by Jaci Burton
“Thank you. Both of you.” She was going to miss being with them.
Blinking back the stupid tears that for some reason decided to well in her eyes, she smiled at them. “I have gifts for you.”
Ben arched a brow. “Gifts, huh?”
“Yes. Hang on a second.”
She went into her bedroom and brought out the gift bags. “They’re silly little things, really. Nothing much.”
They sat on the sofa with their bags. Inside each of the bags was a New York T-shirt, something one would get in the tourist section of her city.
Thank God for her assistant and express shipping.
They both laughed.
“Hey, you have to have something to remind you of me.”
“Thanks,” Ben said. “This is perfect.”
“I love it,” Alex said.
Then they both pulled out watches. Separate and distinct, Alex’s had a leather band and Ben’s was chrome.
“They’re world-time watches, so you can set them for whatever time zone you’re in, and also for New York. So you’ll always know my time. A small way to remember me.”
Alex came over and kneeled in front of her, pressing a kiss to both her knees. “It’s perfect. Like you. Thank you.”
Ben had already put his on. He came over and brushed her hair away from her face and kissed her. “I love this. I . . . thank you.”
“You’re welcome. If it hasn’t become apparent, I’m having a difficult time thinking about leaving both of you.”
Ben looked over at Alex, who nodded. “Alex and I are having the same problem. Actually, there’s something we both want to say to you. We wanted to wait until after Christmas, but maybe now is the right time.”
“Okay.” Her heart started pumping fast. She had no idea what was coming, but she took a deep breath.
Alex got up and sat next to her. He picked up her hand. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Tori. You’re the first person I want to see when I wake up in the morning.”
“And I want you in my bed every night,” Ben said. “You’re smart, beautiful, and I love making love to you. More importantly, you make me feel things I haven’t felt in a very long time. I’m in love with you, Victoria.”
Alex squeezed her hand. “I’m in love with you, too. When I get out of the water, you’re the face I look for in the crowd. You’re the one I want cheering me on.”
She couldn’t breathe. She hadn’t expected this. “You both love me?”
Alex smiled at her. “Yes. We do.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. She needed them to be sure.
“Of course we’re sure,” Alex said. “I’m sure. I don’t take this lightly, babe. Love is a big goddamn deal.”
“I was in love once,” Ben said. “A long time ago. It kicked my ass, so trust me, I know what it feels like. It’s painful as hell and the best damn thing in the world, both at the same time.”
Ben had nailed it. That’s exactly what it felt like.
Her heart was racing so fast she felt dizzy. “I’m in love with both of you. At first I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, how could I love two men? How could I love both of you? It happened so fast and I’ve been overanalyzing it to death over the past few days. But it’s there and it won’t go away and I don’t want it to. So here’s the fact. I love you both and there’s no explaining it. I don’t want to analyze it.”
She turned to Alex. “I love you, Alex.”
“I love you, Tori.” He kissed her, and she felt passion and love in his kiss.
Then she turned to Ben. “I love you, Ben.”
Ben cupped her face. “I love you, too, Victoria.”
He brushed his lips across hers, and her heart ached with the tenderness of his kiss.
This time, she didn’t try to hold back the tears that welled in her eyes. She let them fall down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry. I’m not normally the emotional type.”
“Be as emotional as you need to be,” Ben said. “This kind of thing doesn’t happen to us every day, either.”
She leaned back on the sofa and squeezed their hands. “The question is, now that we’re all in love, what the hell do we do about it? You two travel all the time. So do I. And we’ll never see each other.”
“We’ll make it work, Tori,” Alex said. “We get time off. We’re not constantly at surf events. And when we’re not, no matter where you are, we’ll come find you so we can all be together. Or if Ben’s busy and I’m available, I’ll see you. And if I’m not available but Ben is, he can see you.”
“Like Alex said, we’ll figure it out. If we want something badly enough, we’ll move mountains—or oceans—to make it work. And we want this. We all want this.”
She heaved a sigh. “Oh, God. Could we really? Would you really do that for me?”
Alex picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “Hell yes we would.”
