Hara's Legacy Page 9

  He shrugged as he lay back, his thoughts faraway. “It’s as it was meant to be. Caleb wouldn’t have seen this in his visions if the time wasn’t right. And I, for one, never would have agreed to this if his vision hadn’t said it was necessary. I respect you too much for that, Jane. You were never meant to be three men’s plaything.”

  She leaned up to see his eyes and the pain hidden in their depths. “You’re right. I’m not a plaything, and I would never agree to that. But to be loved by the three of you?” She stroked his face, then down his neck and to the swirling patterns of the dragons covering his chest. “I’ve belonged to the three O’Hara brothers since I was six years old. Probably even before that, but I remember I was six when I first wished for one of you to marry me.”

  “Wished?” he asked, intrigued.

  She nodded sagely. “On the candles of my birthday cake. From age six on, that was the wish I made every year.”

  “You’re kidding.” He reached up to tuck one of her curls behind her ear.

  “Cross my heart,” she said with mock seriousness, taking his hand and making his finger trace an X across her left breast as they both smiled.

  “Okay, maybe I believe you. But even so,” his hand cupped her breast, squeezing gently, “I bet you never wished for me.”

  She traced a circle around his nipple as he reciprocated. “There you’d be quite wrong.” She leaned over to lick the dragon’s nose, right above his heart. “You were the first one I wished for. You don’t remember, I’m sure, but the week before my sixth birthday you killed a snake that would have bitten me. You were my hero ever after, and I thought it only fitting that you should marry me when I got old enough. I knew even then that you would put yourself in danger to protect me.”

  Justin’s emotions were in turmoil, she could tell, and something fragile was blossoming inside his heart. She gave him a moment to come to terms with the idea she had loved him so long, tracing the swirls of the double-headed dragon that decorated his muscular chest with seeming attention, all the while paying a deeper sort of attention to the emotions he was feeling.

  Even she was amazed by the depth of emotion her revelation brought out and she felt his discomfort. Justin was a man of controlled passions. He didn’t like getting worked up over anything, and when he exploded, look out. She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, though she did think it was good to stretch his emotional boundaries especially now that she could tell he was feeling residual guilt after their explosive lovemaking. Still she didn’t want to push him too far.

  She nibbled on one of the dragons gracing his muscular chest, arriving at the flat male nipple caught between the dragon’s teeth. Taking a hint from the dragon, she did the same with her own teeth, smiling with daring satisfaction when he gasped. She licked him then, letting him go for now as she lay her head on his chest, enjoying the warm feel of him, the steady rise and fall of his muscles beneath her cheek.

  “The next year, I wished for Mick. He’d given me a kitten for my birthday and I thought he was the sweetest, gentlest boy I’d ever known. He was so serious when he taught me how to take care of my kitty, I thought maybe I could teach him to lighten up.”

  “So that’s why he became the nasty little prankster that put epoxy in my shoes. It was all your fault.” He stroked her hair as they lay quietly, smiling at past memories.

  She nodded against his chest. “I’m afraid so. After that I kept daring him to new bits of deviltry and he was amazingly devious in the things he came up with.”

  “It’s that scientific mind of his. Give him a problem and he’ll come up with the most creative solution, every time.”

  She felt the pride Justin felt in his brother’s accomplishments and the total lack of jealousy. She even felt his delight as he thought of Mick’s practical jokes through the years and how he’d made them all laugh—and keep on their toes around him.

  “You’ve been working behind the scenes all this time, haven’t you, sweetheart?” he asked as realization dawned. “You’ve been challenging us and nurturing us your whole life.”

  “Mmm,” she agreed sleepily, rubbing against his chest. “I decided early on that you all belonged to me, no matter what. You three were like me, with your special gifts, and you understood me and protected me.”

  “When did you start wishing for Caleb?” he asked, as if unable to prevent himself from voicing his curiosity.

