by Mia Ashlinn
“In tight leather pants and a sweater made for a five-year-old?” Shannon asked incredulously. “God, I hope Deke and Adam don’t catch a glimpse of her looking like that or, for that matter, Landon and Shane. Hell, it would be best if none of the men saw her right now.”
“Deke and Adam haven’t claimed her yet, and she doesn’t have a collar around her neck,” Katie-Anne reminded them. “That means they have no right to say a damn thing to her. Seriously, she is just out having a little fun.” I hope.
“Maybe you should talk to her,” Ella muttered to Katie-Anne. “She always listens to you.”
Scrutinizing Sarah further, Katie-Anne decided that was a damn good idea. Part of her thought Sarah was sowing some wild oats, but the other part didn’t agree in the slightest. This Gavin guy and his relationship with Sarah made Katie-Anne uneasy. It seemed odd that neither she nor anyone else had managed to meet the man, even though they’d tried many, many times. The fact that Sarah transformed with each passing day didn’t sit well with Katie-Anne either. The dramatic changes were ones Katie-Anne did not like, trust, or appreciate. Maybe it’s time I run a background check on this bastard.
Katie-Anne didn’t realize that she’d spoken her thought rather than thinking it until Ella said, “That’s a brilliant idea. We need to know more about him. I’m beginning to think either he is imaginary or a complete douche. I just haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Me either,” Katie-Anne murmured. With a drawn-out, melancholy sigh, she gave up on her surveillance of Sarah with her cell phone. Pushing the home button then the sleep/wake one, she locked her iPhone and set it down on the white Formica countertop. “But we need to figure it out or tell our men. Since I don’t want them going ape-shit, I think we need to do a bit of recon ourselves. Then we can involve them if need be.”
“Um, aren’t we being a bit dramatic here?” Shannon asked as she dropped the napkin holder, the metal making a loud clang as it collided with the tabletop. “We sound suspicious, judgmental, and downright creepy.”
“Bullshit,” Jaycee cursed then rounded on Shannon. Maneuvering herself clumsily, she turned around and flopped back into her seat. “You’re just pissed you didn’t think of it first.”
Unsurprisingly, Shannon chuckled. “You got me. This jackass gives me the heebie-jeebies, and I want to damn well know why.”
“Want to know what?” Sarah asked, her voice appearing before her body did. Within the blink of an eye, she was standing by the table, frowning at them. “What are you four talking about?”
“Oh,” Jaycee squeaked. “Nothing.” Waving her head around loftily, she tacked on, “Just a bit of this and a bit of that.”
“Y—yeah,” Shannon agreed. “It wasn’t anything important.”
Sarah stared at them in total disbelief. Frowning, she asked, “Then why do you have the heebie-jeebies, Shannon?”
That’s an easy answer. Katie-Anne snorted. “Because she always has the heebie-jeebies. Our girl is a total pussy.”
“I am not,” Shannon said, obviously insulted. Whipping her head around, she stuck her tongue out at Katie-Anne. “I have a pussy, but I am not one.”
“Girls, girls, girls,” Ella broke in just as Katie-Anne opened her mouth to sass Shannon. “Why don’t we tell her the truth?”
Um, what the fuck? Katie-Anne turned her attention to Ella. And so did everyone else. Predictably, Ella didn’t even bat an eyelash. Instead, she lowered her eyes to the menu lying on the table. Scanning the laminated paper, she ran her finger down the list of foods that the café served. “Hmm,” she said. “I’m hungry. What about you guys?” When she reached the end of the menu, she shrugged. “I think I’m in the mood for a ginormous, sloppy burger that I will end up wearing more than eating. Yum.”
“I think I’m in the mood for the truth,” Sarah said in a shockingly firm voice. “Now talk.”
Whoa. Who are you? And where’s our sweet Sarah? Opening her mouth to speak, Katie-Anne promptly closed it. She didn’t know exactly what she was going to say. She didn’t want to lie, but she couldn’t tell the truth.
Thankfully, their waitress showed up and distracted them with her friendly chattering. After gossiping for far too long and taking their orders, Nikki left them in peace. Or not.
