by Alisha Rai
“Smells great,” Jace said.
Marcus knew when seduction was in his brother’s low voice. Sure enough, Jace stared at her with as much vibrating intensity as Marcus felt. Danger, danger. This was not good. This was not good at all. Their father hadn’t taught them much before leaving them in the hands of monsters, but not messing with good girls had definitely been hammered into them. This one’s fresh and clean appearance practically screamed “good girl”.
“Thanks.” She placed the bowl of bread in the middle of the table and then held the tray clasped under her arm with a polite smile pasted on her face. “I’m your chef. I hope you enjoy your dinner tonight.”
He loved her voice, low and a little bit throaty. It didn’t match her wholesome image. He imagined her, sweet and innocent in a tiny white negligee and, please God, lace stockings, talking dirty in his ear with that sexy voice. His semi-hard cock lengthened and in a perfect inverse relationship, his conscience hushed. “What’s your name?”
From the startled expression in her eyes, his request probably had come out as a growled order, but what could he do? He’d never experienced lust like this right off the bat, especially for a woman he would normally avoid like the plague. Cordial speech lay beyond his immediate capability.
“Devi Malik,” Jace answered for her, his eyes locked on her face.
“That’s right.” She hesitated, her polite smile slipping a bit. “How do you know that?”
“I asked your sister.” Jace turned to him. “Our waitress, Rana. Their other sister, Leena, manages. They own this place.”
“Our mom actually owns the restaurant,” she corrected.
“But you guys run it. I’m Jace Callahan and this is my brother Marcus.”
A light of reluctant laughter lit her eyes. “Get out. I never would have guessed you were related.”
Jace smiled. “Yeah, I guess it’s stupid to introduce us that way, huh? It’s a pleasure. I’ve been wanting to meet you.”
“Why?”
Jace raised his left eyebrow, a move Marcus knew he had practiced in the mirror since they were ten. “Why, what?”
She laughed, the soft sound nervous. “Do you make it a habit to meet all of the employees at the places you eat?”
Jace’s smile was slow and seductive. “Only the special ones.”
“Oh.”
“You have some excellent attractions here.”
“Yes, our band is wonderful, aren’t they?”
Jace hummed noncommittally.
“Is there anything else you need?” She stepped back from the table.
You, Marcus involuntarily thought. And then he realized, from the way both Devi and his brother stared at him, he hadn’t just thought it.
“What?” Devi clutched her tray closer.
“You…must be a great cook,” he finished lamely. Ah, hell. No one could ever say he was the suave one.
“Um, okay. Well, try the food first, and please let me know what you think.”
“Wait.” Keep her here. Marcus followed his instincts. “Sit with us.”
“What?”
“Sit.”
“What my brother means,” Jace interrupted, with a warning glance at him, no doubt for his caveman behavior, “is that we would love to talk with you.” He gave her a winning smile, flashing a set of dimples Marcus knew had won over more than one woman.
“Please.” Marcus double-teamed her without mercy and brushed the back of the hand clenched on the tray. Her skin was soft, the golden color warming through her flesh. The electrical current that passed through his fingertips surprised and dismayed him. Trouble. He slipped his hand under hers and drew it away from the tray to hold it. He swept his thumb over her small palm, marveling at how tiny it felt in his grip. Her nails were short and unpainted. Small calluses on her flesh were a testament to the work she did with her hands.
Her brow furrowed in bewilderment. “I—I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“I’m working.”
“Isn’t part of owning a family business being able to set your own hours?” Jace asked practically.
“Yes…no. I don’t…” She glanced back and forth between them, clearly overwhelmed.
Marcus stiffened. He didn’t care what Jace had talked with the sister about. He’d bet money Devi hadn’t known the score. She was too confused.
“Just so you know, I already asked your sister’s permission. No one’s going to fire you for eating your dinner with us,” Jace teased.