  She yawned. “Oh, not until much later. He was so much older, I had to grow up a bit before I came to truly appreciate him. But I’m afraid for a good few solid years there, he was the one I wished for, once I understood he was the one who kept you all together. I later realized my reasons for wishing for him were a bit selfish. I knew if I had him, then I’d have all of you because there was no way he would let either you or Mick stray far from us for long.”

  He sighed, his rumbling laugh reassuring her as well as the flood of emotions she felt from him. “Well, you got all of us, but in a way I bet you never expected.”

  She reached up to place her finger over his lips, silencing his words and his residual guilt.

  “In a way I never dared dream. In a way that will fulfill my deepest needs and desires. I never would have asked for this, but now that it’s within my grasp, I’m going to enjoy every single minute.”

  He pulled her face up for a long, heated kiss, exploring her lips with a gentle need that overwhelmed her senses.

  Chapter Seven

  Justin sighed heavily as he sat on his large bed the next morning, watching her, echoes of guilt consuming him as he heard the unmistakable tread of Caleb’s boots down the hall past his door. Jane was awake and looking at him with those beautiful brown eyes that seemed to see everything. He knew she was probably reading his emotions, but he couldn’t help it.

  It nearly tore him apart, waking to find her nestled so trustingly in his arms. It was a dream come true. A troubling dream at that. He thought of what they’d done the night before and the essential reason why they had done it and practically growled.

  “Do you really want this, Jane? Do you really want to have my baby? It’s Caleb’s baby you should be having, not mine.” He could barely look at her, sprawled naked and enticing before him, on his bed, in his domain at long last. He’d thought this day would never come. Oh, he’d fantasized about her, but that wasn’t real. He never would have acted on any of those fantasies. Not until Caleb had told him he must, and that he approved, of all things. Justin still could hardly believe it.

  Jane’s touch startled him, her hand coming to rest on his chest as she moved closer. She knelt at his side.

  “I feel your guilt, but Justin, there’s no use for it.” She shrugged, unable to hide her feelings from him for a change. “I wanted Caleb’s baby. I still want Caleb’s baby.” She sat back from him a bit, his eyes following her unhappy face. “But we’ve been trying for years. Caleb assures me that Mick will come through for us eventually. His visions have shown him that at least, and it gives us some hope, but Caleb’s scared, Jus. His visions haven’t been this bad since before the attack and in a way, they’re worse, he tells me. He doesn’t sleep much anymore. He wakes from dreams of the future in a cold sweat, trying to sort through the images, but they’re confusing to him. When I ask, he tells me the worst ones are of the alien city and their culture. Things he has no way to really interpret since no human has ever lived to tell about their cities once they’ve seen them.”

  Justin ran a hand through his hair, expelling a harsh breath. “Damn, I had no idea it was that bad.”

  Jane faced him, clutching one of his pillows as if for comfort as she nodded gravely. “It’s bad. And it’s been getting worse since it started that day you left the ranch. The visions are coming hard and fast now and he’s having a hard time sorting through it all. Last night was the first time I’ve seen a smile on his face in days.”

  Justin shook his head in irony. “I still can’t believe letting Mick and I take you on the kitchen table brought
a smile to his face.”

  “He wants a baby.” She shrugged again. “It really doesn’t matter to him if you’re the father. He wants me to have a baby. He knows I want it too and he wants to make me happy. Any baby in this family will be his baby too. It will come under his protection, as we all do.”

  “And what about all that saving the world stuff, Jane?” Justin was having a hard time with the reality of the past few hours, but Jane seemed calmer than he was.

  She nodded gravely. “Saving our family first, Justin. We have always come first in his heart. The rest of humanity, well, that’s just a bonus—and only one possible interpretation of his visions. He’s not entirely sure of all that yet. A lot of that stuff, he tells me, is from his visions of the aliens and he has no frame of reference to interpret from. He’s started writing it all down so that maybe we can figure it out later, if we learn more about them.”

  “My brother Nostradamus,” Justin marveled, only half-joking. He had never taken Caleb’s gift for granted. It still amazed him how his big brother could and did protect them all—often at the sacrifice of his own happiness. In this case, at the sacrifice of his marriage. “I love him, Jane. I never tell him, but he’s more than just a brother. He’s so damned good to all of us and all I do is take.” He turned to her with tears in his eyes, shocking her, he could see. “As I take and take from you, sweetheart. You deserve so much better.” His hand came out to stroke over her hair with a gentleness welling up from his heart like he had never known before.

