“Um, I think I’ll have the shrimp cocktail.”
Evan brushed her hand when he took back the menu. “Perfect
choice.”
The skin over her knuckles warmed right along with her
nipples and she knew she was moving into point-of-no-return territory here.
Question was, could she handle going from this transparent sexual banter into
full-blown come-and-get-me mode?
Lust and desire was one thing. Actually taking that extra
step into reality was entirely another.
But something in her brain couldn’t shake the idea of having
these men all to herself. That particular fantasy—the one of her tangled,
sweaty and writhing between two hard, male bodies—had lived in the back of her
mind for so long. And now, faced with the possibility of transforming such a
fantasy into reality? Well, it seemed almost surreal.
Yet surreal or not, she kept tossing that one ride on the merry-go-round
around in her head and ultimately made the decision. For the first time in her
life, she was going to go for it. She was going to play the game. She was going
to up the innuendo and dive into the sensuality of it all, headfirst. For once
she was going to do what she wanted to do, simply because she wanted to do it.
A freeing excitement took hold then, along with a stutter in
her breath and a spreading warmth throughout her body.
Oh yeah, this was going to be so much fun.
“Let’s mix it up some,” Garrett said, handing back his own
menu. “I’ll have the appetizer sampler. And make the wings the spicy ones.”
Evan nodded with a “Coming up” and entered their order into
the computer behind the bar.
“Big appetite?”
Garrett shrugged. “It’s late and I’m starving. Besides,” he
said in a lower voice, “I’m sure I can find somebody to share with me.”
He sipped on his martini and slid his gaze to Evan before
coming back to her. Okay, could that be any clearer? She couldn’t help but
think that perhaps they had themselves a little mutual understanding.
“I don’t doubt it in the least,” she agreed.
The music on the jukebox changed to an upbeat, sensual Salsa
tune. She tapped her toe in the air to the rhythm and wriggled her hips ever so
slightly. There was a small dance floor at the far end of the bar, and the
instant she imagined being wrapped in Garrett’s arms while rubbing and moving
against him in a sexy dance, he surprised the hell out of her by standing and
holding out his hand.
“Care to?”
Would she ever.
“I’d love to but I don’t know the steps,” she said.
Regardless, she slipped her fingers over his waiting palm and let him lead her
to the center of the parquet floor.
“You really don’t know how to Salsa?”
She shook her head. “Not officially, no.”
He twirled her once before sliding his hand around her waist
and pulling her in close. “I took a couple lessons years ago. Completely under
duress, mind you, but the moves stuck with me.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it’s a long story. I’ll have to tell it to you
sometime.”
“Can’t wait to hear it.”
The fabric of his shirt scarcely muted the heat radiating
off his body when he clutched her tighter. In turn, she caressed his shoulders
and worked her fingers higher to explore the skin along his neck before
skimming over his nape to toy with the curly ends of his dark hair.
Thick and silky—that was putting it mildly.
“First off, a Salsa is all about the hips,” he instructed
with a whisper. “Moving them smoothly, letting the music take over. Just doing
what your body tells you to.”
Oh boy, if he only knew what her body was telling her to do,
she thought as he trailed his hands even lower to grip her hips and roll them
side to side. Then again, based on the energy racing around them, she figured
his body was probably telling him the same thing.
“Like this. Easy. Smooth.”
Heaven help her, she wanted to groan.
“Bend your knees a little. Yeah, like that. You got it. Here
we go now. Follow my lead.”
He made following his steps utterly effortless. She simply
moved back and forth with him in a fluid pattern, in tiny circles around the
center of the dance floor.
She laughed when he spun her again, only to bring her right
back to where she started from, with his strong hands leading the way and his
forehead resting against hers. He flashed a conspiratorial grin that she
answered with a squeeze of his biceps. The muscles there were hard as rocks and
that had her wondering what else might be as well.
“You’re a natural at this.”
“Yeah?” she asked, breathless.
“Absolutely.”
He spun her once more, but this time he stepped forward and
caught her with his chest plastered against her back. He snaked his hands under
her arms and over her stomach, one coming to rest under her breasts and the
other heading lower as they continued their sexy dance. He ground against her
ass and this time she didn’t even try to hold back.
