The dance ended all too soon, and Devi and Marcus stood staring at each other with goofy smiles before the jostling around them forced them off the dance floor.
God
,
I just want to get him
home and kiss him all over…
“
Devi.
” Leena’s voice caught her attention. Marcus had his back to her sister, but Devi could see Leena over his shoulder clearly. Her, and the woman clad in shimmering black she towed in her wake. “There you are. I wanted to introduce Rana to your new boyfriend.”
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To be fair, Rana’s eyes didn’t exactly bug out when Marcus turned around, but it was close.
Very close.
“I told you our baby sister had a secret boyfriend. This is Jace.” Leena looked him up and down with a small frown. “Weren’t you wearing a different suit?”
“I’m not Jace, I’m his brother, Marcus.” Marcus gave both women a smile so blinding, Devi blinked. He shook hands with Leena and nodded to Rana. “I believe we met last week at the restaurant?”
Rana looked shell-shocked, but she nodded, her large chandelier earrings making a musical tinkling noise.
Devi licked her lips. “Leena, Marcus is also…”
A sharp squeeze on her elbow surprised and silenced her. “Delighted to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me, as well.” He looked around at the crush of people. “When you guys throw a party, you go all out, huh?”
“Oh, there’s nothing Indians love more than an excuse to dress up and party.” Leena laughed. “Well, Jace didn’t mention you guys were twins.” Her sharp eyes flickered over Marcus’s bare left hand, and a crafty gleam shone. “So you already know Rana? Hey, Rana, why don’t you show Marcus where the bar is?”
“It’s on the left wall—ouch.”
Leena’s determined smile couldn’t hide the pinch she had just administered. “It’s so crowded, why don’t you take him there?”
Devi inwardly winced and cast an apologetic look at Marcus. No one could accuse Leena of subtlety.
“I’m not interested in him, okay, Leena?” Rana blurted out.
Well, maybe she could sign both her sisters up for diplomacy lessons.
“Rana.” Leena’s admonishment was followed by Marcus’s chuckle-turned-cough.
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“Leena.” The low-pitched masculine voice oozed oily charm. Leena’s long-time boyfriend, Rahul, stepped up behind her and took her arm. “I wanted to introduce you to some people and you disappeared.” He nodded to Devi and Rana but ignored Marcus.
Devi smiled but didn’t bother to speak. As darkly handsome and wealthy as Rahul was, she’d never liked him, and she knew Rana didn’t either. He didn’t do or say anything untoward, and their mother adored him, but she got a bad feeling whenever he came around.
Perhaps, Devi noted, watching Leena’s expressive face wipe clean of emotion, it was the way her normally assertive and energetic sister acted around him, like a shadow of herself. “I’ll be there in a second.”
“These are important people, Leena.”
She blew out a huff of air. Devi’s eyes widened over Leena expressing even that much displeasure with her boyfriend. “Okay.” She flashed them a strained smile and spoke to Marcus.
“Please, grab a drink and enjoy your night.”
Marcus nodded. Rana barely waited until Leena had left hearing range before she whirled on them. “What the fuck is going on here?”
“Hi, Rana. It’s good to see you again.” Jace materialized by Devi’s right side and flanked her. Devi had no doubt he’d been watching, waiting to see if they would need backup.
Her sister shot him a dirty look. “Excuse me if I’m not delighted to see the two of you here.
Are you kidding me?” She lowered her voice and leaned in close to Devi. “Baby, when I introduced you to these two, I thought you were just going to use them to get out of your rut. I never intended for you to see them again, let alone bring them to a family function.”
“That’s rather shortsighted of you.” Jace rocked back on his heels. “I do come to your restaurant on a fairly regular basis. Were you going to ban me?”
“I was prepared to lose a regular customer to jumpstart my sister’s sex life.”
“And isn’t this great? Now you don’t have to lose me.”
Rana’s eyes narrowed to slits. “What kind of game are you two playing?”
“No game.” Marcus spoke up. “Trust me.”
Rana snorted. “Yeah, right. Devi, come with me, we need to talk.”
“No.”
“What?”