At the mention of her sister, her eyes filled with obvious hurt before anger took its place. “Ah. I get it. Did my sister put you up to this?”
Marcus glanced at Jace, but he shrugged. “Up to what?”
She smiled, but it seemed forced. “You can drop the act. And while she might have pitched it to you as a way to get me out of my shell, I can assure you that this is more an insult than a kindness.” Devi withdrew her hand. “Two of you were overkill. Enjoy your dinner.” She pivoted and stalked toward a shadowy corridor off the main dining room. Marcus couldn’t help but watch all of the glorious jiggling that accompanied her furious exit.
Jace cocked his head. “That went well.”
The back office door slammed against the wall with a satisfying thunk.
Rana jumped and straightened from where she shuffled some papers on the office desk. Whatever she glimpsed in Devi’s expression made her eyes widen in fear.
Good. She better be afraid. “Where’s Leena?”
Rana licked her lips. “I told you, she had to go somewhere tonight. Why?”
Devi stepped inside and kicked the door closed with her foot before starting toward her sister. “I don’t want any witnesses when I kill you.”
“Wait.” Rana darted behind the big chair and swiveled it so it stood between them. “Are you mad?”
“Hell yes, I’m mad. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was? How dare you tell them—our customers, a regular customer—to flirt with me like that? What did you say? That your poor desperate sister hadn’t had a date in a year and needed to get her ego stroked a little? That I needed some practice?”
“What?”
Devi stopped a few feet away from the chair. “I’ll tell you what I told them—you shouldn’t have had them both go for it.”
Rana stilled. “They both were into you?”
“Yeah, they followed your instructions to the letter. Good job.”
“Hey, wait just a second. If they were checking you out, I had nothing to do with it. I admit, I knew Jace liked you. He’s been pestering me for weeks to tell him your name. Quite frankly, it wasn’t ’til last week I agreed. I wanted to make sure he had his shit together.” Rana’s shoulders tensed imperceptibly. “You said the brother was hitting on you too?”
“Like you don’t know.” She didn’t believe a word Rana said. Beneath the anger lay a bone-deep hurt and a wicked sense of loss. Anyone else, she would have written off, but this had been her secret fantasy man. She knew she didn’t have a chance, but no woman wanted to look desperate in front of a man she dreamt of late at night while tucked away in bed with a romance novel. To think of Rana patiently explaining her poor, dear sister’s plight while Jace and his brother listened in sympathy—she just wanted to crawl under a rock somewhere.
“Devi.” Rana’s tone brooked no-nonsense. “Okay, so here’s the deal…” She trailed off.
“Look, sis, I need to go cook. I don’t have time for this.”
“They share women, okay?”
Devi’s jaw dropped. Literally, she felt it unhinge. “What?”
Rana’s lips compressed into a thin line. “I should have warned you before I sent you out there, but I had no idea if it was true, or if you would just hit it off with Jace by himself. There’s a lot of rumors—too many for them to be discounted. Jace is a pretty high-profile attorney so they’re well-known here even though his brother travels a lot. You don’t hear these things ’cause you’re always hiding away
, but I do. They’re, like, the kings of one-night stands. And they do it together. Always. I don’t think I know a single woman who’s fucked just one of them.”
Devi shook her head. “How?”
“Huh. Okay. You know how you’re fucking one guy, so the other one, he—”
“Jesus, Rana, I don’t want a blow-by-blow. I know how these things work.” Now she felt as uncomfortable as Rana looked. “I read enough.” Well. Wow.
“Why would you think that I set them up? I know the brother is new, but Jace has been salivating over you for a month. I can’t believe you didn’t see it. Shit, I thought that was the reason you kept sneaking out of the kitchen, so you could make junior high googly eyes at each other. I just wanted to give you a push, an excuse to talk to him.”
“Stop teasing.”
“I’m not teasing.”
“Right.”
“He’s been watching you, Dev. Every time you looked away, his eyes were glued on you. He eats you up.” A perplexed frown creased Rana’s smooth brow. “Why don’t you believe me?”
