Jake nodded. “Fair enough.” He slipped into his boxers and then his jeans. He was just buttoning his shirt when a sharp knock came at the door. Reaching over, he opened it. “Hey.”
Luc and Carter made their way in, slowly, as if Eva was a snake getting ready to strike. “So?” Luc said.
“She wants to talk about it,” Jake explained.
Eva blew out a breath. “Can you guys sit down? This feels so weird. With all three of you here there’s hardly room for oxygen.”
Jake sat in the guest chair where his clothes had been, and the other two guys climbed up on opposite ends of the massage table. Eva remained standing. “You work fast,” Carter murmured to Jake, who shrugged.
Luc started the conversation. “I think you know now that all three of us are interested in you.” Eva nodded and Luc continued. “We aren’t looking for a one-time fuck. If we were we wouldn’t do that with someone classy like you anyway, and we haven’t done it at all for a while now. It’s lost its appeal. I won’t say we never did, but lately the three of us have been looking for something different. Something more.”
“More?” Eva repeated.
Jake broke in. “We’re all getting a little older, some more than others.” He raised an eyebrow in Carter’s direction, but his friend just grinned. “Being with different girls all the time no longer interests us.”
“And we like you,” Carter added.
Eva looked from one to the other. “So you’re asking for more than a one-time thing?” The men nodded and Jake watched as she swallowed, before shaking her head slightly and re-focusing on them. “I need to think about it. Like I told Jake, I had some ménages a trois with my ex-boyfriend, and I know how hot it can be to have more than one guy zeroing in on your pleasure, but three? I mean, how would we manage it? Would I still see you separately?”
“If you want to see us separately as well as together we can work something out. This is a first for us, too, baby,” Luc answered. “But we want you and we’ll do everything in our power to make this thing work. You just have to trust us.”
“I do trust you. That’s not the problem. It’s all just a little overwhelming.”
Carter got down from the table and approached Eva slowly. “We know that, chica. We won’t rush you.” He ran the pad of his index finger down her cheek and Jake watched as her eyes closed. “Take your time.”
“But we do want to leave you with one thing,” Jake added.
Her eyes snapped open. “What?”
“This.” He and Luc rose, and the three of them surrounded her, Jake with his hands on her shoulders, Carter’s right below her breasts, and Luc’s on her hips. They each leaned in to nuzzle a different area. “We can make you happy.” He nodded at the other guys, and with a final caress, each stepped away. Jake turned toward the door.
“Wait. Don’t you want your massage?” Eva asked him.
Jake shook his head. “I’ll still pay you for the time, though. Take the hour to think.” Eva protested, but he pressed a hundred in cash into her hand. “Take it. You shouldn’t be penalized financially because of our timing in bringing things up.”
She took the money reluctantly and each man kissed her lightly on the lips before leaving. Once outside, they looked at each other. “Now what?” Carter asked.
“Now we wait.”
Chapter Three
Eva stared at the door for a good long time before she was able to pull herself out of her lust-hazed stupor and strip the massage table. She threw the sheets into the washer along with the other sets from that day and turned it on by rote before returning to her room. Flopping back in her desk chair, she spun it around and laid her head back to look up at the ceiling.
I haven’t had a date in months with how busy I’ve been, and now three gorgeous, hunky guys all want to be with me. At the same time.
“Who does that?” she asked out loud to no one. She hadn’t been lying when she’d said she’d had threesomes. It had been while she was an undergrad at the local state university, back when she’d thought a career in Corporate America would make her happy. Her boyfriend at the time had this hot roommate, and one night while she and Sam had been making out on the couch he came home unexpectedly.
They’d been so involved in each other they hadn’t even heard him as he’d sat down to watch, but when he’d moaned as he’d fisted his cock, her boyfriend had looked over and smiled at him. She’d been a little tipsy, and when Sam rose from the couch, leaving her naked body exposed to his roommate’s hungry gaze, rather than shrieking and trying to cover herself she’d crooked a finger at his roommate. And that had been an incredible night, followed by several other incredible nights, which made the thought of three guys very intriguing. Very intriguing indeed, and about the only thing she’d been able to think about over the past couple of weeks.
The only thing that gave her pause was the possibility that something would go wrong. All three guys came in regularly, and losing them as customers would hurt. But hell, she was overbooked right now, so not having them on her client roster wouldn’t kill her, exactly. It’s not like her business couldn’t handle the loss of clients. That sort of thing was inevitable when you were a massage therapist. At least she owned the practice and could set her hours to her liking. She enjoyed working for herself, by herself, and knew she’d never be happy in one of those big practices. She would miss the guys if they didn’t come to see her anymore, though, that was for sure.
Eva turned her chair around in a circle slowly with her foot as she contemplated. Was she really going to do this thing? She needed someone else’s opinion. Spinning back to face the desk, she lifted the receiver of her office phone and dialed her friend Louisa. Louisa had gotten Eva her first official massaging job in the salon where Louisa did manicures and pedicures. The two had been friends for a couple of years, and she knew Louisa would give her good advice.
Louisa picked up, and Eva said, “Hey, girl!”