Glowering, Sarah remained unmoved. She obviously still planned to interrogate them. “I’m waiting,” she said petulantly as she sat back down, her body stiff and her demeanor aloof. Damn.
Ever the big-mouthed one, Ella said, “Let’s tell her the truth. I think she deserves to hear it.”
“We were talking about…” Shannon started but, when she apparently couldn’t come up with anything, she just stopped talking.
“Rafe,” Jaycee filled in the blank for Shannon. “We were talking about Rafe. He freaks us out, but we don’t know why. And we want to know. So that was what Shannon was talking about. She didn’t want to say anything to you because she knew you would think we were being narrow-minded.”
Rafe? They think Rafe is going to be a good fall guy. Not likely. He might be handsome, rich, and successful. But he doesn’t have a creepy bone in his body. Freaky, yes. Kinky, yes. But not creepy.
“I creep you out?” a sexy-as-all-get-out, make-your-panties-wet, Italian-accented voice said. “I must be losing my touch with the ladies.”
“Rafe,” Katie-Anne exclaimed with a smile. “You’re early!”
Rafe smiled back at her, his usually somber face lighting up. “Yes, mia tesoro. I am. I just couldn’t wait to see your lovely face.”
Laughing, Katie-Anne said, “Yeah, right. You were just lonely and wanted someone to talk to.”
“I’m always lonely, tesoro,” he replied with an endearingly honest answer. “You know this.”
Katie-Anne rolled his eyes. “The playboy of the art world is lonely? That will be the day.”
Her four friends’ eyes kept hopping back and forth between her and Rafe. They hadn’t been around the two of them together so they probably had no clue that they were always like this when they saw each other.
It was fun to spend time with the man that no one really knew. The dark, elusive Rafe was her business associate and one of her closest friends. They’d entertained the thought about becoming lovers for a short time, but both of them had rejected the idea. Neither of them wanted to lose a strong friendship and a profitable partnership, so they’d kept their time together innocent but enjoyable.
“You wound me,” he replied, a sparkle in his nearly black eyes, “just as your friends here wounded me. I’m heartbroken, and I will have to retire to my cave to grieve.”
“I would love to go to your cave with you,” Ella offered cheekily. “But there will be no grieving just fucking and sucking.”
Rafe threw his head back and barked a laugh. “You are a funny one.”
With a wicked wink, Ella asked, “Funny? Who said I was kidding?”
Shannon coughed. “Micah.”
“Don’t bring up my best friend,” Ella snapped, obviously vexed that Shannon had brought up the sore subject of her love for the man she lived with. “He’s not likely to jump my bones ever. I’m his fucking hag.” Her ire slipped for just a second and a momentary wave of sadness surged then swiftly swept across her face before fading away and being replaced by a phony smile. “It is not in my job description to keep my legs closed for men who actually want to bang me. A girl has to get laid sometimes, you know.”
“Hag or not, gay or not,” Rafe said. “He would have to be out of his mind to not be interested in a beautiful woman like yourself.”
Ella winked at him. “Why thank you, good looking. You’re pretty damn hot yourself.” Wiggling her eyebrows, she licked her lips sensuously and announced, “I would totally do you.”
“Oh my God,” Katie-Anne said. “I can’t believe this. I bring you guys here to tell you that I’m pregnant, and what do we do? We end up making a mess, arguing, and one of us hits on a complete stranger. We are seriously fucked up and i
n dire need of treatment for our conversational ADD.”
“You are pregnant?” Rafe asked with a brilliant smile. “Congratulations, mia tesoro.”
Sarah and Ella gasped in surprise. Or what was supposed to sound like surprise. But they weren’t very convincing. Of course, Jaycee and Shannon did not react—at all. In fact, the only indication they made that they’d heard her were the big, smug smiles on their faces.
“You four bitches,” Katie-Anne snapped. “Can’t you let me have something? First you know about my TL Jacobsen secret. Now you know about this. I have been dying to tell you, and you already know. This sucks.”
“Come on,” Shannon said. “You surprised us with your marriage.”
“Fine,” Katie-Anne replied grumpily. “I’ll give you that, I guess.”
“Besides, you aren’t mad that we know,” Jaycee declared. “You’re just mad that you didn’t get to tell us.”
