Colters' Daughter (19 page)

She closed her eyes, dangerously close to tears all over again. Euphoria settled over her. After so long of being weighted down by grief and sadness, the jolt of happiness that surged through her veins was intoxicating.

She wanted to yell. She wanted to jump up and down. She wanted to tell the entire world that life was…perfect.

“What do you say we trek over to your folks’ place and let them hug you and welcome you home, and then we can come back here and try out the new bed in the master bedroom.”

She slipped her hand into his and let him pull her to her feet. She smiled up at him, her heart near to bursting.

“I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”

“And just so you know, Lily and your mother have been planning our wedding for two months now. I think they all saw just how determined I was never to let you go.”

She laughed. “I’m okay with that. I’m very okay with that.”

As Max pulled her toward the door, he turned back to her and smiled. The shadows in his eyes lifted and were replaced by so much joy that it took her breath away.

“So how’s next week sound to you?”

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Look for these titles by Maya Banks

Adam, Ethan and Ryan aren’t looking for women. They’re looking for a woman. One woman they know will share their lives and their beds. They’re losing hope they’ll find her, that is until Adam discovers Holly lying in the snow just yards from their cabin.

Adam knows she’s the one the minute he holds her in his arms, and as soon as his brothers see her, they know it too. The only problem is convincing Holly of that fact—and protecting her from the danger of her past.

Warning: This title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, ménage a quatre, violence.

Ethan sat at a desk several feet from the fireplace. He was concentrating on a computer screen and occasionally tapping on the keyboard. Did they have internet access here in the middle of nowhere?

She looked around for the others, but the house was silent. Taking a deep breath, she crossed the room until she stood behind Ethan.

“Ethan?” she asked, damning how quivery her voice came out.

He swiveled around in his chair and looked inquisitively at her.

“Can I ask you some questions?”

“Of course.”

He stood up and tucked her hand in his then pulled her over to the couch. “Let’s get comfortable.”

She sank down beside him, careful to keep a safe distance from him. One touch from him and she was likely to throw herself into his arms and beg him to make love to her.

She stared at him for a long time then gathered her courage around her. “Is this for real?”

His gaze softened, and he sat back as if realizing she needed the space.

“This must be difficult for you.”

She nodded. She swallowed what she wanted to say then hesitated. Holding back her emotions wasn’t natural for her, as problematic as it may be. Something told her she could be honest with Ethan.

“It’s difficult, but not in the way you’d think.” She blushed and looked away as she spoke.

He didn’t prompt her to say more. He merely waited.

“I don’t understand,” she began again, trying to formulate her thoughts. “How can you all want me? I mean I can understand wanting me, wanting to have sex, that is, but…you want me to
stay
.”

Ethan nodded.

“But how? You don’t know me. How can it be any more than lust at this point?”

He smiled, reached over and curled his strong fingers over her palm. He picked up her hand then turned it over until her palm faced up. Bending his head, he pressed his lips to her skin.

She shivered in reaction, a chill racing straight up her arm.

“Lust? Oh yeah,” he said as he lowered her hand. “But it’s more than that.”

Her hand fell to the couch, but she wanted to press it back to his mouth. The urgency between her thighs had her shifting to alleviate the discomfort.

“If you’re asking me if we’re in love with you,” he began, “well, I can’t speak for my brothers, but I don’t think it’s that simple. As you said, we don’t really know you. But we recognize you. Does that make sense?”

She shook her head.

“Put it this way. I recognize you as the woman I
will
fall in love with. Maybe I’ve already started down the path. I won’t know until we’ve had more time to explore each other.” He flashed a wicked grin at her. “And explore, I plan to do.”

For some reason, his simple honesty comforted her more than declarations of undying love and devotion. She’d gotten those from Mason, and they certainly hadn’t done her any good.

“What do
you
want?” he asked softly.

“I want never to have gotten married,” she blurted, allowing her regret to pour out of her soul. Tears stung her eyelids and she looked away.

“Ahh, doll.”

He scooted forward and pulled her against his chest. He tilted her chin up until she looked him in the eye.

“You don’t have to stay married to the bastard.”

