Page 6 of Three Cranky SEALS and a Christmas Menace

“She’s our best friend’s kid sister; that places her under our protection. If you even so much as think about her, it will be the last thought you’ll have. Do I make myself clear?” Holden didn’t need to say much more, not when Todd read the lethal threat in his eyes. He was smart enough to detect who he was messing with.

“All right,” he said, nodding. “I don’t want any trouble. I fully understand,” Todd said, getting into his car.

Ah, hell. They were meant to pass out where they sat once they reached the cabin. Instead, they walked in on Jeff’s little sister dressed in nearly nothing—Jesus, they could see her pussy through the transparent fabric of her tiny, tiny panties, exposed by the gap in that short dress thing she wore with its fur-trimmed borders, like some indecent Santa girl.

Was she going to let that tool touch her? Who the hell was he anyway? Her fucking boyfriend? Well, not anymore.

Fuck their lives. And trust Mercedes Samson to do it.

She must have parked her car in the back—and he knew she had come in her own car because their quick scope of the place had them taking inventory of a set of keys with pink fluff balls for a keyring and a tag attached that read:I’m not exploring; I’m lost.If they’d seen her car, they would have carried on driving and never stopped.

Holden took in big breaths of the frigid air, hoping to clear his head and his lungs before he went back inside to get rid of their next unwanted guest.

He couldn’t wait to have her bundled up in her car and on her way back home. Jeff should be keeping better tabs on his sister. But even Holden knew he was being unreasonable and that just fucking irked him more.

Mercedes could fuck anyone she wanted, just not on their watch.

Just not ever.

Chapter Six

Mercedes was sure she’d stepped into some eerie time portal to hell with an obscenely twisted sense of humor.

What in the ever-loving heck were her brother’s best friends doing here at his cabin when she’d commandeered the place for herself and her little feline friend down there?

She hadn’t seen them in forever. Well, years, to be precise, yet somehow she instantly recognized them. And her heart did a weird somersault in her chest.

Green-eyed, dark-haired, gorgeous connoisseur grump and deadly stoic master, Holden Reynolds.

Blue-eyed, dark-haired, sexy scoundrel, and lazy lethal, Waylan Gray.

Brown-eyed, dark-haired, hot, and hazardous rogue charmer, Myles Sherwood.

She had no idea where the adjectivesgorgeous,sexy, andhotcame from when she evaluated them. She knew better. But then again, she had sex on her brain, so could she be blamed? Speaking of sex—the very reason she washerein the first place…

Jeff rarely used this cabin. Since he bought it over two years ago, he hadn’t stayed here, not once. But he made sure to send staff around to do a deep clean and restock all the non-perishables with expiration dates, on the off chance he decided to take a trip to the mountains. At least that was what he always said.

Also, there was no chance of Jeff suddenly appearing at the cabin now because he was in New York, wrapping up some business for the security company he ran. He was due back on Christmas morning.

Just as well, because as soon as Mercedes had remembered her resolution to lose her virginity, she scrambled about making plans. Having a venue for the event became tantamount.

She could hardly do the deed at home. There would have been too many questions and way too much household traffic, what with her mom, Beau, her mom’s husband; Mercedes’ sister-in-law, Tia—Jeff’s new bride; an aunt and Mercedes’ grandfather, Waldo Samson, who was by far Mercedes favorite person in the whole wide world. While her grandmother had been American, her grandad was a British war veteran. Mercedes loved nothing more than to listen to his stories and play chess with him. But yes, too many people under one roof for her to get dirty with a guy.

She then tried to book a room at a hotel and soon realized that had been a futile endeavor. With the holidays, everything was fully booked already, and she was out of options unless she wanted a dingy motel off the highway to nowhere, with mold for furniture, to be the ground of her un-virgining .

Until she remembered her brother’s cabin in the mountains. It couldn’t be any more perfect for hersexcapades.Obviously, she couldn’t tell him she was going to be using the cabin fornefarious reasons, plus he was a little overprotective, and the less he knew, the better, so she quietly snagged the spare key he kept in his study and went on her merry way. What her brother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him; wasn’t that how the saying went?

And now his best friends showed up and ruined everything.

“Oh my god. What are you doing?” she cried, flinging the blanket off the instant Myles released her from his hold. “What is wrong with you? Ugh. What did you do to Todd?” she asked frantically, not seeing her date anywhere in sight.

“Sent him back to where he came from,” Waylan said, sounding proud of the admission.

Picking up the blanket she’d just discarded, she wrapped it around herself and flung the door open. The blast of icy cold air hitting straight to her bones, warred with the fever soaring inside her since her first sightings of them. She could only put the change in her temperature down to shock and frustration that her meticulously laid plans to get laid were being thwarted. They were the literal flies in her ointment.

She went out onto the porch, her Santa slippers getting soaked in the thin dusting of snow blown onto the enclosed area. But all she could see was Todd’s car driving away in the distance, almost as if he were speedily trying to get away.

“Todd,” she shouted into the wind, stamping her feet. “Todd, come back,” she cried, her voice full of exasperated defeat.

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