She lost track of the presentation. The experience of many boring meetings in which she paid little to no attention proved invaluable to the conclusion of this one. She faked her way through the closing ceremony. She already knew the rough draft of the strategy from the night before. Not to mention that she had a great deal of trust in Cube’s two resident miracle workers.
*
She didn’t get a chance to panic or avoid them because E3 was just around the corner. The Electronic Entertainment Expo was the most important public event of the year for Rogue Games. After months of preparation, they would usually have to sort out a dozen crises the night before each event. Those three days were the worst time of the year and the absolute best time of the year. Bobbi loved that she could share the hardships and the elation with the Cube team.
When the last day of the expo ended, they were exhausted. Bobbi and the two Kens sat at the hotel bar, too tired to drink. Smart mouth Ken brought up the funniest and weirdest moments of the past few days.
“The French guy introducing the new Assassin Creed put me to sleep better than a Batman takedown. He talked about Syndicate like a middle school teacher.”
Maybe not his usual level of brilliance and viciousness, but they were exhausted. Bobbi smudged her mascara wiping away tears of laughter, and the other Ken had to take off his glasses to wipe his eyes. They drank some more and by the time they went to their rooms, everything was funny and hazy. Somehow, when she closed the door to her room, Bobbi wasn’t alone.
“I always loved E3 but damn it’s even better behind the curtain.” he said.
His eyes were bleary. He slurred his words a little, but his hair looked damn perfect. She couldn’t help running her hands through it. He snuck between her arms and instead of mussing his hair she ended up wrapping her arms around his neck. He pressed her against the wall. His body felt hot to the touch and he seemed to be all taut muscles and barely contained energy.
The kiss was sloppy and mind-blowing. His hands were on her breasts, cupping the fullness firmly yet tenderly. The messier his kisses became, the more accurate his hands seem to be. He unbuttoned her shirt and pulled down her bra exposing her flesh to his talented mouth. His three-day beard scratched her sensitive skin. The mix of pleasure and pain made her want more. It was as much a shock for her as it was for him when she put her hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him away.
“Wait,” she said, without realizing why she stopped him.
He froze, and when he stood up he looked scary sober. He dropped his eyes down to her undone shirt. He saw the traces of red from his beard and teeth. He saw his hand still on her breast and he jerked it away as if it burnt him. He seemed appalled of what he had just done.
He bolted out of her room leaving her to wonder why the hell she’d just stopped him from doing something she wanted very, very badly. But she knew. The shadow of the other Ken. She wanted them both. Even if she got over the working relationship, even if she could choose between them, she couldn’t ruin their friendship. Damn her and her sense of doing the right thing.
She sat on the edge of the bed, staring into the darkness. The events of the past few hours danced in front of her eyes. The call from Grant congratulating her for the team’s success still rang in her ears. The past seventy-two hours had been a challenge and a triumph. But she was alone, and she felt empty.
The effects of the alcohol seemed long gone. Her fingers stabbed the phone, lighting up the screen and turning it back off. She thought about calling Taya. Nothing good could come out of that. Bobbi trusted her discretion but confiding in the young woman just meant putting her in a difficult position at work.
She hadn’t slept with either of them, but she could no longer deny that she wanted both of them. She couldn’t choose, and she wouldn’t make them choose. The RG - Cube collaboration was great, but she had to step away.
Chapter 7 – Clearing the air
The knock on her ever-open door was unexpected, and yet when she looked up and saw Ken, it felt like a déjà vu. How many of her fantasies started with him showing up? How many times in the past month had she wanted him to chase after her and make her face her desire?
“Hi, Bobbi,” he said.
“Hello. Anything wrong?”
“I’d say so,” he said, looking straight into her eyes. “Why did you disappear?”
“I thought they explained.”
“They did. I didn’t believe them.”
She didn’t care if he believed the explanations or not. She needed him to accept whatever explanation RG provided and stay out of her life until she could get her head straight again.
“Why did you leave?”
“I didn’t leave. I had to deal with other matters and Grant decided that you guys are doing a great job and don’t need my constant supervision.”
Yes, that was a good excuse. If she dropped Grant’s name, Ken would have to accept it. If her CEO considered that her working hours were better spent somewhere else, he couldn’t expect her to disobey. The look on his face said clearly that his own bullshit detector was every bit as good as hers.
“Was it because of me?”
He looked vulnerable for the first time since she met him. She felt a bone deep urge to hug him fiercely. It was and it wasn’t because of him. Time to tell a little white lie.
“No, of course not.”
He distracted her with his gaze. Not quite like a kicked puppy dog, not quite a jilted lover, not quite like a betrayed friend, and yet she could see all of that in his expression. Pain, loss, betrayal. This man was strong and proud, dauntingly intelligent and panty-dropping cute, but somehow he felt something so deep for her that he was there, opening the windows of his closely guarded soul.
“Not just you,” she said.
That was not a white lie. That was a black truth. Why, why couldn’t she lie to him?
“Oh,” he said. “Harri. I see.”
The softness of his voice didn’t allow her to gauge his reaction.
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I just can’t … can’t do my job properly with the two of you around. My mind is not my own and I can’t stand this feeling.”
