by Mari Carr
She’d come to Sunday dinner at his mother’s house. Over the years, she had become a regular there, usually managing to make an appearance once a month. On that Sunday, Ned, Justin and his brothers—Caliph, Jett, Noah and Zac—had gone to the living room to watch football, while Bella remained in the dining room with his sister Chloe and Caliph’s girlfriend, Jennifer. They’d all been sitting there, drinking wine, talking about girl stuff, but when Justin passed through to grab the next round of beers from the kitchen, he heard Bella talking about wanting children. The image of her pregnant flashed in his mind—and in that instant, Justin realized he was actually jealous of the future father. So jealous he couldn’t see straight.
He’d never met a woman who made him consider marriage or babies. But since then, he’d grown more and more convinced Bella was meant to be his wife, the mother of his children.
However, Ned was determined that they keep their professional and personal lives separate, so Justin played along, despite how much that was starting to rub against the grain. At some point, he was going to have to come clean, going to have to tell his friend about his infatuation for Bella.
When the waitress headed back to the bar, Ned turned to Bella. “Why don’t you describe your fantasy man to us? Maybe Justin and I know him. We could set you up.”
Even as his friend spoke, Justin knew there were no men of his acquaintance he would consider good enough for Bella.
Justin grinned when she hesitated, spying a way to explore that complaint she’d made about her ex earlier. “Yeah, Bells. Give us every dirty detail.”
Bella tilted her head. “Are you asking for personality traits or sexual positions?”
Justin gestured to Ned. “I suspect he means personality, but I don’t think that will help you much. If this past lover bored you so much in bed, maybe we need to start with sex and work our way back from there.”
Ned gave him a dirty look, obviously thinking he was crossing a line, but Justin ignored it. Mainly because there was a shortage of blood in his brain. His cock had decided it was time to join the party about an hour earlier. He was sporting one hell of a woody and it was damn uncomfortable. His jeans weren’t exactly loose.
Bella shook her head. “I’m not about to feed your twisted fantasies, Justin.”
Justin leaned closer to her, reaching across the table to grasp her wrist as she went for her beer. The tight grip halted her movement—and drove the most beautiful flush to her cheeks. She didn’t try to release herself, though Justin’s sudden hold had definitely confused her.
Actually, Justin didn’t think it was the grip that confused her. It was her reaction to it. It made him wonder if she understood her needs at all.
“Tell us what you like in bed, Bella.” Justin was usually the most affable man on the planet, and he only ever used this deep tone when they were playing at the club.
“Justin.” Ned’s voice was quiet, but the caution was apparent. They were Bella’s bosses and she was their most valuable employee. Ned had just given Bella shit for starting an affair with her trainer, calling it unprofessional.
Jesus, the line Justin wanted to cross with her would blow that out of the water.
His grip on Bella’s wrist was unrelenting. Her eyes narrowed briefly before she licked her lips. “I want what any girl wants. For a man to sweep me off my feet.”
Justin knew plenty of women who didn’t want that. Mistresses at the club who preferred men who licked their boots and bent over to please them. Of course, now that he thought about it, perhaps that was their equivalent of being swept off their feet. “Do you mean you like a man who takes charge of the date, picks you up, pays?”
She nodded.
“What else?”
For a moment, he didn’t think she’d reply. Then she took a deep breath and told Justin exactly what he’d been waiting to hear. “I want a guy who isn’t shy about taking what he wants in the bedroom without constantly asking permission—to kiss me, to take off my shirt, to touch me. It gets really tedious and throws me completely out of the moment. I swear, the last couple of guys I slept with were totally macho until we hit the mattress. Next thing I know, I’m lying next to passive puppy dogs, waiting for me to make all the moves. Did someone tell you guys in sex ed. that women want to take the lead all the time? That females are only attracted to men who just lie there?”
Justin chuckled. “I must have skipped school the day they taught that lesson.”
Bella gave him a sure you did look. “Right. Of course. I’m pretty sure that’s what all men think.”
Ned groaned. Bella had thrown down a challenge, something Justin had never been able to resist, and his friend knew it.
Justin tightened his grip. “Do you need proof?”
For the first time, Bella sought to escape his hold. Justin hesitated for just a moment before common sense kicked in and he released her.
“Hell no.” Her strong voice was betrayed by her eyes, which darted around the room, looking anywhere except at them.
