Very often, he was seen—and frequently photographed—around town with significant arm candy. In the five years that Jackson had known him, his women had included a pop star, a supermodel, and a local news anchor. Not necessarily serially.
Professor Ryan could have been a dilettante but he wasn’t. The man was a scientist through and through. He labored like a dog in the lab and produced good, solid work developing cDNA libraries. The university had hopes for a Nobel nod.
Lucky for Jack and Matt, the man made a real commitment to his grad students, much beyond what the average, highly productive scientist tended to do. He’d take time out of his hours in the lab to just sit with students and talk science—biochemistry, astrophysics, whatever. And sometimes he’d interrupt his work on whatever papers he was writing to come by, see who had an experiment going, and just chat. Often, those informal encounters would result in some insight that changed the whole course of a grad student’s work.
He was generous also in sharing his home. Many new students, including both Jack and Matt, stayed in the mansion for a few weeks when they first came to town. He offered them a base to use as they enrolled, got classes underway, and found a place to live. In addition, he’d have groups of students over often for get-togethers—college football afternoons with plenty of pizza, wings, and beer, or formal dinners at holidays. Anyone who couldn’t make it home was welcome at his table.
Among students he was admired and envied. They were a bunch of nerds wishing they could grow up to be him.
By all rights, he should have been resented and disdained by other faculty. He was privileged, a bit condescending, and somewhat arrogant. But he was brilliant, dedicated, and busted ass in the lab. Among scientists, those things counted most.
Jack adored him, and Matt did, too. They weren’t too proud to admit they were two of the nerds who wanted to be him.
Dan had taken a break from a long day of writing and had stopped by the lab just after Caro and Matt had called to say they were bringing dinner. That was a treat Jack was looking forward to—their company as much as the food. But he and Dan had started talking about single-locus genetic disorders, so deep in conversation that Jack looked up, surprised, when Caro and Matt came through the door.
Dan and Caro had met a couple times previously. The department had an annual fall cookout and volleyball game, biochem versus medical school, and Jack had prevailed upon Caro to come, even before their first date. They needed her skills, he’d said. Remembering the event now, Jack was glad Matt had spent that particular afternoon in the lab with an unexpectedly slow extraction, or that first date might never have happened.
Caro had also visited him in the lab a couple times when he had a late night, and one of those nights she’d run into Dan.
The two of them had only exchanged a few words, but it was enough for Dan to have gotten the picture that Caro was with Jack.
So there was a moment of awkwardness when Caro and Matt came in, bearing dinner but still managing to have their arms around each other and sharing some happy laughter.
* * * *
Caroline couldn’t help the hitch in her step when she searched for Jack on the far side of the gray slate lab bench and came up against Professor Daniel Ryan’s piercing gaze instead. Matt was taken aback, too, interrupting his razzing greeting to Jack and belatedly dropping his arm from around her. He bumped into her a little, even, before she could get herself to move forward again.
Dan Ryan was an extremely attractive man. Not just physically, though he was that, for sure, and outstandingly so. He was all broad shoulders and sleek muscle. Those piercing blue eyes were a startling contrast to his dark-brown, nearly black, hair. He dressed with expensively tailored flair, entirely at odds with every other scientist Caroline had ever met. He carried himself as though he might have just stepped out of a limo, or perhaps a private jet, fully confident that his entourage followed adoringly behind.
The man oozed sexuality. Being a woman, Caroline had indeed noticed that Dan Ryan was a smolderingly hot sex god. Jack had told her that he’d been linked with some very famous, very attractive women. But never, he said, had there been a hint of any sexual interest in one of his female students. In that regard, he was impeccably correct.
Well, one couldn’t prove that by her.
True, she wasn’t his student. But the first time they’d met, at the cookout, she’d been there with Jack—his date, however casual at the time.
And she couldn’t say that Ryan had exactly hit on her. Exactly.
But whenever she glanced at him, his sharp blue gaze was on her. And during the volleyball game, he took advantage of every opportunity for gratuitous touching. When they played side by side at the net, he’d steady her—unnecessarily—when she came down from a block or an attack. He’d have his hand on her back, pushing off from her when he played back row. And he’d stroke her, lingering at it, when she scored a point.
It was much the same when she’d seen him that time she’d visited Jack in the lab. Dan had spotted the two of them together as he’d walked by the door. She’d seen him stop, change course, and come into the lab. He chatted with Jack about the gel electrophoresis he was running, but he watched Caroline. And when she left he held the door for her, ushering her through with a lingering hand so low on her back that one might as well say he’d grabbed her ass.
When she confronted him about it, silently, with a raised brow or steady stare, he’d react with a cocky smile, not even pretending innocence.
The last thing he was, was innocent.
Hot, though. There was no doubt about that. And she took just the littlest bit of flattered enjoyment in his attention, though she’d be slightly ashamed to admit it.
Jack spoke admiringly of him and that counted for much. Certainly, he meant a lot to Jack, was important in his life right now—and Matt’s, too—so Caroline made every effort to see the good in him.
Still, he made her a little nervous, in a hot and bothered kind of way.
