Ways in the Guardian: A Menage Romance Book Collection

by Barbara Downey

  “Luke,” I breathed, mostly because his weight was pushing all the air from my lungs. “I’m too small for this.”

  He laughed against my neck and rolled onto the bed beside me, both of us fighting to catch our breath. As I lay there with Luke on my left, the concern I had before this seemed to dissipate. Maybe I was being selfish, but there was nothing wrong with a little fun as long as we didn’t let feelings get in the way.

  The alarm beside my bed was already set for the next morning so I just snuggled under my comforter ready to fall asleep. Luke shuffled on the mattress beside me, my eyes opening just enough to see him sit up on the edge of the bed.

  “Do you want me to leave?” he asked, turning over his shoulder to look at me.

  At that point, I was tired enough to just shake my head and pat the bed where he was previously lying. He chuckled quietly and climbed back under the covers, pulling me against his side as we fell asleep.

  *****

  The next morning, I woke up to my alarm and promptly shut it off, wanting to just stay in bed all day. But I had a case going on and I needed to work, so I scrambled out of bed and went straight to the bathroom for a shower. I didn’t even think twice about my clothing – or lack thereof – until I was wrapped in a towel and stepped back into my bedroom to see Luke stretching his arms and groggily smiling when he saw me.

  Oops.

  “I have to be at work at nine but you can stay for breakfast if you want,” I said. I grabbed my pencil skirt and white button-up to get dressed but as I started walking back to the bathroom to change, Luke spoke up with, to my dismay, a very good point.

  “Why are you getting dressed in the bathroom? I’ve already seen everything,” he smirked.

  I replied with my usual response of rolling my eyes at him but dropped the towel anyway and pulled all my clothes on. When I looked back up, Luke had his bottom lip between his teeth and his eyes roamed up and down my body again before he leaned back on the mattress with his arms propped behind his head.

  “I could get used to this,” he smirked.

  “Don’t,” I laughed with a roll of my eyes. “Now get up. I’m going to put on my makeup and I’ll start making breakfast.”

  That was enough for him to jump out of bed and pull on his boxers before moving to lounge in the kitchen for a minute. Once my makeup was finished and all the marks on my neck were covered about 10 minutes later, I met Luke in the kitchen, only to find he was not alone.

  “Jess, hey,” I murmured when I saw my best friend and coworker sitting next to my nearly-naked almost-step-brother.

  “I see our little talk ended well,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows as Luke scrolled through his phone.

  “Wait, what talk?” he asked. He looked at Jess first and let his gaze rest on me for an answer. “Oh, this is Jess! She’s the one who knows, right?”

  “Yeah,” I replied quietly. I made my way over to the fridge to grab something for a quick breakfast. “What are you doing here, by the way?” I asked Jess.

  “I thought I’d bring you this,” she said, setting a venti Starbucks cup in front of me, “since you have that meeting with those awful parents today. I didn’t expect you to have company.”

  “You can’t tell anyone, okay?” I groaned. “We have it all figured out but we don’t want anyone to know.”

  “I couldn’t care less,” Luke shrugged.

  “Okay, I don’t want anyone to know. Promise?” I turned to Jess and she nodded with a smile, holding her pinky out in an age old pinky-promise. I smiled in return and wrapped my pinky around hers.

  “I’m going to talk to you about this though,” she said, pointing to Luke beside her. “I’ll leave you two alone now. See you at work!”

  “She seems nice,” Luke said once the front door was shut.

  “Did you let her in?”

  He shook his head. “She knocked twice and walked right in.”

  “Okay, well next time you’re here and someone knocks, maybe try to hide,” I told him. “I know you don’t care but I’d still rather keep us private.”

  “Whatever you say, boss,” he replied, kicking his feet up on the seat beside him.

  I made Luke leave my place at the same time I did because, even though we had this arrangement, I didn’t want someone else alone in my apartment. He offered to get me a cab to work and while I usually wouldn’t accept, I knew he could afford it. So, instead of the bus, I took a cab to work.

  When I walked into work, I still had about an hour until the custody hearing so I hurried to my little office and started filing everything together. Much like at my apartment, Jess knocked twice on my office door and waltzed right in.

  “I’m getting ready for that case. Can it wait?” I asked. Half of the documents I needed were on my slow-as-fuck computer and I still had to print all of them off, meaning I would probably need the entire hour.

  “No,” she said, sitting in the seat across from me. At least my printer was in my office.

  I turned my attention to my computer as we spoke so she knew I wasn’t avoiding things when I said I was busy. “Is this about Luke?”

  “Yes, it’s about Luke!” she nearly squealed. “Tell me everything.”

  I rolled my eyes and waited for my printer to start spitting out documents. “I don’t know what there is to tell. I just decided you were both right and it could be fun, so we made an agreement to only mess around until our parents got married and then we’d look for something serious with other people. We’re just having a good time.”

  “I don’t care about that,” she said, waving her hand around. “I mean, what’s he like in bed?”

  “Jesus, Jess,” I groaned. “I’m not talking to you about that here.”

