it, and the forest was her-one and the same.
And then they stopped.
She nearly rammed her nose into his shoulder. She held his arm for a moment, her head against his back, waiting for her mind, for the world, for time itself to catch up. She peered over his shoulder.
“What the hell was that?” she asked. “Felt like we were doing some low flying. That’s not possible. Right?”
Gray glanced over his shoulder at her. “I’ll explain later. Okay?”
He looked worried, or like he had bigger things to worry about at the moment and he hoped she wouldn’t add to it by insisting on answers. She could do that. For now.
They both turned back to the
Maizie blinked, her brain struggling to reconcile what she thought possible and what her eyes were seeing before her. “No way. Cherri was right. You do have a mansion hidden in the forest.”
Three stories tall, the size of a small hotel, the huge gray-stone monolith was nevertheless dwarfed by the surrounding forest. Maizie glanced behind them, the forest’s edge was at least ten feet back, dense and shadowed. She could imagine walking within feet of the clearing to Gray’s yard and not seeing the enormous mansion through the foliage.
Gray tugged her hand and Maizie stumbled after him up the cascade of stone stairs to his patio. Three enormous glass doors opened the lower portion of the house to the patio and offered a clear view into the room beyond.
At the back of the room, carpeted stairs filled the far wall. She could see a huge stone fireplace, a big sectional couch and a smoky mirrored bar. Maizie watched as three pairs of silky long legs descended the stairs into view.
The women were lovely, the second two a slightly younger version of the woman to her right. The oldest and youngest of the trio had hair the color of brown sugar while the woman in the center was a shimmering corn-silk blonde. They wore matching green kimono-style robes, with lapels and sash a complementing blush-pink, radiant against their tawny skin.
The women sauntered out in order, curvy feminine hips swaying. The middle woman turned toward the small patio bar in the corner the moment she passed the threshold. The other two walked a determined line toward Gray. Maizie tried to wiggle her hand free of his, but he held her.
“Gray, my sweet boy,” the older woman said as she neared. “Back from your outing so soon? We missed you, dear.”
“Mother Joy,” Gray said, by way of greeting.
Clearly the oldest of the three, Joy still looked years younger than Gray. Her soft brown hair fell in long waves over her shoulders and down to midback. Her skin was flawless, her body tight, shapely. There was a thickness about her though, a way of walking, speaking, which comes with experience if not simply age.
She pressed her hands to his chest, pushed up to her toes and kissed his cheek. He stood as he was, body stiff, head straight, scowl firmly in place.
“She’s my guest, Joy.” He stared straight ahead at nothing, as though he didn’t want to look at her. “I expected more from you. Couldn’t you make the slightest effort to behave, set an example? At the very least dress…your age?”
The woman laughed, a soft chuckle, and playfully slapped his chest. “We were just curious, sweetheart, and Lynn had us convinced you were keeping secrets from us. Said you’d chosen a mate. You can imagine our disappointment.”
“That’s what had all of you worked up?” His gaze flicked to the woman at the bar. “You should know better than to go out in that state of mind. Could’ve gotten out of hand fast.”
The older woman rolled a shoulder. “Yes, well, you could’ve told Lynn about your flavor of the week here and saved all of us the trouble.” Her bright blue gaze shifted to Maizie. “No offense, dear. I’m sure you’re perfectly pleasant.”
Maizie shook her head, though she had no idea what they were talking about. The woman couldn’t be more than forty-five and Maizie wasn’t sure what about her dress or behavior Gray had taken issue with. If Maizie looked that good at forty-five, she’d wear skimpy silk robes too.
Joy turned away and found a seat on a wood chaise lounge. The youngest of the threesome sauntered across the stone patio to Gray, not as graceful, her pretty face marred by the pucker of skin between her furrowed brows.
“Save your breath, Uncle Gray. Totally don’t need a lecture. It was Mom’s idea. And we were just looking. Y’know this kind of thing wouldn’t happen if you’d stop bringing these human skanks around.”
“Enough, Shelly.”
She looked at Gray’s tense expression, his jaw muscles flexing with restrained anger.
Her gaze shifted to Maizie then to Gray and back again. “What? Was Mom right? Something different about this one? No. Of course not. Whatever.”
The young beauty stretched to her toes, her hand smoothing up Gray’s chest to his neck, forcing him closer. Her pretty pony-tailed hair swished across her back as she kissed Gray’s cheek, leaving a fresh pink smear of lipstick behind.
The junior femme fatale stepped back, pouting. The silken robe slipped loose, flashing a flat belly to her navel. At least her breasts managed to stay hidden, nipples tenting the luxurious fabric like erect little soldiers. Maizie glanced at Gray. He stood as stiffly as before, his eyes focused straight ahead, lips a flat line.
Shelly joined Joy lounging on the wood patio furniture, their robes falling open as they may. Gray didn’t seem to notice or care, his attention shifted to the third woman.
She stood next to the little cart, holding a glass and stirring the clear iced liquid with her finger. Obviously enjoying the attention, she pulled the finger from her drink and sucked it dry with long draws and red painted lips.
“Oh.” Maizie swallowed her gasp. She knew this woman. This was the woman she’d seen having sex in the woods. Maizie’s cheeks warmed. What’d happened to the man she was with? The bite mark she’d seen on his neck had looked bad, though it hadn’t bothered him enough to keep him from screwing her brains out.
“Bad move, Lynn,” Gray said. “You overstep your bounds.”
She laughed, soft and pretty, her long blonde hair blanketing over her shoulders. In her midtwenties or so, Lynn ’s body was at its prime. She hadn’t even gone to the trouble of tying her robe’s sash. She strolled toward him, her curvy hips swaying, the edges of her robe flashing bare belly, brown thatch and firm thighs.
“Have a lovely day at the lake, Gray?” she said.
“If any harm had come to her- The smell of frightened prey, you know how easily that could’ve gone wrong, gotten out of hand. You led the rest out there knowing how upset they’d be when they saw she wasn’t my mate.”
“Just proving a point, dear
Lynn took Gray’s mouth with hers, her jaw stretched wide, tongue driving deep into his mouth. And Gray took it. Not a muscle on the rest of his body responded, but he didn’t deny her the kiss. As deep and long as she wanted, he obliged.
She released him with a small shove, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and took a sip of her drink. Her gaze drifted to Maizie. “Besides, if you were so worried we’d lost our senses and were truly hunting her, why’d you bring her here? She’s a liability, just like Shawn.”
“Wrong. This was business,” Gray said. “And why wouldn’t I bring her here? This is my home. I expect my family to behave like civil human beings here, if nowhere else.”
“But of course.” Lynn slinked toward Joy and Shelly and the last unused chaise lounge. The fluid movement of her body was mesmerizing. “Business, you say? Really? Only if your business is seducing ignorant little girls. Or maybe she gets faxes through her ass and that’s why your hand was on it.”
Lynn laughed at her own wit, looking to the other women who smiled indulgently, though Joy seemed tired by the display. Lynn lay back, her robe slipping down the sides of her body, leaving her completely exposed. She raised one knee, shielding her trimmed bush and showing off the smooth round of her ass.