He had a bit of that cocky grin now, having caught her arm in arm with Matt. Ignoring that provocative gaze, she moved directly to Jack and kissed him hello. Then she put her hand out to the professor.
“Dr. Ryan, hello,” she said, digging a bit to meet his eyes. “It’s good to see you again.” More or less true. He was using that blue gaze on her again.
“Hello, Caroline,” he replied. “I told you to call me Dan.”
She was surprised when he let go of her hand with no more than a reasonable shake and then let his attention go to Matt.
“And hello, Matt.”
Matt nodded, and Caroline strategically placed herself out of reach of all three men.
“We brought dinner.” She spoke to Dan, hefting the carton she carried. “It’s just fried chicken with some sides, but you’re welcome to join us.”
Dan laughed as he relieved her of her burden. “If you guys really don’t mind, I will. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I ate chicken from a bucket.”
Caroline made quick eye contact with Jack and Matt, aware that they were as surprised as she was. She hadn’t meant for him to actually accept the invitation. But Dan dug right in, helping her set things out on the cluttered table that the lab partners used for meetings and extra workspace.
The four of them sat together then, eating with fingers and plastic forks, and gradually relaxing into casual conversation. Dan was comfortably one of the group, much to Caroline’s relief. He shared his attention with the three of them more or less equally, and she didn’t find his gaze always locked on her as she had before.
Jack made a point of inviting her to tell the story of her prior friendship with Matt and their surprising, unexpected reunion in Boston.
Inevitably, given who was sitting around the table, the discussion soon turned to biochemistry. Jack got Matt interested in the problem he was having with the run he was working on, and it took only a few minutes of that before the two of them were at the bench, problem-so
lving.
Daniel was still eating—Caroline suspected he was deliberately taking his time about it—so she had to squelch the urge to leap up and start clearing the debris. He gazed at her with amusement in his eyes, and she had the uncomfortable feeling he was reading her thoughts.
“Jack says you’re working on your master’s in reproductive genetics.”
“Yes. I’ll finish next spring.”
“Is your interest clinical or research?”
“Clinical. I’m doing some work in the psychology department, too, with a focus on counseling.”
He scrutinized her a moment before he spoke again. “Why aren’t you working on your doctorate? I suspect you’re bright enough.” He nodded his head over to the workbench. “Like those two.”
She followed his gaze. “I’m bright. But not like them. They’re brilliant, aren’t they?”
He looked back at her and nodded. “Yeah. They are.”
“Anyway, it’s counseling I’m interested in. It’s—” She paused, uncertain how she’d been led to reveal so much.
“Personal?”
“My mother died of Huntington’s.”
“Ah,” he said and gave a brief squeeze of her hand. “I’m sorry. That’s a terrible disease.” He peered at her. “Do you know—”
“I’m not a carrier. Neither is my brother. My mother made sure of it.”
He nodded again and smiled gently. “Assisted reproductive technology has made remarkable things possible, hasn’t it? If every woman made the decision your mother made, Huntington’s could be gone in a generation. But they aren’t easy decisions, are they? She must have been a remarkable woman.”
Caroline met his gaze, unexpectedly touched by his understanding, his sensitivity. She nodded, knowing he’d see the tears she worked to hold back.
He squeezed her hand once more. “I guess that’s pretty good motivation for your career choice. But if you ever get interested in pursuing the science of it, I’d be glad to help.”
“Thank you.” She searched his eyes, totally convinced that he meant it and seriously taken aback by the offer. She was unaccountably pleased, flattered.
She knew that Jack and Matt had nothing but respect for him. But she didn’t expect to actually like him herself.
And the knowing glimmer in his eyes now reminded her why. She stood suddenly to clear the table and pretended to ignore Dan’s amusement about it. He watched her and then stood when she had nothing left to do. She’d refused to sit back down with him.
“I think we’ve lost those two. Why don’t I give you a ride home?”
He’d spoken quietly, but both Jack and Matt paused in what they were doing and looked over. They might be science nerds in the heat of battling experiment glitches, but they paid attention when a sex god bespoke their woman.
Jack walked over and took her hand. “Matt can walk you home in a bit, if you want to go to our place. He doesn’t need to stay here long.”
Caroline shook her head. “I have to get home. I have a paper I need to work on yet.”
She did. She’d enjoyed sitting out in the sun watching a bunch of buff young men chase a soccer ball up and down the field. Enjoyed it enough that when one of them took her hand after the game was over and led her back to his bed, she’d compliantly allowed it. She and Matt had lain naked, adsorbing more sunshine as he’d made wicked, passionate love to her.
It had been lovely and entirely worth it, but still.
“That settles it, then. I’ll take her.”
Caroline nodded, feeling outmaneuvered.
“Thanks,” Jack said. He touched her lips to hers. “Get your work done and then sleep well. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
She shook her head. “I have work and then my late class. Tuesday lunch?”
“Okay.” He held her chin and kissed her again. “Good night.”
“Good night. You, too, Matt.”
Matt had watched from across the bench in unveiled interest. “Night, Caro.”
Like he had before, Dan ushered her out the door. This time he didn’t touch her. Somehow, that didn’t reassure her.