Now that the emotions had settled, it was time to think logically. It couldn’t be just them moving mountains and oceans to get to her. “I’ve worked my ass off all these years to build my agency, to gain this measure of success. It’s time to start enjoying the fruits of my labor. I’ve thought about hiring another agent or two to help me handle the workload. Which would mean I could take a step back, let them handle the day-to-day and I could see the two of you more often.”
“I know we’d both love that, but it can’t just be on you to come to us,” Alex said. “I’ve been doing some thinking as well. I’m thirty-five and I can’t ride those monster tubes like the young guys forever. I’d like to go out while I’m on top. I haven’t even discussed this with Ben yet, but after this year’s competition I want to start transitioning more into managing and promotion and less into active surfing.”
Victoria looked to Ben, who nodded. “You know I’d love to have you partner with me in that aspect of the business. But you have to be ready to walk away from the waves.”
Alex nodded. “I know. And I’ll be sure before I do it.”
Ben picked up Victoria’s hand. “We’ll make it work. We have to, because we love each other.”
“Speaking of that,” Alex said. “We got a gift for you.”
Victoria cocked her head to the side. “You did?”
“We did.” Ben pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to her.
She cradled the velvet box in her hand, then carefully opened it. Inside was a delicate silver chain necklace with three diamonds. Inscribed in the middle was the word Ours.
Victoria took the necklace out of the box and dangled it in front of her. “Oh. This is beautiful.”
“It means we’re all one, and you are part of both of us,” Alex said.
The tears fell again. “I love this. Thank you both.”
She kissed them both, then pulled her hair to the side so Ben could put the necklace on her while she looked at Alex beaming a smile at her.
She stood, then held her hand out for both of them. “I need you to make love to me right now.”
They went into the bedroom and undressed. Victoria lay on the bed and Ben put his mouth on her sex while Alex slid his fingers into her.
“Yes,” she said, lifting her hips, watching as they pleasured her. “Make me come like that.”
They worked in tandem, switching off so it was Alex sucking her and Ben pumping his fingers into her. They both drove her crazy, and when she orgasmed, she cried out, knowing this was what she wanted to spend the rest of her life experiencing.
They both put on condoms, taking turns sliding their cocks inside of her. Their patience and the way they watched when the other was thrusting into her was such an incredible turn-on. And the sensation of feeling two different cocks inside of her pussy was amazing. Alex would fuck her for a few minutes, then withdraw and move away so Ben could take his place.
She came—then came again—and again.
And they both came inside of her, Ben watching her and stroking her breasts while Alex came, then taking his place and taking her mouth in a deep, passionate kiss, groaning against her mouth when he came.
After, all three of them lay sprawled on the bed.
“We still have time to make the holiday luau,” Alex said.
Victoria smiled, turned over onto her belly to face her two men. “Or, we could order room service and have holiday sex the rest of the day.”
Ben grinned over at Alex. “There’s a reason we love this woman.”
“Because she’s so smart and has such phenomenal ideas.”
It was the best Christmas she’d ever had. Spent with the two men she loved.
TURN THE PAGE TO READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE NEW PLAY-BY-PLAY NOVEL
RULES OF CONTACT
COMING SOON FROM BERKLEY!
Flynn Cassidy sat at one of the corner tables at Ninety-Two, his new restaurant in San Francisco.
They’d opened just two weeks ago and so far, things were going well. Right now one of the major entertainment media outlets was doing a feature on the restaurant, so he had to be present for it. Which meant a camera crew and bright lights and a lot of damn people in the way of regular business. He had already wandered around and apologized to his patrons, who seemed to take it all in stride. Hopefully the crew would get all the film and sound bites they wanted and would get the hell out shortly.
“This is so thrilling, Flynn.”
He dragged his gaze away from the camera crew and focused on Natalie, the woman he’d been dating the past two weeks. She was a looker, for sure, with beautiful auburn brown hair that touched her shoulders and the most incredible green eyes he’d ever seen.
“Yeah, ‘thrilling’ isn’t the first thing that popped into my head when the crew showed up today.”
Natalie grabbed his hand. “Oh, come on. Who doesn’t want to be on TV?”
