by Bianca D'Arc
Gemini Project 1
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by
Bianca D’Arc
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
1st Edition
Copyright © 2010 Bianca D’Arc
Published by TEB
2nd Edition
Copyright © 2017 Bianca D’Arc
Published by Hawk Publishing, LLC
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
DEDICATION & AUTHOR’S NOTE
This story is dedicated to my fans, who make this all worthwhile. I had no idea this story was dear to so many hearts until I asked a simple question on social media. Turns out, there are more of you out there than I realized who were interested in seeing the rest of this series. Color me surprised! Pleasantly so.
Which brings me to the Author’s Note part of this…
This short story was originally published by a U.K. publisher in 2010. While I enjoyed working with them and have great respect for the company, somehow I just never got around to writing more of this series for them. I think it had to do with my perception that nobody was really interested in reading more of these stories. Part of that probably had to do with my disappointment over the generic cover art the book received that I never really liked.
Now that the story is back under my control, the contract having run its course, I intend to write more in the series, and proceed with the plan I’d had for a number of short, erotic stories set in this world. They may get new covers as the plan unfolds. For now, I’m just glad to be rid of that generic cover that I disliked so much. LOL.
Thanks for reading!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Excerpt from Doubling Down
About the Author
Other Books by Bianca D’Arc
CHAPTER ONE
They would be home tonight. Peter and Mike had been gone for over three months. Lilly had no idea where their Special Forces unit had been or what they’d been doing, but she’d thought about them both a lot since they’d left.
She’d met Mike and his buddy, Peter, at the gym and they’d gone out for meals a few times together. Lilly worked part-time as an aerobics instructor. She’d been a dancer in her younger days and needed the exercise to keep off those extra pounds that seemed to want to creep onto her petite frame given the least opportunity.
Mike and Peter didn’t look like they needed any help staying fit. They were in peak physical form and every woman in the gym did a double take every time they walked in the door. Both men were just over six feet tall and both had super broad shoulders. Mike was a little stockier than Peter, but both had the honed muscles of superior athletes.
They were the new martial arts instructors. Both black belts. Both highly skilled in different forms of hand to hand combat. And both had taken up teaching at the gym as a sideline to their first love—their military careers.
The female gym owner had known they wouldn’t be around on a steady basis, depending on their deployments, but they were so good for business, she’d take them any way she could get them. They came as a set, though they switched off teaching duties. Only rarely did they conduct a class together, and then only for advanced students.
Both men had asked Lilly out and she’d gone on a casual date with each before they’d had to leave. She’d kissed them both goodbye not knowing if she’d ever see them again. They’d said it was most likely a training operation, but in these troubled times she knew things could change on a dime.
Then last night she’d received an email from Peter that had both surprised and delighted her. He’d told her they were on their way home and would be arriving at the nearby base sometime this afternoon. He’d invited her to a celebration of sorts being given in their unit’s honor at a nearby watering hole.
Lilly checked her reflection one more time in the darkened glass of the doorway before entering the pub. It was a middle of the road sort of place—not quite a dive, but far from expensive. It was comfortably middle class.
Warm air greeted her as she stepped inside. It was noisy too, but she had no problem identifying the group she was here to meet. To a man, each one of those soldiers was huge, solid, and carried themselves as if they knew where they were going and what they were doing at all times. There was no hesitancy in any one of them.
Lilly had seen some of the guys around the gym from time to time when they came to either take, or assist with, martial arts classes. Some had also taken the opportunity to lift weights, much to the delight of the female clientele. Even Lilly had noticed when Mike pumped iron, the sweat dripping down his muscular chest, making her want to trace its path with her tongue.
A muscular arm snaked around her waist, making her jump. She was guided around until she faced a devastatingly handsome man.
“Peter!” She flattened her palms on his chest as she recognized him.
“It’s good you see you, Lil.” He swooped down and kissed her the way she’d been dreaming about for three long months. Even longer, if she counted the months she’d watched him and Mike prowl around the gym. She’d lusted after them both for almost half a year, come to think of it.
Peter’s kiss melted her bones and she would’ve slumped to a puddle at his feet if his big hands hadn’t been at her waist, steadying her. Peter let her up for air, only to twirl her once more in his arms. Just that easily, she was passed from one strong embrace to another. She looked up to find Mike’s rugged face grinning hungrily down at her.
“I’ve been thinking about this for months, baby.” Mike didn’t give her time to respond, leaning her back over his arm and kissing the daylights out of her.
