She sighed. What else could she do? They had been friends for years. She rubbed her forehead, trying to quell a headache that had just started. Why had she included Charles in this project, again? Right. Because he was such a contrast to Beau. Now there seemed too much of a contrast.
“Leah,” he said quietly. “Why are you doing this? Why are you planning to have sex with two men? And why me? We’ve been friends a long time and you’ve never shown the slightest interest in a sexual relationship, even knowing how I feel about you.”
Guilt welled up inside. Was she using his feelings for her in order to forward herself?
“Okay, I’ll tell you, but only if you promise to keep it to yourself and do nothing with it.”
“I promise. What is it?”
“I’m writing a book.” There was silence on the other end of the line. “It’s about the male psyche and how men react when sharing a woman. You know, sexually.”
“You’re writing a book? And you’re using me in it?”
“Not by name, of course. Your identity will be well hidden.” Panic replaced the guilt she’d felt a moment ago. He was balking, not understanding. Any moment he might back out if she didn’t do something. “I needed two men who were opposites. Who would have conflict with each other and would let that build as they had to share time with a woman.”
“And that woman was to be you.”
Was to be? She was deep in shit. How had he turned the tables on her? She had called pissed off with him.
“Is me. And you and Beau are the two men. Do you see? There’s no reason to be upset because the relationship won’t last—it was never intended to last. And after the book is finished, you and I can still be friends, just like always.”
He sighed. “This isn’t going to work, Leah.”
She clutched the receiver with her right hand and twisted her left index finger in the coils of the cord. “No! It will work. It has to. We can make it work.”
“I never should have let that man get under my skin.” He stayed quiet for a few seconds. “But to tell the truth, I’m not sure I could have…you know.”
What was he saying? He couldn’t have performed? What could she say to that?
“I’ve just thought about what it would be like for so long, and now faced with the opportunity, I just don’t know if I could have gone through with it.”
While the sentiment was sweet, what was she to do now? She’d already started the book with Charles. She’d counted on him.
“I mean,” he continued, “that you had the chance to sleep with me and you also chose to sleep with someone so antithetical to our values. The whole thing has been a disappointment to me.”
Hold up! He was saying that sex with her wouldn’t work because he found her sleeping with Beau so disgusting? He was putting this back on her?
“So you are no longer interested in having sex with me?”
“If you gave him up, I might be.”
“And I suppose you don’t want me even seeing him, having dinner or coffee?”
“That’s right. He’s not like us. I couldn’t respect you if you associated with someone who killed innocent civilians in the government’s name.” He sounded so smug.
“I’m so sorry to have to forfeit your respect, Charles, but I guess I have no other choice.”
“I’m glad you see it my way, Leah. Let’s—wait a minute. You’re giving me up?”
“I’m afraid so. Beau is absolutely spectacular in bed, you see. Thank you for making things so clear to me. I hope we can still have lunch now and then.”
“Forget it.” He slammed down the phone.
Leah replaced the receiver and fell onto the stool next to the counter. In one fell swoop she had lost a friend and destroyed the whole premise of her book.
She shook her head. What now?
Chapter Nine
“You’re sure she said to bring me?” Steve asked for the third time. He couldn’t believe she had made such a turnaround. One minute she couldn’t stand the sight of him, and the next she was inviting him to join her and Beau for dinner.
“I’m sure.” Beau took a drink from the tumbler holding two fingers of neat scotch. “What’s the matter? You think she’s going to ream you a new one here in public?”
Beau had it pretty damn close. “It wouldn’t surprise me,” he said glumly.
“I hate that she invited that ass, too,” Beau muttered. Steve looked up to see Little come through the door. But then he spoke to a woman in front of him. He placed his hand at her back and guided her to the hostess. In seconds, they were being shown to a table.
“That’s interesting. I thought you all signed an agreement for exclusivity.”
“I did, too. Of course, they’re just having dinner. Doesn’t mean they’re going to bed.”
At that moment, the woman leaned over and kissed Little with the kind of kiss that led only to a fucking good time later.
“I could be wrong,” Beau said. And then he grinned. “Looks like he’s out of the picture.”
“She looks awfully young. You don’t think the good professor is out with a student, do you?”
“I don’t want to think about the good professor at all,” Beau said. “The only professor I want anything to do with is coming in the door right now.”
Steve turned toward the front of the bar. He admired Leah as she walked in. She seemed not to have aged a day from their time in English 204, years ago, though she did look different—blonde hair and no glasses, for a start. Her attitude was changed as well as her looks. Back in the old days, she had always seemed hesitant, unsure of herself. Now she walked with confidence and poise.
“She’s remarkable.”
Beau glanced at him. “Yes.” He raised his hand, and she came toward them, smiling.
“Thanks for meeting me,” she said.
“Any time,” Beau replied. He kissed her cheek, and she beamed.
“And thanks for coming, too, Steve.”
“No problem.” He sipped at the beer he’d nursed for the last half hour.
“What would you like to drink?” Steve asked her.
“White wine, please.”
