Magic of Three

by Jenna Castille

  “I don’t know, try it yourself?” Lisa asked, rocking back in her chair, letting the squeaky wood sound sing.

  Janice winced at the high-pitched noise, as Lisa knew she would. But she didn’t drop the subject. “Yeah, as if two guys ever tried to get me in bed at the same time. Guys are asking me out, but not in pairs.”

  Lisa picked up her napkin ball and tossed it at Janice’s head. “All right, already,” she said as her friend launched into her trademark hyena laugh. “I get it. I’m lucky. I just don’t know how lucky. I’ll take advantage of the hot, sweaty, monkey sex the very next time it’s offered. I promise.”

  “You’d better,” Janice warned, brandishing her plastic table knife in the direction of Lisa’s face. “I’d hate to have to kill you in a fit of jealous rage. I at least deserve to get my kink vicariously.”

  “Yeah, well, find a chat room,” Lisa grumbled as she jerked the offending plastic out of Janice’s hand.

  “Ooh. Now that’s an idea.” Janice picked up her mocha, savoring her last sips. “Maybe they could tell me all about proper threesome etiquette. I’d share the info, of course. You know, just in case it ever comes up again,” she teased over the rim of her cup.

  Lisa shook her head, dropping her chair back on all four feet with a loud thump, causing other patrons close by to look at the mismatched pair, wondering what was happening. “Of course. I didn’t think you’d keep it all to yourself. Not for a moment. You never do.”

  Janice nodded. “Good best friends should know where they both stand. At next week’s breakfast, no near-miss stories. It’s either dry spell or gorge-fest.”

  “And what about you, oh Horny One?” Lisa prodded, determined not to be the only one dissected at this gabfest. “You’re the one who’s all sex-crazed at the moment, not me.”

  Janice shrugged, trying not-so successfully to hide the aching sadness in her expression. Ending a marriage was never easy, no matter what the circumstances. “The ink’s not dry,” she firmly echoed her earlier words. “I’m staying away from all men for at least six months. Gotta get my ex out of my head. I don’t want to end up one of those pathetic women stuck in a rebound relationship with a clone of the jerk she just gave the heave-ho to. So it’s voyeurism and toy time for me. At least for a while.”

  Lisa gave her a half-smile and reached over to give her hand a comforting squeeze. “Good idea. Take the time to get your head straight. Just realize, anything you say now will be held against you later. Everything,” she teased, unable to let her happy-go-lucky friend stay so somber and serious.

  “You mean you’ll be feeding me my own words again. I should be so lucky to rate those words of wisdom. I mean, if I need advice about threesomes, you’ll just have to shove me back on the straight and narrow.” Janice slapped a hand over her heart, gasping in mock terror. “Oh the horror. The horror.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes. That was so like Janice. Melodrama to the max.

  “Well, to change subjects, do you know anyone who does good bodywork?” Lisa asked.

  “Doesn’t sound like a subject change to me,” Janice teased, her smirk firmly back in place.

  “Janice, please.”

  Her friend shrugged and blew a pale pink curl back in place. “What, did something happen to your baby?”

  “Yeah,” Lisa growled, anger still lurking just below the surface. “Some asshole at the club ripped into my paintjob with profanity last night. I told you I shouldn’t leave it there but you wouldn’t listen to me.”

  Janice tapped her finger against her pursed lips in studied consideration. “Hmm. Vandalism versus DUI. Money for repairs or a big girl in uniform searching your various orifices. Let me think, which is worse?”

  “Okay, I wasn’t fit to drive last night, but you should see what this guy did to my paint job.” Lisa’s face pinched, her jaw clenching. “He carved words in it, and not very nice words either. So now I’m stuck driving around with ‘pervert’ and other sweet little sayings for all the world to see. I’m about ready to take some sandpaper to it myself. Do you know anyone who can fix it or not?”

  Janice blinked and then shook her head. “Not offhand. My wonderful cheating ex handled car stuff. I’ll ask my brother, see if he knows anyone.”

  Lisa put her trash on her tray, along with her half-eaten pastry. “Thanks. As it is, I’m going to get a rental. Least for the time being. Can you imagine what the customers must’ve thought yesterday?”

  “Probably wishing they knew you better,” Janice quipped, mouth twitching with barely contained amusement.

  Lisa snorted, her lips trembling against the urge to smile. “You really need to work on that gutter mind of yours.”

  “Don’t worry. I am. I expect to reach rock bottom soon.” Janice swallowed her last bit of bagel and pointed at Lisa’s tray. “Are you going to eat the last half of your Danish?”

  Lisa shoved the plate at her friend and stared out the window. Only Janice could make her stop feeling like the world was about to end.

  After finishing their breakfast, Lisa and Janice headed for their cars. They’d meet up at the gym like usual, chatting on the treadmill for a half-hour or so before going their separate ways. As Lisa followed Janice out the door, a man caught her attention. She couldn’t quite put her finger on the problem, but something was off about him.