His taste was masculine and divine, just as Peter’s had been. It made her even shakier to think of kissing them both so intimately, one after the other. She’d had some naughty fantasies about having them both in her life—and in her bed—but she knew in the real world, she’d have to pick only one. A girl just didn’t get lucky enough to have two guys like this interested in her.
Honestly, she’d be happy with either one of them. She’d thought long and hard about it and resolved to dive right in if one of them asked her out again. She figured if there had been any question of competition, they’d have settled it between themselves by now. She expected one to back off and one to come on stronger if—and that was a big if—one of them actually did want her.
When she was so lost in his kiss, she was about to start climbing up his hard body, Mike raised his head and let her go, but he didn’t let her go far. His breath was ragged as he leaned his forehead against hers.
“We missed you, honey. Every night I went to sleep thinking about kissing you. And more.”
Thank you,
Lord! It sounded like Mike was the one who’d step forward and while she’d miss Peter, she was thrilled to have either one of them.
“I thought about it too,” she answered with a hint of shyness. In her experience, guys liked a demure woman.
Mike let her go and Peter stepped up to tuck her under his massive arm. She realized he’d watched the entire scene. The thought of him watching while his buddy kissed her like there was no tomorrow made her even hotter. She tried her best not to squirm though her body was on fire.
“Stop hogging her, Mike.” Peter leaned in and kissed the top of her head as he moved with her toward the crowd of men who watched them with barely concealed interest. “Come on, I’ll introduce you around.”
CHAPTER TWO
Peter kept his arm around her as he introduced her to six other men. She’d seen some of them at the gym, but had never really met them. They were all polite and gracious, one of them fetching her a drink while Mike brought over a bar stool for her, placing it between himself and Peter.
To her surprise, one of the guys was actually Mike’s younger brother, Jay. Seeing them side by side, she saw the family resemblance immediately. Both were handsome devils with wicked dark eyes and wavy chestnut hair kept short and neat. It was a military cut, but still had enough fullness to make a woman want to run her fingers through it. Preferably while he fucked her brains out.
The scandalous thought brought heat to her cheeks as she sipped her mixed drink.
“Hot in here?” Peter asked at her side. She looked up to meet his curious gaze but she wasn’t telling what had made her flush.
“A little,” she replied evasively, hoping he’d leave it at that.
“It’s a little cooler over on the dance floor. Want to take a turn?” He held out his hand and she gave in to the impulse to dance with him. She might never have another chance and she’d wanted to feel his hard body close to hers for a long time now.
Either one of them, really. She left the table with Peter, intercepting the hard look Mike sent his friend as they walked away. Peter only grinned like the cat who’d stolen the canary and Lilly got the fleeting impression that there’d been some competition between them for her attention.
That thought, of course, was ridiculous, so she dismissed it out of hand. These two guys—any of the guys at their table, in fact—could have any woman they wanted. It was highly unlikely they’d compete over someone like her. She was hardly a sexpot and she was only a year younger than them.
Old enough to be sensible and young enough to still have fun, she’d always thought, but having fun suddenly took on a whole new meaning when in Mike and Peter’s presence. A very naughty meaning.
Lilly fanned herself with one hand as Peter led her toward the empty dance floor. There was music playing softly in the background—it was louder on the dance floor—but nobody was dancing. Peter swept her into his arms and she went willingly, loving the way he handled her.
He was so much larger than she was, but they fit together nicely. His big hands were at her waist, hers resting on his shoulders as he shuffled her around the floor to the sensual beat.
“Is this better?” he asked after a moment.
“Better?” She’d been in a daze and had to shake herself out of it, much to his amusement. She could see the laughter in his sparkling eyes. “Yes, you were right. It is cooler out here.”
“Good.” His hand at her waist crept around to the small of her back, his long fingers dipping lower to rest on the swell of her butt. It felt so good, she couldn’t object. Maybe she’d been wrong about Mike. Maybe it was really Peter who was interested. She was conflicted, unsure, but she vowed to go with the flow. She liked them both. A lot. “I wouldn’t want you to get overheated,” Peter said with an unmistakably sexy grin. “At least not yet. Not here.”
His blue eyes held promises. Promises of pleasure and wicked delights she could only imagine. The big question—was she brave enough to find out?
She decided to see where his blatant flirting would lead. She’d known him a while and she’d missed him more than any other man she’d ever known when he’d been gone.
Of course, the same could be said for Mike, but it was Peter who’d asked her to dance. It was Peter who had his hand on her ass and a hot gleam in his eyes. Peter was the one, then. The one who’d stepped forward.
“Then where?” She licked her lips, meeting his gaze as boldly as she could manage.
