Beyond the misery of listening to old ladies negotiating the price of kitten plates, there was Kieran, dragging Nolan around the market in search of God only knew what. It didn’t matter what was for sale, Kieran just had to take a look. It was the same with yard sales, bake sales, any sort of event with the word sale in it; Kieran had to be there. He had some artistic idea that an object of inspiration would just jump out at him for his next painting or project. Why Kier felt the need to drag Nolan along, he’d never know. “I don’t obsessively go to the gym like you. My puny legs can’t take this pace.”
“Puny?” Kieran laughed, examining a creepy china doll that had hairline cracks throughout the skull. “Baby, please. Those legs were made for this pace and so much more.” Kieran’s hip bumped Nolan’s playfully, jostling the four bags of unnecessary crap he was carrying.
Nolan was about to respond with a lawyerly smart-ass remark when a feminine bell-like laugh, followed by a clearing throat, pulled their attention from their current stall. There she was, lovelier than ever, as if fate kept throwing her into their path just to remind them how much of a temptation she was. Long black hair pulled back in a neat braid. Eyes so blue they could have been a reflection of the deepest ocean. Pale skin and dainty, fine-boned hands holding a couple of wicker baskets. Lore was radiant, wearing a blue shirt and a floral-patterned skirt that fell to just above her knees. Nolan had never seen her in anything so casual before, aside from her postyoga gear that one time across the parking lot.
She had on strappy sandals, and her toenails were painted a dark blue. Seeing her with painted toenails made him smile, made him want to see more of these little hints of the private side of Lore Beyer. The woman liked to have her toenails painted. Maybe blue was her favorite color? What else did Lore Beyer do in her personal alone time?
“Am I interrupting something?” She grinned, nodding her head to where Kieran’s arm wrapped around Nolan’s hip.
“Lore!” Kieran shouted, rushing to engulf the poor woman in a massive hug. He released her to reveal she sported a neutral expression on a flushed face. How was the woman this good at concealing her emotions? It was almost as if she were some sort of treat dangling in front of Nolan’s face, daring him to break her barriers down. The teasing only spurred on his need to know her better. “What are you doing here?”
She held up her baskets. “The same thing you are, I imagine.”
Nolan chuckled, leaning forward to give her a kiss on the cheek in greeting. He kept his face close to hers as he spoke, wanting to see at least a hint of his actions affecting her. “Torturing your boyfriend by dragging him through a sea of old ladies and making him carry meaningless items meant to unnecessarily clutter your house?”
“Um, no.” She stepped back slightly, regaining her personal space. “I guess we’re not doing the same thing. I’m looking for some storage containers that don’t look like storage containers.”
“For cleaning out your folks’ house?”
“Yes. Anything I want to keep I need a place to put for a little while before re-sorting.” She tilted her head to the side curiously, raising her hand to keep the sun from her eyes. “Good memory, by the way.”
Nolan moved so his body blocked the sun, his taller figure casting a shadow to protect her eyes. “Well, it wasn’t too long ago you told me.”
“True, but not everyone pays close attention to those little details in meaningless conversations.” She smiled in thanks and gestured for them to walk with her down the aisles.
“No conversation with you could ever be meaningless,” Kieran said, wrapping her arm around his as they trailed in and out of the various stalls.
“Oh, please.” She tapped his cheek lightly in a flippant reprimand, her face kind yet chiding.
Kieran stopped her outside a tent on the far side of the lot. “C’mon, Lore, you can’t tell me you don’t know what power you have over a man.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She removed her arm from his, her eyes downcast. She was embarrassed by the attention. Nolan pressed the advantage of having her relatively removed from the crowds. The immensity of experiencing her here with them, just the three of them, was a little too tempting for his self-control to handle. He framed her face with his hands, marveling at the beautiful contrast in their skin tones and savoring the slight blush painting her cheeks.
“Your captivating eyes, plump lips made for kissing but so red they already look kissed. Skin like a blank canvas, waiting for the right man’s mark. Hair so long I could wrap it around my hand, use it to direct your head in the perfect angle for my mouth.” Something was happening. Her chest was beginning to rise and fall in a rapid pace, but her eyes were caught on his, unwavering. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“No.” She licked her lips. Nolan saw Kieran cage her from behind, his hands trailing down her neck and along her shoulders. She shivered at his touch.
“Do you like the things I’m saying to you?” Nolan whispered, breathing in the exotic scent of her. There was so much more to Lore than she let on. It was thrilling. Learning her and earning her trust would be a glorious adventure.
“Yes. But this is—”
“Don’t say ‘inappropriate,’” Kieran interrupted, wrapping his hands around her waist and trailing his lips down her ear. She was nearly panting now. “Do you know the reason why I always gravitated toward you in class to save me from the vulture’s unsavory interest?”
“No.” She gasped as his tongue flicked the edge of her ear, her fingers curling around Kieran’s hands along her abdomen.
“It’s because I was hoping you would show interest.” Kieran dipped his head once more, nibbling her skin along her neck. Nolan glanced around the shaded area where they had stopped. The back of a large tent was currently hiding them from view, but it could only take a lost senior citizen to wander over and break the sexually fueled mood their alone time had woven.
