The clock crept toward five, and then the afternoon blasted into evening. None of us mentioned going our separate ways, and with no real lags in conversation, I wasn’t going to be the one to cut things short. We took a break from the crowds, to stroll a few blocks and grab dinner at a tiny place Trevor swore had the best Tiramisu in existence. I had to agree, and it wasn’t only because it was too fun taking turns feeding each other. I tried to ignore the fading light outside, and that it meant this day would end sooner rather than later.
My phone buzzed with a text from Jackson. Never heard back. You’re good?
I frowned at the message, guilt marring my good mood. I’m sorry. I should have let you know. It was just a game, apparently. Explain more when you get here.
His reply came through a moment later. About that… Zoe’s working late. We don’t want to go without her. See you there tomorrow?
Totally. I couldn’t ignore my ambivalence. On the one hand, I’d been looking forward to hanging out with Jackson, his boyfriend Carter, and their girlfriend Zoe. On the other, if they weren’t here, I didn’t have to choose who to spend time with.
Evan covered my hand with his. That seemed to be his default—a hint of contact here, a light touch there. I didn’t mind. “Everything okay?” he asked.
“It’s all good.” I grabbed my smile. Might as well focus on the positive. “My friends can’t make it until tomorrow.”
“So no one’s going to notice if we kidnap you?” he asked with a teasing grin.
I painted on a wide-eyed look of shock. “Oh no, mister. Are you going to steal me away and tie me up and do naughty things to me?” Actually, I liked the sound of that.
He ducked in and brushed my earlobe with his lips. “Only if you beg.” His voice was low and husky.
My laughter died in my throat when I met Trevor’s narrow-eyed gaze. His scowl vanished in an instant, expression going blank. Had I done something wrong? I was taking things too far, and he was tired of me. Nothing else made sense. Not anything else I was willing to believe. It definitely wasn’t jealousy. Evan was friendly, but I had no illusions this meant more to either of them than a bit of fun and distraction.
Evan sank back into his seat, breaking all contact with me. “The truth this time. This is a first for you.”
At least now I understood what he was talking about. I could deny it again, but they already suspected otherwise. That, and temporary relationship or not, I didn’t want to keep building secrets on lies. “Being picked up by two gorgeous guys? Taken back to their room. Ravaged? This is a first.”
“You don’t seem to have a problem with it,” Trevor said.
“Should I?” Besides the complete unlikeliness of it happening, the entire thing had been amazing. It still was.
Evan studied me. “Some people do.”
“Not the people who say yes, I hope.” I winced as the words slipped out. I didn’t want the reminder this wasn’t special.
Trevor drummed his fingers on the table. “Actually… Those people. Yes. I mean, it’s all consensual and they enjoy it as far as I can tell, until it comes time to admit to anyone else what they’ve done.”
“That sucks.” I couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it. “Why go participate if you’re not cool with it?”
Trevor turned away, fiddling with his straw.
Evan clenched his jaw and paused for a moment before responding. “Fantasy fulfillment. Right? No one actually has three person relationships.”
“Sure they do.”
Two heads snapped in my direction, eyes wide. “Not in real life,” Trevor said.
“Yes, in real life.” For a couple of guys who shared women for fun, they were a little closed-minded. “My brother has a boyfriend and a girlfriend.”
Trevor shook his head and gave a snort. “And they know about each other?”
“They all live together. Happily.” Jackson didn’t mind discussing his relationship, but I didn’t like the questions with underlying hints of judgement. Especially given how Evan and Trevor spent their morning. As in, fucking me.
“Really?” Evan’s tone held no disbelief. His expression was open, and his tone curious.
Trevor frowned. “That’s three people out of millions. I’m not saying I have a problem with it, but their experience doesn’t make it status quo, or even likely anywhere else.”
“Anyway.” Evan’s voice was clipped—a sharp contrast to seconds ago. “What’s next?”
Trevor shrugged. “Whatever.”
