"Daddy didn't tell me. He wouldn't tell me," she amended. "But he told Momma he should have locked you in your bedroom the first time you mentioned Raeg."

There were times she wished he had, Summer thought whimsically. Raeg and Falcon were going to break her heart, she could feel it coming. And that was one of the reasons she'd run from DC as she did.

She was so weak, it was pathetic.

"I do still have friends in DC myself though, big sis," Aunjenue said just when Summer thought she was safe. "And I know those boys have an intriguing little habit where their lovers are concerned." She wagged her brows suggestively. "No wonder you can't make up your mind which one you love. It's one for all and all for one."

Summer groaned, dropping her head before shooting her sister a look of retaliation.

"I said-"

"Oh phooey on what you said." Aunjenue rose from her chair, obviously laughing at her. "I know you better than you think I do, sweetie. Now, I'm gonna go get ready. Aunt Mary and Calista will be at the house in a couple of hours, and Calista is bringin' that little baby of hers. I can't wait to just snuggle her."

Their cousin's newborn was only six weeks old, a black-haired, blue-eyed little darling Summer had been dying to hold herself.

"I'll be there in a bit," Summer promised. "I want to get my tablet and the notes I made."

"Well, take your time," Aunjenue suggested. "Mike Taggart was at the house when I left. I think he's still tryin' to convince Caleb and Daddy to sell him that piece of land he's been after. Hopefully, he'll be gone soon."

Great. Mike Taggart wasn't her favorite person. How the man had managed to remain friends with her brothers she couldn't figure out.

"I'll slip in the back," Summer told her. "Just be watchin' for me."

Aunjenue gave a low laugh before walking quickly from the porch and along the walk to her parents' back porch.

Gathering up the coffee tray, Summer carried it to the door and pushed into the kitchen to place it in the sink. Two cups were drying in the dish rack, and she could see that several pastries along with a good bit of the fruit had been eaten.

Raeg and Falcon weren't really all about breakfast. Lunch and supper, yes; a heavy breakfast, not so much. Falcon did love his sweets though.

Washing the coffeepot and cups quickly, she dried her hands and headed upstairs to collect her tablet. She hadn't heard Falcon or Raeg in the house, and she was sincerely hoping they were with her daddy as they'd planned the night before to check out the property's security.

Having them there in her home was a bit problematic for her, she admitted. She hadn't wanted memories of them there, nor had she wanted the temptation. Once she'd made up her mind about the course of her future, she'd put the fantasy of having the two men as lovers behind her as well.

There could never be anything more than that between them, she told herself. Raeg had already warned her once in the past that he would take her as a lover for a night or two but never as a wife.

She was a one-night stand, Raeg had decided years ago. And Falcon would never be truly happy with any woman he didn't share with his brother, she'd known that. They did not take their lovers separately, and she hadn't wanted to accept being nothing more than a single night of fun and games for the two men who meant far more to her than she was comfortable admitting.

The question now was whether she wanted to throw away the chance to pretend for just a little while that she had what she couldn't seem to stop fantasizing about. They were here, and they were determined to stick around long enough to take Dragovich down, which would at least give her a little more time with them.

She could hold them, love them while they were here, and then she'd let them go when the time came. It would destroy her, break her heart, and leave her wounded forever, but she would let them go.

And she had a really bad feeling that the reason for these parties was pretty much in vain. Once Raeg and Falcon were gone, she wouldn't want another man or another man's baby. She'd be alone, and that had always been Summer's own vision of hell. Old and alone, with no one of her own to love her.

As bleak as such a future would be, and she knew "bleak" was a mild description, she also knew she couldn't resist them. She'd already had a taste of them, their touch, their possession.

They were already a part of her.

Raeg watched Summer enter the house from the shadowed doorway leading to the hall at the other side of the kitchen. With the lights out and the shades closed, the hall was the darkest part of the house. Not that that was why he was there. He was there because it was the best place in the house to install one of the cameras he was using to monitor the place.

Still, he didn't let her know he was standing there. He just watched her. The long beige print skirt she wore swished around her ankles, making her look more delicate, more fragile than ever. The thin top she wore emphasized her surprisingly full breasts, the rounded shape a perfect handful and topped with the prettiest nipples.

His cock, already hard and aching, swelled further, throbbing its reminder that he hadn't touched her since the other night. He hadn't tasted her kiss, hadn't felt the glove-tight heat of her pussy milking at his erection.

He grimaced as she finished washing the coffee service she and Aunjenue had used and left the kitchen. And of course, he followed her, knowing where she was heading, knowing he didn't think he could go much longer without taking her.

He was worse than a moth to a flame, he thought with a heavy breath before following her, drawn to her by a hunger he simply did not want to ignore any longer.

