by Jess Dee
“Pricing,” Vi repeated as she typed on her iPad. “Good. Got it. Right, next question. You talk about educating the general public. But we need to whittle that down and establish exactly which part of the public you’re targeting. Advertising luxury sunglasses or watches to young kids is going to get you nowhere. So, ideas? Dec?”
Declan stared at her a long time before responding. “She doesn’t know.”
Noah’s ears pricked up.
Violet looked confused. “She doesn’t know what?”
“She doesn’t know about Noah and me.”
“Tori.” Violet stilled. “You never told her?”
“There was nothing to tell.”
She looked at him drolly.
“There was nothing to tell. There was nothing happening between Noah and me while I was with Tori.”
“So it was only afterwards that everything began?”
Declan didn’t answer.
“Before?” Violet blinked. “The two of you were an item before you and Tori got together?”
When Declan still didn’t answer, Violet looked to Noah.
He nodded once.
“I didn’t know.” Her eyes widened. “How could I not have picked up on that?”
“Because Noah and I haven’t been…an item for a long time.”
Jesus, Declan was talking about this. Actually acknowledging the two of them had once had something together. He wasn’t denying it or ignoring it, like he usually did.
“That was your choice,” Noah told him levelly. “Not mine.” His throat felt dry. “Never mine.”
Declan clicked his jaw.
Silence descended over them as Noah watched Declan. He wanted Dec to be absolutely clear that he’d never approved of the choice Declan had made.
“Oh.”
Violet’s light gasp drew his attention back to her.
She stared at him. “You love him.”
Noah shrugged. Of course he loved him. He’d been in love with Declan for as long as he could remember.
Violet nodded, as if she was beginning to understand something she’d never understood before. “And you love Noah,” she said to Declan. “That’s why you couldn’t go through with the wedding. Why you called it off. Because Tori’s not Noah.”
“I had my reasons,” was all Declan would admit to.
“I get it,” Vi said softly. “If I knew Noah loved me, I’d also have called off my wedding.”
Noah’s chest warmed.
“No, you don’t get it.” Declan glared at her. “You can’t possibly get it.”
Violet’s face fell.
“Don’t take it personally,” Noah reassured her. “It’s complicated with Dec. Everything’s complicated with him. More so than it needs to be, but hey.”
“Fuck you, Noah.”
“Anytime, mate.” Noah flashed him the smile he knew drove him crazy. “Anytime.”
“Um, should I leave?” Vi offered. “Give you guys some time alone?”
“No,” Dec answered before Noah could. “You definitely should not leave. You asked a question. I answered it. Now we can get back to work and forget about all of this.” He looked down at his computer. “Where were we?”
“Discussing you and me,” Noah supplied helpfully.
“No. We were discussing our target market. Anyone with a working credit card is our market,” Declan said, as though there’d never been a topic change. “Or anyone with access to PayPal. Either way, if they can pay, we want them.”
Violet hesitated a beat, taking the time to drink a little more wine. When she set the glass down she nodded. “Okay, you need to be more specific. Are we talking about adults? Teenagers? Women or men? Couples or singles? Families?”
“Yep, all of those. Adults especially. But teens are more likely to buy on a whim, so we can’t exclude them.”
“Perhaps, but advertising to teens is going to be different from advertising to adults. And the places where we advertise are going to differ too. Teens will access different websites; they’ll read different magazines and watch different programs. Which leads me to ask the question, do you have a big enough budget to target everyone, or would it be more cost effective to focus on a select group? Adults who work and can’t get to a shop during the day, maybe? Someone who’d benefit from the convenience of shopping online as opposed to wasting precious minutes walking or driving to a store?”
“We target everyone,” Dec said.
“Select group,” Noah answered at the same time.
“Two very different approaches,” Vi observed. “Perhaps the two of you should reach a consensus before we take this any further?”
“Everyone,” Dec told Noah. “A sale’s a sale, and we need to get them from every possible avenue.”
“Agreed,” Noah said in response. “But we’re on a budget. Granted, a bigger budget than we’ve ever allowed before, but it’s limited nevertheless. It’s simple logistics, Dec. Target the biggest market, the one we can have the most effect on. Adults are a sure bet. Don’t waste time on a small minority.”
They argued back and forth for several minutes. Violet sat back and let them come to their own conclusions. Finally Declan backed off, acknowledging Noah had a point.
“Target market: adults with access to online credit facilities,” Noah told Violet.
She didn’t answer. Noah wasn’t even sure she heard him. She had a faraway look on her face, as though she’d tuned out of the whole conversation.
“Vi?” he prompted.
“Hmmm?”
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“I was just wondering…”
“About?”
“About how it feels?”
“How what feels?”
“A blowjob—from a man.”
Noah snorted in surprise.
And Violet slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, geez. Tell me I didn’t say that out loud. Tell me. Please?”
“You most certainly did.”
“God, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I did it again. Just blurted out exactly what I was thinking.” She shoved her glass at Declan. “You’re right. I am drunk. I’ve had altogether too much wine. Take it away. Hide it from me. Somewhere I’ll never find the glass or the bottle.”
Declan just glanced at the wine.
