by Opal Carew
“But.” He supplied the unspoken word.
She took his hand now, leading him along the trail. “Back in college I loved Blake because of his spontaneity, his wild side. You never knew what he was going to do back then, what crazy scheme he’d come up with and drag us along for the ride.” Emily smiled. “Remember that time he convinced us to help him prank Hattenberg by duct taping all his furniture to the ceiling, turning the entire room upside down?”
Dane couldn’t help chuckling. “Yes. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it to see the Professor’s face when he walked in.”
“All of that, all of that about him. He loved life and I loved him. And no matter how much I love you, I’ll always miss him. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry,” Dane said. “Because neither of us meant to hurt you.”
“I know. It was my idea, and I’ll shoulder the blame for that.” She shivered. “That night was . . . “
“I was there,” he teased. “I remember how you shook, how you whimpered.” He bit the inside of his cheek before continuing. “I miss that.”
“But I still . . . “ Emily paused, a frown spreading over her face. “Do you hear that?”
She pulled him further along the path, past the spreading hydrangea beds. The blossoming puffballs of purple, white, and pink swallowed up the ground under their feet as they brushed through the trees.
“Here.” She exhaled the word, making it a prayer. “We’re here.”
Dane stopped still, caught up in the sight.
The waterfall trickled over the edge of the mossy rock, falling almost six feet into the small pond, the thick scent of the flowers almost intoxicating. A large flat rock lay at the side of the pond, helping channel the flowing water into another small creek that led to the larger river nearby.
It was a beautiful place.
It was their place.
Dane sucked in his breath. They hadn’t come back here in five years, not since that night. They hadn’t dared.
Now he was here with Emily and it was as if no time had passed, the two of them freshly graduated and ready to take on the world.
Emily spun to face him, her eyes sparkling. She put her hands to her mouth and laughed, a carefree laugh, raising his spirits and showing him that it was going to be okay, it was all going to be okay between them.
He tugged her against him and gave her a hard kiss, feeling the gasp of excitement escape from her mouth.
“Yes. We’re here.” She laughed. “We’re here.”
He felt her tense up in his arms, her body language shifting away from him.
“We’re . . . here.” Emily’s voice shifted, slowed to a whisper.
Dane looked over his shoulder, following her stunned gaze.
Blake stood there on the other side of the pond. He didn’t have his jacket on and his bowtie hung free, his dress shirt still unbuttoned. His suspenders were off his shoulders, hanging loose on his hips.
“Small world.” Blake sauntered toward them, following the edge of the pond. “I didn’t follow you.” He lifted a hand and pointed at the other end of the clearing. “Took the other trail in. Been here a few minutes.” He cleared his throat. “Wanted to clarify that. Don’t want you thinking I came out here to finish what we started on the dance floor.” His attention went from Dane to Emily. “Either of you.”
Dane stepped away from Emily, sensing her discomfort.
Blake moved in, completing the triangle.
“So now what?” Dane said.
Blake shrugged. “Don’t know.” He looked at Emily. “What do you want us to do?”
Her heart was breaking and she wasn’t sure why. The last time she’d been here, it’d been the best and most emotional night of her life.
Then reality had intervened and brought her down to earth with a resounding crash. She’d spent years trying to recover from it, and while she’d found some degree of peace with Dane, she longed to recapture that ecstasy, that sense of completion.
But here, now . . .
She shook her head, on the verge of tears.
“Okay. I’ll start,” Blake said. “Stop me if and when you don’t want me to speak anymore.”
He rocked back and forth, rising on the balls of his feet before sinking into the thick, lush soil. “Every year we come here and do the polite thing, bob our heads to each other while raising money for a good cause.”
“Usually you have a date,” Dane said.
“Yeah. Usually.” Blake shook his head. “Some lovely lady who wants to be Mrs. Wittsworth, or at least the Flavor of the Month long enough to get her picture in the paper.” He held up a hand. “Don’t get me wrong, they’ve all been good women. But it never lasts longer than a few months before we go our separate ways, usually on good terms.”
Emily pressed her lips into a tight line, afraid to ask the question burning her throat.
Blake looked at her. “I know what you’re thinking. Why haven’t I found the right woman? Hell, I’m rich enough. Successful enough.” He lifted his face to the night sky and sighed. “None of them have been right for me. No one good enough.”
Emily felt a tingling through her veins, because she knew what he was about to say.
“There will never be anyone good enough.” He stared at her directly. “No one can ever take that place in my heart. Only you. Now and forever, only you can be that woman.”
Dane took a step forward. His hands balled into fists at his side as he glared at Blake.
Blake lifted his hands. “What? You don’t like what you just heard? Too bad.” He returned Dane’s angry stare. “If the truth hurts, too bad.”
“She made her choice.” Dane moved up again, well inside Blake’s personal space. “I’m sorry you can’t come to terms with that.”
Blake raised an eyebrow and she knew what was coming next. She knew from a dozen brawls in the study hall over the smallest of details.
Dane’s punch was a looping, lightweight hit into Blake’s gut, sending the man back only a single step before Blake replied with a jab to Dane’s face.
