by Alisha Rai
Marcus took a look around the room. The stainless-steel appliances were all professional grade, worthy of someone who knew cooking, but the rest of the décor could only be called cheerful whimsy. Yellow gingham curtains hung over the large window and matched the tablecloth and chair covers on the little breakfast table, and daisies were everywhere. A vase of the fresh flowers on the countertop, magnets on the fridge, a cookie jar. If he didn’t know better, he would have sworn Devi had exploded a can of spring in the room.
Jace cocked his head. “After seeing some of her rooms, I’m thinking our girl goes for the monochromatic effect.”
Our girl? What, was she wearing their letterman’s jacket? “Stop that.”
“What?”
“Is she up yet?”
“Yup. And I even let her shower by herself. I think she’s feeling shy again. She had a death grip on the sheet.” Jace shrugged. “I didn’t want to push her.”
Marcus would have. The idea of Devi hiding her body bothered him, and as he had proved last night, he couldn’t keep his civility around her. Then again, Jace generally had a softer touch where women were concerned. That was why they worked so well together.
“So what do you want for breakfast?” Jace opened the fridge. “We could go out, but I figured we’d do dinner out.”
“Are you serious?”
“Well, I guess we could make dinner. It’s just that we have such a limited repertoire, and I hate for her to feel pressured to cook for us constantly, you know?”
“I’m not quite sure what you’re up to, but it needs to stop.”
Jace closed the door and turned to him, his eyes round with surprise. “You do want her to cook for us? That’s not really fair. She probably gets sick of it by the time she gets home.”
Marcus felt like pulling his hair out. “Stop being obtuse. We need to leave.”
“Now? Why?”
“Because that’s what we do.”
“Maybe that’s not what I want to do.”
“What about what I want? What about what she wants?”
A trace of something that looked like pity moved in Jace’s expression. “You want to leave? Walk out on her without even saying goodbye? You think she would want that? That she wouldn’t care?”
“We’ve done it before.” They had, and he’d never thought twice or cared how the woman felt. A feeling close to shame wormed through him. Because no matter what tough-cookie act Devi put on, he knew she had never in her life had a one-night stand with one guy, let alone two. No, he didn’t flatter himself into thinking her heart would break, but all of a sudden he didn’t want to think of her experiencing that same feeling of emptiness that crept over him occasionally. “We should never have messed around with her.”
“Why?”
“Why…?” Marcus battled the urge to shake his brother. “Christ, Jace. She’s got a fucking magnet on her fucking dishwasher.”
Jace leaned down and picked up the bird, his frown clearing as he turned it over in his hand. “Hey, this is ingenious. You’ll never have to wonder if your dishes are clean. How clever.”
Marcus gritted his teeth. “She didn’t invent it, man.”
“Still.” Jace replaced the magnet. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“The big deal is she’s not our type. I shouldn’t have even agreed to this last night, but since I did, we need to minimize the fallout here.”
“Why? Has she kicked us out? No. Do you want to leave?”
Marcus ran a hand through his hair. How could he possibly explain the fight-or-flight instincts running through his system? He felt trapped, like a cage was closing in behind him. “We never stay this long. I don’t see what the point is. We’re done here. I just—I think we need to go.”
“So go.”
The voice came from behind him. And it wasn’t his brother’s. Aw, shit.
It’s no big deal, it’s no big deal.
Devi repeated the mantra to herself as she entered the room to walk purposefully to the coffee maker. She managed to avoid the eyes of both men. No easy feat—though her kitchen was roomy, the two giants took up a good amount of space, and then some. Jace wore his wrinkled pants from the night before, his spotless white T-shirt snug against his muscles, but Marcus wore only a pair of unsnapped jeans. His shoulders looked even larger than normal.
You didn’t even expect to see them in the morning. So Marcus’s words couldn’t hurt her. They shouldn’t.
They did.
