by Cari Quinn
They were just too…well, male. In her store, the way they ranged and loomed around her was bad enough. She was used to cowboys with slick lines. But those two were something different. More dangerous somehow. In a vehicle, trapped in close proximity, she was likely to combust.
“He’s on his way,” Colt said, pocketing his phone.
“We shouldn’t have inconvenienced him—”
“Inconvenienced, my ass. He was probably just jerking off.”
She didn’t have a response for that one. Or any breath, due to the pictures that formed behind her eyes at his crass reply.
She’d never imagined Drake naked, but the image formed with surprising speed. He was a few inches shorter and a bit more muscular than Colt, and he had blond hair and blue eyes to Colt’s dark hair and tawny eyes. Both men were big and brawny enough to set her pulse racing. Tonight must be the night for her to think about things she normally tucked away.
Like sex. And Colt naked. And Drake naked. And her with her ass flapping in the wind.
Aw, cripes, her ass.
She slapped a hand over the hole in her dress and pretended she didn’t notice Colt’s smirk.
What they needed was a conversational detour. Stat. “How’s your cut?”
He wiggled his fingers. “I think I’ll live.”
There was no missing the small dark splotch on the fabric she’d wrapped around his hand. “You’re bleeding through.”
“I’ll live,” he repeated.
The sound of tires squealing made her glance up and squint. How could Drake have gotten there so fast? Colt and Drake’s horse-training business and their attached residence—Colt had recently moved into the main house with Drake, though they stayed on opposite sides of it from what she’d heard—was just up the road, but still, he must’ve broken the speed limit.
“Must’ve skipped the cleanup,” she said, marching over to Drake’s brawny SUV ahead of Colt.
His laughter trailed after her.
“Hey,” Drake said softly, pushing open the passenger door. “Nice to see you.”
“Hi,” she said, equally soft. As much as she enjoyed poking at Colt, she liked just talking to Drake. He was a great listener and didn’t have the reputation of being a ladies’ man like Colt did. And also didn’t possess the attitude that he was God’s answer for sex-starved females. He was much easier to deal with on a million levels, not the least of which being he had never been wedded to her best friend.
“Took you long enough,” Colt said, climbing in back. “Paige hated to interrupt you and your hand.”
“Classy.” Shaking his head, Drake put the truck in gear and pulled into the street. “So how was the wedding? I’m sorry I had to miss it.”
“Fine. Nice. Good.” At his sharp look, she swallowed. “I didn’t rip my dress till afterward.”
Oh great, because she really needed to get that out there, just in case he’d missed her flapping ass.
“She saved me.” Colt stuck his bandaged hand between the front seats. “Fucking glass. I might need a tetanus shot.”
“Pussy,” Drake said mildly. “You better not use that as an excuse to— Shit.” He swerved around something in the road, rocking the SUV wildly. He glided the vehicle to a stop on the opposite side of the street. “Christ, what was that?”
Paige was too used to handling stuff for herself to sit idly by. In her house—and her business—she took care of whatever needed to be done, and she wasn’t the type who couldn’t kill her own spiders. She was on her way out of the vehicle to check it out before either man had moved a muscle.
“Jesus, Paige,” she heard Colt say just before she shut her door.
She’d made it three feet before headlights sliced across her face and she threw up a hand to shield her eyes. Brakes squealed and she had the sensation of being yanked backward, then she was colliding with Drake’s SUV. Loud music poured over her as the vehicle that had nearly taken her out blew past them, careening up the road.
“Stupid fuckers,” Colt muttered, his face a white mask of fury.
All at once she was aware of his big body pressing into hers. Christ. Colt had snatched her out of the road and kept her from being turned into mincemeat. And now he was staring down at her, his brows snapped down low over his golden eyes, his fury banked but still leaping between them like a barely chained animal.
She was breathing too fast, her skin prickling with goose bumps in spite of the heat. Her heartbeat stampeded in her chest and she tried to find the words to speak. To thank him for saving her—
But then his mouth was crashing down on hers and she couldn’t think at all.
