Her clit was swollen, pulsing with the need to orgasm, as his tongue worked around it, below it. He licked and tasted her, humming his approval against the too sensitive flesh.

Sliding his hands beneath her rear, he lifted her, lips lowering, his tongue spearing inside the clenching opening of her pussy.

Her juices spilled to his waiting tongue, rushing along the channel as his tongue stroked and rasped against the delicate inner tissue. Thrusting in, retreating, he fucked her with his tongue in rapid strokes, pushing her so close, so high, she could barely breathe for the sensations whipping through her.

"Raeg, you're killing me!" she cried out, wanting to scream in frustration each time he pulled her back from the release waiting for her.

Her hands clenched in the blankets beneath her, pulling at them, wanting to claw at them as the sensations only intensified, the pleasure becoming agonizing, so intense, so hot that perspiration gathered on her skin and it felt as though flames licked across her nerve endings.

"Please..." She all but wailed the plea. "Raeg, please..."

His tongue pushed inside her again, retreated, then traveled back to her clit in flickering, teasing little licks that had her muscles tensing further, already so tight they ached as she fought to catch that wave of release held just out of reach.

"Damn you, fuck me," she demanded, shuddering as another wave came closer, so very close, only to escape at that last heartbeat. "Now Raeg. Please, fuck me."

He jackknifed between her thighs, his lips damp from her juices, his face stained brick red, as his fingers wrapped around the base of his thick, erect cock.

Darkly flushed and broad, the flared crest gleamed with moisture and the promise of pleasure as he came over her, guiding his erection to press against the entrance of her pussy.

She couldn't help but watch, and Raeg held himself above her, allowing her to see the wide head part the swollen folds of her pussy before he began pushing inside her.

The heavy, stretching invasion stole her breath just as the sight of his penetration parting her flesh destroyed her senses. Pulling back, her juices clung to the thick shaft, slick and shining, easing his way as he thrust inside her again, shuttling deeper with each inward movement and stretching her with such delicious waves of pleasure-pain that she felt the wave rising, growing more intense.

"Like that, do you, baby?" he whispered, his voice hoarse. "Like watching me take you? Filling you up with each stroke?"

Like it? She loved it. She'd fantasized about it.

"That's what it's like for me and Falcon, watching the other take you, stretch you. Knowing how fucking good you feel wrapped around our dicks, but we get to see your pleasure at the same time," he groaned.

His cock jerked inside her, seeming to thicken as it throbbed in her grip.

"I love fucking you," he swore, his voice hoarse, more strained as his thrusts became heavier, quicker. "Pushing inside your tight little pussy-" His voice broke as he forged in to the hilt, and Summer wailed at the pleasure racing through her now.

"Move. Move!" she demanded. "Please Raeg, I can't stand it. Please fuck me."

"Tell me how good it is, Summer," he groaned, his hips shifting, stroking inside her. "Tell me why you love it, baby."

Why? Why she loved it?

"It hurts so good," she moaned. "Oh God, Raeg, I love it because it hurts so good. Because you make my pussy burn for more..."

He lost it.

She said "pussy." Saying "fuck" was bad enough. Whenever she said "fuck," it tempted the leash on his control but didn't break it. But she said "pussy". She said he made her "pussy burn."

The snarl that tore from his throat was a sound he'd never made before, and he wasn't certain why he was making it now except that it happened the second he lost his mind. The feel of her pussy clenched so tight around his cock, so slick and hot, rippling and milking his flesh, was simply too much when combined with that husky drawl whispering those naughty words. Just way too damned much.

Levering back, kneeling between her thighs, he pushed her knees back, holding her in place, tilting her pussy to him. He began rocking inside her furiously. Short, furious thrusts, stroking her inner flesh with a friction certain to destroy both of them.

His balls drew tight to the base of his cock, her pussy tightened even further, sucking at the head of his dick, clenching and rippling until he heard her cries change from pleading to ecstatic.

She jerked in his hold, her body shuddering with each hard explosion as it tightened her further around his cock, had her pussy sucking at it harder, tearing the last of his sanity free and sending him hurtling into a release that rocked his soul.

Gathering her to him and groaning at each hard pulse of semen jetting from his cock inside the brutally tight confines of her pussy, Raeg knew there would never be anything this good in his life again.

Not just the complete, overwhelming pleasure, but the feeling racing through him as he held her to him in the aftermath. The melting, softening feeling in his chest that he'd never felt in his life until this moment.

"Hold me, just for a minute," she whispered when he would have pulled from her. "Let me hold you..."