Her groan rose from deep in her throat, yet it was quiet
enough that only he could hear her. When he nuzzled her neck, his breath burned
over the same spot as before. She dropped her head back on his shoulder as she slid
her hands lower to clutch his thighs.
Dear God, could those be even harder than his biceps? Every
inch of this man was solid, including the erection now prodding her lower back.
“Right there.” He sucked in a breath between his teeth. “I
like it right there.”
That was all it took. Heat flooded her pussy and she
could’ve come right then.
He held on tighter and danced them in a loop to face the
bar. Evan was standing there with his arms folded over his wide chest, leaning
against the center island, just staring at them. He held his jaw firm and his
chest rose slowly and evenly with each breath, but nothing could mask the
undeniable want in his eyes.
Garrett worked his fingertips against the silkiness of her
blouse and hooked the thumb of his opposite hand under her belt. Her nipples
tightened even more, warming her breasts until she was sure nothing would ease
the ache his simple touch created.
“Looks as if our friend over there isn’t too shy about what
he wants,” Garrett mused at the edge of her ear. “Can’t say as I blame him,
though. Seems to be a lot of that going on here.”
Never in her life had she felt so free. Wild, even. She
covered Garrett’s hand with one of her own and worked her fingers between his
to hold it there while lifting her other hand to that silky place along the
nape of his neck. She gripped those short curls and reveled in the quiet growl
he let loose when she tightened and tugged a little.
“Ah, baby. You’re some wicked sexy, you know that?”
She had to smile. “You’re the first person to ever call me
that.”
“What? Sexy? I highly doubt that.”
She shook her head ever so slightly. “No. Wicked. I’ve never
been called wicked before.”
More heat centered in her pussy when he pressed his lips
against her temple. “Then I’m the first person to see who you really are,” he
whispered.
As revelations went this one floored her, simply because she
couldn’t help but think that, in this moment, he might be right.
They stayed like that for a few beats, gyrating together,
mimicking a slow, rhythmic fucking, all the while being watched intently by Evan.
Her breath came quicker and her knees started to feel like jelly.
“You want him,” Garrett continued at the shell of her ear.
“Don’t you?”
Her throat constricted, but whether it was from nerves or
excitement, she couldn’t be sure. Gripping him tighter was the only answer she
could give.
“I watched you today. Whenever you stopped in here, you’d
flash these looks at him.”
“Did I?” she managed.
His chuckle rumbled in his chest and penetrated through her
back. “Yeah, you did.”
“Mmm.”
“You’re not denying it, are you?”
The devil in her just kept staring into Evan’s eyes. She
remained silent.
“I know you’re thinking it,” Garrett kept going. “My hands
all over you. His hands. Our mouths.” He pushed against her ass again. “Among
other things.”
God, he was reading her mind. “And you’re calling me
wicked?”
“Come on, Riley,” he nearly growled. “Let me hear you say
it. Let me hear you say how much you want him. How much you want us.”
She peered over her shoulder and caught his gaze. Lust,
desire, need—all were heady emotions in and of themselves. But weaved together
in the depths of Garrett’s near-black eyes… She found herself lost and grounded
all at the same time as an easy truth spilled past her lips.
“Yes, Garrett. I want you. And I want him. I want you both,
and I want you together.”
Riley dropped her gaze to Garrett’s mouth. There was no
smile, not even a quirk. When he merely slid his tongue across his lips, she
couldn’t help but wish it was her tongue doing the licking.
“Let’s see what we can do about that, then,” he said.
His words brought her attention back to his eyes. She was instantly
slammed by the connection they shared. Deep. Almost fierce. Definitely on the
same page.
They both looked back at Evan, who had turned away when a
server brought out their food. He took the plates from her, held them up and
hitched his chin at them.
Part of her wanted to stay in Garrett’s arms on the dance
floor all night long, but an even bigger part of her was more eager to move
forward with both men—to get the party started and live out her fantasies, so
to speak.
“To be continued,” Garrett whispered before brushing his
lips along the side of her neck. He loosened his grip, twirled her once more
and led her back to their barstools. When they got there, she hitched her hip
on the edge of her seat, but Garrett remained standing.
“On second thought, Evan,” he started, “can we get these to
go?”
“To go?”
