by Various
Cort fiddled with some papers on the table in the office. Vance was in the parking lot with Alexa. Probably kissing her good night.
His foot shot out, giving the chair opposite him a vicious kick, and Cort scrubbed his hands through his hair, heaving a sigh. Better the chair than Vance.
The front door opened. They hadn’t been out there more than a minute or two. Relief flashed through Cort, and just as quickly vanished. Shoving back from the table, he stood and started to pace.
Footsteps halted in the doorway. “You’re usually as still as a Zen master,” Vance said after a moment. “Something wrong?”
Willing himself to hold still, Cort shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to face his friend. “We have to talk.”
“So talk.” Vance was watching him quizzically, with no clue what was coming.
Cort rocked up onto his toes and down again, searching for a starting point. He and Vance had never competed for women. They’d both had plenty of willing partners to choose from, and their tastes were divergent enough that it hadn’t been an issue.
Stop stalling. His friend appreciated directness, and Cort couldn’t summon his usual finesse, so with a mental shrug he dove in the deep end. “Alexa.”
Vance’s gaze turned wary. “What about her?”
“Today, before lunch. You kissed her.” He sounded petulant, even to his own ears. Get it together, Cort.
“Are you going to give me an ethics lecture?”
The incredulous tone made Cort smile despite himself. “No. No ethics.”
Words weren’t getting them where they needed to go. Meeting Vance’s eyes, he dropped his defenses and laid himself bare to the other man’s scrutiny.
It only took a moment. Vance’s nostrils flared, his eyes flashed, and the room was suddenly filled with enough testosterone to fuel a dozen sports teams. “You can’t have her.”
His voice was low, dangerous. Cort didn’t reply, and Vance’s jaw tightened. “She’s not even your type.”
“Vance.”
“Goddammit, Cort.” Vance hammered one fist into the wall beside him. “After all the years we’ve known each other … why her? Why now?”
“Tell me something.”
“What?” Vance snapped.
“Out of all the women you’ve known in your life, how many would you have fought me over if I said I wanted them?”
“That’s—” he broke off and spun away. Cort waited, letting the question do its work. Finally, Vance turned back, arms folded. “What’s your point?”
“How many?”
His jaw worked, but they’d always been honest with each other. “One.”
“Just Alexa.” At Vance’s grudging nod, Cort said, “That’s why. Why her, why now.”
“Because she’s special to me?”
“No. Because she’s special.”
Vance sagged against the wall. “Goddammit,” he said softly, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were bleak. “I can’t walk away, Cort.”
“Neither can I.”
Watching the steel come into his friend’s gaze, Cort was glad they’d never faced each other across a negotiating table. “You’re really going to make me fight you,” Vance said.
“I don’t want to fight you.”
Vance spread his arms as if to say, Then what?
“There is another option.”
“We both walk away?” Vance shook his head in disgust. “I don’t think so.”
“Besides that.”
It took another beat, and then Vance said, “You’re joking.” Cort didn’t answer. “Do you have any idea how innocent she is?”
“No,” Cort said, and his voice was deadly quiet. “Why don’t you tell me.”
“For Christ’s sake, I didn’t fuck her in her office.”
“But you would have.” Cort was sure of it.
Vance sighed. “I lost my head. She has that effect on me.”
Cort could sympathize, but didn’t say so. “So, her innocence.”
“Inexperience is probably a better word. I don’t know if she’s actually a virgin, but she was ready to run out of here in disgrace because she kissed her boss.”
“Horrified at herself, not you.”
“Yes.”
“But not repulsed by your attentions.”
The look on Vance’s face was answer enough. “Inexperience,” Cort said, “is a minor obstacle, comparatively speaking.”
“You think we can persuade a woman who’s had little or no sex that she should take on two men at once?”
“I think the two of us could seduce every nun on the planet if we wanted to.”
A reluctant smile curved Vance’s lips. “You’re probably right about that.” He fell silent, and Cort waited to see if their friendship would survive.