A chill from the air conditioner sped down my spine. Or I was pretty sure that’s what caused me to shiver. “Viewing room?” I tried to keep my tone light, wanting to go back to the fun we’d been having before the conversation turned serious.
They exchanged a look I couldn’t interpret, with Trevor’s lips drawn into a thin line, and creases marring Evan’s forehead.
A buzz broke the bizarre staring match, and Trevor grabbed his phone from his pocket. “Fuck.” He scowled at the device.
“Work?” Evan asked.
And like that, the tension vanished. Or maybe it had never been there, and I was paranoid.
Trevor nodded, scrolling through something on screen. “Servers crashed. Night guy can’t get them back online. May have to drive to the data center.”
The words had meaning to me, but only barely. Their biggest significance was the reminder we all had lives outside this pocket of reality we’d built around ourselves.
He pushed away from the table and stood, scowl stamped on his face. “This might take a while. I’m sorry.”
“Hey.” Evan nodded at something behind Trevor.
“Sure.” Trevor pressed his phone to his ear, and seconds later, stepped outside.
I felt like I missed something significant. “What was that about?”
“If he has to drive out to where the machines are, he’ll be a couple of hours. He’ll meet us when he’s done.” Evan offered me his hand. “That is, unless you want to call it a night.”
“Not without you.” The words were bolder than I expected from myself, but they tasted right. I placed my palm in his and stood. What would it be like to have the kind of connection with someone, that an entire conversation could be conveyed in a couple of words and a tilt of the head? Evan didn’t let go of my hand right away, but when we stepped outside, his fingers drifted from mine. We meandered down the streets.
“Where are you from?” he asked. “What lucky city claims you, when the weekend is over?”
The way he phased the question filled me with a pleasant glow. Then again, most of what Evan said to me sounded both flattering and sincere. “I’ll be heading back to a town a whole ten or fifteen minutes away. I’m local.”
“Really?” If it was possible for a single word to embody the term pleasantly surprised, he’d pulled it off perfectly. “Us too.”
My pulse leaped in my veins. That meant seeing them after the weekend was a possibility. I shelved the thought quickly, but not before disappointment set in with the reminder this wasn’t what we had. “So getting a room makes it easier to pick up…” My question died in my throat. I didn’t want to hear his answer. Well, the morbid part of me did, but the rest of me already knew I was just a random girl in the right place.
Evan glanced at me, expression unreadable. “No.” His refusal sounded as sincere as everything else he’d said. “It was so… uh…” He looked away. “Because it’s more convenient than heading home at night. You know?”
“I do know. Me too.” So why did it feel like the one thing he’d said today that wasn’t one-hundred-percent honest?
Silence descended over us. I turned my attention to my feet. Small talk had never been my forte.
“Is Trevor in IT?” I blurted out the first question that popped into my mind. When I didn’t get a response, I glanced sideways, to see Evan studying me.
He smiled and looked away, shoving his hands in his pockets. “He is. Director for a little start-up that make
s web applications.”
“That’s cool.” Way to be witty, me. This hadn’t exactly opened the floodgate of conversation I hoped for. Except, now that I’d broached the subject, I wanted to know more about both these men whose lives I’d dropped into for a day. “What do you do?”
He relaxed his shoulders and seemed to walk straighter. “I’m a Materials’ Process and Physics Technical Analyst, at Boeing.”
My mind ground to a stop, stuttering on the words. I got the basics of what Trevor did—I was telephone support for networking hardware. Whatever Evan just said had no bearing in my world. I’d expected him to say Sales, or something along those lines. That was what I got for making assumptions. “I… What?”
His chuckle had the same lighthearted feeling as earlier. At least he was over the weird tension. “I’m a chemical engineer, and I work with the compounds they use for planes.”
Oh. “That sounds infinitely more genius-level than… Well, anything, really.”
“It’s not.” He settled a hand at the small of my back, to point me toward the intersection. His touch lingered, and warmth from his palm spread over my skin. “It’s just a different way of looking at the world.”
