by Sam Crescent
It didn’t work. The elevator doors closed just as she saw Jay rushing toward them. Tears filled her eyes, and she felt disgusted with herself. She’d almost caved even though she had heard them planning her own life.
“Baby, what’s the problem?” Richard asked.
He made to touch her. She flinched away from him, not wanting his hands on her.
“Shit, you don’t have to be afraid of me.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” She wiped the tears away, not wanting the memory of their touch.
The bad thing was she wanted it so bad, but she refused. She wasn’t going to allow herself to cave to two men.
“Which one of you came up with the idea?” she asked.
“Tempe?”
“No. I wanted to be alone, and you’ve forced your way into this elevator.” She looked at him. “Well, tell me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your apologies. I want to know what the hell you were both doing?” She kept her arms folded. “I heard everything. You were arranging my time. What I was going to being doing, and neither of you even gave a thought to ask me.”
“Do you want Jay?”
“No,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
She went to say yes, and stopped. Jay was her best friend.
He took a step toward her, and she backed away. The wall of the elevator stopped her from going anywhere else. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“I want you, Temperance. This thing between us, it has been building for some time. I also believe that you’ve got feelings for your best friend.”
“What does this have to do with anything?” She had put Jay in the best friend department. She didn’t want him that way, did she? No, it couldn’t be. He was a horn dog who treated women appallingly, yet she couldn’t deny the spark of arousal. Was that because of Richard though? “I care about Jay. I always have.”
“Are you in love with him?”
She paused, thinking about her feelings. “I don’t know.”
He captured her face. “You’ve been in my life for a long time, Tempe.”
“You’re my boss.” She couldn’t help but touch him, holding onto his sides.
“I want to be more.”
“You’re breaking your rules.”
“That I am. What I don’t want is for you to doubt what you want.”
Temperance stared at his chest, wondering what the hell he wanted from her.
The elevator door pinged open, and she turned to see Jay standing there, panting for breath. “Fuck me, I’m an accountant, I sit on my ass all day. I shouldn’t be forced to do this.”
She walked out of the elevator, already prepared to leave, but Richard caught her arm, stopping her.
“How about we go to breakfast and talk about this?”
“We could go back to our place,” Jay said.
“No,” she said. The last thing she wanted was to go back to her place as she would cave between the two of them. They would be naked in no time, and she wasn’t interested in getting naked just yet. “I’ll take breakfast. I’ve not eaten this morning.” She’d had every intention of no longer having a job at the end of the day. Richard had torn up her resignation.
“I want where we go to be safe where no one will be watching.” He pulled his cell phone out. “I’ve got the place, but I’m making sure I can take you two.”
Temperance frowned.
“Hey, Russ, how is Anna? Good, good. I’ve got to conduct a personal meeting in private, and I don’t want to risk the press catching sight of us. I wanted to make sure we didn’t have any security issues, or threats.”
She watched as he started to nod. Seconds later he hung up.
“We’re going to the club house. We can talk without the risk of being interrupted, and it offers us privacy.”
“A diner can do that.”
“Tempe, I’m a billionaire businessman surrounded by a lot of rumors. I’m not left alone.”
She’d never been to his clubhouse, and until recently she had kept her knowledge of his biking life a secret.
Richard grabbed her hand, and before she knew what was happening, she was in the passenger seat of his luxury car with Jay behind them. Richard was driving.
“Are you okay, Tempe?” Jay asked.
“Am I okay? Tell me, Jay, what do I have to be okay about?” She turned toward her best friend. “I heard you negotiated your terms of fucking use of me. How do you think I’m feeling? I’ll give you a clue. It’s far from okay.”
“I’m sorry,” Jay said.
“You’re feisty today,” Richard said.
“Don’t even start. I don’t want to talk to you.”
She never should have fucked her boss. That was the problem.
“You know most women are really happy to have two men chasing after them?”
Temperance laughed. “You’re not chasing after me though. You’re organizing when I’m allowed to spend time with you. You’re talking about sharing me, and even sharing me with both of you in the room. Do you know how absurd it sounds?”
“It doesn’t sound it to me, to be honest,” Richard said. “It’s quite common for two men to share a woman.”
“Maybe in porn—”
Richard shook his head. “It’s not just in porn. Jay wants you. I want you, and we both came up with an agreement to suit us.”
“So romantic. Get the girl by pushing her into a tight little schedule.” She was going to fall apart if she wasn’t careful.
“It’s not like that.”
“I’m sorry, but I just don’t see the romance of two guys setting out their week to have a woman in their life.”
“In our bed. We’re going to want alone time as much as time with you.”
Richard was like a completely different being from what she was used to. He never shared, and he never did anything like this as far as she knew.
“Have you shared many women?”
“I’ve shared some, never on a permanent basis. You’re also going to meet Anna. She told me you both spoke on the phone before.”
“Yes, we have.” She liked Anna. They had only ever spoken, but she seemed nice.
