“God, yes, love me, sweetheart. Love me.”
Behind her, Chase jerked and shuddered. His sheathed c**k throbbed inside her as he drove deep, stilled, and pumped his release into the condom he wore.
Jaci collapsed beneath them, her breathing ragged, her mind mush while her body continued to jerk, tiny aftershocks of pleasure still pumping through her.
She was barely aware of Chase moving. Cam didn’t move. He stayed beneath her, his arms locked tight around her, his head buried against her neck, as he held her.
She needed him to hold her. Right now. This time, he couldn’t let her go. If he let her go too soon, she would shatter. And if she shattered, God help her heart.
Chase cleaned up in the attached bathroom, and dressed before bracing his hands on the sink and lowering his head, gazing unseeingly into the sink.
He could still feel it. Whatever “that” was that had compelled him to find Cam. He couldn’t figure it out. The echoes of the twin bond they had formed from the womb reverberated inside him—the bond that had been broken around their fifteenth birthday.
He still didn’t know what had nearly broken his brother back then. Sometimes, he wondered if he ever would. But if what he felt now was any indication, God help him, he would have torn apart whoever caused it.
The bleak, dark pain that throbbed inside his mind didn’t have a reason. It was Cam’s pain; he had known it the instant he had felt it swirling through him. Like the nightmares they had had a habit of sharing as boys. It was like that. They wouldn’t know the nightmare, just the fear. That was their bond. They always knew when the other was in danger, when the other feared. And Cam’s fear now was like a dark, razor-sharp dagger tearing at his soul.
Jaci wasn’t the cause, but she and whatever it was that Cam felt for her was the catalyst. Whatever emotions he fought to keep inside himself, she was drawing free.
But he feared what that would do to her now.
Shaking his head, he moved back into the other room, leaning against the wall as he watched his brother whisper to her.
Jaci was smiling now. A soft little smile, her eyes closed, as Cam sat na**d on the couch, stroking her back.
“Better get her dressed. Courtney is waiting on her,” Chase announced. “She’s wanting to talk about that party she’s wrangled us all into.”
“No parties.” Jaci covered a yawn before glancing over her shoulder at him.
Cam kissed the top of her head as Chase tossed him a damp cloth, then a dry towel.
The fact that her entire body flushed with embarrassment as Cam cleaned her wasn’t commented on. The fact that she allowed it was a testament to the fact that, like Chase, she had an instinct about Cam. He needed to do that for her. Just as he needed to help her dress before he dressed himself.
“Invitations have already gone out,” Cam told her as he drew his jeans over his legs and let Jaci fuss with her hair. “The Brockheim Ball is important to Courtney. She wants you there.”
“Too bad.” Jaci frowned at the announcement. “I know the Brockheims. Their events are too damned rich for my bank account to afford the dresses. I’ll work on the house plans.”
“Taken care of.”
She turned to Cam as he drew his shirt on, buttoned it, and tucked it back into his jeans.
“Excuse me?” she asked him, holding onto her temper now.
This wasn’t fair. First they drove her crazy, taking her in the middle of the day, and now they were driving her crazy another way. The Falladay twins were going to cause her to lose hair.
“The dress is being delivered to your room. You’ll be the belle of the ball. And you’re going.”
“Not on your life.” She stood toe-to-toe with Cam, trying to ignore Chase’s amusement.
Cam’s brow lifted, amusement sparkling in his eyes. He was loving her anger, and that just pissed her off more.
“You can walk into the ball or I can carry you in.” He shrugged. “Your choice.”
“I really don’t like you,” she ground out, knowing it wasn’t true, just as she knew it made no sense whatsoever for her to attend that damned ball.
He grinned back at her. “No, you just don’t want me to kill Richard Roberts when he strikes out at you at that party.” He tilted his head, and his eyes grew hard. “He’s going to learn, Jaci, no matter where, he doesn’t touch what belongs to me, either physically or verbally. You can’t stop that.”
Her lips parted as she fought to pull in air.