Man Candy

by Ingro, Jessica

  THIRTEEN

  That Monday at lunch, Rissa had mentioned a photo shoot Meredith scheduled for Tanner at a local hotel. When she said she was planning on stopping there on Saturday to check it out, I told her I might see her there.

  Now that I knew about this side of Tanner’s life, I was intrigued to see what was involved in a photo shoot. Which was why I was winding my way through the crowded lobby of the hotel after I got out of work that Saturday.

  Punching the button for the fourth floor, I leaned back against the wall of the elevator, closed my eyes and waited for the signal that we were at the floor I needed.

  Taking a left out of the elevator, I followed the signs for room four twelve. Once I found it, I knocked. It immediately opened and Rissa’s smiling face was there to greet me. She looked fresh faced and her body was tight in a pair of white cotton boy shorts and matching camisole.

  “Hey,” she said a bit breathlessly making me wonder what she was just doing and why she was dressed so skimpily.

  “Hey.”

  “Come on in.” She stepped to the side and let me walk through the small hall into the open room where a king sized bed prominently sat. The sheets were tousled and thrown around haphazardly. Tanner laid in the center of it with nothing but boxer briefs on. I narrowed my eyes when Rissa joined him on the bed.

  What the fuck was going on here?

  “My female model bailed so Rissa agreed to fill in at the last minute,” Meredith said. Shit, had I said that out loud?

  “Can I get back to it?” An overly thin, stringy haired man with a camera in his hand asked.

  “Please, Ray.” Meredith stepped back and chewed on her fingernail as the man started snapping shots of Tanner and Rissa together. With each pose he put them in, I felt my agitation building. There was something innately wrong with watching my brother and the girl I liked rolling around together in bed—regardless of how innocent it was.

  “Move your hand to her left butt cheek,” pipsqueak instructed them. Tanner looked only too happy to oblige. Not only did he place his hand there, but he caressed it and squeezed it, eliciting a surprised gasp from Rissa.

  The fucker was taunting me. Sad part was it was working.

  “Isn’t he amazing?” Meredith asked gesturing to Ray. “His visions are incredible.”

  I didn’t answer her. Ray was something all right. He was about to be a dead man.

  About the time when he told them to kiss passionately, I realized I needed to get out of there before I did something I was going to regret. My fists tightened with the thought of plowing it into Tanner or Ray’s faces. I didn’t want to startle Rissa with the outburst that was threatening to break free.

  Meredith placed her hand on my arm and spoke into my ear. “This doesn’t mean anything. Think of it as acting.”

  “It’s not helping,” I whispered back.

  “I think we’ve got it,” Ray announced, and I felt the tension seep from my body.

  “Can I look?” Meredith squealed and skipped across the room.

  Rissa scooted into the bathroom when Tanner made his way over to me. Stretching leisurely he looked like the cat that ate the cream. My cream.

  “Jealous, bro?” he asked with amusement dancing in his eyes.

  “Fuck you,” I ground out between clenched teeth.

  He let out a big guffaw and grabbed his stomach. “It’s almost too easy,” he said in between laughs.

  “Ben, I just had a fabulous idea for a new book.” Meredith joined us looking mighty pleased with herself. “While I have you both here, I’d like to do a cover shoot with the both of you. And then maybe add in a few shots with Clarissa. I’m thinking drama and angst while two men fight over one woman.”

  “Wonder where you came up with that idea,” I mumbled.

  “So what do you say?” She batted her eyes at me with a pleading look on her face.

  “What are we doing?” Rissa asked. She came up next to me with a robe wrapped around her.

  “Ben was just agreeing to take some pictures with you and Tanner for a new book idea I had.”

  “If we’re going to do this, we should start,” Ray suggested from his spot at the tripod by the bed. “I need to leave soon.”

  “Okay, guys! You heard the man! Get on over there.” She patted each of our butts and sent us away.

  “I didn’t agree to this,” I yelled over my shoulder.