Letting her escape into her room before following her up the stairs, Raeg came to a stop at her open bedroom door and watched her as he leaned against the doorframe, a grin edging at his lips. She had her back to the doorway, but he had no doubt she knew he was standing there watching her.

She sat on the side of the bed, all those long, black waves and curls falling to just above her hips. She looked sweet and innocent. Her head was bent to allow her to see the screen of her tablet, the slightest turn of her body allowing him to glimpse her profile.

"Stop starin' at me," she finally ordered him, tossing a querulous look over her shoulder. "What are you doin' here anyway? I thought you and Falcon were goin' out with Daddy to see the security protocols."

Ah yes, that reminded him.

"Why is this place more secure than some presidential retreats I've seen? Hell, you have working cameras just inside the swamp and some of the most cleverly disguised shelters Falcon swears he's ever seen submerged in the water. And that's not counting the security measures we only suspect are in place." Raeg grumbled, remembering how impressed Falcon had been.

Her lips twitched. "And once you're gone, every bit of it will be taken down and moved."

Standard procedure, he thought. If you can't move the safe house, then change the security used for the safe house.

"Or just what Falcon has been shown will be taken down?" he grunted, straightening and walking across the room so he could better see her expression.

"Well now, anything's possible when you're dealin' with a former CIA intelligence analyst and her Delta Force husband. Momma was with the CIA when she and Daddy met on a mission somewhere in Asia. Then there's Caleb, he's former Special Forces." She laid aside her tablet to count off fingers. "Bowe's a sniper with the best eyes I've ever heard tell of and Brody spent his life in the swamp learnin' everything my uncle David, Momma's brother, knew about native warfare. You could say all that trainin' and subsequent war stories builds a bit of paranoia in a man's mind. Not to mention a woman's."

That was possible, he thought. Perhaps not probable, but possible.

"Six guesthouses?" He lifted a brow with the question.

Summer's eyes widened. "There's a lot of relations that come in during family reunions, weddings, funerals." The innocence in her expression would have been believable if he didn't know her so damned well.

"So why did Caleb send men out to get those guesthouses ready for occupation?" he asked, watching her carefully. If he hadn't been watching her so closely he would have missed the little telltale sign of deception so unique to Summer it always amazed him.

She didn't blink, her gaze didn't change, her lips didn't thin. When Summer was hiding something from him or Falcon, she had the oddest reaction, something that never happened if she lied to anyone else or when she was on a mission. When she was deceiving them though, she always made the mistake of giving the cutest little twitch of her nose. Just like she just did.

"Momma has some family coming in. You know my cousin just had that pretty baby of hers?" She grinned as though that said it all. "She's six weeks old now, plenty old enough to show off to family. We're all very close you know."

Ingenious. He had to give it to her, but her nose twitched again. Just a little bit. Nothing others would catch onto very quickly. And then there was the fact that she didn't exactly lie. No doubt family was coming, he was just curious as to why. And yes, her cousin just had a baby, the infant was six weeks old. And she no doubt felt six weeks was old enough for family to be viewing it. Each sentence stood on its own and created a perfect cover without actually lying.

Moving across the room until he stood in front of her, he couldn't help but marvel at the quickness of her response as well.

"And you're sticking to that story?" he asked, staring down at her and seeing the latent amusement lingering in her gaze.

Leaning back, she propped her hands on the mattress behind her hips and gave him a look of sweet surprise.

It wasn't a look he found comforting.

"Of course I am, sugar. It's always best to stick to the truth, ya know." The playful smile edging at her lips only made his dick harder, only made him hungrier for her.

Damn her, he wanted to push her to the bed, slide between her thighs and pound inside her with animal lust. That was what she did to him. Made him so desperate to come, his balls ached.

As she stared up at him, the laughter in her eyes slowly faded and a flush began to heat the skin of her face.

"Well, I best hurry." She cleared her throat, watching him warily. "Momma and Aunjenue are expecting me at the house soon. I of course get to see Calista's baby today."

The smile she flashed him was meant to be teasing, but he saw the hunger that flared in her eyes.

"Are you running again, Summer?" he asked. "I think we've all learned that running isn't going to work."

As long as they were together like this, in the same house, there was no ignoring it, no denying a lust that simply refused to be sated.

"And you think breaking my heart will?" she asked him, causing him to still, to stare back at her intently.

"Is that what you think I want to do?" He allowed her to maintain the distance between them for the time being, to let her think there was a way to avoid what he knew was coming.

"Just because you don't want to, doesn't mean you won't," she warned him. "You forget how well I know you, Raeg. Both of you. Neither of you have more than that fling you talked about years ago in mind. Taking me separately is only going to make all this more real to me and when the time comes to accept the fact that it's been a fling, I'll only be hurt."