The fight dissolved into a wrestling match in the grass, the two men rolling at her feet.
“Stop.” Emily shook her head. “Stop!” she yelled.
The two men broke apart at her shout, staggering back to their feet. She couldn’t help but shake her head at the sight of the two now-disheveled billionaires with their clothing and hair in disarray.
Dane’s perfect hair was mussed up, his shirt ripped open to his chest. Blake was even more exposed, his bare chest revealing a hint of the tattoo above his navel. The wild look in both their eyes reminded her of what they had been, what they’d had together.
And what she wanted again.
Dane swiped a hand across his mouth as he looked at Blake.
Blake patted Dane on the shoulder, grinning. “Damn. Been a long time since I’ve done that with anyone. Not too many men want to take me on outside of the boardroom.”
Dane hesitated for a second before matching his smile. “I’ve missed that too.” The sheepish smile appeared. “But you’re still a son of a bitch.”
“I can live with that.” Blake turned and locked eyes with Emily, the intense gaze startling. “I want to love you. Again. I’ve never stopped loving you, but now it’s not enough. I need you. I want you.”
A frisson of desire shot through her, fast and furious, making her knees weak.
“I’ve been miserable since that night. I’ve worked hard, fucked hard, and fought hard to try and make myself happy.” Blake pointed at himself and laughed. “I have my own chopper and my own company, and the mere mention of my name has women clamoring to get into my bed. I’ve got everything I ever wanted, but it’s not enough. It’s never going to be enough. Since that night I’ve never been able to fill the hole in my soul.” He looked at Dane. “I pushed it tonight when we danced together, and for that I apologize. But you can’t expect me to not die a little every time I see both of you together, so happy and fulfill
ed.”
“Not fulfilled.” Emily found her voice. She shook her head. “We’re happy, yes.” She put her hand over her heart. “Not fulfilled,” she repeated.
She looked at Dane. “You know it’s true. This, what we had today, has been building up for a long time.”
Dane slowly nodded. “I know.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It never really went right after that night, did it?”
“No.” Emily found the words. “We never got over it because we never wanted to.”
The two men looked at her.
“We could have gone north, south, east, west. The world was our oyster, and yet we stayed in this shallow part of the pool. I don’t believe that was an accident.” Emily shook her head. “We needed to stay close to each other, to stay connected. We kept circling each other, dancing around what we didn’t want to speak about, think about again. This . . .” She waved a hand around the idyllic scene. “This was the last time we all were together, happy and satisfied. The fighting, the teasing, the poking and prodding we’ve done, was because we couldn’t stand to be away from each other, even though we had to be.” She couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice. “Because society told us we had to be.”
She crossed over and took Dane’s hands in hers. “I love you. I do, with all of my heart. You’re my rock, my steady base to build on. You’re my safe place to fall when I come home after a bad day at work. I know you’ll pick up on my mood and take me out for dinner, or, better yet, cook for me and pamper me when I need it.”
She looked over at Blake. “But I love you as well. You’re the rebel, the random element no one can forecast or control. You take chances I can’t imagine, and then you double down on your bet with a laugh and a smile. I’ve followed every acquisition you’ve made, every risky investment as you built your business empire. Every time you beat the odds, I cheered for you. Every time you ran the gauntlet and won another challenge, I felt the thrill.”
Blake beamed at her praise, the smug smile tinged with a bit of pride.
Dane let out a puff of annoyance.
Emily hugged herself, fighting to find the right words. “But it’s come down to this, and I can’t deal with it any more.”
She reached out and grabbed Dane’s hand. A few steps took them inside Blake’s personal space, the triangle small and intimate. Emily took Blake’s hand, completing the link.
“We were together for one night, five years ago. That one night made us and broke us at the same time. We tried to pretend it changed nothing when in fact it changed everything.” She gave a wistful shake of her head. “I’m done. I’m too tired to go on like this.”
“Then let’s stop pretending,” Dane said, his voice low and hoarse. “Go back to the start and do it again, but do it right this time.” He looked at Blake for verification.
Blake smiled and a flash of heat shot up through Emily’s body, sending her pulse soaring. “We deserve a happy ending. All of us. Let’s make that happen.”
Chapter Five
Blake resisted the urge to pinch himself and make sure he wasn’t asleep.
He glanced down at where Emily held his hand. “Five years ago the three of us came here. We loved you like a woman deserved to be loved, as you wanted to be loved.” His voice broke on the last word. “Then we forced you to choose one of us, because society said you could only have one. Because we told you that you could only have one.” He looked at Dane. “We were fools.”
Dane nodded his agreement.
“Yes,” Emily said. She gave a wistful shake of her head. “But I understand why the two of you felt it had to be done. At the time, it seemed like the best answer.”
Emily lifted Dane’s hand and pressed it to her left breast. “But this . . .” She did the same with Blake’s hand, placing it on her right. “This is what I want. What we all want.”
Blake’s pulse raced as he felt the heat emanating through the sheer green fabric. His cock pressed against the front of his dress pants, and all he could think about was how she’d tasted and sounded last time.