  “What? I can’t hear you!” she yelled back.

  “We aren’t going to have to touch each other are we?” Tanner asked Ray as he set up a back drop in front of the wall.

  “Maybe,” he murmured completely engrossed in his task.

  “Great,” I said sarcastically. I wasn’t sure how I kept finding myself in these predicaments. It was getting a bit ridiculous actually.

  “Let’s start with a back to back shot. Tanner you can put your jeans back on.” Ray gestured towards the backdrop before focusing on me. “You’ll need to take your shirt off.”

  After a moment of consideration, I decided not to cause a stink and followed his instructions.

  The next hour flew by as he snapped pictures of my brother and me in various poses. Flexing. Sitting. Standing. It was all a bit daunting until he asked Rissa to join us.

  Tanner and I placed our hands on her hips as Ray focused on shots of just our bodies. Rissa alternated between facing me and facing Tanner. With her in between us, it was a sweet kind of torture to have her body pressed up against mine, my hands roaming over her curves.

  It was nothing compared to how hard it was being on the bed with her. A place I had yet to be able to experience having her pressed up against me.

  Kneeling on the bed, Rissa was sandwiched between us. Tanner’s back was to her. She ran her hands over his skin, around his waist and up his chest. I pressed in behind her, running my own hands over a similar path on her. Taking my finger underneath the thin strap of her camisole, I pulled it down her shoulder. My lips and tongue sought out the warm soft skin of her neck, moving down her shoulder.

  Her scent. The way she felt beneath my lips. Her unique taste. It was all so damn intoxicating.

  So lost in the moment I wasn’t aware of my hands running down the front and inside of her thighs. All I could focus on was how damn good she felt, the way she pressed her body back trying to seek more contact with me, and her head falling back on my shoulder.

  “Holy shit,” I vaguely heard uttered.

  “This is some good material,” followed it.

  When Rissa’s hand went between us and grazed my now straining erection, I ground myself into her. That felt even better. It was her subsequent moan that broke us both out of our trance like being splashed with cold water.

  Our bodies simultaneously stiffened for a moment before we separated. It was awkward as we looked at each other. Then she ducked her head, grabbed a pile of clothes from a chair and hid in the bathroom.

  “Dude? For real?” Tanner asked when he turned completely around and glanced down at the bulge in my jeans. I just shrugged. What else could I do?

  “Well, I don’t know about you but after witnessing all that UST I could use a drink,” Meredith announced while fanning herself.

  “UST?” Tanner asked her.

  “Unresolved sexual tension. That was... wow it was hot. You coming back to my place later?” She gave him a heated look that made him give her a wolfish grin.

  “I’ll be there.” Tanner set about getting dressed so I did the same.

  Clearly, Rissa and I needed to figure some things out. Whenever we got together and her guard was down things were explosive between us. I needed to find a permanent way past that damn wall she hid behind.

  Eventually Rissa came out of the bathroom still looking embarrassed and not making eye contact with me. Meredith convinced us all to go down to the hotel bar for drinks. Ray excused himself from the festivities but left with a thank you for the great material we gave him.

  When Tanner and Meredith left the room,
I grabbed Rissa’s arm and stopped her from leaving too. Being alone with her again made my fingers tingle as I remembered how much they enjoyed touching her.

  “We need to talk.”

  “No. We don’t.” She shook her head adamantly.

  “We can’t keep playing these games. This attraction isn’t going away, Rissa. You know it and I know it.”

  “So what do you propose? Huh?” she said with disdain. She wasn’t fooling me though. I knew she was shaken by how easily we were able to let our chemistry get out of hand and this was her way of hiding it.

  “We need to explore it.”

  “I don’t think so. It was just a fluke. It won’t happen again. Can I go now?” Her icy tone was less of a put off and more of a turn on. Was I losing my mind over this girl?

  “Fine. But I’m warning you. This conversation isn’t done.”

