Destined to Be Three (4 page)

With a chuckle, Gray nodded his head and tipped his beer in Shannon’s direction.

“I always knew I loved that girl,” Cade commented.

Gray snorted. “Hell no, you didn’t. Do you have any clue how many times I’ve had to stop you from strangling the girl?”

“Well, damn it, Gray. She shouldn’t drag J into so much shit.”

Gray shook his head slowly, dropping his beer bottle to the tabletop. “It’s always the quiet ones.”

“Fuck yeah. I wish Jared, Drew, and Randy would piss or get off the pot. That little girl’s going to be in for one hell of a ride when they do.” Cade lifted his beer bottle and drank half of its contents in one, long swallow.

Gray snorted. “No more than they’ll be.”

“True,” Cade agreed with a twinkle in his green eyes. “But the ride is always worth it.”

They’d spent twenty-six years on a wild ride of their own with him constantly denying his needs. Gray still had no clue how both of them survived those years without one of them walking away. Knowing they loved each other, but holding back physically, constantly tormented them. He remembered hundreds of times when it physically hurt him to not reach for Cade.

Jaycee walking away had pushed them together, not because they wanted someone to fuck around with but because they
needed
each other to survive. Their friendship and love for each other carried them through those bleak months before they physically turned to each other.

“You know how much I love to ride,” Cade interrupted his thoughts.

Gray chuckled. “Be good, Cade, or I’ll give you a red ass when we get home.”

“Could we?” Cade asked with a lecherous grin.

“I’m going to come up with a better punishment for you.”

Cade wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh, please, do.”

Gray ignored him, knowing exactly what Cade was up to. Mister Funny laughed his way through stressful situations. Continuing this kind of conversation inevitably led to trouble for both of them.

Gray rubbed his callused thumb slowly in a circle on Cade’s palm and sat back, waiting.

Chapter 3

Jaycee stumbled into the wobbly barstool at the counter with the help of Katie-Anne, nearly losing her balance as it teetered back and forth before settling into its proper upright position.

“If I take the handcuffs off, are you going to bolt?” Katie-Anne asked with an evil grin. “I would really
hate
to have to chase your ass down again.”

The hair on Jaycee’s arm stood up. If Katie-Anne chased her down, Jaycee imagined it wouldn’t be pretty this time. Pissing Katie-Anne off always bit people in the ass, and Jaycee wasn’t in the mood to go down that road tonight.

Jaycee shook her head emphatically. “No. I will keep my ass firmly in this seat.”

“Good.” Katie-Anne pulled the keys to the handcuffs out of her pocket and removed them from Jaycee’s wrists.

Rotating her wrists, Jaycee sighed, “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Katie-Anne replied, hopping up on the barstool next to Jaycee.

“Aw, damn, Katie-Anne,” Shannon fussed as she plopped down on the other side of Jaycee. “You’re such a spoilsport. Couldn’t we have left them on a little longer?”

Jaycee harrumphed in annoyance, and Katie-Anne laughed softly.

A smarmy-looking bartender approached them the moment their asses hit the seats. With a lewd wink, he jotted down their orders then disappeared.

“J, what in the hell possessed you to move to this sorry town? Seriously.” Katie-Anne’s disgust-filled words were obnoxiously loud. It fit right in with the atmosphere in the bar.

Humorously, Shannon whispered to Katie-Anne loud enough that Jaycee could hear, “Methinks she was trying to get away from your brother and his friend.”

Katie-Anne’s contemptuous expression instantly transformed to one of delight. Mirth danced in her eyes as she leaned across Jaycee. She covered her mouth and mock whispered, “Oh, riggggghhhht. She was being a pussy.”

Jaycee wadded up the gummy napkin in front of her and threw it in Katie-Anne’s unsuspecting face. She didn’t even want to think about what the goo on her hand was.

Get rid of the evidence.
Jaycee wiped her hand on her faded jeans. “I was not being a pussy,” she stated indignantly.

Katie-Anne and Shannon’s laughter filled the air around Jaycee. She sat in stony silence, not giving them the satisfaction of any further rebuttals. In her life, she’d learned that being silent was often the best answer.

Someone approached Jaycee from behind. Damn, she wasn’t in the mood for some cheesy pickup line in this seedy bar. She whirled around ready to tell someone off, but stopped short. Two sinfully good-looking men with dark hair and bedroom eyes stood side by side, their arrogance rolling off them in waves.

The short, stocky man smiled at her with a smile that could melt the panties off of most grown women. He looked like a man who knew what a woman wanted and exactly how to give it to her.

Turning, Jaycee sized up the taller man. He was quieter, far more serious. His face was harsher, and his eyes were harder. Single women dreamed of taming a man like him.

It was too damn bad they left her ice-cube cold.

The cowboy with the award-winning smile leaned toward her, pressing her back against the filthy counter. She ignored the discomfort, preparing to give him the tongue-lashing he deserved, when he spoke. “My name’s Tommy. This here’s Judd. I just thought you should know our names since you’re gonna be screaming ’em later.”