Steve placed the order. “Are you ready to go to the table?”
“Actually, I’m starving. Do you mind if we take our drinks and get seated now?”
“Not at all.” The bartender set a glass of wine on the bar. Beau gave him a five. “Keep the change,” he said. When Leah picked up her drink, he guided her to the hostess. Steve followed, too wary to get close. Why had she asked him here? She’d said earlier that she didn’t think she could forgive him, and the only other reason he could imagine she wanted to see him was to find new ways to tell him what an asshole he was. When did I become such a pansy? If Leah didn’t like him, so what? There were lots of other women who might. Or could. Or would.
Jesus, I’m losing all perspective here.
Their table wasn’t close to Little’s fortunately. Steve knew the moment she became aware of Charles Little’s presence. He glanced their way. She shot him a cold smile and then turned her back. Having been the recipient of Leah’s disdain before, Steve almost felt sorry for the man. But then Little faced the sweet, young thing sitting beside him, and all sympathy disappeared like the smoke from a fifty-caliber round of fire.
He sat across from Beau, Leah to their corners. Deciding on dinner took no time, since Steve normally ordered a slab of some kind of meat with a salad and green vegetables. There was never any need to eat Italian food out because no restaurant prepared Italian delicacies as well as his mother. Leah chose fish, and Beau ordered a stuffed chicken dish.
When the waitress left the table, Leah sighed and lifted her glass. “To friends, new and old.”
It took Steve a moment to realize that she had just referred to him as an old friend. What the hell is going on?
“You mean that?” He met her gaze and searched for the punch line she might be throwing next. All he saw was sincerity.
“I do. I might have done you a disservice, Steve. I’m willing to start over if you are.”
Beau appeared as stunned as he was. How had this come about?
“I thought about what you told me earlier. I should have given you a chance to explain back then. Maybe some pain could have been avoided.”
“What happened?” Beau asked.
“The day after the party at the frat house, friends came to tell me that there were rumors going ‘round about me and Steve Hardin. They said they heard I’d spent the night in his room. Who would have known that but Steve?”
Steve winced. “I told you, I never said a word to anyone.”
“That may be true. Nontheless, my reputation was in tatters. I wasn’t one of those girls who slept around, yet everyone thought I was after that night.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Steve said quietly.
“Someone made trouble for me. Within a week, acquaintances wouldn’t sit near me in the dining hall. The dorm headmistress called me into her apartment for a lecture on how the girl is always responsible for whatever happened in a relationship.”
“The old biddy,” Beau muttered.
Leah shrugged. “Whatever. I had hate mail shoved under the door of my room.”
Steve frowned. “For what?”
“It sounded as though it came from a girlfriend of yours. Said if I didn’t stay away from you I’d be sorry. She should have kept a better lookout. I wasn’t going near you again for anything.”
“I noticed. I wish you’d let me explain.”
“In the emotional riptide I found myself back then, I’m not sure I would have believed anything you said. I took my exams early, went home, and dropped out.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“You were gone by then yourself. I enrolled in a smaller school close to home, got contacts, changed my hair color, and even had a little work done on my nose. When I attended classes at my new school in January, I did so from a position of power. I was a new person. I told myself no one would ever hurt me the way you had again.”
“That one night spawned all these years of distrust and hurt,” Beau said. “I’m lucky something like that didn’t happen to me. I was just as much a loser back then as you were.”
“Thanks,” Steve said dryly. He drained the last gulp of beer in the bottle.
“But it’s all worked out,” Beau continued. “We can be friends now.”
“Let’s toast friendship again. Do you want another beer?” she asked Steve.
“No, thanks. I’ll toast with water. Or coffee.”
“He hardly drinks anymore,” Beau said.
“Really? When did that start?”
Steve studied her face. She was so damn beautiful. And they could have been friends—or maybe more—for all of these years. He wanted to kick himself up one side and down another for that night.
“I stopped drinking the day after I was so damn drunk I took your virginity and didn’t even remember it,” he said so only she and Beau could hear.
Her eyes widened. “What in the world are you talking about? You didn’t take my virginity.”
* * * *
“What the hell are you talking about? I most certainly did.”
Beau turned to her for a reaction.
She smiled tightly. “I think I remember the moment I lost my cherry,” she said, “and it wasn’t in your bed.”
Beau turned back to Steve. This was becoming a tennis match of words.
“I never had a girl in bed that I didn’t fuck. Were you or were you not in my bed the whole night?”
“Yes.”
Their voices had risen slightly. People at the next table were staring. “Maybe we should take this conversation somewhere else,” Beau said. They acted as though he was invisible.
“And were we not both naked as jaybirds when I woke up?”
“Yes.”
“Then I rest my case.”
Beau tried again. “Guys, this isn’t the right place.”
“You rested more than your case that night,” she said hotly. “Your pecker was as soft as a marshmallow. I wanted you to make love to me, but no matter how much I rubbed against you, you couldn’t get it up.”
“That’s not true!”
“Steve, let’s—”
“It is true!” Her eyes flared with anger.