  “Yes, you are. Is he big? Is he any good? Of course he’s good, why would you keep this up if he wasn’t? Does he dirty talk or is he more of a moaner?”

  “Jess!” I shouted, snapping her out of her rambling. “Not. Here. We’ll get coffee or something after work to talk about my sex life.”

  That was enough to get her out of my office while I continued prepping for the custody battle about to happen.

  I was a mess. The couple I had to work with hated each other’s guts, making both lawyers wish we had taken something boring like a contract signing instead of the custody fight. They wouldn’t stop yelling at each other over who would be a better parent, while the father’s lawyer and I just stared at each other in shared annoyance and empathy at what we were experiencing.

  Getting out of that meeting with a final agreement was all I needed for the day. Well, I wouldn’t have minded a couple shots of tequila to ease my simmering annoyance but having a little time to organize my old case files was good enough for me.

  Until the secretary called into my office. “There’s a man named Luke here to see you,” she said.

  “Jesus Christ,” I mumbled before pressing the speaker button on my desk phone. “Send him in.”

  Seconds later, the tall, blond man I had come to know so well walked through the door with a folder in his hand. “Hey. Fancy seeing you here.”

  “You really shouldn’t be coming to my work place,” I grumbled, continuing to stack folders in my filing cabinet.

  “I actually need your help,” he said. “Well, kind of.”

  “With what?” I asked, intrigued.

  “I got an offer to do commercials with an insurance company but I didn’t want to sign the contract without a lawyer looking over it first. You were the first person to come to mind,” he smiled.

  “Don’t you have a team lawyer or something?” I grabbed the folder from his hand and looked over the contract.

  “Yeah, but he’s not as fun as you.” I looked up at him from under my lashes and shook my head at that damn smirk again.

  He sat in silence while I looked over the contract, only responding when I asked him how he felt about some of the things the contract said he may have to do. It only took about 10 minutes and a couple small mo
difications before Luke signed the contract and was set to be on his way.

  Except he didn’t leave.

  He stayed seated in the chair across from me with a blank expression.

  “You can leave whenever you want,” I said, implying he should leave then.

  Instead, he stretched his legs out and leaned back in the seat, making himself more comfortable so he could stay longer. “I don’t have practice today so I might just hang out here for a while.”

  I rolled my eyes for what felt like the thousandth time that day before going back to organizing my cases by type and time. Luke sat silently in his seat, presumably occupying himself on his phone while I was busy. At least, that’s what I thought until he walked up behind me and pressed his front to my back.

  “You seem really tense right now,” he said quietly, running his hands up and down my arms.

  My breath caught in my throat at his touch but I realized my office was the last place we should do anything. “I had a stressful case this morning, that’s all.” He moved my hair off my shoulder and pressed his lips to my neck, softly trailing kisses on the sensitive, lightly darkened skin he marked the night before.

  “I can help you relax a little bit,” he murmured. One of his hands moved down my front and slipped under the elastic band of my skirt. My mind was whirring at the thought of having him on my desk – until I remembered where we were.

  I gently pushed him back and caught my breath. “Not here, Luke. The door isn’t even locked.”

  He took this as an invitation and walked across the room, flicking the lock on my door and pulling me to straddle his legs on the black leather seat. As much as I knew we shouldn’t be doing this at my workplace, I didn’t have any more cases for the day and didn’t have anything coming up soon so part of me said it wasn’t a problem. The door was locked and if anyone asked why, I could say we were going over the contract and had to make some changes.

  No harm, no foul.

  The adventurous side of me took over and I pressed my lips to Luke’s, his hands pushing my skirt up my legs until it pooled at my waist. “You have to stay quiet,” I whispered.

  “It’s not me I’m worried about,” he smirked. His fingers slipped under my panties and he ripped them in half – downside to fucking a professional linebacker.

  “Luke!” I whisper-shouted, knowing I had to keep my voice down.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll buy you a new pair.” He pressed his lips to mine again and moved one hand between my legs. I quietly moaned against his lips when he slipped one finger inside me and slowly pumped and curled it until he felt I was properly ready for him.

  Since we were technically in public, we couldn’t strip down like we usually would, but he unzipped his jeans and pressed the tip of his cock to my folds. I rolled my hips against him but waited for him to take it further. I bit my bottom lip when he pushed himself up off the chair, sliding into me easily. He wrapped both arms around me and held me still while his hips pounded against my ass. Luke was right when he said he wasn’t the one who was going to be loud. He was mostly letting out breathless groans and quiet sighs but I had to bite his shoulder to keep from making too much noise.

  One hand was wrapped behind his neck, my nails slightly digging into the skin with my teeth scraping against his shoulder. He started moving a little faster at the nip of pain and a small rush of pride ran through me at knowing of one of his weaknesses. His rough palm ran down my back and gripped my ass to help move me on top of him. The thought of getting caught and knowing my coworkers were right outside the door helped push me over the edge. My teeth dug into his shoulder a little more as I held back any noise, my body shaking with the rush of my orgasm.

