Her Three Entrepreneurs [The Hot Millionaires #8] (17 page)

“Bay, that’s just amazing!”

She pushed back against him, all concerns about discomfort forgotten as liquid excitement poured through her veins. Her body pulsated with a combination of incandescent desire and selfish longing. Her breathing became fractured as her head spun and all hell broke loose inside her body.

Bay thrust into her a little harder, his finger working her clit a little more persuasively as she sensed his control slipping. His breath was coming in shorter and shorter bursts as his cock expanded inside her.

“I knew you’d be a natural at this,” he said, panting as he picked up the pace and she went with him. “Come for me now, Athena. Let it go, babe.”

“I’m so damned close.” Her words came out as a strangled moan. “I love the feel of your cock up my ass, Bay. Really love it.”

“Sure you do, honey. Just take what you need from it.”

The fingers of one hand squeezed a nipple, the other dealt with her pussy, and his cock pounded into her like a drill. It was too much. She was on the brink and didn’t try to hold back.

“This is amazing. I’m gonna… Fuck me, Bay, I’m coming.”

“I’m fucking you, honey. You’ve got my cock up your ass, my fingers inside your cunt, my thumb on your clit, and more fingers pinching your nipple. That enough for you?”

“Yes, hell yes!” She threw her head back. It collided with the solid wall of his chest, but she barely noticed as she rode the wave of the most intense orgasm she’d ever experienced.

“That’s it, babe.” She felt Bay tense and then shudder. “Here it is. I’m coming, too.”

His cock pulsated deep inside her ass, reigniting her dwindling orgasm. His pleasure communicated itself and she screamed at him to keep fucking her.

“That’s it, babe,” he said, flopping down and sliding out of her. “You’ve drained me dry. I can’t give you any more.”

She levered herself onto one elbow and smiled at him. “I thought you had staying power,” she said with mock severity.

Marty and Dex roared with laughter.

“I think we’ve met our match,” Marty said. “Stay where you are, children. I’ll get a cloth.”

All three of them sat on the bed with her once she was clean again, demanding to know if she really was all right.

“All right?” she echoed, touching each of them in turn. “I’ve never felt more alive in my life, thanks to you three.”

“We aim to please,” Marty said lightly.

“And we have something to tell you,” Bay added.

She could tell by his serious demeanour that it was something to do with her grandfather. Her somnolent mood evaporated and she sat bolt upright.

“Tell me,” she said.

“We’ve identified the man who Jennings dashed from the bank to meet in that pub after Marty left him.”

Dex hated to be responsible for the sultry postcoital light leaving Athena’s eye. Even so, she had to know what they knew. They’d agreed not to tell her until after they’d had their fun, not so much for their sakes but for hers. They had temporarily distracted her, and she’d spent a few hours not thinking about her grandfather’s problems. None of them could imagine when she’d last put herself first, but all agreed it was high time she did.

“Who is he?”

“His name is Foster,” Bay said, “and he’s head of the planning committee for the local council. Dex did some clever face-recognition thing on the net, using that picture Marty took of him.”

“Planning committee?” She frowned. “What’s that got to do with us?”

“Planning means development, means houses,” Marty said, curling his upper lip in disdain.

“But this is green belt. No one can build here.”

“Unless the planners decide to change the rules,” Bay said gently, running a hand up and down her thigh. “I gather your government is encouraging local councils to release green belt land for much-needed housing.”

“Yes, but I still don’t see…”

Her words trailed off and she did that endearing thing of nibbling her index finger as she thought it through. Dex exchanged glances with Bay and Marty, but none of them interrupted her thought process.

“Hell, I see what this means now,” she said. “If the bank calls in our loans, then they’ll own a major part of this farm.”

“Exactly,” Dex said, grinding his jaw. “They would vote to sell and there wouldn’t be a damned thing you could do about it.”

“You’d get part of the proceeds,” Bay added. “But not much. You can bet your life that Foster wouldn’t release the land for building purposes until
after
the bank took possession.”

“The bastard!” Athena looked fit to burst with anger. “He’s supposed to be Gramps’ friend, and all the time he was planning to defraud him.” She tried to stand up, but with three pairs of male hands preventing her, she didn’t stand a chance. “You should have told me before. We need to confront him.”

“What good would that do other than to tell him we know what he’s doing?” Marty asked.

“Well, I don’t know. Something”—she waved her arms about, clearly too angry to think straight—“anything.”

“I have someone watching Foster,” Dex said. “As soon as he and Jennings make contact again, we’ll know.”

“How will that help?”

“I doubt whether the two of them dreamed this little scheme up alone,” Bay said. “Someone put them up to it, and we need to know who all the culprits are.”

“Whoever attacked Gramps, you mean?”

“Possibly,” Dex conceded.

“Why did they do that?” she asked. “The bank holds all the cards, so there was no need.”

“Which is why we think the two things may not be connected,” Marty said.

“What, two different lots of people want us out of here?” Athena scowled. “Why?”

When none of them answered her, her scowl deepened. “What you’re
not
saying, is that you think someone intended to kill Gramps,” she said plaintively. “Why would they?”

“That’s what we need to find out,” Bay said, patting her shoulder. “It’s also why we won’t leave you alone until we do. I don’t mean to frighten you, Athena, but you could be a target, too.”

“I’m not frightened,” she said, the light of battle shining from eyes that had been darkened from violet to navy blue by the sheer force of her anger. “What I am is mad as hell.” Her voice caught. “When I think of poor Gramps, lying in hospital with a fractured skull, I feel ready to commit a few murders of my own.”