Sadness swelled in her chest. “I don’t think he’ll let me go. I know…I know too much.”

He arched his brow.

“What do you know?”

She closed her eyes. She needed to release the heavy burden she’d been carrying for the last two weeks.

“I saw him kill someone,” she whispered. “On our wedding day.”

Ethan’s grip tightened around her. “Hell.”

She pushed away from him, gritting her teeth to keep the tears at bay. “You see, that’s why I can’t stay here. He’ll find me. He’ll kill you. It’s nothing to him.”

Ethan released his breath then looked over her shoulder. “You hear everything?”

She swiveled around to see Ryan leaning against the wall behind her.

Ryan nodded, his eyes glittering dangerously. “Did you email Cal?”

She looked back at Ethan in confusion.

Ethan nodded. “Yeah.”

“Who’s Cal?” she asked.

“He’s a lawyer,” Ryan said.

Her eyes widened. She looked between the brothers, checking their expressions for something, some clue as to their intentions.

“He’s a good friend of ours. He practices law in Denver. I emailed him about your situation. Asked him how best to proceed with terminating your marriage.”

She stood up in agitation, shrugging off Ethan’s hand.

“You can’t tell him where I am!”

“No one’s going to tell him where you are, doll.”

“Don’t you want to be rid of the bastard who hurt you?” Ryan asked.

She looked up to see him studying her, probing her as if measuring her reaction. Her eyes narrowed. Did he think she wanted to stay married to Mason?

“After what you heard, how can you doubt that?” she asked, staring back at him just as intently.

They squared off, neither backing down as they burned holes through each other with their eyes.

He relaxed his stance then crooked his finger at her. “Come here.”

It pissed her off that she found herself crossing the room to stand in front of him.

He pulled her roughly into his arms and melded his lips to hers.

She moaned low in her throat. God, he felt so good. She threaded her arms around his neck, and in that moment, she didn’t give a damn what he thought about her. She wanted to rip his clothes off.

He sucked her bottom lip between his teeth and nipped erotically. He wasn’t gentle. His touch was demanding. He slid his hands underneath her shirt, upward until he cupped her breasts in his palms.

She flinched when his thumbs flicked her nipples. She arched closer to him, wanting more.

Her breath came in ragged spurts as his mouth left hers. He burned a trail down her neck then sank his teeth in the curve of her shoulder.

She cried out, her legs collapsing beneath her.

Something caught her. Not something. Someone. She found herself rocked against two hard chests. One in front. One in back.

Gentle kisses rained where before Ryan’s teeth had seared her skin. She leaned back, wanting more of Ethan’s touch.

Ryan shoved her shirt upward, baring her breasts. He bent and sucked one nipple into his mouth. God, he was hot. No preamble with him. No teasing. He went for it. Hard and fast.

“Do you want it?” Ryan murmured.

Did she want it? If she didn’t get it, she was going to kill someone.

“If you don’t want this, now is the time to say so,” Ethan said as he rocked her ass against his rock-hard erection.

“No, don’t stop. Please.”

“Never let it be said I could refuse a lady,” Ethan said, his voice thick with desire.

Ryan pulled the shirt the rest of the way from her body and tossed it on the floor. He hooked his finger in the waistband of her jeans and pulled her hard against him.

He devoured her mouth with his as he fumbled with the zipper. In a few seconds, he was impatiently shoving her pants down her hips.

“You’ve got too many clothes on,” she protested.

Ryan’s eyes flashed. “In the bedroom. Now.”

Can their love give her the strength to overcome the tragedy in her past?

Colters’ Legacy, Book 2

When police officer Seth Colter sees the delicate, shabbily dressed beauty in line at the soup kitchen where he’s serving, he’s gut shot over the idea of her being on the streets cold and alone. More baffling is the dark, possessive instinct that tells him she belongs to him.

For Lily Weston, home is a secluded nook in a back alley—until Seth offers her a place to stay. She’s wary of his offer, but even one night out of the cold is too much temptation to resist.