Wow.
Jaycee stared at him dumbfounded, unsure of what to say. It took her a moment to recover. Opening her mouth to blast them, she noticed two more men striding toward her, purpose filling their every step.

Her heart raced, the blood pounding through her veins at a pace that rivaled a horse in the Kentucky Derby.

She wasn’t sure what caused the spike in her heart rate. Was it seeing them for the first time in years? Was it that they were headed toward her? Or, was it the chill that shot down her spine, raising the hair on her arms? No way was she hanging around to find out.

Jaycee gave the egotistical cowboy a shove before scooting around him and his cohort in crime. Then she made a break for the door.

Before she took her fifth step, a large hand landed on her arm and wrenched her around, exerting enough pressure to maintain control without hurting.

Cade
. There hadn’t been any doubt that he would be the one to come after her. Of the two men, Cade was more dangerous to her, and they knew it. He knew exactly how to handle her. He snuck under her radar, pushed her into a corner, and then pounced. She preferred to deal with Gray. He was good at pissing her off, and she held her own when she was pissed.

Fuck, this was really, really bad.

“Dance with me, darlin’.”

No, that couldn’t happen. Jaycee knew better than to go on that dance floor and step into his strong arms, press her body up against his, and sway to the music. Her head told her she shouldn’t let her arms snake up his chest and wind around his neck, and he mustn’t be allowed to lock his arms behind her waist so he could hold her close. But that wasn’t what her heart told her.

Cade tipped Jaycee’s head back with his index finger. She looked up—and up—until her eyes reached his face. Involuntarily, she drank in his handsome features. She started with his tousled strawberry-blond hair, lowering her gaze to his green eyes, prominent nose, and the dimples on each side of his mouth. She saved his sexy lips for last.

Oh, how she loved those lips. When they’d been younger, she’d loved to stroke his bottom lip with her fingers. He always responded with a sly smile followed by a nip or a lick that left them wanting since they never followed through with a kiss.

Without conscious thought, Jaycee brushed her index finger across his bottom lip as she’d done a million times before. When it dawned on her what she was doing, she recoiled and jerked her hand back. Cade’s face fell, but he quickly masked it with a smile.

“Darlin’, that was not a request,” he informed her with a twinkle in his green eyes. He grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the hardwood floor in the middle of the bar. She was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to be an actual dance floor, but he obviously didn’t care.

When he reached his destination, Cade stopped, and just as she had imagined, he pulled her close and started dancing. The lack of music didn’t intimidate him in the least. He swayed back and forth, leading her around in a circular motion.

Cade didn’t speak, and neither did she.

The contented feeling she’d always experienced in his or Gray’s presence filled her senses. She closed her eyes and relished this moment, knowing that when he stopped, he would go. Cade had Gray, just as he’d wanted. There was no room for her.

Jaycee assured herself that leaving had been the right thing to do. Her last day with Gray and Cade proved that. Their searing kiss would be forever burned in her mind.

Her two men kissing hadn’t inspired jealousy. Quite the opposite, it’d made her horny as hell—until she’d watched Gray return the kiss.

They hadn’t realized she entered the house, and she hadn’t told them before she heard the groan tear its way out of Gray’s throat. He’d sounded like an animal calling to his long-lost mate, and Cade responded with a growl of his own.

Standing in the doorway, Jaycee had watched as their kiss turned almost violent. They devoured each other as though they couldn’t get enough, as if they’d been starving for each other. It wasn’t a pretty, sweet kiss. This had been pure, animalistic lust.

Jaycee’s chest tightened until she’d been left gasping for breath, and her mind filled with one, plaguing question. Why hadn’t
she
been kissed like that?

Gray always held himself back. He never kissed her with the all-consuming passion she sensed deep inside, and Cade hadn’t kissed her at all. But with each other, they let go.

That had been her moment of truth. Jaycee realized she couldn’t have every part of Gray, and she couldn’t have Cade at all. She refused to live the half-life her mother had where she loved two men but only had one.

She wouldn’t spend her future crying herself to sleep at night while Gray turned to alcohol to dull his pain and Cade married a woman he hated. Watching her parents and Gray’s parents live like that was enough. The three of them didn’t need to repeat the past.

Gray and Cade had no chance of keeping her, but they had a chance with each other. So she walked away and left her heart behind, praying her men would find their way to each other.

Jaycee’s eyes snapped open when the first notes of her favorite song filled the acrid air. Scanning the room, she instantly found the source. Shannon leaned against the old jukebox in the corner, waving at her with a shit-eating grin.

Jaycee scowled at her backstabbing friend and mouthed the words
You’re going to pay
.

Shannon gave her a thumbs-up sign then waltzed off with an extra spring in her step.

Jaycee knew she was making a fatal mistake, but snuggled into Cade’s embrace anyway. She relaxed for what seemed like the first time in an eternity, feeling safe and cherished in his big arms.

Cade lowered his head until it rested on top of hers. Every breath he took fanned through her curly strands of hair, making her feel like she’d been shoved into an inferno. Her overheated body shuddered against his large frame, and she bit her lip to hold back a giggle. Only her men could make her shiver when she was on fire.