  She shoved aside the pillow and sank into his arms, surprising him with the ferocity of her response. “I’d give you anything, Justin. Anything.”

  He hugged her close. “I know that, sweetheart, and I’ll take it all.”

  “But you still feel guilty.”

  “Don’t you?” he asked her in a moment of necessary candor. “You’re Caleb’s wife, Jane. Not mine or Mick’s.” He saw her eyes darken as he looked down at her, letting her know with a gentle squeeze what he needed. “Tell me the truth now.”

  She looked down. “I admit it’s still strange to me,” she said at last. “Caleb convinced me to try last night but I didn’t make him any promises when I went into the kitchen. I’m kind of shocked at myself nowat how easy it was for me to go to you and Mick. I never thought I could do that.”

  Justin’s blood started to rise yet again at her hesitant words. “You took all three of us and it made you horny as hell.”

  She smacked his arm, but not hard, a blush rising from her chest to her cheeks. “I thought I was the empath in the family.”

  He kissed her cheek with a swooping buss that made her giggle. “It made me horny as hell too, Jane. Mick and Caleb too, if their groans of pleasure were any clue.” He squeezed her again, his dick stirring as he thought back over the hours past. “Hell, I never thought Caleb would get off on watching his woman get fucked by two other men. I never thought he was that adventurous.”

  “Not just other men. His brothers,” she reminded him. “He wouldn’t let any other man near me, and neither would I.”

  His eyes cleared as he bent down to kiss her deeply. “I know that, sweetheart, and it makes it even more special.” He bared another small portion of his soul to her. “I’ve done threesomes before, Janie.” He watched her eyes widen with a sort of delicious shock. “It’s never been like it was with you, and Mick and Caleb. It was better than I ever thought it could be. And I want to do it again.”

  “Me too.” She hid her face in his chest as her whispered words made him hard as hell once more.

  “Dammit, Jane!” he growled, pushing her down on the bed and rising over her warm body. “I can’t believe I finally have you in my bed.” He tensed as the reality of her gorgeous body under him shook his senses once more.

  “I can’t quite believe it myself.” She touched his cheek, nearly unmanning him with her gentleness. No one had ever been so gentle with him, big and burly as he was, and he realized only now what he’d been missing. “But I’m glad, Justin.” She reached up and kissed him. “I’m glad to feel your anger drain away. I’m glad to feel your tension ease. I’m glad I can do that for you, and for Mick.”

  He kissed her then, settling his hips into the groove of her legs, just pressing his hardness into her folds, making no move yet to take his place inside. He stroked her with his body, raised up on his forearms to look down into her face as he rubbed every inch of him he could over her petite frame. It was a delicious sensation and he was pleased to feel her shiver of delight as her eyes sparkled up at him intimately.

  “I’m sorry I was so hard to live with these past few months. I never meant for you to know how much I” Damn, it was still hard to admit to wanting his brother’s wife, even after having been pushedquite literallyinto her arms.

  “How much you wanted to fuck me?”

  She surprised him again with her blunt talk, as well as the devilish, daring light in her eyes.

  “And what would you know about that? I thought I was hiding it pretty well.”

  “Yeah, growling like a bear every time I walked into a room was really subtle. Following me with your eyes.” She kissed his chin as she laughed up at him, stilling his heart for a moment with her beauty. “And jacking off in your garage was no clue at all to your level of sexual frustration. Justin,” her eyes teased him with mock severity, “lust has been pouring off you in waves since just after we moved here.”

  “If you think I was bad before,” he warned her with a nip to her tender neck, “just wait and see how bad I get, now that I know what it’s like to come inside you.” He thought about that a moment as he slid his cock through the wet folds of her pussy, teasing them both. “Think what it’s going to be like when I see your tummy round with my baby. Damn, sweetheart, I didn’t think I could get any harder, but just the thought of you carrying my child”

  He couldn’t finish the thought as she squirmed beneath him, undoubtedly feeling the wave of his emotions, his wonder and his lust with her deep empathy.