“Kieran, your boyfriend is—”
“Is under the same spell you’ve cast over me,” Kieran whispered in her ear, turning her head with a gentle tug to face him, their lips scant centimeters apart. “Who are you, Lore Beyer? What makes you tick? What stirs your blood to boil?”
Her gaze was on his lips. “Can’t a woman have any secrets?”
“We don’t want you to have secrets,” Nolan said, bringing his body in tight against hers, enjoying the delicate yet plush push of her breasts against his chest. She didn’t stop him. In fact, her fingers moved from Kieran’s hand to Nolan’s chest, tugging the cotton of his shirt tight in nervousness or frustration, Nolan couldn’t quite tell. Did she want to push them away or pull them in closer? “Not from us. We want to see you, all of you.”
“Tell us what you want,” Kieran whispered in her ear.
She looked lost, her eyes darting from Nolan and back to Kieran at a fevered pace. Her chest continued to heave, and she kneaded Nolan’s chest like a cat. They were moving too fast. Nolan had to remember she wasn’t like the other women they’d taken to bed. This concept was probably new to her, and they needed to back off, give her time to adjust to the definitive knowledge that they both wanted her.
“No,” Nolan said, shaking his head at Kieran to remove himself a bit. “Don’t tell us now. Tell us what you want when we take you to dinner tomorrow night. You confirmed. No backing out.” The men moved away from her, giving her the space she so desperately seemed to need. Nolan could see her wrapping her precious composure around her once more. He may have been willing to provide her with some breathing room, but he didn’t want to give her so much room she could distance herself again. “I can’t wait to see you all dressed up for us.”
“Who says I’ll dress up for you? It’s just dinner between acquaintances.” The little minx was trying to forget what had just happened between them, everything they had revealed to her.
“You know it’s more, Lore,” Nolan said, tugging Kieran in tight to his body and dipping his hand into the back poc
ket of Kieran’s jeans. He squeezed Kier’s ass, pushing the edge of his forefinger into the crease. Nolan was so turned on, and Kieran would be getting the brunt of his sexual frustration tonight. Kieran had barely said a word, but Nolan could see his large cock pushing at the zipper of his jeans. He couldn’t wait to fuck Kieran as they fantasized what it could be like to have Lore beneath them, between them. “You can try to hide what we do to you, but I’m not going to hide any of what you do to me. See you tomorrow.”
Chapter Eight
Sitting in her car outside the restaurant, Lore simply could not believe she was doing this. She could not believe she had spent hours primping, buffing, shaving, and polishing, something she had always rolled her eyes about when women would speak of their predate rituals. She also could not believe she had stared at her closet for a good hour that afternoon before deciding she had nothing to wear and running out the door to buy something new at the mall. But most of all, she could not believe she had agreed to this ridiculous get-together dinner with two of the most devastatingly handsome men she had ever met. Men who made her toes curl and heart beat in a warm, abnormal rhythm. Men she had let kiss and pet her, fuel her desire to a state of such agonizingly decadent lustful awareness, and in a public place. Even when she’d been a hormonal teenager, she had never experienced such butterflies in her stomach.
Perhaps it was because there were two of them that she felt such an unusual amount of tension. But no, that was a false assumption. If she had been in a room with just one of them, the effect would have been equally devastating. For some reason, even the idea of these men, individually or together, made her hands slick with sweat and her carefully constructed composure crumble in a haze of breathless need.
She could feel her blood pounding in her neck and wrists in the beginnings of a panic attack. She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t go out there and put her raw emotional state on display in such a shameless way. It would destroy the necessary distance she’d worked so hard to achieve. No. She was almost positive they hadn’t arrived yet. She could turn her car around and drive away, sending them a polite text saying she’d become sick on her way over. Not a complete lie as her stomach was churning as though she were on a roller coaster.
Taking out her phone and typing the text so she could just press Send after she had exited the parking lot, she spotted the framed family picture she’d removed from her father’s office, lying where she’d left it on the passenger seat. A rolling wave of anger threatened to break through her current panic and convince her to stay for dinner. She’d clung to the old resolution for years, and it had kept her strong and savvy, as she’d needed to be in order to survive. But this time, the resolution she’d clung to as a young girl was asking too much. Yes, Lore had made herself a promise all those years ago. But was it fair to deny herself any sort of pleasure in pursuit of the ridiculous standards she’d set in order to keep from becoming like her father? The resolution had been a lifeline; now it felt like the source of her drowning. But still—her fingers grazed the glass of the frame—it was so hard to let go.
A sharp knock on her window made her jump in her seat, her heart pounding, heavier and more intense than before. It almost hurt. She made sure her expression was impassive before looking to see who had yanked her from her thoughts.
Nolan grinned apologetically at her from the other side of the window, his teeth gleaming white in contrast to his dark and perfectly smooth skin. The amusement in his hazel eyes belied any regret at surprising her. Nolan waved for her to emerge from the car, but when she didn’t immediately respond, he frowned and opened the driver door for her. Why hadn’t it been locked?
