Crossroads 6: Love Undercover (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  She closed her eyes and saw his head go back then his body hit the ground. Right before the bullet hit him, he’d looked at her, knowing his fate. Fear, like she had never seen before on the Marine’s face had her shocked and unable to move.

  “Run Sacha. Run!”

  She slid to the rug, and she closed her eyes. She saw his face, heard him yell to her to run, then saw his injury. She cried harder. “Why? Why, damn it?”

  She could hardly breathe she was hysterical as the whole experience came crashing back. The guns going off, her running for cover and shooting terrorists. Physically fighting her attackers off and then running for miles for days and selling what she had to survive and to live. She curled up in a ball and banged her fists on the rug until she could no longer move them.

  She couldn’t catch her breath, and when she felt the hand on her shoulder, she reacted in fear and surprise, only to wind up on her back on the floor with Toro holding her arms down by her sides so she would stop hitting him, straddling her hips.

  “Easy, Sacha it’s just me.”

  She didn’t want to fight with him, with anyone. She closed her eyes, and she lay back on the rug. He lay over her, staring down at her face. He released her arms and caressed the tears from her cheeks.

  “Nice easy breaths. Look at me and just breathe and know that you’re safe here with all of us.”

  She locked onto his dark-blue eyes, seeing the worry, the strength there. He continued to caress her tears from her eyes and then caress her arms as he sat above her. The sight of his masculinity and the firmness of his jaw. The eyes of a killer, a fighter, a patriot, looked down upon her, and she knew he could empathize with her reaction and emotions. He’d experienced all of what she felt as a soldier, as a human, and that out-of-control feeling. If, for one moment, she thought otherwise, she would make him move and she would close herself up in her shell and remain guarded. She was so damn tired. Tired of all the sadness she felt and the not knowing what it would be like to connect with a man on that intimate level. To connect with Charro and his three team members.

  She knew that Damien and Elwood were there, too. She sensed them, but she wouldn’t look away from Toro or the security she found in his eyes or the beauty of his bare chest filled with muscles. He wiped away her tears, and then, as she calmed down and realized that she was not resisting his control and power over her and instead absorbing an attraction to the man, she looked away.

  “I’m okay now,” she said to him.

  But she wasn’t. Her pussy throbbed, her breasts swelled with need as she felt the attraction, the desire to be held by Toro, to get a glimpse into what it might have been like if Charro had survived, had lived to get here with her.

  “Just take your time,” Elwood said, and he and Damien came into view as they took a seat on the couch right by her.

  Toro caressed her hair.

  “It’s normal to not want to face the fear, the memories of your experience.”

  “That doesn’t make it easier, Toro. I don’t want to revisit it.”

  “But maybe it will help?” he suggested.

  “To see Charro die right next to me? To watch his fear as he told me to run and then watch as the bullet hit him in the head and him fall to the ground right there beside me? How can that help?” she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. He clenched his teeth, and she saw his jaw cave in and his eyes darken.

  “I’m sorry that it happened. That you were there and saw it. You two were close?” he asked.

  She swallowed hard. “I trusted him with my life. He told me that he wanted to get out, that he wanted to explore the feelings we had.” She looked away from him, and locked gazes with Damien . He was, watching her, staring down at her from the couch.

  “I lied to you. I was trying to make it go away. You were right. Just as he told you about me, he told me about the three of you and wanting us to meet. I didn’t want to admit that. I didn’t want to read into why. I still don’t know why.”

  Toro clutched her cheek and chin. “Maybe he thought you could learn to trust us, too.”

  She stared up into his dark-blue eyes. She absorbed the way his fingers felt caressing her lips and how his body felt covering hers halfway, and suddenly, she wanted more. She wanted to know what would have happened if she and Charro had gotten out of Kabul together. What would have occurred here with him, her, Toro, Damien, and Elwood? But that scared her, to let her defenses down like that and trust so fully. How could she? She was in danger. They were because they were keeping her in hiding, and God only knew who would come to find her eventually. She had so much to do. She needed to seek revenge. To bring justice for Charro’s murder and for her team’s murder. But her hands were tied. She couldn’t access anything she normally had access to. She looked at Toro’s lips.

  “You can trust us, like you trusted Charro.”

  “I don’t think I can,” she whispered weakly, not even believing her own words as Toro pressed closer.

  He lay over her body, his one thigh pressed between her legs as he caressed one hand up her arm and held her gaze.

  “I think you already do. I think you know exactly what Charro was hoping for in bringing you here to meet us. I understand now. I didn’t before, but now, I do, too.”

  He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her.

  * * * *

  Everything hit Toro all at once. The way his heart ached with concern at seeing Sacha so sad, so distraught over Charro’s death. To know that Charro had intended to bring her here to meet them and maybe engage in the relationship they all felt could bring them the happiness and the bond they yearned for but thought men like them could never deserve. When Damien said that Sacha told him Charro never mentioned them to her, he’d felt defeated, like a dream, a hope they had counted on had disappeared into thin air. Now that Sacha had admitted she lied and that Charro had told her about them, he knew this was their chance.