“Standing on my head is a different way of looking at the world.” I realized he’d been the one leading the conversation about quantum physics, earlier. Something told me he was a lot smarter than he let on. It wasn’t that he acted stupid; it was that never once during the entire day had he talked down to anyone.
“It’s true. It is.” He glided his hand along my back and hooked it on my hip, pulling me closer. The gesture felt natural, and I leaned into him. We slowed our pace to make it easier to walk that way. “But the job is what I have a knack for. It’s cool, but it doesn’t make me special. What do you do?”
Things way too boring and trite, compared to a guy who designed stuff for planes. “Tech support.” My answer came out flat.
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not bad.”
“But it’s not great. What would you rather be doing?”
My instinct was to keep my answers short. To redirect the conversation back to him. Except he sounded genuinely interested. “Teaching.”
“As in, school? High-school kids or something?”
Embarrassment flooded me. “Aikido.”
“Really?” The single word exuded curiosity. “That’s really cool. You must be amazing, to be able to teach.”
“I’m a black-belt. I think I’m pretty good.” My sensei said I had a natural talent for it, but saying so felt like bragging.
We reached the hotel, stepped out of the flow of traffic, and paused in the lobby. I wasn’t ready for this night to end. Evan faced me but never broke contact. Admiration shone on his face. “That’s wicked. I bet you’re better than you let on. Why don’t you do that, then? Are the jobs hard to get?”
I didn’t do that, because I was too shy to stand in front of a class and teach. I’d thought I could do it, but I flopped fantastically during my interview audition. Completely froze, in front of a group of new students. I couldn’t admit that to Evan, though. “I’m not good enough to ne an instructor.”
He traced his fingers lightly down my arm. “You’re being modest.”
“There’s no way you can know that.” I desperately wanted the conversation to focus on anything but me. I didn’t mind the attention—I couldn’t think of the last time anyone was so interested in hearing about my life, and it made me feel wonderfully gooey inside. But if we talked about it much longer, I had a feeling I’d have to keep making things up, to hold his interest, and temporary relationship or not, I didn’t like the idea of deceiving him. “Did you have to go to school for your job? I mean, of course you did.”
“Yup.” His mouth twisted, and he studied me. “Five years, Master’s of Science. I did a little sparring in Basic, but nothing as intensive as aikido.”
And now we were back on me. “Basic. As in… You were in the army.”
“Four years. It’s how I paid for college. And learned to work on and fly helicopters. Would you show me some of what you know?”
The request knocked me off guard. “What? Like, now?”
“Sure.” He tugged my fingers. “Hotel’s got a workout room with yoga mats. Show me a couple of throws or tumbles?”
He was a foot taller than me and had to be at least fifty pounds heavier, and he wanted me to show him some throws? “I’m not really dressed for it.”
“Nothing intensive.” He pulled me toward the exercise room. “Unless you really don’t want to.”
Did I? The answer rushed to me more quickly than I expected, almost bowling over my thoughts. “I’d definitely like to.”
The room was empty. At least that was something. I set my shoes by the edge of the pads, and he mimicked my actions. My heart hammered in my chest with both fear and excitement. I wanted to impress him, but I also didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
I moved to the center of one of the workout spot, and he hovered at the edge, watching. I grabbed his hand and pulled him closer, then spun so he was behind me. He wrapped his arm around my neck and pressed into my back, and a shock of familiarity raced through me. “I like this kind of demonstration,” he purred, lips touching the back of my neck.
It would be easy to say forget it. Sink into his touch. The temptation surged inside, and I pushed it back. Easy, but somehow also not right, with only the two of us here. “Relax your posture,” I said.
“Yes, Sensei.” His tone shifted to business in an instant.
I situated my hands on his arms. “This is a little more advanced than what we teach beginners, but you said you’ve done some sparring. Do you know how to roll?”
“As in, tuck myself into a ball and tumble, so I don’t get hurt? I’ve got some idea.”
