“Three weeks. Chelsea wants to see if she can get a short data entry stint at one of the banks for extra pin money.” Courtney and Seth paid for tuition, books, and the small apartment they shared, but the girls earned their own money for all the other necessities. They needed to learn financial responsibility, and Courtney didn’t believe in handing them everything. It was almost two, the Friday lunch crowd thinning out and, thankfully, the noise level dropping. Courtney ordered the spinach salad with tiger prawns.
“Dressing on the side, please,” she told the perky waitress. After ordering chicken Caesar, Devon tipped her flute against Courtney’s. “I’m 23
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so glad you called. It’s been ages.”
For several minutes, they chitchatted about the girls, life, Seth’s job, Devon’s company. Lunch arrived. Okay, how to bring up what she wanted without Devon thinking she’d lost her mind?
“Are you still seeing your courtesans?” Wow. That was smooth and subtle. Courtney groaned aloud.
“Of course.”
She didn’t talk much about her own sex life with Devon, doubly so because Devon had known Seth before she met Courtney, plus she’d worked with him. It felt sort of like discussing marital problems with your mother-in-law. “Any interesting stories?” Jeez. That was another dumb lead-in. Devon tipped her head like a lioness catching a scent. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Courtney stared at her tiger shrimp.
“I like you, Court.” Devon drummed her fingernails on the table. “But I’m not helping you cheat on Seth.”
Courtney gasped, then glanced around to make sure no one overheard. The booth next to theirs was empty, and on the other side, two businessmen were engrossed in a NASDAQ debate. Still, she lowered her voice. “I’m not going to do that. Not at all.”
“Well, you’ve never asked me so forthrightly before.” True. Devon usually volunteered the latest titillating story. “You’re acting strangely. Just spit it out.”
“Here it is. I want”—she glanced around once more—“Seth, me . . . and another woman.”
“Good God.” Devon laughed. Now that drew attention. Devon didn’t hold back.
Courtney waited until the attention drifted away again. “I want you to help me find the right person.”
“Why on earth would you want to do that?” Devon gulped her champagne as if she needed fortification.
“I don’t know why. It feels”—she leaned closer—“exciting. Besides, Seth has been working so hard, he needs a break, something to take his mind off work.”
“Take him to Calistoga for a mud bath and his-and-her massages. Just not . .
. that.”
Courtney chewed on a leaf of spinach. “Have you ever had . . . more than one lover at a time?”
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“No, but let me remind you I’m not married either.” Devon had divorced five years ago.
Courtney started to doubt herself. Most of her friends would think her insane. She just didn’t think Devon would be one of them. “Let’s forget it.”
“No. You brought it up, so we’re going to talk about it. What does Seth say about this?”
“I haven’t told him yet. I wanted to see if you’d help me find the right woman first. Through your agency, Courtesans.”
Devon had explained it all to her before. She likened Courtesans to a matchmaking website, but everything was done by referral from happy clients. The agency paired a client with a courtesan. Courtesans didn’t get paid, they were given gifts, which could be cash, jewelry, vacations, whatever the client and the courtesan agreed upon. They didn’t get paid for having sex; they received gifts. Of course, if any of the so-called gifts were sold for cash, no one seemed to care. Gosh, that sounded a bit like the sex consultant on the talk show. There was no set amount, but when a patron proved excessively cheap, well, they stopped being matched. Oh, and the client paid a fee to the agency for the introduction.
Devon shot out a sharp breath. “I still don’t get why you want to do it.”
Why? Courtney leaned in, both hands on the table. “It turns me on. That’s all I can say. I don’t care why. When Seth and I fantasize together about another woman, I get excited, and we need some excitement. I don’t want to hit menopause and get all saggy and only wish I’d done it.” All right, it totally defied logic.
Devon touched the back of Courtney’s hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit a sore spot.”
Courtney realized Devon had pushed a button. Maybe it was the girls growing up and starting their own lives. She was forty-five and feeling old, a little afraid Seth had lost interest in her. Sex made her feel young again and proved she was still desirable. “I will tell Seth when I’ve got it all planned. I won’t spring it on him. If he says no, then we won’t do it.”
“All right.” Devon picked up her fork again. “Tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll talk to Isabel about the arrangements.”
“Isabel?”
“She runs Courtesans. I’ll ask her to personally set up the match. If you want, 25
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you can meet the woman she chooses.”
Courtney’s pulse beat fast through her veins. She’d come up with a whole fantasy as she was falling asleep last night. It was all she could do not to crawl over to Seth’s side of the bed and have her wicked way with him, but he’d come home late with a tension headache, and all he’d wanted was dinner and an extra-strength aspirin. This job was killing him.
“Here’s what I’ve been playing with. I want to do an overnight trip, on a weekend, to the wine country. Down south to Paso Robles and Templeton instead of up in Napa.”
Devon picked up her champagne, considered the last fizz of bubbles. “A weekend will require a larger gift.”
