Quadruple Duty

Fun. It had been a while since I’d allowed myself the indulgence of fun. The idea was especially exciting.

You deserve that at least.

With my hair whipping in the wind, I let my mind wander back to my night with Kyle. Physically we were an amazing fit. I recalled his scent, his touch… how astonishingly hard his body was beneath my roaming hands, and how incredible he felt inside me. He’d been a fantastic lover, and he was only part of what I’d be getting.

Dakota…

Ryan…

I didn’t know them yet of course, but to call them hot was an understatement. Dakota’s size and strength was borderline intimating, but the kiss we shared was so sensually overwhelming it only left me wanting more. Much more…

As for Ryan… well, he was the quintessential brooding bad boy. The one you knew you shouldn’t date but dated anyway, against everyone else’s advice including your own. Ryan seemed a lot more complicated, but he was also a challenge. A challenge I found myself thinking about more and more as the day wore on.

What about Briggs?

That part of the deal seemed strange to me. That Briggs — away on some unknown assignment — had given his blessing in finding someone compatible to be everyone’s girlfriend, including his own. I felt almost like a mail-order bride in that respect, but I guessed I’d have to cross that bridge when I came to it. Yet from the photos they showed me of him, his perfectly-sculpted body honed from long years of the most grueling training possible? Yeah… I didn’t think physical compatibility would be a problem. At all.

That left the house, which was something I knew I was more than capable of taking care of. And with an unrestricted time table and unlimited budget? I sighed almost orgasmically just thinking about what I could do to it.

Are you sure you’re ready for this?

I nodded firmly into the sunset. I really thought I was. On the whole, the entire thing seemed totally ludicrous of course. Batshit crazy, even. But when you broke it up piece by piece, and really analyzed it like that?

It was almost like I’d been made to do this.

Minutes later I was turning into the driveway, the house looming before me like a sleepy old giant. It looked well lit on the inside. Warm and inviting. I wondered what it would be like living with four other people. Four beautiful men who were friends, comrades-in-arms, even brothers to an extent.

Four men who’d be lounging and laughing and having fun. Living out their civilian lives between missions, or between whatever the next duty of their military service called for.

I envied them as I sat there idling in the driveway. I’d never had a sister, never been as close to someone as these guys were to each other. They had a bond that would always be inseparable; I knew that the moment I laid eyes on them. The way they talked, finishing one another’s sentences. The way they reacted around each other…

I’d be a newcomer to them. Someone who could never share combat, or their memories of the battlefield. But strangely enough, that was okay. Because the way I saw it — and the way Kyle had described it as well — they needed something more than that at home. Something not associated with the Army, or with being a Ranger, or with faithfully serving the country at a moment’s whim.

No. They needed something more stable. Someone to center them, to be there for them when they returned.

Someone who could provide a different kind of love. A softer, kinder side of their lives to round out the rough edges on the opposite end.

In heart and hearth they needed a girl’s touch. A feminine facet to the bright, sparkling jewel of their masculine existence.

And, of course, a woman. A woman who could satiate their needs as men, emotionally and physically.

I wasn’t sure about the former… but the latter part I knew I could do.

I killed the jeep’s engine. Bundled my coat around my shoulders…

And walked confidently up to the front door of my new home.

Thirteen

KYLE

She looked totally stunning, even in her simple black dress.

It flared to about mid-thigh as she walked, riding up higher every time she got up or sat down. I knew those thighs intimately. What they felt like. What they tasted like…

Slow down, Murph…

Murphy. It was my last name. It was what my superiors had called me, and even a few subordinates. But not my friends. My friends called me Kyle. My friends and brothers… and her.