“Julianne, you’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you? You know you can tell me anything, right?”
“Yes, mom.” She infused her tone with just enough teenage boredom that her mom actually laughed. “I’ll be fine.”
Her mom gave her another tight squeeze before taking a step back. “I’ll always worry. Mothers never stop.”
“I know. It’s just…complicated.”
Complicated didn’t begin to describe what she felt for Keegan and Erik. Or what she’d done to get the money. Or the first night they’d spent together. Or last night and this morning. Or even this dinner.
With a sigh, her mom walked to the doorway then turned and gave her a resigned smile. “Everything’s complicated, honey. Some things just take a little more work. You have to decide if it’s worth it, I guess. And don’t think for a minute that we’re finished with this conversation. I want to hear all about this date tomorrow.”
Which was her mom’s not-so-subtle way of asking if she’d be home tonight.
Jules just said, “Don’t wait up for me. I’m not sure when I’ll be home.”
Or if she’d be home at all tonight. Would they ask her to stay with them again tonight?
“Alright, sweetheart. Just…be safe.”
With a little wave, her mom disappeared and Jules sank onto the edge of her bed.
Damn it, she needed to tell her mom the truth. The secret weighed on her like a boulder around her neck.
After she’d paid off their last credit card and the final bill from the hospital, she’d briefly considered telling her mom she’d won the lottery but that would’ve been too easy to check.
She’d come up with a version of the truth. A very wealthy man had offered her the money in exchange for a service, which she’d assured her mom had not been illegal, dangerous or life-threatening.
Her mom had been stunned speechless and had tried to get Jules to tell her everything but Jules had held her ground.
Would her mom be horrified at what she’d done to clear their debt? Would she understand that Jules had had every intention of turning the money down if she hadn’t been attracted to the man who’d offered her a half-million dollars to sleep with him?
Would her mom think less of her when she found out she’d actually slept with two men for the money? And that it’d been the best sexual experience of her life?
Would her mom understand why she was attempting to pursue a relationship with those same two men, not because they’d saved Jules and her mom from poverty and despair but because she actually liked them?
Glancing at the clock, she realized it was one minute until seven and the guys would probably be on time.
Standing, she made sure her dress wasn’t wrinkled. She’d gone with basic black, tailored and elegant enough for dinner with two millionaires. She’d bought it at an outlet but the style was classic enough that it’d aged well. She knew she looked good in it and the red, spike-heeled pumps set it off perfectly.
She’d fit in wherever they planned to take her, unless it was one of the chain restaurants near the mall or a dive bar in downtown Reading. She didn’t think either of those possibilities was going to happen. Not with Erik along.
As she headed toward the front of their one-story ranch, the doorbell rang.
Crap, she’d wanted to be there to open the door before her mom could badger Keegan with a thousand questions. She didn’t figure Erik would get out of the car.
So she was shocked when she realized both men stood in the living room, shaking hands with her mom.
Standing in shadows of the hall that led to the bedrooms, she let herself stare.
Oh my, her guys cleaned up fine.
Keegan wore a dark suit with a white shirt. Erik had paired gray pants with a black shirt. Neither of them wore a tie, and the couple of undone buttons at the tops of their shirts made her want to undo the rest.
They looked sleekly casual and elegantly handsome and oh, so very rich.
Her mom was making a valiant effort not to stare at Erik’s scars, focusing on his eyes instead. Her smile was strained, though, and she could tell her mom wanted to reach out and hug him. That’s just the kind of person she was and Jules wouldn’t wish her any other way.
They’d barely gotten beyond basic greetings when Keegan noticed her. His gaze locked onto her in the shadows, as if he had x-ray vision, drawing her out to them.
“It was nice to meet you both,” her mom said when Jules joined them. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, dear. Have a good time.”
The way she said that last bit, Jules could’ve sworn there was a question mark on the end of it. But her mom headed toward the kitchen with a smile and a nod.
“We made reservations for Judy’s On Cherry,” Keegan said. “Okay?”
From working in the catering business, she knew the food was amazing, though she’d never eaten there before. Too pricey for her budget.
“Of course. I’m fine with wherever you’d like to go.”
“Then we should get going. Our reservations are in fifteen minutes.”
The car sitting out front shouldn’t have been a surprise. The BMS was new and black, sleek and smooth. Just like it’s owner.
Erik handed her into the front seat while Keegan got in the back. Erik slid into the driver’s seat then pressed pedal to the floor and they took off.
Or that’s what it seemed like. She’d never ridden in a car that practically glided along the road. And it was so well insulated, she heard no outside noise. Even the engine purred,.
The radio pumped out something that sounded like Sinatra and the leather seat conformed to her body like a lover.
She watched Erik’s hands on the steering wheel, strong and long. In the rearview, she saw Keegan watching her. When their gazes met, she smiled and saw his mouth curve upward in response.
“Your mother looks well.” Keegan’s voice broke the silence. “How long has it been since her last treatment?”
