by Zara Chase
“Anyway, we knew you wouldn’t just accept an apology,” Zac said. “We also knew you needed to make a success of the Mansell thing and put Jason behind you once and for all. He’d sapped your self-esteem and the ability to think for yourself. So we decided to make ourselves known to Mansell.”
“Just like that?”
Zac shrugged. “Sure, it wasn’t hard to track him down.”
“That’s where you’ve been these past couple of days?”
“Right. He phoned me when people started cancelling.”
“He should have phoned me.”
“I told him not to bother because there wasn’t any need,” Zac said easily. “It never looks good when people get last-minute invites. They know it’s only because others have cancelled. Anyway, I made Mansell aware that I’d buy enough of his pictures to make this a success—”
“You did that for me?” Justine seriously thought she’d misheard him. Her mouth fell open and she thought she might actually cry. “No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.”
“Well,” Cody said easily, “as grand gestures go, it was pretty extreme, but then, you know this guy.” He waved at Zac. “Never one to do things by halves.”
“It needed to be something definitive because you’re worth it to us, babe.”
“Thank you.” The words seemed so inadequate. “But do you even like Mansell’s work?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good. I like it, too, but it’s not to everyone’s taste.”
Zac fixed her with a heavy gaze. “Even if I hadn’t liked it, I’d have bought it anyway.” He paused significantly. “For you.”
“Oh.”
Justine shook her head, unsure what else to say. As though sensing her confusion, Zac spoke again.
“I didn’t want the stickers to go up immediately. Jason needed to think that he’d won.”
Justine gaped at them. “I still can’t get my head round the fact that you did all this for me. Why?”
“Because we upset you.”
Justine laughed. “Remind me to get upset more often.”
“Because we don’t want you to leave, because Jason’s a bastard and because—”
“And because,” Zac said, talking across Cody, “we want you to play with us some more.”
“What do you mean?”
Zac sat beside her and took her hand in his. “Cody persuaded you to join us in bed because he thought I was upset about my mom, right?” Justine nodded. “About the things she said to me.”
“That’s understandable. I mean—”
“That’s bullshit, is what it is. She didn’t say anything much that made sense. Kept rambling on, thinking she was still in the eighties. Well, you heard what she was like when you joined me.”
Cody scratched his head. “Yeah, but I guess I thought she didn’t want to discuss anything personal in front of us. And what with you being so tight-lipped—”
“Sorry, I should have made myself clear at the time, buddy.” Zac sucked in a deep breath. “Mary Elizabeth’s brain is well and truly fried. It was a bit of a shock seeing her for the first time, but I can’t honestly say I felt any great connection with her. More just sadness for what might have been. Obviously, it gave me a lot to think about, which is why I might have been a bit withdrawn.”
“But you’re not traumatised by the experience?” Justine suggested. She found it difficult to imagine anything traumatising a tough guy like Zac but felt the question needed to be asked.
“Not in the least.” He released her hand and stretched his arms above his head. “I’ll probably visit her occasionally, and I’ll pay her fees, but that’s it.”
“Your grandmother should have told you.”
“I thought that originally, but now I’m starting to think she got it dead right.”
Justine, imbued with fresh confidence, lifted one hand and gently traced the curve of his face. “Well, I’m glad Cody got it wrong. It gave me a perfect excuse to play along.”
“But you went all cold on us afterward,” Cody reminded her.
“Because…well, because I thought I was just helping you out. I didn’t want to get emotionally involved.”
“Too late for that, at least as far as we’re concerned,” Cody said.
Justine gasped. “What do you mean?”
Cody took the seat on her opposite side. “What we’ve been trying to tell you this last half hour. We want you to stay here with us.”
Justine quirked a brow. “Keep working for you, you mean?” Both men nodded. “Thanks, but I don’t think I can.”
“Why the hell not?” Zac asked.
Justine paused. To tell the truth would be to humiliate herself. They’d laugh at her. But did she want to revert to the downtrodden serf who’d do or say anything to keep a man happy? Hell no! Besides, after what these two had done to restore her self-confidence, they deserved the truth.
“It was one thing having fun with you both, but I can’t do this no-strings bit.” She shook her head. “Not anymore.”
“Why?” they asked together, smug expectancy in their expressions.
“Because I want there to be strings,” she said, looking first Zac and then Cody squarely in the eye.
As expected, they both laughed at her. She blushed but refused to back down, and stared rigidly in front of her.
“Look at me, babe,” Zac said in a tone of soft command. Reluctantly, she did so. “Cody and I are free spirits—”
“Precisely my point. I’m being stupid. Anyway, it’s not possible to feel the same way about two men at once. It’s just plain greedy.”
“How about if those two men returned your feelings?”
“Don’t taunt me, Zac,” she snapped.
“We’re deadly serious,” Cody said.
Justine glanced at him, and it seemed from the determined set to his features that he really was. But she knew better than to be taken in by a sincere expression. Jason had manipulated her in precisely that manner, and she wouldn’t fall for it a second time. Zac stood in front of her so that she was obliged to look at him.
“Our roaming days are over,” he said, looking as sincere as Cody. “We want you, and only you, in our lives.”
“For how long?” she asked faintly. “You’d be bored within the week.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself,” Zac said. “We’ve been around the block a few times and know what we want in a woman.”
“And you’re it,” Cody added.
Justine shook her head. “I just don’t get it. There’s nothing special about me.”
“That you think so is partly what makes you special,” Zac said. “You’re feisty, intelligent, have a great body, and you give your car a name and talk to it.”
“Him,” she corrected absently.
“Sorry, him.” Zac smiled into her eyes. “What more could two guys want?”
“You’re actually serious.”
“Never more so.” Zac pulled her to her feet and into his arms. “Live here with us, babe. You won’t regret it, I promise you. There’s tons of stuff you can help us with by day and, as for the nights—”
“But you live in America.”
“Sure, we’re Yanks, but we kinda like it here and plan to be here a lot.”
“And when you’re not?”
“You have a passport, don’t you?” Cody said, grinning at her.
“Yes, but—”
“You don’t have to decide immediately,” Zac said. “We know what we want, but we’ll understand if you need time to think about it. It’s all happened so fast, and I’m not sure you’re over the jerk yet.”
“Oh, I’m over him,” Justine said, flinging her arms round Zac’s neck. If they were so sure, who was she to put up obstacles? She loved them both, and, incredible though it seemed, she knew that feeling was reciprocated. “Where do we start?”
“By finding out what you’ve got on under that dress,” Cody said, running a hand over her ass. “The
question’s been plaguing us both all night.”
“Feast your eyes, boys,” she said, pulling down the zipper and stepping out of the dress when it pooled round her feet.
Justine’s emotions went off the scale when she saw the deep appreciation in their expressions. Perhaps her body wasn’t so very bad after all.
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zara Chase is a British author who spends a lot of her time travelling the world. Being a gypsy provides her with ample opportunities to scope out exotic locations for her stories. She likes to involve her heroines in her erotic novels in all sorts of dangerous situations—and not only with the hunky heroes whom they encounter along the way. Murder, blackmail, kidnapping and fraud—to name just a few of life’s more common crimes— make frequent appearances in her books, adding pace and excitement to her racy stories.
Zara is an animal lover who enjoys keeping fit and is on a one-woman mission to keep the wine industry ahead of the recession.
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