Two Is Better Than One (Steamy Menage MFM Romance Collection)

by Terry Towers

  The day was beginning to give way to the evening which meant that my time was pretty much over with, as I needed to get home to get ready for work. I looked across the white two- person iron table at Monica who was in the process of taking a drink from her glass of soda and frowned. “I think we need to get you back to the hotel.”

  She stopped drinking and set her glass back down, pulling back her left sleeve and glancing down at her watch. “Oh, yeah, it’s getting late.” She smiled when she looked back at me, but the smile didn’t carry though to her dark eyes. “I should get some work done, anyhow.”

  Reaching across the table, I took her hand in mine. “But I want to see you tomorrow.”

  Her smile faded and she caught her lower lip between her teeth.

  My frown deepened. “What’s wrong?”

  She released a soft sigh. “I planned on going out with Xander tomorrow.”

  “Oh.” My first instinct was to release her hand and recoil, but I didn’t. I forced myself not to. We couldn’t be anything but friends, so there was no real reason she couldn’t hang out with both of us. Xander had gone as long as I had without a relationship, and even though he pretended not to mind, I knew he did.

  “We’re just friends, Mitch.” She shrugged and added, “Like we are.”

  Forcing a smile to my lips, I nodded. “It’s none of my business. We all know this is temporary and that friendship is all this could be.”

  “Kinda like a relationship with an expiration date,” she offered, returning my smile. “But...”

  “But…” I repeated expectantly, trying to sense what she was thinking.

  “But, I think we need to take sex out of the equation. With your job and all.”

  Fuck! Yup, here we go again, my job getting in the way. Less than a year, I told myself, less than a year and life can be normal again. “I understand.”

  “Are you cool with that?” She looked genuinely concerned. It was touching.

  Standing, I leaned across the table and kissed her lightly on the lips. “Am I allowed to kiss you?” I didn’t pull away immediately, pausing with my lips a few inches from hers, our gazes locking. “That’s all I request.”

  Her beautiful smile emerged once move. “That’s completely reasonable. It’s just with me leaving in a couple of weeks, and you and Xander...”

  My lips claimed hers again, stopping her from explaining further. She didn’t owe me an explanation. I’d take what companionship I could get from her, even if it meant sharing her with Xander. She was a good woman and any man should be honored to have her. She deserved to leave Amsterdam knowing that and not willing to accept anything less.

  ~*~ TT ~*~

  Xander

  “So how was your day with Monica?” I asked as Mitch approached and sat next to me on a bar stool at the Pulse. Our shifts technically started in ten minutes, through in reality they started the moment we walked into the door and someone decided they wanted to book one of us.

  Propping his elbows on the counter behind him, Mitch surveyed the club, which was much busier than normal. “It was good. We came to an agreement, of sorts.”

  “You don’t say?”

  “She wants to consider her time here with us as a relationship with an expiration date – minus the sex.”

  “Oh.” Clucking my tongue off of the roof of my mouth I took a moment to consider it. “Both of us.”

  “She didn’t say it in so many words but that’s the impression I got.”

  “How do you feel about that? About sharing her?”

  He shifted his focus from the club to me. “It’s not like anything long-term can develop and I understand the sex part. It’s a smart plan. It would be nice to experience being with a woman without the sex but still having a degree of intimacy.”

  “Sure.”

  Mitch eyed me intently. “How do you feel about it?”

  I took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “I’m going out with Monica tomorrow.”

  “I know.”

  “Why don’t you come along? It’s a dinner cruise down the canal.”

  He grimaced. “I’m not sure.”

  “Why not?” I needed to prove I could be the big man. Even though I would have liked to have her for myself it seemed she already had her mind made up. I needed to play ball, and with sex off the table I was confident I could play on her terms. “Let’s just have a fun few weeks with her. Show her a good time and part on good terms. So what do you say? Come to dinner with us, it’ll be fun.”