A new bout of tingles fired in her stomach when Evan came
close to putting on a sad puppy-dog face. Granted, it was damn sexy, but it was
a puppy-dog face nonetheless.
“Yeah.” Garrett yanked his wallet from his back pocket,
plucked out a fifty along with a key card and pushed them both across the bar
top. “And do you deliver?”
Evan ignored the money for the tab but zeroed in on the key
card. He picked it up, lifted his eyes and studied them for a moment. “I’m
guessing this isn’t an invitation to hang out with you guys as just a third
wheel. I’ve gotta say that’s never really been my thing.”
Her breath caught at the notion that she and Garrett
might’ve read him wrong this entire time, but Garrett stayed smooth as he
replaced the wallet in his pocket.
“You guessed right. There’ll be no third wheels tonight.
Only willing, active participants. And for the record?” He tilted his head
toward Riley. “This is all about her. For her. If you’re interested, that is.”
“Hell, I’ve been interested for the last three days.” Evan
flicked the card between his fingers. “This is what you want?” he asked her.
Clear, controlled. No wavering. “This is what I want.”
He paused only a second before he said, “Delivery it is,
then. Room number?”
“1207,” Garrett answered.
Evan checked his watch. “Give me ten minutes.”
Garrett held out his hand for her as she took a final sip of
her drink. “We’ll try,” he said, laughing.
Evan slid him a hard glare. “Try hard.”
Garrett settled his hand on the small of her back and helped
ease her from the barstool. The gesture was possessive but not domineering and
she found that she liked it. She grabbed her bags and they headed toward the hotel’s
lobby.
“I just need to make a quick stop at that little store over
there before we go up.”
At this point, she probably would’ve waited forever for him,
but was relieved when he was gone less than five minutes. He met her back by
the fountain in the center of the lobby with a small black shopping bag
clutched in his left hand. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was
inside.
“Ready?” He slid his fingers across her cheek, under her ear
and up into her hair before leaning in and stopping a mere centimeter from
kissing her. Lord, every ounce of her was dying to lift to her toes to close
the distance. Her lips burned for his kiss, yet somehow she knew that if they
started anything here in the lobby they’d either embarrass the hell out of
themselves or go so far they’d end up getting thrown in jail. Being charged
with lewd and lascivious acts, only to get tossed into a ten-by-ten holding cell
to wait for someone to bail her out really wasn’t the way she envisioned ending
the night.
“As I’ll ever be,” she answered.
“Perfect.”
The way his eyes sparked and the gentle yet commanding
caress of his fingertips against her scalp had her heart racing. She wasn’t sure
whether he meant what she just said was perfect, or if he was referring to her
just being her. Either way, her pulse went nuts, as if she’d just sprinted
across the finish line after running a 5K marathon.
He trailed his fingers from her hair, down her arm and
clasped her hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
He strolled to the elevators with her hand held tightly
within his and a haughty coolness in his stride. He pushed the Up button and
they waited impatiently but quietly, watching the numbers flash along the gold
strip over the elevator doors. Five, four, three, two and
ping
. The car arrived
empty and he let go of her hand to usher her inside.
He thumbed number twelve once they entered, and spun to face
her. The doors barely had a chance to close completely before he took the few
steps to pin her against the back wall.
“This might be my only time alone with you tonight and I
just wanted… Well, I wanted to do this.”
She was caught off guard for a split second when he lowered
his lips and possessed her in a crazy, melty kiss. He took her slowly, yet it
all happened so fast. He sipped at her lips, drank from them and literally took
her breath away. His tongue was like a lick of hot blue flames as he gently
worked it inside against hers. Scorching. Moist. As rough as it was smooth, and
salty from the olives in his drink. With the two of them alone in the elevator,
she saw no reason to try to quiet her moan.
She felt his male pride in his smile as he cradled her
cheeks while she clutched the shirt at his waist and pulled it free from his
pants. When she finally worked her hands underneath and touched skin, he
pressed against her harder. Chest to chest, hip to hip, all the way down to
their knees.
She was in heaven and the night had barely even begun.
“Jesus… What you do to me, Riley.”
The groaned words were muffled against her jaw as he lowered
his hands to her waist and moved his lips closer to her ear. When he captured
her lobe and sucked, she responded with a dig of her nails into the toned flesh
at his sides.