  “Oh joy. Something to look forward to,” she spat and stormed out.

  As I followed after her, I decided I was definitely losing my mind.

  *****

  “Why do you keep checking your phone?” Meredith asked Rissa a while later.

  The four of us were sitting around a circular table in the hotel bar. Tanner and I were sipping on beers while the girls were nursing cosmos. And Rissa was looking at her phone every five minutes for the last half hour.

  I too had been wondering what she was doing but didn’t want to ask her. Certainly not when she was giving me evil looks across the table. I didn’t think it was a good time to rile her up any further. I was calling a truce for the night.

  “Scott was supposed to meet me here. We had plans tonight.”

  “So where is the prick?” Meredith obviously wasn’t concerned about poking the bear.

  “If I knew I wouldn’t be checking my phone now would I?” she snapped at her cousin.

  “Someone needs to get laid,” Tanner mumbled.

  Rissa shot him a death glare. Tapping on her phone, she put it to her ear before she stood up and strolled away from the table.

  “Dude, she’s harder up than you are. You two should go back up to the room and work out all that tension,” Tanner said with a cheeky grin.

  I rolled my eyes and told him to shut up. I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him as I watched Rissa talk heatedly into her phone.

  “What the hell happened between you two up there, Ben?” Meredith hit my arm when I ignored her.

  “It was nothing. I got a little carried away,” I told her.

  “Gee, you think?” she said sarcastically.

  “Sure he did.” I smiled when Tanner came to my aide, until he followed it with, “He thought with his little head. Not his big head.”

  Meredith started cackling at Tanner’s joke. Sometimes I felt like the only grownup in our bunch.

  “Real mature, dickhead,” I told him.

  “Well?” Meredith asked Rissa when she came back to the table with a huff, looking more pissed than she did when she left.

  “He said he got caught up with something and wasn’t going to make it.”

  “And that something was?” Meredith continued to press. I was grateful she did since I was dying to know all about the trouble in paradise.

  Rissa sat back with a frustrated sigh. “He didn’t say.”

  “Didn’t or wouldn’t?”

  Tanner and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Meredith was like a damn dog with a bone. This could get a little scary with two fiery redheads arguing. With silent communication, we decided to sit back and let the two go at it.

  “Wouldn’t, okay?” Rissa bit out. Her shoulders tensed and I braced, waiting for the explosion.

  “Have you even stopped to consider that he’s probably cheating on you the same way he cheated on his wife?”

  “Fuck you,” Rissa hissed. Leaning forward she continued, “Of course I’ve thought it. I’m not as dumb as you seem to think I am.”

  “Well then go find him and call his ass out on it,” Tanner interjected.

  “Maybe I will.” Rissa seemed to mull that over for a moment. “Actually, you know what? I’m going to.”

  She grabbed her purse and stood up to leave.

  “I’ll go with you,” Meredith said.

  “But you said we were going back to your place,” Tanner whined.

  “We will.” She assured him with a wink.

  “You two go. I need to do this myself,” Rissa murmured while she dug in her purse.

  “You sure?” Meredith asked biting her lip. You could tell she was torn on what to do—have kinky sex with Tanner or potentially watch Scott the slime go down. It was a tough decision, but I was still surprised when Rissa told her it was fine so Meredith said okay and chose Tanner.

  “Shit, I forgot I didn’t drive today. Scott dropped me off so we only had one car tonight.” Rissa slammed her purse on the table and set her hand on her hips.

  Before I even knew what I was thinking, I said, “I’ll take you.”

  Her eyes shot to mine, and she looked like I was the last person she wanted on this mission with her.

  Tanner stood up and clapped his hands. “Great. That settles it. We’ll see you guys later.” With that he grabbed Meredith’s hand and started to drag her from the bar.

  “Good luck, sweetie,” she shouted to Rissa on her way out.

  “You ready?” I stood up and pulled my keys from my pocket.