“Good.” I resisted the urge to press back into him and drown in his touch. “I’m going to go slowly. When I toss you forward, fall into the momentum.”
“You’re going to toss me?” Disbelief crept into his question.
“Yup.” Without warning, I shifted my weight, planted my feet, and altered my stance to turn my own body into a fulcrum. I felt him falter behind me, and I used his weight and uncertainty to bring him over my shoulder.
He hit the mat with an oof but rolled into the gesture.
I rested my toes on his chest. “Point for me.”
He brushed my leg aside and climbed to his feet. “That was fantastic. Never saw it coming. I have to know how you did it. I mean, I get the physics, but show me again.”
We spent the next half hour repeating the move, with him trying it several times until he was happy. And then I sped it up to full pace. I had him rush me from behind, and planted him on the floor. I straddled him, hands on his wrists, to hold them above his head, both of us laughing.
“You were wrong, you know.” His voice dropped an octave, brown eyes searching my face. “You’re a fantastic instructor. If someone told you otherwise, you need to find a new dojo.”
“Thanks.” I flushed at the compliment and the closeness of his body. It would be so easy to lean in and steal a kiss. So tempting… I crammed the thought aside, stood, and offered him a hand up.
He didn’t let go of my hand when he was on his feet. “Do you have anywhere to be?” he asked.
“Not really. They’re running a Kurosawa marathon all night on the hotel convention channel. That was my only plan.”
“So come watch in our room.” He squeezed my hand.
As we made our way upstairs, I wondered what the rules were about staying friends with a fling after it was over. That was probably a stupid idea, but as I glanced at Evan, I couldn’t help entertaining the thought.
Chapter Eight
The door creaked open, and Trevor stepped into the room. When his gaze landed on us—me half-sitting, half-lying on Evan, both of us propped up against the headboard—a shadow passed over his face. He shook his head, dropped his phone on the nightsta
nd, and sank onto the edge of the bed. His attention stayed on the TV when he asked, “Did I miss the fun?” It sounded as if he was trying to be upbeat, but his words fell flat.
I’d enjoyed my time with Evan, but Trevor wasn’t talking about that. Honestly, while getting physical had been a background thought, it never became more during the evening. I’d been focused on other things.
“We wouldn’t start anything without you,” Evan sat, disentangling himself from me in the process.
I scooted a little further away, an uneasy pit forming in my gut. I almost felt guilty, as if I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t. The thought didn’t make any sense, and I dismissed it. “Is everything better at work?”
“For now.” Trevor finally looked at us again.
“You fixed it with your massive, impressive brain?” I drawled out each word with teasing innuendo.
The shadows melted from his expression and were replaced with hesitant amusement. “I don’t know if I’d call it impressive.”
“You’re being modest.” I winked.
“The woman’s got good taste in”—Evan cleared his throat—”brains.”
“She’s not a zombie.” Trevor’s shoulders relaxed.
“I might be. Or maybe I just have a solid appreciation for a nice organ.”
Trevor leaned back and planted his palms on the mattress behind him. “I’m more than a sexy brain.”
Evan scooted closer to me. “At the risk of shattering all this innuendo, God, I’d love to watch you suck his cock, Kitten.”
Arousal rushed through me at the direct request, flooding my skin and drawing my nipples to hard nubs. That escalated quickly. Then again, I didn’t have any illusions about why I was in their room. I looked at Trevor and licked my bottom lip.
He shifted his hips. “You won’t get an argument from me.”
Gaze never leaving Trevor’s, I slid from the bed and crawled the short distance to where he sat. Still on my knees, I glided my hand up the inside of his thigh. Desire unfurled in my belly, and Trevor groaned when I caressed his bulge. I stroked him through his jeans. His lips parted, and he closed his eyes. With each new touch, I was intensely aware we weren’t alone. Evan’s breathing grew heavy behind me, making the dampness between my legs spread. I moved higher and undid Trevor’s jeans.
Roll Against Discovery (3d20 Book 3) Page 4