"Don't put it past her." Mac stepped into the room, his gray eyes gleaming with amusement but also a hint of anger. "What did you do to piss her off?"

"Nothing." Keiley turned and began attacking the vegetables, as Jethro suspected she wanted to attack his head.

"I said something stupid," he answered for her. "She seems unwilling to accept my apology."

He started back at Mac, meeting his friend's eyes, knowing he had done Keiley an injustice even as those earlier words had slipped past his lips.

"She's bad for that." Mac shrugged. "She tossed me out of my own apartment at two o'clock in the morning before we even started sleeping together."

Jethro watched as Mac eased over to her, his arm going around her, his lips at her ear as he whispered something that had a snort of a laugh erupting as she pushed him away with a look filled with exasperation and amusement.

"Get out of here," she ordered. 'And take him with you." She pointed the knife over her shoulder at Jethro.

"He stays," Mac informed her, his voice firm. "I'm not leaving you here alone."

She glared over her shoulder at him. "There might be bloodshed."

'Just be sure to leave him in fighting shape." Mac shrugged. "If he's dumb enough to tempt a woman wielding a knife, then he deserves everything after that."

But he cast Jethro a warning look. Jethro folded his arms over his chest and stared back at him coolly before frowning at the knowing grin Mac finally gave him.

"I'll let you two fight it out, then." He patted Keiley's butt, jumping quickly out of the way as she slapped at his hand.

Still chuckling, he pulled his shirt on, buttoned it, and tucked it quickly into his jeans before pulling on his boots.

"I'll be around the stables and barns," he informed them both. "I let farmhands leave a few hours ago and I want to make certain everything's running smoothly before this evening."

"I told you I would cancel that, Mac," Keiley muttered.

"She has a meeting with her charity committee tonight for an hour or so," Mac said to Jethro. "We're going with her."

"That is not going to work," she snapped.

"We'll sit in the truck and wait on you. You are not going by yourself and you're not missing it. You look forward to this all year, Keiley. You're not going to let Delia's poison ruin it for you."

'And you bitch about it all year," she argued back. "So you can get out of it this time."

"The hell I will!" Mac glowered back at her.

The interplay was interesting, fiery, yet Jethro could detect the respect and bonding Mac and Keiley had developed over the years. It made him ache. Made him want to be a part of it even though he knew it was never going to happen.

"Keiley, I'm not letting this bastard steal this from you." Mac's voice suddenly softened as he stared back at her profile. "We'll go to the meeting and then catch dinner in town.

We're not hiding."

"Delia will be there."

Jethro watched her fist clench on the counter.

"So Delia will be there. I'll be damned if I'm going to pretend you're not my fucking wife for that bitch. Get that off your mind. If she hasn't accepted the fact that it's not going to happen between me and her in fifteen years, then you can pretty much bet she's not going to figure it out, and you can go on with your life."

She looked over her shoulder at Jethro. "She'll be rude."

"And then me and Victoria will have a little talk about the nature of the Bureau and exactly what she doesn't want my friends looking into." Mac shrugged then. "Big deal.

Do you want to hide for the rest of your life from the likes of her?"

Keiley muttered a little curse that had Mac's brow lifting and a smile tugging at his lips. "That's my girl. I'll be back in a little bit. Mind Jethro. He's an asshole, but he knows how to protect you."

"Thanks for the reference," Jethro growled.

"Welcome, bud." Lifting his hand, Mac punched in the alarm code before opening the back door, calling Pappy to him, and leaving the house.

Moving behind him, Jethro reset the code and turned slowly back to Keiley.

She was dumping the vegetables into a large bowl of water, her back still to him, the knife laying harmlessly on the counter.

"Would you really use the knife?" he asked her.

The look she gave him wasn't a compliment. It was the look a woman gave a man she considered less than an imbecile.

"No. I wouldn't use the knife on you."

"Mac seemed worried enough about it."

"Because Mac knows I'll brain him for being a moron," she snapped. "I don't handle the big strong male being stupid very well."

"I was being stupid," he agreed.

She stared back at him silently, her expression pulled into lines of weary acknowledgment.

"Maybe I deserved it," she finally whispered as she turned back to the sink, dampened a cloth, and began wiping the counter down.

She didn't deserve it. She deserved a man who recognized what a treasure he had. A treasure that wasn't meant to be shared.

"Why do you say that?"

He watched as she breathed in deeply before turning back to him.

"I knew about Sinclair's Club before I married Mac." She shrugged, the cloth clenched in her hand. "After I learned he was a member, maybe I let my own fantasies weave around it too much." Jethro felt his expression flinch. "What are you saying?"

"I knew about you and Mac," she snapped angrily. "I heard the rumors about the two of you, then I heard the rumor that he was a part of the club. Mac didn't force me into this, Jethro. Mac hasn't made me fantasize about it. And he didn't pawn me off like an old shirt. I knew what I was doing."

"You fantasized about me?" That surprised him. He hadn't seen her since the first months after her marriage to Mac, and he had made certain not to so much as flirt with her during that time.

"Sometimes." Her shoulders shifted defensively. "Look, Jethro, I love Mac. Heart and soul. He's my life-"

She broke off, her teeth biting at her lower lip as she quickly turned away.

"But?"

"But I knew this was a part of him when I married him," she said softly. "I sensed it was a part he wouldn't be able to leave behind him."

Admitting that to herself was something that had been hard for Keiley to do over the past few days. Looking into herself and seeing that she had known this path was coming, whether she let herself realize it or not, hadn't been easy.

"You're too good for this."

Keiley could hear the anger in his voice. Like Mac, he hid it well.

It came out as a gruff rasp that could have been many other emotions. But it was anger.

Anger and self-disgust.

