Lost in Bliss

Chapter Six

Cam pulled the SUV into the parking lot, gravel crunching under the wheels. Lights sparkled in the distance like little fireflies, and the hum of music could be heard even through the heavy doors of the car.

Cam squinted, trying to make out the individual forms swaying in the distance. The fairgrounds were lit with a mixture of twinkle lights and the full moon shining down. He craned his neck to look through the windshield.

Damn. The stars didn’t look like that in the city. They were like jewels in the sky here in Bliss.

“Are you ready to go?” Rafe asked. His voice seemed caught in his throat. He’d been quiet for hours, sitting in the booth of the diner while Cam talked to the insane dude.

He’d actually learned a lot while talking to Mel. He’d learned that everyone in town loved Laura. Mel had talked about her with great affection. The woman who ran the diner had talked about her, too.

Laura had formed real connections in this community, connections she had never formed in DC. Laura hadn’t known her neighbors. Cam understood. He didn’t particularly want to know the people he shared his rattrap complex with, either. He’d already had more conversation with Mel, the conspiracy kook, than he had with anyone in the last year or so. It made him realize just how isolated he’d become.

Cam watched as Rafe checked the clip on his Glock. “I feel weird not carrying.”

Rafe shook his head. “You don’t have a license to carry in the state of Colorado. And they would never have let you on a plane with a firearm.”

Rafe looked around the place, his dark eyes hawk-like.

“What are you looking for?” Cam asked. He hadn’t seen anything in this place that worried him. Sure, some of the people seemed a little weird, but they were harmless. Cam sighed, wondering if he’d been out of the game too long. Was he missing something?

“If you found her, de Sade could find her,” Rafe said.

“I doubt that,” Cam assured him. “She’s been very isolated here.

If she hadn’t taken that photo, I wouldn’t have found her. I can’t imagine that de Sade has written a software program that scans the net and identifies missing people through facial recognition.” Rafe shook his head, a slight nod that let Cam know he disagreed.

“That software exists, Cam.”

“Not like this, it doesn’t. I assure you mine is better. I tried several of the ones on the market before I gave up and built my own. What do you think I spent my money on?” It had taken him about a year and a half to design that software. His training in communications had been the reason the Bureau was interested in him in the first place. He’d left his actual programming behind when he joined the BAU. He’d concentrated on keeping the hardware up and the use of communications in the field, but he’d realized that he needed something more than what the market had when he couldn’t find Laura. He’d sold just about everything he had to make the software work, but it had paid off in the end. He’d found her.

And now she was with a former Navy SEAL.

She swayed in Wolf Meyer’s arms in the middle of the small dance floor. Fuck. He hated that man. Cam had spent the afternoon in their tiny motel room using freaking dial-up to come up with everything he could on Wolf Meyer. Of course, it wasn’t much. The Navy kept a lot of things classified, and Wolf Meyer seemed to be one of them. Unless he wanted to hack into the Navy’s classified files and risk bringing the wrath of God down on himself, he had to let the particulars go. Cam didn’t care that Wolf was a badass who had honorably served his country for years. The asshole was horning in on Cam’s woman, and he wasn’t going to sit back and let it happen.

“If you just let me borrow your sidearm, I could take care of one of our problems,” Cam said between clenched teeth.

“You can’t shoot him,” Rafe said with a sigh. “I wish we could, but we need to concentrate on what’s important.”

“Protecting Laura,” Cam replied. It was, in the end, all that mattered.

“Gentlemen, can I help you?”

Cam turned and saw a man in a khaki uniform.

Rafe nodded. “Sheriff Wright.”

Cam held out a hand. Rafe had made contact with local law enforcement. Nathan Wright, according to Rafe, was deeply concerned about the problem.

“Have you done a perimeter sweep?” Rafe asked.

