Operation Mustang [The Service Club 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (10 page)

She supposed she should’ve expected the superlarge king-size bed and maybe even the spanking platform that sat near the foot. The adjacent wall decorated with floggers, blindfolds, ball gags, and various other sex toys fully out in the open caught her by surprise. She pulled her gaze away only to land it on the opposite wall with the window, on the metal rod stretching from end to end, on the double set of handcuffs dangling from it.

“Like what you see?” Diek’s question was a seductive whisper as he walked to her, snaked an arm around her waist, and pulled her against him.

She wanted to melt in his embrace. She wanted to wrap herself in the blanket of security his muscled arms offered and forget all about the world outside. She wanted to say to hell with her inhibitions, wave a white flag of surrender, and show any and all just how much of a vixen she could be.

The fact that her resolve was slipping that bad, that fast was not a good sign. Somehow she managed to push all those wants aside, grab onto that final bit of her resistance, and stand strong. She flattened her hands on Diek’s chest and pushed away.

He released her, but not without a flash of warning in his expression. She would be punished for that later, for her show of defiance in front of Justin and Ben.

“That’s not why I came up here.” But she wanted it. She burned for a repeat of last night. She ached to experience even dirtier, darker pleasures.

“It will be soon.” He said the last low enough only she could hear before taking a step back and giving her a bit of space.

She desperately needed that distance. She needed even more if she could get it. She wouldn’t, though. She had put herself here, sought them out to the point of daring to enter a room she had always avoided like the plague. If she walked out tonight with any amount of her resolve intact, it would be a miracle.

“You’ve obviously figured out what’s going on has something to do with the women’s associations with men of the Service Club,” she said with a forced patience she didn’t feel. “I asked, gentlemen, what do you intend to do about it?”

“Do you want an honest answer or a macho one?”

Mustang slid her attention to Lucky and moist little tugs of arousal stirred between her legs. She had never been able to look at any of the Rylon brothers without getting horny, but after what they had done to her last night, her hormones were on high alert despite everything that had happened since.

“Honesty please.”

Lucky hesitated, running a hand through his already-tousled dark hair. “I don’t know if either of us has a clue what to do about it.”

Mustang knew he would’ve rather given her the macho answer. He would’ve rather told her they planned to beat the tar out of the fucker going after the Service Club women. While she didn’t doubt for a second, when they found out who was behind it, the guy would be dog meat, she appreciated the truth.

“Guy is slick,” Justin muttered, sounding as frustrated by it all as the rest of the men looked. “He’s spreading rumors, taking shots at the women’s reputations, set fire to Marissa’s store, broke into Mustang’s house, attempted to kill her horse, and did it all without leaving even a hint to his identity.”

“Stopping him will be the easy part,” Gunner put in.

Mustang knew if either man had given her the macho answer, it would’ve been him. The muscle ticking in his square jaw coupled with the determination and anger in his eyes told her he would single-handedly rip the guy limb from limb if he got half the chance.

“We’ll need more than an identity to put the guy away,” Ben said.

Mustang had steered clear of Ben Hoffman and Justin Bryan for nearly the very same reasons she kept her distance from the Rylon brothers. Her heart didn’t belong to Ben and Justin, though she silently admitted a secret physical attraction to both men. Their affiliation with the Service Club and friendship with the Rylon brothers made it dangerous to get within ten feet of them.

“You’re talking about a motive.” She knew both officers enough to understand they would play by the law book rather than going off half-cocked and taking matters into their own hands. As long, that was, as Marissa stayed safe.

Ben nodded. “And a solid one at that.”

Mustang rubbed her temples with the index fingers of both hands. The stress of the day, the what-ifs, whos, and whys, were creating havoc in her brain and causing one hell of a headache. “Put yourself in his shoes.”

“I’d rather take the bastard out of his shoes,” Diek muttered, and Mustang shot him a withering glance.

The look Justin shot him told her he agreed with Diek 100 percent. “I’ve tried that, thinking like he would think, predicting his next move. Before this afternoon, I believed with everything in my soul Richard Schultz was behind this. The worst of the acts were directed at Marissa. He’s repulsed by the life she wants to lead, by the desires that make her tick.” He shrugged. “It stands to reason he’d feel the same about any other woman who enjoys the things our baby does. Why not take potshots at their reputations, too?”

“He’s not taking potshots at Mustang’s reputation,” Lucky said.

“Yet.” It would happen, though. Word would get around that she was with the Rylon brothers, and every soul in town would know the kind of life she led being submissive to her men. In the world she lived, she couldn’t afford for that to happen. She couldn’t afford for men to view her as weak, controllable, nothing more than a compliant piece of ass.

“He might be escalating, too,” Justin said. “He started with the potshots, moved to arson, indecent exposure, and now breaking and entering and attempted murder. I’m not sure I want to know what’s next.”

“Then let’s not find out,” Diek said. “Back to motive for a minute, repulsion just might be it.”

“The choices these women are making in their private lives disgusts him, so he sets out to ruin their reputation and destroy things that mean something to them.” Gunner sounded just as disgusted by the mere idea.

“People have been known to go off the deep end and commit crimes for more insane reasons,” Ben commented.

“Maybe he thinks he’s protecting them.” Mustang didn’t realize she’d spoken the thought aloud until she focused her attention on Lucky and saw the odd expression of disbelief and wonderment on his face. “Protecting us, I guess I should say.”

Lucky lifted a brow. “Do you feel protected?”

“Of course not!” She felt violated. The idea that some unknown man had somehow gotten past two Navy SEALs and Lucky last night and into her bedroom sent chills down her spine.

“Fuck,” Lucky swore under his breath and moved toward her. He framed her hips in his wide hands and pulled her softly against him. “Stupid question. I’m sorry.”