The words broke off just as her voice seemed to echo with emotion. An emotion that intensified that feeling radiating through his senses.

"I have you, baby," he whispered, rolling to his side and holding her close to his chest, feeling her hand press against his heart as he cupped the back of her head and held her to him.

"This is so dangerous." Her voice was so soft he could barely make out the words. "You know it is, just as Falcon knows."

"I know it is." Still, he stroked her back with his other hand, luxuriating in the softness of her skin. "We both know it is."

He felt her breathing hitch before she controlled it, breathing in deep as a tremor shook her.

"You can't stay, can you?" she asked. "When this is over, when Dragovich is gone, you and Falcon won't stay, will you?"

He stared into the sun-drenched room, fighting the past, wanting nothing more than to hold onto this moment and knowing it simply wasn't possible.

"No," he finally answered, hating it, hating himself and everything he hadn't known he wanted until this moment. "We can't stay, Summer."

She didn't stiffen in his arms, didn't pull away or become angry. A sense of resignation settled over her instead as she nodded against his chest.

"We can have this right now though." Tilting her head, she stared up at him as he turned his head to meet her gaze. "Until Dragovich is taken care of. We can have this, without questions or recriminations?"

The vulnerability in her gaze caused his chest to ache.

"No questions, no recriminations," he agreed. "But only here, in your home. What the world doesn't know can't hurt any of us."

Especially her. If no one knew how much she meant to him and Falcon, then she couldn't be hurt because of it, because of them. That was all that mattered. That was all he cared about, nothing else. Protecting her as much as possible.

What the world didn't know couldn't hurt them.

Laying her head against his chest once again, Summer fought to hold back her tears, to keep from sobbing in despair. She pushed it back, swallowed against the pain, and promised herself there would be a time to cry later.

Later.

When she was alone and they were gone. She could cry then. When she was looking at life without them, then she could give into the pain.

"Summer..."

She shook her head, fighting the trembling of her lips, the emotion clogging her throat.

"Just hold me, Raeg," she whispered. "Just for a few more minutes. It feels good to know you're not angry." She forced a facsimile of a teasing little laugh past her lips. "We fought for so long, this feels really good."

His lips pressed to her temple, but she told herself he couldn't possibly know the pain shredding her heart.

"Why do you think we fought?" he asked, his voice soft, gentle at her ear, the husky pitch a bit thick. "I ached for you until all I could do was push you away to keep from taking you. And you knew it, didn't you? Both of us have known..."

That they could never have more than this, Summer finished silently.

"When it's over, and you leave, will you do me one favor, Raeg?" she asked.

"If I can." She could feel his fingers playing in her hair, tugging at the strands gently, rubbing them between his fingers.

She swallowed against the tears again-"don't come back, no matter what. Don't do that to me, and don't let Falcon do it."

Falcon was always the wild card. He was the one who'd refused to give up, refused to let the hunger growing between the three of them be.

"As long as you're safe," he promised cautiously. "But get another Russian after that cute little ass of yours, and all bets are off. Agreed?"

"Agreed," she answered, a single tear slipping past one eye.

She wouldn't have enough time with them. Dragovich moved slowly, but he didn't move that damned slow. But she didn't have to push him to move any faster either. She just wanted to hold onto this a little longer.

"You know, it was Falcon who convinced the senator to push you into working with him," he told her, his voice soft, his fingers still moving through her hair. "You were going to come home then, and I swear he spent three days cussing in three different languages when you told him you were thinking about leaving DC. He swore you'd never return if you did. You'd marry and start having babies, and we'd never see you again."

She let her fingers curl slowly into a fist.

"I was getting tired," she whispered.

She was so tired. She was too young to be this tired, she thought, to realize she was going to lose so much and there was nothing she could do about it, there was no way she could stop it.

"When this is over, you can rest, baby," he promised her. "When you wake up, you can put the past behind you. Find what you're looking for."

She nodded, but she knew she'd already found what she wanted with Raeg and Falcon.

Silence descended between them then, each immersed in their own thoughts, their own regrets.

She had Raeg and Falcon for this moment in time, she told herself, for the here and now, and she wasn't going to spoil it by being angry because tomorrow would see it all taken away. Nothing lasted forever, she reminded herself. Well, nothing but the pain she feared, once they were gone.

Several hours later Summer sat in the heavily padded rocking chair on the back porch, its gentle motion having lulled her cousin's infant back to sleep as she rested in Summer's arms.