A long, slow smile crossed the sheriff’s face. “I’ve walked around the fairgrounds and said hello to everyone, if that’s what you’re asking. Look, my deputy and I are both on the job tonight. You can relax. This isn’t a tourist event. If someone new shows up, every single person here is going to have questions.” Small towns could be a little like that, Cam knew. His own town hadn’t been easy on newcomers, but they tended to take care of their own. “Have you let the gossips in on what’s going on?”

“Small-town boy?”

“Green Line, Arkansas, population three hundred fifty-two.” Rafe looked between the two of them. “What does gossip have to do with anything?”

The sheriff shook his head. “Big city?”

“Miami.” Cam shared a look with the sheriff. “I’m afraid Rafe is pure city. He was born in Miami and moved to DC. Rafe, in a small town, if you want everyone to know something, you usually only need to call one person. If you let the worst gossip in town know something, an hour later everyone knows.”

“Hell, Callie is way better than that. She had everyone in the know in half that time. Trust me, Zane and I keep certain things very, very quiet around our wife. Don’t worry. Everyone knows to watch out for Laura. Logan and I will keep a real close watch on things.” The sheriff tipped his hat and began to walk away. “And you boys mind your manners around Wolf Meyer. I don’t want to have to break up any fights. You don’t need to fight him, you know. There’s two of you and only one of him. That should be enough to take her down.” Rafe turned on Cam as the sheriff walked toward the gathering.

“See, this is why this place irritates me. What the hell did he mean by any of that? It’s like they speak a different language. I don’t get it.

Why would he refer to his wife as ‘our’ wife? Do these people get along so amazingly well that they keep in touch after a divorce and become best friends with the ex-husband?” Cam wasn’t sure about that, either, but there was a much more important problem. “Why does this place bug you so much? We’ve been in way worse places. We’ve been in even smaller towns, and it never upset you.”

Rafe stared at the scene in front of him. Vivacious music floated across the fairgrounds, and Cam could hear the sound of people laughing and talking. The sweet smell of barbecue made his stomach rumble. It was a perfect little world to Cam’s mind, but Rafe was frowning the way he did when they walked into crack houses or slums.

“She’s not going to leave with us,” Rafe said after a long pause.

Cam sighed. It came from deep within his body. He’d known that the moment they walked into town. “No, she isn’t. But the point might be moot. She hasn’t shown a lot of interest in us.” Oh, there had been that moment when he’d locked eyes on her.

Cam would have sworn he’d seen something on her face, some spark that nearly leapt through the window that had separated them. She’d quickly locked it down, and all he’d seen from her since was a mixture of deep sadness and anger.

“I love her,” Rafe said quietly. “I really thought that when we walked in, she would fall into my arms. I guess there was a part of me that really thought she was waiting for us.” Cam leaned against the SUV. He’d had that little dream, too.

Somewhere in the back of his head, he’d imagined she was just waiting for them to find her. “We really should have known better.

She went through a lot. My god, man, she was lying in her hospital bed, and we were fighting over her like dogs fight over a bone.”

“I know. I know we fucked up, but she ran. She walked out and didn’t even let us know she was alive. How could she do it?”

“Come on, man. I know you. You ran from Miami as fast as you could. The same way I ran from Arkansas.” Rafe’s parents had been a bit controlling. After they had divorced, he’d been trapped in the war zone. He’d talked about it extensively over the years. And Cam had taken the first scholarship out of his one-stoplight town and never looked back.

“But I call my mom and my dad. I might not like either of them, but I let them know I’m okay. What does that say about the way she feels about us? I thought a good argument would solve this, but now I have to wonder.”

“I’m staying.” Cam was sure of that. He didn’t have anything to go back to anyway. He had a crappy apartment and no friends beyond Rafe. He had a PI license but not a lot of clientele. “Until de Sade is caught, I’m going to stay right here.” He would find a job, and he would watch over her.

“Are you going to go to her wedding if we’re wrong and she’s really involved with Meyer?”