  He explored her mouth as he covered her body with his. He felt her hands move along his body, and he rocked against her. He caressed his fingers through her hair, cupped her head, and explored her fully. She felt incredible, sexy, and he didn’t have to be as lucky as Damien, to have already seen her naked, to know that she was perfect.

  He slowly pulled from her lips and kissed her chin, her neck, and she tilted her head back, allowing him further access to her body. He reached under the light black tank top she wore with no bra and cupped her breast.

  “Toro.” She gasped, popping her eyes open as she covered his hand.

  “Don’t deny the attraction.”

  “I’m not. I…” She looked to the left where Damien and Elwood looked on, sitting forward on the couch.

  Toro brushed his thumb along her cheek and jaw, bringing her back to look at him as he moved his hand from her breast.

  “Look at me,” he said to her, and she immediately did. She looked up at him with those gorgeous light green eyes and an expression of uncertainty yet arousal. She would be their lover, their mate. He just knew it.

  “They want to kiss you, too. They want to know if Charro was right about you, about all of us together.”

  A tear fell from her eye. He wiped her eye with his thumb as he held her face between his hands. Her hands were locked over his.

  “Don’t cry, baby. Charro was part of us, just like you were part of Charro. He believed that there was something special about you and that perhaps you were the one to bring us all together and bind us fully as a family. I want to know if he was right, don’t you?”

  She looked at Damien and Elwood then back at him.

  “Yes, I do. But is this right? I’ve put you in danger by remaining here, knowing that there must be people trying to find me,” she whispered. He smiled and then released her cheeks and sat up. He stood and then reached out his hand.

  “Come on. Let’s sit down on the couch and talk. We have plenty of time and nowhere to run off to. We were meant to come find you. Charro, if he’d lived and was stuck in danger
with you, would have called us in to come help. We know that for a fact. Let us get to know you, and you can get to know us.”

  She took his hand, and when he pulled her up, her breasts bounced in the tank top, and he felt his cock harden in his jeans. She would be their lover. He had no doubt in his mind. But what he did worry about was whether, after such an ordeal in the field, she would be able to open up her heart fully, or would she keep running out of fear and remain under cover? It was a chance he was willing to take, and all because of Charro.

  * * * *

  Damien rubbed his eyes. It was three a.m., and they were sitting in the game room on the couch surrounding Sacha. In the past two weeks, she’d avoided speaking with them for long periods of time. She’d been aggressive in her verbal responses and even combative at times, the strongest when Toro challenged her that day and accused her of potentially have PTSD.

  She held strong, refusing to show weakness or admit to the fear and distrust she still had. But seeing her curled up in a ball on the rug, crying, tormented, pulled at his heart. Plus, she’d admitted that Charro had, in fact, mentioned them to her before. She was feeling the connection, the attraction between them, and Damien now wondered if Charro had been right. Was Sacha meant to be theirs?

  She leaned against the couch. Toro kept her close, but she didn’t reciprocate his caresses. They looked around at the pictures.

  “When was that one taken?” she asked, pointing to a larger picture, an eleven-by-fourteen of the group of them at the Army game, tailgating.

  “That was taken up at the West Point Academy game in New York. We met up with a bunch of our buddies. Charro has a cousin, Seno, who works at the academy. He graduated from there and helps with the Black Nights, a parachuting team,” Damien told her.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty cool stuff. They parachute down into parades, and at all the home games at the Army stadium,” Elwood added, looking at the picture and seeming serious.

  Damien felt his chest tighten. He hated this shit. He hated having to remember the good times and be sad because the person they remembered was dead, killed in battle. It sucked.

  He leaned forward and ran his fingers through his hair then rubbed his neck.

  “I didn’t know he had a cousin. Did he have other family?” she asked, wringing her fingers together , eyes filling with tears and appearing saddened at that fact. He wondered if she and Charro had been lovers and why he hadn’t told her about his cousin, aunt, and uncle.

  “His cousin, aunt, and uncle are all he has. He had a tough life. Didn’t he tell you?” Elwood asked.

  She looked at him and shook her head. “We talked about regular things.”

  “But you were intimate, weren’t you?” Toro asked.

  She shook her head, and her eyes welled up with ears. “Never. He hadn’t even told me that he wanted me to spend our time off together, and to meet the three of you, until that day. A few minutes before he died.”

  “Damn,” Elwood said and looked at Damien.

  Damien looked at her. At her toned arms and her abundant breasts pouring from the tank top, which she tried unsuccessfully hiding from their view with a small pillow. They already knew she wasn’t wearing a bra. Hell, he already knew what she looked like naked.

  He swallowed hard.

