Maya Banks - Colters’ Woman

“Then why is he going to her?” Holly strained out.

“He can’t stand the idea of not helping a woman in need,” Ryan said. “He has a weakness for damsels in distress.”

Holly felt the blood drain from her face. Was that what she was? God, she certainly fit the mold. Tears swam in her vision, and she blinked hard to keep them back. She didn’t want to make an ass of herself. More than she already had.

Ethan threw one of the dice at Ryan, hitting him in the head. “You’re not the brightest bulb are you?”

Holly got up. She wasn’t going to bother keeping the pretense up any longer. She was far too upset to act like nothing was wrong.

“I’d like to go to bed,” she said. “Is there a room I can use?” She hoped her meaning came across. She wanted a room to herself.

“Use Adam’s,” Ethan said. “He can take the couch when he comes in.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled as she headed toward the hall.

As soon as she was out of sight, she bolted toward Adam’s bedroom. When she was inside, she locked the door and leaned against it.

The tears she’d tried so hard to hold back spilled down her cheeks. All the pent-up emotion from the last several years came roaring to the surface. The disappointment and the sense of betrayal, her humiliation over the horrible lack of judgment she’d demonstrated. It was enough to make her cringe.

She didn’t bother undressing. She jerked back the covers and crawled underneath, pulling them tightly around her as she curled into a ball.

Adam stepped inside the cabin and hung his Stetson and his coat on the hook by the door. He glanced around but only saw the dying embers of the fire. Everyone else must have gone to bed already.

His groin tightened. Would he find Holly in bed with his brothers? He knew Ethan and Ryan had both fucked her separately, and the truth of the matter was, he looked forward to doing the same.

He walked quietly down the hall and frowned when he saw his door closed. None of them ever slept with a closed door. He tried the knob and found it locked. What the hell? Locked out of his own bedroom?

He spun around and walked a door down to Ethan’s room to see if he was there. The door was ajar. Adam nudged it further open and peered inside. Ethan was asleep amidst rumpled sheets. Alone.

He walked over and shook Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan came awake instantly.

“What the hell time is it?” Ethan demanded in a groggy voice.

“Three A.M.”

Ethan sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Where the fuck you been?”

“Helping Lacey find the Turner boy. Where’s Holly?”

“In your room,” Ethan replied.

“Why’s the door locked?”

Ethan reached over and flipped on the lamp beside the bed. He pinned Adam with a disgusted stare. “She’s hurting, Adam.”

Adam’s heart lurched. He didn’t like to think of Holly hurting. She’d been upset before he left, but he’d hoped Ethan and Ryan would have soothed any worries she had.

“Why didn’t you and Ryan solve the problem?” Adam demanded.

“You’re hurting her, Adam. Not us.”

“Me? What the fuck did I do?”

Adam felt his anger rising. He wasn’t into playing stupid mind games, and Ethan was fast pissing him off.

Ethan sighed and slid his legs over the side of the bed. “Look, Adam, she’s having a rough time, and you running off at Lacey’s calling isn’t helping matters. She’s insecure and who can blame her with what that fuckhead of a husband did to her?”

“She’s upset because I went to help Lacey?”

“Maybe if you had explained the nature of your relationship with Lacey, Holly wouldn’t feel as she does, but she knows something is between you two, and she knows Lacey doesn’t like her one bit. Lacey’s acted like a jealous bitch at every turn. Much like a woman scorned. Holly isn’t stupid, Adam. Neither am I. Something went on between you two.”

The muscles in Adam’s face twitched, and he pressed his lips together. “What did or didn’t happen between us isn’t any of your business.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Ethan said evenly. “Dead wrong. It is very much my business. I love Holly. And I think you do too, Adam. I think Ryan probably does as well although he may have a hell of a time admitting it to himself. Anything you do that hurts Holly is my business. She’s as much mine as she is yours and Ryan’s. If this relationship is going to work, you’re going to have to pull your head out of your ass.”

Adam blew out his breath in one long sigh. “Christ. Nothing happened between me and Lacey tonight, Ethan. I wouldn’t do that to Holly.”

“I know,” Ethan said quietly. “But she doesn’t know that. Not yet. We haven’t earned her trust. She’s not going to offer that lightly after what she’s gone through.”

“And in the meantime, I’m locked out of my fucking bedroom.”

Ethan chuckled. “I guess you get the couch. I wonder if we’ll have a steady rotation when one of us pisses her off.”

“Good night. Sorry I woke you,” Adam said as he turned to leave.

He eased the door shut behind him and stared down the hall at his locked door. It was nothing a screwdriver wouldn’t fix. Maybe it was time he and Holly had a little time alone.

A few minutes later, he quietly slipped into his bedroom. Holly had left the lamp by the bed on and the soft glow poured over the bed. He set the screwdriver down on the dresser and shrugged out of his clothing.

He walked to the bed and looked down at Holly’s curled up body. Only her face peeked out from underneath the covers. A face that was red and blotchy. His chest tightened at the evidence of her tears.

He gently pulled back the covers and climbed in beside her. He pulled her tightly into his arms, liking the way her soft curves melted into his hard body.

She stirred and opened bleary eyes. They flared in surprise when she saw him.

“How did you get in here?”

“Quite easily actually. Why did you lock me out?”

She looked away. He trailed a finger over a lock of her hair that rested on her neck.

“I just needed some time alone,” she said softly.