At least in that stupid, sentimental part of her heart that had fluttered when Jace had said what he had in bed. Clearly, he had only meant he wanted to stay to enjoy a cup of her excellent coffee. Well, she owed them that for all the pleasure she received, she supposed. She poured herself a mug and turned to look at them, pasting a pleasant expression on her face.
Silence filled the room for a second as they both eyed her warily, as if she might fly into dramatic hysterics. Devi imagined what the three of them would look like to someone peeking in the window, standing like strangers in a stiff circle, while only hours before they had lain entangled in her bed in a human pretzel. “Well, thanks for the night, guys.” She raised the coffee in a toast. “It’s been real. Do you need directions?”
Jace set his mug on the counter with a clink and walked over to her to turn her around into his arms. He pulled her untouched cup away and placed it on the counter behind him before he encircled her waist with his arms and ignored the fine tension in her body. “Devi, sweetheart, like I told you, I don’t want to go.”
“I think Marcus would like to.” She made a concentrated effort to keep her voice matter-of-fact, not whiny or petulant. She was proud of the final result.
A tortured sound came from behind her and Jace shook his head, sorrow in his eyes. “No, he doesn’t. Or he would have left by now, not talked me to death.” He looked over her shoulder. “Right?”
Devi gave a careless shrug. “You guys really don’t need to stay on my account. Seriously, I didn’t even expect to see you today.”
“It’s not just you.” The words seemed torn from Marcus. Instead of looking at him, she stared fixedly at the hollow of Jace’s throat. “It’s—this whole place. You’re such a nester. I don’t want you getting any ideas.”
Anger, unexpected and white hot, boiled in Devi’s belly, until her pride outweighed her hurt. She turned around in Jace’s arms, though he kept them wrapped loosely around her waist, to face Marcus. “Let me get this straight. You’re worried that spending a civil breakfast with the two of you will have me picking out a china pattern? For what, a double-marriage ceremony? Give me a break.”
“You don’t get it. We never mess around with girls like you.”
“Girls like me?”
“Good girls. You scream for a husband and kids and a white picket fence. We—I don’t do that.”
Oh God. She was sick, sick, sick of other people thinking they knew her. From her family to these men, they all had her pigeonholed as the sweet little girl just waiting in the hot kitchens for her prince to come. “Was I a good girl in bed last night?”
Jace’s arms tightened. His tone rang with amusement. “If I could interject, I’d say you were a really good girl.” He nuzzled her ear. “In fact, I’d say you deserve a reward.”
Her lips twitched and her anger deflated a bit. Unfortunately for her blood pressure, Marcus doggedly continued. “That was your walk on the wild side. I get it. But now that it’s over, you’re either going to want to forget it happened or romanticize it out of proportion. That’s all I was saying, that it was better to go before someone got to feeling uncomfortable.”
She clenched her hands into fists. Better than clenching them around his neck, the conceited ass. “Look, I’m going to say this once, and please take it to heart or I’ll be forced to brain you with one of my skillets: you don’t know me. If you want to leave, fine. But don’t you dare come up with some convoluted nonsense of how you think I’m going to potentially act.�
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“So you’d be okay with being our little fuck toy? Give me a break.”
She must be depraved to feel a twinge—okay, a boatload—of arousal at his words. Devi raised her chin. “Maybe I would. Or did you ever think you’d be my fuck toy? Why can’t I use you?”
Marcus opened his mouth, and then closed it again, and she was gratified to see him at a loss for words. She took advantage of his speechlessness. “I mean, let’s face it, Marcus—my family’s pretty conventional. One of my cousins raised eyebrows by marrying one white guy, so can you imagine what would happen if I brought two of you home to dinner?”
Marcus snorted and glanced away. “You have no idea how happy that makes—”
“To clarify,” Jace interjected. “Devi, you’d be willing to have a repeat of last night?”
“Just…sex?”
“If you have no objections, I’d like to spend more time with you.” His voice dropped an octave. “You’re amazing. Last night was the best sex I’ve ever had.”
“Me too.” Marcus made the statement grudgingly.
