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“This will ruin you,” Delia snarled. “No one in Scotland Neck will work with you and you’ll definitely not be wanted within the organizations you’re a part of now. You’ll be an outcast, Keiley. ”
“So cast me out. ” Keiley smiled coldly. “I don’t need you or the fine people of this county to work. And I promise you, Delia, my clients don’t give a damn who I sleep with. All they care about is the bottom dollar, and I bring that in excellently. ”
“And Mac?” Delia sneered. “What about him?”
Keiley gave her a pitying glance. “You obviously don’t know Mac very well. By time he’s finished with the husbands of this fine group, no one will dare ostracize him or me. Get a clue here, Delia. He has friends in the FBI. Friends who, I promise you, wouldn’t blink at the picture. Or at the hell they can make your life. And yours. ” She turned to Victoria’s sister-in-law. “Or yours. ” Victoria’s best friend. “Or yours and yours and yours. ” Each member of the committee was staring back at her in horror. “Cut your losses, ladies,” she sneered. “Because if you don’t, I promise you, Mac will make certain you wished you had. ”
She wasn’t wasting so much as another moment here. The longer she stood here, the more the demons of the past bit at her. The humiliating memory of trying to be so good, of trying to redeem herself in the eyes of a community where she had never sinned. Of paying for her parents’ sins and realizing she would never be good enough, never rise about her father’s thievery or her mother’s weakness.
She had been so young, too young to understand what she now knew. It didn’t matter when people wanted to see a sin. When they wanted to condemn a person, then the condemnation didn’t have to make sense. There were no laws to govern the thoughts and hearts of those with petty, vindictive minds.
Keiley refused to try again. She wouldn’t lower her head to Delia. She would not give into blackmail. Never again would she be so weak that she would run and hide because those around her thought she should.
She believed in taking responsibility for her own actions, at all times. She enjoyed the path her life was taking. She enjoyed sparring with both her lovers, and she enjoyed the hell out of the challenge that would come in keeping them in line.
Keiley Hardin McCoy was not a fainting miss, she assured herself as the maid whisked opened the ballroom doors for her and she swept into the huge marbled foyer.
“Keiley, you aren’t leaving. ” Victoria’s voice called from a wide door at the end of the foyer as she stepped out. It wasn’t a question, it was a demand.
“Sorry, Victoria. ” Keiley lifted her chin. “I believe it’s time for me to leave. ” Getting out of there before she ripped every hair out of Delia’s head out was imperative.
A frown instantly snapped between the other woman’s brows as her green eyes narrowed.
“Is there a problem, dear?” she asked.
If Victoria didn’t already know about the picture, then she would. There was no hiding it now, and Keiley knew it. As the older woman walked toward her, Keiley felt a flash of sudden regret.
“You know I’ve always appreciated what you’ve done for me, don’t you, Victoria?” She asked.
Suspicion filled the older woman’s eyes. “What has Delia done, Keiley? She’s fairly harmless, I’m certain whatever ill will she managed to begin—”
Keiley shook her head. She was going to cry if this gentle, proud woman tried to apologize for her vicious daughter-in-law one more time.
“Just know I’ve appreciated everything. I really have to leave now. ”
Keiley turned and moved toward the front doors. She could feel her eyes tearing up and she refused to cry. She wasn’t going to cry. She wasn’t going to be a baby over this. She was going to be an adult. That was what she was going to do.
Leaving the house, she caught sight of Mac and Jethro standing in front of the truck. They straightened as she stepped onto the wide porch, their expressions filling with heat, memories, and equal desire. And emotion.
The emotion in Mac’s gaze was fierce, untamed. Jethro’s was wild but more controlled and just as damned sexy. They were tall, broad-shouldered, powerful, muscular. They were men that women dreamed of having in their beds. Men with morals and with a conscience, and they loved her.
Both of these men loved her. Mac, she knew, would always love her. Jethro, she wasn’t as certain of, but she knew she couldn’t deny him. Couldn’t deny the pleasure they both brought her. Or the emotions building inside her. She wanted the chance to hold him the same as she held Mac.
As she moved down the steps, Keiley admitted that she knew she should have stayed home tonight. She knew that coming to this meeting was a bad idea, and Mac would be lucky if she didn’t shoot him herself for forcing her into it.
But it had been informative. It had forced her to realize how little the opinions of these women mattered. She had sworn years ago that she would never let a community enforce their opinion of her, on her. It would never happen again. And it wasn’t going to happen here.
22
There was no fooling Mac or Jethro. As she moved toward them their eyes narrowed, their bodies tightened with tension. Each showed his awareness of her volatile emotions in different ways. Mac’s hands flexed as though he were holding his fingers back from clenching into fists. Jethro’s biceps seemed to thicken beneath the short-sleeved shirt he wore, pumping up, preparing for battle.
They were like warriors, instinctive, aggressive in the face of any threat. And she couldn’t mention this threat. Not yet. Not until she got a handle on it herself and her own sudden aggression.
This relationship had changed her. Two weeks ago she would have been in a panic, horrified that anyone could have witnessed anything so intensely private.
Someone had invaded her home. Had taken pictures. Had shared the evidence that Keiley had enjoyed not just the touch of her husband, but also the touch of his best friend.
And she had enjoyed it. Keiley had seen her pleasure in her face. In Mac’s. In Jethro’s. The intense intimacy, the emotions beginning to bind them. It had all been there in that picture for anyone who cared to look close enough. To notice how Jethro covered her from behind, his lips pressed to her shoulder, his expression twisted with not just pleasure, but a tortured emotion rising from the depths of his gaze.