“Hey! How are you? Busy still?”
“Yeah, but I think I need a girls’ night. What are your plans for tonight?”
“I don’t have anything planned. You all right?”
“Yeah. Just working a lot. And I want to talk to you about something.”
“Okay. Meet at Cozumel?”
“Oh, man, margaritas sound divine. I can go home and shower and change and meet you in an hour if that works for you.”
“Perfect. I was just cleaning up.”
They met a little while later and settled into a back booth at their favorite Mexican restaurant. Eva swirled a straw absentmindedly around her frozen raspberry margarita and then figured she might as well go for it. “So you know how some of the Intimidators are clients of mine?”
“Yeah. I’ve seen one or two leaving your office on my way in.”
“Well, they kind of…propositioned me today.”
Louisa leaned forward. “What do you mean, they propositioned you?”
“Have you heard anything about the sexual proclivities of the team?”
“Like what?”
“It’s becoming more well known that many of them like to share women.”
Louisa’s mouth dropped open. “As in like, one woman has sex with more than one of them?”
“Exactly.”
“And that’s what they want from you? How many of them?”
“Basically, yes. And three of them.”
Louisa’s cheeks flushed and Eva had to hold back a smile. “All that hockey player hunk focused on me? Where do I sign up?”
“I don’t know, because I didn’t sign up. It just kind of happened.”
“How does something like that just happen?”
Eva waved her hand. “I dunno. It was like they got together this morning and decided to all hit on me today. By the time Jake got there and started in I was pretty suspicious, jumpy as hell, and totally turned on.”
“What did you say?”
“They told me not to say anything, to think about it.”
“And?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you think I should do it?”
“Well, duh!”
Eva chuckled. “I didn’t expect you to be quite so enthusiastic.”
“You don’t have any attachments or anything right now.” Louisa shrugged and took a sip of her margarita. “What’s holding you back from saying yes?”
“The fact that if something goes wrong I might lose three lucrative clients has crossed my mind.”
Louisa tipped her head to the side, chewing her bottom lip. “True. But if you all go into it knowing the score, what’s the worst that can happen? And besides, didn’t you just tell me you were turning down clients because there weren’t enough hours in the day to see them all? So even if you lose these guys your business won’t really suffer.”
“That’s true. It’s just…I feel weird kind of for not feeling weirder about this.”
Louisa’s eyebrows drew down. “Come again?”
“This should freak me out, right? Instead all it does is make me want to track them down and have my wicked way with them, right now. All three of them, all at once.”
“So do it. Who cares what anybody else thinks? You’re young, Eva. Have fun while you can. And if they’re good in bed you can find out if they’ll hook me up with some of their teammates.” She grinned and Eva had to laugh. Louisa was a kook, but Eva loved her dearly. Many people would think Louisa didn’t have a serious thought in her head, but Eva had found her to be calm and level-headed anytime the situation warranted it. Louisa believed in living life to the fullest and in not being encumbered by regret. Eva figured she could take a page out of her friend’s book and probably be a lot happier.
“I’m gonna do it.”
“Good!” Louisa leaned over the booth again and said in a stage whisper, “So when are you gonna call them?”
“Not just yet. Right now I’m going to eat dinner and hang out with my friend. Let ’em sweat it out a little.” She winked and Louisa threw her head back and laughed.
“That’s awesome.”
When Eva got home around ten that night she took her cell phone out of her pants pocket. Setting it on the counter, she braced her weight on her hands and regarded it. Should she call them tonight or wait until tomorrow? She had a full slate of massages lined up starting at nine in the morning and going until seven at night with only two short breaks, one enough time to eat a quick lunch and the other just enough time to throw in laundry and clean a little. If she didn’t call them now it would bug her all day tomorrow.
She picked up the phone and dialed Jake, figuring he was the safest since he seemed more cognizant of her possible reservations. He answered on the second ring. “Hey, honey. How are you?”
“Tired.”
“Too bad I’m not there. I’d rub your feet for you.”
She heard a little scuffle, and then Carter said, “I’d run a bath for you and wash your back.”
After another scuffle, Jake came back onto the phone. “Sorry about that.”
Eva giggled. “You guys compete about everything, don’t you?”
“Pretty much. What’s going on, honey? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Jake. I wanted to call you tonight since I have a busy day tomorrow. I, um, I’m interested.”
His voice went husky and thick. “You are?” She heard the other two guys talking in the background and Jake shushed them. “When can we see you?”
“I won’t be home ’til around seven thirty tomorrow night, and that’s gonna be after a full day—”
Jake cut in then. “Hey, hey, honey, we just want to talk. Let’s not rush this thing.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Why don’t we bring dinner over to your place tomorrow night? We’ll eat, we’ll talk. No pressure.”
“I can do that.”
“Text me your address.”
The next day alternated between flying and crawling by, but finally she locked the door to her room and made her way to her car. As she buckled up and started the engine, the nerves started, too. What would happen tonight?
Her house was less than five minutes away, so she didn’t have too much time to ponder the question. Fortunately she was able to get inside, shower quickly, and change before the guys arrived. When the knock on her front door came, she put a hand over her fluttering belly.