“I don’t want her hurt,” Vance said at last.
“Neither do I.”
“And if she says no?”
Cort refused to allow that possibility. “She won’t say no.”
The men looked at each other for a long moment. Then Vance nodded, and the knots inside Cort began to unwind.
*****
The Monday evening crowd at Gianni’s was small and quiet. Alex sat with Dayna at a little corner table, studying the stem of her wineglass.
“You look like you spent the day at the morgue,” Dayna said.
“I did. So to speak.” The two men she’d left at CityFarms preoccupied her thoughts, but Alex summoned the willpower to push them aside temporarily. “They asked me to stay the rest of this week, Dayna. To help them transition.”
Suspicion was ripe on her friend’s face. “Why just you?”
“That’s what I asked them.” Alex took a breath. “Dayna … I think someone there was doing … I don’t know what. Something seriously wrong.”
For a moment, the other woman looked as shocked as Alex had felt at that revelation, but then the wheels started turning. “It has to be misappropriation of funds. Nothing else makes sense.”
“Someone in finance and accounting, then.” Alex took a swallow of wine. “I just can’t imagine anyone there being so dishonest.”
“We never really know someone as well as we think we do,” Dayna said. “We all have layers, and most people only see a fraction of us.”
“I guess. But most of us aren’t that duplicitous, are we? Or else we wouldn’t be so dismayed and hurt when someone turns out to be really different from what we thought.” Alex drank the last of her wine, savoring the warmth spreading through her. An attentive waiter appeared, and she handed him her glass for a refill.
“Not to be cynical, but I think it’s more a matter of degree than kind. Maybe. I don’t know.” Dayna shook her head and took a sip of her own wine. “Have you thought about what you’re going to do next?”
Alex sighed. “Only a little. I’ve kind of been in denial.”
“I feel that. Started to look at the classifieds this afternoon, just couldn’t handle it.” She settled back in her chair, the bar’s soft lighting gleaming against her rich brown skin. “At least we’ve got a cushion with the severance plan—and thank you, Mr. Big Bucks McCall, for that—but I don’t want to take it for granted, you know?”
“Yeah.” Alex gulped down more wine.
“Hey,” Dayna said. “Take it easy with that, girl. You’re not usually a drinker, and you need to drive home.”
“I’ll call a cab if I have to. I want a buzz tonight.”
Her friend laid a hand on her arm. “Alex. Those men. Did they—hurt you?”
“What? No.” Alex shook her head, took another swallow. “Nothing like that.”
“Like what, then?” Dayna said stubbornly.
Alex sent her a loopy smile. “You’re a wonderful friend, you know that?”
“Girl, you are drunk. On a glass and a half of wine.”
“Good.” Alex tilted her head back and finished off the glass. “Better to be a cheap drunk when you’re unemployed.”
/>
“Alexa Knight, look at me.” Dayna turned her friend’s head gently toward her until they were eye-to-eye. “I am not letting you out of here until you tell me what’s going on. If it’s not the men, what is it? Besides everything else that happened today, I mean.”
Her head lolling onto her shoulder, Alex traced patterns on the table with a finger. “How are things with your Mr. Right Now?”
“Don’t change the subject on me.”
“I’m not, really.” She met her friend’s worried gaze with an earnest one. “Is he still around?”
Despite her concern, Dayna couldn’t stop the slow smile that spread across her face. “We’re looking at moving in together.”
“Really?” Alex patted her hand clumsily. “That’s wonderful. I’m really happy for you.”
“Thanks. I’m pretty happy too.” The other woman tilted her head. “Is this about a man, then? Or more precisely, not having one?”
“Yes. No. I mean, sort of.” Alex tried to organize her fuzzy thoughts. “Okay. Imagine I’m going to do a Venn diagram of me and men.”
“Okay,” Dayna said, puzzled but trying to be supportive.
“The men I like would be over here.” She drew a circle at one corner of the table. “And the men who like me—” she traced the same shape on the opposite corner—“would be over here.”