“What do you mean?”
He seemed to have reeled in his emotions. His probing gaze acted like truth serum. He was making her say it. Her eyes stung with tears of shame, but she owed him the truth.
“I am attracted to both of you. I can’t handle it. I tried to ignore it. Repress it. Doesn’t work …”
The silence that followed made her heart pound in her ears and her palms sweat. They were in her office, and fraternization was not a safe topic for work. It shouldn’t happen. She shouldn’t have let it happen. She should have … Who was she kidding? She’d been feeling this way for weeks.
“I understand,” he said after a few tense moments. “You need time. We want you back. For work,” he added at her panicked look. “You know how we both feel about you, non-work related, but if it’s more important to you to keep the business part, we’ll be professional about it.”
We. Bobbi was used to hearing him talk in the name of his agency. She had seen firsthand how tight was the Kens’ friendship, and it felt natural to hear him talk for both of them. Her head spun a little more at the thought of them discussing her.
“You talked about me?”
To her surprise, he shook his head.
“We don’t talk about you. We say stuff like Bobbi would have done this, or Bobbi would love that idea. I never mentioned those moments that never happened,” he said. “It’s hard to have fun without you. Even with all this,” he added pointing at the art work from RG games that decorated to the walls of her office.
She wished there was something she could do. She missed them. But that longing was not pure. It held dark undertones of desires and fantasies. She had sex dreams about them and they were getting more and more frequent. Getting up alone every morning was harder.
“I’d love to come back one day. I miss you, too.�
��
“When you’re ready. Just don’t take too long. We … I never realized how much I depended on you.”
Chapter 8 – The good boy and the bright idea
Another couple of weeks passed and Bobbi still avoided Cube while she worked her way back to sanity. When Ken Hunt requested an official meeting, she felt strong enough to accept. They had settled everything with that uncomfortably honest conversation. There was nothing, nothing, nothing to worry about. She could tell from the way she repeated it to herself just how little she believed it.
The self-delusion shattered as soon as she was in front of the big glass doors. No one hovered or bustled behind them. She could see the Cube logo staring at her from the door but there was no one behind it. Why the hell was the office empty on a Wednesday? Even a workaholic knew about National holidays.
The temptation to turn around and run away almost overpowered her. She fought down the cowardice. Ken Hunt had been her rock for so many months, she had to keep her word. This couldn’t be personal.
She found him in his office, looking over some sketches with a cup of coffee in his hand. His hair was as frizzy and tousled as always. His glasses made him look like the most adorable dork.
“Hi, Bobbi. I appreciate you taking this meeting on such short notice. Coffee?”
His voice held pure persuasive power. How the hell did he do it? Her heartbeat accelerated, and yet it didn’t signal impending danger. It felt nice and safe. It felt like the healthy elevated heartbeat of a morning jog. He went to the espresso machine without waiting for an answer.
“Where’s everyone? This place looks like a scene setting from Fallout.”
He smiled that lazy and, now she noticed, not so honest smile of his. It made her stomach flip and her knees weak. This was wrong. She shouldn’t have come. Why did she think she was strong enough to do this?
“It’s a special day for us. No one at Cube works on July twentieth.”
“Why are you here then?”
“To see you. Bobbi, we have to talk.”
He handed her the tiny cup of pure paradise.
“About the –”
“About us,” he interrupted.
“There’s nothing –”
“There is everything left to discuss,” he interrupted her again. “This can’t go on. We love working for RG, and we’re good. But we want to work with you.”
She tried to get annoyed at being interrupted but she had to admit that she missed working with them. Maybe if she got a dog or something for companionship. Maybe a boyfriend to fulfill other needs. And then she could come back to work with them.
Wait. We?
“You speak for Cube now? What are you the hive mind?”
“By “we” I mean Harri and I miss working with you. I invited him in. He should show up at any minute.”
Good thing she was sitting because just the mention of the other Ken hit her like a blow to the stomach. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since E3. When had she sat down?
“This might not be the best id –”
Her voice broke when the door opened.
“Better have a damn good reason to –”
He stopped when he saw her. They froze in a terrified glance. She didn’t know what he saw in her eyes, but she had never seen Ken Harrington so pale. He was so damn gorgeous in his torn jeans, with his crisp t-shirt fitting beautifully on his athletic chest, his perfect hair and his sensual lips that had haunted her dreams.
“Well, now that we’re all here,” Ken Hunt said in a business-like tone.
“I can’t be here,” Ken Harrington said and he was halfway out the door when his friend’s voice stopped him.
“We have to fix this.”
“I can’t,” he said, with his back to us and his hand still on the doorknob. “I can’t fix this. I’m sorry.”
“You’re a wizard, Harri. Of course you can.”
A Harry Potter reference? Really? But he was right. Ken Harrington was a wizard in everything he did. That thought had started work-related and ended up reviving a repressed memory. His kisses and his touches had felt like magic on Bobbi’s skin.
He turned around slowly looking even paler than before. He avoided their eyes.
“Not this. Sorry, buddy.”
His voice, his cultivated beautiful, snarky voice was just a sad and broken whisper.