  “Alright.” His grimace turned to an uncertain smile.

  “Good.”

  Chapter 12

  Eleven Months Ago

  Monica

  This was it. After a month in Amsterdam being treated like a queen by two of the most incredible men I’d ever met, I was now moving on. Paris was my next stop. I’d planned my itinerary and it was a swamped one: a new city every three days for the next month. I needed to keep my mind off of Mitchell and Xander before going back to work. My intention had been to write while on vacation, hoping the change in scenery would get the creative juices flowing, but it did the exact opposite. As it was right now, my mind was reeling and there was a faint ache in my heart. But it was for the best. If I stayed any longer I’d lose my heart to not just one man, but two, and considering the circumstances, I couldn’t let that happen. Fuck, who was I trying to fool? I’d already lost my heart, but was attempting to convince myself otherwise.

  So I was leaving and this is where my fairy tale ended.

  The. End.

  I sighed.

  “Is there anything I can say to make you stay?” Mitchell asked. This wasn’t the first time he’d asked that, but it would be the last. Mitchell and Xander stood on the platform waiting for the train that would take me on my next stop of my European tour – Paris, France.

  “Or do? Just tell us and we’ll make it happen, babe,” Xander added, giving me his sweet, lazy smile that got my pulse racing.

  Quit being escorts and tour Europe with me, I silently answered. I looked from one man to the other. Both of you.

  Damnit, I was falling in love with two men, and by the distressed look on both their faces, they were feeling the same way.

  I forced a smile to my lips. “It’s for the best – for everyone. I’ve stayed longer in Amsterdam than planned and I still have so many cities to see before I head back to the US.”

  “None of them hold a torch to Amsterdam, babe.” Xander stated.

  My smile became genuine. “I think I’ll go find that out for myself. Besides,” I pause to give Xander a punch to the shoulder. “I’m thinking you might be overstating a bit.”

  “Not really.”

  Bells began dinging signaling the approaching train, the one that was going to take me away from them. I looked down the track to make sure – indeed it was. My heart sunk a little bit more.

  “You guys are coming back to New York in a couple years anyhow. So, maybe we can catch up then?” They’d have totally forgotten me by then. We will all have moved on with our lives and these past few weeks would be nothing more than a story to tell. In fact it would be a sexy, exciting, emotional roller coaster of a story to tell.

  “You bet. I’ll make sure to text and email you every day, love.” Mitchell stepped up to me and pulled me into his arms. I nuzzled my face against his neck, inhaling deeply, attempting to memorize the feel of being in his arms and the smell of his cologne.

  “Me, too,” I murmured against his neck, not sure if I had spoken the words loud enough for him to hear. Tears filled my eyes.

  I could hear the train coming to a halt behind me. I didn’t want to let him go. I never wanted to let him go. Why couldn’t the train have been late? I wanted more time with them.

  You don’t have to! A voice in the back of my head screamed. But I knew I had to. I couldn’t be in a relationship with either of them, not when they spent each night fucking other women – and men. I couldn’t. I’d stated in jest a few weeks
ago it would be a relationship with an expiration date and that date just came due.

  “Come on man, you’re hogging her,” Xander joked, breaking us up.

  Mitchell released me and took a step back, making way for Xander. In typical Xander style, he pulled me into his arms and swept me off of my feet. I squealed and giggled as he twirled me around.

  “Stop, stop, stop! You’ll hurt yourself!” It wasn’t like I was a petite hundred-pound girl, but when he picked me up like this, it made me feel that way. Though, admittedly, it sometimes made me feel self-conscious, too.

  One thing that had come of my relationship with Mitch and Xander – if that’s what you could call it – was that for the first time in my entire life, I felt truly beautiful and desired. I was leaving here feeling like a goddess, and they were the ones that made that happen. I came here a broken woman with serious self-esteem issues. They made me find the beautiful, sexy woman inside me and I was intent on never letting that feeling go. Even the heroine in the book I started writing when arriving here had begun to change for the better.