“I was considering using the Italy fund.” She’d been saving for a Europe trip, but she no longer believed Seth would even consider taking three weeks off. A weekend was easier to manage. This seemed so much more important to do. Funny, though the idea had only come to her yesterday, she felt consumed by it. She needed it.
“Do you want a bisexual thing?”
“Bisexual?”
Devon rolled her eyes. “With you and the courtesan.”
“No!” She screwed up her face. “Not me.” She traced a fingernail on the white tablecloth. “I do want things like . . .” Oh God, she couldn’t say this to Devon.
“Come on, girlfriend. If you want my help, you’re gonna have to tell me everything.”
“She and I”—she glanced around to make sure everyone was engrossed in their own conversation, not hers—“oral on Seth. Together.”
A smile grew on Devon’s lips. Men always thought she had the sexiest smile, but she never used it at work. There, she was all business. “You are a very dirty woman. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
Courtney’s stomach clenched. “You think I’m bad.”
Devon shook her head slowly. “I’m freaked out that you’d want to screw up your marriage this way. However, if you really believe it’s the right thing, I’m honored that you’d reveal all this to me and ask for my help.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“On two conditions. First, you tell Seth before you book the deal with Isabel.”
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“I will.”
“Second, I want to pay for the courtesan.”
Courtney gasped. “No.”
“Yes. I love you and Seth. You’ve got the best marriage I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m actually jealous. If you both really want to do this, then I want it to be my gift.”
That was sweet and generous, but . . . “That’s too much, Devon.”
“Take it or leave it.”
Courtney thought about it a long minute. “This is what you truly want to do?”
“Yes. If it’s what you really want to do.”
“Thank you.” She sensed
Devon’s certainty. “I accept.”
Seth would kill her when she told him. Now she had to figure out how to tell him.
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4
IT HAD BEEN ANOTHER HELLACIOUS WEEK AND AN EVEN WORSE day. Seth hadn’t made it home for dinner, instead grabbing a bite from the deli across the street and eating it in the quality control lab. The steel wool tests weren’t working, dammit. The problem was driving him nuts, and the issues were reaching crisis stage, customers calling. His only defense was that he’d told Walter the July-end release date wasn’t doable, but the pressure was on. He walked in the door at nine, and the house was dark. Except for a candle on the step down into the dining room. Setting his briefcase by the front door, he followed the candle’s flame. There was another by the sliding glass door leading out to the deck. Built on the side of the hill, the house was a split-level style with a granny room underneath and an upper and lower deck. A third candle flickered on the outside stairs leading to the lower deck. And the hot tub. Christ. He read the signals. Courtney was feeling frisky. She’d have the wine out, a sexy melody playing, the jets frothing, scented candles, imagining a romantic evening. And he wouldn’t even be able to get it up. He was pathetic. His wife shouldn’t have to beg for sex, but he was so fucking tired. They’d end up having a fight and go to bed without speaking. Especially when he told her he’d need to head back into work on Saturday morning.
Well, hell, best to get it over with.
Opening the sliding glass door, sure enough, he heard the music over the bubble of the water jets. Living in the mountains, it cooled off at night a lot more than in the valley. From the head of the stairs, he could see the steam rising off the water and the play of candlelight across the trees. Hidden by redwood, dogwood, liquid amber, Pacific madrones, and birch, the deck was secluded. She’d be naked in the water. Waiting for him. He willed his cock to twitch but all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for a day and a night. He took the stairs like a soldier to the battlefield.
“Hi, honey.” Courtney gave him a sexy, sultry smile that made his heart speed up. “I’ve got a glass of your favorite merlot already poured. Get in the tub.”
He bent to kiss her, her breasts bare as she rose out of the water to meet his 28
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lips. “Sorry I missed dinner.” He began stripping out of his jeans. Working in the lab all day, he didn’t dress in suit and tie.
“That just means we’ll have lots of leftovers tomorrow, and I won’t have to cook,” she said brightly.
Naked, he slid to the seat beside her and she handed him the wineglass. He closed his eyes as the jets beat against his back. “Christ, this feels good. Thanks, sweetie.”
“I understand how hard you’ve been working.”
He patted her knee in appreciation and sipped the tart merlot, feeling the tension start to ease out of his body. He stretched his neck trying to get the kinks out.
“Tell me where it hurts,” she whispered.
“Everywhere, but my neck and shoulders are the worst.”
“Let me give you a rub.”
Shit. That was a prelude. He didn’t see any way to avoid it, so he slid one arm along the tub and gave her his back.
Courtney had marvelous fingers. “That’s perfect, baby, thank you.” The rub was great, but he prayed her hands wouldn’t start wandering.
“I was thinking we needed a getaway together before the girls come home.”
He cracked one eye open. “I can’t manage the time off right now—”
She nipped his earlobe, then licked it. “I don’t want you to take time off. We’ll do one night. Down to the central coast for some wine tasting.”
There was so much damn weekend work to get the product back on track.
“Not this weekend,” she said, interpreting his silence. “Mid-month. Before the girls come home after summer finals.”
