Once in the bedroom, Xavier and he mentally agreed to take off her clothes to prevent the woman from escaping. But the she-devil refused to accommodate him.
“Damn you. Get off me!” She knocked into Xavier with an elbow, and he finally lost his temper. That Xavier had lasted longer than five minutes without losing it surprised him. Those big beautiful eyes of hers had gotten to his twin too.
“Okay, princess. Time to pay the piper. Tell me what Werlin offered you, and I’ll consider letting you go with your clothes on.” “Help me out, bro.”
Josh joined him. He straddled her waist and held her, and together they managed to drag her boots, jacket, hat, and gloves off her. The pants were trickier, but they came off with little fuss as well. Of course, two grown men who between them weighed triple what she did shouldn’t have had any trouble.
And then she did the unthinkable. She managed a lucky kick between Xavier’s legs.
Josh felt the echo of pain his brother felt from his balls to his brain. Xavier keeled over. Josh throbbed and groaned. But he refused to let go of the hellcat in his arms. The more she struggled, the more difficult it became not to physically react.
Despite his brother’s pain, her friction turned Josh on, big-time.
“God, that’s weird.” Xavier groaned. “A hard-on that hurts.” He cupped himself, and after a few moments, he rose to his knees. He stared at her, lingering on her supple thighs. “You’re gonna pay for that one, sweetheart.” With ruthless precision, they stripped her down to her bra and panties and double-checked her for concealed weapons. Her full breasts were a surprise on such a petite frame, but they looked real. And that ass… Josh had some lusty fantasies about parting those cheeks and shoving home.
“Oh yeah. Let’s start the interrogation right now.” Xavier rubbed his erection through his jeans, and once again Josh’s arousal surged.
“Easy, bro. You’re both killing me.”
“You can both go straight to hell.” She tried to dislodge Josh from sitting astride her waist while Xavier moved behind her on the bed. He soon held her wrists prisoner with one large hand. “Who the hell are you? Why are you here in my cabin?”
“Your cabin?” they asked at the same time.
Josh answered, “Honey, this is our family place.” She stilled and looked at him. “Wait. You’re related to Julia Cannon?”
“Right. Like you don’t know who we are.”
She blinked at him, then at Xavier, her gaze searching. “Julia has two sets of twins?” Josh didn’t answer; neither did Xavier. “Okay… So you said something before about a guy named Werlin.”
Josh snorted, more than annoyed. Could an opponent just once tell the goddamn truth? “Tell your boss we don’t care what he says. He had it coming to him, and if he doesn’t like it, he can take it up with Boise’s finest.”
“Wait. Hold on.” She took a deep breath and let it out.
But the only thing she managed to do was divert Josh’s attention from her full lips to her tempting breasts. He could see the hard points of her nipples straining against the plain white cotton of her bra. And damn, but the sight of this petite woman in serviceable underwear was hotter than anything he’d ever seen in a magazine or on TV.
“Much as I wish she was ours, I doubt she is. The timing is suspect. She’s got to be Werlin’s secret weapon. Put her in a room, strip her naked, and the enemy will go out of his mind wanting to fuck her.” Trust Xavier to get to the heart of the matter.
“Crudely put but yeah. God, I’m hard.”
“Me too.”
“What?” She squirmed underneath him and froze. A hint of fear appeared on her face and just as quickly disappeared, but it was enough to prod Josh to find some answers. To his disquiet, he didn’t like seeing her afraid of him.
“Your name.”
“Chloe King. I work in Bend at the PowerUp! gym. I’ve rented this cabin from your mom before, back in the summer. A nice lady.” Unlike you went unsaid but understood. “There’s a huge misunderstanding here. I came up to stay for a week.”
“Through the storm?” Xavier released her wrists and joined Josh on the bed, sitting by her side and facing her.
She didn’t move from her position under Josh, but she did lower her arms.
Cautious, she nodded. “Yeah. I had some trouble at home and wanted to clear my head.”
Josh wanted badly to ask what kind of trouble but didn’t. Not yet. “So you just thought you’d push past the snow and trek into the mountains to a cabin you didn’t see fit to pay for?”
She flushed. “I’m low on funds, okay? This is so embarrassing.” Xavier didn’t look at him when he said, “She’s lying.”
“I know. But she’s a good liar. I want to believe her.”
“I want to fuck her.”
“Xavier.” Josh sighed, wishing he could argue the point, but he couldn’t. He wanted to bury himself inside her as well. Hell. It had been too long since he’d had a woman. To Chloe, he said, “I’m Josh Cannon. This is my brother Xavier. You already met our mother, Julia.”
Xavier gave her a hard look before grabbing his HF handset from the dresser.
“Hold on. I need to make a call.” He pressed a button to signal the other side and waited. “Hey, Sam. You’re on detail, huh? Get Mom for me. Yeah, we’re good.” A pause. They exchanged pleasantries, and then his voice changed. It softened as he spoke to their mother. He asked about Chloe.
After a few seconds, he grinned. “Yeah. Short. Long dark hair. Looks really good in a tight sweater.” He laughed. “Just kidding. No, no reason I’m asking. Just found a picture here of the woman with her name on the back. I was curious.” Another pause. “Okay. Yeah, love you too. We’re keeping an eye out, and we’ll let you know if we hear anything. See you soon.” He disconnected, and his smile faded.
“She’s Chloe King, or at least a woman fitting that description.” His eyes narrowed.
“So you came all the way out here with just the clothes on your back and a gun?”
“No. My pack is behind the house in the woods.” Xavier left without another word.
Josh didn’t take his gaze from her. “So you had problems and needed to hide out for a bit.”
She nodded. God, that mouth made him think of all the things she could be licking or sucking right now… He cleared his throat but didn’t move from his position holding her down. Most of his weight rested on his thighs but not all.
“Steady, bro.”
“Shut up, Xavier.” Josh forced himself to focus on what she said, not what she looked—and felt—like. “You expect us to believe you just happened to come up here, through a snowstorm, for the hell of it.”
She frowned, her eyes clouding with anger. “No. I told you, I had a few things I needed to deal with.”
“Like?”
His brother returned carrying a heavy pack. He dropped it by the doorway and rejoined them on the bed.
“Trouble, you said? Like what?” Josh repeated.
“Like a stalker, Mr. Nosy.” She looked as if she regretted her outburst as soon as she said it. A lot more like Xavier than him in temperament, apparently.
Xavier leaned closer to her.
“What is he doing? Hey. What are you—are you sniffing me?” she ended in a squeak.
Xavier drew back, his eyes narrowed. “Stalker, hmm?” To Josh, he sent, “I think it’s her. She’s wearing that same light perfume like the woman from the warehouse. But she’s not answering when I try to send to her.”