  He sat at one of the umbrella-covered tables outside by the doors, watching everyone as they went in and out. He wore a dark suit and held an open newspaper in his lap. A cup of coffee sat untouched in front of him, along with a cinnamon roll. Just an average, ordinary, bland business type, nothing to give Lisa the willies. No reason for her stomach to clench and her heart to shoot to her throat.

  But she could swear he’d been staring at her moments before, that he’d been waiting for her. Paranoid much, maybe, but that was the gut feeling sending adrenaline rushing through her body. He didn’t walk after her. He didn’t leer at her. His eyes didn’t eat her alive, didn’t follow her every move or track her to her car. He didn’t make any moves toward her at all. But her creep radar shrieked.

  She turned to Janice, wondering if her friend had noticed anything…off…about the guy. But her normally hyper-jerk-sensitive friend seemed oblivious, chatting away about all the fun she was planning on having now that she was free of the shackles of marital oppression.

  But Janice never glanced at the man. Just another invisible city dweller. Not cute enough or weird enough to rank notice.

  So why was he raising Lisa’s hackles?

  Lisa glanced back in his direction as she opened her car door. He picked up his paper, covering his face as he read. Had he been staring at her before? Was he watching her?

  Was she losing it? Or maybe she’d been living in this city too long. People getting on her nerves. Needed a vacation. That kind of thing.

  No one was after her. No one had a reason to be.

  Chapter Eight

  For Julian, the piped-in bubble gum pop music and clangs and grunts of his fellow iron pumpers faded to a buzzing annoyance as the two women walked in the gym, causing quite a stir with the men pounding away around him. A whipcord mass of energy with golden-blonde hair sporting blue and pink streaks, followed by a platinum-haired bombshell who’d look perfect gracing the pages of a Forties pin-up magazine. A more different-looking pair becoming close friends he couldn’t imagine. But they fit together, complemented each other. Were perfectly content in one another’s company.

  Julian’s heart swelled in his already tight chest at the sight of her sparkling smile. Lisa Harrington. His Third.

  She laughed, tossing her head back and letting the joy spill from her lush mouth as the silky silver curtain swished around her shoulders. Seeing her so filled with bubbling happiness after years of being haunted by the image of pain and betrayal shining in her eyes melted Julian’s frozen soul. Where Tim had chiseled a place for himself through the ice, Lisa thawed the final shards.

  Their Catalyst, the loyal and loving
woman to fill those empty nooks and crannies in their lives, stood close enough to touch.

  His jaw clenched as he watched other men avariciously eyeing the two making their way to the treadmills. With two such perfect specimens of scantily clad womanhood, he couldn’t blame them for staring. But no one had the right to look at her with such lust. She belonged to him and Tim, as she had so many centuries before.

  He simply needed to get her to admit to that, to come back to them.

  But to start he had to get to know her, this new version of her. Lisa Harrington. With a loud metallic thunk, he dropped the bar of the machine he’d been working for the last twenty minutes. He turned, wiping the sweat off the bench and snagging his water bottle before making his way to the aerobic machines. He slid onto the treadmill next to Lisa as she started a brisk, eye-catching jog.

  He faked a double take as he programmed his own routine into the machine. “The owner of CM,” he said with just the right mixture of surprise and pleasure. “No annoying customers to deal with today?”

  With a start, Lisa missed a step in her stride, her treadmill giving a protesting, mechanical cough. On the other side, her friend leaned over, looking him over with a flirtatious grin.

  After her friend reached over to nudge her and give her a pointed look, Lisa finally met his gaze. Julian smothered a smirk as a deep red blush blossomed across her face and neck before she jerked her head forward. “Uh, no,” she managed to mutter. She clicked up the speed, taking a quick swig of water as her feet stumbled into a swift gait.

  “Good to hear,” he replied. For a fleeting moment he wished he were more like Tim, wished he knew at least what she was feeling if not what she was thinking. He couldn’t let Lisa bury herself in her routine, ignoring him. But he couldn’t read her or project his feelings at her, forcing her attention. How could he make her acknowledge his presence? “I’m glad we were there, though. I hate it when people like that get away with throwing their weight around and intimidating people into giving them what they want.”

  “Yes, thank you,” came Lisa’s clipped reply.

  Julian relaxed into his stride. It seemed he and Tim had made an impact, if only in rendering her speechless. Her vibrant friend, on the other hand, had no such speech problem.

  “Hi, I’m Janice Thompson,” the feisty tricolor-haired woman called out across her friend. Her smile brightened the room, not unlike Tim’s effect. A woman who knew her power and wasn’t afraid to use it. “How do you know Lisa?”

  “Julian Stern,” he nodded, straining to hear her over the sound to the machines and music. “I ran into her yesterday at her restaurant. She was having trouble with a customer. A friend and I stepped in to help.”

  He watched Janice’s expression morph until her smile threatened to overwhelm her face. “Oh, so you and another friend helped her out yesterday.” She gave a pointed look to Lisa, who kept walking and ignored them both.

  She’d been talking about them, girl talk. Another good sign.

  “Did she offer you and your friend anything as a thank you?” Janice asked, smirking, still staring at a rose-red Lisa.