The whole idea made his chest constrict. God, he couldn’t watch Laura walk toward someone else while she wore a white dress, her face shining with love. It would tear him apart. “Yes. I’ll do it. I owe it to her.”

He owed her everything. Guilt weighed on him, so much stronger now that he could see her again. He couldn’t help but remember that day after they had made love for the first time. He and Rafe had gone out for breakfast to discuss what had happened, and they hadn’t seen her again until the briefing. Laura had looked so fragile as she turned in her first major profile. She’d looked worse than fragile when everyone had turned on her.

“Do you think she’s right? Could we have been wrong while she was right?”

“About de Sade? God, Cam, I’ve thought about that every single day. If I could change one thing in my life, it would be the way we handled that fucking profile, but Edward was so sure.” Rafe’s whole face had aged in a minute. Lines formed on his forehead and around his mouth. This was why they hadn’t seen each other much in the last several years, Cam realized. Neither of them wanted to talk about what had happened. It had been so much easier to concentrate on finding Laura. They had drifted apart because staying close had been painful.

But why had it been that way? Why hadn’t they been able to talk about it? They had managed to spend a lot of time drinking and fighting, but not once had they had an honest conversation about what had happened.

“Even Joe went with Edward’s profile. There wasn’t enough evidence to push the notion that de Sade was law enforcement.” Cam hadn’t wanted to believe it, either. It was too horrifying to think about the possibility that one of their own could do that. He’d grasped on to Edward Lock’s alternative profile. He hadn’t meant to hurt Laura, but he’d truly believed what Edward had said.

“Besides, after what happened with that reporter, can you really still think she was right?” Rafe asked.

Cam couldn’t help the way his fists clenched when he thought of the Washington reporter who had written a story on Laura’s profile.

She had been a friend of Laura’s, a long-term friend, and she’d betrayed her for a headline. The story had hit the next day. Laura had been fired for leaking information, and twelve hours later, she’d been a guest of the Marquis de Sade.

What if Cam had supported her? What if he’d put his career on the line to back her despite his own beliefs? She probably wouldn’t have felt the need to call her friend and commiserate. She wouldn’t have gotten drunk and confided in that vicious bitch. She wouldn’t have had her face plastered across the papers like a road map leading the killer straight to her.

“I’ve read that letter a thousand times.” Cam straightened up. The Marquis de Sade, or someone claiming to be him, had sent a letter to the FBI and the reporter responsible for breaking the story, claiming he was insulted to be called law enforcement. He’d written a long diatribe on how he was smarter than any of them and the woman who insulted him would pay for her crime.

“We’ve all gone over it a thousand times. The fact that de Sade took her because he was insulted she’d said he was in law enforcement fits Edward’s profile,” Rafe argued.

But Cam had finally pulled out Laura’s profile a couple of months before. He’d been obsessing over it. And he’d been questioning the entire case. “Or he fits Laura’s profile and he’s trying to throw us off.”

Rafe’s fist came down. “I’ve thought of that, too. Fuck, this is getting us nowhere. We have to convince her to come home with us.

She isn’t safe here. If she’s right, then she really needs to be protected.”

“I disagree. Not that she doesn’t need protection, but I think taking her back to DC is a mistake. He got to her in DC.” Rafe obviously wasn’t buying it. “And you think he can’t get to her here? Have you looked around this place? The door to her cabin was unlocked. There’s no way she should stay here.”

“I’ll stay with her,” Cam offered. “I can protect her, and the sheriff was right. A stranger will stick out like a sore thumb here.”

“This isn’t about protecting her, is it? This is how you plan to win.”

Cam went toe-to-toe with his old friend. “I’m not trying to win anything. I’m trying to keep her alive. I think what you’re trying to do is have your cake and eat it, too. You want to haul her back to DC and turn her into a sweet little wife. She was never going to be your trophy, Rafe.”

Rafe’s face went red. “She’s not a trophy. I never wanted her to get fired.”

“But you thought it was a dangerous job for her.”