  “Come inside me now, Justin,” she said on a whisper, and he could do no other than comply, sliding down and into her, filling her, stretching and pushing right up against the depths of her, the way he liked. He growled in her ear in momentary satisfaction.

  “Damn, sweetheart, you’re so tight.” He ground his teeth, trying for control, but her delicate whimpers were going to take him straight over the edge. “You’re like a dream come true. My dream come true.”

  “You say the sweetest things when you’re inside me.”

  He grinned. “I always aim to please, ma’am.”

  She whimpered as he rubbed just right inside her, up and tight. “I’d say your aim is damn near perfect.”

  Justin laughed, then grunted as he bore down on her. The woman was electric, like holding a lit firework in his hand.

  “Jane!” he groaned as he felt her go off like a Roman candle around him, her inner muscles shivering, clenching and quaking, massaging his cock in a way that only she could. He came in a burst only seconds later, joining her in ecstasy, lost in the wonder of claiming her and loving her out in the open as he’d always secretly dreamed.

  “Damn, Jus, what did you do to her last night? I almost busted down your door when she screamed.” Caleb watched his blushing wife carefully as she buttered her toast. Justin’s room was between the other two brother’s bedrooms so both Mick and Caleb had heard the sounds of pleasure coming through the shared walls.

  Justin straightened, some of his male pride showing in a face that was still a bit uncomfortable speaking about their sexual exploits—and excesses—openly.

  “I would never hurt her, Caleb. You know that.” He sought his brother’s gaze, the message clearly passed with his abrupt glower.

  Caleb laughed at his brother’s discomfort, but moved to reassure the younger man. “I know you like the back of my hand, and I know you wouldn’t hurt our Jane. But damned if I didn’t want to join you when I heard the noise coming from your
room last night.”

  Justin eyed his brother speculatively. “Maybe next time, you should.”

  Caleb rocked back in his chair, excited by the idea, Jane could see from the fire in his eyes.

  “You think that’s a good idea?”

  Justin nodded solemnly, looking from Caleb to Jane to Mick and back again. “I think it’s the only way this is really going to work. And I think,” he ruffled Jane’s tousled curls with a saucy grin, “Jane would like it.”

  Caleb sought out Jane’s eyes. “Is that what you want, honey? Are you willing to take us together like we did at first?”

  It was clear to her that Caleb was hesitant about the idea and for some reason he thought she wouldn’t want to have more than one man at a time. They’d done it that first time as a way to prove to his brothers it was really okay. He’d explained it to her before it happened, when he was trying to convince her, but she realized now he didn’t quite understand how little convincing was really involved. She’d wanted them all for a very long time. And she wanted them—togetheragain.

  “Um, Caleb…” She was unsure of his reaction and dreaded the thought of possibly hurting him with her newfound desires. “I liked it.” She looked down, embarrassed by what she’d just admitted. “A lot more than I thought I would.”

  “Well, hell!” Caleb was shocked, but filled with a kind of lust she hadn’t felt from him since the early days of their marriage. The emotions swamped her, making her bolder. “You like having two of us at once?”

  “One, two or all three of you. I liked it all, Caleb. And I want to do it again.” She felt the approval and inexplicable pride coming from Caleb and Justin as her words registered with them.

  “Damn.” Mick swore behind them. His eyes were dazed as he watched her, keeping his distance, the wanting that never quite left him these days very palpable to her empathic senses.

  Taking it as a good sign, she pushed a little further. “I think Justin’s right. I think the only way we can work this is if there’s complete openness between us all. I don’t want any one of you to think I don’t love you or want you. And I don’t want to feel that way either. So, no secrets. No mine or yours. Only ours. As of last night, I belong to all of you. And you three belong to me.” She looked at the eldest for confirmation of her daring words. He was their leader in all things, but especially in this. “Right, Caleb?”