So true. Katie-Anne didn’t give a shit that her friends knew her secrets. She just wanted to be the one to share it with them. Now the jig was up, and the surprise was ruined. I guess I might as well make the best of it.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ve totally got me there,” Katie-Anne muttered with a sheepish smile. “It is selfish really, but I wanted to shock the shit out of you.” She laughed. “So, how long have you known?”
“Let’s see,” Jaycee said, lifting her hands and pretending to count her fingers. “Shannon and I figured it out at my birthday party. We just didn’t know all the gory details—who, what, when, where, and why.”
“That isn’t entirely true,” Shannon rebutted. “We knew the what and why. Since you wouldn’t have slept with any other men without a rubber, we knew the who. It was the when and where that had us stumped.”
“How?” Katie-Anne inquired, needing to know how the hell her friends knew her last secret. “How did you know?”
“Seriously?” Shannon asked. “You turned down wine for milk. You couldn’t have been more obvious unless you hung a sign around your pretty neck and announced it in every language known to man.”
“Son of a motherfucking bitch,” Katie-Anne cursed, using her husbands’ favorite swear word. “Was I that obvious?”
Jaycee tsk-tsked her. “You need to watch your potty mouth. Our babies might hear.”
“Fuck you,” Katie-Anne snarled with a wink. “So you all knew.”
All four of her friends smiled and nodded.
“I knew when I saw Brooklyn rubbing your belly in front of Lou’s,” Ella admitted.
“And I knew the day after you came home,” Sarah confessed.
Huh? “Wait, what?” Katie-Anne asked. “I shouldn’t have given a damn thing away that day. I was well behaved”
Sarah nodded. “You were well behaved, but you didn’t thump on Leila in The G Spot. Even when she made you furious, you only tripped her.”
“And so?” Katie-Anne pressed. “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”
Shannon smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “Duh,” she said. “I can’t believe I didn’t think about that.”
“Shush,” Jaycee murmured. “You already knew anyway.”
“Bite me,” Shannon returned, “hoe-doggy.”
Jaycee giggled. “Hoe-doggy?”
Shannon harrumphed. “Yes, I said hoe-doggy.”
I’m losing them again. What a shocker. Gently guiding them back to the topic at hand, Katie-Anne rephrased her earlier question. “Why does it matter that I didn’t beat the shit out of Leila? I don’t generally run around fighting people.”
“No you don’t,” Sarah agreed, “but you hate Leila. And you have been looking for an excuse to take her down for years. When it was offered to you wrapped in a box with a neat little bow, you didn’t really take it. So I figured you had to be protecting something or someone.”
Okay, maybe, I was that obvious. Katie-Anne should probably be more frustrated and less amused that her friends had stolen her thunder, but she wasn’t. This was what it was like to be a part of their inner circle. And, God knew she loved being in the middle of this group of women. Who knew a sexless ménage could feel so good?
Chapter 30
Lounging on the couch with his husband kneeling between his legs, Shane stared blankly at the television screen. He couldn’t see the game that Landon had turned on an hour ago. He couldn’t see anything past the lust clouding his eyes.
When his husband had suggested they watch an NFL football game, he should have known better. The Super Bowl had already been televised so this was not a live game, and it was not like Landon to watch a game more than once unless there were special circumstances. Well, this is special circumstances…of the erotic kind.
“Mmm,” Landon said around Shane’s cock.
Glancing down, Shane admired the blond-haired, blue-eyed man mouth-fucking him. His gorgeous husband had his sexy lips open wide and pure carnality creasing his face as he generously took Shane’s cock into his mouth—over and over.
Instead of being intense or fast with his movements, Landon remained relaxed and unhurried. Frustrated, Shane grabbed a chunk of Landon’s hair and held him in place as he turned the tables and face-fucked him brutishly.
Landon groaned, the vibrations sending Shane’s ecstasy straight to his balls. The swollen sacs morphed, going from a decadent prickle to a full blown burn.
Unable to control himself, Shane thrust his hips up and propelled his dick as far into Landon’s mouth as it would go, pressing until his crown hit the back of his husband’s throat. “Damn,” he cursed as Landon swallowed around his cock. “I thought we were, um, watching the game.”