“I was right. It was dangerous.”

“She should have been at home baking cookies?” Cam asked, feeling his blood pressure rise.

“Fuck you, Cam. How are you any better? You’re the one who wanted to get her pregnant. I had to remind you to wear a condom that night. Do you think I don’t know why you wanted to do that? You thought if you tied her to you, she would pick you.” Cam felt his whole body flush. He hadn’t meant to do that, had he? Sure, he’d thought about getting her pregnant, but he had just forgotten in the heat of the moment. Of course, after what had happened with de Sade, that wasn’t a problem anymore. He hated to think about everything that bastard had taken from her. “Well, it didn’t take long for that whole sharing thing to get tossed out, did it, Rafe? If you get her back to DC, we would always have to hide. No one would understand. I’m going to assume since you’re the one with the fancy job that you would be the one to legally marry her.” Rafe shrugged as though it was a forgone conclusion. “It makes sense. I make more than both of you combined. I seriously doubt the FBI will promote me if I’m flaunting the nation’s polygamy laws.”

“And no one cares what I do?”

“Damn it, Cam. What do you want me to do? I can’t force society to accept what we want. I’m willing to sit down and work it out.

There’s not a place in the world where we could live openly. It probably doesn’t matter anyway since she’s made it plain she doesn’t want to have anything to do with either one of us.”

“Damn, brother. This is some entertaining shit.” Cam turned and saw two cowboys walking toward them with a red-haired woman in between them. One cowboy wore a black T-shirt and the other had on a denim Western-style shirt, but other than that they were perfectly identical.

“Nate said they were going to be trouble, Max.” The one in the western shirt shrugged. “I find trouble very entertaining. Hey, you think I could get one of those boys to fight?”

“Maxwell Harper, you promised me you wouldn’t try to start another fight until after Stef and Jen’s wedding.” The redhead with a baby in her arms gave the one named Max a dirty look. “I am serious, Max. I do not want Jen’s wedding pictures marred by you having a black eye. If that happens, I’ll substitute Rye in with Photoshop. And we will have a conversation, you and I.” The redhead started to stomp off.

“But I like our conversations, baby!” She turned and stared at Cam for a moment as though assessing him. “If you hit him, you go for his gut. If you touch his face, I will find you. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cam said immediately. Everything the redhead said had an air of southern authority. Cam responded. He backed off of the cowboy who he had zero intention of fighting. It had the added effect of making him back off Rafe, whom he had kind of been planning to fight.

The cowboy in the black T-shirt smiled. “You’re going to sleep on the couch tonight, brother.”

“Damn, Rye, I wasn’t really going to fight. I promised Rach.

You’re just trying to get our wife all to yourself. When this little edict of Rachel’s is no longer in effect, I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Not if I kick yours first, Max.”

“Stop, both of you,” Cam commanded. That was the second time some dude in this town had mentioned sharing a wife. “What do you mean by ‘our wife?’”

Identical faces turned to him. Cam felt Rafe move beside him. All thoughts of beating the shit out of Rafe fled in a rush of curiosity.

“Rachel, that hot redhead with the gorgeous little baby, is our wife.” The man in the black T-shirt whom Max had called Rye crossed his arms over his chest. “And before you start calling in Johnny Law, you should know we do things differently in Bliss.” Max snorted. “What’s the sheriff going to do? Arrest us? How is he going to lock the cell door from the inside?”

“Stop. Are you two talking about polygamy?” Rafe had a hand on his hip. It was his cop stance.

Rye Harper didn’t seem scared. “The technical term for what we do is polyandry. And we’re perfectly legal. Max married Rach legally, and we’re not defrauding the government. We’re not illegal, just a little on the fringe of what society finds acceptable.”

“No one cares in Bliss,” Max said with a questioning look aimed at his twin.

“Yeah, well, Bliss isn’t exactly society,” Rye returned. “If we left Bliss, people would think we’re freaky.”

