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find someone with small kids or . . . There are options.”

“Absolutely. All great ones.”

“I‟ll work it out. In the meantime, take care of your sweet wife and give

her my regards.”

“Will do.” Deke sounded reluctant, but he dropped the subject and

ended the call.

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Shayla Black

As soon as Luc pocketed his phone, he swore and did his best to push

aside the turmoil brewing in his gut. He had more pressing problems now.

He should have checked the house before letting Alyssa burst in. If

someone had breached her car and her club, it seemed logical he might hit

her house next—and perhaps make the attack more personal.

Thanking God that nothing in the house looked disturbed, Luc

bounded up the stairs two at a time with a pounding heart. He reached the

landing quickly. Light spilled from her bedroom door, and he eased inside.

A rumpled bed, feminine knickknacks scattered across the dresser, a

book on the bedside table. Nothing out of place.

But a trail of clothing snagged his attention. Strewn across the

gleaming hardwood floor, her tank top, filmy white skirt, silky hose, black

garter belt, and lacy bra lay a step or two apart. Heart beating even harder,

he followed the pieces to her half-open bathroom door. A barely there

thong with a rhinestone-studded GODDESS hung from the knob. Luc

leaned to the right and saw inside.

And lost his ability to breathe.

Alyssa had pinned her hair atop her head in a haphazard twist and

filled her jetted tub with bubbles. She leaned back and sensuously soaped

her gleaming skin with a pink loofah. Closing her eyes, she sighed.

Instantly, he got hard enough to pound steel.

Luc had ascertained that she was safe and no one had broken into her

house. He knew needed to back the hell away now. But like last night when

he‟d watched her bring herself to orgasm, he couldn‟t seem to make his

feet move.

Suddenly, she lifted her sultry blue gaze to him. “Need something?”

A loaded question.
Yes!
In fact, he feared he‟d gone beyond wanting

her to
needing
her.

Luc drew in a shaky breath. No. He just needed to get laid. His sex

drive had finally reasserted itself after Kimber and Deke‟s decision to

become a couple—and exclude him. Alyssa just happened to be the first

female in a fifty-foot radius.

Except . . . if he‟d met her yesterday and she looked like she‟d be the

sort of mother he had in mind, he would have hustled her into bed and into

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Shayla Black

a relationship as fast as he possibly could. He didn‟t just want her; he was

beginning to
like
her. And that made her all the more dangerous.

Nor did her pretty pink nipples, hard and bobbing on the water‟s

surface, help clear his thoughts.

“Alyssa, don‟t do this to me.” God, he barely recognized his own voice.

“Please.”

She raised a brow at him, dragged the loofah across one breast, over

her nipple, licked her lips, and let loose a little whimper. Luc staggered

back, gripping the doorknob. The silk that had rubbed against her pussy all

day filled his hand. She was everywhere, frying his brain, searing his blood.

This had train wreck written all over it, and his craving for her was about to

jump the tracks.

“Do what? You‟re in
my
bathroom.”

He fisted his hands and counted to ten, eyes closed. “Shut the

goddamn door next time.”

“I‟m used to living alone. If you don‟t like the view, don‟t come in.”

She was being intentionally obtuse.

Swearing, he opened his eyes. “If you don‟t stop teasing me, you won‟t

like what happens next.”

Because he felt like a pressure cooker about to explode. What he‟d

done to her the last time he‟d spent the night with her would look like gentle

hand-holding compared to the need charging through his bloodstream. If he

unleashed that on her, God help them both.

Alyssa merely sent him a calm, considering glance. “Then leave.”

He exhaled roughly and stared at the ceiling. “I‟m trying.”

“Let me help you,” Tyler offered, his voice mere inches behind Luc.

As Luc turned, the bouncer shouldered his way in, drifting farther into

the little bathroom. He moaned appreciatively at the sight of Alyssa bathing.

“Damn, you look gorgeous, baby. Where‟s a camera when I need it?”

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” Luc demanded. “Get out!”

Tyler glared over his shoulder. “What are
you
doing here?”

“I‟ve been staying here since Homer gave my room away.” Luc

crossed his arms over his chest. “How did you get in?”

The bouncer sent him a gloating smile. “I have a house key.”

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Shayla Black

Those five words jolted Luc. Yes, he‟d suspected they were lovers, but

this sealed the deal.

If Alyssa was going to let Tyler barge in and stay, Luc couldn‟t remain

here, knowing they were fucking—or worse, hearing them. Getting out was

his only option.

Yet he couldn‟t make himself walk out and leave her to share her bed

with Tyler.

The other man reached around him and grabbed a towel off the rack

and held it up. “Out you go. I need to see you.”

Alyssa speared him with an impatient glare. “Now?”

Tyler nodded. “I tried to call and tell you I was on my way.”

“I think I left my phone in Luc‟s SUV. ” She sighed. “Can‟t a girl get

some peace?”

Despite her protest, Alyssa stood, water cascading down her golden

skin, nipples beaded and dripping. The sight charged Luc‟s need for her

again. Turbo-juiced and on fire, his sex drive overloaded his good sense.

“Let‟s go,” Tyler demanded.

“She stays with me,” he snarled.

Shaking her head, Alyssa sent him a smile of apology. “This must be

urgent. Hopefully, Tyler and I won‟t be too long.”

What was urgent? Tyler‟s need to fuck her? Couldn‟t be more urgent

than his own.

Damn, Luc couldn‟t believe that Alyssa had chosen the beefy caveman

over him. After she‟d been relentlessly tormenting him, nearly giving him a

blow job mere hours ago? After more than hinting all day that she wanted

him? She was giving Tyler her attention.

