Clothing Optional

Back Cover

A Contemporary Erotic Short Story by Virginia Nelson

On the rebound, Brie is thrilled at the idea of a vacation on the beaches of Florida, especially with two absolutely irresistible men…and equally unattainable.

Murphy and his boyfriend offer the great escape and maybe, if she spends enough time with them she’ll learn to control her desire to strip them every time she sees them.

Murphy has never touched a woman in that way, but is oddly attracted to his best pal, Brie. His lover and boyfriend, Andy, suggests they make love to her—a perfect choice for them to experience a ménage.

Andy’s interest in Brie makes Murphy wonder if he is not enough, but the temptation of having them both gets put to a real test during their weekend together…

Clothing Optional © 2012 by Virginia Nelson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

A MuseItHOT Publication

MuseItUp Publishing

14878 James, Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, H9H 1P5

http://www.museituppublishing.com

Cover Art © 2012 by Nika Dixon

Edited by Susan Davis

Copyedited by Valerie Haley

Layout and Book Production by Lea Schizas

eBook ISBN: 978-1-77127-081-6

First eBook Edition *June 2012

Production by MuseItUp Publishing

To the interesting times I have had…

You know who you are.

Acknowledgements

None of the books would ever get written if Michelle and fam didn’t feed me.  Thanks guys.

For the title, thanks Heather for the email that offered up titles…but none of them were quite right. However, the compliment had the perfect title right there. That is what makes friends great.  They may not know the answer but they point you in the right direction.

Always, thanks kids.  Love you.

Love, Me.

Clothing Optional

Virginia Nelsom

MuseitHOT, division of

MuseItUp Publishing

www.museituppublishing.com

ADULT CONTENT: Contains sexual content.

Chapter One

Licking at the sticky, white sweetness, Brie closed her eyes in blissful ecstasy. Swallowing reflexively, she allowed the creamy liquid to roll down her throat in a flood. Opening her eyes, she took another long slurping lick, and then rubbed the remains of the white stuff from her lips with an eager tongue in what had to be obvious rapture.

“If that is how you eat ice cream, maybe I am batting for the wrong team.”

At his words, Brie laughed and her gaze landed on one of the most delicious men she had ever known. He’d also happened to be her best friend for the past ten years and one hell of a dresser. Murphy Lawrence, sadly, was also strictly into men.

Shame
. She swirled her tongue around the spoon drenched in ice cream again.
The things I could do with that bulge in your jeans would make you rethink that life choice
.

Realistically, her longtime crush on her gay best friend was something that would never be fulfilled. Especially since, like so many of her friends, he enjoyed a successful relationship.

Whereas she only succeeded in molesting ice cream.

Brie’s most recent relationship, or bungle as she tended to think of it, had ended in her ex threatening to take her shop away. How exactly he proposed to do that was beyond her, but the fight turned nasty and she hoped Golfer Boy got exactly what he deserved in life. If karma was a real law, the man was screwed.

Speaking of screwed
, she punctuated the thought with another long lick of the cold, sweet treat;
it’s something I have not done in far too long, months really.
No way abstaining from sex helped the crush on her best friend or latent ice cream perversions. She ran a hand across her thigh as if to wipe away the disturbing thoughts before she focused on Murphy’s blue eyes and smiled.

“You love your team, and if they had a mascot it would be you, anyway. What is with the pink shirt?” Poking a finger at his rock hard abs, Brie bit back a sigh at their firmness.

“Pink is the new black,” Murphy advised and took a lick from his own spoon. The sundae they shared was buried under a sea of chocolate syrup, and he stabbed into it with gusto. “Besides, Andy likes me in pink. He said it shows off my tan, or some other nonsense. If you come on vacation with us, you will see tons of boy toys sporting pink.” Waving his spoon and rolling his eyes suggested the idea sounded silly but Murphy still blushed slightly, the color change hardly recognizable under his dark skin. “About vacation—”

Smiling at his attempted change of topic, Brie dipped her spoon into the ice cream again. “So, how
are
things with Andy?”

At her friendly question, Murphy frowned and seemed to be thinking.

“Fantastic.” His quick answer made her wonder if he was lying or not telling her the whole truth. “But you know me…love ‘em and leave ‘em.”

Brie frowned, and swirled her spoon through the ice cream in random whorls. “I thought maybe Andy was more. You two really seem to have something special. Guess I was wrong.”

Probing him with her gaze, Brie noticed as he shrugged that it seemed an attempt to mask whatever bothered him.

“It’s all in the hips and lips, baby girl. A man like me has to keep his options open.”

“I guess.” Brie studied him and sighed. “Why do I feel like someday we are going to be two old maids, with about a zillion cats, sitting around trashing fashion magazines rather than rocking on our porch swings with that one true love?”

Murphy snorted. “You can have the true love, baby girl. I want the true passion.”

“What if you could have both?” The male voice had both their heads snapping up. Dark-haired with olive skin, his appearance so decadently Italian he made Brie want to take a lick to see if he tasted like parmesan. Brown eyes so dark they appeared nearly black, even in the well-lit ice cream parlor, met hers, and Brie sucked in a breath as the sheer masculinity of his presence caused a zing of awareness to shoot from her head to her toes.