“There’s no reason to leave Bliss anymore. Not since we got cable.”

Rye turned to his brother. “I have a reason. Reliable cell service. I spent two hours on the landline trying to lodge a complaint with the company. Seriously, how long does it take to fix one tower?”

“I don’t care about that,” Max said. “I don’t really want to talk to anyone outside of Bliss. Hell, half the time I don’t want to talk to people inside Bliss. It’s all gossip. Rach spent thirty minutes on the phone with Callie talking about some weird plan Laura’s cooked up where she marries Wolf so two dudes don’t know she’s been alone for years.”

A sly smile crossed Rye’s lips. “Yeah, now, I did hear about that.

I heard those men had been looking for her for a real long time. It occurs to me that two men who spent all that time looking for a lady must have some pretty strong feelings for her, and a woman who hasn’t dated in a long time usually is hung up on a man—or two.” Cam went very still. “Laura hasn’t dated anyone?”

“Well, she did go out with Wolf,” Max replied. “But as far as I can remember, no one else. We were all a little surprised she said yes to him.”

Rye shook his head. “Rachel wasn’t. Rachel told Jen that any woman in her right mind would be after him.” Max whistled. “Is that why you spanked her?”

“Damn straight. But she knew I was listening. She even winked at me when she said it and slapped her own ass.” Rye adjusted his Stetson.

Everyone in this town wore a hat. Cam’s own head was starting to feel bare. Damn, he hadn’t worn a cowboy hat in years, not since he left Arkansas.

“She is just getting saucier with age,” Max said with a grin. “Oh, well. There’s no way around it, Rye. She’s the boss of our little family. What she says goes. We need to be careful. She told us not to give up Laura’s little secret.”

“I won’t tell. Now let’s get going, brother. That damn bear won’t eat himself.”

Max elbowed his twin. “He damn near ate you. You were lucky the rangers came along when they did or Rach would be down a husband and little Paige would only have me for a dad.” The twin cowboys sauntered off talking about all the weird shit they planned on eating this evening.

Rafe turned his head, a little grin crinkling the corner of his mouth. “She’s not really engaged.”

A light happiness threatened to take over Cam’s body. She wasn’t engaged. She wasn’t even sleeping with him. According to those two cowboys, she hadn’t really dated for a very long time, maybe since she’d left DC.

“There’s only one real reason for a woman to lie like that,” Rafe continued.

“She still has feelings for us,” Cam said, feeling a smile spread across his face. She’d lied to protect herself. “She still gives a damn, and we just landed in a place where no one is going to blink an eye if we share her. Hell, now I have to wonder how many of these people are in weird-ass relationships. I saw a girl wearing a collar in town.” Rafe shook his head. “Yeah. I’m still not sold on this place, but at least we can go after her without any shame. We can do it completely in the open.”

Cam suddenly wanted to get started on that little project. It was time to show Laura that he wasn’t going to wait another five years to get inside her again. He turned to his partner, all previous anger gone.

They might have to revisit that little fight, but not tonight. “What’s the plan?”

Rafe leaned in and started to speak.

Everyone was looking at her.

Wolf twirled her around the dance floor, his big hand leading her this way and that in time to the music, but her focus was on the multitudinous eyes that tracked her.

“Congratulations, you two!” Hank Farley said as he danced by with his wife. “You should know our barn is available for the reception.”

“We’ll think about it,” Wolf said with an easy smile.

He steered her toward the middle of the dance floor. Right where she didn’t want to be.

“Laura, Wolf.” Stef Talbot held his fiancée in his arms as they swayed to the music. “Jennifer and I have talked about this, and we want to offer to include your own nuptials in our wedding. It can be a double ceremony. I’ll cover all the costs.” Jen Waters had a smirk on her face. “And Brooke said she can put together a dress in no time flat. We want to make this as easy on you as possible.”

