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We’d stayed cool, for a while at least. But then all this had happened. We could pin the blame on Kane if we tried hard enough, but that was mostly deflection. In short, we all wanted her. We all knew it. And the reason why was simple:

She was Dallas Winters.

I thought about it now as she writhed naked beneath me, clawing my ass to pull me in deeper. Rolling her hips at the deepest point of every thrust, to get me more fully inside her.

Goddamn.

She was the perfect woman. Strong, smart, beautiful. Intelligent and independent but also a sexual dynamo; all feminine curves and soft fragrant hair. Luscious, blowjob lips set against a gorgeous porcelain face.

But even beyond that, Dallas Winters had swagger. A cool confidence and take no prisoners attitude we all recognized immediately, because we’d seen it a thousand times on a hundred different missions.

She was just like her brother.

Only she also wasn’t.

We’d loved Connor deeply, all three of us. So much so that the moment he’d died, it was like a piece of us died with him.

Dammit, Connor.

Soldiers were like that, especially as we grew older. Each time we lost someone, it left a hole where that person used to be. Sometimes you could fill that hole, at least temporarily. Other times it was left forever wide, a gaping wound that you could only try your best to ignore.

Yes, I’d wanted Dallas like the others had. I wanted to have her. To possess her. To make her somehow fit in that part of our life where Connor used to reside, if only because she was so much like him in so many ways.

I kept plowing away, nailing her to the bed with deep, powerful strokes. Her irises were locked on mine. Her touch was gentle, her movements soft and soothing as she caressed my face.

I could get used to this.

It was sad, in a way. I hadn’t had a steady girlfriend in years. And even when I had…

I could even love her.

The thought was dangerous. Warning sirens blared in my head, diverting my attention back to the task at hand. I began fucking her even harder. Spreading her legs even wider, so I could take every last thing that I needed from her.

Dallas whimpered softly as I screwed her past the point of no return. My eyes flared, pleadingly. She bit her lip, nodding her consent…

Three strokes later I was flooding her pussy, clawing violently for every last bit of purchase as I unloaded deep in her womb.

FUCKKKK!

I filled her almost immediately, my come bubbling up from the very depths of her womanhood. True to form Dallas kept on screwing, kept on fucking me with the same wild, crazy abandon. It whipped our combined juices into a frothy cream that ran down every side of my plunging shaft.

I’d never been so hot, so crazy for release. So achingly desperate to come.

Maybe that’s because I’d never felt so connected before, either.

Let it go, Austin.

I was and I wasn’t. Letting go, that is.

She’s not for you. She’s not for anyone.

I collapsed against her, wanting to believe it. Needing to understand that it was just sex — sex and only sex — nothing more than two people using each other’s bodies for gratification and release.

Yeah, right.

Dallas clenched me tightly against her, my face buried between her breasts. It was warm and wonderful. Fragrant and safe and full of the steady, comforting thrum of her rapidly beating heart.

“I can see why my brother loved you,” she whispered softly, running her fingers absently through my hair. The word hung thickly in the air between us.