Hearts on Fire 7: Claiming Catalina (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Cody exhaled and took a slug from his bottle of Bud.

  “Fucking tell me about it. I can’t stop thinking about where she is and who she’s with, and if she’s safe or if some guys are hitting on her. She’s so beautiful and sexy. God, I’ve never felt jealous before. It sucks.”

  Jeremy looked at his cell phone. “Nothing yet.”

  “It’s kind of funny how she looks to you as the leader of this family,” Don said to Jeremy.

  “Well, he’s always been on top of things and leading the way. Calmed each of us down when we could have lost our cool and gotten in serious trouble,” Cooper said.

  “How do you explain Cody, then, and his little juvenile record?” Don asked.

  Jeremy and Cooper chuckled.

  “He’s an overachiever and has always had a problem with authority. All those crazy obsessions with guns, blowing shit up, and running secret missions through the neighborhood came in handy in the military and even now are incorporated into his position fighting terrorists,” Jeremy said, and they chuckled.

  “Don’t rank on me because Catalina is completely turned on by my macho aggressiveness, especially in the bedroom. If it weren’t for me, the two of you wouldn’t have gotten to make love to her again this morning,” Cody teased.

  “He has a point, and somehow he got to make love to her twice, too.”

  “Do we really need to talk about this? I was fucking out cold from the painkillers she made me take,” Don said, sounding upset.

  “Well, she did have to coax you into it,” Jeremy reminded him, and Cody laughed.

  Don hadn’t wanted to take the painkillers, but his leg was throbbing, and she told him it would help with the achiness. She fed him the pill and gave him a sip of water, then unzipped his pants and sucked his cock until he came. It had been fucking incredible to watch. The thought had Cody missing Catalina entirely too much.

  “Need you remind us of that?” Cooper asked and shook his head.

  Cody laughed.

  “We are so screwed. Why hasn’t she texted yet?”

  * * * *

  Catalina was smiling and laughing with Shayla, MaryAnn, and Destiny. They were dancing to the music as they stood by the tiki bar talking about the place and about the large boats that docked nearby.

  She missed the guys, but after talking to Michaela today about how fast things were moving, she’d shared her own experience and said that taking time to breathe and do things with other people like her friends was important and the men would learn to understand. Catalina thought about that, and maybe the guys were being extra protective and wanting all their time with her because Jeremy and Cody were only here for a short time. Actually, she didn’t know how long they would be here and had never asked.

  She felt a little sick to her stomach and then realized that she hadn’t texted them. She took out her phone and pulled up Jeremy’s number. It was so odd how she saw him as the leader of the four brothers. He just had such a strong character and seemed mysterious in some ways, and his brothers tended to follow his lead. She smiled.

  “I need to text the guys really quick,” she told the girls.

  “Oh boy, are they the jealous type?” Shayla teased. “Damn, I bet they are. The twins look super intense, and I heard how hard they are on the firefighters during training.”

  “I heard the rookie that hit Don with the Halligan got his ass reamed out by Cooper,” Destiny told them.

  “Well, I think Catalina hit the jackpot with all four of them. Cody and Jeremy look so dangerous and mysterious. I bet they’re considered human lethal weapons,” MaryAnn added, and they continued to carry on about Catalina’s men.

  Catalina shook her head and walked away from them toward the side by the docks where the boats came in. People were pulling up, and others were leaving. The Water Crest Yacht Club was very crowded and popular with boaters and even some wealthy snobs who thought they could do as they pleased. Destiny’s cousin introduced them to a group of guys and some women, and in a matter of ten minutes, Catalina and her friends made excuses to head to the tiki bar.

  She texted a message to the guys and then waited for their response. As she looked out across the water, she thought it was a beautiful night as the sun set, appearing as if it fell into the water on the horizon. She felt so different. Even looking around the town earlier today had seemed different. She realized instantly that it was because of Cooper, Don, Cody, and Jeremy. They set her heart on fire. They made her feel things no other man ever had. In fact, she was pretty sure she was falling in love with them.

  That made her feel panicked a moment and worry about making a mistake. Was it right? Would it last? What if loving four men didn’t work out? She would be left as used goods, a woman who’d had sex with four men at once. God, she prayed she didn’t make a mistake. That little ache of insecurity from the past began to vibrate from deep within.

  “Cat?”

  She heard her name and instantly felt the tightness hit her chest. Her mouth opened, and her mind juggled for the words to reply as Paul, her ex from college, appeared there in front of her. He smiled wide as he and a few friends stopped. They all looked her over. She swallowed hard. What were the chances of seeing him here tonight? What should she do? Oh God, he looks good. Different, older, mature. She could do this. She had prepared for this moment for years. She wasn’t the hurt, used, naive woman any longer.

  “Paul, my God, what are you doing here?”

  He stared at her, looked over her body, and she was so glad she’d worn the tight-fitting dress that hugged her curves and brought out the blue in her eyes. The top dipped a little low, and she felt self-conscious about it, thinking that Cody would have flipped out for her wearing it without him. That thought made her smile inside. She was so hooked on them.