  When he finally lowered me to the platform the train was stopped and unloading passengers. I looked from Xander to Mitch and back again, more tears beginning to fill my eyes. This time I didn’t fight them, I let them fall.

  I took one of their hands in each of mine. “I’ll never forget you two.”

  Chapter 13

  Present

  Monica

  “So that’s how I got into investment banking. Now--”

  “I had an fun time tonight, Phillip. Thank you for dinner,” I cut in, giving my date, Phillip Smith a smile, silently begging him to not ask to come in. I was lying through my teeth. Phillip was a complete bore. Snooze city. If I had to endure an hour more of his company I would be tempted to stab myself in the hand with a pencil just to break the tediousness and have an excuse to get out of his presence.

  This was the typical awkward moment of the date. This was the sixth date I’d be on since I got home from Europe and they were all equally as boring. And not an iota of physical attraction – none. At least not on my part anyhow. Perhaps I needed to find a better way than online dating sites to find men. But considering I was self-employed and didn’t get out much, online dating seemed the perfect choice.

  It wasn’t.

  I groaned inwardly.

  Now what? If he’d stayed in the car I would have hopped out and made a hasty escape, but he’d insisted on walking me to the door and now I was in this awkward position. If I paused too long at the door he’d get the impression I was waiting for a kiss, but entering too quickly might give him the impression I was going to invite him in. Shit, shit, shit. Decisions, decisions.

  He smiled at me. I could tell by his expression and posture that he was waiting for me to invite him in. Nope. Not going to happen. I clucked my tongue off of the roof of my mouth, tapping my toe on the cement step, then hooked my thumb toward the door behind me. “I gotta get going in. It’s been great, but I’m exhausted and I have to be up early. An appointment.”

  “Oh.” He took a step towards me.

  Fuck! He was going in for a kiss. He placed a hand on either side of my head and leaned in.

  Time for the duck and weave maneuver.

  I ducked under his arm and sidestepped to the left just as he leaned in and kissed air. It was almost comical to see the bewildered look on his face when he opened his eyes to find me gone and out of grasp.

  I shot him a smile that was as innocent and polite as possible. “Thanks again. Have a good night.” I stuck the key into the security door of my apartment building, opened it and slipped in, closing it firmly behind me. Giving him a quick wave from the other side of the window, I spun around and rushed across the lobby and to the elevators.

  He was still standing on the doorstep, his expression still bewildered as the doors slid open and I hustled inside. Bye, bye Phillip, hope that’s the first and last time we ever meet.

  Once inside my apartment I kicked off my heels and hung my handbag onto the coat rack. Checking my watch, though I’m not even sure why I bothered since I’d been checking consistently since Phillip picked me up two hours and nineteen minutes ago. Correction: two hours and twenty minutes ago.

  It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet; bed time was normally at midnight and I wasn’t even close to tired. As I walked into the living room, my eyes landed on my laptop sitting on the coffee table.

  Deciding I might as well get some work done, I sat down on the sofa, pulled the laptop onto my lap, and booted it up. I’d been considering writing a book chronicling my time in Amsterdam with Mitch and Xander, and I was confident it would be a pretty good seller, but I had mixed feelings on the idea. Those few weeks were some of the most exciting in my life and my sexual experiences were frequently relived in my mind as I masturbated, which was becoming more and more frequent as of late.

  I’d kept my promise to Mitchell and Xander, and them to me – for a while. The first month the emails and texts were daily, with phone calls every few days, but as the months wore on the communication dwindled. As of this moment, I hadn’t spoken to either of them for close to three weeks.

  Of course, I hadn’t expected anything more. Distance and time has a way of eroding relationships, and ours was no exception. Hell, it hadn’t even been a relationship in the first place. My fingers began to slowly move over the keyboard until the keystrokes became frantic. I was over a page into the story when the doorbell rang. Shit. Considering I had no expected guests it could be only one person, Phillip.

