by Helena Ray
“Because I’m gonna have to text you every dirty I thought I have.” Jack grinned as he walked back to the bed, leaned over, and placed a kiss on Anya’s hair.
“Five days,” she said as much to herself as them. “That’s not too long, right?”
Chapter 11
Jack was in a haze. All he wanted to do was to check his phone every thirty seconds to see whether or not Anya had tried to get in touch. It had been five long days since he last saw her in the flesh, but luckily the night of the Marina Andrews concert had finally come. Jack would get to see the object of his affection, to hold her. From the nature of her texts, he was relatively sure that she would accept their offer and become their mate, but until he held her body in her arms and heard her accept his mating, he wouldn’t be satisfied.
Ever since he and Clay had told Anya about their true nature, his ability to block out the thoughts of others had grown substantially. Now, he could push thoughts away with relative ease, and when he concentrated, he could stop the thoughts from flowing into his mind entirely. As a result, however, Clay had happily handed over the reins to the Ninth Time, and now Jack was behind the counter full-time. There was only one spot marring his otherwise pristine outlook.
“Oh, Jack, could you get me your last year’s tax returns? I can’t believe I left them here again!”
And there was the spot. Jocelyn waggled into the store, flaunting her assets for all to see. Ever since they hired her, she had tried desperately to win their attentions, but of course, both Clay and Jack were otherwise occupied.
But Jack had had enough of her bullshit, and now, with a clear mind, he intended to let her know exactly how he felt.
“They’re on the counter,” he said as he walked out to meet her in the middle of the store.
A look of childish delight stole over her face as he stopped in front of her, and she placed both her hands on his chest.
“Oh, Jackie, what would I do without you?”
Jack gently wrapped his hand around her wrists and lowered her hands.
“You’d manage just fine. Look,” he said, his voice stern, “I don’t know what your problem is, but Clay and I aren’t interested. We’ve found someone, and I’m sorry, but you need to stop throwing yourself at us quite so violently.”
For a brief moment, unmistakable anger passed over her face, twisting her pretty features into an unbearable mask of ire. The moment ended, though, and she resumed her innocent, wide-eyed expression.
“What do you mean? I’m not throwing myself at you. I just want to get to know both of you so much better.”
“Please, stop.” Jack released her hands and took a step back. “From what I understand, whatever you’re doing for Clay is nearly finished. We’ll make sure you’re fairly compensated for all the work that you’ve done, but as the front-of-store manager, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
She said nothing but blinked rapidly, as if trying to conjure up tears. He sighed, tired of her overdramatic antics, and walked back to the counter.
As soon as his back was turned, she said, “It’s that skank, isn’t it? The one who was hanging all over you when I first came in here.”
Jack stopped in his tracks and turned, slowly, to face her. This time, the mask was firmly back in place, and he saw that this was no mask at all. He was finally seeing Jocelyn’s true nature.
“What did you just call her?”
“A skank. You heard me. Any girl who would willingly fuck two men at the same time is nothing but a cheap, two-bit whore.”
“Get out of my shop,” Jack whispered, but Jocelyn just folded her arms over her comically large chest. “Get out.”
“Oh, you can kick me out of this shop, but don’t think you can get rid of me.” She closed the distance with two steps and shoved her face into Jack’s. “There’s more going on than you or your stupid Neanderthal of a brother will ever know about. Jack Abbott, I have it out for you, and I will take you down.”
With that she huffed, turned on one metallic stiletto heel, and stormed out of the Ninth Time. Jack shook his head and checked his phone once more, hoping his brother would return soon so they could make their way up to the Woodland Den and their mate.
As Jocelyn crossed back by the Ninth Time, she flipped him off through the glass window. Classy. He wondered for a moment if he should put any stock in Jocelyn’s threats, but decided they were most likely empty. Nothing she said made sense, and Jack worried she was just a poor, lost soul that some man had hurt very badly.