Violet placed her elbows on the table and dropped her head in her hands, hiding her face. “I’m going to sit quietly and pretend I’m not here. You pretend too. Both of you. Just until the buzz wears off. Then I’ll be fine. Promise. No more inappropriate questions.”
Noah leaned across the table. “It feels good, baby,” he whispered. “So damn good.”
Violet froze.
“It’s different than a blowjob from a woman. Rawer, more basic. But hot. Fucking hot.”
Declan swore under his breath, and Violet whimpered.
“And sexy,” Noah told her. “A guy instinctively knows how far he can go, how hard he can go. Especially a guy who knows his way around a hard cock.” He looked at Declan. “And Dec knows his way around a hard cock.”
Violet muttered something unintelligible, and Declan studiously ignored him.
“Dec goes hard and he goes far, and when he pulls on my shaft with that mouth of his… Jesus.” Noah had to swallow before he could continue. “He blows my mind.”
Declan glared at the wall behind Noah, but he also shifted in his seat, and Noah knew his words were having the required effect. He went the distance. “Just thinking about it gets me hard.” That was putting it subtly. Noah had the erection from hell.
“Bastard.” Declan didn’t speak the word out loud, but he mouthed it clearly, staring daggers at Noah. Then he shifted again.
“I’m imagining it now, baby,” he told Violet, yet kept his gaze on Declan. “Feeling Dec’s tongue on my balls, his warm breath on my cock. He knows…Christ, he knows how much I love it when he licks my balls.”
Violet peeked out from above her hands. Her eyes were enormous, the brown
rims tiny around her dilated pupils.
“Know what else I’m imagining?” he asked her.
She shook her head.
“Your mouth, on my cock, right beside Dec’s.”
Her eyes widened farther.
“Go on,” he whispered. “Admit it. You’re imagining it too.”
Violet shook her head. “No.”
“You’re not?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, you are imagining it?”
“Yes, I am.” She looked at him in desperation. “But…but I shouldn’t be.”
Hell, yeah, she should be. “Tell me, Vi. Tell me what you’re imagining.”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“You can.”
“No, I can’t. It wouldn’t be right.” She closed her eyes, refusing to look at him.
“Vi,” Noah said softly, waiting until she’d once again opened her eyes and met his gaze—albeit reluctantly. “The only thing that would be more right is if instead of telling me what you were imagining, you showed me.”
She dropped her hands. “I can’t. Don’t you see? I couldn’t do that to Tori. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“Tori?”
“She’s my best friend. And Declan’s ex-fiancée.”
“You’re worried about someone who isn’t even in the room?”
“You’re asking me to imagine taking you into my mouth—while Declan does the same thing. Of course I’m worrying about Tori. I couldn’t betray my friend that way.”
“Tori and Dec broke up. You wouldn’t be betraying her.”
“I’d be indulging in a sexual fantasy involving her ex. That’s betrayal.”
“So you’ve never fantasized about Declan before?”
Violet opened her mouth then snapped it shut.
He smiled at Declan who simply glowered back. “Your silence speaks louder than words, baby.”
“Don’t do this, Noah,” Violet begged. “Don’t make me go there.”
“You already went there. The minute you walked in on Dec and me and decided to stay and watch, you went there.”
“I couldn’t leave.”
“You didn’t want to leave.”
She shook her head.
“I’m glad you stayed.”
“I shouldn’t have stayed. I should have walked away. For Tori’s sake.”
“The entire time you stood there, I imagined you on the floor, beside Declan. I imagined your tongue and your lips on my cock, right beside Dec’s. I’m still imagining it.”
She ran her tongue over her bottom lip.
“Know what else I’m imagining?” Noah asked.
“No. And I don’t want to know.”
“Your mouths meeting on my erection, your distraction as you lose yourselves to a kiss.”
Her eyes were enormous.
“Want to hear something intriguing?”
“I do. Wait. No. No, no, no, I don’t.”
“Declan’s imagining the very same thing.”
They turned to look at Declan together.
Once again, he smoldered with rage and tension, the heat emanating from him in waves. He was furious, no doubt about it. But he was also aroused. The breath sawed from his chest, and his hungry gaze seared Noah’s, his eyes burning like molten lava.
“No, you’re wrong,” Violet said softly. “Declan’s imagining being with you, period. He loves you. He wants you, not me.”
“He wants both of us. He always has. He just refuses to admit it to anyone but himself.”
“It’s not true,” Violet breathed. “It can’t be true. He’d never have chosen Tori if it were.”
Noah held Declan’s gaze, read the fury and disbelief in it. “It’s the very reason he chose Tori. So he’d never have to acknowledge how much he wanted us.”
“I…I don’t understand.” Hurt radiated through her voice. “You wanted me, Dec? Y-you wanted us, all this time, and instead you chose my friend? Why?”
Declan didn’t answer.
“Declan.” Violet’s eyes shimmered. “You knew I was interested. You knew I lo-liked you. We flirted, we teased. Th-there was something there, something between us right from the beginning. Between all three of us. But…but you chose Tori.” Her shoulders slumped.
“He rejected me too,” Noah whispered.