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She swallowed. Rana’s surprise almost equaled her own. She had never blatantly disobeyed her oldest sister. “I don’t need an intervention. And I don’t need you to protect me from myself this time.”
Rana rolled her eyes. “You and I both know you aren’t a good judge of men.”
“Well, there you go. You should be thrilled. You picked Jace and Marcus.”
“For one night, not—”
“How long I choose to be with them is my decision, not yours. I won’t let you mess this up for me.”
“They’re players, just like Tarek. You remember how much he hurt you?”
Devi’s grip on her temper slipped. “They are nothing like Tarek. They are good, decent men.
You could offer yourself to them naked and they wouldn’t even look at you twice if they had made a commitment to me.”
Rana snorted. “You’re fooling yourself.”
“No, I’m not. I’ll never worry that I’ll walk in on them with another woman, not like I did with you and Tarek.”
A silence descended over the four of them, frozen in a tableau amidst the revelry. Marcus was the first to speak. “You slept with her boyfriend?” Disgust rang heavy in his voice, and his lip curled.
Her face white but for the garish red stripe of her lipstick, Rana shot him a look containing a shadow of her normal sassiness. “You’re one to talk.”
“They never had sex.” Devi spoke in a low voice. “It was arranged for me to walk in on them making out on my sofa.”
“She wouldn’t listen to us. We told her he was hitting on anything in a skirt, but we knew she wouldn’t believe it until she saw it.” Rana studied her with pain in her eyes. “She was talking marriage, and I couldn’t let her do that. She knows how sorry I am, that I never meant anything by it.
Tell
them.”
Devi frowned at her. “Of course I know that, Rana. I forgave you the minute you explained what happened. I never blamed you.”
Rana laughed, a hollow sound. “Saint Devi. You should have. God knows I’ve blamed myself enough.”
“I know,” she explained gently. “Which is why I could never bring myself to. You need to get over this guilt. It’s really unwarranted.”
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“How can I when I seem to have put something else in motion?” Rana studied the three of them. “What exactly is all of this about?”
Devi thought for a minute. “Love.”
If anything, Rana looked even more tortured, tears shining in her eyes. “Oh dear Lord, what have I done? That’s impossible. Please, just come with me, and we can go talk it over with Leena.”
Devi leaned against Marcus, who put a solid arm around her. Jace stroked his fingers down her wrist until he gripped her hand securely. Their support gave her the strength to stand up to her sister. “No, Rana. I don’t need to talk anything over. Please, for once, just trust me to know my own mind.”
Rana opened her mouth, but their mother’s voice intruded. “Well, I see you finally decided to show up. I hope you don’t have a drunken lover around to crash this party like you did at your graduation.”
Rana cast her an impatient glance. “Not now, Mother.”
Mama raised a thinly plucked eyebrow. “I see you’ve at least met Devi’s new young man. I do hope you’re behaving yourself.” She smiled at Marcus. “And of course you must be Jace’s brother.”
As soon as their mother had appeared, Marcus had withdrawn his arm from around Devi, and she mourned its loss. “Mrs. Malik. How do you do? I can see where Devi gets her looks.
How can there be a whole family of such attractive women?”
Rana rolled her eyes but Mama giggled. “And I can see charm runs in your family.”
“Honesty, ma’am. Hardly charm.”
Mama smiled, though it slipped when she turned to Rana. “Can you please come with me? I need to speak with you about these caterer friends of yours.”
“Actually, Devi and I just needed to chat about something…”
“No, she doesn’t. I mean, we don’t,” Devi interjected quickly. “You go on and handle your catering crisis.”
Mama inclined her head regally. “Okay, baby. A pleasure to meet both of you.”
Marcus and Jace murmured their goodbyes as Mama dragged Rana away. Rana twisted to look over her shoulder.
Later,
she mouthed.
As soon as they were gone, Marcus rubbed circles onto her back, and she sagged into Jace’s support, grateful to have both their hands on her. “Well, that went…well.”
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“Mmmm.”
She turned to Marcus. “Why didn’t you let me tell Leena what was going on? She’s going to find out.”
He shrugged. “I knew it would be uncomfortable for you, and you don’t have to prove anything to me. Anyway, the more people who know, the more gossip. I don’t want people to talk about you. If I have to take a second seat out in public, that’s cool.” Marcus grinned. “I’ve never been one for public displays of affection anyway.”