  Paul looked at his friends, and they gave his arm a tap. “Who is this?” one asked.

  “Oh, how rude of me. This is Catalina. We went to college together,” he said, and she saw the looks his friends gave her.

  “Catalina? Really? Wow.” One licked his lips as he stared at her chest. She felt a bit embarrassed, and as if she possible could have been the topic of his and his friends’ female-partner sex stories. It hurt to think that maybe Paul had said things about her, and the fact she’d given him her virginity and they’d been boyfriend and girlfriend for four years. Well, lovers who planned on spending the rest of their lives together.

  “Give me a few minutes. I’ll meet you guys up there,” he said to them.

  “Nice to meet you, Catalina. You should join us and hang out,” one of them said.

  “I’m here with friends, but thanks,” she replied with not as much confidence as she hoped her voice would send.

  Someone walked behind Paul and bumped him along with a crowd of other boaters. She stepped back, and he stepped closer to her, touching her hip and holding her gaze. She stared at him. Those big blue eyes, the shaggy blond hair, the whole wealthy, sophisticated doctor. What was he doing here?

  “God, Catalina, you look incredible. How are you? What have you been up to? My God, I’ve thought about you so much over the years and wondered where you’d disappeared to.”

  He licked his lower lip, and she suddenly felt that sensation, the one where she was talking to a guy and she could tell that sex was the only thing on his mind.

  “I’m doing great. What are you doing around here?” she asked.

  “I’m on a long weekend from the city. I work in Manhattan now. I have my own practice with two of my colleagues, the two you met and asked if you could join us. Are you sure you can’t? I’d love to catch up. Talk old times.”

  He reached out and caressed her hair from her cheek. She was a bit nervous. He touched her like he had every right to, like what happened between them years ago gave him a right to do as he pleased. She began to remember things about their relationship and, of course, what had ultimately destroyed their future..

  She chuckled low and pulled back. “Seriously?”
she asked, feeling a mix of emotions. There were those old feelings, the attraction she had, and the fact that she’d given so much to this man and spent four years of her life loving him and worshipping the ground he walked on. Then there was the hurt, the pain of him cheating on her with her sister. It had killed her inside. She had just graduated and been offered a job in the hospital near school, but he was interning there, so she had declined and left completely. She’d disappeared and headed back toward her grandparents’ home in Treasure Town.

  He squinted at her.

  “What? Did I say something wrong?”

  “Listen, it’s nice to see you and hear that you’re doing well. That’s the kind response I have to you because I’m older, more mature, and have a better understanding of men like you. I don’t want to catch up, talk old times, and act like what you did never happened. I’m here with friends. I have to go.”

  She decided it was better to walk away, pretend to be tough instead of allowing those old insecure feelings to work her over. He always had a hold on her heart. She’d come so close to forgiving him and what he’d done, but just as she was about to try again with him, the situation with her sister had gotten worse.

  He grabbed her arm to stop her, and she paused and looked up at him. His blue eyes bore into hers. There was that look, that deep, controlling, hard expression that used to turn her on and make her feel like his treasure, his possession, and every desire.

  “You can’t be angry at me for what happened. It was six years ago. It was the biggest mistake of my life, Catalina. I lost you because of one stupid fucking night and too much alcohol.”

  She looked around them.

  “Let go of my arm. I don’t have anything to say to you. It happened. We all moved on, and you appear to be just fine, Paul.”

  He released her arm and exhaled, then ran his fingers through his hair.

  “If you had taken my calls, if you’d let me explain what happened, then maybe things could have worked out differently.”

  “I doubt that, Paul. There was no room for forgiveness then.” She looked around her. “Where is the little wife, anyway?”

  She saw his face change instantly at the mention of Kaylee. She could actually see his eyes fill up, and she wondered if something bad had happened to her. She wouldn’t even know because they’d stopped talking years ago when Kaylee had slept with Paul and gotten pregnant. She had been contemplating forgiving him and trying to work things out because she knew her sister was spoiled and a manipulator. She thought the world owed her everything because she was alive, and because their parents had died and their grandmother had been left to raise them.

  But then her sister called her crying and saying she was pregnant and that Paul was the father. The knife they stuck in her heart felt as if it had twisted and gone even deeper. She would never forget the pain or the shock. She gulped down the lump of emotion and then came the care, the empathy for someone in need. It was her instinct, her character.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  He looked around them, took her arm, and they stepped to the side by a high bar table near the dock.

  “I know what I did was unforgiveable. I slept with your sister. I was your boyfriend. We made plans to get married and to get work at the same hospital. I fucked up that night, and I know I hurt you and so did your sister.”

  “I don’t talk to her. I haven’t since that morning I walked in—”

  She turned away, the hurt obviously still burning deep in her soul as she remembered that morning. They’d graduated that week, and there had been lots of parties. Her sister visited. She always liked to come up to the college and hang out, and she’d even met a guy there.

  “I don’t know how to explain this other than to tell you that the baby wasn’t mine.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “Your sister and I slept together that night, but apparently, she was already pregnant. By Dave Walters.”

  “The mechanic from Westfield where we grew up?”