The woman he wanted was soft, luscious, and had chocolatey hair. His mate. Tonight, hopefully, would make that official.
* * * *
The lobby of the Woodland Den buzzed with activity, but all of Anya’s attention focused on the small hand of the clock and its excruciatingly slow journey to six o’clock. For the past five days, a flurry of activity had consumed the Woodland as the snow from the blizzard melted away and they hit capacity with guests in for the Marina Andrews concert. Anya worked fourteen-hour days with only a few scant hours for sleep, but visions of her two men—her mates, she reminded herself—kept her up, aroused, and trading dirty text messages with both Clay and Jack.
The minute hand on the clock over the reception desk inched closer to six. Only two more minutes now. Anya looked around to find something to busy herself, but everything she could find to do would require far more than two minutes, and she was most certainly unwilling to spend a second longer than necessary at work. The instant she was freed from her duties, she would steal to her room to get ready for the concert.
Much as she enjoyed Marina Andrews, Nashville’s latest country starlet, she was really looking forward to what would happen after the concert. Jack and Clay would be up at the Woodland as soon as they could after the Ninth Time closed at six, and they would all attend the concert together, along with the majority of Savage Valley’s population.
Then afterward…
Aunt Cora walked through the lobby, and Anya quickly flung open the reservation book and began scribbling with pencil over some unfortunate family’s reservation.
“Anya, honey, do you have a problem with the Joneses?” Aunt Cora asked as she walked behind the reception desk and studied her furious scribbling. “Because you’ve just about obliterated their reservation for December.”
“Oh, did I?” she said, feigning innocence. Five fifty-nine. She just needed to keep this going for another minute and she would be free.
Her aunt studied her for a long moment. “You’re looking a little stressed out. You’ve been working ’round the clock. Go ahead and take some time to—”
“Thanks! Bye, Aunt Cora.” Anya cut off her words as she simultaneously kissed her aunt on the cheek and unclipped her nametag.
“Honey, what are you—”
Once more, Aunt Cora’s words faded away as Anya disappeared through the lobby to the staff quarters. In record time, she made it to her room, throwing open the door to the small closet and digging through her clothing.
Tonight was the night. Clay and Jack had given her time to think about whether or not she wanted to be with them, but her answer came to her before they had even asked. After years spent lusting after Clay, she finally got the opportunity to lie wrapped in his arms, and that opportunity came with another man for whom she’d already started falling. Hard.
The decision to be with them would change her life for good, but every fiber of her being knew it was what she wanted, even with the ramifications. She wasn’t the woman she had been even a few weeks earlier. Everything that had happened had changed her, and suddenly, the idea of being tied to Savage Valley forever didn’t even scare her. In fact, it thrilled her.
A certain word started buzzing around the back of her mind, a word that had escaped Jack’s lips once, and when she was completely honest with herself, she wanted to hear it again every single day.
As she studied her wardrobe once more, racking her brain over the grave decision of what to wear that
evening, a knock sounded on her door. It couldn’t be Jack and Clay yet, could it? She looked at the clock next to her bed. 6:01. It would be impossible for even the two of them working together to close the shop and get up to the Woodland that fast, wouldn’t it?
She carefully walked over to her door and peered through the peephole. When she saw who it was, she flung the door open with gusto and leapt into his arms.
“Kenny! What on earth are you doing here, you crazy, wonderful man?”
“You know how crazy I am about Marina Andrews. Did you really think I’d miss an opportunity to see my favorite country singer and my favorite assistant coach ever?”
Assistant coach. Right. As thrilled as she was to see her best friend, his words dented the high she had been riding after making her plans for the weekend.
“Come on in,” she said, smiling brighter than she felt. “I have so much to tell you.”
“And I want to hear everything. I just got back into the States today and saw all the missed calls from you,” he said as they went to sit on her carefully made bed. After all, she was expecting visitors later that night. “When are you going to come back to work? I miss you so much, all of us do, and Christopher’s been better, too. I swear, he’s not even chasing the skate rental girls anymore.”