Justin’s lighthearted chuckle slowly returned things at the table to normal. Bella flashed him a look, pretending to be annoyed at his teasing. “Very funny.” Her tone told him she wasn’t angry, but the flush on her cheeks proved she was definitely feeling something else that was making her hot.
Ned sighed. Justin had managed to break the sexual tension.
For now.
Justin had been best friends with Ned since college. They’d shared a dorm room, then an apartment and, after graduation, the running of their marketing business. And more lovers than Justin could count. They’d stumbled upon the concept of a threesome during their freshmen year in college, when a senior girl set her sights on both of them at a frat party. She’d taken them upstairs to an empty bedroom and opened their eyes to a world neither of them had ever wanted to walk away from. While they occasionally took lovers separately, they preferred sharing women.
Secretly, Justin hoped it would always be that way, but he wasn’t sure how to broach the subject with too-serious Ned. Despite his kinks in the bedroom, Ned tended to view the rest of the world through conservative eyes. He believed in professionalism and—Justin feared—traditional marriages, though they’d never discussed that.
They were thirty-seven, and his friend had recently started talking about his plans for the future. Like Justin, Ned’s goals included finding a woman, settling down and starting a family. The only thing was, Justin didn’t know where he fit into that equation, so he’d kept quiet about what—actually, who—he wanted to include in his future.
Awkwardness aside, Justin wasn’t finished with this conversation. Now that they’d opened the door, he was ready to walk in. “You realize you’ve basically given us nothing to go on, Bells.”
“Of course I have,” she insisted.
Justin shook his head. “You want a guy to take charge in the bedroom. That could mean anything from taking the top in missionary style, to tying you to the bed and playing with you until you come twenty times.”
Bella’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh wow. Um…yeah…I think I’d like that second thing.”
Despite how unwise this discussion was, there was something so refreshingly innocent about Bella that Justin found difficult to resist.
In the past, he’d enjoyed the company of experienced submissives, understanding Ned’s need to control a woman. Justin usually went along for the ride because he possessed more than his fair share of dominance as well. It was a fun way to pass the evening, but there was no challenge with the lovers they’d chosen. There were no emotions either. It was purely physical. Lately, Justin felt unsatisfied at the end of an evening and he always left the club wanting more.
One glance at Ned revealed his friend was suddenly starting to notice what Justin had been seeing for months. Ned’s gaze sharpened on Bella’s expression. Justin could imagine what his friend was reading in her light blush and the way she kept licking her lips. It wouldn’t take Ned long to recognize the truth.
Then Ned surprised him by entering the conversation. “Bondage is just one example of taking charge, Bella. The man could also order you to take off your clothes, and then punish you if you don’t comply.”
“Punish me?” Her question came out as a whisper that had Ned leaning closer as he responded.
“He would tug down your pants, pull you over his lap and spank you. Either with his hand or a belt.”
Bella fell silent for just a moment before her feminist side found her voice again. “Hell would freeze over before I gave a man that much control.”
Her assertion was powerful, but her body betrayed her. Her nipples were poking through her t-shirt and she shifted in her seat, pressing her legs together. Most men would have heard the words and taken them at face value, but Justin had learned a long time ago that the most interesting information was shared through a different sort of language.
Justin reached out despite his better judgment and ran a finger along her arm. “You should never say never, Bells.”
Just like that, the tension returned. Justin’s cock was erect, aching. It was time to rein things in or this was going to take a hard left down a street he feared neither Ned nor Bella had any intention of taking…at least not tonight. Justin intended to change their minds on that. Soon.
Bella must have recognized the danger. She pasted on a carefree smile that didn’t fool any of them and reached for her purse. “Well, I’m tired. My bosses are slave drivers and I have a big project to work on tomorrow. I guess I should call it a night.”
Justin watched something come to life in Ned’s eyes.
“Slave drivers?” Ned’s voice was deep, with a rough timbre that sent the subs at the club to their knees before he finished giving the command. “Is that what this feels like to you, Bella? We give the orders and you obey?”
“You’re the bosses. Of course I do what you tell me.”
Ned leaned closer. “I didn’t tell you to work this weekend.”
Bella’s joke about working through the weekend had clearly revealed something that should have been obvious to both of them. Suddenly, everything Bella did at work took on a new meaning.
She was a diligent worker, always jumping to do whatever Ned or Justin asked. Usually, Bella moved quickly to please them. One of them might ask her to create a new logo or to enhance the color of a design and she’d immediately switch over to that project with no question or complaint about having other work to do.
