“Yeah. What’s that?”
“She likes to try out two men at a time. She even has a formula. One dark. One blond and buff.”
“That’s a kink I’ve not heard of.”
Jed shrugged. “Everyone’s got a wrinkle they need to iron now and then. Hers? Well, whatever it is, these two fit her bill. Of course, a man has to like that sort of thing.”
“In a big way,” Wade agreed.
“Not interested?”
“Not with her. Not with another man.” Wade skewered him with a hard look. “You know I’m not.”
“That was long ago, Wade.”
He downed another swallow. “Some things make an impression on you and you don’t forget.”
Jed polished the granite. “So how are you taking the fact that Willow went out with Giles Benedict last night?”
“Did you have to ask?”
“I hate guessing games.”
“As dungeon master is there anything you don’t know?”
“Some.” Jed lifted his chin. “Need a refill?”
“Hit me.” He waited until Jed topped off his glass before he said, “Does everyone in town know I’m pissed?”
“Maybe just everyone who saw you at the Two Step last night.”
“What about Giles?”
“He hasn’t been in. So I can’t say. Would it bother you if he did know?”
Wade glanced away, catching a glimpse of how the two men paid attention to the young woman. One man had his hand on her arm, the other joked with her. Her full lips parted as she gave up a husky belly laugh and then she cast appreciative eyes on the man holding her hand. Eyes like that…
Wade snapped himself to attention. “I have a problem with Willow. She wants…that.”
Jed followed Wade’s gaze and for some reason Wade noted Jed wasn’t surprised. “And what’s wrong with that?”
Wade shifted, trying not to watch the trio at the bar. His balls ached. His cock twitched. Man, his whole body yearned and needed Willow Turner to look like that for him. Again. “I don’t believe in sharing.”
“I’m not asking about your religion.”
“Funny,” Wade said, tipping his glass at him. “Sharing a woman creates problems. Mixed emotions. Affections that get out of hand. One wants this. The other wants that. And then the third one wants something entirely different.”
“Ever think it could be exciting?”
“You outta know.” Wade grimaced. “Don’t take that wrong. You get to choose what you want and you and your brothers have chosen well with Cara.”
“We treat her right. We love her and she loves us back. Our foursome could not be better.”
“That kind of love is rare. And you have to be up for it. Literally. She has to handle it well too.”
“Cara knew what she was getting into. She grew up here. We four knew each other when she was a kid, although I have to add we never approached her. She was too young for us then and we three thought we’d always want the ordinary.”
“Each of you have your own wife, you mean.”
Jed nodded once. “But we saw her when she returned and we figured we’d see if she might be interested in one or all of us. Took our time. Didn’t want to scare her and run her off.”
“Women can get skittish.”
“Yeah. Especially when we’re talking not one man or two men but three for one lady.”
“You boys have big hearts to make that happen for all of you.”
“Cara is the one with the big heart. She’ll tell you she loves three men. That’s a lot of woman who can do that.”
“That’s a big man who can love a woman enough to let her—”
“What? Finish your thought, Wade.” Jed stared at him, challenging him to fess up to his subconscious thoughts.
“Look here. I’m not fixing for an argument.”
“None intended here either. Finish your statement. It’s a big man who can love a woman enough to let her…roam? Fuck another man? Take two men at the same time? What?”
“You’re out to strip me of my dignity, MacRae.”
“Hell I am. You came for a drink and advice. I’m here to serve you up some logic.”
“Swell. Think I’ll pass.” Wade downed his drink and put his feet to the floor.
“You leave before I’ve said my piece, then you don’t learn. And you don’t win.”
“I’m fine the way I am.”
“If you were so sure about that you would not have come here to see me today.”
Wade stared at his life-long friend. Not one to turn tail and run from a challenge, Wade knew he better get his gumption up now or he’d never have a clue what to change or how. Worse, he’d never win what he wanted. “What’s your pearl of wisdom?”
“You want this woman?”
“I do.”
“For however long that is you have to overcome your jealousy.”
“Giles is a sweet-talking guy.”
“Giles, Kyle Miller, Derek Sutter. They’re all smooth-talking boys when it comes to a woman they want.”
“Your point? My day is not getting any longer, MacRae.”
“If she wants to have two men, and you want her happy, you can give her what she needs.”
“Easy for you to say.”
Jed smacked his lips. “You’re a hard sell, man.”
“How? Just how do I make that happen without cutting my brain out of my head?”
“You take control. Isn’t that what you do with your subs? Take control of this. Go to Giles. Tell him you want him to help you make her happy. Tell him you want him to share her with you. Lay down your rules. Make it plain who’s in charge and what the scene is.”
“Giles isn’t a Dom.”
“He does ménage.”
“Somehow with Willow I think he won’t play.”
“How do you know unless you ask him?”
“Sounds too simple. Too neat. I can’t chance it.”
“Why not?”
Wade winced. “What if he agrees and he wants to share her all the time?”
“Sure. What if she refuses to do it your way? What if she leaves town before you ever get this settled?”
Wade shook his head. He hadn’t considered that and panic clogged his throat. “What if she wants both of us all the time?”
