Riptide [Kismet Cove] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (6 page)

The engine noise shifted to a low grumble and Evan realized they must be nearing the dock. He didn’t bother to get up and help. Both of them were able to run the boat single-handed when required, and right now Jess needed him more than Rory did.

He felt the bump as they touched the dock, and the boat rocked as Rory shut off the engine and made the short jump to the wharf to tie them up.

The movement was enough to make the woman in Evan’s arms stir and lift her head, her pale eyes blinking sleepily as she looked around. “What was that?”

“Just Rory’s heavy-handed driving, sweetheart. Nothing to worry about.” Evan grinned up at her before drawing her back down into his arms. “He’s tying us up right now. You’re safe and sound.”

“M-kay.” Jess’s eyes were already closing again as she settled back onto the bed. Unable to resist any longer, Evan cupped her cheek, his thumb tracing the plump pout of her lower lip. He’d never had a woman trust him so completely, and it worried him. Was she like this with everyone? If so, she was going to get hurt, or likely had been already. Just the thought of someone hurting Jess made him grit his teeth, and he held her tighter as the need to protect her coursed through him.

Holy shit.
Evan tensed as he finally figured out what was going on with him and Rory. He made a mental list and ticked off the symptoms one at a time. Protectiveness, check. Possessive feelings, check. Powerful attraction, check and double fucking check. He blew out a breath as the truth hit him like a punch to the gut. The woman he and Rory had just fished out of the ocean was a potential mate. The only trouble was, true mates were never human, and he’d never heard of a selkie damned near drowning. Something wasn’t adding up.

* * * *

Jess knew there was a reason she should open her eyes, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what it was. It was easier just to drift in the comforting warmth that surrounded her like a cocoon than to puzzle out what was wrong. She was warm, and Evan had said she was safe…Jess’s brain slammed on the brakes and then reviewed her last thought and a second later she was sitting up in bed, her arms crossed over her nearly naked chest as she stared down at the blond god looking up at her in alarm.

“What—” was all he got out of his mouth before she started screaming.

“Where am I and why am I naked? And who the hell are you?”

Jess grabbed the blankets still wrapped around her and scrambled backward until she hit a wall.

“Just calm down for a minute, Jess. I’m Evan, remember?”

“No! I mean…maybe?” She realized he was only half dressed and panic washed over her again. “Where are your clothes? And where the hell are mine?”

She heard footsteps coming at a dead run and the next thing she knew another man burst into the room. Jess squealed in fright and tried to stand up, slamming her head on the low ceiling. Stars burst behind her eyelids and she dropped back down to the bed with a cry of fear and pain.

“What the fuck did you do to her, Evan?” the new arrival bellowed.

“Nothing! Now will you shut up? You’re scaring her.”

“I’m scaring her? Really? I was up top when she started screaming.”

“Shut. Up. Rory,” Evan snarled and Jess could hear him moving on the bed. “Jess, sweetheart, it’s okay. You got taken out by a wave and we pulled you out of the water. Your clothes are right over there, but they’re soaking wet. Are you remembering any of this yet?”

Jess opened her eyes slowly and found herself staring straight into the face of a dark angel. His black hair fell to his shoulders, and his eyes were the color of onyx. She could tell he hadn’t bothered to shave in a day or so, and the dark stubble added to the surreal sense of danger the man projected. Even stooped over to fit inside the strangely configured room. He looked absolutely huge and more than a little intimidating.

“Hi, Jess. I’m Rory.” The dark-haired man gave her a slow smile and she felt her insides turn to molten mush. That smile transformed his face and softened the impact of his powerful presence.

“Uh, hi.” She tugged the blankets tighter around her and glanced over to Evan again. He was like sunshine after the storm when she compared him to Rory. He had sandy blond hair and a friendly smile that she recognized from the tumble of terrible memories that were all jumbled up inside her head. “You were the one that pulled me out of the water,” she said to Evan and he nodded, still watching her with concern gleaming in his sky-blue eyes.

“That’s right. Rory was there, too, but he was dealing with the boat, so I was the one who took you down here and got you warmed up.”