“Almost eighteen months and there’s been no recurrence of the cancer.”
“That must be good to know.”
“It is. It’s just…I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I know a little something about that.” Erik’s voice held an edge, but not hard enough to cut. As if he was consciously dialing it down.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She liked his edge. She didn’t want him to be a different person for her.
“So what are her plans now that she’s cancer free?”
They passed the rest of the drive with careful small talk, so different from the angst of the previous twenty-four hours. Almost like everyone was on their best behavior, as if this was a first date… Well, actually, it was.
She couldn’t consider their first encounter an actual date considering the money they’d given her. And last night... She didn’t know what to call last night except one hell of a roller coaster ride.
By the time they parked in the lot across from the restaurant, she’d dropped out of the conversation completely, content to listen to them talk.
She loved the sound of their voices, Keegan’s with that tiny hint of an accent and Erik’s with the damaged rasp. It was kind of ridiculous really, that she got wet listening to them talk about a professor they knew from college who’d become an internet sensation for a video on robotics.
When Erik turned off the car, he turned to look at her, eyes narrowed. “Are you okay?”
She smiled, making sure she glanced over her shoulder to include Keegan. “I’m fine. You two don’t need anyone else to carry on a conversation. You do just fine on your own.”
And she could stick her foot in her mouth just as easily as they could hold a conversation.
She held up one hand as both men opened their mouths.
“Wait, wait. That didn’t come out right.”
And both mouths shut. Amazing.
“I didn’t mean that in a bad way so please don’t take it
like that. You two have a real friendship. That’s great. I never had that with anyone. I mean, yeah, I had friends in school and I have friends at work and Carol is almost like a sister to me. But you two not only finish each other’s sentences, you actually know what the other is thinking before he says it.”
“Are you saying it turns you off?” Keegan glanced at Erik, as he got out of the backseat then opened the door to help her out.
“No, not at all.”
The cold night air made her shiver as they crossed the street to the entrance and Erik put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her into his side.
“It’s just that I’ve never met anyone like either of you.”
Keegan huffed out a laugh. “That’s probably a good thing.”
She considered her response as they walked into the restaurant. She’d stepped away from Erik, who helped her remove her coat while Keegan walked up to the hostess stand.
It wasn’t until she’d turned back to join Keegan that she noticed how rigidly Erik held himself.
Frowning, she searched for the cause…and found it in the woman behind the stand. She stared at him, open shock on her face. Jules recognized that shock. She’d felt it too when she’d first seen Erik.
Then the look was gone, the woman smoothing out her expression and waving them up the stairs to the dining room.
Keegan flashed Erik a look then caught and held her gaze before nodding at her to follow the hostess.
Taking Erik’s arm, she walked with him up the stairs. By the time they reached the second floor, she realized she was holding her breath.
God, this must be hell for Erik.
All these people looking at him, staring. A few noticed him right away, did a double take, eyes widening before quickly looking away again.
They had to walk past several tables and the pattern repeated at every single one. Someone would look up as they passed, notice Erik and either look away immediately then whisper something to their dinner companion or they’d openly stare for several seconds before blinking, like they were coming out of a trance, and looking away.
Two people did manage to smile at them, two women who nodded and smiled sadly at Jules. As if she were some saint who’d taken pity on a ruined man.
That was almost worse than the stares and unconscious gasps.
By the time they reached their table in a dark, secluded corner, she was ready tell the lot of these well-dressed assholes to mind their own fucking business or she’d knock a few of their teeth out.
“Jules. Hey, are you okay?”
Keegan had asked the question but she turned to see Erik staring at her with raised eyebrows. Sitting with his back to most of the room, he slowly started to smile.
Then he laughed and Jules smiled in return. How could she not?
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would be this—”
“Don’t apologize.” Erik shook his head and covered her hand, curled into a fist on the table, with his. “I’m a big boy. I can take it.”
“Don’t you want to go around making faces at people and growling? Some people are just so…so….”
“Pathetic? Clueless?” Keegan offered.
“Rude? Obnoxious?” Erik added.
Keegan leaned back in his chair, almost smiling. “Insufferable? Moronic?”
“Dude, your Irish is showing.” Erik picked up the menu. “You bust out words like that with that accent and normal American guys don’t stand a chance.”
“True.” Keegan flashed Jules a grin before picking up his menu. “You never could compete.”
The waitress interrupted whatever Erik had been going to say. She was probably Jules’ age, maybe a little younger, and had a face that probably won her a mint at the poker table. She nodded at each of them, made eye contact with Erik without blinking, took their drink orders and disappeared.
“Hell, it was never even a close competition before.” Erik continued to study the menu, a quirky smile on his lips. “I had to go and fuck up my face for you to actually pull ahead of me.”
She was so surprised at Erik’s joke at his own expense that her lips parted on a silent gasp.