“Then you have a decision to make. Keep her for yourself on both your terms or give her away to Giles.”
“I can’t.”
“Is that pride speaking?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“If you really care for her, more than any of your other women you’ve had over the past twenty years, then pride shouldn’t do the deciding for you.”
“Well, I sure as hell can’t tell her I love her.” Oh, hell. Had he just admitted that to Jed? He’d barely admitted it to himself.
“Then don’t. Call it whatever you want. But take charge. Of her. Of him. Do what you do best. Then see if she still wants both of you.”
Wade glared at him, hating that he knew so well what his little problem was. When he spun away he turned right back around. “How could you know that Willow would even consider a ménage?”
“How do you think?”
Damn. Was nothing private in this town? “Women.”
“Bravado women tell each other the truth.”
“I suppose you’re gonna tell me that Bravado men do too?”
Jed saluted. “Do I need to?”
* * * * *
He called her that night. Left a message. Willow did not call him back.
He drove over to her B&B early the next morning, figuring he’d catch her before she left for her research. Knocking on her door, he got no response. So he checked at the reception desk.
“No luck,” said Miss Sykes with a matchmaker’s mischievous gleam in her eye. “Miss Turner left before seven.”
Too late again—and she was nowhere to be found in town. Not at the MacRaes’. He’d called to ask Cara, who politely told him to work harder on
this pursuit of his.
That’d griped him mightily but he’d said a polite thanks then called Samantha. This time he got Case on the line.
“They’re out today, Wade.”
“Want to tell me where?”
“I’m under strict orders not to.”
Wade chewed on a toothpick. “Am I to guess why that is?”
“Yep. That is your lot, buddy.” Case chuckled. “Sorry, man.”
Apologies didn’t cut it. Wade flicked off his phone and decided to go to work. At least there he’d accomplish something constructive.
But a slow crime day did not make for an absorbing preoccupation. Besides, Chet Harris had that evil eye out for him and his bad mood. Making an excuse to do paperwork, Wade shut his office door. In frustration he called Giles Benedict.
* * * * *
Wade met him at two at the club.
“Willow hasn’t returned my calls either, Wade.” Giles drew water circles with the base of his glass on the bar at the Bravado Club. “I’ve invited her to dinner. To go riding too. Nada. Zip. She begs off.”
Waves of relief washed over Wade that Willow was declining the good doctor’s offers. “At least she talks to you.”
“Yeah.” Giles glanced around the cavernous room, the look on his face declaring how he’d like to be anywhere but there. “I wished she’d do more.”
Wade nodded, not looking at Giles, not tempting himself to be an idiot and mouth off at the man about a woman neither one of them seemed able to predict, let alone control.
“I know you’re probably glad that she’s playing it cool with me too.”
Wade took a sip of his bourbon, watching his rival in the wall mirror in front of them. “You could say that.”
“But I’m not. I had hoped that this time when I found a woman attractive you might back off and give me a good chance at her.”
Wade put his glass to the granite and locked gazes with Giles. “But I saw her first.”
Giles snorted. “When I saw Marissa first years ago, that didn’t stop you from messing up my lead.”
“She was interested. Very interested.” Wade loathed justifying himself to Benedict. Loathed doing it with any man. Another reason why he never shared a woman except on special occasions. In exhibit. On the stage. Always only for the minutes onstage. “And she told me nothing about her relationship with you.”
“Hell, Wade. She hailed from Marfa. She was young, in college. She knew nothing about Bravado.”
“She didn’t want two men.”
“Not even temporarily, for a few hours of fun,” Wade said, blowing out a gust of air in resignation. This was getting him nowhere. “Best get to the reason I called you.”
Giles drew his brows together, a look of feigned horror on his face. “I thought you were buying me a drink.”
“Maybe I am.”
“Maybe the hell you never are.” Giles wiggled his fingers at him. “What gives?”
“I know that Willow is interested in you.”
“To say the least.”
Wade sucked in a breath. Do not ask what that implies. “I also know she’s up for an exhibit. With two men.”
Giles did not move a muscle.
Wade pursed his lips. Hell, I hate this sharing shit. “She tell you that?”
Giles shook his head once. His eyes narrowed like lasers on Wade.
“She confided in me.”
Giles set his jaw. “And did she say she wanted this with me?”
“No. When she told me it was early in the week.”
“Before she and I went out.”
“Yes.”
Giles looked relieved. “But now you figure she’s interested in a threesome?”
“She told me. She told Cara and Samantha. If Willow wants to party in front of an audience with two men I want her doing it with me. And you, if that’s what you’d want too.”
“You and I haven’t had that kind of relationship ever.”
Wade stared down into his empty glass. This topic made him thirstier than he’d ever been in his life. “Maybe that was circumstantial. Maybe the Marissa fiasco turned us both off from each other. Maybe it’s time to correct that.”
“Or maybe not. Headline here, Wade. I don’t do exhibits. Wouldn’t know how.”
“I do.”
“Yeah. You’re the Dom. But you don’t usually do ménage and in case no one told you lately, your explosion factor over male competition is big. So thanks but no thanks.”