“You all right in there, Lore?” He inclined his lean body over the door, one hand pressed against the roof for support. He wore a dark blue button-down shirt with gray slacks. The effect was simple yet profound, stirring the now familiar ache inside her.
“Yes,” she started, wondering if there was any possible way to get out of this dinner. Who cared about the resolution? Controlling this overpowering panic was more important. “I, um—”
“Well c’mon, then.” He reached over and unhooked her seat belt while simultaneously grabbing her grabbing her phone out of her hands and then dropping it in her purse before backing up to allow her room to exit. “Kier has a table ready for us.” He offered his hand in a gentlemanly way, waiting on her. “He had me come out to escort you inside.”
She held back a sigh, realizing she would just have to pull out all the stops to keep from turning into a puddle in their presence. “Right. Of course.” She smiled politely, taking his hand. “Thank you.”
After removing herself from the car and locking the door, she turned to look at him. In her heels she was almost at his height, possibly a few inches left between. But it wasn’t his height her mind was fascinated by at that moment. It was the heat in his eyes that increased as he shamelessly perused her body and the snug blue dress she’d chosen for the evening.
“You look stunning,” he said, connecting with her eyes once more. “A goddess in blue.”
“Please, Mr. Roscoe—”
“Lore.” His voice was almost hard, commanding. “None of that teasing. You call me Nolan tonight.”
“Or what?” Where the hell did that coy little question come from?
He grinned, licking his lips. Those lips were bitable. “Or I’m going to make sitting through this dinner excruciating by giving you a sore bottom.”
“That is—Mr. Ros— I mean, Nolan—”
“Relax, Lore.” He chuckled, shaking his head at her agitated state. “I’m teasing. Friends tease each other, you know.”
“You just told me not to tease. And are we friends?” She took the arm he offered. She could feel his muscles tensing underneath the fine fabric of his shirt.
“I would like us to be. Kieran is already obsessed with you. Always talking about how you save him from the yoga vultures.”
She smiled at that. “He just looked so pathetic the first time I spotted him trapped in their web; I couldn’t not help him.”
“Well, you are now officially his hero.”
“I’m flattered.” He opened the door for her, and she instantly spotted Kieran, his gleaming smile and adorably excited wave catching her attention from the far side of the dark restaurant. Nolan placed a hand on the small of her back, guiding her to the table. Her skin broke out in chills at the touch.
“Hello there. You look lovely,” Kieran said as he stood to give her a kiss on the cheek in greeting, his lips lingering slightly longer than what would be considered polite.
“Thank you,” she said, refraining from complimenting him on his gray shirt, vest, and slacks ensemble. If she stared any more at how good these men looked, she would begin to drool. She turned toward a chair, and all of a sudden they surrounded her. Nolan helped remove her light jacket, and Kieran pulled out her seat, her hand in his as he helped her into the chair.
“I’ve ordered us a bottle of white wine. Is that all right?”
“Yes. I…” She was incapable of any intelligent speech. Her nerves had taken over. They stared at her, waiting for an answer when the waiter fortunately arrived to pour the wine, giving her a blessed moment to compose herself.
After they sampled and approved of the crisp and clear wine, Kieran leveled his gaze on her. “So, Lore. Now that you are free of the shackles of your former employment and sitting pretty on what I hear is a sizable settlement, what are you going to do next?”
“With the money?”
“Yeah, what are your plans?” Nolan asked, his thumb and forefinger playing with the glass stem as he prepared to take a sip. “Vacation? Savings? New car?”
“I’m going to donate it.”
“What?” Nolan paused midtaste. “Donate all of it? To where?”
“To a women’s shelter in the nearby area,” she said with a smile, proud of what she had accomplished by bringing that pig man down. “I started this suit to shed light on an injusti
ce being forced on women that is all too common in workplaces and homes around the country. Men with power seem to instantly think they hold sway over those of the female persuasion who work beneath them. They think we will do anything to climb that corporate ladder, even if it means climbing into their laps.”
She looked up from buttering a piece of bread to see mildly shocked expressions on their faces. Perhaps a friendly dinner wasn’t the time to express her views on women being victimized in the workplace.
“I’m sorry, I—”
“Please. Don’t apologize for that. It was inspiring,” Nolan said, his shock turning into a smile as his hand came down over hers. “You’ll really give away all that money?”
“I don’t need it, so yes.”
Kieran placed his wine on the table, giving her his undivided attention. Even when he wasn’t smiling, she could still see hints of his dimples. “You’re unemployed now, though. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of nest egg?”
“Well, I didn’t even need the job to be honest.” She took a breath and forged ahead, feeling an unfamiliar need to let them into her life more than she had ever let anyone in before. It had been so long since she’d had the opportunity to speak about her life. Even though the reason for that was entirely her fault, it still felt miraculously freeing to tell these men at least some portion of her shadowed past. “My parents passed away last year and one of them left me a sizable inheritance. It actually came as quite a shock once I received it. It’s hard for me to stay at home doing nothing all day long, which is why I kept my job after their passing. I liked what I did, so it made sense.”
“I’m so sorry about your parents,” Kieran soothed, grasping her hand in comfort for a brief moment. “Do you have any siblings or other family to keep you company?”
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