Bella leaned away from Ned, a dangerous move. “I know, but I just thought you’d like it if I got a jump on—”
Ned reached out, grasping Bella’s arm, halting her retreat. “We don’t expect you to give up your weekends simply to please us.”
Bella squirmed in her chair again. For a moment, Justin imagined he could feel the heat radiating from her body, could smell her arousal. Her breathing grew more rapid.
“I like to make you happy,” she confessed, her words coming out no louder than a whisper.
Justin had tried to dismiss what seemed her submissive reactions as wishful thinking, but after listening to her tonight, he knew he was right. Her submissiveness was instinctual, though he was certain Bella didn’t recognize or comprehend it. Hell, he hadn’t even noticed it because she buried it deep beneath a powerful, indomitable spirit. She was spunky, opinionated and bold. He couldn’t believe it had taken this many years for him to wake up and see the writing on the wall.
No doubt Bella viewed her actions as a strong work ethic. But to Justin, her natural responses to his demands felt heady, horny, heavenly.
However, there were still too many obstacles to overcome, too many barriers standing in their way. The main one was sitting across the table, suddenly shooting daggers at him. Apparently Ned wasn’t happy about the knowledge he’d just acquired.
He would refuse to consider taking their relationship to the next level. And given the angry look on Ned’s face, Justin suspected he was going to spend the next few hours enduring a lecture from his friend on just why they couldn’t seduce their beautiful Bella.
Ned returned her smile. “You do make us happy. Don’t work too hard this weekend, Bella.”
She lifted one shoulder casually. “It’s no big deal. It’s not like I have anything else going on. I’ll see you guys on Monday.” She waved as they both said goodbye. Ned watched her walk completely out of the bar before he turned to glare at Justin.
“Forget it. Forget everything that happened at this table,” Ned warned.
Justin didn’t respond. Instead, he picked up his beer and took a long swig. Finally, he leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “No. I don’t think I will.”
Ned rubbed his eyes wearily. “She’s our best employee, Justin. I just finished telling her how unprofessional it was of her trainer to start an affair with her. That’s child’s play on the concept of unethical conduct compared to what you’re thinking of doing.”
“Not really.”
Ned didn’t respond immediately. Justin wondered briefly if his friend was planning to define a few words for him. Ned was one of the shrewdest, most intelligent men he’d ever met. He didn’t speak without thinking. And his expression told Justin he was definitely plotting one hell of a response.
He briefly debated warning Ned to save his breath. After all, his friend should know by now that Justin never approached things from a normal point of view.
Ned often remarked that Justin’s unconventional upbringing had left him with an eccentric view of how life should be lived. Justin always took that comment as a compliment, though he suspected Ned didn’t intend it as such.
To state it baldly, Justin had been an accident. His mother had gotten pregnant with him during her senior year of college, after which, his sperm donor dad disappeared. For a few years, Mama had raised him on her own. Until she met and married his stepfather. Ralph Lewis, a former boxer, had been a giant of a man, gruff and uneducated, and he’d taken Justin in and raised him as his own.
His mother, a former social worker, had taken in countless foster children over the years. Justin had so many brothers and sisters, his mother had started putting up two Christmas trees each year because there weren’t enough boughs on one tree to hang all the homemade ornaments.
Papa Lewis had worked on an oilrig, absent from the family home for months at a time. He’d passed away from a massive heart attack several years earlier, and Justin missed him profoundly.
Ned sighed heavily, exhaustion rife in his voice. “Justin, I’m serious. Whatever it is you’re thinking, you need to stop now. We’re not seducing Bella.”
“You’re right.”
Justin’s quick agreement had clearly not set his friend’s mind at ease when Ned asked, “I am?”
Justin nodded. “We’re not seducing her. We’re marrying her.”
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About the Author
Writing a book was number one on Mari Carr’s bucket list and on her thirty-fourth birthday, she set out to see that goal achieved. Too many years later, her computer is jammed full of stories — novels, novellas, short stories and dead-ends, and she has nearly a hundred published works, including her popular Wild Irish and Compass books, along with the Trinity Masters series she writes with Lila Dubois.
Virginia native Mari Carr is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller of contemporary erotic romance novels. With over one million copies of her books sold, Mari was the winner of the Romance Writers of America’s Passionate Plume award for her novella, Erotic Research.
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