Seth is convinced Lily is his. The problem is, when his brothers lay eyes on her, the same primitive instinct comes roaring to the surface. The Colters never imagined they’d follow the unconventional path of their fathers, but they can’t ignore their mutual need to offer Lily their protection—and their love. But before Lily and the brothers can forge a future together, they must heal the deep wounds of her past.

Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, multiple partners, ménage a quatre, violence.

An eerie sensation niggled his nape and snaked down his spine, spreading like wildfire. What the hell? He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She had the most stunning blue eyes he’d ever seen on a woman. Her hair fell over her ears and to her chin in soft curls. She looked…enchanting, like some delicate fairy come to life.

And what the fuck was he doing sitting here mooning on about goddamn fairies? Jesus on an eggshell but he was losing his ever-loving mind.

He was starting to think stupid things, like he’d do anything at all to remove the fear from her gaze. He wanted to protect her.

And she was coming out of his brother’s bedroom. Or at least from that general vicinity.

“S-Seth?” she asked in a wavery voice. But before Seth could respond, she said, “I should go. I need to go.”

Her voice was whisper soft, and before he could catch himself, Michael was on his feet—to do what? Keep her from going?

He forced himself to stand there while Seth hurried toward the woman.

“Lily, no,” Seth said in a soft, urgent voice as he took her shoulders in his hands.

So Lily was her name. Michael watched as Lily skittered away from Seth’s grasp, her eyes darting toward Michael as she did.

“Honey, it’s only Michael. My brother Michael. Remember, I told you all about him last night?”

“The vet,” she said in a husky voice.

“Yes, that’s right. He just started his practice back home.”

“I should go,” she said again, and Michael saw her edge toward the hallway that led to the bedroom.

“Stay and eat breakfast. I made you a cup of hot chocolate. It’s probably cold by now, but I can pop it into the microwave for you.”

She hesitated, her gaze going between the two brothers.

“I need to get dressed,” she said faintly.

“Okay. I’ll be here in the kitchen. I’ll make breakfast so you can eat when you get out.”

She was gone before Seth could say another word. When he turned back to Michael, there was something decidedly desperate in his older brother’s eyes. A desperation that for some reason, Michael felt in equal measure.

“Who is she?” Michael rasped out. Hell, he couldn’t even talk right. He had a knot in his throat the size of a boulder.

Seth cut an impatient glance at his brother. “Lily,” he bit out. “Just Lily.”

“Who is she to
you
?”

Seth swung around, his eyes blazing. “Why the hell do you want to know that?”

“I want to know,” Michael said. “I need to know, because damn it, I just had the most powerful reaction to a woman I’ve had in my entire life, and I damn well need to know if I’m poaching on my brother’s territory.”

Seth’s mouth gaped open. “You stay the hell away from her.”

“So it’s like that,” Michael said grimly. “You’ve staked a claim.”

“Are you out of your mind? You just met the woman. What are you planning to do, haul her off over your shoulder?”

“Maybe,” Michael said calmly. “Probably.”

“Over my dead body.”

“When did you meet her?” Michael asked. Seth hadn’t mentioned a woman. Not to anyone. He would have known. The dads wouldn’t have kept something like that quiet. They would have been too busy giving him hell.

“Yesterday,” Seth said in a gruff, pissed-off voice.

“Yesterday?
Yesterday?
And you’re going off on me for having just met her?” Michael laughed. “You fucking hypocrite.”

And then the thought came. Stuck in his head like someone had hit him with a hammer. He’d walked into his brother’s house and met a woman he instantly and absolutely had to have. It wasn’t just sexual. No, his reaction to her hadn’t even been sexual. It was
emotional
. On a level he couldn’t even explain.

The same woman his brother was having some psychotic caveman episode over.

“Oh no,” he whispered. “Oh
hell
no.”

“What are you talking about?” Seth demanded.

“Goddamn it, I thought it was bullshit. I thought it was some hokey bullshit that the dads made up to make Mom feel all soft and mushy.”

Seth got into his face, breathing fire he was so pissed off. “What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Talking. About.”

Michael closed his eyes and let out a helpless laugh. “It’s some fucked-up Colter gene. It has to be. There’s no other explanation.”

