Dr. Elizabeth Brandywine sensed the men in her bedroom even before she opened her eyes. There were three of them, all gorgeously naked, their tanned bodies laced with corded muscles. She’d always loved a man with muscles, and these guys were loaded with them. Even their muscles had muscles. Oh sweet mercy, it was suddenly getting quite hot beneath her comforters.
Mixed emotions swept through her as her gaze drifted to the man standing in the middle of the trio. His gaze locked onto hers. She could read the hunger tensing his body. The intent flaring in his eyes.
Durango. He’d come back. He’d brought Landon and a third man. She knew why they were here.
A strangled sob tore at her throat. Would Durango push her past her boundaries this time?
In the early morning sunshine, their eyes glistened with unmistakable lust, and their huge cocks were fully erect as they stroked themselves and looked at her. Elizabeth swallowed against her nervousness and tried to calm her pulse.
Ethan Durango had returned, and she knew she’d regret it if she told him to go away again.
“Landon and I have been wanting you, Doc,” Durango whispered.
Landon. The man Durango had wanted her to sleep with before they’d both left. The man she’d wanted to have sex with, but didn’t dare because she hadn’t been ready to dive into that lifestyle.
“Are you naked for us beneath those covers, Doc?” Durango asked as he reached down and began tugging the comforters off her body. “I told you when I came back I wanted you naked for us, baby.”
Liz creamed at his words. Muscles in his arms bulged and her breath halted in her lungs as he began to pull on the comforter. Her heart began to thump madly as the cover dipped over her heaving breasts. The other two men tensed. Waited. Watched. Their heated gazes studied the comforter as it lowered.
Cool night air breathed against her breasts as she was revealed to them. The men sucked in their breaths with appreciation. Excitement burst through her, and she trembled. The covers continued to lower, and cool air breathed against her belly and then her pussy.
Oh God. She was completely bared to them.
His wild male scent swept around her as Durango climbed up on the foot of the bed, his calloused palms sliding up the insides of her ankles. His hands were like heat lightning shimmering over her flesh, and she automatically widened her legs for him. Her breath halted as she watched the other two men. They didn’t move. They stayed in their places, transfixed by what Durango was doing. They were watching. Waiting for their turn.
Oh God.
She moaned as Durango’s large shoulders pushed her thighs further apart as he moved into position between her legs. His bunched muscles ignited sensations along the insides of her legs wherever he touched, and he was touching everywhere.
“You know what we want, Doc. You know we want you,” he breathed.
She twisted against him, loving the erotic way his hot breath caressed her pussy. She tensed as the other two men suddenly came up either side of the bed. Her fists grabbed the sheets, knotting in them.
She shouldn’t let this happen. She shouldn’t. But she wanted to break through her walls and just cut loose. To finally find her sexual self and be free.
The two men were climbing onto the bed now, their big, strong bodies rippling with hard muscles. Her mouth went dry with increased nervousness as they lay beside her. She gasped and whimpered as each of them cupped one breast.
“Do you want us, Liz?” Durango’s deep voice caused all her nerve endings to stand at attention. She looked down over her tight belly to where his head was poised. Eagerness and readiness shone brightly in his eyes.
She wished she could say yes, she was ready. Wanted to say yes, but the words wouldn’t come out of her mouth.
The two men at her breasts continued massaging her mounds, squeezing her nipples until she ached for them to take her into their mouths. She arched against Durango as he lowered his head to between her thighs again. His tongue parted her labia and slid over her engorged, pulsing clit. He swept over her ultrasensitive flesh in slow erotic circles that had her pussy creaming and her body tightening with need.
His hands skimmed up and down the length of her hips, pumping her arousal. His lips sucked on her labia, making her thrust her hips against him. The sensations his succulent mouth created rocked her to her very core.
“All you have to do is say yes, Doc,” Durango said as he moved his mouth away from her hot pussy. He stared up at her, his face twisted in anticipation, his eyelids lowered to half-mast, partially hiding his lust-flared blue eyes.
“Please,” she whispered.
Her cunt clenched with a fierce need to be filled.
“Please, take me.”
Durango grinned with satisfaction, and her heart bounced with happiness. His large hands came off her hips and around to splay over her sensitized abdomen. She cried out as his head disappeared between her thighs again. Fingers spread her labia, and she fought for control as his mouth fused over her entire pussy.
The two men at each of her breasts were lowering their heads, and Liz cried out her satisfaction as two mouths melted over her nipples. Pressure and arousal mingled as they pressed their faces into her breasts. Their teeth held her nipples captive as they lashed their tongues against her there.
Sweet mercy, such perfection.