“You’ll like Anna. She’s a strong woman, and she’s pregnant right now. There’s a few complications, so don’t try to upset her.”
“I wouldn’t dream of trying to upset her.”
Temperance let out a breath, and she folded her arms, trying to rub the wet patch on her shirt. The last thing she wanted to do was enter a clubhouse with a clear nipple sucking mark.
You almost caved.
You wanted it.
She looked in the mirror and saw Jay staring at her. He gave her a reassuring smile, and she returned it with one of her own.
Letting out a breath, she ran fingers through her hair, which she’d left down. That morning, she’d woken up, gotten dressed, and gone straight to work without even trying to take care of her appearance. She figured Jay had left so they didn’t have that awkward after morning crap from the revelation of the night before.
He loved her, and Richard wanted her.
She had gone from no men wanting her to suddenly two wanting her.
It seemed almost too surreal to her to even think about it.
Staring out of the window, she watched the people they were driving by, wondering if they ever suffered, or were confused by what was going on.
“Tempe,” Jay said.
She looked at him, waiting. “Do you have any feelings for me?”
“You know I do, Jay.”
Richard cupped her knee, rubbing her flesh.
She found comfort in that touch, and she also found it in the way Jay squeezed her shoulder. Maybe they were right, and she needed to give them both a chance. This a chance.
Richard turned off on a busy road and went down a large parking lot. She was surprised by the security, but when she saw the other expensive cars, she knew they had come to what the rich consider
ed a clubhouse.
Her boss certainly lived a strange life.
“This is not what I imagined at all,” Jay said.
They all got out of the car.
Jay whistled at the cars. “Damn, are these all classics?”
“Yep,” Richard said. “This is what we love to spend our money on. That and other things of course.”
They made their way to the elevator, and he typed in a code.
“This is much better than the movies or television.”
“You can’t compare the two,” she said. “Richard is a billionaire, so everything has to be luxury, while the ones on television break the law. It’s small time stuff, or whatever.”
“I tell you, we can compete against some of the MCs out there. We just do everything a bit differently.”
“Do you break the law?” Jay asked.
“No.”
“Can I join?”
“Do you have a billion dollar company I don’t know about?” Richard asked.
“Nope.”
“Then no.”
“Wait, that you know about?” Jay asked.
“You ran a check on him, didn’t you?” she asked.
“I run checks on everyone. You know that.”
Richard stepped off the elevator first, and he held her hand.
They made their way into the main clubhouse, and came to a stop at the screaming they were greeted with.
Temperance paused, recognizing the fear and panic attack. She used to get them growing up, and her brother talking to her used to pull her out of them.
Taking in the room, she saw several large men were surrounding a woman who was gripping her head, screaming as she stared at them. Another man was kneeling beside her, trying to soothe her.
It was chaos everywhere.
Without even thinking, she grabbed the men and started tugging them away. “Leave her alone, move out of the way.”
“Temperance?” Richard said, trying to stop her.
“No, Richard, let her do this. She knows what she is doing.”
Grabbing the arm of the man who was kneeling, she forced him to move, and then, rushed to grab something to use as a marker, finding some lipstick.
The woman had started to go quiet.
“What is her name?” she asked.
“Mandy.”
Making sure there was enough space, Temperance marked the space in a semi-circle for the woman.
The woman was still whimpering, and she had now covered her face.
“It’s okay, Mandy. You’re in your safe place right now. Look, no one will cross this line right here.” She pointed at the dark red line that separated Mandy from them. “This is your space. No one will come near you. Mandy, it’s okay. Mandy, you’re safe now.” She kept repeating those words, keeping her voice steady. When someone behind her went to talk, she held her hand up, keeping up her calmness, not showing any sign of faltering.
Time passed, Temperance didn’t know how much, but Mandy stopped whimpering and her hands fell to her side.
The woman looked so pale, and so thin, so frail.
“Hello, Mandy, you’re safe here.”
“I’m safe here?”
“Yes, you’re safe here.”
“I don’t like being scared.”
“Me neither.”
“I don’t know you.”
Temperance nodded. “We don’t know each other. I’m Temperance.” She held her hand out but also made sure that she didn’t cross that line.
Mandy looked at her hand, and then at the carpet. “You made a mess of the carpet.”
“You needed your own space, and ta-da, I did it.” She did her best to comfort her. “When you’re ready to come out, you can.”
Temperance crawled away, keeping on level with the other woman.
Mandy looked past Temperance’s shoulder. “I did it again, didn’t I?”
“It’s okay.” A man who looked like he’d seen hell knelt back down again. “You have nothing to be afraid of, Mandy. The guys here, they all protect you.”
“I know. You helped get me out.”
Mandy got to her feet, and taking her time, Temperance stood.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Temperance.” Mandy stepped over the line and held her hand out. “I’m not usually so crazy.”