She didn’t say anything in return for the lone reason that,
quite frankly, she couldn’t. She was too lost in what he was doing to her to
draw in a single breath, let alone form any logical words of her own.
They both nearly missed the ping once the elevator reached
the twelfth floor. Garrett lunged and shoved his arm into the path of the
closing doors before tugging on her hand once more.
She followed him down the hallway, somewhat surprised at his
urgency. Not because she truly found it shocking, but because she was amazed at
how much it mirrored her own. They were in sync, she and this powerful man, and
the realization was downright erotic.
Only four doors down on the right, they hit room 1207 in
seconds. He let go of her hand to shove a second key card in the door handle
plate. As soon as the lock clicked and released, he repeated the whole leading-hand-at-her-lower-back
thing. She didn’t think she’d ever tire of how special that made her feel.
The only light in the room shone from a small lamp on the
desk. The hotel’s turndown service had worked its magic, complete with a white
towel folded into the shape of a swan in the center of the king-size bed along
with two pieces of dark chocolate nestled atop each pillow. She dropped her
bags by the door, sauntered over and picked up one of the chocolates as Garrett
tossed the little black bag and his key card on the nightstand.
“Here, let me do that.” He took the candy from her fingers,
unwrapped it and held it to her lips. She bit it in half and let the silkiness
melt over her tongue as the bitterness of the chocolate assaulted her taste
buds. She closed her eyes and savored the flavor, thinking the combination was
almost as good as how Garrett had tasted in the elevator.
Yeah…but not quite.
“Good?”
She opened her eyes in time to see him pop the rest of the
piece into his mouth and nodded. “Very.”
He chewed with a devilish tilt to his lips. “Yeah, it’s not
bad.”
She didn’t want any awkwardness to develop between them as they
waited for Evan, so before they ended up headed down that highway, she stepped
past him and made her way to the window. The Gulf view of the white sand
beaches and emerald-green surf was spectacular from this side of the hotel
during the light of day, but at this time of night the water past the coastline
cast an eerie pitch-black shadow. She stood at the window, looking out at the
moon’s glow over the water, and pressed one hand against the cool glass.
When Garrett silently moved behind her, her insides
trembled. Their gazes met in the window, his dark and sultry while hers hovered
somewhere between nervous and excited laced with a tinge of… Exactly what, she
wasn’t sure. Even so, she didn’t need to see his murky image to know he stood
just inches away. She could feel his presence everywhere—all over her skin,
inside her lungs, between her thighs.
As he unclasped her link belt, any lingering trepidation
drained from her body. And when the metal jingled when he dropped it to the
floor, every bit of that secret thrill rose to the surface and grabbed her in a
stranglehold.
“Put your other hand up on the window.”
She did as he instructed without a second thought. Standing
there, she leaned forward with both hands braced on the glass, watching every
move he made in a hazy mirror image.
Just then, the electric lock whirred and the room door
opened slowly. Evan stepped through with the handle of a carry-out bag fisted in
his hand, and from what she could see, a heated fuck-me-now expression
plastered all over his face.
“Perfect timing,” Garrett said.
“Seems so.” Evan placed the bag on the desk and sat on the
edge next to it, sticking his long legs out and crossing them at the ankles.
“What’ve I missed?”
Garrett smoothed his palm down the arch of her back and over
her ass. She sucked her lips between her teeth and bit when he stopped and
squeezed the rounded part with a controlled dig of his fingertips.
“Not a thing. We were just getting started.”
When she peered over her shoulder, Evan cocked his head and
folded his arms over his chest. She was a little bummed to see he’d taken off
the bow tie and cufflinks, but not so upset that she missed how he’d loosened
four or five buttons and rolled his shirt sleeves up to his elbows. His
forearms could’ve rivaled Garrett’s, and she considered for a moment how
similar the physiques of these two men really were—only tonight the more
olive-toned of the two dominated in classic white, while the fair-complexioned
man rocked out in head-to-toe metal-god black.
An archetypical case of good versus evil?
Maybe.
Although, given the flutter of her pulse and the buzz inside
her head, she wasn’t so sure she could hold a thought long enough to decipher
which man represented which. Not that it mattered. The only thing that did
matter right now was that both of these men were utterly mesmerizing, sexy as
sin, and that for the rest of the night they were all hers.