  “What did he tell you about me?” she asked.

  Toro looked at Elwood and Damien.

  Damien stared into her gorgeous green eyes. “He had a lot of nice things to say about you. How smart you are, how beautiful and strong.”

  “He said you were one tough Marine, and he worried about you,” Elwood said.

  “Worried about me?”

  “Yeah, he said he was getting worried, too. That things were changing too fast and he didn’t think he wanted to stay in the middle of the heat anymore. He said he wanted to bring you here,” Damien told her.

  She held his gaze as Damien sat next to her. He looked away, wanting and feeling so much. Was it just a crazy idea that Charro had planted in their heads about sharing Sacha and making her their woman? If so, then why was he feeling more and more connected to her as each day passed? Why now was he feeling protective and possessive of her?

  He felt her hand on his back, rubbing it. Then she leaned forward and hugged his arm. “I’m sorry. This has to be so hard for you guys, too, to talk about Charro and to remember things he said.”

  Damien turned his head to look at her, their lips close, her head nearly against his. He looked into her light sage green eyes and felt so much.

  “It’s hard for you, too. You saw him die, but he did it doing something he loved, and that was fighting for this country of ours and protecting you. I guess it feels better to talk about it, about him, and remember the good times. To know what he thought about you and share it with you and this idea that we could all be together.”

  Her eyes widened, but she didn’t pull away, not even right before his lips touched hers.

  He turned into her, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and wound up on his lap, straddling his waist. He ran his hands along her thighs and up her arms to her head as he deepened the kiss. The attraction, the chemistry, was so intense, so different than anything he ever felt before.

  She felt it, too. She had to as she squeezed her thighs tighter against him and kissed him back.

  He wanted to feel more of Sacha, and he began to explore her body, run his hands back to her thighs, over the loose lounge pants she wore, and then up her ribs.

  She gasped and pulled back. He forgot about her bruises.

  “Oh fuck, I forgot. Jesus, baby, are you okay?” he asked her. She swallowed hard.

  “I’m okay. That was…”

  “Intense, wild, sexy as damn hell to fucking watch,” Elwood said to her as he moved closer. He reached out and caressed her chin and then clutched it between his fingers before he started to lean forward.

  Damien held his breath. He didn’t know how she would react or if she would deny the feelings and push him away. But he felt relieved when she closed her eyes and tilted her chin in welcome to Elwood’s kiss.

  * * * *

  Elwood had to kiss her, too. He couldn’t just stand here and watch his brothers take her lips and explore her body with their hands and not participate. The attraction and connection in the room was palpable, and real, so real he felt it in every part of him, not just his cock. Sacha was sexy, beautiful, capable, and a soldier, a Marine like them. She did things to him, to his brothers, and made them feel things no one else had. How the hell had Charro known this would work? How had he found her and even begin to think of the possibilities?

  He didn’t even care as he explored her mouth and cupped her breast, rubbing his thumb along the hard little bud. She moaned into his mouth, reached up, and ran her hand along his shoulder and then the back of his neck. He loved the way it felt. He wanted more, but he sensed her pulling back, and he didn’t want to scare her. In less than thirty minutes, three brothers she’d known only for the better part of two weeks had just made out with her.

  * * * *

  Sacha held on to Elwood’s shoulders as she caught her breath. He stared into her eyes and licked his lower lip.

  “I think Charro was onto something,” he said to her, and she thought the same thing, yet feared so much. How could this work? Did she really want it to work? What would her father and her brother say? Did she even have a right to be here, to feel this good right now when her whole team had died in Kabul? That thought brought her mind back to where she needed to be. Where she was not so vulnerable to the need growing stronger in her heart and in her core.

  “You have an untraceable phone line, correct?”

  Elwood nodded at her and squinted his eyes at her instant change in subject.

  “How about a secure computer and internet connection or maybe a scrambler we could attach to stop anyone from tracking our searches or anything coming in through the Internet?”

  “What are you thinking, Sacha?” Damien
asked. He moved up next to Elwood on the couch. She looked at Toro who was on the other side of Elwood. .

  “I think we’ve waited long enough to look at the thumb drives.”

  Elwood reached up and caressed her cheek. “We’re here to help you. Anything we can do to find the ones who killed Charro, we’ll do.”

  She shook her head. “No, I can’t ask you to do that, to get involved and risk your lives any further than you already have.” She went to get up off his lap, but Elwood gripped her hips, stopping her.

  “That’s not your decision to make. It’s ours.”

  “Charro was our family, we served together, and we will find the ones responsible for his death,” Damien told her.

  “I killed a lot of men that day, including the one who put a bullet in his head. This is different. This is going after a terrorist cell that has allies in people with access to our mission and plan down to the times we were to meet and get into position. Do you realize what that means?” she asked Damien.

  “Yes, it means someone in our own government is helping these terrorist assholes,” Damien said to her.