She went stock still, her body turning to putty in his ferocious grip. He had a hold of her in all ways—his hands clamped on her upper arms, his body cleaved to hers against the SUV. And his mouth…oh, his mouth. It seized hers with a command she’d never experienced before in her twenty-seven years. His lips were forceful and soft, opening her to his surprisingly gentle invasion before her brain had a chance to click back into gear. If it even could. Once his tongue swept over hers, she was lost, adrift. There was nothing but heat and pleasure and need.
And him. Just him.
The slam of the SUV door forced them apart. Colt held her at arm’s length, breathing hard while his wild gaze roamed her face. She sensed a question there, but she couldn’t decipher what it was. Her voice was gone. She couldn’t do anything but breathe unsteadily and wait for the thunderous roar in her ears to dim.
Drake walked around to stand beside them and tilted her face up with a single finger under her chin. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, still struck mute. Someday she’d remember how to speak again, right?
“So I just want to know one thing.” The corner of Drake’s mouth ticked up. “Are you spending the night at our place? Or are we coming to yours?”
2
Drake Mondell watched his two friends struggle to process what he’d just asked—and what they’d just done. He waited for the objections that were sure to come.
It was just a kiss. Just an adrenaline-based response to a scary experience. If he hadn’t seen the lust burning in his best friend and business partner’s eyes as he’d tried to reel himself back from tasting Paige, maybe he would’ve left it alone. Not pressed harder. God knows he hadn’t pressed in so very long. He and Colt had shared women a few times, but not for over a year. Not since the night Drake had gone too far and revealed his hand.
Since then, he’d railed at himself often. If only he hadn’t pushed for more. Hadn’t followed a moment toward what seemed like an obvious conclusion to him, though Colt clearly hadn’t felt the same.
He’d shoved it all down under a mask of indifference. What choice did he have? Colt was straight. Arrow-straight, at least if you asked him. He enjoyed raising some hell, and he definitely didn’t have a problem with sharing a woman with his best friend now and then, but between the sheets, he didn’t look at men the same way he did women. That was his right, and Drake would give him all the space in the world to make that choice. He’d been trying to do just that for the past year.
The fact that he’d fallen for his best friend years ago was his problem. And his alone.
But that didn’t mean he would overlook this chance to set things back to rights between them. He couldn’t have Colt sexually, and he got that. He’d even made his peace with it, for the most part. What he could have was the energy that flowed between them when they shared a woman. It went so far beyond sex, and he was pretty sure that was also true for the woman involved. They made it good for her, cherishing her for the hours they spent together. In a way, cherishing each other too. Any woman between them hadn’t been eager for the experience to end.
Tonight it would be Paige, a woman he had great affection for. If she was on board.
If Colt was.
“Not her,” Colt said quickly. Too quickly. It meant he’d been considering it. Wanting what the three of them could be together…and
just wanting her, period.
“Not me,” Paige agreed, before giving Colt a slow blink. “Have you done this before?”
“What? No. Done what?”
“Smooth, man.” Drake shook his head. Normally Colt didn’t trip up around women. He was the personification of charm and easy sex appeal, but something about Paige set him off his rhythm. Drake had seen it before when they’d stopped into the grain store she owned with Charlene—
Ah, Jesus, he was a moron. There it was. Charlene. This was Charlene’s best friend. Colt saw Paige as off-limits. Though Char obviously hadn’t felt the same about Colt’s brother, now had she? He understood they’d had some lingering feelings since they’d been teenagers, but still. If Char hadn’t stayed away from Wade out of consideration for her ex-husband, Colt obviously didn’t have to stay on the other side of some invisible line when it came to Paige.
Good luck convincing him of that, though.