  “A dessert, but not the one we would’ve preferred,” he teased in reply, watching the total concentration Lisa gave to the digital counter on her treadmill. “A decadent, fluffy chocolate mousse, rich and sweet, but not as tempting as what I really wanted.”

  Janice laughed, a joyful if piercing sound. “I’m sure it wasn’t,” she added with a toss of her head, curls bouncing. “Bet she even turned you down for drinks or anything else you offered.”

  Julian smiled in return, enjoying Lisa’s expression, eyes glued straight ahead and lush lips pursed. Every word increased her concentration. With Janice on his side he had a chance. A teasing conspirator. He developed an instant liking for Lisa’s friend. “Yeah, she shot down both Tim and me. But she did it in such a nice way. Almost encourages a guy to try again.”

  “I think you should. Every girl deserves a second chance.” She gave Lisa a pointed stare, was met by a soft, almost inaudible growl. “Who knows? Maybe she’ll be a good girl and take you up on your offer this time.”

  Ah, a definite ally. Lisa glared at her friend, ice practically forming in the sweaty, humid air. Janice mouthed the word “promise”, smirked and kept on walking.

  Julian forged ahead, not above using whatever pull Lisa’s friend had with her. He appreciated any help, whatever the motivation. “Well, I was planning on asking her out for dinner sometime,” he said, jerking his head in her direction with pleading puppy eyes, hoping Janice would get the hint. “Maybe even bring Tim along if it made her feel better. He’s more comforting than me.”

  Janice’s eyes sparkled, her lips twitching. “I’m sure she’d love to go out with the two of you. It sounds like a blast, don’t you think, Lisa?”

  “I can arrange my own social life, thank you very much,” she grumbled between gritted teeth. But she didn’t say no.

  Curiouser and curiouser. What had these two women been talking about?

  “Yes, you can and you will, remember?” Janice needled.

  Lisa grabbed the side bars of her treadmill and sent her friend another smoldering glower. Her hands clenched and unclenched against the black foam padding. Julian chuckled as Janice gave her a wide-eyed, innocent look. A less innocent woman he’d never met.

  Responding to his snicker, Lisa turned her glare on him. “You know, it’s not nice to set up a date through a friend when the woman’s standing right next to you.”

  Julian gave a wide-eyed who-me stare while internally he gloated. Almost there. “You mean you would’ve said yes without being egged on?”

  “Maybe,” she answered, blowing a loose piece of hair out of her face. “Probably. Who knows?”

  Time for the final push. If he didn’t say it now he’d lose his nerve. Gods help him if he had to tell Tim he’d chickened out at the last moment. Julian braced himself, sending up a brief prayer to the Powers-That-Be. “So you will go out with me?”

  “You know, you haven’t even asked me my name yet,” she replied, an obvious stalling tactic. “Are you sure you don’t want to go out with Janice instead?”

  I don’t need to ask your name, but you don’t need to know that. “I’m sure I want to go out with you. And I wasn’t certain you’d talk to me, much less tell me your name. You all but ran away from me at your restaurant. The way you scurried out, I got the feeling I made you uncomfortable.”

  Lisa wiped a drop of sweat off her brow, one he wouldn’t have minded licking off her and enjoying the salty flavor. “I know, that’s why you’ll bring your friend if I want.”

  “Well, it’s one of the reasons. Not the only one.” Julian smiled at her curious look. Let her wonder. It’d do her good to keep the two of them connected in her mind. Let her active imagination play with the pictures, maybe even remember distant pleasures. Sex had never been their problem. “And if you went out with me, or the both of us, then I’d have a chance to ask you about yourself, get to know you.”

  “Lisa Harrington,” she gasped between pants as her treadmill sped up, forcing her feet to move faster. “And maybe I will go out with you two. As long as we meet in a public place.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” Julian answered, nodding thanks to a beaming Janice. “How about tomorrow night, around seven? You choose the place and I’ll make the reservations. Wherever you want.”

  “Take her to Cajun Delight in the Golden Goose,” Janice piped in. Somehow she managed to lean around her friend without losing her balance or slowing down. “It’s her favorite restaurant, next to her own. She hates going there by herself.”

  Julian looked at Lisa, cutting off his ally. As much as he appreciated the support, this needed to be Lisa’s decision. She couldn’t use the pressure as an excuse later. “Is that where you’d like to go? Like you said, it’s bad enough I worked through Janice to get you to say yes. You should choose the place.”

  Lisa shot a pouting glare at Janice, wh
o concentrated on watching the music video playing on the TV hanging above her. She snorted as a barely repressed smirk danced across the other woman’s lips. “I was just about to say the same thing before someone butted in. Yes, Cajun Delight would be wonderful.”

  Julian picked up his own pace, staggering for a second as his machine sped up and increased incline. Unlike the women, he didn’t lose his breath. The military got him in shape and the discipline stayed with him, even without a large, close-shaved man yelling insults at him. It hadn’t been that much different from the home he grew up in, just directed more on keeping his body prepared to fight. “Then I’ll make the reservations. We’ll trade numbers on the way out, in case anything comes up.”