“There’s no overlap.”
“Not only is there no overlap, Dayna, they’re not even in the same galaxy.”
Her friend’s eyes held sympathy, but not pity. “You have never once had a mutual attraction with a man?”
Alex hesitated, then took the plunge. “Not until today.”
“Who—” Dayna’s eyes went wide. “You’re shitting me. Which one?”
“Both of them.”
“Both?” Heads turned, and Dayna lowered her to an urgent whisper. “You’re telling me you have the hots for Big Bucks McCall and Big Balls Harper, and both of them have a hard-on for you?”
Alex giggled. “I definitely have the hots for both of them. One of them definitely has a thing for me, and I’m pretty sure about the other.”
“Holy shit, girl. You don’t do things halfway, do you?”
“Nope.” She grinned, then turned somber. “But, Dayna … these guys. You know better than I do I’m not in their league.”
Dayna sighed. “Those guys are players, Alex. Do you really want to be in their league?”
Was that what Vance and Cort were? The label made Alex uneasy. “I just want more confidence when I’m dealing with them.”
The other woman looked pensive. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Galaxies apart, Dayna.” Alex gestured toward the table’s corners. “This kind of thing doesn’t happen to me every day.”
Her friend nodded. “I guess you’ve got to take your chances where you find them. And you are a grown-ass woman.” Mind made up, she gave Alex a sly look. “I’ve been telling you for years, if you’d let me give you a makeover you’d have men eating out of your hand.”
“I don’t have your style, Dayna. I can’t carry off outfits like you do.”
“I’m not after giving you mine, child. I want to help you find your own.”
The buzz was wearing off, but enough of it remained to give Alex a sense of adventure. “Are there any shops open in the evening?”
*****
Four hours later, Alex collapsed into bed. Dayna was a freaking fairy godmother of fashion on a budget. She’d taken them on a whirlwind tour of boutique sales racks, department stores, even thrift shops. “Don’t think,” she instructed Alex. “Your head is full of all sorts of nonsense about what you can’t wear, can wear, should wear. Ignore your head. Listen to your gut.” Every time Alex showed the slightest hint of hesitation, her friend repeated the mantra. “Don’t think. Grab whatever draws you.”
Bit by bit, Alex discovered she did have her own style, buried under years of self-consciousness. Some of her choices terrified her, but Dayna urged her to buy them anyway. “You don’t have to wear all of this right away. You can work up to things.”
Alex bought bags full of clothes without spending a fortune, and then got a speed course in skin care and makeup. She sent Dayna home with a hard hug of thanks, hung up the load of laundry she’d done, and crawled under the covers, ready for a long, restful sleep.
Her libido had other ideas.
*****
“Do you, Alexa Knight, take these men to be your lawfully wedded husbands?”
She stood on a wind-swept beach, seagulls and terns crying overhead as gentle waves rolled in. Her wedding gown was deep red, like the roses that adorned her elaborate hairdo. Vance and Cort, in tuxes with cummerbunds the same shade as her gown, stood beside her.
“I do,” she answered.
“I now pronounce you men and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Vance claimed the first kiss. His mouth settled on hers, soft and warm, while Cort nuzzled her neck. Pleasure simmered through her veins, and Alex moaned.
The scene shifted to a mountain lodge, in a bedroom with a crackling fire. Vance stood behind her and lifted her wedding gown, his large, warm hands caressing the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, while Cort palmed her breasts, tweaking her nipples through the fabric. Slowly, they undressed her, kissing and stroking each inch of skin as they exposed it. Need clawed at her, and Alex tried to rip their tuxes off, but the men refused to be hurried.
Cort pulled her close for a long, deep kiss. Vance sandwiched her in, his erection pressing against her, and reached for her breasts, flicking his thumbs over the nipples, tugging on the stiffened peaks. Sensation arrowed to her core, and Alex whimpered against Cort’s mouth, a needy, pleading sound.