The apology swirling in his eyes meant more to her than the words themselves. Mustang swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. Afraid her voice might crack if she spoke, she simply held his gaze and nodded.

“She might be right,” Justin said after a long moment. “Maybe he doesn’t see the danger he’s putting them in, but rather thinking he’ll scare them into…” He trailed off, obviously unable to find the right word.

“Behaving?” Mustang supplied, turning in Lucky’s arms to face the other man. “I’ve got another possibility for you, too. What if it isn’t a he? What if it’s a woman, someone who either disapproves of the Service Club lifestyle or maybe someone who’s been rejected by some of the members.”

She’d done a lot of thinking on it this afternoon, tossing around the myriad of possibilities in what she considered to be an entire town full of suspects. Bianca Tucker came to mind when she considered the women around town whom she knew enjoyed the BDSM lifestyle to the point of chasing after many of the Service Club members.

“You’re thinking jealously, revenge,” Ben said thoughtfully.

Mustang shrugged. “Just opening doors for all the potential suspects.”

Justin pushed a hard, audible breath through pursed lips. “Again, she might be right.”

“And all this talking and speculating has gotten us no closer to figuring out who it is than we were before.” Gunner rubbed the back of his neck, then slapped a frustrated hand to his thigh.

“So we go into wait mode,” Diek told him.

“And take the risk that whoever it is
is
escalating and goes directly after Mustang next?” Gunner turned on his brother, fire shooting from his darkened gaze. “The bastard, or bitch,” he added, casting a cursory glance at Mustang, “has already been in her room once. Hell, they got by us to do it.”

“It won’t happen again.” The conviction in Diek’s tone raised the hairs on the back of Mustang’s neck.

“Damn right it won’t.” Lucky’s hands tightened on her hips. “Have the attacks toward Marissa stopped?”

Ben nodded. “Nothing has happened since the night the guy showed up jerking off on her doorstep.” He hesitated, took a deep breath, and let it out hard. “Here’s the thing, guys. You know Justin and I were pursuing Marissa before her store caught fire. We took a break after that night, held back to give her time to get her life together. About a week before the last incident, we started checking on her again, slowly working our way in.”

“And the pervert showed up,” Mustang whispered as realization took hold.

“We kept our distance, and he stopped. Once he figured out she wasn’t letting go of us, he stopped.”

“So the question is”—Lucky’s breath fanned the fine hairs on Mustang’s ear as he dipped his head to speak softly to her—“do Gunner, Diek, and I keep our distance and make it clear we’re no longer pursuing you, or are you going to make it clear to this bastard that you aren’t letting us go?”

Talk about a trap
! Either way she would lose. Forget that the chance she’d been looking for was now staring her in the face. She’d wanted space. She’d fought for years to keep from giving in to her darkest desires. She’d struggled all those years to keep her heart in check. All she had to do was tell them to keep their distance, and everything would stop. All her battling and the attacks would go away.

And so will their touch
.

Mustang let her head fall back to rest on Lucky’s chest and closed her eyes. His warmth, the sheer solidity of his muscular chest enveloped her in a comfort she wasn’t sure she needed at that moment. It clouded her mind, made it harder to think even as it made it impossible to lift her head. She’d already allowed herself to get too close, allowed herself to experience too much. But continuing to take from him and his brothers, continuing to feel what they offered her meant admitting defeat. It meant putting everything she worked so hard to build and maintain on the firing line.

“You were looking for reasons less than twenty-four hours ago,” Diek reminded her softly. She felt him move to her side, felt the backs of his fingers graze lightly down the side of her face. “Here’s another one for you, darlin’.”

She’d been looking for reasons to fire him, a way to hold on to her resolve and keep her sanity until she figured out how to win the battle between the world and her mind, body, and heart. She’d never wanted to send him, any of them, out of her life for good.

And it would be for good. Something in her very soul told her if they stopped their pursuit now, it would be all over forever. No matter how much they loved her, and she truly believed they did, they would back away to protect her.

“You need to keep something in mind while you’re making your decision.” Gunner stepped to her opposite side, slipped a hand behind her neck, and gently pulled her head up. Her eyes fluttered open to meet a gaze more intense, more serious than any she’d ever seen from Gunner’s eyes. “You choose to be with us and you will finally, completely belong to us.”

She should have expected that. She should have known that, while they would walk away to protect her, staying would mean her full surrender. She shook her head. Her eyes burned with tears she wouldn’t let fall. Her heart and mind collided in a crash of emotions so violent it hurt.

“Damn you, Gunner Rylon.” Fury pushed its way through everything in her system, drying the tears and making her see red. She stabbed his rock-hard chest with her finger, immediately aware of how solid he was. “How dare you waltz back into my life and demand I risk everything to fuck you.”

He grabbed her wrist before she could pull her hand back and held it between them. His grip was firm, and the hard expression her explosion had put on his face was suddenly fueled by a smoldering gaze that made his eyes appear to glow.

“I never left your life, sweetheart,” he said, his voice dangerously low and dripping with every ounce of control he was obviously straining to implement. “I only left your sight for a while. And you’ll be doing more than fucking me.”

Mustang swore the fire in his chocolate gaze had her body temperature jumping several degrees. “Oh, yes.” She laughed cynically. She was pushing him, and she knew it, but she couldn’t stop. Every morsel of restraint, fear, and love she’d been holding back came spewing out of her mouth in words she would have never thought she would say. “How stupid of me. Of course I’ll be doing more than fucking you. I’ll be fucking both your brothers, too.”

“Diek and Lucky will pleasure that gorgeous body of yours just as much as I will.” Gunner nodded. “But they will be loving you just as much as I will, too. That’s the more you’ll be doing. You’ll be being loved and, God help the three of us, hopefully loving us in return.”