Her thighs tightened around Durango’s shoulders. Lifting her knees, she brought her feet up and over his backside, digging her heels into his rock-hard ass. She moaned as the bristles on his chin and cheeks rubbing her inner thighs sparked more arousal. She felt the same erotic abrasion from the two men sucking on her nipples.
She wrenched her hips as a finger slipped into her drenched channel. He brought his finger out and kept sucking her pussy. How he could do both, she’d no idea, but she loved the dual sensations of mouth sucking and a finger slipping in and out of her. The pressure on her breasts increased as the men cupped her harder, their mouths pushing into her pillows, their teeth clenching her nipples until the sweetest pleasure-pain shattered her senses.
She growled encouragement and ground her hips harder against Durango’s head, straining her upper body against their erotic mouths, bringing herself closer to orgasm. Her body grew hot and taut. She tensed and readied herself to come. Oh yes, she could feel it building now. She was going to come…
An odd squeak shot Dr. Elizabeth Brandywine right out of her erotic-drenched dream, forcing her to open her eyes. For the briefest second she embraced the flare of arousal tensing her body, loved the way a hand was clenched against her pussy, the other hand pressing on her left breast. She felt hot. So freaking hot and so sexually aware, she almost began masturbating.
Then reality crashed around her, and her arousal vanished. Something was wrong. The room was dark, too dark. She blinked wildly, trying to orient herself, and immediately heard the patter of rain, but nothing else.
Had she imagined that squeak? Had it been a sound in her dream? It may even have been a branch scratching against a window. Or maybe it had just been the couch springs squeaking as she’d shifted in her sleep?
Restlessness made her breathing unsteady, and she felt a chill in the air. That meant the fire in the hearth had died and it should be close to dawn now. In her occupation as a doctor, she was used to unexpected visitors at all times of the day and night, but people always knocked. Had she been so soundly asleep that someone had knocked and she hadn’t heard?
A soft rumble of thunder drifted through the room, and the creepy sound made her burrow deeper beneath the feather comforter. She shivered with unease. Thunder. That was what it must have been.
Yeah, right.
She forced herself to steady her breathing. Forced herself to stay calm. What if someone had opened the front door? Maybe that was the squeak she’d heard? Maybe an intruder had heard it, too, and decided to find another way into her home?
Elizabeth swallowed and listened. The rain continued to patter, and her eyes widened with icy shivers of horror that slashed through her as a shadow passed the window.
Oh damn! It was nights like these she wished she didn’t live alone so far from town or from her nearest neighbor. Someone was out there, and they weren’t knocking. That meant only one thing. Bad news for her.
Cold adrenaline rocked her, and she grabbed the gun she kept nestled on top of the nearby coffee table. In a flash, she scurried off the couch and shivered as the icy night air blasted against her thin nightgown.
Quickly, she went to the window where she’d seen the shadow pass. Moving the lace curtain slightly aside, she peered out. The green glow of the aurora borealis shimmered in the night sky, illuminating her yard, but nothing moved.
Suddenly Elizabeth wished for the old days. Days before the Catastrophe when a quick call to 911 would deliver the help she needed. But the Catastrophe had screwed everything. Solar flares had disintegrated most of her family and friends and fried all the electrical grids worldwide. There were no phone connections around these parts. No 911. No help. She was totally on her own. She should have been used to this new way of life by now. She wasn’t.
Trembling, she clutched the gun tighter in the palm of her hand and made her way into the adjoining kitchen and into the hall foyer. She froze as another volley of icy shivers paralyzed her. The front door stood wide open.
Oh my God!
Someone was in her house. She needed to run as fast as she could. Knowing it would be very cold outside and she would have trouble scrambling over the rocky terrain in her bare feet, she thought about grabbing her shoes and coat, but she couldn’t remember where she’d put them. No use looking. She’d waste precious time. She’d take her chances outdoors.
She had to get out. Now. She almost did that. Almost bolted out the open doorway, but someone suddenly appeared there.
Panic took hold. Forgetting the gun in her hand, she turned and ran back down the hallway, through the kitchen, and past the living room. She’d dive out the window. That was what she’d do. No, she couldn’t do that. She’d cut herself with the broken glass. She’d have to go out the back door.
Her heart smashed against her chest as the man shouted at her from behind. Something about him not going to hurt her.
Yeah, right. She wasn’t in the mood to be kept alive while someone sawed off her arms and legs, one at a time, and made shish kebabs of her body parts and ate them right in front of her. She’d heard stories of that happening. People were scared and hungry since the Catastrophe, and they were literally eating each other in order to survive. She’d even cauterized a woman’s arm after the woman had escaped the thugs who’d been keeping her just so they could eat her.