Lifting her hair aside, Vance kissed the back of her neck as his hands skimmed down her torso and over her belly. He cupped her soft folds, pressing the heel of his hand against her mound, then spread her open. His fingers delved into her wetness, coating her with her own juices, circling her sensitive bundle of nerves but not touching it.
Cort, still kissing her, moulded his hands to her ass, squeezing. Pleasure and hunger coiled together, spreading out from her center, then spiraling back in to gather strength. Alex finally got her fingers inside Cort’s dress shirt and ripped it open, sending buttons flying. He broke off the kiss and set his mouth on the juncture of her neck and shoulder as Alex stroked her hands over skin and muscle.
Vance circled her opening, then pushed a finger inside her narrow channel, stroking slowly in and out, his other hand stroking the curls around her clit. She gasped and arched against him, her fingers digging into Cort’s chest. He growled and bit down gently, and sensation raced across her nerve endings, igniting the fire simmering deep inside her.
As if on some unspoken signal, the men shifted positions, Cort moving behind her to take up where Vance had left off. Her dark angel bent his head to her breasts, sucking first one, then the other into his mouth. He teased the swollen nipples with his tongue until she writhed, then grazed the tips with his teeth.
Alex cried out, her breath coming in short pants, and Cort shifted his hands back up to her breasts, kneading, pinching. Vance kissed his way down her body until he knelt between her legs. When his mouth found her slick flesh, Alex shot to the edge, her system nearly at its limit.
With consummate skill, Vance licked her open, lapping up her fluids, until he reached the apex of her pleasure. Closing his mouth over her clit, he sucked gently, then harder, until Alex was taut as a bowstring, ready to explode.
He used his teeth, and she shattered.
*****
Alex woke, gasping, her body pulsing with need. The aftershocks of an orgasm shimmered through her, but it wasn’t enough. Her hand plunged inside her panties, parting her folds, drawing up her juices, rubbing frantically over her swollen nub. She brought herself again, and again. And still it wasn’t enough.
She wanted them inside her. Needed them to fill her and fuck her.
&n
bsp; With a groan, she rolled over and buried her face in her pillow.
*****
The next morning, Vance and Cort drove to work in silence. Vance was at the wheel of their rented car; both of them were used to having cars and drivers, but they’d chosen to go low-key here. No matter how altruistic their motives might be, it didn’t look good having a limo drop you off at a nonprofit.
They were also sharing a large townhouse, something they’d not done since their days as college roommates. The decision had been a simple matter of convenience and economy—but it would come in handy, now that they’d planned to seduce Alexa together.
Vance drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He and Cort were successful men in the prime of life, who had no trouble finding female companionship. And both of them were all tied up in knots about this one particular woman.
What was it about Alexa? Not her looks. Oh, she was lovely, to be sure. All dark hair and ripe curves, with big soft eyes, a pert nose, and a sweet, kissable mouth. Vance wanted to ravish her for days, and then buy her gorgeous clothes that would accentuate every her luscious contour. He wanted to show her how beautiful she was, until she couldn’t deny it.
But he was used to beautiful women; they both were. No, with Alexa it was something else.
Cort stirred and looked over. “Do you think she’s a virgin?”
Vance cocked his head. “Funny you should say that. I was just wondering what it is about her that affects us both so much.” He replayed the encounter in her office, growing uncomfortably hard at the memory. “I think she’s had some experience, but not a lot.” He paused as another thought struck him. “And none, I suspect, with men who respected her.”
The muscles in Cort’s jaw bunched. “I find any man who’s taken her for granted, I’ll teach him some respect.”
“Agreed.” And that, Vance thought, was one key to their Alexa. Not innocence, exactly, but vulnerability. She was refreshingly unsophisticated. Not unintelligent—quite the opposite. But she didn’t play games; he doubted she even knew how. When he and Cort freed the sensual hunger she’d hidden away, her responses would be genuine, unrehearsed.