Landon tried to pull back, but he couldn’t without Shane’s permission. Curious to hear what his husband was going to inevitably say, Shane released his grip on his hair and allowed him to free his shaft from the warm haven of his mouth. “Do you want to watch the game? Really?”
Fuck no. “I thought you did,” Shane replied with a knowing smirk. He was tormenting his husband and loving every minute of it. “I mean. You did ask me to watch it, and you did turn it on.”
Rocking back, Landon sat down and rested his ass on his calves. “And you are the one who demanded that I suck your cock for it.”
Landon’s smart ass retort wiped the smile right off Shane’s face. “I meant after we watched the game, Landon.”
“Yeah, well, you should specify these things to me,” Landon shot back.
“You want me to clarify my commands, huh?”
Landon nodded enthusiastically.
“Fine. I can do that,” Shane said, bringing out the dominant voice his spouses loved so much. “Take off your clothes. Fold them neatly and put them on the coffee table. Then come sit on my cock and ride me until I come in that tight ass of yours.”
“Yes,” Landon hissed then added, “Sir.”
As Landon rose to his feet, there was a knock at the door. Who could that be? And what the fuck did they want?
“Talk about bad timing,” Landon muttered.
“I’ll get the door,” Shane snapped. “You get naked.”
Chuckling darkly, Landon said, “Yes, Sir.”
Rather than playing along, Shane got to his feet, pulled his jeans up and around his hips, and left the room. He had to see what the unexpected visitor wanted then get them the hell away. His cock wanted to be embedded in his husband’s hot ass, not dealing with some bullshit visit. And he knew it was bullshit. Katie-Anne was meeting the girls at Lou’s Café for a nice dinner then she had a late-evening business meeting. And all of their male friends had plans for the evening. So this had to be someone he did not want to see or deal with right now.
As he made his way to the front door, he buttoned and zipped his pants with impatient fingers. A second knock floated through the air, irritating him further. “I’m coming,” he hollered. “Keep your pants on.”
Jerking the door open, Shane cursed quietly. Leila.
“Mmm,” Leila pur
red. “Maybe I don’t want to keep my pants on. Maybe I want you to finally fuck me.”
Son of a motherfucking bitch. I don’t need to deal with this or her right now. “Leila,” he said curtly. “What do you need? I’m actually very busy, and I don’t have time for interruptions. Could we maybe talk another time?”
Leila’s face closed up, the friendly expression fleeing and a furious one replacing it. “It doesn’t matter what you are doing. You’re going to make time for me, and you are going to listen. You owe it to me after stringing me along.”
“I didn’t string you along.”
“What do you call it?” she inquired, scowling at him, her normally angelic face taking on a sinister glow that he’d never seen before from her. “You dated me, but you wouldn’t fuck me. The best I got was a few measly kisses when you stayed the night.”
“I’m sorry that I hurt you,” he apologized. He wasn’t all that sorry because he’d made her no promises or emotional declarations. However, he hadn’t been entirely fair to her by letting it go on for so long. Maybe I am sorry after all.
She rolled her gray eyes. “You didn’t hurt me, asshole. That would mean I gave a shit about you. I just wanted your cock and your cash. There are bigger and better fishes in the fucking sea.”
Not feeling so sorry now. “Fine then,” he said, “why are you here? Do you need something?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “I do need something. I want to show you what the fuck you left me for, and you are going to goddamn look at them. The bitch you married is cheating on you and the bastard you call a husband. She has been all along. What goes around, comes around, sucker.”
“Excuse me?” he asked, not even attempting to conceal his insolence. The audacious woman had piqued his dominant side with her arrogance, and he didn’t deal well with people who acted like she was. “What makes you think I’m going to do jack shit after you talk to me like that and order me around?”
Leila flinched at his harsh voice, her bitchy bulldozing coming to a screeching halt. Sighing, she seemed to pull herself back together. “I have pictures of your wife,” she sneered, “with her dear friend, Rafe. Aren’t you just the slightest bit curious about that?” She smiled maliciously. “I know I would be if I were in your shoes. With her being pregnant and all, I figured you would want to know who the baby daddy is.”
