Page 73 of Rugged

Get…his bags? What was I, his doorman? Yes, perhaps I was.

Okay, fine. No need to set a boundary for a job I was quitting today. I had a line, and it was having an employer who trafficked women.

I clomped outside and opened the trunk of the Jag, then dragged a giant suitcase out, bumping my legs with it when it tumbled free. I dragged the second bag out and set it beside the first to close the hatch. Pulling out the telescoping handles, I dragged the two bags into the house. It seemed like he was staying for a while based on the size and weight of his luggage.

Mitch was in the huge great room. He’d already kicked off his shoes and was unbuttoning his shirt right there in the open. “I’m cranky, and I’ve had a long trip,” he said. “Take off your clothes, so I can let off some steam.”

Whoa. Anger made me flush hot around the hairline, but I didn’t show it. I’d had sex. Lots of it, and with men I barely knew. I was still discriminate. It was my choice. Always.

This? Yeah, gross.

I tossed my hair. “It sounds like you think my job as a caretaker includes me having sex with you. Is that right?”

He snorted as he unbuckled his belt. “Obviously.”

Fucking snake.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “It’s not happening.”

Emma said this guy was a wolf–I wasn’t sure I even believed what she was telling me because that was crazy as hell–but I noticed a weird glint in his eyes as he stalked toward me.

I shifted away without making it look like I was running, gliding toward the kitchen. “Let me pour you a drink, so you can unwind.”

In a flash, he was behind me, one arm wrapped around my waist, the other around my throat. “It is happening, and it’s happening now,” he growled.

I used my best self-defense moves, jabbing him in the belly with my elbow and stopping on his foot, hard, but it did nothing at all.

“Let go of me!” I struggled against his hold, starting to panic. I’d dealt with handsy guys before. Drunk oneswho didn’t understand no. But this was different. He was cutting off my air. Fuck, I was going to pass out.

As lights danced before my eyes and blackness crept in from the corners, I heard glass smashing from two separate directions.

Mitch released me, and I fell to the kitchen floor, rubbing my throat. Twogianttan wolves stood inside the mansion. Holy shit. One had leapt through the sliding glass door and one through the glass panel beside the front door. Both of them had their hackles raised and their teeth bared. An eerie growl filled the room.

Emma had been right about shifters, but seeing it? I blinked and blinked again. Maybe I’d lost some brain cells from being choked.

Mitch snarled, his remaining clothes ripping as he shifted into a grey wolf. He charged one of the other wolves, but they both were upon him in a moment. The fight was a mess of snarling, flying fur and bodies tumbling. They knocked over furniture and lamps with heavy bangs and harsh crashes.

And then, it was over.

The grey wolf lay still. Bloody. Lifeless.

I swallowed hard, scrambled farther away from it all. “Fuck. You killed him.”

The two wolves changed. Before my eyes, they… they shifted. Now, two very naked, very gorgeous men stood over the dead wolf.

“I couldn’t help it.” One looked over at me.

The other wiped blood from around his mouth. Gross. So fucking gross. But also… wow. These two killed the bad guy. They’d saved me.

“Are you Lyssa?”

They both stalked over to me. Again, they were naked. Really, amazingly naked.

“Yes.” I resisted the urge to fan myself. It was definitely the wrong moment to suggest a wild threesome, but that was all I could think about. Especially with, ah, how well-endowed these guys were.

I’d never had a threesome before. Never imagined it beyond a romance book I picked up at an airport for a flight. Now, I craved this duo.

Each of them reached a hand down for me. Rather than choose, I gave them both a hand, and they lifted me to my feet.

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