Party of Three: A H.O.T. Cops Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

that would only hurt him. Or she’d thought that before today anyway. Now it was getting confusing.
    Locking gazes with Ethan once more as the sound of Rogan’s car drew closer, she suffered the inexplicable urge to rush up the stone steps that led from the dock, to have at least one more minute alone with Ethan before they became a party of three. She wasn’t even sure why, but she felt herself moving, leaving the sun for the shade of the trees that dotted the hilly slope, hurrying toward him as if something vital were at stake. Up until now, she’d been basking in the natural beauty of the cabin and its surroundings—the lush greenery of tall trees, the wildflowers that lined the vacation home’s foundation and edged the yard—but now she could see nothing but the man she walked toward so briskly.
    He’d stopped in place, still holding the plastic bag of garbage he’d been about to tote around the house, but when she reached him, pressing her palms to his chest, he let it drop to the ground. “What is it?” he asked softly, clearly seeing her duress.
    “What if … what if it starts and I … just can’t? What if it feels wrong?” She hadn’t quite known she was going to ask that, but this had all happened so quickly, and it seemed like something they should address. She wished there’d been more time between his telling her and Rogan’s arrival.
    But he simply shook his handsome head. “No worries. You just say so. At any time. Whether it’s in the first five minutes or right in the middle of things, doesn’t matter. If anything feels wrong, you just let us know.”
    Us. Him and Rogan. The two men planning to fuck her together. She let out a sigh, still trying to wrap her brain around this.
    Then she asked him, her voice going a bit lower, “Are you sure? Really sure?”
    Maybe that was what had sent her flying up the steps toward him. One last chance to make certain he thought this was the right thing to do, certain he believed this wouldn’t hurt them or their relationship in any way.
    His hands closed warmly over her upper arms as he looked into her eyes. “Completely,” he promised. Then said, “Are you?”
    She told the truth, the only truth she knew right now. “I don’t know. I … I want to be, but I’m a little afraid.”
    “That’s okay,” he replied. “We’ll just see how things go, play it by ear. Rogan knows nothing is set in stone—he knows I’m surprising you with this. So we’ll just take our time, see how you feel as the night goes on.”
    Oh. Well. Okay. Suddenly, the whole situation didn’t sound … quite as daunting as before. Still a little nerve-wracking, but … she could still back out. She didn’t have to make a decision right this minute. And just knowing that calmed the frantic beating of her heart. A little anyway.
    She stood up a bit straighter when she heard the car door slam.
    And as Rogan rounded the corner of the house a moment later, a small duffel bag dangling from one hand and a bakery box in the other, her whole body tensed once more. She’d seen him less than a week ago at Ethan’s last softball game, but everything was different now. Everything.
    As he approached, she took in the jet-black hair she’d once loved to run her hands through, the dark, unshaven stubble on his strong jaw, the barbed wire tattoo that circled one muscular arm.
    “Hey,” he said. Just that. And the one word made her pussy spasm against her blue jeans. For the past four years, he’d been … a distant friend, someone she might chat with casually at the ball field on occasion—even if she did sometimes suffer a sexual response to him. But now, suddenly, he was more. He was … someone she was allowed to be attracted to again, someone Ethan wanted her to lust for.
    “Hey,” she returned, but getting it out was more difficult than it should have been—as something swelled in her throat.
    “Dude,” Ethan offered easily, and Rogan gave him a nod.
    And Mira decided