  He exhaled and ran his fingers through his blond, shaggy hair. Now with a closer look, she could see how he had aged some. Maybe being a medical doctor, a surgeon, or because of what her sister had put him through. He began to explain how he found out, how the baby had a medical condition that usually comes from the father and that he didn’t have it. No male in his family had it.

  “There were little things she said, and then I was working a lot of hours and sometimes I would come home and find out that your grandmother had had the baby all weekend. Anyway, within a year, she came clean because we had blood work done, and, well, I had them do a paternity test. It was very clear I wasn’t the father. I confronted her on it, and she said she didn’t want to end up married to some blue-collar guy and struggle to make ends meet when her sister was going to marry a doctor and be rich and have everything.”

  “That’s Kaylee. Forget about love, about caring for someone because it’s the right thing to do. She would always ask—”

  “What’s in it for me?” he said the words, and she realized that he had suffered greatly. He had been fooled by Kaylee, roped into thinking he’d gotten her pregnant and that he’d done the right thing and married her and tried to raise a baby, only to find out she’d lied and it wasn’t his. How sad.

  “You moved on with your life. You’re still in the medical field?” she asked.

  “I work as a cardiologist at Hospital for Special Surgery. I love it. I’m busy all the time, and I have a great staff of nurses, although I always imagined I’d have you by my side helping.” He winked.

  She smiled as she thought about those days and what they’d shared.

  “Things change and happen for a reason, Paul.”

  He reached up and cupped her cheek.

  “Like seeing you here tonight after all these years. What we had was so special. If I could turn back the hands of time, Catalina, I would change that moment, that night I drank too much and fucked up. My God, you look so beautiful.”

  She lowered her head. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. If they had met any time sooner, would she have forgiven him and tried to work things out this many years later? She knew the answer would be yes because she was feeling lonely and as if leaving Treasure Town was her only option. Then she’d met Jeremy and his brothers at the hospital, and she held on to the hope she would see them again, but they didn’t come back to ask her out. Time passed, and she thought maybe there was no man out there who could truly love her, be trustworthy, and put her first.

  But she hadn’t met Paul like this earlier, weeks ago. Here he was now and at a time she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life, if she could risk her heart on four men who were unstable in their careers, who wanted to share her, and who also would be split apart because Cody and Jeremy still lived in New York. How would it all work out?

  This situation, this reminder of the pain, of not being able to keep Paul interested in only her, just made her wonder how she would keep four strikingly handsome men like Cooper, Cody, Don, and Jeremy happy. They weren’t even sure what they wanted to do with their lives and were in a transitional stage. They might have to give a long-distance relationship a try for a while. What if it didn’t work out? But she cared for them so much. She could see herself loving them if she could just let go of the fear from her past.

  “Catalina?” he whispered. “It’s good we met tonight out of the blue.” He smiled.

  “I think so, too.”

  “Can I buy you a drink and we can talk some more?”

  She heard her phone buzzing again and knew she had another text message.

  “I don’t think so. I think seeing you, hearing what happened, puts a lot of things in perspective for me. I had a hard time all these years moving on, Paul, and trusting another man, but just recently I found myself in the kind of relationship where trust is earned and the connection is so strong that I feel I can take a chance. It was nice seeing you, though. I wish you all the b
est. I need to get back to my friends.”

  She stared to turn away, and he grabbed her arm tightly, pulling her closer, catching her off–guard, making her collide against his chest. It was so fast, so unexpected as he reached under her hair and neck, pulled her roughly to him, and kissed her. He plunged his tongue in deep and ran his hands along her ass, squeezing her to him, and she struggled to get free. She pinched his side, making him release her lips, and then pushed him away.

  He grabbed her arm and tried pulling her down the dock toward the boats. She planted her heels, but the sandals slid along the wood.

  “Catalina, stay. Come back to my boat with me. We’ll talk some more. Have a good time.” He pulled her close and started to rub along her back. She was pressed up against his chest.

  “Let go of me, Paul. Nothing is ever going to happen between us. Let it go.”

  He shook his head and suddenly looked so different, so angry, and bad thoughts went through her mind. He wasn’t the same young man in college she had fallen in love with.

  “Don’t do this, Paul. We can end this on a friendly, civilized level, or it can end badly.”

  He pressed his mouth to her neck and ear. He held her so tightly she couldn’t move or breathe. She pressed her hands against him, trying to push him away. Then she felt his heavy breathing against her ear and neck.

  “You were a way better fuck than your sister. I bet you’re even better now.”

  “Catalina, what’s going on?” Shayla asked as she, Destiny, and MaryAnn approached. Catalina was so relieved to see her friends and so angry at his words. He pulled slightly back at the unexpected interruption, and Catalina made her move.

  “Let go of me, you piece of crap.” She pushed away, and he gripped her wrist tightly.

  “Come with me now,” he demanded, pulling her along the dock, and she heard her friends yelling for him to let go of her.

  Catalina made a fist as anger filled her belly, and she decked him right in the nose. Blood splattered, hitting her dress, causing a scene as her friends gasped, and then Paul carried on, calling her names and saying she was a whore like her sister.