by Zoey Thames
Even though Dan never once made a big deal about the whole thing, it had changed Lucas. He’d always been somewhat gruff, no-nonsense, taciturn, and cut-to-the-chase. He was especially that way when it came to business, sitting in on stockholder meetings or running any of the half dozen major corporations he and the rest of the blueblood billionaire Pearce clan controlled. But he always made an exception for Dan. Dan made him a better person. Made him smile, made him laugh and live outside the corporate boardroom. So he always made sure Dan knew exactly how much Lucas loved him. How much he wanted him. How his lover and best friend remained the bedrock of his life.
Dan wore a teasing smile as he strolled over to Lucas’s bike and put his hands on his hips. “You’ve got that look in your eye.”
“You’re right,” he shot back. “What do you say we do a U-turn and race back home. We’ll spend all day and all night in bed. You can help me with this big problem I have of getting rock hard whenever I’m looking at you.”
Dan’s grin grew even wider. A wicked glint flashed in those blue eyes. “All day and night in bed…sleeping? I don’t think I’m tired enough.”
“Oh, you’ll be tired…when I’m through with you. I promise.”
“I like how you think. Too bad I’m also starving right now. So what do you say we get something to eat first? I’m sure our girl is looking forward to some friendly customers.”
“Everyone’s friendly with Josie,” Lucas said. But Dan was right. He wanted to see her again, looked forward to her smiles and her laughter. They’d been regulars at the restaurant for about six months now. He wasn’t sure when they’d gone from good customers to casual friends of Josie’s to…wanting something more. Much more. “But you’re right. Plenty of time to drive you fucking wild later.” He glanced around the turnoff. A car zipped past on the two-lane highway road, but that was the only traffic he’d seen in an hour. The road over the hills and into the valley didn’t get a lot of use, even at rush hour. “So why did we stop?”
“Listen, I want to talk…” Dan shook his head and scrubbed a hand across his face. His fingers rasped on the blond scruff on his cheeks, but he didn’t go on. He only stared down the road as if gathering his thoughts.
“What’s on your mind?” Lucas asked softly, watching him closely.
It took another moment before Dan started speaking. “I love what we have. You know that. But we haven’t been talking about this…” He waved a hand at the road in the direction leading to the Highland Grill. “What we’ve been doing for the last half a year. Not a real, serious conversation where we lay everything on the table.” He met and held Lucas’s gaze, his eyes intense. “Tonight I want to change things. And I know you want the same.”
He shook his head. “You want to have this conversation now? Here?”
“Yeah. I want to know if we’re going to take the next step. Take some action, to bring her into our lives. Neither of us denies how she makes us feel, but what are we going to do about it?” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Either way, you know how I feel about you. And every time I look at you, I can see in your eyes how you feel about me. But I think it’s time to take a risk over Josie. If we both still the same way about her…”
“You know I do.”
“I know, but we never come right out and say it. Let’s say it. Put it right out in the open. She’s something special. It’s been a long time since we were in a threesome relationship. Hell, I know you love me. I feel the same way about you. But I can’t deny there’s heat between the three of us. Every time we’re around her, my cock is harder than steel because of all these fantasies about her with you, her with me, both of us inside her together, driving her wild. Or are you denying you feel the same?”
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Again, you know me better than that.”
“Fine. Then we admit it aloud. I intend to take a chance tonight. I want to end this torture and see if she’d be willing to explore this. To take it to the next level.”
“You realize there’s a good chance she’ll say no. Not everyone can imagine or is comfortable with the idea that a person’s heart is big enough to feel real love for two people.”
“Listen to you, getting all poetic,” Dan said, smirking. “But I think she’s better than that. I think our girl will surprise us.”
Lucas snorted. “We’ll definitely be surprising her. Maybe this isn’t the best night. She knows a bunch about us, but she doesn’t know—”
“What? That we’re bisexual. That I like both cock and pussy?”
Lucas raised his hands in a calming gesture. He hadn’t seen Dan this worked up in a long time. “Bluntly put, but I’m not just talking about that. She doesn’t know how wealthy we are.”
“You mean she doesn’t know you’re an old-school billionaire, and I’m a baby billionaire.”
Dan loved to refer to himself as a baby billionaire ever since his shopping app software company’s initial stock offering threw him into the world’s richest and most elite club. He was right that Lucas came from a wealthy family. The Pearce family fortune was vast, although Lucas oversaw half a dozen different companies under his umbrella. In some ways, it seemed strange how he and Dan had met and fallen in love, and in other ways it seemed perfectly natural, as if it had been preordained by the universe. They’d met on a motorcycle ride up the Pacific Coast Highway six years ago and they’d been lovers ever since.
“I don’t want to make this about us being rich,” Lucas answered carefully. “It changes things, every damn time.”