Seth threw up his hands. “I swear to God if you don’t start making some fucking sense, I’m going to knock the shit out of you.”

“Think about it, Seth. How many times have we heard the story over the years? The dads met Mom and they knew immediately and with absolute certainty that she was the one.
The one.
They said it was instant and so powerful they didn’t have a prayer of fighting. They wanted to love and protect her, wrap her in cotton and lock her away for about a hundred years. Now you tell me. Is that what you’re feeling when you look at Lily? Because I sure as hell am, and it’s worse for me because I don’t even know the goddamn woman.”

Seth looked like someone hit him square between the eyes with a bat. For a moment, Michael thought Seth was going to hit
him
.

“That’s crazy,” Seth finally said. “She’s a beautiful woman. Of course you’d have a strong reaction to her. You probably haven’t been laid in a year.”

“No need to get insulting,” Michael drawled. “I’ve probably gotten lucky at least twice since the last time you shed the monk robes. And sure, she’s beautiful, but step back a moment, Seth. Really look at her objectively. She’s not the most gorgeous woman you or I have ever seen.”

Seth’s lip turned up into a snarl and Michael held up his hand. “Let me finish. We’ve seen any number of women who were heart-stoppingly gorgeous, but tell me this. Were you tripping over yourself like this with them? You look at her and you see something beyond beauty. I know because I saw the same damn thing.”

Seth shook his head. “I’m not listening to this. This is insane. Our dads may have fallen for the same woman, but you can’t tell me we’ll do the same.”

“You’re forgetting the granddads. Explain that one, Seth. If there isn’t some hinkey shit going on in the gene pool then why are you and I about to go to fist city because we’re both determined to get close to Lily?”

Seth’s eyes looked haunted as it all sank in. “Damn it, Michael, this isn’t what I wanted. It can’t be possible. It has to be some stupid coincidence.”

“Yeah, well, believe me, sharing a woman with my two bonehead brothers doesn’t exactly appeal to me either, but unless one of us suffers a fast change of heart, we’re either going to have to do some serious compromising or one of us is going to go home to Mom in a pine box.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you right now,” Seth bit out. “There are things you don’t know about Lily. I can’t even convince her to let her guard down around me. She walked in here, saw you and now she’s ready to bolt.”

“What the hell’s going on?” Michael asked, now dead serious.

Seth glanced down at the mug of hot chocolate, swore and then stuck it in the microwave. Then, as if realizing how much time had passed since Lily had gone to get dressed, he glanced at his watch and frowned.

“She’s been gone too long,” he muttered.

Michael watched as Seth stomped off down the hall. A few seconds later he heard “Son of a bitch!” And then the unmistakable sound of a fist hitting the wall.

Michael surged to his feet, adrenaline spiking sharp through his veins. Seth came barreling out of the hallway and then ducked into the dining room. He came back out, face set in stone.

“What the hell is wrong?” Michael demanded.

“While you and I were out here discussing Lily, she took off.”

Michael’s eyebrow went up at the urgency in Seth’s voice. “Won’t she be back?”

“No, goddamn it. She’s homeless, Michael. She doesn’t have a place to stay. I found her between two cardboard boxes on the fucking street. She’s scared and alone, and she has no place to go. It took me forever to convince her to come here, and now she’s run scared.”

Michael’s stomach bottomed out with a thud. “Homeless? What the
fuck
?”

Seth whirled around like he couldn’t figure out what he needed to do first. He grabbed up his keys and then shoved his feet into his shoes.

“Yeah, homeless. I served her in the soup kitchen yesterday. I volunteer there once a month. She came in and bam. I mean I still don’t know what happened. When she left I followed her because I couldn’t stand the thought of her having no place to go. I found her in an alley, cold and alone.”

“Son of a bitch,” Michael muttered.

Seth pointed a finger at him. “Right now I don’t give a damn about what you feel for her or think you feel. I don’t give a shit about some fucking Colter gene that you think we got from the dads. All I care about is getting her back. Here. Where she belongs. Get your ass out to your Jeep so you can help me look. Everything else is just going to have to goddamn wait.”