Strictly Research (Bad Boy MFM Romance)

by Terry Towers

  “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 his 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.

  Xander spread his hands out. “We’re here.”

  “We wanted to surprise you.” Mitchell pulled me back to his side and placed a kiss on my temple.

  “So how long are you here for?”

  “Four to five years.”

  I know what I heard, but was hardly believing it. “But I thought you said that it would be two years before you could afford to go to school.”

  “Things change.” Xander nodded towards the door. “Are you going to invite us in?”

  I laughed. “Yes. Of course.” Reluctantly, I pulled away from Mitchell and unlocked the security door. “Come on in.”

  I was incredibly nervous as I led them up to my apartment. My mind was spinning with questions. Did this mean they were out of the business?

  “Would you guys like a drink?” I asked, leading them into my three-bedroom, fifth floor Manhattan apartment.

  “This is a beautiful place, Monica,” Xander said as they followed me into the living room.

  “Thank you.” I sat down on the armchair, the men on the sofa. “It costs more than I would like, but it’s perfectly located here in Manhattan and by the trains so…” I shrugged. “So what’s going on?”

  They both smiled, though Xander was the one to answer. “We managed to get the funds earlier. We’re registered for this fall semester. Starts in two weeks.”

  “Wow.” I raked my fingers through my fair looking from one handsome smiling face to the other. “How long have you been in town?”

  “We arrived last night.” Mitchell sat forward on the sofa, resting his elbows on his knees. “We’re staying at the Westin near Times Square right now, until we find a permanent place to live. We have a bunch of apartment viewings lined up for this week, starting tomorrow morning.”

  “And, are you… ummm...” I cringed. How do I put it delicately? Do I even need to put it delicately, for that matter?

  “Selling our bodies for a buck?” Mitchell offered with a grin.

  Crinkling my nose up at him, I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Done and in the past.”

  Xander, who was sitting closer to me, reached over and took my hand. “We did that so we wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have a huge student loan debt hanging over our heads. Med school is very intensive and not the easiest place to get into. One shot and neither of us wanted to waste it.”

  “We’re not proud of what we did for a living.”

  “Not ashamed either,” Xander cut in.

  “No, not ashamed either, but it’s not like we’re going to run around announcing we spent a little over two years as escorts to pay for school.”

  “What happens in Amsterdam, stays I Amsterdam. I don’t think our future employers would look kindly on it.”

  A part of me felt bad for them. What they did to pay for their education shouldn’t hurt their career options. “That’s not right. What happened in Amsterdam shouldn’t reflect on your employability.” If they ended up being good doctors then they deserved a fair shot.

  Xander chuckled. “Either way, that’s a bridge to cross at another time. We need to get through med school first.”

  “Enough about us,” Mitchell cut in, giving me a smile that made my tummy do little flip flops. “Catch us up on the story of Monica.”

  Chapter 14

  Mitchell

  The smell of frying bacon was the first thing that teased my senses as I began to awaken. The second was the warmth of the sleeping body next to me. Monica. Neither one of us had indulged in her luscious body last night, but damn I had wanted to. We both had. Despite spending a good portion of the previous evening catching up, it didn’t quite feel like the place or time.

  Turning from my back to my side, I looked down at her. She’d lost weight since we’d last seen her. It’s not like she was an overly heavy woman to begin with, just the right amount of curves, if you asked me, but the loss of a few pounds gave her a little more definition to her waist and hips and made her cheekbones more prominent.

  Being careful not to wake her, I pushed back a stray lock of hair from her eyes. My mind had been consumed with this woman. Almost a year of longing for her and finally she was back in my arms. No woman had ever had such an effect on me. I’d tried countless times to figure out what it was about her that drew me. Her charm. Her laugh. Her intelligence. Her ambition… all of those things and so much more.

  Alas, I wasn’t the only one that was under her spell.

  As gently and quietly as possible, I slid from the bed and tiptoed across the carpeted floor and into the open-concept living, dining, and kitchen area. Sure enough, Xander was working away in the kitchen preparing bacon, eggs, pancakes and hash browns. A full breakfast. Xander loved to cook and was aces at it, to boot.

  “She still sleeping?” Xander asked, not turning away from the stove, but somehow sensing it was me exiting the bedroom.

  “Yeah.” Crossing the room, I perched on one of the stools at the breakfast bar and decided it was time to broach the subject that I knew was on both of our minds, but we were both either too egotistical or too timid – maybe both – to bring up. Who gets the shot at Monica. While we rarely spoke of her the past few months I knew without a doubt she was on both of our minds.

  “You’re burning a fucking hole in my back, you’re staring at me so hard. What’s up?” He still hadn’t turned, just somehow knew the intensity I was feeling.

  “I think we need to talk about Monica.”

  He finally turned, the spatula he’d been using to flip the pancake still in hand. “What about her?” Despite his question, I could tell he knew what my concern was.

  “How are we going to play this?”

  He cocked his brow at me.

  “Don’t be an ass. You know what I’m referring to.”

  With a shrug, Xander spun back around and went back to attending to the breakfast. “We have several options. We share her. We let her make up her mind.” Looking over his shoulder he grinned. “Or we split her in half and we each take part. Oh, or we rock-paper-scissors on it.”

  Laughing, I gave my head a shake. “We could let her choose. I suppose.” I could see the complications with that. It could cause a rift between us. We’d been friends for so many years and endured so much fucking shit together the idea of losing my best friend was unthinkable. As much as I wanted Monica for myself, I’d give her up to Xander before losing his friendship – though I had a feeling he felt the same way.

  Xander turned around again. This time without the spatula. “Or we share her.”

  My brow creased as I stared at him. “Share her? What do you mean, share her?” How the fuck were we supposed to do that? He gets her weekdays and I get her weekends and holidays?

  “We’ve shared women before. And we more or less shared her in Amsterdam.”

  Apparently, we were on two completely different wavelengths here. “Sexually, sure. But what I mean is on a more personal level. Amsterdam was different. We knew it wouldn’t be forever and that we weren’t playing for keeps. The situation is different here.”

  “It doesn’t have to be different here. And given the choice I think she might be interested in the sharing option. She seemed to warm up to it before, despite her initial hesitation.”

  I stared at him as I processed his proposal. Could it possibly work?

  ~*~ TT ~*~

  Xander

  This was more or less the reaction I’d been expecting from Mitch. The idea of sharing her had been on my mind for several months and I’d tried numerous times to broach the subject with him, but ultimately decided to wait until we were bac
k in the United States and saw Monica again before discussing it with him. For all either of us knew she may have already been with someone new and this entire conversation would be irrelevant. Just because she never mentioned being with someone didn’t mean she didn’t have someone – the man she was with last night was proof positive that she’d been at least putting in some sort of effort.

  “Have you really given what you’re proposing real thought or is it something you’re just pulling out of your ass?” Mitch asked me.

  “Of course I gave it some thought. I’ve thought about it a lot. It was obvious back in Amsterdam that we both had an interest that surpassed both friendship and sex. At first I thought if you didn’t want to go for her then I would – it was selfish, especially since you were the one to meet her first.” I attempted a nonchalant shrug and began plating up the food. “But you kept saying you weren’t interested past friendship.” Turning with two plates of food in hand, leaving plenty for Monica when she woke, I took it to the breakfast counter and sat down next to Mitch, who currently had a spaced-out expression on his face. I didn’t press him. All I could really do was put the idea out there and hope he saw the benefits that I did. “I knew you were full of shit, though.”