“That’s understandable, but you don’t have to lock the door to get your point across.”

She looked back at him again, her eyes troubled, uncertainty lurking in their depths.

He sighed. Ethan was right. He should have just explained his involvement with Lacey from the get-go. Then maybe he’d be sliding his dick into Holly’s pussy instead of lying here with a raging hard-on about to become embroiled in sensitive talk.

He checked his impatience and cupped her cheek in his palm. “Listen to me, baby. There is nothing going on between me and Lacey. I’m sorry if you got the wrong impression.”

Holly shifted and pulled the sheets up higher around her. The gesture looked protective in nature but instead of making her look stronger, it only made her seem more vulnerable.

“I don’t understand.”

Her voice came out soft and breathy, the kind that would make a man instantly hard. If he wasn’t already. She was everything soft and feminine, what a woman should be.

“What don’t you understand, baby?”

She looked away again. “Why didn’t you choose her?”

Adam frowned. That wasn’t what he expected her to say.

“She’s everything I’m not,” Holly continued. “She’s strong, tall, pretty. I bet she doesn’t need anyone.”

Adam leaned back against the pillows, taking Holly with him. He cradled her against his chest, and she laid her cheek on his shoulder. He stroked his hand up and down her arm.

“I won’t lie to you. There was a time when I was attracted to Lacey. I even went as far as to bring her home, introduce her to Ryan and Ethan. But I knew immediately that she wasn’t the one. I didn’t feel a connection with her. Not like I did with you, and it was obvious the others didn’t either. Ryan outright despised her on sight. I still haven’t figured out why. Ethan, well, he was indifferent. I stopped seeing her directly after that.”

Holly stilled against him. He could feel another question coming. One that apparently was difficult for her if her body language was any indicator.

“Ryan said…he said you were a sucker for a woman in distress.”

The light bulb went on immediately. Adam sat up, dragging Holly up with him. He cupped her chin in his hand and forced her to look him directly in the eye.

“Baby, I’ll always protect you, but that isn’t why you’re here. Ryan’s a dumbass. He talks to hear his head rattle, I swear. If you want an explanation as to why you and not her, well I don’t know. I can only tell you what I feel here.”

He clenched his other hand into a fist and thumped his chest. “It’s you, baby. And maybe in time you’ll believe that.”

Her eyes glittered suspiciously in the lamplight.

“I want it to be me.”

“But?” There was clearly a but in her statement. Doubt clouded her voice, and it made him uneasy.

“I’m scared of making the wrong decision. Again.”

“Does it feel wrong?”

She didn’t answer immediately.

“Holly?”

“No, it doesn’t feel wrong. That’s what scares me.”

Adam let out a small sigh of relief. He could fight uncertainty. He couldn’t fight a made up mind. Ethan’s words echoed in his mind. Was he right? Did Adam already love her? It was hard to separate his satisfaction with finding the woman who would complete their family and the idea of love.

He knew one thing. He wasn’t letting her go. If that meant he loved her, then maybe Ethan was right. And he’d try his best to make her love them as well.

He slid his hand down her side and over her hip. “I want to make love to you,” he murmured. “I’ve thought of little else all night.”

She stared up at him, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. He saw hesitation in her expression, but he also saw desire. Was she still afraid of him?

He lowered his head to hers, meeting her lips with his. She tasted sweet. Just like she looked. He wanted to feel those lips around his cock, her wet mouth sucking him deep. He was ready to explode just thinking about it.

“Take your clothes off,” he said hoarsely. “I want to watch you.”

She rose up on her elbow then slowly scooted off the bed. She stood for a moment, staring at him, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. Then her fingers began to fumble with her pants.

He propped up on his elbow and watched as the smooth skin of her legs came into view. His fingers itched to touch her.

She began unbuttoning her shirt, her hands working down as the shirt loosened around her breasts. When she parted the shirt, he sucked in his breath. Damn she was beautiful. She had perfect breasts. They bobbed and swayed as she shrugged completely out of her shirt and let it fall to the floor.

He crooked his finger at her. “Come here.”

She crawled back onto the bed, her eyes bright with desire. Her lips wavered inches from his and then she kissed him. He ran his hand over her shoulder then down her side and underneath her breast. He cupped it in his hand, loving the feel, how it filled his palm.

His dick was hard as a rock, and it was becoming more painfully engorged by the minute. There was no part of his body that didn’t scream out for her.

He continued to taste her, loving the raspy sounds of her breath as they skittered across his lips. But he wanted those lips around his cock, could think of little else.

Cupping his hand around the back of her neck, he slowly, but firmly eased her down toward the juncture of his thighs. With his other hand, he circled his fingers around the base of his dick and guided it toward her waiting mouth.

He groaned as her wet tongue slid down the length of his cock.

“Oh, baby, you feel so damn good.”

Her hair fell forward across his thighs. He moved his hand from his cock and tangled it in her hair, holding her in place as his hips jerked forward.

Slow and easy, she took him deeper, her tongue swirling around the head. He butted against the back of her throat then withdrew so she could catch her breath. She was magnificent.

She made small sucking noises as she coaxed him deeper. Her tongue rasped erotically over the vein on the underside of his dick. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw as tight as he could.

He stroked his hand down her back and over the globes of her ass. He slid his finger into her wetness, and she flinched in reaction. He smiled as she took him deeper. They were driving each other crazy.