“Because if you and I were in the same room, no one would be looking at me.”
She immediately regretted her words, but they had slipped out before she could stop them. Rana inhaled sharply, and then glared. Devi suppressed a sigh. Even outraged, Rana looked good. “I can’t believe you just said that. Like you’re a hag.”
Not a hag. Just a normal woman. In her experience, super-attractive types always went for super-attractive types. “We all know who the pretty one is.”
Rana opened her mouth and closed it again. To Devi’s surprise, her eyes shimmered. “Oh, Devi. I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and pressed her fingers to her lips.
Her soft heart folded right into itself. She sighed and walked over to draw her sister into her arms. Since Rana reached almost six feet in her heels, and Devi wore her usual discreet wedges, the one-foot difference pushed her face right into Rana’s boobs. Accustomed to the odd position, she turned her face to speak. “Hey, you have your period, or something? You’re so emotional,” she attempted to tease. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I promise, I don’t hate you for being beautiful.”
Rana gave a choked laugh and disentangled their arms. “I’m only going to say this once. I’ve been flirting with that man since he started coming here. I figured he was gay until I saw the way he tracked you. I can’t believe you think I set them up to hit on you. You’ve seen them. I doubt there’s anyone in the world who could make those two do anything they don’t want to.”
Devi pondered that. Truly, she didn’t see either of them faking anything. Especially Marcus, he seemed so raw and real. “So let me get this straight. You wanted me to go out there and see what would happen with two men? Who are you and what have you done with my sister? You know, the one who went out and bought a fake handgun to terrify my prom date?”
Rana drew herself up to her full height. “I’ve decided that Leena and I haven’t done you too many favors by keeping you so sheltered. You’re missing out on life and it’s partly our fault.”
“I like my life.”
“But, Devi, all you do is work, work, work and go home. It’s like you don’t care anymore, and you’re not even twenty-seven. You should be living it up and enjoying yourself, and you’re stuck in a rut. You haven’t so much as looked at a man since Tarek—”
“I don’t want to talk about him,” she said, her voice hard. A year mended battered pride, but she didn’t want to discuss a relationship that ended in such mortification.
Sadness and regret flashed through Rana’s dark eyes. “Okay. All I’m saying is, you need to go have some fun, shake yourself up. And you need to remind yourself what a beautiful, gorgeous woman you are, especially if you really believe that nonsense you just spouted. There is nothing wrong with having a fling, a one-night stand, as long as you know the score. If these guys float your boat—and why wouldn’t they?—go float theirs. Just remember everything I’ve told you. And go into it prepared so you don’t get hurt.” She dropped her hand and stepped back. “And with that, I am officially out of the equation, grasshopper. Do me proud.” Rana walked to the door and opened it.
“Hey.” Devi didn’t continue speaking until Rana looked over her shoulder. “Can you get Asha to cover the kitchen for the rest of the night?”
Her eyes widened in surprise before a slow smile spread over Rana’s face. “Abso-fucking-lutely, darling.”
Chapter Two
The silent office pulsed with hidden possibilities in the wake of Rana’s absence.
A ménage, huh? She had told Rana the truth—more than a few ménage stories were stored on her hard drive. Though her real-life sexual experience may have been limited to a couple of discreet affairs, she found the idea of two men intriguing. To say the least.
She imagined herself sandwiched between the two identical men, multiple hot hands running over her nude flesh. Would their bodies look the exact same? Would she be able to feel a difference in their hands?
In their cocks?
A shudder ran through her and she paced to the small mirror hanging on the wall. The woman staring back at her did not entertain thoughts like these. That woman loved puppies and children and whiled her days away fulfilling familial obligation and living up to expectations. That woman waited patiently for a man to come along and make the first move. That woman would be happy with a sex life that was limited to a once-a-week missionary-style fuck.
