Operation Mustang [The Service Club 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Read Free Page B

it’ll probably come close.”
     
    * * * *
     
    The moment the words left her mouth, Mustang knew she’d made a mistake. She knew what she said didn’t give her away as much as the damn tears she felt burning her eyes. She could easily remember the longest twenty minutes of her life so far, could easily feel the shadow of the terror those minutes had wound through her soul.
    Nearly a year had passed since the night Lucky had received word that Diek had been injured on an op. It had taken twenty minutes that night before he’d been able to find out if Diek was still alive. She’d spent those twenty minutes pacing the floor, fear racing through her veins and hope swelling in her heart. The relief she’d felt when Lucky finally confirmed that Diek would pull through the injuries he’d sustained had driven her straight to Lucky’s arms. She’d almost lost it that night, almost threw every bit of her caution to the wind and given in to what she wanted most.
    Almost.
    Somehow, she’d made it through. She’d never admitted to Lucky how close she’d come, but he’d suspected. She’d felt it in his touch, seen it on his ruggedly handsome face. And he’d know it for certain now after she’d all but admitted it point-blank.
    Damn it ! She couldn’t think, surrounded by the Rylon brothers. She knew they weren’t the only ones in the barn. She’d spotted Chester when he’d walked inside and heard Thomas say something mere seconds before Diek came up behind her. Their presence seemed superfluous though. Having them here wouldn’t help her. If anything, it made it worse because others saw, others heard. If she had been sinking in the office when Diek and Gunner arrived, she was definitely drowning now with all three Rylon brothers next to her.
    Not just next to her, touching her. Lucky’s warm, soothing whispers fanned the fine hairs on her ear every time he spoke. Her mind tried to play tricks on her, too, hearing that voice but altering the words to ones of sultry commands and blunt appraisals. His hand on the small of her back sent excited shivers up her spine. They were shivers Diek’s touch only accentuated, igniting a firestorm in her system that raced through her bloodstream. Gunner’s hand on her shoulder shouldn’t have felt anything more than casual. It wouldn’t have if it had belonged to anyone else. But it didn’t. It belonged to Gunner, and that single contact, coupled with the rest, sent her head racing with ecstasy.
    “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Lucky said softly, breaking the sexual-tension-charged atmosphere between them.
    Mustang slid her gaze over him before locking her attention on Raven once more. The quick image of him standing beside her stayed in her vision for several hormone-stroking minutes. He was beautiful indeed. A black Stetson she’d often thought of as the Rylon brothers’ trademark sat over dark, collar-length hair. He’d tipped the brim back on his forehead, exposing eyes the color of autumn grass. It had been at least two weeks since he’d shaved. She knew because his mustache and close-cut goatee were back around his pale pink lips.
    She nodded her answer, forcing herself to watch as Raven completed birthing her foal. It gave her time to adapt to the thickness of the air around her, to absorb the primitive possession she felt from each of them and find her resistance once more. They gave her that silence, everyone watching and waiting until the foal was born. When Raven rose to lick her foal clean, she pushed a hard sigh of relief from her lungs.
    Gunner squeezed her shoulder. “Looks like Raven has a colt on her hands.”
    “And a very healthy one at that,” Lucky added as the colt stood on shaky legs within minutes and began to nurse from his mother. “How about we give them some privacy? I’ll keep watch on them through the day.”
    Mustang nodded, wanting to be the one to watch over them, but knowing she had other work to get done. “I can’t move till one of