Alyssa stepped out of the tub and allowed Tyler to wrap the towel

around her, draw her body against his. He slurped water off of her soft

shoulder and groaned.

Motherfucking son of a bitch!
Luc grabbed the door, barely resisting

the urge to punch Tyler in the face.

Why hit the man because the woman they both wanted had chosen? If

he should be angry with anyone, it was himself, for wanting her in the first

place.

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Shayla Black

“Do whatever the fuck you want. Looks like you‟re going to anyway.”

Luc slammed the door and stalked out into the night.

NOT at all proud of himself, Luc stood across the street from Alyssa‟s

darkened house, whiskey bottle in hand, and waited. He‟d been here for

the past hour, and now that it was nearly four in the morning and he was

well on his way to drunk and angrier than ever.

She‟d chosen Tyler. Even now they were inside fucking like mad while

he wandered the park, his proverbial dick in his hand, wishing like hell that

he was in Tyler‟s place. This, after Luc had turned her down more than

once, fucking idiot that he was.

To make matters worse, he‟d picked up a message from Emily earlier.

Instead of being relieved to hear her voice, the high-pitched, happy-happy

tone had been like a red-hot steel rod shoved through his brain. She‟d

invited him to a church picnic next weekend, and his first reaction had been

dread.

What was the matter with him?

Alyssa Devereaux.

It had taken Tyler‟s intrusion, Alyssa‟s subtle rebuff, and his own

intoxication to realize that maybe the best course of action was to fuck her

and get her out of his system. Of course, that option wasn‟t available just

now since she was otherwise occupied.

Thank God he‟d bought this bottle from Alyssa‟s bartender after

Deke‟s visit.

What did Tyler do for her that got her off so satisfactorily? Was he an

oral god? Was he exceptionally well hung? Luc made a face at the thought

of Tyler‟s man parts. The one thing he very much doubted was that Tyler

could surpass his stamina. Luc knew he had the bouncer—and just about

anyone else—beat at that game.

Not that he‟d ever been proud of the fact he sometimes went into a

sexual frenzy and didn‟t emerge for hours . . . and didn‟t ask a lover about

her comfort or pleasure. He took and gave to her relentlessly until she was

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Shayla Black

a slave to the clawing need. In his altered state, he lived for her fingernails

in his back, her breathy pleas, and above all, her screams.

Suddenly, Alyssa‟s porch light flipped on. The front door opened. Tyler

stepped outside, and she emerged behind him, wearing a pale satin gown

that flirted with her bare thighs, her hair spilling down her back like a

shining beacon.

The bouncer reached the door of his truck, then turned. He cupped

Alyssa‟s shoulders, brought her against his big body, stroked the soft crown

of her hair. She laid her head on his shoulder, looking perfectly comfortable

in his arms.

Luc looked away and took another swallow of whiskey. The liquid

crashed to the bottom of his stomach, burning. Or was his gut on fire

because he kept playing the vision of Tyler fucking Alyssa over and over in

his head?

No avoiding the truth now. Luc was so damn jealous he could hardly

see straight. Wasn‟t irony a bitch?

Alyssa straightened. Tyler murmured something, then kissed her

forehead. She nodded—then stepped back.

Luc frowned. If they‟d been burning up the sheets for the past hour,

wouldn‟t they part with a lingering kiss?

Finally, the other man hopped into his sleek black truck and drove off.

Alyssa watched him turn the corner. Then she clapped eyes on his own

SUV.

“Luc?”

Fuck
. He should have left, driven off someplace so he didn‟t have to

see her with Tyler—and have her know that he‟d been watching. But no,

he‟d been too busy drowning in alcohol and jealousy to think straight.

With a sigh, he pushed away from the tree, his gaze glued to her

slender form, the breeze rustling her silky hair, her nipples poking the front

of her shimmering low-cut negligee, the satin clinging to her hips.

Tyler had probably just crawled from between her thighs, and damn if

Luc didn‟t want to crawl between them himself. He wanted her so badly, he

didn‟t give a shit if he got sloppy seconds.

He was in so fucking deep.

Finally, he stepped into the streetlamp‟s pool of light.

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Shayla Black

Alyssa gasped, then smothered the sound with her hand. She peered

down at the bottle he clutched. “You‟re drunk.”

Luc wished that were true. He shook his head. “Not for lack of trying.”

“Come inside the house and let‟s get some sleep.” She turned for the

front door.

He darted after her. Just inside the foyer, he grabbed her arm. “You

have nothing else to say?”

She sent him a sharp glare. “No one asked you to leave.”

“So I was supposed to watch him maul you?” Luc slammed the door,

enclosing them in shadowy silence. Then something terrible occurred to

him. “Oh, hell, no. Did you want us
both
to fuck you? Together? Never

going to happen. I may not have exclusive rights to you, but I won‟t

voluntarily share you ever again.”

Alyssa wrenched her arm free from his grip and slapped him.

“Goddamn you! I‟m so tired of you finding every snide, roundabout way

possible to call me a whore. Just grow the balls and say it. C‟mon! You

think I fuck everything in pants.”

“Didn‟t you have sex with Tyler just now?”

Her mouth tightened. Pain crossed her face for a moment—until fury

took over. “Since you left, you‟ll never know.”

She stepped into the living room and turned for the stairs. And Luc

couldn‟t stand it. He should let her go; this consuming sort of anger wasn‟t

normal, wasn‟t him. But he couldn‟t do it.

He lunged and grabbed her around the waist, hauling her against him.