No they didn’t. They were being righteous bastards. It was the whole damn town’s way of letting her know they disapproved of her lying. She wasn’t stupid. No one in Bliss would blink twice if she was lying to save a friend or protect herself from real harm, but the minute her heart got involved, everyone became a shrink.

“They’re going to give you hell, you know,” Wolf said as he led her off the dance floor.

“I’m beginning to see that. I’ve already received lectures from Marie and Stella on how I need to face my past if I ever want to move on.” Getting married had turned Stella into the world’s biggest authority on love. She was madly in love with Sebastian Talbot and wanted everyone in town to be just as happy as she was.

It was annoying.

Even Mel had thrown his two cents in. Apparently lying left her open to alien death rays or something. And Cassidy had called to let Laura know that she didn’t appreciate her son being used as a beard and offered her other son’s counseling services. Laura wasn’t sure, but she might actually have an appointment with a man named Leo Meyer in Dallas to discuss her relationship issues.

It wasn’t what she’d had planned. It was supposed to be a simple little deception. Nothing was simple in Bliss.

“You could come clean,” Wolf offered.

Laura frowned. “They seem to be pushing me that way.” Wolf leaned against an empty picnic table. “That’s the trouble with family, isn’t it? They always think they know what’s best for you.”

“And they think it’s best that the men who broke my heart know that I haven’t really been with anyone since I left them? They think it’s best that I look utterly pathetic?”

“I think they want you to not think of yourself as pathetic. I think these people love you, and they want you to love yourself. Whatever happened to you hurt you deeply. That’s not pathetic, Laura. They want you to see yourself the way they do. Do you know what they say about you?”

Damn, tears were pricking at her eyes. “No.”

“They say that you’re brave and you don’t hesitate to speak your mind. They admire you for that.”

“I didn’t speak my mind before I came here. The one time I really stood up for myself got me into serious trouble. It isn’t like the movies, you know. The FBI is like any other business. In the end, they want good soldiers who follow orders. It’s hard to do one thing all day and then come home and be a different person. After a while, the act seems like reality. Trying to fit in changes a person.” The only time she’d really been herself was with her friends. With Rafe and Cam, Laura hadn’t needed that armor she put on during the day. She didn’t even think of Jana Evans. Jana had never really been her friend.

She’d just been a reporter waiting for a story.

“Well, I don’t think you’re the same person you are now that you were back then.”

It was true. Bliss had changed her. The first couple of years had been rough. She hadn’t wanted to let anyone in, but they had wormed their way into her heart. Slowly, she’d become more open and willing to talk about her past, to mesh the woman she’d been with the woman she was becoming. She’d stopped hiding in her cabin and talked to people.

The truth of the matter was she was a bit surprised that Cam hadn’t found her. She’d kept off the radar as much as possible, using a fake social security number to work, but she’d talked openly about her life. She guessed Bliss was more isolated than she’d believed.

“I don’t suppose anyone would be the same after what I went through.” Maybe it was time to be really honest about it. Laura wasn’t sure she was ready to tell everyone what had happened, but she didn’t have much of a choice.

“No, sweetheart, being betrayed by a friend and then captured by a serial killer would change the best of us.” He sighed at her gasp. “I can use a computer. I knew you lived in DC five years ago and you worked for the FBI. A quick Google search of Laura plus blonde plus FBI brought up a shocking number of prostitutes and your story."

Laura tried to recover from the shock. “Well, I’m glad the rest of my friends aren’t as tech savvy as you are.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t count on it. I’m pretty sure the sheriff has figured it out, and if the sheriff knows, then Zane knows. I would bet that every man in this town knows to watch out for you. It’s the way they work.”

The fact that the sheriff knew brought with it an odd mix of anxiety and security. She didn’t like the fact that her secret was out there, but the way the sheriff seemed to have handled it made her feel respected and protected. It was the way Bliss worked.

“Hello, happy couple!”