He felt like a starving man stumbling into the best buffet in the world and not knowing where to start.
And he had become a bit of a culinary expert over time.
Emily smiled at him as if she’d read his mind. “I don’t want what we had before. I want more. We’re older, wiser, and a bit more experienced.” She gave him a long, seductive smirk. “Do you think that’d be a problem?”
Blake lifted his eyebrows, feeling another surge of desire at her teasing words. “I believe I can rise to the occasion.”
Dane pressed his lips into a tight line, his heart pounding loudly in a combination of arousal and fear. He thought about turning around, leaving Emily behind with Blake, and returning to the safe and steady road he had always chosen before.
But he’d be alone.
And his soul was screaming for him to stay, to close the circle he’d left behind.
Dane rubbed the back of his neck. “Seems Fate had her plans all laid out for us. We only had to follow the clues.”
He stared at Blake. “I miss our talks, our midnight arguments. You kept me on my toes, and I always felt better after bouncing an idea off of you. It made me work harder, better. I’ve been successful, but I would have so much more if you’d been at my side.”
Blake acknowledged it with a nod and a wistful grin. “I would have liked to have you with me. Both of you. You pushed me in college to be more than I was, and I missed that.”
Emily relaxed into Blake’s grip. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. The diamond necklace caught the moonlight and sparkled.
His left hand still on her breast, Dane moved around to stand behind Emily. “This place hasn’t changed a whole lot. Thought the students would have trampled it by now.”
“No Wi-Fi out here,” Blake muttered. “Can’t check their e-mails or stream videos.”
“Their loss, our gain.” Dane drew in a deep breath. “The flowers smell lovely.” He leaned in close to Emily’s ear. “Intoxicating.”
She murmured her agreement, eyes still closed.
“Keep your hands at your sides,” he ordered.
Emily gave an annoyed sigh but complied.
Dane nuzzled the back of her neck, wondering at the silky skin under his lips. He’d kissed her there only a few hours earlier but it seemed like a lifetime ago, the chemistry between them shifting and changing.
Evolving.
He touched the zipper on her dress and began to slowly draw it down, the metallic hum singing out through the night air.
Blake stepped in front of her and put both hands on her waist, steadying her as Dane slipped the dress off her shoulders. It fell onto the grass in an emerald-green wave, settling around her delicate black high-heeled shoes.
Her sigh shot straight to his cock, sending it to full attention. Dane shifted his hips, forcing himself to be patient.
He wanted nothing more than to shred the now-exposed slip of lingerie, take her to the ground, and have his way with her.
But that wouldn’t be enough. Not now and not ever.
“After all this time,” Blake murmured. “I think we can do a bit better.” He looked over Emily’s shoulder at Dane. “Yes?”
“Yes.” The confident voice left no room for discussion.
Emily shivered, the dark green chemise standing out against her skin.
Blake caught Dane’s eye and tilted his head to one side, eying the ground.
Dane took off his jacket and passed it to Blake.
Blake laid it down, creating a dark indentation in the flowerbed. He moved in to kiss her, a gentle tease at first that grew into an intense, deep kiss, his hand cupping the back of her neck as he plundered her mouth.
Dane undid his shirt and tossed it to one side as Emily writhed under Blake’s grip, her hands staying at her sides.
“Always eager,” Dane said as he gripped her waist again, his fingers tangling in the slick fabric. “You never had an
y patience when we were in class, edging toward the door before the prof stopped speaking.”
He leaned in and nipped the side of her neck with his teeth, prompting her to pull her mouth free from Blake’s with a soft cry.
Blake took a step back and slowly undid his own shirt as Dane held her in place. “She still likes to rush things.” His evil grin stirred Dane’s heart, and he smiled in reply. “Time to break her of that.”
Emily wasn’t sure what she expected when they’d ended up back at the cove.
She never, in any of her imagined realities, thought this would happen.
Again.
It was as if the last few years had been a dream, a hallucination. But they were all a bit older, hopefully a bit wiser, and, if the past few minutes were any indication, a whole lot wilder.
She couldn’t stop trembling as Dane urged one strap and then the other off her shoulder, causing the light chemise to fall onto the grass.
He reached out and tugged on Blake’s arm.
Emily forced herself to stay still as the two men switched places with a playful slap of hands.
Emily smiled as Blake’s hands went to her waist, digging in. She could feel him shaking with desire, fighting to keep control.
Then his lips landed at the back of her neck and began to slide slowly, slowly down her spine, and all coherent thought fled.
His mouth stopped at the top of her silk panties and his teeth latched onto them, scraping over her skin.
“Look at me,” Dane ordered. “Eyes up here.”
She met his gaze, smoldering with a mixture of want and desire.
The panties dropped around her ankles and Blake picked up one foot and then the other, freeing her from them.
“Keep the shoes on,” Dane said. “I like them.”
“So do I,” the throaty whisper came from below. “Especially when they’re digging into my back.”
Emily swallowed hard, her mind racing.
Blake edged her legs apart with a gentle push, skimming his hands down to her ankles and back up again.