Or worse, since she was a doctor, he might be here to kidnap her and force her to keep his victims alive. Maybe even force her to do the amputations and then treat them in order to keep their food sources alive for as long as possible.
Oh my God, she was being morbid. She needed to ditch these hideous thoughts before she started screaming. Rushing to the back door, she fumbled with the lock. That’s when she remembered the gun in her hand.
Sweet mercy! Was she an idiot or what? In her panic, she’d forgotten the gun. Shoot him. Turn around and shoot.
She ignored that idea, preferring to escape. Maybe she could get out and no one would get hurt. She could run to her closest neighbor, Teyla Sutton. Teyla had three men living with her. They would help her.
Allowing a panicked sob to escape, she opened the door and screamed with shock as a tall man stood there, his face hidden in darkness. She was trapped!
She screamed again as someone grabbed her from behind. An arm snapped around her waist like a steel band. Her finger tightened on the trigger, and the gun went off. Her captor wrenched the gun away from her.
Stupid woman. You should have killed the bastards the moment you saw them.
Panic slashed through her like a meat cleaver, making her breathless as her feet left the floor. He carried her back down the hallway. She kept screaming. She couldn’t help it.
They were going to kill her. Or rape her. Or worse!
She realized the other man, the one in the back doorway, had disappeared. Maybe she’d hit him when the gun had gone off? Maybe she could still escape?
She began kicking at the guy holding her captive. She hit somewhere solid. His grip loosened. She used her elbows and found more solid flesh. A couple of loud oomphs encouraged her to keep fighting. Without warning, he let go of her, and she was sailing through the air. She fell onto the couch, the one she’d been sleeping on. The sagging springs creaked as she hit them hard. Then, he flew on top of her, his big body crushing her beneath his heavy weight, pinning her. She tried to scream, realized she still was screaming.
A cold hand clamped over her mouth, and for some unexplainable reason she stopped screaming. An eerie silence followed, and she stopped struggling, realizing screaming was wasting precious energy.
Her captor was breathing hard. They were both breathing hard. She tensed as a familiar voice, one etched with humor, whispered into her ear. “Hey, Brandy, we’ve missed you.”
Relief, lightning quick, sliced through her.
It was Landon Leigh.
Liz swallowed as a hot flush of warmth splashed through her. Brandy. That was Landon’s nickname for her.
Suddenly she became aware of his every hard, heated muscle as he pressed against her flesh. Noticed the powerful grip of his thighs wrapped around her legs. The strong arms that held her wrists prevented her from hitting him as anger slashed through her. The bastard had nerve, scaring her the way he had. She was about to cut into him with a volley of curses when his next words stopped her cold.
“We need your services,” he said.
Her services? Elizabeth blinked in stunned disbelief and tried to still her racing thoughts. Hell, who was she kidding? She couldn’t even form a thought. All she knew was she needed to get away from Landon, because she suspected she knew who the other man standing at the back door would be. She knew why they’d come here.
A slow, erotic tremble began to shift through her body. Oh yes, she needed to escape.
“There’s three wounded,” Landon whispered.
He lifted his hand from her mouth, and her first instinct was to start screaming again because she was that pumped with adrenaline. He moved off her, and she could see a silhouette of another man standing nearby.
“Long time, no see, Doc,” that man said in a steely voice that, despite it sounding icy and angry, smoothed over her trembling body like hot liquid fire.
It was Ethan Durango. Her ex-fiance. Son of a bitch! She should have recognized him. Should have recognized both of them. But she’d been too scared. Or maybe deep down she’d known all along who they were and why they’d come?
She bolted from the couch before she even realized she was doing it. How dare they scare her so badly? How bloody well dare they!
Fully intending to slap Durango silly, she raised her arm, but he was faster. Durango was always faster. He grabbed her wrist, his fingers digging into her flesh like steel bands.
“Uh-uh. No slapping, Doc. I’m the only one allowed to do that, remember?” His sultry voice sent tremors coursing through her. She knew what he meant. He enjoyed slapping her ass. Spanking her until she blushed before he took her.
Well, not this time around. She’d kicked him out months ago after he’d revealed he and his friend, Landon, had sexual fantasies of what they wanted to do to her. She’d been so embarrassed and shy because she’d wanted the same thing that she’d been unable to confess to that truth to Durango.
“Get out of here. Both of you,” she said as the familiar anger and shame raged through her.
“You’d turn away three patients, Doc? You’d put our lives in danger because you can’t face the truth?”
Doc. His nickname for her. When they’d been engaged she’d loved it when he called her that. Now it just pissed her off because it reminded her of the wonderful carefree days they’d shared before the Catastrophe. It had been another life. He’d been another man back then. The Catastrophe had changed all that. Changed both of them.