But what did he mean by that exactly? He always struggled to put it into clear words and concepts. Josie was so warm and genuine with them. When people found out how rich he was, he could often see the change in them. Sometimes they doubted themselves, even subconsciously putting themselves into a lower class ranking, as if they suddenly weren’t as good or worthy a person simply because they didn’t have a staggering amount of money. Or he could see them changing their opinions of him, for better or worse. The thing he hated most was when they got that scheming look in their eye—even if they didn’t realize it themselves—and starting thinking about what he could do to make their life better, to make them richer. It wasn’t simply a gold-digging woman thing either. He’d been bisexual since he could remember it mattering, and rich from long before that, and men could be just as bad or worse than those kinds of women.
But not Dan. Dan had always been completely unpretentious. Lucas was a hundred percent certain Dan would’ve loved him just as much if they’d both been living in a tiny, one-bedroom apartment in Detroit somewhere and struggling to eke out an existence. But he didn’t want Josie to know how wealthy they were. Not yet anyway. If she felt the same way about the two of them as they did about her, money wouldn’t matter.
Dan gave him a long, considering look. “I’m not sure it’s wise to hold that back from her. I mean, it’s part of who we are. And she’s going to find out very quickly.”
“That’s true. But consider it a test, then. If she wants us like this…” He swept a hand at his dusty black riding leathers. “Then she wants us. Not our money. All that other stuff will just be a pleasant surprise for her when we reveal the truth about who we are.”
Dan still hesitated though, rubbing at the burn scar along his jawline without realizing what he was doing. “I’m going to take your word on it. I don’t want to push her, but I’m desperate to tell her how we really feel about her. To find out if she’s interested in us the way we’re interested in her. And what that means.”
“And if she runs away screaming, then at least we’ll know for certain.”
Dan’s usual easy smile grew tight, and his eyes hardened. “You mean like my mother did?”
Lucas shrugged and shook his head. He hadn’t wanted to come straight out and say it, but it was true. Dan’s mother hadn’t been pleased to learn her son was bisexual. She’d been even less pleased to learn he was in a ménage relationship with Lucas and a girl named Haley about
three years ago. Haley had eventually headed off to New York, bound for Broadway. They all remained good friends, even though they’d moved on from loving aspect of their lives together. Ever since then, he and Dan had remained in a relationship and committed to each other. But they both sensed they were still on a hunt for their “third.” The one who would bind their love together even tighter than it was now.
“Look, it’s not even about your mother,” Lucas finally said, giving his friend a friendly shove. “The reality of it is, one man is bad enough, ruining a woman’s life. Two is asking for trouble.” He grinned. “But I’m willing to try…for your sake.”
Dan laughed, the sudden tension leaving his face. “All right, all right. Maybe from her perspective, two men are more trouble than they’re worth. But I have a good feeling about this. And I’m willing to try…for your sake.”
Lucas couldn’t help it. He reached out and pulled Dan into a deep kiss. Need flared in the kiss. Desire. The joy of life and touch and passion. He poured all his feelings, all his love for the other man into the connection between them, willing his lover to understand. His heart lifted with joy as Dan groaned and embraced him tighter, the stiff length of his cock pressing against Lucas’s thigh, revealing exactly how much their shared passion had stirred him.
Finally, they reluctantly broke apart. Lucas was rock hard himself, his cock pressing against his leathers, his balls aching with need. He shifted himself to a more comfortable position, trying to take some of the tension off. It was going to be a long night if he didn’t get some relief. He only hoped the beautiful and curvy Josie Smith would be joining them, if not tonight, then soon.
Very soon.
“All right. That’s all settled then,” Dan quipped, a grin slowly spreading across his face. “Now what do you say to another little challenge?”
Lucas watched him warily. “What exactly do you have in mind?”
“A little race. Your great big chunk of steel and exhaust versus my sleek and sexy Ducati.”
“You mean that Italian crotch rocket toy you like to putter around on?” He snorted and shrugged. He was always up for a challenge of any kind. “We’re almost to the restaurant. Why do you want to lose a race to me now?”
“It’s something to get us in the mood for taking risks and putting it all out there.” Dan’s blue eyes gleamed. “To get the blood pumping. And to gratify my ego.”
“You’re on then. My American steel will crush your fancy little foreign toy.”
Both of Dan’s eyebrows shot up. “Bold words, my friend. Bold words. But don’t worry. I’ll be happy to blow you out of the water.”
Lucas couldn’t help but laugh, even though Dan was right about blowing him out of the water. He loved his Harley with all his heart, but the acceleration on Dan’s Ducati was mind-blowing. Zero to sixty miles an hour in two point eight seconds. But he wasn’t about to back down, even if it meant losing. He simply wasn’t built to roll that way.
They put on their helmets, started up their bikes, and pulled out onto the road again. They drove side by side, cruising along at a steady forty miles an hour. Racing was always a bit reckless, no two ways about it, but on this highway it was far safer than racing in or near a city. There was zero traffic in either direction, no crossroads on this section of road, and they were both very experienced riders. The worst danger was that one of the county sheriffs would hammer them with a speeding ticket. A ticket they would both fully deserve.
Dan turned his head his way. Lucas couldn’t see Dan’s beautiful eyes when the tinted helmet visor was down, but Dan counted slowly on his fingers so that he had a clear view of the countdown. They always went on three. As soon as Dan signaled three, Lucas opened the hog’s throttle and roared away. He shot out ahead, and his heart leaped in his chest with the pure thrill of moving so fast, in perfect control of a powerful machine.