“We know.” This time is was Marty who gave her thigh a reassuring stroke. “We’ll get whoever’s behind this, I promise you.”

“Jennings will try to see your grandfather as soon as he’s moved out of the ICU and can have visitors,” Bay said. “He’ll want to know if he really has agreed to sell to us.”

“Good job we warned him about that then.” She sighed. “I ought to thank you,” she said softly. “Without the three of you, I—”

“Don’t give it another thought,” Bay said, standing up. “We hate injustice.”

“Always have,” Marty agreed, standing also.

“Are you going?” she asked, not sounding too happy at the prospect.

“We are, but Dex will stay and keep you company for the rest of the night. It wouldn’t do for the three of us to be seen here in the morning.”

“I suppose not.” She reached up and kissed them both. “Thanks for…well, for everything,” she said.

“Our pleasure.” Bay pointed a finger at Dex. “Don’t let her out of your sight for a second, buddy.”

“Count on it.”

Dex followed them downstairs, let the dog out, and then locked and bolted the door once the hound had done what he needed to do. He went back upstairs and found Athena just where he’d left her, sitting in the middle of the messed-up bed, looking distraught.

“Come on, sweetheart,” he said, holding out a hand. “You’re not ready to sleep yet, are you?”

“I don’t think I could. There’s so much stuff going through my head right now.”

“Then I have a better idea.”

She slipped her hand trustingly into his, and he led her down the hall to the old-fashioned bathroom. The claw-footed tub was very large and very deep. He’d already found out that the ancient boiler was surprisingly efficient and produced an abundance of hot water. Dex turned on the taps and poured half a bottle of fragrant relaxing soak into it.

“Come along then,” he said when he judged the bath to be full enough and the water temperature just right, “I’ll scrub your back for you.”

He climbed into the tub and helped Athena in after him. With his back against the porcelain, he spread his legs and Athena sat between them, her back against his chest. She expelled a deeply contented sigh when the water seeped into her.

“Better?” he asked, kissing the top of her head, feeling fiercely protective and ready to do whatever it took to make her feel better about herself.

“Hmm, much.”

Dex picked up a sponge and a bar of soap and gently washed her back.

“Lean forward, babe, and let me wash your important bits. Don’t worry,” he added when she hesitated, “I’m not going to force myself on you.”

“Spoilsport!”

Dex chuckled. “You’ve had enough for one night. What you need right now is to be cosseted.”

“I could get used to this,” she said when he’d finally finished washing her and she had resumed her position between his legs, using his chest as a pillow.

“No objections from this end.”

“Tell me how you finished up in partnership with Bay and Marty,” she said, her voice drowsy yet inquisitive.

“Not much to tell.”

She must have sensed the tension in his body and turned to look at him.

“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be intrusive. It’s just that Bay told me a bit about himself, and Marty filled me in on his own disreputable past. I wondered where you fitted in, that’s all.”

“You’re probably better off not knowing,” he said tersely.

“Now I’m really curious.”

Dex let out a slow breath, playing for time as he wondered what to do. Anyone asking about his past usually got told to fuck off. It was none of their damned business. Problem was, he wanted Athena’s respect, like he hadn’t wanted anything for a long time. If she knew the truth, she’d probably run a mile. But it wasn’t possible to build a relationship on a pack of cards, and Dex wanted more than just a fling with Athena. He’d never felt this way about any woman before, which was probably why the scary prospect of tying himself down suddenly seemed damned appealing. He was pretty sure that Bay and Marty felt the same way, which must be why they’d told her about their own pasts.

Dare he risk it?

Hell, it was that or live on tenterhooks, just in case she found out.

“Bay and I are from the same town,” he said, when he could no longer avoid saying something.

“Oh, did you? He didn’t mention that.”

“Well, we were different people back then, and our paths didn’t cross much. He was focused on getting out of Dodge. I was equally determined not to finish up down the mine, but unlike Bay, I didn’t have a plan. I guess I was a bit of a tearaway.”

“Most kids are at that age.”

“Yeah well, I got in with a bad crowd. Things got out of control, and the owner of a gas station got beaten up pretty bad.”

She turned to face him again, curiosity rather than censure in her expression. “Don’t expect me to believe you had anything to do with that.”

That was the last reaction he’d expected, and she couldn’t have surprised him more. “Why do you say that?”

“You don’t have it in you to behave that way. I can tell. Oh, I know you were just a kid at the time, but there’s something basically good inside you, and you’d never deliberately harm someone.”

“Thank you.” His relief was palpable, and he demonstrated it by kissing the back of her neck. “You’re right, I didn’t. In fact I tried to break up the attack by grabbing the baseball bat out of the hands of the ringleader, which is when the police turned up. They assumed I’d instigated the attack, none of my so-called buddies denied it, the guy who was attacked didn’t see who did it, and I went to prison for three years.”

“For something you didn’t do.” Her expression was full of sympathy. “That’s so unfair.”

“Yeah, but it was a wake-up call. I got my act together inside, did a college degree in communication technology, and took just about every computer class on offer, deciding it would be my future when I got out.”

“Which is what you do for Bay now?”

“Yes, but that didn’t happen straight off. I thought I’d be able to find employment, but no one wants to take on an ex-con, especially when he was supposed to have beaten an old man half to death.” Dex shrugged, feeling a kind of relief from talking about it to someone who appeared to believe him. “My family disowned me, and I was living hand to mouth in a halfway house when I happened to bump into Bay one day. He was there for some sort of family reunion but still working at a leisure club. We got chatting, my story came out, he believed me, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

“You sound surprised that Bay believed you. Why wouldn’t he?”