“No, you’re asking me to come over and—and—” Paige broke off and pushed an unsteady hand through her long, wavy strawberry-blond hair. Some of it was pinned back, but all of it was trying to get free, the curls teased loose by the warm summer breeze. “I may not be the most experienced woman on the planet, but I’m getting the vibe this isn’t y’all’s first rodeo.”
“We don’t do that anymore.” Colt stepped back and raked a hand through his hair. “It’s been a long time. We put it behind us,” he added, giving Drake a hard stare.
You put it behind you. He didn’t voice the words on the tip of his tongue, as hard as it was. Instead he spoke to Paige. Her confusion and discomfort aroused a need to soothe. If she wasn’t interested, that was more than fine. He only wanted them to have a good time. He definitely didn’t want her to become upset due to the offer.
“What he’s trying to say,” Drake began, “is we’ve shared women a few times. Just not recently.”
“Shared women? Whoa.” She pressed a hand to her head. “I mean, I’d gotten there on my own, but put so bluntly, yeah, whoa.” Her fingers circled her temple. “I so didn’t drink enough for this.”
“He’s just talking out of his ass. Ignore him.” Colt immediately moved forward again, taking her hand though she shot him a suspicious look. He, too, obviously felt called to alleviate her concerns. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
She tipped her head back against the Chevy, as if she no longer possessed the strength to keep it up on her own. “But you kissed me.”
Drake folded his arms. “Yeah, genius. Explain that one.”
“It was just an impulse. You could’ve been hurt. It doesn’t mean anything,” he repeated.
“Hang on and I’ll set that tune to music.”
“Shut the hell up,” Colt exploded, glaring at him. “She’s not right for this. You know she’s not one-night-stand material.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Paige asked, sounding indignant. “I’m not good enough for your little penis party?”
Colt stalked back to the truck. “You’re both fucking nuts and I’m done with this conversation.” He climbed inside and slammed the door.
Paige glanced at him. “We’re friends, right?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
He nodded, feeling chagrined for the first time. Maybe Colt was right, much as he hated to admit it. Perhaps suggesting a threesome to Paige was absolutely the worst idea he’d ever had.
Well, not worst. There was too much competition for that title. But right up there.
“You mentioned this to me because you saw him kissing me? That’s enough for you to figure, hey, threesome?”
He inhaled. This woman was too smart for his own good. She managed to get right to the heart of the matter. “That’s not the only reason, but I’ll admit that seeing his mouth on yours made me strongly consider it.”
She waited.
“I’ve thought of it before,” he admitted. That was one admission at least, and a truthful one at that. He had. Enough times that he’d probably worn a groove on his cock from jerking off to the fantasies he’d had involving the three of them.
“Why? When?”
“You’re a beautiful woman.” And Colt was a beautiful, fucked-up man. Fucked up in all the best ways, even if he didn’t realize that lately. “C’mon, tell me you haven’t felt it too when we’ve come into the store?” At her silence, he prompted, “There’s something between us.”
“There’s nothing,” she said too swiftly for him to believe her.
Wow, both she and Colt had taken up residence in Denial City. He could only hope it wouldn’t be permanent.
“You’ve never felt any sort of…vibe.” Not the best word, but from the way her eyes flared, she got the drift. He leaned closer and propped his arm above her head on his truck. “Never wondered what if.”
“With both of you? At one time. God no.” The little uneven laugh she tacked on the end made him move a bit closer.
“So wonder what if now,” he said against her hair, trailing the back of his finger over her cheek.
Before she could respond, he circled the truck and left her standing there. It hurt to do so, not because he wanted to prod her to his side of the line, but because he didn’t feel like he should leave her alone to wrestle with a decision that big. Impromptu or not, he had to stifle the urge to offer his shoulder for her to lean on while she puzzled things out. Or even just to hold her in his arms for a moment.
It wasn’t the first time he’d had such an impulse. They weren’t best friends, but he’d talked to her enough times and watched her lush mouth curve into a smile enough to want to see more of them. Better yet, to be the cause.