"Don't fool yourself." She tossed the cloth n the sink before turning back to him and staring him squarely in the eye. "And don't turn this into something it isn't. I'm not the delicate fairy Mac keeps wanting to see me as. I have my own needs as well, Jethro, and I'm not above admitting to them. I don't know if it's Mac's hungers that make me wild, or merely my own in the face of his acceptance. Whatever the reason, I'm not going to lash into myself or Mac over it. And I'm definitely not going to blame you. I've never walked the same path other people found comfortable and I'm not going to start now.

"That's not exactly true," he pointed out with an edge of humor. "You're not known for being a wild card, Keiley. You wouldn't have the solid reputation you have in business if that were the truth."

Keiley shrugged off the compliment. "It doesn't change the truth. I've known this was coming. Just as I knew it would be you he chose when he brought someone else to our bed."

"And you knew that how?"

She saw the frown, saw the edge of anger in his eyes, but she saw something in him that she had seen in Mac when she first met him. He was as lost inside as Mac had been.

"Because you're like a brother to him," she said gently. "He's missed you these last three years. Missed working with you. Missed sparring with you. Mac doesn't trust many people, you know." Jethro shifted uncomfortably then. "Yeah. I know that."

"And neither do you," she pointed out. "I've stood between the two of you for three years as I've tried to find my own footing with Mac and who and what I am within our marriage. I can't be the good girl all the time. I wanted to be. I thought I could be."

"You married a man who lets you be free," he stated.

"Maybe too free." She shook her head at the thought. "Whatever the reason, Jethro, don't think I'm being coerced into what happened. I accept who and what I am. That's something you'd better do as well. I'd prefer you called me a whore than to blame Mac for something he didn't initiate."

"Never say that again," Jethro suddenly snarled, moving quickly across the room, reaching for her and jerking her into his arms as he glowered down at her, angry flames licking in his blue eyes. "Never say that word in reference to yourself again or so help me, I'll paddle your ass in a way that you won't soon forget."

Chapter 17.

Keiley stared back at Jethro in shock. His arms were tight around her, holding her flush against his hard body, his erection pressing demandingly into her stomach.

And she was aroused. Panic began to consume her. Mac wasn't here, and Jethro was holding her. His fingers were digging into her hair, jerking her head back, his head descending, and Mac wasn't here.

She whimpered in distress, her fingers curling against his chest as his lips covered hers. Covered them. Possessed them. Rocking the foundations of her belief that she only gained pleasure from this because of Mac's pleasure. That it wouldn't happen without his presence. That it wasn't disloyal. That it wasn't Jethro.

Sensation swamped her as he forced her lips to part, as he dragged her closer, lifted her, and pressed her tightly against the wall.

Lust tore through her. Her hands were suddenly gripping his neck as his hand lifted her leg, wrapping it around his hips before his fingers moved between her thighs.

It was happening so fast. Too fast to stop it. Too fast to control it. Jethro's lips slanted over hers as a rough male groan of hunger shook her to her core and vibrated through her with an answering passion.

She should be pushing him away, but she was holding on to him, crying out into the kiss as she felt his fingers rubbing over the silk that covered her sex. Imperative, desperate fingers that pulled at the material until they revealed the silky heat blooming between her thighs.

A second later they were filling her.

Keiley arched, screaming into his kiss as she felt the impalement. Her muscles locked around the two fingers inside her, her hips arching, riding the incredible pleasure he was stroking into her as his lips traveled down her neck.

Questing. Commanding. He refused to ask for permission. He was demanding her response and receiving it, and she was helpless beneath it.

Helplessly, agonizingly responding to the hard thrusts inside her quaking center as her juices began to flow in demand.

As he pushed her past reason with the invasion the other hand tore at the bodice of her breasts, popping buttons, revealing her bare breasts and the hard nipples standing out like beacons of lust.

"God, I can't touch you enough," he bit out against one swollen mound. "I can't fuck you enough. Can't kiss you enough."

His lips covered an aching peak as Keiley moaned in helpless surrender, her arms locking around his head to hold him in place as she rode the waves of pleasure racing through her.

It was like this with Mac. It was only supposed to be like this with Mac. Not with Jethro.

"I fucked you without a condom the other day," he suddenly groaned as he released her nipple. "While Mac watched. You were so hot. So tight. And I haven't forgotten, Keiley."

She shook her head desperately. She had known he was bare and hadn't wanted to face it. Hadn't wanted to think about it.

He nipped at the tender flesh of her breast. I want that again. I want inside you, bare, burning, pumping my release inside you and feeling those delicate little ripples of your release on my dick."

She was shaking her head desperately, aching, feeling her juices flowing harder, faster at the thought of the pleasure his words evoked.

"Oh God," she gasped as his fingers impaled her harder, deeper.

He wasn't taking her gently and she found she didn't want gentle. He was taking his pleasure, slamming it into her, and she was loving it. Creaming for it. Tightening around the invasion as her body tightened further in the need for release.

"It was like fucking a dream." He licked her nipple before lifting his head, snaring her gaze as he thrust his fingers inside her again. "Like fucking hope."

She shook her head again, feeling emotions rising inside her that she didn't want to face, didn't want to acknowledge. But they were there. Staring her in the face as they blazed from Jethro's eyes, and slamming into her chest as they welled from within her.

"No," she gasped. "No."

Terror suddenly gripped her, a fear unlike anything she had known in her life. She pushed at his shoulders, beat at them until his expression twisted in agony and he released her with a quick, sudden move.

"Keiley." He stared back at her, grimacing painfully. "Baby-"

"No!" Her fists clenched as anger rocked through her. Anger and sudden fear as her gaze moved to a flicker of movement by the door.

She paled. She could feel the color washing from her face as she stared at Mac's thoughtful expression. She could feel herself shaking, trembling, as Jethro cursed beside her.