More memories came back and Jess blushed as she remembered being undressed and then burrowing into Evan’s arms.

Evan grinned and she found herself dazzled by his smile. “Oh yeah, it’s all coming back to you now, isn’t it?” he chuckled. “Now that we’ve established the fact that no one here’s an ax murderer, why don’t you lie back down and finish getting warmed up while I check to make sure you didn’t just give yourself a concussion.”

“I’ll do it,” Rory offered and the two men exchanged a look Jess didn’t quite catch the meaning of. It must have meant something, though, because Evan grinned and nodded before flopping back down on the mattress and patting the spot beside him.

“I’ll leave the first aid to Rory’s gentle touch, then. Come here, sweetheart. You’re nowhere near recovered yet. You need to rest.”

A fragment of another conversation popped into Jess’s head and she grinned at Evan as she carefully made her way back to his side. “I thought you said he was heavy-handed?”

Rory growled and Evan groaned with laughter. “Oh sure. You didn’t remember getting rescued, but you managed to remember me insulting his driving? You’re just going to be a world of trouble for us, I can already tell.”

Jess was intensely aware of Rory as he moved around behind her, and she felt a shimmer of heat dance over her skin as he gently stroked her hair and explored her scalp just around where she’d bumped it.

“You gave yourself a nice goose-egg, but I don’t see any blood.”

“So I’ll live?” She tried to keep her tone light, but she could hear the tremor in her voice. She hoped they’d think it was from the cold and not because of the effect the two of them were having on her.

Rory’s hands stroked over her wet hair and came to rest on her shoulders as he leaned down so his mouth was just beside her ear. “You’ll live, but only if you stop wandering out on the rocks during storm season. Promise me you won’t do that again.”

His breath was warm as it fanned over her skin and Jess had to focus hard to form a coherent response.

“I didn’t know it was dangerous.”

Rory’s hands tightened around her shoulders and his voice rumbled like distant thunder. “Promise me, Jess. I don’t want you taking that kind of risk again.”

Annoyance burned off some of the warm fuzzies she’d been feeling and Jess spun her head to snarl at him, forgetting he was only a few inches away. “I don’t have to promise you anything!”

“Uh oh, wrong thing to say, sweetheart.” Evan chuckled somewhere to her left, but Jess barely heard him. She was staring into Rory’s dark-chocolate eyes, his mouth hovering a finger’s breadth away from hers.

“Yes, you do,” Rory told her.

“Like hell I do! I’m grateful for both of you for rescuing me, but whatever it is that you think is going on here, it’s not. So just get your hands off me and I’ll be on my way!”

“No,” Rory growled and then he was kissing her, his mouth hard and hot as he slanted his lips over hers. The stubble on his cheeks rasped against the sensitive skin of her face and that friction blended into the heat that flowed from him where his lips touched hers.

As quickly as he had taken her, he retreated again, and Jess found herself following his mouth as he pulled away. She knew she should have been angry, or scared, but instead she couldn’t feel anything past the driving need to feel his lips on hers again. This time she kissed him and she heard one of the men groan. She wasn’t sure which it was, and she didn’t care. Jess turned on the bed so she was facing Rory and speared her fingers into the dark waves of his hair, tugging him closer to her as she explored his mouth with hers.

Rory tasted dark and smoky, like autumn leaves and bonfires. She ran her tongue along the seam of his lips and he opened his mouth with a groan that inflamed all her senses. His hands circled her hips and hauled her up against the solid wall of his body.

Again Jess’s brain tried to send up a warning flare, reminding her that this was a stranger she was so recklessly kissing, but she ignored everything but the need to touch and be touched. Their tongues tangled and a flame sparked in Jess’s womb, sending a flood of liquid heat gushing between her thighs and soaking her pussy.

Another groan, and this time she knew it was Evan that was giving voice to his arousal because he was behind her a heartbeat later, the bare skin of his chest pressing up against her back as he swept her hair aside and blew a puff of air across her ear before sucking on her earlobe. For one perfect moment the three of them were in harmony, but then Jess’s brain screamed in denial at what was happening and tore her out of her reverie.