“It could work. I’d make it work.”
Giles’s face drew down in astonishment. “Motivation is a great thing, Saxon. But I’m not interested in any more of your sanctimonious bullshit because of a woman. Marissa was one thing. Brief affair, here for a summer, gone in the fall. But Willow is different. She’s a woman, no coed. She’s lovely and bright, responsible and oh, yeah, she might decide to stay. Might come to live here. And if she does I’m interested in seeing more of her. If you are too, that’s your concern. But I am not playing any competition game.”
“I’m not asking you to. The scene would be fun for her. Equal time for you and me. No top man. No bottom. All square.” He gestured to accentuate his words.
Giles sat back in his chair and folded his arms. “She must have really gotten to you.”
“To you too from what I’m hearing here.”
Giles stared at him.
“This would be to satisfy her. Not to play one of us off against the other.”
“Really? And not to contrast us? The Dom versus the ordinary guy?”
“No.” Wade had to assure him. “I guarantee that it’s not.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
“Shall I describe what I have in mind?”
“In detail.”
Wade raised his hand to attract Jed MacRae’s attention. “We need another round here.”
* * * * *
Proud of herself for dodging talking to Wade and Giles for the past two days, Willow smiled as she drove home from the Kendall County Library. Thirty miles away from Bravado, the little town of Boerne in Kendall sported the best collection of Anglo accounts of children who had been abducted by the Comanche. None had written about Fancy and Bull Elk but that was okay. She still got confirmation of many of the ways in which the Comanche had treated their captives.
She headed off Interstate 10 toward Bravado and her B&B, tickled she had gotten more work done for her book. In fact she might even have completed the work and done it within her own deadline. Even with the distractions of Wade and Giles she’d managed it. The odds had been against her. Even the history of the Comanche in south Texas was a difficult one to trace because of lack of records. In fact her family—her extended family of the Turners, Saxons and MacRaes—were the best primary sources she’d run across. As for secondary sources, regular history books, she could count those on one hand.
With reams of notes on yellow pads she grew confident she now had a work she might be able to write and sell for good money. Out from under the payments to put her sister through college Willow might even be able to enjoy new aspects of life.
Like a man?
A man like Wade?
Or Giles?
She muttered to herself about her need for freedom. How can I keep my independence if I belong to someone as consuming as Wade Saxon?
Whereas Giles was less dominating. Less demanding.
Could she go for one man permanently?
Or do you need the variety of both?
Her whole body shook with the thrill of that question. She wallowed in the pleasure of that rush. And just maybe in the way her nipples beaded and her pussy pulsed, she had her answer too.
Her date tonight to go with Cara and Samantha to the local club where scenes like ménages could happen only added to her pounding excitement. She’d never had so much fun in her life before coming to Bravado. Her lips curved in a giddy smile.
Dreaming of having both Wade and Giles was a fantasy. Sweet an
d handsome Giles. Blistering-hot and indomitable Wade.
She turned into the parking space in front of the B&B and shut off the car. Collecting her briefcase and shoulder purse, she got out and took the path to the front door of her little casita. She fished for the key and heard footsteps. Male. Twisting around, she blinked, her key falling to the pavement.
“Wade?”
“Been waiting for you for hours, sweet thing.”
His eyes looked haunted but his jaw was firm, his words crisp but so endearing.
“What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk.”
“I’m not ready.”
He sauntered right up to her, jammed a hand in her ponytail, put another hand to her ass and hauled her against his body. His very aroused body. “I am.”
She swallowed hard. How could she love the feel of his possession and yet war with herself over her loss of independence? “Don’t bully me.”
With a snarl he cupped her face, his thumbs stroking her cheeks and then he plastered his lips to hers. He kissed her. Oh, god, how he kissed her. He plunged his tongue into her mouth and tasted every part of her. He defined the edges of her teeth, probed the languid responses of her own tongue. She moaned for more of him. He broke away, his hands still framing her face, his beautiful eyes delving into hers. “Who says I’d do that to you, huh?”
She hung there, smack up against his rigid form and his probing cock. Without thought she wrapped her arms around him.
He grinned like a bear. “That’s right, darling. Hug me close.”
She pushed away.
But he yanked her back into his embrace. “Look at me. Admit you want me any way I want you.”
“That’s not true,” she objected, hating that she sounded like a little twit and sought to hold her own. “I don’t want you any way. I want you my way.”
His smile grew feral. “We’re a match then.”
She blew out a gust of air. “I’m not so sure of that.”
He shook her. “I aim to help you figure that out.”
“Smug bastard.” She circled around him and opened her door. Three feet inside she spun. He stood where she had left him. “All right, all right! Come in and say your piece like a civilized man. Then you can leave.”
He strolled in, shut the door behind him and faced her. Hooking his fingers in his belt loops, he seemed like a colossus to her. Barely tamed, hell-bent on bending her to his will, he zeroed in on her with narrowed eyes. “I have a proposal for you. If you agree, that is.”
Bind Me Close: 3 (Knights in Black Leather) Page 17