Seth considered his obligations to his job versus his obligations to his wife. She put up with a lot crap—lost evenings, lost weekends. He had people working for him, good managers, who could set procedures, and the problems could be miraculously over by then. Courtney wasn’t being unreasonable, and he owed her a piece of himself.
“All right, let’s do it. We can leave early on Saturday morning.”
She giggled and clapped her hands. “Goody-goody.”
Seth was inordinately pleased with what the small offering did for her. “I love you, baby.”
“I love you, too.” She settled back to rubbing his shoulders and neck, working 29
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on a knot with her thumb. “Okay, so here’s the other part of what I want to do.”
She paused long enough for him to realize he needed to make a sound. “Uhhuh.”
“I want to order a . . .” She put pressure on the knot, holding it. For a moment, the pressure point was excruciating, then the pain vanished. The massage, her fingers, hot water, jets, a good merlot, they had their effect on him. His tension drained away. “Order what?”
“A friend to bring along.”
Order a friend? He tipped his head back to look at her. She concentrated on his muscles.
“What friend? And why?” A weird sensation built in his gut, and all the tension came flooding back.
“Well, not really a friend. More like a courtesan.”
“What the hell is a courtesan?” Then he remembered Devon and the naughty stories Courtney loved to tell him after the two of them had a lunch or dinner out. “You want to bring one of Devon’s men?” The thought was a punch to his solar plexus.
“No,” she said gently, as if she were trying to calm the wild beast rising in him. “They have female courtesans.”
Grabbing her hand from his shoulder, he shifted to face her. “What the fuck, Courtney? Just say what this is all about.”
“Have a drink first.” She handed him his wine. He eyed her over the rim. “Okay. Explain.”
She drew in a deep breath, her breasts rising, her nipples flirting with the surface of the bubbling water. “I want a threesome like we’ve talked about.”
He couldn’t be hearing this right. His wife was suggesting . . . what exactly?
“This threesome would consist of doing . . . ?” He raised his shoulders in query.
“Like we talked about.” She concentrated on her wineglass. “She and I do some . . .” She sipped her chardonnay. “Sucking.”
It should have turned him on. It always did when they fantasized. Reality was a whole different thing. “And?”
“You can do her for me. While I kiss you. And you can do me while she watches.”
His goddamn head was going to explode. “And the next time you want to fuck another man while I watch?”
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“No.” She managed to meet his eyes. “I’d only feel comfortable if we did this with a woman.”
He didn’t believe her. “I haven’t been paying enough attention—”
She put her hand over his mouth. “It’s not that.”
“Then what the fuck?” Maybe he was being irrationally pissed. Most men would jump at the chance if their wife said they could fuck another woman. There had to be a catch, though.
“We’ve talked about it so much. We should try it. If we don’t like it, we never do it again.” She trailed a hand down his throat to his chest, then lightly pinched his nipple. Damn. Over the years, his wife had learned all the tricks to get him going, now she used them against him. “Just once, Seth.”
“Why?” In his roiling gut, he surmised it had to be because she eventually wanted to ask for another man. He’d never be ready to watch her fuck someone else. So how could she be willing to watch him?
“I can’t explain why. Devon asked the same thing, and I don’t have a good answer. I suppose I should, but . . .” She huffed out an exasperated breath directed at herself. “It’s this thing I can’t get out of my head
.”
“Fuck. What the hell did Devon think of all this?”
“She thought I was crazy.”
He scraped a hand down his face, wiping away the sweat from the water’s heat. “I can’t believe you told her about this.”
“She was the only person I could ask to help me find someone.”
“Thank God you didn’t ask her to do it.”
“Ooh.”
His eyes snapped open. “Don’t even think it.”
She smiled softly. “I wouldn’t. Sex can screw up a good friendship.” Lifting his hand, Courtney kissed the back, his knuckles. “Devon wants to give this to us as a gift.”
He laughed out loud. There wasn’t an ounce of humor in it. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“No. She said that was the deal, she’d help me, but only if we let her give it to us.”
“I can’t fucking believe this.” They were both crazy, Courtney and Devon.
“This could be the most exciting thing we’ve ever done.”
Jesus. She really wanted to give him to another woman. She’d even enlisted 31
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Devon’s help in the mad scheme. Hell. “You won’t be jealous?”
She took a few unbearable seconds to answer. “I don’t think so. I know you love me.”
He wasn’t so sure she loved him. If she did, how could she give him away?
Women weren’t built that way. They weren’t like men, who easily thought with the smaller head between their legs. Sex was sex. Women, though, their emotions didn’t allow sharing.
“I want to suck your cock with her.”
Christ. Upstairs, he hadn’t believed he could get a single twitch out of his cock, but with her words and the candlelight sparkling in her eyes, the blood suddenly pulsed through his dick.
He could tell the second she recognized she had him right where she wanted. Her eyes widened. She licked her lower lip. “I can make this so good for you, Seth.”
“You do not have to give me to another woman to make me happy.” Maybe this was all about her own insecurity.
She leaned close to slide her hand down his cock. He was hard. “I know,” she whispered. “But it makes me wet imagining it.”
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