  She opened her mouth to object and taking a cue from Tanner, I grabbed her hand and dragged her from the bar.

  “I don’t believe this,” she bitched when we got closer to the parking lot.

  “Believe it. You want to know what he’s up to and you need a ride to do it.” I opened the car door and pushed her in.

  When I got into the driver’s side, she had her arms crossed and she was glaring at me. “You do realize that you can just take me to my house and I can get my car.”

  I shrugged and backed out of my parking spot.

  “Seriously, Ben. Take me home.”

  Stopping at the exit, I looked over at her. “Which way?”

  “We aren’t doing this. You aren’t doing this.”

  “Which way, Clarissa?”

  She kept her arms crossed but glared out the windshield, ignoring me.

  “I can wait all night,” I told her. I put the car in park and proceeded to do just that. If she wanted to be stubborn that was fine with me.

  A car pulled up behind us and honked its horn. I ignored it and kept waiting. Eventually, she would have to break or the car behind us would have to go around.

  When they honked a second time, Rissa huffed and said, “Are you going to move or what?”

  “Told you I’ve got all night, so until you tell me left or right, I’m not moving.”

  “Fine, go right. Just go!” she yelled at me.

  I couldn’t contain my smug grin as I put the car in drive and turned right.

  FOURTEEN

  The tree-lined street she directed us to screamed suburbia with picket fences and swings hanging from trees. It was the third place we went looking for Scott. The first two had been his friend’s houses. When he wasn’t at either, she reluctantly told me where his wife’s house was.

  My guess? She knew he was probably there all along and was either afraid to have it confirmed or didn’t want to know the truth. I hoped it was the former.

  “It’s right over there. The yellow house,” she murmured.

  We pulled up to the ranch style house and Rissa slammed her hand down on the dash.

  “Hey, careful with my baby,” I semi-teased her.

  “That’s his fucking car.” She seethed from the passenger seat.

  “Huh.” My grip tightened on the steering wheel, and I fought the urge to go in there and beat the shit out of the sorry bastard. How could he throw away someone like Rissa? He never should have started it with her in the first damn place.

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  “You sure you don’t want to find out what
he’s doing? It could be perfectly innocent.” I didn’t believe that for a second, but I didn’t want to force my opinions on her either. Right then, I was in a precarious position. She could either be grateful I was there as a shoulder to lean on or she could be embarrassed by the fact I was witnessing this moment. I was hoping by showing her that good guys did exist she’d be more grateful than embarrassed.

  “I’m not going to go up there and knock on the damn door, Ben. Besides I’m sure Sheila would love seeing the damn mistress that ruined her marriage. Or didn’t by the look of things.” She motioned towards the window where two figures were now embracing behind the shades.

  I started the car and put it in drive. Before pulling away from the curb, I looked over at her and saw her eyes were wet. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” She sniffled and let out a humorless laugh. “I’m just pissed at myself for being so damned stupid. Can we just go?”

  “Sure thing.” I stepped on the gas and we shot from the curb. “Where to?”

  “I’m sure as hell not going home. Bastard has a key.”

  “I could hang out until he gets there and kick him out?” I suggested. It would have been my pleasure actually.

  “No. I don’t feel like even seeing him tonight. Just take me to Meredith’s.” She wrapped her arms around her chest and rested her head on the window.

  “Um, Riss?” I really hated to bring this up but I had no choice.

  “What?” She sounded tired all of a sudden, which only made it worse.

  “Tanner is at Meredith’s. You sure you want to go there?”

  “Fuck.” She cursed. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I guess you can take me home.”

  There was no way in hell that was going to happen. If that ass showed up and sweet talked her I would never forgive myself. “I’ll take you to my house.”

  “Nope. Not going to happen. I don’t need any more trouble tonight,” she bit out.

  “Hey, I’m offended by that statement,” I said with an edge to my voice. I was trying to help her. The least she could do was be nice about it. Not a jerk.