Janie could hardly take in what they were saying. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie. And how could she be sure they hadn’t used those abilities on her?

Taking a deep breath, she lifted her head and looked from one brother to the other. They all looked so sincere. Janie knew they were men of their word. They had saved her life, opened their home to her, and never pushed her despite the attraction they seemed to feel for her.

“I believe you. I’m just having a little bit of trouble processing everything. Are you even allowed to be telling me this? I thought what you did was top secret.”

“It is, darlin’,” Wolf answered. “But we want you to know everything before you make your decision. We didn’t think it was fair for you to decide one way or the other without knowing about this. You’re important to us, Janie, and even though we want you to stay here with us, you needed to know about this.”

“I understand,” she replied. “Thanks for being honest with me.” She bit her lip. “I can still…think about all this, right?

Lander rose to his full height with a fluid grace one wouldn’t expect in such a large man. Janie had to consciously hold back the groan forming in her chest to keep it from coming out. Her pussy clenched and gushed out moisture onto her panties, and her nipples peaked and her breasts swelled in reaction. God, she was always so turned on around these three men, and she knew it had nothing to do with the way they looked. She had been around handsome men before but hadn’t reacted in the slightest. What was it about these three that drew her like a moth to a flame?

Wolf and Seton followed Lander to the door. Seton hesitated and turned back to her, giving her such a heated look that she had to close her eyes before she did something stupid, like run up to him and jump his bones.

“See you in the morning, gorgeous,” Seton said quietly and closed the door behind him.

He had called her
gorgeous
. She had never thought of herself as anything other than passable to look at. When she looked in the mirror she didn’t see anything special. She wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t a beauty either. Sure, she had blonde hair and blue eyes, but so what, so did a lot of other women. Just because the old adage said blondes had more fun didn’t mean it was true.

Janie flopped back on the bed with a groan. It had got harder and harder to keep her distance from the three Garman brothers as the weeks had passed, but she knew it was going to be nearly impossible now that they had told her they wanted her.
What’s a girl to do? Do I give in to my urges and allow them to have their wicked way with me? Or do I let my head do the thinking instead of my body and be sensible?

Moving to the window seat, she stared out into the darkness, seeing nothing. Her mind went over and over the pros and cons of staying or going. If she stayed, she would have to end the lease on her apartment and explain to her parents why she was moving. If she left, she would go back to her normal life without having to tell her parents a thing. Her one-bedroom apartment in Bismarck wasn’t much of an incentive, though, especially now that her parents were on a long cruise. They had come to visit before disembarking, to assure themselves that Janie was safe, and she missed them a little. She had gotten used to being able to turn to them if she needed them. For that matter, she’d gotten used to having the Garman brothers around, too.