Free The Wolves Next Door by Catherine Vale

since.”
    “This
is where your running stops – for good,” Ryan told her firmly. “Tre can’t
get you here. We’ll keep you safe from him for as long as it takes to make sure
he pays for all that he’s done.”
    Julie
slowly swallowed her food and looked from one man to the other. “You both know
I can’t hole up here with you forever, right? You’ve got your own lives to
lead. I can’t expect you to…”
    “Julie,
you still don’t understand, do you?” Caine asked, reaching out and brushing his
fingertips gently across her bangs, tucking the longer strands behind one ear.
    “Understand
what?” she croaked, suddenly turned on by his gentle touch and the way his eyes
seemed to melt her insides to liquid.
    “That
you belong with us,” he said simply. “You were meant to share our lives and
whatever danger is keeping that from happening, Ryan and I will see to it that
it’s a thing of the past.”
    The
words ‘share’ and ‘our’ had Julie feeling like she would start
hyperventilating. She dropped her fork and gulped down the still hot coffee to
clear her throat. Ryan, who sat next to her placed a hand gently on her bare
knee and the warm weight did impossible things to her already mounting state of
arousal. The kitchen suddenly seemed to grow smaller as she became wildly aware
of that silken web that enmeshed her with a combined need for these two that
almost overpowered her.
    “You
know what we want, Julie?” Ryan asked huskily. “Or do we need to show you?”
    Julie
gulped. Ryan’s hand stroking her knee ever so softly…Caine’s fingers forking
through her hair with just that bit of sensuality…
    No,
she definitely didn’t need any more explaining. But that didn’t make it any
less excruciatingly beguiling to suddenly come to terms with what she’d only
guessed at and…dare she admit to herself, hoped for?
    Instead
of responding directly, she simply smiled. “Breakfast was perfect. And talking
about everything that’s happened has lifted a weight off my chest. You don’t
know how much it means knowing that for the first time in a long while, I can
feel safe.”
    She
rose and was about to clean up their dishes when Ryan stopped her. “Don’t worry
about those. Go freshen up. Caine will find something you can change into till
we can do something about your clothes and what not.”
    “Thank
you,” she said, feeling strangely shy now that so much was out in the open.
    Both
men watched her leave the kitchen and there was no mistaking the barely
suppressed hunger in their gaze, mixed in with the deepest tenderness. Both
emotions warred within them and it was all they could do not to scramble after
their mate like horny teenage boys.
    It
didn’t make things easier to know how much her arousal seeped in droplets of
honey down her inner thighs, the scent almost driving them mad. But they had to
focus on what was most important and that was protecting Julie from this
bastard that had hurt her so much, had driven her away from everything she had
ever known. They had to make sure that he could never hurt her again and then
she’d be free to move on with her life, to be with them forever.
    Their
desire made them long to be one with their mate, finally. She was the love of
their lives, a woman to be protected and cared for. Her ingrown independence
wasn’t going to be a problem because they’d show her the many ways she’d find
strength even in submitting to them. One step at a time , they thought,
nodding to each other as no more words needed to be said. They knew what they
had to do.

Chapter Ten
     
    Julie
was taking a long, warm and luxurious shower. Naked beneath the spray, her body
tingled so much that each drop seemed to stimulate her every nerve ending.
    Closing
her eyes brought images she’d long denied, and needs she’d kept bottled-up much
too long. Her hands lingered on her throat, breasts and in between her thighs,
soaping sensually and wishing it was a lover’s hands that