Maya Banks - Colters’ Lady

“I’m good, Dad. How are things there? Is Mom doing okay?” Adam sighed. “It’s not your mother you need to be worried about.” Seth laughed. “What’s she on your asses about now?”

“You,” Adam said bluntly. “You know, if you’d just come see her, our lives might go back to being peaceful.”

“Is it my fault you married a tyrant?”

“Don’t sass me, boy,” Adam growled. “I can still whip your ass.” Seth laughed again and felt the tightness in his chest ease. A tightness he hadn’t realized he’d carried around so much lately.

“How is everyone else? How is Michael’s practice doing?”

“Good. Real good. He’s busier than a one-armed paper hanger. Your mother stays after him about sleeping enough. Ryan and Ethan and I keep telling her that the only way the boy is going to make a success of his practice is if he gets out there where the animals are. You know your mother, though. She’s only concerned that he’s eating and resting.”

“Yeah, I hear you on that,” Seth said in amusement. “Mom said that Dillon had some trouble at his place?”

There was silence for a moment and Seth tensed.

“Dillon wasn’t there when it happened. Your sister was. Your mother doesn’t know that part of it, so you don’t need to mention it.”

“What? Callie’s back? When did this happen and why did no one tell me?”

“She didn’t stop in at your place when she flew in to Denver?” Seth frowned. “No, this is the first I’ve heard of it. I thought she was still in Europe. I got an email from her a couple weeks ago and nothing since.”

“Your mother’s convinced something happened to her. Callie’s tightlipped, though, and isn’t talking.

She just showed up a few days ago and asked Dillon if she could work behind the bar at his place.”

“Damn,” Seth murmured. He and Callie were close. All his siblings were, but he’d always shared a closer relationship with his little sister than his two brothers. And she hadn’t said a word to him about coming back.

She always crashed at his place when she flew in or out of Denver. She’d been the one to stay after he’d been released from the hospital, only leaving for Europe when he’d sworn he was fine and didn’t need her coddling anymore.

The fact that she hadn’t stopped on her way home could only mean she had something to hide.

“So you said Callie was working last night and Dillon wasn’t around. What happened? Was she hurt?”

Adam chuckled. “Oh hell, no. Not our girl. When the idiots tried to start some shit with her, she tossed one of them through the window.”

There was a note of intense pride in his dad’s voice that made Seth smile. That was one thing Seth could say about Callie. Growing up with three dads and three older brothers? She’d learned early how to kick ass and take names. She didn’t take shit off anyone.

“Lacey is thinking about retiring,” Adam said abruptly.

Seth rolled his eyes. “Dad, she’s been thinking about retiring for the last ten years. It’ll never happen.

They’ll pry her stiff carcass out of the sheriff’s office at ninety.” Lacey England was the long-time sheriff of Clyde and also Seth’s godmother. She doted on all the Colter children, but from the time he was old enough, Seth had followed her around, always interested in who she was arresting.

She’d been pleased beyond mention when he’d entered the police academy and taken a job as a police officer in Denver. None of her children had followed her into public service, and she laughingly told everyone that Seth was the child of her heart.

“No, she really means it this time,” Adam said with a sigh. “Dan’s health isn’t good, Seth. They think it’s cancer. They’re thinking of moving so he can be closer to good hospitals.”

“Oh damn,” Seth murmured. “That’s too bad.”

“She wants you to consider moving to Clyde so you can be appointed to serve out her term. There’s still two years left. You’d be a shoe-in come election time.”

“Oh Christ, Dad. You know I don’t want her job.”

“Maybe you should think about it. You’d be close to home and family. It’s a good job. Everyone knows you here. You’re a damn good cop.”

Seth held back the groan. Once an idea was planted in his mom and dads’ heads, it was impossible to sway them. They’d nag and cajole until he begged for mercy.

“It’s a good time for a change. Fresh start after the shooting. Sure, things would be calmer here, but it would be your town.”

“I’ll think about it, Dad, okay?”

Adam gave a disbelieving grunt.

A noise in the kitchen had Seth turning around to see Lily sitting at the small breakfast bar. He hadn’t even heard her come in. She looked tentative, as if she worried she was intruding.

He smiled at her then held up a finger to signal he’d only be a minute more.

“Look Dad, I need to go. I’ll call you tomorrow to check up on things. Tell Mom I’ll get up to see her before I go back to work.”

“If I tell her that, you’re going to come if I have to go down to Denver and haul you back myself,” Adam warned.

His father wasn’t kidding and Seth knew it well. “I know. I’ll come.”

“Okay, son. I’ll talk to you later. I love you.”

“Love you too, Dad. Give Mom a kiss for me and tell the other dads I’ll see them soon.” Adam chuckled and hung up.

Seth put the phone back into his pocket and turned his attention to Lily.

Her nose wrinkled in confusion. “You have more than one dad?”

“Uh, yeah. Three.”

“Stepdads? It must be nice to have a close relationship with them.” There was a wistful note in her voice that told Seth she thought having a close familial relationship in any context was nice.

“Not exactly. I have an unusual family.”

She cocked her head to the side for a moment as if she’d say more, but then she blushed as if thinking she was intruding.

He chuckled. “You can ask. I love my family dearly. Wouldn’t change a single thing about them, but my upbringing was definitely not typical.”

“How so?”