“Seriously?” Jace she might have discarded as being charming, but she instinctively knew Marcus wouldn’t lie. Wow. Go her.
“Yup. So what’s the verdict?”
She couldn’t help but look at Marcus. He sighed. “Yes. If Jace is set on this, I’m staying too.”
He didn’t sound particularly thrilled about it, more like resigned. Nevertheless, her libido woke up and did a somersault. Just having Jace in her bed a few more times would have been amazing, but both of them? Again? And again? And then, maybe, again? “Just sex.” This time she stated it. No way could a long-term relationship ever come of this, so she would need to keep her heart well guarded. Could she do it? She didn’t want to give them up just yet, so yes, she’d have to.
“How about we call it an affair?” Jace suggested.
“What’s the difference?”
“You’re too good for a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am.” Jace rubbed her arms. “You make me want to spend the day with you, whether we’re having sex or not. I want to have a picnic or go to the movies without feeling pressured to whip out my cock.”
She cast a droll look at Marcus. “I don’t want anyone thinking I’m going to start nesting. So it’ll be a short-term affair. Two weeks, max. But any party can walk away when they feel the need. No hard feelings.”
“Do we have to put a time limit on it?” Jace asked.
She nodded. Oh yes they did. Any longer than a couple of weeks, and she wouldn’t care what her family thought of her two lovers.
Marcus still seemed skeptical, but at least somewhat satisfied. “If you’re okay with that, I guess I’d be stupid to complain, huh?”
Jace was slow to respond and she twisted her head around. “Jace?”
His gaze was enigmatic. “I only want what’s best for each of us.”
Now why did that sound evasive?
Jace lowered his head to brush his lips to hers. “I’ve never seen you in a dress. I love your legs.”
She dismissed her suspicion and leaned back against his chest as though she had been doing so for years. Her legs were stubby in her eyes, but who was she to disabuse him of his notions? The tension eased a bit in her chest as she enjoyed the lingering kiss Jace pressed upon her lips.
His tongue swept her mouth, the taste of Colgate and the scent of Irish Spring flooding her senses until she forgot where she stood or who else existed in the room.
A rough growl reminded her a split second before Marcus slid his hands over her breasts and grasped her under her arms. He pulled her forward, breaking Jace’s kiss and lowering his head. “She didn’t even kiss me good morning, yet.”
“You were too busy pissing me off.”
Jace chuckled behind her. “You’re losing your touch. Next time, maybe you should wake up with her the way I did. It might put you in a better mood, and you can get that kiss right off the bat.”
Devi could sense some hint of underlying subtext to the words, but Marcus didn’t reply to the goad, since his mouth was occupied ravishing her own. When he lifted his head, she made a soft sound of disappointment. He looked down at her and smiled. His dimples deepened, and that air of wariness he seemed to always carry vanished. With his guard dropped for a second, he looked far younger than he normally did. He glanced at Jace. “You’re losing your touch, if you call that any kind of kiss.”
A second later she was airborne. She yelped as Marcus lifted her and set her on the small breakfast table, pushing her skirt up to her waist in a smooth motion. He pulled her legs apart and stepped between them, his large hands clenching over the flesh of her thighs.
She lay back against the wood table and tried to relax as he knelt and kissed just above her knee. You’ll never be able to look at the breakfast table the same. Oddly enough, the thought brought her some satisfaction. When had she ever done something so illicit in her kitchen? As his lips nipped and licked their way up her inner thigh, she felt her inhibitions at being bared to them in the morning light disappear in the midst of rising lust. The rip of tearing cloth brought her head up in shock. Marcus dropped the remnants of her panties to the side as Jace turned her head with a kiss. He pulled back to whisper against her lips. “Affair rule number one: whenever you wear a skirt around us, no panties. We’ll take it as an invitation and we want you easily accessible.”
She nodded, ready to promise anything. She caught her breath in a hitch as Marcus thrust two large fingers into flesh already overly sensitized from last night’s use, curved them to hit the sweet spot buried deep inside her and dropped to his knees.