Him, for one. As a defensive end for the San Francisco Sabers football team, he’d had plenty of cameras and microphones shoved in his face over the years. But since the restaurant was new, he wouldn’t turn down some publicity for it. So he’d done the interview and now he just wanted to stay out of the way while the film crew got their overview shots of the restaurant.
“Do you think they’ll want to get some film of the two of us together?” Natalie asked. “You know, kind of get some background on your personal life, like what you do on your off time away from football and the restaurant, who you’re seeing, stuff like that?”
Warning bells clanged loud and hard in Flynn’s head. He’d gone down this road with more than one woman and had ended relationships because of girlfriends who were way more interested in the limelight than in him.
So lately he’d made sure to steer clear of any woman who had an entertainment background. No models, no actresses, no one he could suspect of chasing face time in front of a camera. He figured since Natalie was a financial analyst, he was safe.
But seeing her gaze track those cameras like a vampire craved blood, he wasn’t sure career choice had much to do with someone needing popularity and limelight in their life.
“Maybe we should move to one of the more prominent tables, Flynn,” Natalie said. “You know, that way we might be in one of the camera shots.”
He bit back a sigh. “I don’t think so.”
She pushed back her chair and stood. “I’m going to go to the bar and get a drink. You know, all casual like, and see if maybe they notice me.”
He leaned back in his chair. “You do that.”
This relationship was doomed. Just one of the many Flynn had seen go down in flames in the past couple of years.
Maybe there wasn’t a woman out there who was interested in him. Just him. Not Flynn the football player. Just Flynn the guy.
He shook his head, mentally notched up another failure, and took a long swallow of his beer.
* * *
Since orders had slowed down and she had the kitchen under control, Amelia Lawrence washed her hands in the sink and tried her best to hide, avoiding the cameras. The last thing she wanted was to be on television. She was head chef at Ninety-Two. This whole publicity thing was on Flynn, and she didn’t need to be interviewed, filmed, or in any way noticed.
But as she did her best game of hide-and-not-be-sought, she also spotted Flynn’s new girlfriend doing her best job to try to be seen by any of the camera crew.
Oh, no. Not another one of those kind of women.
Amelia had worked with Flynn the past couple of months, even before Ninety-Two had opened. And in that time period she’d seen him go through no fewer than three women, all of whom seemed to be way more interested in his prowess as camera candy than anything else.
She felt bad for him, and nothing but disdain for the women who couldn’t appreciate what a fine man Flynn Cassidy was.
He was supremely tall and ridiculously well-built, with a thick mane of black hair and amazing blue eyes. She could spend at least a full day doing nothing but appreciating his tattoos. And who didn’t love football? Plus, the man had fine culinary taste. When he’d hired her, they’d spent several weeks arguing about the menu for the restaurant. She had to admit he had good ideas.
So did she, and she appreciated that he listened to hers. But the bottom line was that it was his restaurant and his call on the menu. But in the end they’d blended both their ideas and she loved the way it had turned out.
So why couldn’t the man find a decent girlfriend? He kind of sucked at it, actually. If she’d been a native to San Francisco, maybe she could have helped him out, but she’d just moved here recently from Portland and she knew only a handful of people. Her only ties here were a friend from college and her friend’s husband. Otherwise, she was pretty much alone.
Just the way she wanted it.
She still thought she could find better women for Flynn to date than the ones he’d been parading in and out of the restaurant lately. She could spot posers a mile away. Maybe she could offer her service to Flynn.
“Orders up.”
She focused her attention on the incoming orders, on directing her staff, on minding her own business, and not on Flynn’s idiot girlfriend, who was currently preening for the cameras.
With an eye roll, she dismissed the woman and set about making scallops.
Because Flynn Cassidy was decidedly not her problem. And no matter how much she felt sorry for him, she wasn’t going to get involved in his personal life.
Jaci Burton is the USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of the Play-by-Play series, including Unexpected Rush, All Wound Up, Quarterback Draw, Straddling the Line, Melting the Ice, and One Sweet Ride, and the Hope series, including Don’t Let Go, Make Me Stay, Love After All, Hope Burns, Hope Ignites, and Hope Flames. Visit Jaci online at jaciburton.com, facebook.com/AuthorJaciBurton, and twitter.com/JaciBurton.
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