Just talk…
Eva opened the door and it seemed like all the oxygen got sucked out of her lungs at once. She was really doing this. That first time with her ex and his roommate, she hadn’t had time to get nervous, time to reconsider. Now she felt a mix of anticipation and anxiety.
“Come in.” She stepped aside, and Luc walked over the threshold of her house, dropping another kiss on her lips just like he had yesterday. Carter and then Jake followed, both also kissing her. As she closed the door behind them, she felt her lips tingle. All they’d done was give her a chaste kiss. What would it be like when they really got down to business, so to speak? She shuddered involuntarily and jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Shhh. Don’t be nervous, honey.” It was Jake, and he squeezed briefly before moving away.
She turned and faced the guys. “Have a seat.”
They did and Luc spoke. “Dinner will be here soon.”
“Oh, good.” Food was the farthest thing from her mind, despite the fact she’d only eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some chips for lunch, and that had been hours ago. She wet her suddenly dry lips and said, “Would anyone like a drink?”
“Water is fine, but you don’t have to wait on us, baby,” Luc answered, and the other two parroted him.
“That’s okay, it’s no big deal. I can fetch a couple of waters.”
They let her go, and as she went into the kitchen to get their drinks, Eva wondered, was Luc the de facto leader of the group? He was the top center on the team and the captain, so it made sense. Then she giggled. It was kind of funny thinking about the guys deferring to Luc even when they weren’t on the ice, like he was their king or something.
She returned and placed the glasses on coasters on her coffee table. Luc was on the couch, right in the middle, with Jake and Carter on each side of the couch in chairs. That meant she’d have to sit on one end of the couch or the other. Either way she’d be nestled right into Luc, who took up more than his fair share of her small sofa.
The doorbell rang and Eva scurried to the door to open it, the guys appearing behind her though she hadn’t even registered them moving. How did they do that?
As the man began handing off various containers to her, she passed them to the guys. Then he gave her the check and Luc snatched it out of her hands, handing it back to the delivery guy with what Eva assumed was a generous tip, given the way the man’s eyes widened. Or perhaps he’d just noticed the guys were Intimidators. Eva thanked him and closed the door, then went to the kitchen for napkins, plates, and forks. By the time she returned the guys had opened the containers and set out the offerings.
“We weren’t sure what you liked, so we got a little bit of everything,” Carter told her with a sheepish grin.
“You’re not kidding. You must’ve ordered everything on the menu! Look at all this food. There’s no way we’ll be able to eat all this.” All three men grinned then, and she laughed. “Of course, you guys all have huge appetites. I should’ve figured.”
“Yes, we all have huge appetites, and not just for food,” Carter told her, his blue eyes sparkling.
Luc patted the couch cushion next to him. “Come sit. Eat.”
She sat down and Luc served her, asking her preferences and then spooning each dish onto her plate. They’d ordered from one of the best Chinese restaurants in the area, and the fragrant scents of garlic, soy sauce, vegetables, and succulent meats filled the air. Leaning back, she picked up her lap desk and set her plate on top before diving in. Conversation came to a halt as they all tucked into their food. Eva was surprised at how hungr
y she was, considering her nerves, but she polished off the entire plate of food Luc had prepared.
“Want more?” Luc asked, inclining his head toward her empty plate.
“No, I’m stuffed.”
He took her plate and stacked it on top of his and then moved into her kitchen, leaving her with Carter and Jake.
“So how was practice?”
“Okay,” Carter replied. “Afterward we had our monthly meetings with the team doctor. We meet with him privately once a month to discuss any health concerns, our diets, the supplements we take, that sort of thing.”
“What kind of supplements do they have you taking?”
“He just started the whole team on something new today. It’s called—” He looked over at Jake. “Help me out here.”
“TestoXtreme,” Jake supplied, still shoveling food into his mouth.
“That’s it. Anyway, it’s supposed to build muscle.” He shrugged. “We’ll see.”
Eva bit her lip. She’d heard of the supplement he’d named, and there was a lot of controversy surrounding it. She was surprised they’d put even a few players on it, much less the entire team. Should she say anything? In the end, her professional ethics forced her to.
“Um, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, chica.”
“Do you guys question your doctor at all about these supplements? Does he give you any paperwork when he prescribes something?”
Luc had just walked back into the room. “Paperwork like what?”
“Like drug interactions, possible side effects…”
“Nah. I’m sure he does his research before giving us stuff,” Luc answered, sitting on the couch once more. His warm thigh slid along hers, but she tried not to let it distract her. This was important.
“Well, it’s just that—” She paused, not sure how much to say or where to begin. The three guys looked at her with expectant expressions. Eva chewed the inside of her cheek briefly, and then said, “I’ve read about TestoXtreme. There’s tons of controversy about it. Some people have reported that their blood pressure shot through the roof while they were taking it, for instance. Another reported liver problems. And I would think both would be a bad thing for a hockey player.” The guys glanced at each other and she put up a hand. “Look, I’m not telling you not to take it. But read up on it. Be an informed consumer.”
Carr, Cassandra - Cold as Ice [Buffalo Intimidators 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 3