Anya took a deep breath and steadied herself as she prepared to voice her plans aloud for the first time. “Kenny, I don’t think I’m coming back at all.”
“Why not?” he asked, grasping both her hands. “You’re my best friend, An, and I miss you so much it hurts.”
“I miss you, too, but—”
“You’re a great coach,” Kenny pressed, “and if you keep at it, you could be on top of your game in a few years.”
“It’s not my world, Ken. It’s never been my world. That’s what my parents wanted, and it’s something I’ve loved doing, but I really think my future is here. Everything that’s happened since I last saw you, well, it’s made me a different person. A person that doesn’t fear Christopher or skating officials or what anyone will think if I don’t go into a coaching career.”
Kenny opened his mouth to say something but stopped suddenly. He narrowed his eyes and squeezed Anya’s hands tighter. “You’ve met someone, haven’t you?”
She could feel the blush rising to her cheeks and pulled her hands back to cover her face. “Not just someone,” she said, muffled by her palms. “Two someones.”
“Get out.”
“Yup. Clay and Jack Abbott.”
Kenny grabbed her elbow, pulling one of her hands from her face. “Why, Anya Copely, aren’t you a homewrecker? Splitting apart brothers like that. They are brothers, right?”
“Yes, they’re brothers,” she said as she watched her hands twist in her lap. “But, um, I’m not splitting them apart.”
“No,” Kenny gasped.
“Yes, actually. You see, I’m sort of, well…” She took a deep breath, admitting her feelings to herself for the first time as she told Kenny. “I’m in a relationship with both of them. And, Kenny, I think I’m in love with them.”
The smile that split across her friend’s face warmed her heart. “I’m so happy for you. I really am,” he said as he pulled her into a hug. “You realize you’re going to have to tell me about the sex, right? I’m fascinated to hear about how it feels to do two guys at once.”
“Kenny!” she squealed and batted a hand in his direction.
“But seriously,” he said through a laugh, “I’m so happy for you. You really could be a great coach, and I’m not just saying that because you’re my best friend, but skating’s not your passion. I understand. In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you glow like right now.”
“It’s just…it’s a commitment. And it’s scary.”
“If you weren’t scared, it wouldn’t be real,” he said as he stood and headed toward the door. “You’re in love, Anya. It’s obvious for anyone to see.”
That word. Anya’s heart beat faster, but she pushed the emotion to the back of her mind for a moment. “I’m gonna miss you so much, Kenny.”
“And I’ll miss you so much, Miss Winter Sports Princess.” He smiled and tilted his head as he studied Anya. “You’re not coming back to Colorado Springs, are you?” When she shook her head, he leaned against the doorframe, and she was shocked at the smile that spread across his face. “It’s not gonna be the same without you, but I gotta say, I love having an excuse to visit this town. You never told me there were all these gorgeous, rugged men running around.”
“Kenny!” Anya squealed as she rose to her feet.
He simply winked in response then gestured to the door. “Now are you gonna pull some strings to introduce me to Marina Andrews or not?”
“Let me get dressed and I’ll come find you,” she said, joining him at her door. “And you’ll get to meet Clay and Jack tonight.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Now that I want to see. Any two men who could keep a beautiful woman like you interested must be quite a catch.”
* * * *
What idiots planned an outdoor concert in Colorado in November? Jocelyn paced back and forth at the edge of the woods along the path leading from the parking area to the amphitheater. Concert-goers were beginning to trickle in, and she waited for that bitch Anya to walk in with her two idiot boyfriends. This afternoon at the Ninth Time proved they were either crazy or gay, as no heterosexual man could resist her advances.
Her phone call with Ulysses that afternoon had been a disaster. He had insinuated this was Jocelyn’s fault, that if she had just tried a little harder or dressed a little sexier, the men would have fallen at her feet. And even when Jocelyn had tried to convince Ulysses to give her a little more time, that she might have luck with the older one, he had only groaned, and the sounds of sucking had poured from the receiver. The bastard was getting a blow job while he was on the phone with her.