She broke off the kiss with Rory and let her hands fall from his hair as she found herself sandwiched between two of the hottest men she’d ever met, wearing nothing but her underwear.
How the hell did this happen?

“Jess?” Evan’s voice was a soft caress that flowed over her rattled nerves. “You okay, sweetheart?”

Her answering laughter had a brittle edge to it that even Jess could hear. “No, I’m not even close to okay. I damn near drowned a while ago, and now I think I’m hallucinating.”

“What makes you think you’re seeing things?” Rory asked, his voice still a husky with desire. He stroked his thumb down her cheek and she felt her pulse race at that simple contact.

“There’s no way this can really be happening. I don’t—I’ve never even dreamed of doing this.”

“Doing what?” Evan purred and brushed several delicate kisses from her ear to the top of her shoulder.

“This! You, me, him! This isn’t happening! It can’t be, because I would never do something like this.” Jess took a deep breath and struggled to make sense of what was going on.

“Sweetheart, I promise you, this is as real as it gets.” Evan chuckled near her ear as Rory tucked a finger under her chin and lifted her head so she was looking in his eyes.

“You’re not the only one wondering what the hell is going on, but believe me, it is happening.” Rory gave her a smile and kissed her. It was a sweet, soft kiss that was nothing like the passionate possession she’d experienced from him only minutes before.

Jess shivered with cold and confusion and both men reached around to hold her, nearly crushing her between them. She idly noticed they didn’t seem bothered by the fact they were holding each other as well as her, and then she shut down that line of thinking before she ended up jumping one of them again.
Or both of them.

“Uh, guys? We’re docked, right? So you can take me back to my cabin now.”

“Not yet,” Evan murmured as he nuzzled her neck. “You need to rest a bit more first, and Rory needs to find you something to wear.”

“Rory isn’t going anywhere, thank you.” The big man arched a brow over Jess’s shoulder to glower at Evan.

Evan ignored Rory and kept talking to Jess as if the other man hadn’t said a word. “You’re shivering again, Jess. Get back under the covers and let us take care of you. I promise, nothing is going to happen without your permission, okay?”

Something deep inside her whispered that she should do as they wanted. That she could trust them. She wanted to, so badly, but she needed help to make the leap.

“Promise me. Both of you promise me you won’t hurt me.”

“Hurt you?” Rory sounded horrified at the idea. “Never, baby. I would never hurt you, I promise.”

“Me, too,” Evan stated solemnly. “Now will you please lie down and rest some more? You’re not ready to be up and around yet.”

Jess smiled tiredly as she nodded and let the two men guide her back down to the mattress. They had her lie down on her side and then settled down on either side of her, cradling her between them like a pair of warm, muscular bookends. She closed her eyes as they covered themselves with the blankets again, her cheek resting on Evan’s chest and with Rory spooning up behind her. She’d never felt so protected in her life, and when Evan’s arm wrapped around her shoulders and Rory’s hand curved around her hip, she didn’t do anything but sigh in contentment and let herself drift deeper into sleep. When she had recovered from her near-death experience she’d have to decide what she was going to do about the fact she was attracted to two men at once, but for now her instincts were insisting she could trust them, and she was simply too tired to do anything else.

Rory could tell the second that Jess fell asleep, because her body finally relaxed completely and her breathing slowed and deepened. Evan cleared his throat very quietly and Rory finally met his blood-brother’s gaze and asked, “Do you know what the fuck is going on?”

Evan nodded once and then tapped his temple.

Great, Evan wanted to do this telepathically. Rory sighed inwardly. He tended to keep his mental shields up at all times, and not even Evan was allowed past them for more than a few sentences, usually when one or both of them were in seal form and all other communication was impossible. All selkies could relay their thoughts when in seal form, but only blood-bonded selkies could read each other’s thoughts and emotions when human. Still, Rory had learned early that as the future leader of the colony, it was important that no one be able to get into his head or influence his decisions.

Rory opened the link to Evan, and the strength of the thoughts that flowed at him were so strong he winced.
“Ease up, dude. You’re giving me a headache.”
He sent the thought back to Evan.

“Sorry, it’s a bit hard to be calm at the moment.”