“It’s your truth. Not mine. Now get out,” she spat.
Although it was dark in the living room, she could see the irritation flare in his eyes. Could feel his body tense with fury.
She tried to get away from him, to break his grip. Of course, he wouldn’t allow that.
“She’s a hellfire, that’s for sure.” The words were soft-spoken with underlying lust and appreciation from Landon. Although she’d only known Landon a few short months while he’d worked here, she knew she should have recognized him standing in front of her. Should have realized he would never hurt her. Hell, he was the man who wanted to fuck her while Durango watched. Suddenly her cheeks warmed. It irritated her.
“If you wanted my help, you should have knocked. Now get out, and don’t come back.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have been so deep in your dreams, baby,” Durango said.
Her cheeks grew hot at his knowing comment.
“Besides, you shot me, Doc. The least you can do is fix me up before you send us on our way.”
Liz blinked as a shock wave rolled over her. She’d shot him? Oh my God. She’d shot Durango when the gun went off? Concern washed away her anger.
“Where are you hit?”
Before he could answer, she saw the dark stain on the upper right arm area of his jacket.
Okay, calm down. He was still standing, so it wasn’t that bad. But she also knew how quickly a gunshot wound could get infected.
“Take off your shirt. I’ll get my bag.”
She tried to get out of Durango’s grasp again, but he didn’t let loose. Instead, he nodded to Landon.
“You’ll take care of the others first. Landon, you get her bag. She usually keeps it in the hall closet by the front door. Top shelf.”
Landon nodded, and he hurried away. That was when she realized Landon was limping. Another wave of concern snapped through her. She’d need to tend to Landon, too. Durango had mentioned three wounded. Where was the third man? And was that what her hot dream had been about? A forewarning of things to come?
Liz shook her head in denial. Tried to ignore the intense awareness of Durango and Landon washing through her, but she knew the longer they stayed in her home, the harder it would be to keep them away from her.
She knew they’d joined the Durango Gang. It was a Robin Hood-type gang his oldest surviving cousin, Kayne Durango, had started. Unfortunately in their quest to steal from the rich and give to the poor, every vigilante group that made money off the misery of others wanted the Durango Gang to hang by the neck until they were dead. She’d told Durango if he joined his cousin’s gang and became a desperado, he wasn’t welcome back here. The minute he’d left, she realized she’d never really meant it. She still loved him, no matter how much he’d changed. Or how much he’d tried to get you to confront your own sexual demons.
“We didn’t see your horse in the lean-to out back. Thought maybe you weren’t living here anymore,” Durango said, his grip on her wrist tightening. “I should have known you’d be deep in your fantasies, baby. When you’re dreaming, an earthquake can’t wake you. Much to my annoyance, of course, when I want to make love to you.”
Intense heat flared through her, and she forced herself to ignore his latter comment.
“I loaned the horse to a neighbor.” She’d lent the horse to Teyla and her men for a few days.
She could feel the heat from Durango’s body now. Could smell his scent. Rich and dangerous, yet soothing at the same time. Durango, as she’d always called him, had always kept her off-balance. She loved that about him. At least she had loved him, until his confession that he wanted to make both their sexual fantasies come true. She forced herself to shake away those thoughts. Time to deal with reality.
“You said there are three wounded. Where’s the other one?”
Heavy footsteps from the front of the house made her look toward the doorway where Landon had exited a moment earlier. This time, he’d returned with a man, who leaned against him.
“That would be him, Tyrell Mathews. He’s been shot in the waist.” Durango replied.
“When did this happen?” She would need to know if infection had already set in.
“Just yesterday,” Durango said. “We’re going to need whatever light you have available. Bullets need to be dug out and wounds sewed up.”
Elizabeth nodded and tried to grab a shred of self-control. These men needed doctoring, and she couldn’t allow her anger at Durango to cloud her skills and deny them help.
“You aren’t going to run, are you, Doc?” Durango asked in a cold, determined tone. She could also detect the underlying pain he was trying to hide, too. Pain from the bullet she’d put into him.
Guilt swamped through her, and she shook her head. No, she wouldn’t run. At least not yet. He let go of her, and she moved into action, spitting out orders for Durango to get the fire going in the fireplace so she could boil water for the utensils she’d need. She also instructed Landon to get Tyrell into the first bedroom to the right down the hallway. It was the biggest one and the one she and Durango had used when he’d been here.
Sweet mercy, he’d kept her hot and aroused when he’d lived here, and then later when Landon had come to live with them, her arousal had doubled. Elizabeth pushed aside those unwanted thoughts and hurried to grab some clean linen from a closet.