“I have three fathers and one mother. My mother is in a relationship with all three men.” Lily’s mouth rounded in shock. She seemed to want to say something but fell silent. Then she glanced up at him again. “How is that possible?”

Seth shrugged. “They all three love her more than life and she loves them. She married the oldest of three brothers but she’s committed to all of them. They had four children. I’m the oldest. I have two younger brothers and my sister is the baby.”

“Wow. I mean…wow. And you don’t know who your biological father is?” He smiled. “Nope. Doesn’t matter to them. Doesn’t matter to me. Although lots of teasing goes on now that we’re adults. Mom swears I’m Ethan’s child. What she means, though, is that I’m laid back and not a freak like my younger two brothers. Michael is more Adam’s personality though maybe not as intense. And we all swear that Dillon was hatched because no one will claim responsibility for him.” Lily laughed. “That’s so neat. You must have grown up with so much love.” Again the wistful note crept into her voice. He ached at the loneliness he heard in her words.

“I did. One thing was for certain, though. Me and my siblings got away with nothing growing up. It was impossible with four parents in the picture.”

She laughed again, and he felt the sound all the way to his soul.

“You sound very proud of them.”

“I am. Wouldn’t trade them for anything.”

“What do your brothers and your sister do?”

“Tell you what. Why don’t I fix us a cup of hot chocolate? Dinner won’t be ready for another hour.

We can go into the living room, get comfortable, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” She gifted him with a beatific smile. It was all he could do not to reach over and touch her. He wanted to pull her into his arms and assure her that nothing bad would ever happen to her again. And then he wanted to taste that mouth that had tempted him from the moment he laid eyes on her at Margie’s Place.

He watched as she retreated to the living room. She curled onto the couch, tucking her bare feet beneath her. When she reached for the blanket that lay over the back, he cursed himself for not having built a fire while she was in the bath.

A few minutes later, he carried two steaming mugs of hot chocolate into the living room and set his on the coffee table. She reached for her mug with both hands, cupping them around the warm surface as if capturing and holding the heat as close to her as possible.

Without a word, he went over to the stone hearth and tossed a few logs from the wood rack into the fireplace. A few moments later, the first flicker of flame licked over the dry wood.

He returned to the couch where he took a seat on the opposite end of her. “Better?” She smiled. “Perfect.” Then she shook her head. “I’m still baffled by this whole thing, Seth. I shouldn’t be here. This is…crazy.”

Her fingers fluttered against her mug, and she had such a bewildered look on her face that he scooted forward on the couch until his knee rested against hers.

He touched her cheek, letting his fingers graze over her cheekbone and then down to her jaw. She closed her eyes and nuzzled into his palm as if she’d long been denied the pleasures of another’s touch.

“I’m having my own set of what-the-hell-is-going-on thoughts,” he said honestly. “But I’m not going to fight it, whatever it is between us. From the moment I saw you, I knew you were going to be a part of me. A big part of me. I don’t understand it, but I’m not going to fight it. I don’t want to fight it.”

“I don’t either,” she whispered.

Triumph blazed through him with savage intensity. It was primitive and dark, and he wasn’t entirely comfortable with it, but it wasn’t something he could control.

“I’m going to kiss you, Lily,” he murmured.

Her lips parted in a breathless gasp just a moment before he nudged forward and pressed his mouth to hers in the lightest of touches.

He savored that first brush and the electric sensation that slid over him, pricking each nerve ending on the way to his groin. He cupped her jaw and deepened the kiss, plunging his tongue inside to taste the sweet chocolate on hers.

She was his. That fact beat a steady rhythm through his body. His blood pulsed through his veins, whispering to him to take her, to fill the gap that he hadn’t known existed inside him. One that she could fill.

Mine. It was all he could do not to say it. Only the thought of frightening her kept the word from pouring from his throat.

He didn’t want to end the kiss. He wanted to make it endless. He wanted to carry her to bed where he’d kiss her and taste her for the rest of the night.

It’s too soon.

The thought echoed in his mind as surely as if he’d said it aloud.

With a groan, he pulled away. She blinked and stared back at him with hazy, confused eyes. Her lips trembled and were wet from his tongue. She raised a shaking hand to her mouth, and he knew she felt what he did. His lips tingled and felt alive, like he’d die if he didn’t kiss her again.

“Seth, what’s happening here?” she asked.

He touched her face again, sweeping his hand down in tender strokes. “I don’t know, Lily. But I’m sure as hell going to keep finding out.”

Michael Colter pulled up to his brother Seth’s house and cut the engine on his Jeep Cherokee. It was barely past dawn, but Seth wasn’t one to sleep in. He was probably already up with a cup of coffee.

He stepped out into the chilly morning air and stifled a yawn. Leaving Clyde at three in the morning hadn’t been conducive to a good night’s sleep, but he was up and not likely to fall asleep so he hadn’t waited to make the trip to Denver.

He ambled to the front door, knocked once and then let himself in. It always cracked him up that Seth was a cop and he never locked his door. Too many years of living on a mountain with the Colter clan. Not many people in their right minds would try to break in there.

“Seth?” he called as he shut the door behind him.

As he walked into the living room, Seth left the kitchen, predictably with a cup in his hand. But it didn’t smell like coffee. Michael sniffed the air. Chocolate?

“Giving up the good stuff?” Michael asked with a grin.

“Michael? What the hell are you doing here?” Seth demanded.

Michael arched an eyebrow as he made his way over to where his brother stood. “It’s good to see you too.”