  Luke let his head fall back against the chair as his movements got even sloppier until he stilled completely, his chest heaving with the exertion. I bit back a disappointed moan when I climbed off of him and readjusted my skirt, letting him reorient himself as well.

  He just sat in the chair for a minute with a sated look on his face. I leaned against my desk and caught my breath for a second before walking forward to kiss his lips. Without a word, I walked back to my filing cabinet and went back to organizing things like before. We weren’t in private in a bed so there was no point trying to sleep or cuddle or anything. Luke remained sitting for a while until he stood and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

  “I’m going to head out now. If you want me to come over or if you wanted to come over, just text me.

  “Okay,” I smiled as he walked to the door.

  Before he flipped the lock back, he turned towards me with that signature smirk. “Wear that skirt to the next family dinner.”

  I rolled my eyes at him but smiled anyway. He threw me a wink before he walked out with his contract in hand. Less than five minutes later, Jess ran in with a huge smile on her face.

  “You two totally just fucked, didn’t you?”

  *****

  Luke and I kept our tryst going for another three months, usually spending every other night with each other. Sometimes he’d visit at work or I’d stop by after practice and wait until the locker room was empty. Our parents seemed elated that we were practically best friends but they were still clueless about us having a quickie in his car after dinner every now and then.

  Before we could really brace ourselves, our parents’ wedding day was upon us. I was my mom’s maid of honor and Luke was his dad’s best man, so we were the last to walk down the aisle before my mom, escorted by her brother.

  Luke was dressed to the nines in his black tux while I stood across from him in my light pink bridesmaid dress. Mike looked so happy when he saw my mom walk through the church doors and make her way down the aisle. Even I started tearing up a little bit. I was so happy for her and proud of her for finding a stand-up guy like Mike.

  The ceremony went flawlessly and, before long, the bridesmaids and groomsmen were piling into a limo for the trip to Mike’s house for the reception. They had a small stage for the band and toasts surrounded by tables for all the guests. A smaller makeshift stage was set to the side for dancing and the entire thing was beautiful.

  When everyone stood to dance after dinner, Luke and I gravitated towards each other at the edge of the floor.

  “So I guess this is the end for us, huh?” he said, giving me a sad smile.

  “I guess,” I replied quietly.

  I shuffled my feet a bit until Luke spoke up again. “I really care about you, Josie. And before you say I can’t catch feelings, I’m not in love with you. But I do really care about you and our time together was amazing,” he smiled, shoving his hands in his pockets.

  I took a deep breath and turned to face him so I couldn’t back out. “Here’s the thing: I really care about you too and I’ve had a lot of fun these past few months. So what if we keep this up a bit?” His expression turned to a mixture of confusion and surprise, but I continued explaining so he’d understand. “I’m not saying we start dating or anything, but what if we keep doing what we’re doing for a bit? If we can’t be each other’s happily-ever-after, why not be each other’s happy-for-now?”

  He bit his lip in thought and I was already hoping he’d agree because all I wanted to do was wrap my own teeth around his lip. He turned to face me directly and held a hand out for me to dance with him. He didn’t respond, he just silently asked for a dance. I accepted but gave him a confused look.

  “I think that’s a great idea,” he finally said. “Now I just have one question for you.” I looked at him expectantly and he leaned down so his mouth was closer to my ear and no one would over hear him say, “What do you say we go find a closet inside?”

  THE END

  See the next bonus story at the next page!

  24 of 25 Bonus Stories

  Sexy Hornets

  “I'm not missing the game for anything,” Tara said at the top of her voice, over the roar of the engine as she pushed the lawn mower over the grass.

  “As you please, girl, just make s
ure that you get the work here done before you go for the football match,” her mother shouted back at her. “I have left some money in the kitchen that you can use so that you don’t max out your credit card.”

  “Thanks, Mom, I love you,” Tara Banks said to her mother, wondering what she would do without her.

  She listened to her mother’s heels clicking away as her mother headed out to the front of the house and moments later she heard her vehicle firing to life before the car drove off. Tara continued mowing the grass, wondering how the football match would go. Her favorite team was playing and she was hoping that they were going to win. She had been a football fan from the time that she had been in college. She had played the game a little back then but had given up after it had become too strenuous for her. She had, however, remained a great fan and had even become a fan of the women that actually played the game. Nowadays, one of the main reasons that she went to the matches was to watch the women, more than to watch the actual game. Tara particularly liked one of the women on the team that she supported even though she could not understand how she liked her.

  Being a twenty-year-old woman, Tara had never been in love. As a matter of fact, she had never shown any sexual interest in men but, instead, found herself more attracted to women. She at times wondered if maybe she was a lesbo although she really did not know. It was something that she was going to have to try to discover if she got the chance. It was already hard enough seeing the way that most of her friends went around bragging about their boyfriends and the explosive sex that they’d had.

  The sound of booming music approaching told her that her friend, Amanda Stern, was coming to visit her. She quickly finished mowing the grass and was just in the process of removing her gloves when Amanda and yet another of her friends, Tanya, walked around the house to where she was.