Brie shook her head.
This is no way to think about my best friend’s boyfriend
. But every time she saw Andy, her body responded.
My gaydar is defective
.

Guiltily, she gazed over at Murphy, but he wore a look of hunger on his face rivaling the sexual tension rippling through her own body upon seeing Andy. This served to make Brie feel a hundred times worse.
It’s bad enough, crushing on my best friend. To lust after his boyfriend is just sick.

Murphy reached out a hand toward Andy. He accepted it and bent over till their faces met, and Brie couldn’t help but stare, riveted, as the two men exchanged a kiss hot enough to melt the ice cream left swimming in the bowl of fudge. Brie brought one hand up to fan herself, but when Andy’s eyes snapped open and their darkness settled unerringly on her, she stilled the hand in another wash of guilt.

Andy came up smiling from the kiss, his gaze locked on hers, and her breath hitched at his dark regard. Shifting her eyes, she looked at Murphy. Murphy’s lips appeared already swollen, his eyes dazed, and another wave of heat washed over her at the thought of climbing across the table to kiss him in his blurry state.

Brie shook her head again. What was with her today?
Somebody needs to go buy some batteries and spend some quality alone time
.

At Andy’s soft chuckle, her gaze darted to his seemingly knowing glance, and she wondered if somehow he knew her thoughts.

Impossible.

Clearing her throat, Brie tapped Murphy’s hand with her spoon. “I will scram and leave you boys alone. Call me?”

“I’ll call later tonight, baby girl.” Murphy focused on her, smiling warmly. “Let me know what you think about that trip. I’ve given you a good month to consider it, and the arrangements need to be finalized.” Then his smile turned into a grin as he added, “Brie, you need to get the hell out of Dodge and get your bearings.”

“What’s to think about?” Grinning back, she scooted out of the booth. “Two men all to myself for three days in the sun? Count me in, handsome. Of course, let’s keep it to ourselves that the two gorgeous men only have eyes for each other, shall we?”

“So you are coming with us to Florida? The Keys are beautiful this time of year.” Andy’s hand glided easily in a friendly move across her waist as she stood and he slid into the spot Brie vacated.

Fire crackled down her skin and she fought to keep her breathing even.
It’s a casual touch and a million people touch like that in courtesy every day
. Internally, she chastised herself.
Reacting to my best friend’s boyfriend is wrong
.

“By beautiful, he means sweltering hot, so don’t pack much in the way of clothes.” Murphy slid closer to Andy in the round booth, his smile infectious.

“No problem. Bikini at the ready.”
Body at the ready, too, but I’ll keep that to myself
.

“Talk to you soon and we’ll hash out travel plans.” Smiling, she nodded to Andy and escaped before she said something stupid. Getting hot and bothered left her flustered, which was really unacceptable and
had
to stop.

I really need to get my hormones under control, and this trip will be the perfect chance for me to do it.
The two men, rolling around in the sand half-naked, should be enough to tell her system a giant stop sign hung over their heads.

She hoped so, anyway. At this point, the idea of them rolling around anywhere half-naked took her breath away.

Chapter Two

“Quit being so uptight,” Andy chastised as he lay in their bed curled around Murphy. “I know you like her. I see how you watch her.”

Lying in his lover’s arms, Murphy growled in frustration. “It’s not that simple, Andy.”

Andy slid a hand up Murphy’s lightly furred leg, coming to a rest near the juncture of his thighs. “It’s only as complicated as you make it. If you want it, take it. It is a general rule of business.”

Murphy never had a relationship that worked, not like this one was working. He never felt this way—all comfortable and safe in a relationship, as he did with Andy—before with any man. Andy was wonderful. Andy represented everything Murphy ever wanted in a relationship. The one flaw with Andy was his bisexuality prior to his relationship with Murphy. He asked Murphy multiple times about testing his own boundaries, about his thoughts on a threesome. Murphy battled insecurities about being enough for Andy, and it actually hurt in an unexpected way.

Murphy rolled to prop his chin on his hand, where it laid on Andy’s chest.

“Am I not enough for you?”

Andy’s eyes, ever dark, seemed to go black with emotion as he dug a hand into Murphy’s hair. Roughly, he pulled Murphy to him for a kiss filled with need, heat, and tongue.

“You are enough for me. But I think this will add something. I think this is meant to be. You haven’t ever touched a woman…ever?”

“No.” Murphy sighed and rolled onto his back. “I knew how I felt about men from the start. I never wanted to touch a woman before.”

Andy rolled to cage Murphy with his body. “Ah-ha! Before! You feel attracted to her, too?”

Since they’d had a similar conversation before, Murphy knew the direction of this one. Andy was talking about Brie. Murphy’s longtime best friend had attracted Andy from the beginning with her supple legs, fiery auburn locks, and flashing green eyes. So no matter what secret feelings Murphy harbored for her—odd as they may be—it was wrong on so many levels. He didn’t know what he would do without Brie. If he decided to have a threesome, he wished it could be with her, but he would never risk their friendship on such a roll of the dice.