Devi raised an eyebrow. “Unless it’s in a dressing room, huh?”
Jace chuckled and drew her closer. “No, he’s serious. Me, on the other hand.” He kissed the side of her neck, the brief pass of his tongue sending tingles through her skin. “I can’t resist touching you and I don’t care who sees.”
Devi shivered and leaned into Jace’s kiss. She’d done her duty, proven her point. Time to get her men out of here and introduce them to the rest of her plans for the night. “Our normal baker wasn’t available. The sweets aren’t really up to your standards.”
Jace drew back and raised an arrogant brow. “Yeah?”
“So it’s really not necessary to stay for the cake.”
Marcus crowded closer to her. “I can pass on the cake, if you can make me a better offer.”
“Well, you know, technically, I am wearing a skirt.” She sent them both what she hoped was a sultry look. “And we know how good I am at following your rules.”
Marcus’s eyes widened and then narrowed in rising lust and realization. “Home, now.”
“Ahh, there’s the growl I love so much,” she teased as he grabbed her hand and navigated through the maze of couples. “I was wondering where that polite and charming man had come from.”
“I’m charming…around everyone but you,” he admitted. “You just make me feel too raw to worry about charm.”
“Lucky for you, I don’t mind.”
“Yeah. Lucky me.”
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The car ride passed in relative quiet as Devi drove to her house. At some point Jace, who sat next to her, switched the radio on to a soulful jazz station. Appropriately, fat drops of rain started to hit her windshield just as she took the exit off the thruway.
None of them said or did anything sexual, but the combination of the saxophone, the rain and their hulking presence in the car worked as effectively as an hour of foreplay. By the time Devi pulled into her driveway, she was ready to jump onto the nearest male. Her gaze met Jace’s and he shook his head slowly, a gleam in his eyes. “No. Inside.”
She licked her lips and clambered out of the car, feeling graceless and clumsy. Her car chirped as she locked it, and she placed the key ring in Marcus’s outstretched hand. Her nerves were too rattled to handle them appropriately.
They entered the foyer behind Devi, and she waited with eyes downcast for one of them to grab her from behind and press her against the wall.
Seconds stretched into a full minute, and she looked over her shoulder with a frown. Where were her take-charge men?
Both of them stood inside the door, shadows covering their faces, arms crossed over their chests. A dizzying rush went through Devi. In the dark, they looked so identical, she didn’t think she could tell them apart.
“What are you guys waiting for?”
The one on the left answered. “This is your show, sweetheart.”
She turned. Their voices were similar, but she thought by the tone and endearment the speaker might be Jace. Her show. Now that was interesting.
She flipped on one of the switches that lit a recessed light right above her. The floodlight shone a spot of illumination on her, while casting Jace and Marcus even further into shadows.
Her hips swayed to the music of the rain pounding on her roof. She should have felt a bit ridiculous—strip-teasing wasn’t really her forte—but the bubble cocooning the three of them didn’t allow for feelings of self-consciousness.
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She raised her arms and her fingers found the knot of the halter tie behind her neck with fingers no longer clumsy. She worked it free and the ties dropped down. The fabric of the top caught on her nipples. The hook-and-eye closures lower on her back were easier to deal with and the garment opened. She held it to her front before allowing it to slip to the floor, baring her breasts. She stroked a finger down a slope, over a tightening nipple, her head falling back.
A sharp inhale from the left prompted a slight smile. So it had been Jace. She knew he had a special affinity for her breasts. Marcus, on the other hand, appreciated another body part far more.
She turned her back to the twins, feeling two pairs of eyes roving over the smooth expanse of her back. The zipper on the side of her skirt took a second to undo, and the fabric fell to her feet in a quiet whisper of silk. She arched her back.
“Fuck.”
“Shit.”
The swear words were said with all the reverence of someone at worship. “Were you wearing this all night?” The hard voice came from right behind her, so she wasn’t surprised when she felt Marcus’s hand rest on her ass.
She cast a sultry look over her shoulder. “Of course,” she purred. “I wanted to be ready for you.”