Gun Shy (2 page)

Two men were standing in the threshold, looking at her with wide eyes and arrested expressions on their faces.

“Are you crazy?” She wrenched the buds from her ears and added, “You scared me!”

“If you stopped listening to your shitty music so loud, you’d have heard us come in,” Drew said as he stepped inside the room. “What’s for dinner?”

“It’s not shitty music!” she argued back, dropping the bottle onto the counter at her left. “And you’re early. It’s not ready yet.”

Scott pulled a chair from under the table and sat down. “Training session ended early. It smells good.”

She smiled at him. “Thanks.”

“So what is it?”

“Don’t I even get a hello?”

“Depends what’s cooking,” Drew drawled back, sitting down next to his friend before plopping his elbows onto the table. His gaze on her, he cocked his eyebrows and waited, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Funny. I bought some fresh pasta this morning and thought I’d make my own sauce.”

“What’s in it?”

She sighed, exasperated. “I can’t tell you. Secret ingredients.”

“I know you take your cooking seriously, babe, but that’s taking it a lil’ bit far, don’t you think?”

She rolled her eyes before turning around, giving them her back. They were both very nice guys, but sometimes, they were too much like…well…like men.

Cooking might not be part of her chores, but it sure was nice feeding hungry men. And those two sure ate a lot! Probably because of all the calories they consumed keeping their bodies in peak shape.
Muscled, sweaty bodies…

She felt her cheeks redden at the image in her head, and she turned back to the stove, grabbing the wooden spoon and stirring the sauce while they chatted behind her.

She was slowly getting used to sharing a house with two men, but it’d been very weird at first. Clothes seemed to magically appear in every corner, usually together with empty beer bottles. There’d been dust everywhere. Cobwebs. Mice droppings in the pantry. It’d taken her a good month to clear everything out and start from scratch.

Thinking back on that time, she smiled. They’d been so shocked that the state of their home had been that bad. She’d make a joke, her first one, teasing them, wondering how two strong SEALs like them could be afraid of a poor little mouse. They’d snapped to attention, leveling dark gazes at her…until they’d seen the laughter in her eyes.

That was the moment when their relationship had shifted. She’d gone from caretaker and housemate to something more. It’d been nice to fall into this easy camaraderie, her evenings at home suddenly no longer so damn lonely.

All she’d had to do was forget the way they looked. Which would be a lot easier if they stopped working out half-naked.

“Kris? Kris!”

She jerked, brought back to the present by the insistent voice behind her.

“What?” she asked as she turned around.

“Tell me you put meat in that sauce of yours,” Drew pleaded from his seat.

Her lips twitched. “I thought you’d agreed we’d eat vegetarian at least once a week?”

“No!” His eyes wide, he stood up and went to her. “You’re kidding, right? Tell me you’re kidding!”

She burst out laughing. “You should see your face. Too easy,” she added, turning back to quickly give the sauce another stir. “There’s hamburger in it, okay?”

“Thank God for that,” he muttered behind her, sounding far closer than before.

Her body stilled, her fingers clenching around the spoon when she felt his body brush hers from behind. His face appeared right beside hers as he bent down and inspected the contents of the pan.

Hands landed on her hips, the touch light but already too much. She started at the warm sensation of his fingers on her. She hadn’t been touched by a man in so long it felt odd. Pleasurable, but still quite awkward.

She realized he’d been holding himself when he pushed back from her and walked away. Finally able to breathe, she gulped air and focused on the bubbling pasta sauce.

Forcing herself to stop thinking about the way he’d felt behind her, Kristyn ignored the strained silence at her back. While she busied herself getting the pasta ready, only one thought remained: she couldn’t think of them that way.

Ever.

* * * *

Scott lay on his bed, his eyes closed and his breathing regular. His ears, however, were attuned to every sound in the rest of the house, his body ready to move at any moment.

A chair scraped downstairs, the kitchen tiles easy to recognize. He knew her schedule by heart now and knew that within five minutes her hot chocolate would be ready and she’d be back at the table. She’d be wearing those short PJs that skimmed her curves and showed the legs no one else had probably seen in years.

When she left tomorrow morning, she’d be wearing her usual drab clothes, her hair tucked into one of those stiff up-dos women in their sixties preferred. He still had no idea how her short hair, usually curling all around her face, managed to stay in place for the whole day she was at school.

He could understand why she portrayed herself that way to the exterior world however. After all, if someone really looked at her, it was possible to see how young she was. No, he thought to himself. She wasn’t that young. But if she wore bright makeup and jeans, she’d look like a fresh-faced teenager. Probably not the best first impression for a junior high English teacher.

The day she’d come to the house in answer to their ad, both he and Drew had known from the very first minute that she was the one. She hadn’t been wearing glasses, but they could almost imagine them there, hiding her blue eyes from the rest of the world. She’d been perfect for them. Young enough, willing enough, ugly enough.

He cursed inwardly. They’d been blind. With all their training, how the hell had they missed that it was just a cover? How hadn’t they seen the real Kristyn hidden behind those fucking awful clothes?

The first time he’d stumbled upon her at night, he’d about had a heart attack. She’d only been wearing a short nightshirt, her legs seemingly endless, her toes painted bright red. Kristyn! The woman who didn’t even wear open-toed shoes!

At first, he’d even thought Drew had brought a girl home for the night. He’d been surprised and more than a little bit pissed off at his friend. They’d always said they’d never bring women home, so what the hell, right?

Wrong. It’d been their new roommate. In all her womanly—and nearly naked—glory. His cock twitched at the memory, his boxers suddenly feeling too tight. He shifted a little on his bed, his brain reminding him only thirty seconds remained before he could move.