“It doesn’t make sense. Why reject two people you know want you, for someone you’d never met before? You loved Noah, and you gave him up—for my friend.”
Declan surged to his feet. “Can you quit with all this love shit, please?” His hands were both clenched in fists. “Can you quit this whole damn line of questioning? What is this? A fucking inquisition? I did what I did, and now it’s over. Done. Finished.” He shoved his chair out of his way. “And you know what? So am I. I’m done with this crap. I’m over it.”
With that Declan stormed from the room, marched into his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.
Chapter Six
Before the door had stopped reverberating, it was flung open again, so hard it struck the wall.
Violet had time only to gape at Declan’s menacing form as he stalked towards her.
“You need to understand? You want to make sense of what I did?” he demanded. “Well, make sense of this.”
And with that, he hauled Violet out of her chair, yanked her into his arms and kissed her. His head descended with such speed, Violet managed only to pull in a frenzied breath before his mouth claimed hers and her world exploded in color.
Declan’s lips were hard and demanding and they coaxed hers open in two seconds flat. His tongue invaded her mouth, its velvety heat a shocking attack. Yet the second it made contact with hers, Declan gentled his assault. As his tongue glided over the width of hers, and she tasted the frustration and the passion on his breath, Declan relaxed.
Violet’s heart skidded, stuttered and froze. When it began to beat again, it was filled with an awareness Violet hadn’t felt since the day Declan met Tori. Where before there was only hollowness and an empty ache, now there was hope once again. The tantalizing possibilities that had once scented the air whenever Noah and Declan were around flickered to life for a second time.
His hands that had held her roughly now slid slowly down her arms and around her waist, fitting her snugly against his sculpted body. One hand found her ass and pressed her groin into his so the hard bulge of his erection teased her suddenly sensitized clit. The other caressed up her back until he found her neck, then tunneled into her hair, holding her face close to his.
Violet was surprised to find her own arms wrapped around Declan’s neck, her hands tangled in his hair. God, it was soft. Silky.
Declan was kissing her. After two years of wanting him and eighteen months of suppressing that ardor, he was finally kissing her. And doing a very thorough, very skillful job of it. His mouth drove her wild, teasing, taunting, tasting. It roused a passion she’d kept tamped down for a very long time.
He kissed her—with the same mouth he’d had on Noah’s cock just a few short hours ago—while Noah watched.
Violet fancied she could taste the salty tang of Noah’s come, even though lunch and the wine had probably washed away any remnants. The thought alone was enough to incite a yearning so fierce she wrapped a leg around Declan’s and rubbed her pussy against his cock, grateful for the heels that lent her the height to do so. Without them, Declan would tower over her.
The hand on her ass slid down her leg, finding her thigh. Gooseflesh erupted and then flared up her leg and down as he pushed her skirt up, up, up and over her ass. It sat above her hips in a messy creased bunch. She didn’t care.
Declan shifted them both, walking Violet a few steps back—to reveal her bottom to Noah.
So much for the clean pair of panties she’d put on. They were now just as drenched as the last ones.
“Take them off, Dec.” It was Noah’s voice, soft and hoarse, giving the instruction.
Declan released her mouth only long enough to re
spond. “Fuck you, Martin.”
“Anytime, Dec. Anytime.”
Despite Declan’s words, the instant his mouth found Violet’s again, he dipped his fingers inside the elasticized waist of Violet’s panties and yanked. The lingerie gave with a muffled thwwww of ripping lace.
And for the second time since arriving at the hotel, Violet was naked from the waist down. Only this time she wasn’t alone. She was wrapped in Declan’s arms while Noah sat behind her with an unobstructed view of her naked ass.
“Christ,” Noah hissed.
Declan’s hand landed on her butt, and as he nudged her legs apart with his knee, he slid that hand lower, letting his finger glide between her buttocks before it came to rest on the seam of her pussy lips.
Air eluded her lungs. Violet thought she might faint from lack of oxygen.
Then Dec broke the kiss and pulled his face away. Not far. His hot breath still fanned over her lips. “Open your eyes, Vi.”
She did, and found herself staring into stormy grey eyes swirling with a plethora of undefined emotion. Before she had a chance to make heads or tails of those emotions, he plunged a finger inside her.
Violet gasped.
Holy shit, that felt good. Shockingly good.
She fought to keep her eyes open. Her legs wobbled, and she had to tighten her hands around Dec’s neck and hold tight. In turn, Declan placed his free hand on her thigh and hitched her knee up over his hip, opening her up wider for his touch.
And touch her he did, sliding a second finger inside her.
Violet shuddered in his arms, and the hot liquid that had pooled between her legs oozed onto his hand.
A strangled sound erupted from Declan, making his throat vibrate. Violet gave up the fight. Her eyelids closed and she pressed her nose into his neck.
He smelled amazing. Like expensive cologne. He smelled delicious. Good enough to make her mouth water, and she gave in to the urge to taste him, letting her tongue run over the smooth column of his neck.
In response, Declan pulled his fingers out and let them surge back in.
The pleasure was so intense, Violet sank her teeth into Declan’s neck.
He let out a groan of pain and did it again.