  Why couldn’t they just get the hint? I shook my head, thinking that sometimes with men you have to be painfully clear. Placing my laptop on the coffee table, I stood and slipped on a pair of flat sandals. Grabbing the key to my apartment I pushed the speak button and said “be right down.” Without waiting for a reply I exited the apartment and caught the elevator.

  Words were beginning to form in my head, making sentences and developing a story, as I rode the elevator down to the main floor. I was itching to get back to my computer: I was finally feeling it. And here I was wasting time going downstairs to tell the man of the thousand boring stories once and for all there would not be a second date. I mean, really, you’d think he would have gotten the hint when I pulled the old duck and weave move on him earlier.

  I shook my head as the elevator dinged and doors slid open to the lobby. Releasing a loud sigh, preparing myself to be brutally honest with the guy I walked out of the elevator and made my way to the door. As suspected, Phillip was standing there, peering into the lobby.

  Despite feeling the intense need to groan out loud, I forced a smile onto my face as I opened the security door and stepped out into the warm night. “Hey, Phillip. Did you forget something?”

  It appeared as though he was ramping himself up for something. Oh shit.

  “As a matter of fact, I did.” He leaned into me, but this time I wasn’t able to duck and weave fast enough. He pinned me to the back of the door as his lips came crashing down onto mine.

  Oh god. I cringed, as I gently pushed at his chest. He attempted to deepen the kiss, but I managed to squirm free and duck under his arm.

  With a frown on his face, he spun to face me. “I thought you had a good time?” He looked hurt. “You said…” I’d rather he be angry than hurt. Anger I could handle, hurt… not so much.

  “Monica! My love,” a male voice called from behind me. I froze. My whole world stopped and my breath caught in my throat.

  A second voice called out. “Hey babe. Even more gorgeous than I remembered.”

  Time seemed to be moving in super slow motion as I turned towards the sound of the voices. My mouth dropped open, but no words seemed to come out. Fuck, I was floored and could hardly believe my eyes.

  There they were, Xander and Mitchell. Jesus, had they been that hot a year ago? Both had wide smiles on their faces as they closed the distance without even acknowledging Phillip. Xander got to me first, pulling me into h
is arms and up into the air, swinging me around as he had at the train station.

  Tears filled my eyes. I had to be dreaming. Why the hell didn’t they tell me they were here in New York? But I still didn’t have any words so I just clung to him. It felt like heaven in his arms, like I’d been wandering in the woods for nearly a year and now I was finally home.

  This had to be a dream. Had to be.

  “Hey, quit hogging her, man.” I’m not sure when the trade-off happened, but I suddenly realized that I was now in Mitchell’s arms, my face buried against his neck. I breathed in deeply, his cologne so familiar it brought back memories, so many memories, from the times we were naked together to the times we spent touring Amsterdam, enjoying each other’s company, to the long nights we’d spent together watching movies and just talking about everything and nothing.

  “So, who’s your friend?” Mitchell asked when he finally released me while keeping me firmly planted to his side.

  Oh shit, Phillip. For those few or so minutes I’d forgotten he was still standing there. “Umm, this is my friend Phillip.” Though we were hardly at the friend stage, it had just been one date.

  He looked at Mitchell, then Xander and finally back to me. “I was just leaving.” He gave me a curt nod. “Talk to you later, Monica.”

  I suspected that that would be the last time I’d hear from him. At least I hoped. I felt bad, but my having to tell him there was no attraction and never would be would have been worse. At least he could justify in his head that he was the one that wasn’t interested in me, not the other way around.

  “I can’t believe…” Stepping out of Mitchell’s embrace, I looked from one to the other. “You’re here.” Damn they were a sight for sore eyes. Mitchell was wearing a pair of dark brown corduroy slacks and white button down shirt, while Xander wore a pair of ripped dark blue jeans and v-neck t-shirt. Damn sexy.