There!

The sound of that chair again.

Silently, he sat up and slid out of bed. His eyes now accustomed to the darkness, he opened his bedroom’s door, the hinges he’d oiled earlier in the day twisting without a single noise. He smiled, pleased with himself.

It didn’t last long however. As soon as his feet hit the carpet in the entryway, his head jerked to the left and the only light in the house. That’s when he spotted the shadow in the corner…and swore under his breath.

Drew had been in this game too long not to feel the presence at his back. Instinct took over, making him slam his elbow back as he twisted to face the intruder. Fingers clamped around the fist he’d already formed, the bones in his hand grinding under the pressure. He didn’t make a sound however, his eyes scanning the other man, guessing at his height, his weight, his… “Fuck!” The word escaped him.

“What are you doing here?” his friend asked, his voice pitched low so the woman in the kitchen wouldn’t hear.

“What about you?” he snapped back, wrenching his hand away. “Are you fucking nuts shadowing my six like that? If I’d had a knife, I’d have—”

Scott cut him off. “Considering you don’t have weapons on you, I wasn’t worried. I can take care of myself. If you hadn’t been staring so avidly, I wouldn’t have gotten the drop on you anyway.”

Shit! Drew felt his teeth clench together. Scott was right. He’d been intent on his task and hadn’t heard him, even though he knew for sure he’d left his friend sleeping in his room. Hold on a minute…

“You were upstairs!” he accused, his voice rough.

“So were you,” came the instant reply.

Anger rose inside him. “I was here first.”

Scott snorted. “You’re spying on our roommate. Good one, man. How old are you again?”

Drew’s fist was in the air a second later. And once again, a palm countered it, just like that. He blew out a breath, exasperated. “We really have to stop working out together.”

“I was just thinking that,” his friend commented, even as he stepped around him and tilted his head to the side.

From his vantage position, chosen just that morning to allow 100% target sighting, Drew looked where he’d been staring at so intently only seconds before. She was sitting on a hard-backed chair, her feet propped up on another chair’s cushion, a book on her thighs. Every few minutes, her right hand reached out and grabbed the cup of hot chocolate she’d prepared for herself.

The ritual lasted approximately fifteen minutes. She came down from her bedroom every evening at twenty-two hundred hours, clad in the clothes she was going to sleep in. Sometimes, it was a nightshirt, sometimes a simple tee paired with soft cotton pants. Tonight, it was summer shorts.

Short shorts.

Her thighs left bare.

They’d been tempting Drew for the past ten minutes, her pale skin only begging to be marred by his love bites and the red marks his stubble rash would leave on her when he widened her legs and kissed a path to her wet…tight…pussy.

A low growl left his parted lips. In the kitchen, Kristyn’s head snapped up.

Two shadows drew back and silently made their way back upstairs.

Chapter Two

It started the next day.

It was an undeclared war, but clearly, both opponents had every intention of winning. The prize, however, had no idea she was going to be claimed, which made it a bit more difficult.

There were no rules, probably because the whole thing wasn’t even supposed to be happening. They’d said, had promised, that they would never ever fuck their new roommate. And yet, neither of them could think of anything else.

She was the best thing that’d happened to them in a very long time. It was just too bad there were two of them and neither wanted to admit defeat. Each was sure he’d be the one to win her heart.

And so it began…

Scott had decided he needed to bring it up a notch. Remembering how his friend had brushed behind her while she’d been cooking the evening before, he deployed a strategy on the same basis.

The next time he saw Kris, she was in the garden watering the flowers she’d planted the month before. The frail buds were barely in bloom, but she was very proud of herself, showing them to everyone who turned up at the house. Their other teammates now declared Scott and Drew lived in a sissy house. But who cared if it made her happy?

Scott stepped outside and made a point of stretching. He only wore an old pair of jeans he’d cut off at the knees, the denim riding low on his hips. He’d accidentally on purpose forgotten to close the top button. He’d also forgotten the rest of his clothes so his chest was bare and his feet were clad in brown, leather sandals. He knew he had a killer body. Hey, he worked hard at it! And today, rather than using it as a weapon of destruction he would use it as a weapon of seduction.

He grinned at his own thoughts and sauntered toward his prey. “Hey, baby.”

The spray of water jerked up then down, nearly hitting him in the shins. “Scott!”

“Didn’t hear me again, did you?”

She sent me a dark look. “You SEALs, always showing off your skills.”

“It’s not our fault we’ve been trained to move noiselessly, babe.”

She harrumphed and turned back to her flowers.

He admired the back view before adding, “How was your day?”

This time, she turned back to him with a smile. “Good and you?”

“Not bad.” He shrugged. His eyes lost in the distance, he took a step forward, then another one. Before she knew what was happening, he’d wrenched the hose away from her.

“Scott! What the—” Her sentence ended on a shriek when water splashed her everywhere. “Stop it! Come on, don’t—Argh!”

He was too busy laughing at her demented dance. She was trying to avoid the water, but his aim was too good and she couldn’t get away.

“If you play nice, I’ll stop,” he offered, his face sporting a wide, wide smile.

“Play nice? Are you kidding? I was just—
Scott!
”

He inched the hose a few feet to her left. “You were saying?”

Her eyes were thunderous. It was truly a good thing she had yet to realize her clothes were so wet they were transparent. The white blouse she wore was so thin he could now see her bra. The nude lacy bra no longer hid the breasts it contained—soft, pale breasts with dusky pink nipples.