Well, she’d show him. She’d take out the bitch responsible for her failed assignment and for the tarnished reputation of Christopher Birkhead. He had been so busy handling the press from that bitch’s assault that he’d canceled his weekend with Jocelyn, meaning she still had a Manolo with a snapped heel that needed replacing. She dipped her hand into her Hermès bag on her shoulder and wrapped her hand around that detached metal stiletto heel. Oh, but wouldn’t that snapped heel come in handy.
The plan had formed in her mind that afternoon, and she knew it was a stroke of genius. She’d get Anya alone—an easy thing to do in a wooded, mountainous small town—and she’d scare her straight. After Jocelyn was through with her, she would never set foot near one of her men again, and she would make damn sure that the Abbotts sold out to NormCorp.
Then Jocelyn realized she carried the perfect weapon, enough to scare Anya, but not enough to kill her. How many times had irritable, ugly, old receptionists poked at her shoes and croaked, “you could kill someone with one of those things?” Jocelyn doubted she could kill Anya with it, but after she sharpened the heel with her nail file that afternoon, she knew it would be enough to scare her into silence.
And if Jocelyn slipped and took Anya’s life, who would know? No one knew she was still in Savage Valley, and they’d never find the murder weapon. After all, they’d have to perform some sort of Cinderella search for women missing a Manolo heel. In a small town like this? Not happening.
Now, if only she could isolate Anya from the rest of the crowd, she could put her plan into action. Jocelyn would have her reputation back as an utterly irresistible seductress, or someone was going to get it.
And that someone was Anya Copely.
* * * *
The Woodland Den lobby was packed. All the guests who had booked for the Marina Andrews concert were up and about, getting ready for the big event. Anya squinted through the crowd, searching for her best friend. Somehow, she innately knew that Clay and Jack hadn’t arrived yet. Whenever they were near, her body tingled with the knowledge their hands would soon be on her. The absenc
e of that feeling over the past five days had driven her nearly crazy. If not for her vibrator and Jack and Clay’s knack for dirty text messages, her libido would have destroyed her by the week’s end.
Finally, her eyes zeroed in on Kenny’s curly blond hair, and she saw him seated by the fireplace across from Skyler, the guest who had so enthusiastically declared his love for skating.
“I’m glad the two of you found each other,” she said as she weaved her way through the crowd. “I had just wondered if you were still here, Skyler.”
“Well, we did meet that once before,” Skyler said softly, and she could swear she saw the man blush, “but I doubt you remember.”
“No, I think I do remember,” Kenny answered. “Was it after the Champs Camp exhibition? Last year?”
“Yes, yes, it was.” Yup, he was definitely blushing. “I can’t believe that you threw a quad in an exhibition program.”
“Well, you see, at the time, Anya and I were working on my landing technique for…”
She didn’t hear the rest of his words as something stirred within her. Her pussy flared to life, and she could feel her clit pulsing against the lace thong she wore. Only one thing could cause such sudden arousal.
Jack and Clay were close.
“I’ve gotta excuse myself,” she said, turning her attention back to Kenny and Skyler. “How about I meet you guys at the amphitheater in about half an hour? I’ve, um, got something to take care of.”
“Oh, I’ll bet you do,” Kenny said with a wink.
Anya sighed dramatically and made her way back out of the crowded lobby. As she reached the exit, her heartbeat accelerated and her palms began to sweat, not to mention the dampness accumulating on the bare skin between her legs. She had opted for fleece-lined thigh-high tights and a garter belt that evening, and she suddenly worried the evidence of her excitement would drip down her leg.
She burst through the door and, against her better judgment, shucked her high heels and took off on a run toward the newly built parking area for the amphitheater. They were there, she just knew. The throbbing intensified with every stride she took, and she didn’t care if her stockings were ruined. Clay and Jack would probably make certain of that anyway.