Rana certainly had her number. Had her sister so much as whispered a breath of gossip regarding the Callahans before Devi met them, she would have either been too nervous or too self-conscious to so much as stammer out a hello.
Nobody could call Rana an idiot, either. She knew masculine interest the way Devi could differentiate between kinds of rice. Deep in her heart, after speaking with the twins face-to-face, Devi knew Rana was right. Unless Jace acted like this with every woman, and she had observed him enough to be fairly certain he didn’t, he was indeed attracted to her.
As for the brother, whew. His chocolate eyes had practically singed a hole through her. While Jace might quietly maneuver to get his own way, she had the feeling Marcus plowed through life, taking what he wanted with little regret.
She hadn’t slept with a man in almost a year now, not since her doomed relationship with Tarek had disintegrated. Not because she had been traumatized, but out of disillusionment. She couldn’t call any of her past sexual experiences particularly spectacular. When she considered all of the boyfriends she’d ever been with, none of them had made her heart race or her palms sweat. She’d given herself better orgasms reading erotica than from having sex. After those orgasms, she lay awake in her bed, her super-sensitive flesh rubbing against the high-thread-count cotton, and wondered if she could experience even a tenth of that fictional passion. How many nights had she wished for a man who could rouse her to the height of lust and quench the desire inside her? A man who could respond to some of the darker desires she kept hidden?
Now she had two men—if she hadn’t scared them off completely—who could fill that need. A mind-blowing sexual experience, a fantasy fulfilled. By their own pattern of behavior, she would never even need to see them again. So the question became, what was she going to do about it?
Devi stared at her reflection, and out of habit, catalogued all of her flaws in a single sweep. She and her sisters had inherited their father’s eyes, but physically, the three of them shared nothing else. Rana was the undisputed beauty of the family, and athletic Leena wasn’t too far behind. Devi considered it a sign of progress that she could look at Rana’s curvy body and perfectly formed face today and feel only a slight twinge of envy. There had been a time during the worst of her chubby, pimply and frizzy adolescence when the sight of Ravishing Rana would send her into a deep depression.
The chubbiness had never left, unfortunately, and the frizziness returned when it rained. Hey, at least her skin had cleared. Yay.
No fr
izz tonight though. She slipped the cloth-covered elastic from her ponytail. Men had found her hair sexy in the past. She could make the most of it. The black riotous mane of ringlets fell to her shoulders. She ran her hand through the hair, purposely tousling the strands before studying her clothes with a critical eye.
She removed the apron and hung it on the hook next to the mirror before she grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head. Underneath she wore a tight black tank top. The built-in shelf bra waged a mighty battle to keep her heavy chest contained and lifted. She only wore the tank under shirts when all of her bras were in the laundry—the deep cleavage it created made her too self-conscious to wear on its own.
She straightened in front of the mirror and sucked her belly in. She even managed to keep up the flat plane for about thirty seconds, but then she had to exhale. Devi frowned at the pooch. Ahh, well. Too late to start doing crunches. Tomorrow, she promised herself. Tomorrow she would do fifty right after getting up. Or maybe she would start the day after that. No one should ever exercise on a Sunday.
The small walnut desk yielded Leena’s small bag of cosmetics and a compact. Though she rarely used the stuff herself, she knew a few tricks. She applied black kohl and smoky eye shadow with quick strokes, until her eyes looked deep and mysterious. The lipstick was a bit redder than she preferred, but the dramatic look worked well for tonight.
Recapping the tube, she peered back into the mirror. Oh yes. This woman she could be tonight. Two men? Please. This woman could take three or more with little worry.
This woman wouldn’t let silly things like expectations and social constraints get in the way of one amazing night of pleasure.
And it would just be for one night, as Rana had said. She wouldn’t kid herself. Ménages were about the sex—relationships couldn’t come out of them. She grimaced to think of the awkwardness of that. She couldn’t imagine dating one brother while both of them knew she had slept with the other. No, one night of pleasure.
