lucian flinched. a strangled groan growled at the back of his throat as the pressure on the base of his cock eased, only to have the head surrounded with an icy blast of sensation a second before the heat began to return as never before. white-hot, growing, shimmering before his eyes as his balls drew up tight and hard, warning him that release was only seconds away.

"mr. conover?" the major was staring at him in concern. "are you feeling okay?"

lucian's gaze swung to jesse, who quickly lost his amusement in the face of whatever he was seeing. the pleasure was too intense, too destructive. fuck. he was going to kill them.

his cock throbbed in warning, a small amount of pre-come dampening it beneath the material of his slacks.

lucian jumped to his feet and without apology, without an explanation, stalked across the office to the private bathroom off the side. he slammed the door, his fingers shaking as he locked it with one hand and tore at the zipper of his slacks with the other.

no sooner had he managed to free the tortured flesh from its confinement than he exploded. he barely throttled his strangled groan, his head falling back as he bared his teeth and felt his semen jet violently from the head of his cock.

hard spasms wracked his body, drew every muscle tight and locked the breath in his throat as he fought to steady himself, to rein in the harsh male shout that he knew had erupted from dev's throat.

son of a bitch. he shuddered with the feel of gentle lips milking the last drops of come from a straining cock before they slid away slowly. he fought for breath, his chest heaving, his composure shot now. never, in his entire life, never had he known anything so fucking good, and all he'd had for his pleasure was the echo of impressions through the bond he shared with dev.

his legs trembled; sweat beaded his flesh, dampened his shirt and did little to cool the heat raging just under his skin. with shaking hands he cleaned the sink that had been splattered with the silky jets of seed spewing from his cock moments before, then fixed his clothes slowly.

his eyes narrowed as his teeth clenched in fury. the little witch. she was going to pay, and by god, he would make sure she paid well.

he moved from the bathroom back to the office.

"jesse, gentlemen, i seem to be afflicted by some odd virus at the moment. if you'll excuse me..."

"lucian." jesse stopped him as he headed for the door. "get well quick. you and dev have a flight in two hours. you'll be accompanying the general to washington to lay the idea out to the committee. i hope you'll be able to make it."

lucian stared back at them, fighting to keep his expression calm. "i'm certain it's merely a temporary affliction. i just need a few moments. excuse me."

he nodded stiffly to the three men before he threw open the office door and stalked out to tally's desk.

there she sat, as cool and triumphant as a reigning queen. she smiled slowly, a smug little curve to her lips that warned him of her victorious demeanor. but her gaze was hot, wild. she wasn't unaffected and she hadn't found her own release. damned stubborn woman. he glanced at dev, who stood furiously at the door to his office, watching her heatedly.

"wrong move, sweet thing," lucian told her softly, leaning close as he planted his fists on her desk and stared into her satisfied expression. "bold. daring. but wrong time, wrong place. you chose to pick a meeting to test your skills during office hours, business time. no quarter given. do not make the mistake of ever asking for such, either. when i get back from this little trip you've just caused with your shenanigans in distracting me during that meeting, you better be waiting, because i intend to fuck you six ways from sunday. maybe, just maybe, by the time we're finished you'll be too fucking tired to cause trouble."

she rolled her eyes. he snapped his teeth together in fury at the mocking expression.

"darling," she drawled. "i would cause trouble if i were dead. you're once again overreaching your own capabilities."

overreaching? lucian leaned closer, almost nose to nose, the vindictive little light in her eyes making him crazy to fuck it out of her.

"am i, tally?" he asked her gently. "when i get my hands on you, i'm gonna spank your tight little ass until you scream to come for me. i'm going to make you beg."

her eyes widened. "oh, daddy, make it hurt so good."

she was laughing. the little vixen was having the time of her damned life. the impression hit him nearly broadside. had he ever seen her eyes twinkle like that? seen such joy on her face? she was torturing him and she was loving it.

for a moment, just a moment, warmth curled through his heart. her laughter, her joy, was like an addiction, but he'd be damned if he could live through another episode such as the one he had just experienced.

"you are insane," he growled, straightening and staring down at her with a frown.

her laughter was low, bright. "yeah. i am," she agreed. "deal with it."

deal with it? he turned and glanced at dev. deal with it? they were so screwed.

chapter six

tally knew the minute lucian and devril walked into the wyman's large front room nearly a week later. several other projects in addition to the military contract had called them out of town, leaving her alone in the office and oddly at loose ends. she hadn't anticipated how much she would miss them or the excitement that sizzled over her body whenever they were near.

but they were back now and her body was suddenly alive again. the tiny hairs at the nape of her neck lifted in some sort of primal awareness, drawing her attention away from the handsome director of marketing she had been chatting with.

her head turned; rather distantly, she noticed the feel of her long, straight black hair swishing above her hips, caressing the silk of her snug bronze dress. the sensual feeling wasn't welcome. it warned her that the sexual tension between them that afternoon last week had not abated and her body was now primed and eager for their touch. it was no longer just lucian her body lusted after, but dev as well.

devril had never played a part in any of her sexual fantasies of lucian, until this past month. as she had fought for release in her lonely bed over the past week, devril accompanied her fantasy image of lucian, his hands playing over her body as she imagined lucian's cock, his erection filling her mouth as his brother's filled her pussy. it had been highly erotic. it had been highly unwelcome. she was having a hard enough time keeping herself distant from one brother; she didn't need the other adding into the equation.