She wasn’t the outgoing type, at least not sexually. She never had been, but she’d been involved with a few men in her lifetime. None had the effect on her that Peter—or Mike, for that matter—did, and she’d never been in a position like this before. She was playing it completely by ear, but Peter didn’t seem to mind.
“How about my place?”
There is was. He wanted her. The thought sent her stomach into somersaults of excitement. She’d wanted to know his touch for a long time now and she wouldn’t pass up this opportunity, no matter what happened tomorrow.
“I think I’d like that.” She smiled at him and he returned it full force.
They spent another hour at the bar, but Lilly didn’t remember much after agreeing to go home with Peter. He was solicitous of her, the perfect gentleman, as was Mike, though she sensed some tense moments between the two friends that she didn’t fully understand.
When they took their leave, Mike pulled her aside for a lingering kiss that was both confusing and arousing. He stared at Peter for a minute and she could’ve sworn silent messages were hidden in the firm set of his jaw. Peter nodded to his friend as they left together and ushered her to his car. They’d decided to leave her car where it was for now. It was safe enough and if she needed to get anywhere, she trusted Peter to take her.
He drove with quiet competence and they talked about mutual friends and things that had happened while he’d been away. Before she knew it, they’d arrived.
“Nice place,” Lilly observed as they were buzzed into one of the most prestigious gated communities in the area.
“Thanks, I like it.” He sent her a mischievous smile. He was playing with her. He knew darn well she had questions about how an ordinary soldier could afford to live in a place like this.
“So are you going to tell me? What gives with the mansion? I thought you were a regular guy.”
“Disappointed?”
She laughed. “Hardly.”
He pressed a button and the gate to a monster sized house opened before them. The structure was set back from the road in a lovely copse of trees. It sat on a large plot of land that was surrounded by a beautiful wrought iron fence. Another button opened one bay of a four car garage. He pulled in and parked next to a shiny new Hummer, killed the engine and turned to her.
“You’ve heard of Foster Electronics? That was my dad’s company. He was the majority shareholder. When he passed last year, I inherited it all.”
“You’re kidding.”
He stretched his arm along the back of the seat, reaching out to toy with a lock of her hair. “Afraid not. Still like me know that you know I’m rich?”
She pretended to consider his question. “I guess,” she answered playfully.
“Good.” He got out of the car and came around to her side, to open the door. She’d always liked that about him—he had excellent manners and made her feel both respected and cherished.
The house was beautifully designed. It had a big living room decorated in masculine fashion—dark hunter green softened by paler shades of green here and there. Altogether, the effect was inviting. It wasn’t spotless, but it was very neat. Peter had no doubt learned good habits in the military, she thought with hidden amusement.
“Make yourself comfortable. There’s some wine in the cooler over there if you’re interested. I just need to check on something. I’ll be back in a minute.”
CHAPTER THREE
He left her in the living room while he headed down a long hallway toward what looked like the kitchen. She looked for the
cooler he’d mentioned, surprised when she realized it was a high-end wine cooler complete with a decorative frosted glass door and racks holding what looked like a small fortune in French wine.
She looked for one that was already open, sitting upright rather than on its side in the front of the deluxe cooler. She wasn’t much of an expert on wines but she did know a few names and this was one she’d had before. She poured a small amount in a glass, deciding to wait and see if he wanted some too before pouring for him. For all she knew, he was getting himself a beer in the kitchen.
He came back in, a cheeseboard in his hands laid with a pile of crackers and some brie. That answered that question. She poured a glass for him and joined him by the couch.
“I hope this is okay. It was already open.” She really had to get a grip on her nerves. She hadn’t been in this kind of situation in a long time and didn’t know quite what to do.
“It’s perfect.” He took the glass from her hand, raising it in a toast. “To the start of something great.”
She knew she was blushing as she joined him in the toast. She sipped at her wine, watching him over the rim of her glass. He really was the most devastating man she’d ever known. Well, besides his best friend, Mike. Both of them were potent and way out of her experience.
He placed his glass on the coffee table, then headed for the sound system. It was huge and held a prominent place in the room. Typical of a guy, she thought with amusement. He switched it on and surprised her with his choice of an old Jimmy Buffet album that was one of her favorites.
“Nice choice. I figured you for a classic rock guy. Or maybe jazz.”
He came back to the sofa and gestured for her to sit, following her down. “I like most kinds of music, but I really have to be in the mood for jazz. It’s not one of my favorites. I’d listen to Beethoven before Duke Ellington, I’m afraid.”