Cade’s former spot.
Chrissi’s breathing didn’t change as Josh pulled her close and tucked his face into the corner of her neck and breathed. “She smells like heaven,” he whispered reverently.
Smiling, Cade tiptoed out of the room. Ezra was finishing up the dishes, a towel draped over his shoulder. He glanced back as Cade walked inside. “She asleep?”
“With Josh. She was out like a light.”
Ezra let the water out of the sink and leaned his butt against the counter. “Tomorrow’s the make or break day. If she’s not ready, she’ll bolt.”
“How much do you love her, Ezra?”
Ezra’s face darkened with anger. “What the fuck kinda question is that?”
“I have to ask. Do you want her for her, or for what you think she’ll bring to our lives?”
“There hasn’t been a day since I first laid eyes on Chrissi that I haven’t wanted her.”
“But do you love her? The real her?”
“What are you gettin’ at?”
“Chrissi’s not all surface. She’s beautiful, sassy. But deep inside she’s not that secure.”
“You think you know her better than me?”
“I’ve spent years watching her. My mind’s not clouded with doin’ a whole hell of a lot. She’s soft at the center. You saw some of that when you pushed and she broke down. We can hurt her. Or if we’re careful, we can bring out her strengths, help her embrace the woman she could be.”
Ezra’s lips twisted. “You been reading too much Cosmo .”
Cade smiled. “Maybe. But I’m right about this, Ezra. Let’s play tomorrow. But let me be the one to call the shots. We both want the same thing. We want her to be ours. No reservations.”
Ezra crossed his arms over his naked chest. “I need a swim.”
“You do that. But then you get some rest. I don’t need you cranky.”
Ezra turned to lean both hands against the counter and stare out the window at the night sky. “You sure we’re doin’ the right thing?”
“Yeah. More than ever. It’s like breakin’ in a new pair of leather boots. You have to wear ’em, stress ’em a bit, before they really fit.”
Ezra raised a brow. “Did you just compare Chrissi to a pair of cowboy boots?”
Cade shrugged, then pulled a beer from the fridge and popped the top before heading to the playroom at the far side of the house. The room he and his brothers had worked on off and on for months. Not knowing exactly when it would come into use, but hoping.
They’d each had their say in what would be in there. They’d each practiced with similar toys and equipment over the years, learning how to ply a flogger or wrap a rope around delicate skin. But never together.
When they’d accepted Bo Crenshaw’s challenge to give his girl Shanna one memorable night, they’d plied some of what they’d learned, but they hadn’t brought her here. Hadn’t wanted any one woman to experience it with them but Chrissi.
Cade pulled a flogger from a drawer in the hand-built cabinet against one wall, and rifled a finger down across the edges of the suede flanges. Chrissi would love this one. Once she got past the shock.
Chapter Seven
Chrissi woke in stages, swimming through exquisite layers of sensation. At first, she thought she dreamed. Feather-soft touches stroked her skin, eliciting delicate shivers before drifting away again. She slept on…to be enticed again with smooth glides of firm lips. Two pairs. One starting at her toes, the other at her nipples.
She smiled to herself as she dreamily blinked her eyes.
The room was still dark. Not a glint of moonlight coming through the window, not a gleam of artificial light around the edges of any door. She wasn’t sure which of the men was nibbling at her toes, but she wondered what he might do if she kicked him. When he slid his tongue between her toes, she curled them, trying to capture the sensation rather than deflect it. She hadn’t known her toes were an erogenous zone.
The more obvious delight, the lips latching gently around one