“Leah, maybe we could—”
“Then what the holy fuck were you so mad about?” Steve demanded.
“I have to ask you to leave,” the hostess said. When she had arrived at their table, Beau wasn’t sure, but too bad it hadn’t been a few minutes earlier.
“Fine.” Steve stood. “Pack up our dinners to go and put together the bill.” He stared at Leah. “I felt guilty that I never even bought you dinner before taking you to bed. Consider this it.” He strode toward the door, leaving Beau and a fuming Leah in his wake.
“I decided to give him another chance and he’s decided to act like an asshole,” she said. “Just like before. What did I ever see in him?”
Beau caught a glance of Little. Instead of gloating as Beau might have expected, he saw only horror on the man’s face. Neither Beau nor Leah spoke as they followed Steve to the lobby. She marched right up to him, poking her finger in his face.
“I loved you, you jerk. I loved you and wanted you to love me back. Instead, you spread rumors saying we had had sex.”
“I didn’t spread those rumors!”
“Well, I guess I’ll have to take your word for that now, won’t I?”
“Take my word for this, too!” Steve grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her. In seconds her arms threaded around his neck and she was kissing back, tongue, lips, and all.
“They seem to have made up,” the hostess said, handing Beau a paper bag. Delicious aromas wafted from it, and his stomach rumbled.
“Looks that way, doesn’t it?” He looked at the bill and withdrew the cash from his wallet.
“Sorry about throwing you out, but they were causing quite a stir.”
“That’s okay. They need a little time to get used to the idea of being idiots, anyway.”
She smiled. He picked up the bag and turned to Steve and Leah, still in a lip-lock. “Come on, you two. After all these years, it’s time to get a room.”
They broke apart and stared into each other’s eyes as they tried to catch their breath. “I was a damn fool,” Steve said.
“I destroyed those beautiful flowers you sent,” she said mournfully.
“I think I might have been falling in love with you. I don’t think I knew how to go to that from friendship. It was all new to me.”
“Why did you say I was the last woman you would have in your bed?”
“We were friends. I thought sex would change that, maybe end it. I needed you.”
“You said you would never make love to me.”
“Come home with me so I can make myself a liar.”
She smiled and started to kiss him again.
“No you don’t,” Beau said, pulling her away from Steve. His friend had never looked so at odds, so besotted. “I’m hungry, and we have a lot to talk about. The three of us. Don’t forget I’m crazy about her, too,” he said to Steve.
“Oh, God, that’s right. You love her, too.”
“You do?” Leah looked at him. “You know I’m quite fond of you, Beau.”
“Not here,” he said, nudging Leah out the door, knowing Steve would follow anywhere she went. Once in the parking lot, he turned to Steve. “You drive my Jeep. I’ll come with Leah.”
Steve looked to Leah and licked his lips. “Yeah, all right. We want to get there in one piece.”
“Right.” He tossed Steve the keys.
“Don’t be long,” Steve said with a growling low voice.
“We’re right behind you.” He took Leah’s arm and led her to her Datsun. “Want me to drive, or are you okay?”
“You drive.” She took her keys from her purse and gave them to him.
He squirmed a bit to settle his frame into the small car, but finally he started the engine and headed for the exit.
She groaned. “Tell me I didn’t just stick my tongue down Steve Hardin’s throat in the lobby of Rowlands.”
“Can’t do that. I don’t lie.”
She covered her face. “It’ll be all over town by midnight.”
“That’s not all that will be all over town. Don’t you remember the dialogue at the table?”
“I was so mad I couldn’t think. What did I say?”
“Only that back in school you wanted Steve to fuck you.”
“Oh my God.”
“Don’t worry, you made it plain that he wasn’t able, despite your efforts.”
“Stop! I might as well resign tomorrow. With stories like that going around, I’ll never get tenure anyway.”
A red light caught them. Beau faced Leah, who looked ashen in the dim glow of lights on the dashboard. “Are you up for tenure?”
“I wanted to be fast-tracked. That’s what I was trying for, why I was writing the book.”
“What book?” A horn sounded from behind them. Beau looked ahead and saw the light had changed.
“I might as well tell you now, I guess. I wanted to show how two men having sex with the same woman changed in attitude toward her and each other. I knew I wanted to use you as soon as I saw you.”
“Thanks. I think.”
“And I thought Charles would be a good counterpoint, since he was opposite you in so many ways. And you both behaved in ways I would have predicted. In ways I could have used. But then Charles got mad at me, and now it doesn’t matter what I write anyway. That episode in Rowlands has destroyed whatever chance I had.”
Beau raced through town and out Highway Eleven. In minutes, he pulled into the drive to the house he shared with Steve. He smiled when he saw his friend leaning against the back bumper, checking his watch. “Two men and one woman? That was the basis of the book you hoped would get you tenure?”
“I wanted to show the biological imperative of the family structure. That no matter how much two men might think they want sex without strings, they really want the woman to themselves, to create a bond.”
Teacher's Pets [Unlikely Bedfellows 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 8