But even though he shot out to the lead, he also understood Dan had allowed him a head start. Probably out of pity, the jerk. Because a second later he heard the sound of Dan’s Ducati engine as he effortlessly pulled up alongside him. They stayed that way for a bit, racing neck and neck at speeds that hit a hundred and then went over.
Then Dan cheerfully waved to him and really opened the throttle. He shot ahead like a missile. Lucas could only shake his head and stare at the Ducati’s taillight. Even though he’d known he wouldn’t win, some things were worth giving his all for anyway.
They slowed down to a responsible speed as the Highland Grill came into view. Dan signaled and turned into the parking lot, and Lucas followed. As usual, the place was packed on a Friday night. They cruised around the side of the building where there was a dirt lot cleared to a thick stand of white oak and sugar maple trees. No windows on this side of the restaurant, just the air conditioner running overtime. North Carolina in the early summer could be hot, but at least the steady breeze here kept things relatively cool, and the night could be nice. They could hear lively conversation coming from the Highland’s back deck. That deck was one of his favorite features of the restaurant, overlooking a slope leading down to the Neuse River. The strong beat for the live band echoed to them out here. That was yet another of the things he liked about the place. There were two or three talented live bands that rotated through, playing on Friday nights.
After they parked, he pulled off his helmet and went over to Dan. His blood was pumping after the race, and he felt alive and ready for anything. He put a hand behind the other man’s neck, slipped an arm around his waist, and claimed his mouth with a fierce kiss that left both of them breathing hard.
“No matter what happens,” he said quietly. “I’ll be here for you. You know that right?”
Dan started to reply, then closed his mouth and simply nodded.
“Good.” He pounded his friend on the shoulder and gave him a little shove, feeling both incredibly grateful and incredibly lucky to have him in his life.
Then they turned and walked side by side toward the restaurant’s front entrance, ready to take another chance. A high-stakes bet that both of them desperately wanted to win.
CHAPTER TWO
Josie’s heart shot into her throat on a rocket of excitement the moment she heard the deep rumble of Lucas’s motorcycle. She glanced out the big plate glass windows fronting the restaurant in time to see Dan pull in on his sleek racing bike with Lucas just behind him on his beefy, chrome-and-black one. She didn’t know much about motorcycles, but both of those bikes were beautiful, each in their own way.
Kind of like those two men.
She hurried out the French doors leading to the back deck. Lucas and Dan liked to eat outside when the weather was nice enough. This evening was particularly cool, with a gentle breeze and the promise of fireflies in the trees when the sun went down. She loved these early summer months when there was still a chance at an occasional relatively cool day.
The deck area table sections were divided in half, split between her and Christie. They were covered by red-and-white-checkered tablecloths. Umbrellas sprouted from the center of each that could be tilted toward the sun from the center of each table. Tiki torches burned anti-mosquito incense along the railing. From here the customers could look down the grassy slope to a stand of trees, cut away to reveal the river. Vincent, the bus boy, was quickly clearing one of the tables in her section. She gave him a thumbs-up. The shy teenager blushed and grinned.
Thank the stars she had a free table for her two best customers. She did not want to make them wait, although she knew from experience they didn’t mind. Still, she wanted to take care of them. Give them the best food and service so they had the best night possible. It was her little way of thanking them for coming in all the time and always making her waitressing Fridays fun. Especially when she couldn’t be out doing something fun on her own because she had to work. That, and they provided some damn fine eye-candy. She wouldn’t deny it.
Josie hurried back inside just as Dan and Lucas were coming through the front door. Th
ey both spotted her and smiled at the same time. Her heart jagged in her chest. She actually halted for a moment as her breath caught in her throat at the sight of those two brilliant smiles. A return smile immediately came to her lips…along with a deep, needy ache in her core at just how drop-dead sexy they looked. She couldn’t have chosen between them, even if she’d been tied up and dangled over a volcano and forced to decide or be dropped in.
Which was a weirdly specific thought, but as she wove her way through the busy restaurant, she realized it was accurate enough. Lucas was tall, with dark hair and eyes dark as chocolate, a jawline strong enough to chisel down a mountain, and a muscular chest large enough to be that mountain. Dan was just as tall but had unruly, blond hair that looked sun-kissed whenever it caught the light. His eyes were the blue of the ocean on a clear, spring day. And his body was leaner than Lucas’s big frame, but still athletic and muscled and sexy enough to have her biting her lip with lust. Both of them wore the motorcycle riding leathers and heavy boots she always saw them in.
“Hi, guys!” she said as she reached them, raising her voice to be heard over the catchy music. She realized she was grinning like a loon, but she couldn’t help it. “Great to see you. I have a table out on the deck if you’d like to eat outside.”
“Sounds perfect,” Dan replied, leaning toward her. She caught the scent of leather and a spicy cologne and the scent of pure male. She had to stop herself from leaning closer to him and taking deep inhales, because that would look really strange. “Anything new on the menu that I’m going to love?”