No, she wasn't into flings. Summer had never really been into relationships, period, he realized. She'd had a few lovers, but only a few and that had been years ago. And he remembered each of the lovers she'd chosen those few times.

Summer didn't want what other women wanted, what other women searched for in a lover. She'd never gone the conventional route in anything she'd ever done. Summer had always done things the hard way. It was simply part of her nature. And she was nothing if not stubborn as hell.

As long as they took her together, did she really think she could ignore what he was beginning to realize himself? That there would be no walking away from this without all of them suffering for it?

"Only taking you together isn't going to change the outcome for any of us," he warned her. "And just because I very much enjoy seeing the heights Falcon and I can take you to together, I still intend to part those pretty legs and eat that sweet pussy until you're screaming to come before you leave this room."

Before she could jump away from the bed and run, Raeg came over her, lowering her to the mattress instead, allowing her to feel the iron-hard width of his erection against her lower stomach.

"Raeg..." her voice was low, the sound of helpless, feminine need filling it. "Please."

"Please, Summer?" he growled, one hand tangling in the hair at the back of her neck to tug her head back and allow him to stare into the violet depths of her gaze. "Please let me lick all that sweet cream I know is gathering between your thighs. Please let me fuck you with my tongue until I feel you coming on it."

A man didn't beg Summer-she only saw it as a weakness. She was an incredibly strong-willed woman, he thought with sudden insight. She would never again give into a weak man.

"Go ahead," he demanded. "Tell me this isn't what you want. Lie to me Summer as easily as you lie to yourself."

Chapter.

TWELVE.

What happened?

Where had this come from?

Even as the thoughts raced through her mind, her senses imploded. Raeg's lips covered hers, his tongue pushing past, tasting her, setting fire to her senses.

She should say no.

He would let her go if she demanded it, if she lied to him. Instead, a moan whispered past her lips, her fingers fisted in the shirt covering his chest, and her response to him overwhelmed her.

His fingers tightened in her hair, tugging her head back further, sending pleasure raking through her. Little zaps of sensation raced from the heated tugging along her scalp to shiver through her body.

And his kiss wasn't gentle. His lips possessed hers, his teeth nipped at her lips, his tongue owned her mouth. She didn't have the will to fight him.

She didn't want to fight him. This pleasure was incredible, fiery. It didn't matter, together or apart, Raeg and Falcon both could throw her senses into complete chaos.

Feminine weakness washed through her, her strength sapped by the pure dominance suddenly pouring from him.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

A whimper escaped her as the intensity and the pleasure only rose. With each stroke of his tongue past her lips, with each beat of her heart, her need for more only rose. It was like striking a match to a hunger she hadn't realized lurked inside her.

Pulling at the material of his shirt, lifting against him, she tried to get closer, tried to sate the suddenly greedy and overwhelming need tearing through her. And Raeg was determined to stoke that hunger.

The arm locked around her waist loosened, his hand stroking over her hip to her thigh, his fingers bunching in the loose material of her skirt, pulling it up and out of the way to allow him access to the sensitive flesh of her upper leg.

He nipped at her lips, a growl rumbling in his chest as she shuddered helplessly against him just before his kisses trailed lower, to her neck. His fingers moved higher, from her thigh to her blouse, the buttons releasing beneath them while Summer tore at the buttons of his shirt.

She wanted him naked, wanted them both naked, and she knew she was crazy for the inability to push them out of her life, out of her bed. Realistically, she knew it was too late to do either. As Raeg hurriedly stripped her, then himself-his lips and hands always touching her, stroking her, kissing her-she knew there was no avoiding the coming pain.

"Damn, how pretty you are," he growled, lifting her until she was stretched across the bed, staring up at him in dazed lust-filled need as he stretched out beside her.

He didn't waste any more time on words.

His head lowered, lips parting, to cover the painfully sensitive tip of her breast, sucking it inside the heat of his mouth.

"Oh God, Raeg..." The pleasure was so extreme, so incredibly erotic, her womb clenched in impending release.

Each firm draw on the nerve-laden nipple sent forked pulses of fiery sensation to attack her womb, her clit. She arched into the intense draws, her head tossing against the mattress as her nails bit into the hard muscles of his shoulders, clenching against his flesh.

Releasing her reddened nipple, he began moving down her body. Kisses to her stomach, her abdomen, as he slid between her thighs, pushing her legs apart to wedge his shoulders between them.

"Raeg," she whispered his name, watching as he lifted her legs until her knees bent, the soles of her feet resting on the mattress.

Then his head lowered, his lips devouring her saturated flesh, his tongue licking through the narrow slit with hungry demand.