She wasn’t their typical one-night stand, Colt was right about that. She wasn’t just Colt’s ex’s best friend; she was a friend. Normally the women they’d hooked up with had been casual acquaintances, perfect for a casual night. A good one, hopefully even great, but not anyone they’d seen during the course of their normal day.
They worked with Paige all the time. Wilcox’s Grain and Grub was one of their horse-training business’s main feed suppliers. If something didn’t go well, they’d see her on most of their trips into town. Or they’d see Charlene in her stead, which was a whole ’nother bucket of corn when it came to Colt. He had an extremely amicable relationship with his ex and current sister-in-law, but maybe he felt he’d need to come clean about the Paige situation. One-nighter or not.
Complicated didn’t cover it, and yet again, he’d reacted without thinking things through. Hell, without thinking at all. He’d just seen Colt’s mouth on Paige, heard the soft moans they couldn’t suppress, and he’d sprung into action. He wouldn’t have to wonder any longer what it would be like to touch Paige when she wasn’t all southern hospitality. Wouldn’t have to live in the past when it came to the forbidden glances he’d take of Colt, though he knew it wasn’t right. Nor was it fair to his best friend.
Maybe it was just as well it wasn’t going to happen.
He got in the truck and waited for Colt’s anger to erupt like Vesuvius. His temper was a thing to behold. But there was only silence from the backseat. Oppressive, deafening silence.
Drake gripped the wheel. “Just say it.”
“You left her out there alone?” Colt demanded.
Okay, not the firestorm he’d expected.
“With those shitheads driving around like fucking maniacs, she shouldn’t be outside the truck.” Drake turned his head to see Colt craning his neck to gaze out the tinted back window. Paige was pacing behind the SUV, her hands holding her head. “Let’s take her home.”
All over again, Drake was filled with the rightness of what he’d suggested. It wasn’t traditional maybe, but when had he ever been? True, he hadn’t considered the ins and outs and all the ramifications. It didn’t change the fact that he wanted Paige, with her luscious curves and smart, sassy mouth and sunset hair.
Deliberately, he pretended to misunderstand Colt’s suggestion. “Yes, let’s.”
Colt
sighed and pressed his fingers into his eyes. “Today is the day you spring this on me? Today, of all days? When I probably have scotch dick and my head’s all screwed up.”
“That’s what makes it the best day. You think I can’t see some of what’s in your head on your face? You need a distraction. You need her.” And me.
“She’s Char’s.”
“She may be her best friend, but she’s a grown woman and she knows her own mind. And excuse me for saying so, but Charlene has clearly moved on.”
After checking on Paige one more time, Colt slumped in his seat. “She loved my brother first. I just got in the way.”
Irritation sizzled along Drake’s spine. The dude wasn’t always a prize, but deep down he was a good guy. He didn’t like the idea of him being hurt, even incidentally. “No wonder you don’t want to fuck tonight. Sounds like you had a party for one planned.”
Colt’s head snapped up. “She’s not someone you fuck. Have you seen her with anyone in the past three years? Because I sure as hell haven’t.”
“Been looking that close, huh?”
Colt didn’t reply.
“You ask me, if it’s true it’s been a while for her, she needs a good fuck even more then. It’s been too long for me too.”
Colt snorted. “Too long being what? A week? Or did you hook up when you were in San Antonio?”
Drake didn’t respond, because he was pretty sure Colt didn’t want to know how long it had really been for him. “There’s no shame in being honest about our needs.” Christ, he was a hypocrite, but what choice did he have? “No shame in telling her we want her and waiting for her to make up her mind,” he added.
The passenger door flew open before Colt had a chance to shoot him down once again. Paige leaned inside the vehicle and planted her hands flat on the seat, her hair tumbling over her shoulders like ribbons. She sucked in a breath and nodded. “Okay.”
Drake smiled and glanced back at his best friend.
Your move, tough guy.
* * *
Paige swallowed hard and wondered once more if she was insane.