* * * *
She was fucking them both.
Dan Ryan had Caroline Freeman sitting beside him in his Subaru BRZ. He’d have easily coughed up the extra cash for a Mercedes Roadster—he didn’t mind shelling out for beauty. But hell, he lived in Boston where it snowed, and he liked to get where he was going. Ergo, Subaru.
He had her there, and she clearly wasn’t easy about it. But she was too full of pride to say no to his reasonably made offer.
She was fucking two men. That called for a rearrangement of strategy.
Dan wasn’t normally one to poach. He generally didn’t have trouble getting a woman who pleased him. Okay, he never had trouble.
But there was something about Caro that had drawn him from their first meeting when she’d shown up in those little volleyball shorts. She’d been athletic and graceful and appealingly physical.
It had been just a little attraction at first. He’d made a mild play for her, touching her while they competed way more than he needed to, though not as much as he’d wanted to. By about the third time she crouched in front of him, readying at the net and swaying that sweet ass in front of him, he was fantasizing about throwing her over his shoulder, finding a nice shady spot by the river, and freaking having her.
It was a bit more the next time they met, when he’d spotted her in the lab with Jack and left a date waiting in order to spend more time with her. He’d learned then she was bright with an adaptable, curious mind that stood up to the likes of Jack and him.
So she had those things plus a sweet nature, a kind of innocent, hometown beauty, and a hot body. That she used to fuck two men.
His mind kept going back to that.
She’d shot him down, both times. She didn’t respond to his touches on the court and only threw him a hard look when he got in that little gratuitous fondle at the lab.
Still, he had to wonder if behind that admonishment there wasn’t a little latent interest.
He wanted her. He wanted her in a way he didn’t recall ever wanting before. And he couldn’t quite explain it. She was far from his usual type.
He knew it wasn’t just an effect of the way Jack looked at her, or, now, Matt, too. Like hunger being a great sauce, he was aware that another man’s desire for a woman tended to cast her in a very appealing light.
It wasn’t just that.
He liked Jack and Matt a lot. They had wickedly sharp minds, among the best of any students he’d taught. They’d both been bio majors at the University of Rochester, and they’d learned to think while they were there. But they had lives outside the lab, and they didn’t spend their spare time geeking out on computers. They were both athletes and liked using their bodies physically.
Also, in a very un-science-student way, they could do women. They were sexually comfortable, even assertive. Dan had known them for five years and was sure neither one of them had to spend a Saturday night alone unless he wanted to.
And somehow, the thought of those two guys having at this one lovely woman turned him on even more. He wondered if the story about Caro and Matt knowing each other before—having a thing for each other, if he read it right—was true. Likely so, since it explained how this relative innocent had found herself in a threesome.
How about a foursome? Would that be possible?
Why in hell was he even considering it?
He was, though. He wanted it.
It meant a whole new strategy with regard to one Miss Caroline Freeman. It necessitated a significant delay, since Jack and Matt were his students. He might stoop to poaching in this case—he wanted her that much. But he respected the ethic that prohibited sexual relationships between faculty and students. He didn’t want to have sex with Jack and Matt, but wanting to share their woman seemed close enough to a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
They’d both be done with their theses in two or thr
ee months.
That gave him some time to court Caro’s favor.
So he drove her home and watched her safely through her door. He didn’t ogle her. He didn’t touch her.
He could see that threw her a bit. She watched him, nervous and a little edgy. When she got out of the car, he was cocky enough to assume that was a tiny shadow of disappointment he saw in her eyes. He had to admit he enjoyed that a lot.
* * * *
Caroline woke late on Wednesday morning in Matt’s bed with Jack spooned up behind her. They’d both had lunch with her on Tuesday and had talked her into spending the night with them.
It was a good thing she had a late start to her day because she’d needed the rest. They’d stopped at a little Greek diner on their walk home. Without saying it, they’d all understood exactly what would happen when they got her to the house. There’d be no time for eating.
There’d been little enough time for sleep.
Matt had wanted her in his bed. He’d communicated that by walking her there, kissing as they went, and stripping her clothes off on the way. He hadn’t even turned on lights in the living room.
“You coming, Jack?” had been his only words.
Yeah, Jack came.
In a short moment they’d had her naked in bed between them, taking turns at her mouth, sharing her tits, alternating between finger fucking her and playing with her clit. Matt had fucked her first, sliding into her cunt even while Jack had her mouth.
Then they’d switched.
It had gone on for hours. Each time one of the guys had come—mouth, pussy, they used either with great satisfaction—the other had gotten excited all over again.
They didn’t want to stop fucking her.
She’d had an orgasm for every one of theirs, at least. She’d been ready to give over at the last, when she had Jack spasming into her throat while Matt fucked her from behind. Matt had refused to come until she did.
“No,” she’d said. “I’m done.”
“You’re not,” he’d answered. “Come.”
And he’d pounded into her, harder, insistent, until she’d come one more time. He finished off when she did, thrusting into her until they’d both collapsed, exhausted.
Three Men and a Woman: Caroline (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 9