“Now here’s a kiss.”
Boy howdy, the man certainly knew his business. He brushed light kisses outside her vulva until she grew wet enough to drip, and then curled his tongue over the button of her clitoris to suck it hard. Just when she felt herself grow almost too sensitive to bear, he slipped his firm tongue inside of her and thrust. He spread her legs wider and settled in to feast.
Jace played at her mouth and massaged her breasts. The dual combination of both their lips and tongues and hands drove her to a quick and satisfying orgasm, the sound muffled against Jace’s lips.
As she floated down to earth, she realized Marcus still knelt between her legs bestowing soft flicks against her sensitive flesh. She must have made some sound, because he withdrew with one last farewell nuzzle and stood. Jace broke off his kiss and stood as well.
Devi looked up at them from her position on the table. She couldn’t bring herself to care about what kind of picture she made, with her skirt crumpled around her waist and sweat dampening her hairline. “That was…very nice.”
For some reason, Jace found that hilarious and even Marcus cracked a smile. Jace slipped an arm beneath her shoulders and helped her to sit up and come to her feet. The dress fell down around her legs. While fully covered, she still felt bare without the panties and aware of her body in a way she normally was not. She looked down at her ripped underwear on the floor. “That was half of one of my only matching sets. You guys didn’t even get to see me in it.”
“Honestly, sweetheart, lingerie’s nice, but we’d rather see you out of it than in it,” Jace confessed and pressed a possessive kiss on her lips.
Chapter Six
Devi slid her hand over the soft cotton covering Jace’s hard stomach, delighted by the way his muscles tightened and jumped, and stopped at the fly of his slacks. The outline of his erection was clearly visible behind the fine twill.
He grasped her hand before she could continue and brought it to his mouth to nibble at her fingers. “As much as I’d love for you to make me feel ‘nice’ too, I’m starving.”
Devi watched her finger disappear inside his mouth. “I really don’t mind.” And she didn’t. She’d discovered she had a distinct aptitude for blowjobs. She loved the power high she received in controlling their bodies.
“I know, but we worked you hard last night. Let’s eat and then we’ll
talk.”
She tried not to feel too disappointed. He was right, her body wasn’t used to such a sex-a-thon. “What do you want to eat? There’s eggs, or I can make pancakes.”
“What do you normally eat?”
“Honestly, I spend so much time cooking lunch and dinner, I usually just grab some cereal for breakfast.”
“You’re in luck, then, sweetheart.” Jace pushed up his sleeves. “’Cause breakfast is one of the few meals I do know how to cook. Have a seat.”
Marcus pulled out a chair and she sat down. Jace’s movements as he put together the makings for an omelet were fluid and competent, and Devi found it captivating. Especially since, in her experience, men stayed far away from the kitchen. Though her father had passed away when she was barely fifteen, she couldn’t remember him so much as picking up a spatula. After she reached adulthood, the men she’d dated just assumed she loved to cook so much she wouldn’t want them to make anything for her.
Who knew domesticity could be so erotic? Maybe she would have Jace iron some of her clothes.
Marcus interrupted her musings. “Do you get the newspaper here?”
“Yeah. It should be on the doorstep.”
He returned shortly with the bundled paper under his arm just as Jace set a refreshed cup of coffee in front of her. Marcus sat down and rifled through the newspaper, pulling a section out and placing it on the side of the table before settling in to read the front page.
The rustle of the paper, the crack of eggs, the steam curling over the lip of her coffee mug. What a completely domestic scene.
Don’t get used to it.
No, she wouldn’t. She rested a considering gaze on Marcus. However, she could enjoy the novelty of it, right? Tarek had been the last man to sit in her kitchen, over a year ago. She did mean sit, since she’d been the one scurrying around to fetch his food. At night she would scurry to fetch his slippers. Devi curled her lip. Just call her Ole Faithful. Thank God, her family and fate, she had seen the error of falling for that man.
Yet another reason not to get too comfortable around these heartbreakers. Double the drama when she got hurt.