Her little rosebud lips were parted, her tiny button nose wrinkling at times to some noise from inside the house threatening to disturb her. Long black lashes rested above her rosy cheeks, fragile lids hiding bright blue eyes. A light covering of raven black hair grew over her little scalp, with the slightest hint of gold at the tips.

Her cousin Calista had dressed the baby in a frilly white dress adorned with little pink rosebuds and matching socks. A pale pink, ultrasoft blanket was wrapped snuggly around the tiny baby, keeping her warm and feeling secure.

She was a perfectly formed little angel, Summer thought whimsically as she brushed the back of a finger over the little darling's black hair.

Calista had fed the baby, changed her, then placed her in the antique cradle in the living room to allow her to sleep. Summer had given her cousin enough time to join the others in the kitchen before promptly making away with the infant and escaping to the back-porch rocker. There, holding the baby in her arms, she marveled over the little miracle her cousin had given birth to.

The gentle rocking motion of the chair, the baby's easy, dreamless sleep, and the warmth of the spring day all combined to calm the pain radiating through her when she had left the bed earlier and showered while Raeg went to his own room to do the same.

There were few things that had the power to bother her too much when she had a baby in her arms. Babies were calming, reminders that innocence existed in the world. A baby was also a reminder of what Summer ached for.

Raeg's and Falcon's babies.

She would have loved having their babies, watching the two men raise the children they gave her. This would be worth fighting for, she thought. A home, someone who loved them, children. Surely men weren't so different from women in that regard?

Or perhaps it was Raeg and Falcon who were different.

What could be so terrible that they couldn't risk taking a chance on happiness? Taking a chance on her.

They wanted to. She'd heard it in Raeg's voice, and she'd seen it more than once in Falcon's eyes. They wanted to take that chance, wanted things they wouldn't allow themselves to have, and they refused to reach out for it.

Was it her? They could care about her, but not love her? Men regretted leaving women who loved them, women they knew would be hurt worse because their lovers didn't love them as well. At least, that was what Caleb had told her years ago. He'd warned her that trying to hold onto a man who didn't love her enough to push past his own shortcomings was only asking for more pain.

Had he somehow known what she felt for Raeg and Falcon and knew that they wouldn't love her? What did he know about them that she didn't, she suddenly wondered? Her brothers weren't upset with Raeg and Falcon, even knowing their sister was sleeping with both men-even her father wasn't really as outraged as he should have been.

She frowned at that realization, wondering why she hadn't picked up on it before. They knew her. They knew she wouldn't be taking this risk with them if she wasn't in far too deep emotionally. And she was definitely in far too deep.

She might even be drowning in it.

Closing her eyes, she continued to hum the familiar lullaby she remembered from her childhood.

Little Dawn Rose was lucky, she thought. Just as lucky as any other child who had been born into the family.

Summer's parents, her momma's sisters and her momma's two best friends since childhood all lived close to one another, and sometimes it seemed everyone in the family was raising each other's children. Babysitters were always plentiful; watching eyes and steady hands were always there as protection.

Her momma's family came from a long line of paranoid government agents and Special Forces soldiers with a few less-than-savory relations thrown in. Somehow, that paranoia worked for them though, and over the generations had honed rowdy, fun-loving, ready-to-fight-or-play individuals who may not be easy to live with but were always easy to love.

A grin tugged at her lips at that thought.

Well, she herself might not be so easy to love, except for her family. She'd grown to be too independent, her momma and daddy both complained. And they were probably right. They seemed to know their children rather well after all.

She wanted to look back one day and realize that she knew her own children that way, knew they were rowdy, independent, fun-loving, and compassionate. She wanted to know that when that day came, she wouldn't be alone in that realization, or in her memories. She wanted to share them with the father of her children and know she wasn't alone in the world or in the protection of her babies.

The world wasn't a kind place now, not that it had ever been, she knew, but children shouldn't ever have to know that.

She'd considered telling her momma that she wouldn't be attending the parties, that she couldn't possibly consider life with another man at this point, but as she held her cousin's child, that desperate ache building inside her overrode the decision.

It wouldn't happen soon-that she knew. It would take a while to stop hurting with the ragged, sharp pain of losing someone she loved. She'd find a way though. She didn't want to live her life alone. She didn't want to be alone. And damn it, if they didn't want to give her babies, then she would find someone who would.

She might not marry-that part was harder to consider. Her baby would have uncles though, cousins, family. Her child wouldn't lack love, she'd see to that.

Just a father.

As that thought went through her mind, the sound of the back door opening quietly had her fighting back tears that otherwise might have fallen.