Holly walked up, a broad grin on her face. Nell and Henry followed. They wore their typical Big Game Dinner protest-wear of black pants and T-shirts with the words “Animals Have Voices, Too.” Their mouths had been duct-taped closed to show that these poor animals had been silenced forever. Despite their dark and brooding wardrobe choices, Nell’s eyes were lit with mirth, and Henry carried a bright yellow legal pad that he flashed quickly.

Congrats on your fake engagement. I will give you a fake present!

Here is a toaster.

Henry mimed giving them a gift.

“They intend to have a whole fake ceremony for you two,” Holly explained.

Wolf laughed. “Well, hell, Henry, you couldn’t do better than a fake toaster?”

Holly and Nell both shook their heads. “Oh, no,” Holly said.

“Henry is very frugal, even when it’s fake.” Laura watched as Holly’s whole body seemed to go on full alert.

“Doc.” Wolf nodded a greeting as Caleb Burke walked up.

The town doctor was wearing his usual uniform of dark-washed jeans and a western shirt. When he was working, he sometimes put a white coat on, but mostly it was the jeans and shirt and worn boots, even when delivering a baby.

“Wolf, Laura, Holly.” His throat seemed to close over the last name, though he managed to get it out. Laura couldn’t help but smile as he scrubbed a hand through his hair. Caleb Burke was a glorious hunk of man, but he had issues. He also had a small bowl in his hand, and he passed it to Nell. “It’s peanut stir-fry with quinoa and tofu.

Perfectly vegan.”

Nell quickly pulled the duct tape off her mouth. “That is so sweet, Caleb.”

The doctor suddenly found his feet endlessly fascinating. “Well, I figured you wouldn’t have a lot to eat here, so I made something for you.”

Nell thanked him. Henry gave the group a thumbs-up and they walked off to find some silverware.

“That was so thoughtful,” Holly said.

Caleb flushed, his face redder than his gold and red hair. “Well, you can have some if you want it.”

Holly bit her lip. “Um, I’m not really into tofu, but I would love to try it.”

“Oh, I’m sure it tastes like shit,” Caleb said. “I mean, why eat that when you could try bear?”

A bright smile lit Holly’s face. “Come on, then. It’s actually really good, and the bison burgers are amazing.” Laura was about to say something when she caught sight of Rafe and Cam walking onto the fairgrounds. Holly and Caleb left in search of exotic meats, but it wasn’t the smell of barbecue that had Laura’s mouth watering.

Why did those two men have to be so damn delicious? They were almost perfect opposites. Rafe was smooth where Cam was rough on the outside, but then they changed roles when they got to the bedroom. Rafe had taken her with the ruthlessness of an invader, and Cam had made her feel utterly worshipped.

“You should see the look on your face, Laura.” There was a wistful quality to Wolf’s words. “Damn, I hope a woman looks at me like that someday.”

“I don’t love them.” She forced herself to say the words. Maybe if she said it enough, she would believe it.

“Life is way too short to lie to yourself, sweetheart. And it’s too short to sit on your ass because you’re scared. Could they hurt you again? Oh, yeah. What’s going to hurt worse? Your heart breaking or waking up one day and realizing you didn’t try?”

“Were you this mouthy in the SEALs?”

He shrugged. “Can’t help it. I’m brilliant when it comes to dealing with other people’s problems. It’s my alien DNA. It helps me see to the heart of the matter and makes me very intuitive. Damn, there’s my mom. And she has beets. I fucking hate beets.” He pushed away from the picnic table and smoothed out his shirt. “I don’t think you need me to handle this one, but if you choose to go with the fake fiancé thing, know that I am going to require an enormous amount of filthy, disgusting fake sex.”

She couldn’t help but smile. He really was adorable. “Got it.” He backed away with a little wave of his hand. “And I’m the best fake sex you’ve ever had.”

“Damn straight,” Laura returned.

And then all she could see was them. They had lasered in on her and walked side by side with purpose, ignoring everything else around them.

They were the best real sex she’d ever had, and they were headed her way.