“Why?” his friend asked with unusual gentleness. “I’ve known you for ten years, and I have never seen you back down from a challenge.”
“I crossed a line,” Ken said.
“What?” Bobbi exclaimed.
He flinched at the sound of her voice.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated.
“What do you think happened?”
When he finally looked at her, she could drown in his sadness and guilt.
“I was about to tear your clothes off, and kiss every inch of you when you left,” she whispered.
His pupils blew up. It was hard to distinguish them in his dark brown irises, but she was close enough to see the effect. Guilt, shame, desire. He felt them as strongly as she did.
“But … but you stopped me.”
It was her turn to look down. She felt a blush steal up her neck to land on her heated cheeks.
“I can explain,” Ken said, filling the embarrassing silence. “You see, she wants me, too.”
Now she was sure she blushed crimson. Her cheeks were on fire and she could feel Ken’s eyes on her. Blistering shame washed over her body like wildfire, mixed, incredibly as it was, with desire. That was the truth. She wanted them both and now it was out in the open. No more secrets between the three of them.
“I see,” Ken said.
“There is a solution to our problem,” the other Ken said from behind his desk.
Chapter 9 – A Perfect Night
That sounded encouraging. Bobbi and Ken Harrington looked at him.
“We can get it out of our system, and go back to being a great team.”
“How?”
“You can’t choose between us,” Ken said. “We don’t want to ruin our friendship. I want you, and I can tell he wants you,” he added pointing at his friend. “We can do this together. Just one night, and never speak of it again.”
Together. For one perfect night. She expected to be appalled at the notion, but the only appalling part was how hot it made her to be with both of them. To feel their bodies, their hands, their mouths. Their cocks. She knew she was supposed to say no. Good girls like her didn’t do this sort of thing. Her whole body screamed yes.
She dared to look again in Ken’s dark eyes and shivered at the naked hunger she saw there. Instead of speaking, she touched his cheek. He leaned into the touch, closing his eyes. His sensual lips moved to frame four hot whispers.
“Anything for you, Bobbi.”
“You can call me Barbie tonight,” she told them.
She kissed his closed eyelids, and held out her left hand beckoning to the other man while she peppered kisses on Ken’s cheeks. When she got to his mouth, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist again, as they had done that first time a few months earlier. Unruly hair tickled her when he buried his head against her neck. Hot, hungry, harsh kisses scorched her skin, the metallic rim of his glasses scraping it raw. She moaned and the almost chaste closed mouthed kiss turned into a feverish, full French kiss. His tongue plunged, plundered and possessed her mouth, while his hands found her breasts as boldly as the night after E3. Her heart beat so fast she thought she would either faint or float away.
“I missed these,” he said, and bit her lower lip playfully while he rolled her nipples between his long elegant fingers. “Been thinking about you all the time. Every night. You’re so beautiful, Barbie.”
The other showed his approval pressing his growing erection at the back of her spine. Her hand wandered around her back, pawing, curious and impatient at the bulge. She traced his hardness through the material of his pants, and gasped at the thickness. It see
med bigger than anything she imagined, bigger than any toy she’d ever owned. He bucked into her hand. A low, menacing rumble hinted of danger and carnal promises. Between one’s growl and the other’s talented mouth on her breasts, her brain shut down all rational thought.
Lips closed around her nipple and the flick of his tongue sent jolts of electricity coursing through her body. She arched her back instinctively offering herself for more. He squeezed the warm, tingling flesh. He’d be good with his hands after the countless hours he spent playing on consoles. A thrill went through her – they would both be great with their hands after so much practice.
“All of you, Barbie. I’ll taste all of you,” he promised between kisses.
Yes, he would be the talking kind in bed, too. He would be the kind to work her up with hot words and bold caresses.
Teeth scraped the skin on her shoulder making sure she paid attention. Her hand seemed small when it tightened around the hard cock that threatened to burst out of the denim enclosure. This one didn’t talk, too busy feeling and wanting. Barbie was just as mind numbingly aroused as he was.
“Yours,” she whispered breathlessly, talking to both of them.
“Fuck,” Ken whispered and pushed her hand away. She heard the sound of the zipper sliding down fast. In a heartbeat, his full throbbing cock fell into her hand. Outside the confines of his pants, the size was staggering, not something she expected to see outside of porn. But it was real, and it was going to be hers.
She was getting wet as the long, slender fingers exploring between her thighs soon discovered. Beautiful Ken was on his knees, and her skirt pooled on the floor. He rubbed the wet lace of her panties against her swollen flesh. She shook like a leaf, her hand gripped Ken’s cock tightly and her pussy began to contract, the omen of a coming orgasm.
“You are naughty. You love this, don’t you?” the words came from the region of her navel.
The kneeling man hooked his fingers in the elastic band and slid down the delicate lace, brushing her thighs as he did. When his fingertips were at the back of her knees, his tongue had snuck between her lips. Her legs were still pressed together. It was damn impressive that the tip of his tongue touched her clit. He was endowed with that long tongue, adding the practice of talking for hours; his damn tongue probably had the stamina of a marathon runner.
A Perfect Night Page 3