"excuse me," she murmured to the young man she had been talking to, and headed for the bar for another glass of champagne. liquid courage. she needed something to see her through this evening.

tally had to admit she had hoped neither lucian nor devril would return in time to attend the small party jesse and terrie were throwing to celebrate the six-month anniversary of the friendly and very lucrative, merging of delacourte and conover electronics firms. each company had differing strengths and areas of expertise that, when combined, would eventually make them a leader within the electronic manufacturing world. that and the government contracts that the two companies together could now pull in would push them ahead of the game.

sipping on her champagne, tally moved farther along to keep a careful distance between her and the conover brothers. damn, she just hadn't considered that they would double-team her the way they had. but she should have. it was an oversight that she had been foolish to make. she knew they were part of the much whispered about trojans. a group of elite dominants that often enjoyed menage sexual practices with their women.

several ex-wives of the group had made the mistake of telling a few good friends about the small group and word had spread like wildfire through the small community of influential citizens. exactly what the trojans were, no one really knew. sexually dominant, they were men whose extreme sexual tastes were outside of what would be considered natural.

her best friend, terrie, had married one of the members and tally knew for a fact that part of her relationship with her new husband did indeed involve a third partner sometimes. it was something terrie spoke very little of, but tally knew the other woman had found that something that had always been missing in her life.

not that jesse wasn't extremely possessive of his new wife. he was. the love that connected the two was impossible to miss. jesse never so much as looked at another woman. but he did sometimes share his wife.

lucky terrie.

tally sighed as she wandered through the open garden doors and escaped the stifling tension following her in the house. she should have known better than to attend the party. her emotions were too high, her control too fragile right now. she prided herself on that control and the small slips she was displaying were starting to worry her. lucian and dev were becoming a weakness she could ill afford.

silently, she made her way along the rock walkway that led deeper into the shadowed expanse of flowering bushes and trees. terrie's idea, she knew. her friend had a green thumb that often went out of control, but the garden was a masterpiece of serenity. nearly a square acre of lush vegetation and miniature trees.

finally, tally made her way to a secluded waterfall on the western edge of the gardens and the hidden padded bench beneath the shelter of a small, vine-covered iron gazebo.

the bench was wide, softly cushioned and, most importantly, private. tally needed time to come to grips with herself before facing lucian or his twin. it wasn't that the thought of a menage with the two men bothered her. tally was extremely liberal in her opinions of sexuality and completely honest with the darker side of her own sexual desires.

the fact was, there would be problems attached to any affair she entered into with lucian, or lucian and his brother. her emotions were involved. how it happened, when it had happened, she wasn't entirely certain. but she knew when she stepped into that office and saw lucian fucking terrie she had been furious.

she had known it would happen eventually. hell, she could have stopped it. when jesse asked her if there was anyone who shouldn't be involved in such a situation with him and terrie, she could have said something then. her pride had demanded her silence, though.

it wasn't so much that lucian had been fucking the other woman, contradictory as it sounded; it was that he wasn't fucking tally.

"this is so stupid." she rolled her eyes at her own thoughts.

she wasn't jealous of terrie-not really. she was just so damned consumed with the thought of lucian, and now dev, that she couldn't make sense of anything else. she had been ever since their first meeting at delacourte electronics and their mocking appraisal of her as she led them into jesse's office.

she finished her champagne before leaning her head back against the bench and drawing in the warm night air. the steady sound of falling water, the heady scents of the night and her own weariness were about to get the best of her.

"hiding, tally?" lucian's smooth, dark voice had her eyes opening in resignation.

had she known he would follow her?

she stared up at him, seeing the halo of light around the white-blond of his hair and silhouetting the wide breadth of his shoulders.

"well, it should be pretty evident i wasn't looking for company." she injected what she hoped was just the right amount of cool mockery into her voice. it was hard to do after their last confrontation.

he chuckled. the sound was low and wickedly amused as she rose to her feet, intent on returning to the house. he had been furious when he left the week before, he and dev both were literally fuming over what she had done. she expected a return of that anger now.

"tally." his hand on her arm as she moved to pass him stopped her. more from surprise, perhaps, than from anything else.

she stared up at him in the dim light, wondering at the serious cast of his expression. she had seen him mocking, sarcastic and downright furious. but she had never seen this expression on his face. intent, his gaze shadowed with a bit of regret.