“No worries. I’m not usually so efficient with my ideas.”
The young woman was clearly fragile, and Temperance’s heart went out to her.
Chapter Six
Once Mandy had settled down, and Lewis had taken her to go see her therapist once again, Richard sat with Jay by his side, and Temperance sat opposite the two. The club brothers were leaving them alone, but Richard saw that Tina didn’t look happy.
“Will Mandy be okay?” Temperance asked.
“She will be.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Jay asked.
“I can’t say. It’s for security reasons, and Mandy needs to be protected now more than ever.”
“She looks like she’s seen death.”
He looked at Temperance. She did always seem to have a knack for reading people. “She hasn’t had it easy.”
“No shit,” Temperance said.
“How did you know to do that circle?”
She finished taking a sip of her water, and he saw her look over at the lipstick mark she’d made on the carpet.
Russ wasn’t even pissed. In fact all of the men, all of his brothers, were happy that she had done what needed to be done.
None of them had been able to deal with Mandy’s meltdown.
“When I was younger, I used to suffer with severe panic attacks. I was bullied throughout school, and my parents didn’t know how to stop it. Nothing helped, facing the bullies, or even having my brother or Jay fight people at school. So Bryan, my brother, he created the ring of protection. I don’t know if it’s a medical thing or not. I just know it always worked. Every time I was in that ring, nothing could harm me. Once I got older, the ring was imaginary, and I’ve not had many panic attacks since.”
“I never knew that.”
“It wasn’t something you needed to know.”
“You’ve shared it with Jay.”
“He was there with me. I’ve not shared it with Jay. He was there, so it’s different.” She tucked some of her blonde locks behind her ear. She didn’t have a clue how beautiful she was, and he found that even more charming.
Luna came out, carrying a couple of stacks of pancakes. “Please let me know if you want anything else. I can’t do much, but I do pancakes well.”
Richard smiled at her. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Enjoy.”
They were left alone in privacy, which was what he wanted.
“This is a nice place,” Jay said.
Richard served them out putting pancakes on each other their plates.
“Let’s get down to business,” Richard said. He picked up his fork and got a bite ready. “I want you, Temperance, and the way you lit up in my arms, you want me as well. Listen.” She went to speak, so he silenced her with one word and a look. “I want you, and so does Jay. You’re not sure what you want.”
“Do you want me, Tempe?” Jay asked.
She sighed. “I don’t know. This is hard for me, okay? I’ve never considered something like this, not at all.”
“I can appreciate that.” Jay agreed with her.
“You’re both wanting a relationship with me?” She looked from one to the other.
“That is the catch, yes,” Richard said. “We want time of our own, and also sharing time.”
“This is sharing time?”
“Saturday and Sunday, and Wednesday.” She rubbed at her temple, and Richard reached out, taking her hand. “It doesn’t have to be complicated.”
“This is not the norm.”
“Who gives a shit about the norm?” Jay said. “I don’t care what others think. I’ve been using a multiple of women to try and get over you, Tempe. It’s
not working. You’re the woman I want, the woman I love. He’s not on the same page as me yet, but he will be. You’re too good of a woman not to love.”
“You’re going to make this harder for me, aren’t you?”
“Yep. I’m not going to make it easy. I know what I want, and you know what you want, and we both want you. You want us,” Jay said.
Richard watched Temperance’s reaction throughout Jay’s little outburst. She was fighting her own beliefs that a relationship was between two people.
She took a bite of the pancake, and he saw it was difficult for her to eat. “I can’t deny that I do want both of you. Everything is happening so fast. Do you think we could slow it down a little?”
“How?”
“Maybe we could date, and not expect anything. Take a break on the sex, and just, I don’t know, see if this can work. I don’t want to start something that is not right for us.”
“Sure,” Jay said.
Richard sat back. “No sex?”
“I’m not comfortable having sex with either of you, and then with both of you.” She squirmed in her chair.
“It makes you horny though, thinking about us all together,” Richard said.
“What woman wouldn’t? You’re both sexy men. I just, I can’t commit to something like that. I need a little time.”
“We can give you time,” Jay said. “How about tonight? We can all go out on a date. What about going to a couple of clubs?”
Richard liked that idea. “Blake, one of the brothers, he owns some nightclubs, and has a section for special VIPs. I can get us in, and we won’t be disturbed either.”
Temperance bit her lip.
“Think about it, Tempe, we can have some fun. We’re not going to rush into anything. We can take our time getting to know each other,” Jay said.
He saw her thinking about it, and knew he just needed to wait for her to make a decision. She looked so sexy and out of place in the club. Instead of looking like his rather prim and proper PA, she looked like a sexy librarian who had taken turns going through the shelves.
“Okay. I’d like that.”
Richard had no doubt it wouldn’t be long before they moved forward, and he was bedding her. He even believed he’d get along with Jay.
****
Sharing Temperance.
Taking their time to love her, together.