“Yeah, well apparently you screwed that up too because Jules seems to find something about you interesting. And I’m guessing it’s not your amazing personality. So what do you say, Jules? Was it his personality or his wit or his looks that drew you in? Because it certainly wasn’t his charm.”
She started to laugh, trying to keep it from being an all-out bray with unladylike snorting, but she couldn’t help herself.
Erik looked at her with a gleam in his eye then glanced at Keegan for a bare second before returning his attention to the menu. “And you know shit about charm. Let me tell you about the time he fell for the TA in our second-year e-lab.”
The anger she’d felt at the way people looked at Erik slowly retreated as her dates put on The Keegan and Erik Show. They were a little rusty at it but she saw how effective it must’ve been in college.
Keegan’s sincerity shone through in everything he said. When he told her she looked beautiful, she knew he meant it one-hundred percent. And when he smiled, she felt like the clouds had just revealed the warm summer sun.
Erik had smooth charm to spare. He knew what to say and when and how to make a woman feel like she was only person in the room. But it was his underlying intensity that made a woman want to leap over the table and throw herself at him.
Combined…they were deadly to a woman’s ability to say no. And they made dinner pass way too quickly.
She barely remembered what she ate and soon forgot that there were other people around them. Three hours flew by. Two bottles of wine, dinner and dessert consumed.
Most of the restaurant had cleared out by the time Erik said, “I guess we should get out of here. Looks like they’re ready to close down for the night.”
She bit her lip as they settled the bill, Keegan grabbing it before Erik could get his hands on it. Would they ask her back to one of their houses? She’d never been to Keegan’s and she was curious. Or would they deliver her home like this was a regular date, where they each gave her a peck on the cheek and said good night?
She didn’t want the night to end. It’d been fun, flirty, sexy and exhilarating.
She hadn’t had a night like this in…well, she couldn’t remember.
So much worry and stress the past several years had made her feel old. Like she’d skipped all the good parts of being twenty-something and headed straight into the pressures of being an adult with too much responsibility.
While she never would’ve said anything to her mom, she’d felt like she was drowning.
Now that the debt had been cleared and she’d met two amazing men, she wanted to let loose, have some of the fun she’d missed.
“Are you ready to go?” Keegan asked.
“Only if you’re not taking me back to my house.”
Erik had already stood but now he leaned over her shoulder and put his mouth close to her ear. “And where would you like to go?”
Keegan still sat across from her, watching them. When she met his gaze, his head tilted back. “Would you like to come back to my house tonight?”
“He’s actually got an even bigger bed than I do.” Erik low rasp made her shiver.
“Yes, I would. Can we leave now?”
“Hell, yes,” Keegan said, his words a little louder than he’d probably intended.
She didn’t care who heard him. Didn’t care who saw when she pressed a kiss to Erik’s mouth then Keegan’s before they headed for the stairs and the exit.
She glanced at the wait staff still on the floor as they were leaving, thoroughly enjoying the shock on some of their faces.
Hell, if they were going to do this, she wasn’t going to hide it. If Erik was willing to come out of the shadows for her, she was going to kick down the rest of the walls.
But she didn’t think Erik was going to be the problem.
Keegan had let her kiss him b
ut withdrew immediately, letting Erik put his hand on the small of her back as they walked down the stairs.
The drive back to Keegan’s home was mostly silent but this time, that silence held a charged sensuality.
When Erik finally pulled to a stop in front of a contemporary building that would look more at home in California than the rural outreaches of Pennsylvania, her panties were soaked.
She really needed to get a handle on her libido.
Then again, why? Why try to tame this feeling? They were hurting no one—
“Shit.”
Keegan’s low curse drew her attention as he pulled into the three-bay garage. There was another car already parked in the space at the far end and Keegan looked at it like it was a snake.
“I take it you weren’t expecting company?”
There was a tone in Erik’s voice that made her realized they knew whose car was sitting in Keegan’s garage.
And they weren’t happy about it.
“What the hell is she doing here?” Erik glanced over his shoulder at Keegan, his mouth set in a firm line.
“And why the fuck didn’t she call first?” Keegan added.
“Christ.” Erik shook his head. “Can we leave before she realizes we’re here?”
“Too late. You know her. She was probably watching through the front window.”
“How the hell did she get in your house?”
Keegan grimaced. “I gave her a key.”
“Well, you’re a fucking idiot.”
Jules was tired of being left out of the conversation. “Are you two going to tell me who’s here or are you just going to let me hang?”
At that moment, both men’s attention turned toward that open door.
Where a beautiful blonde now stood. Pale gold hair hung in a sleek fall to her shoulders. Wide blue eyes watched them, one eyebrow lifted. Her features had the perfection of selective breeding and her clothes screamed wealth and status.
“Who is she?”
Erik sighed. “My sister, Katrina.
Keegan gave a matching sigh and turned to her with a grimace. “And my ex-fiancé.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Fiancée. You were engaged. To Erik’s sister.”
An Indecent Proposition Page 17
