by Marla Monroe
“What the fuck? Where did that come from?” Kyle asked.
Quinn chuckled. “I was just thinking that when I work late, I don’t get out of bed till noon sometimes. I was just wondering what she did.”
“Don’t know. It’s something we can ask her at a decent time of day next time.”
“Let’s call her now,” Quinn said.
“Fuck no. We just texted her this morning.”
“So?”
“So, let’s not be stalkers and wait until tomorrow.” Kyle added, “After ten.”
“Asshole. There was nothing wrong with texting her when we did. If she’d been asleep we wouldn’t have woken her up, and besides, who would have thought she’d still be in bed at that hour on a week day?”
“Fine, but tomorrow is soon enough,” Kyle said.
“What are you going to do now?” Quinn asked.
“I have about two hours of sanding and polishing the last piece I have up here. I’ll work on that then clean up, so you can cook us something decent to eat.”
“You’ll have to pull me out when you’re ready to eat. I’m at the beginning of a key scene right now,” Quinn told him.
“I’ll toss in a grenade to alert you,” Kyle joked.
“Fucker.”
Kyle walked into the laundry room then returned with the sculpture of a horse that would be the base of a lamp. He spread out a tarp on the floor then set a chair in the middle of it and began sanding on the rough edges of the wood. Quinn was always amazed at what his friend could create out of a stick or block of wood. They were nothing short of masterpieces.
Quinn had actually had pieces in art shows all over the country but preferred working on individual custom-made orders instead. Every once in a while, he’d send a piece to a gallery in California or Colorado, but not often.
He stood and carried his empty plate over to the sink. He rinsed it and added it to the dishwasher. Then he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and saluted his friend.
“Going back to the writing cave. Let me know when you’re finished,” he said.
Kyle grunted and continued what he was doing. Really, they weren’t much different, though what they did was entirely unique from the other. They both got into a zone while they were working, and nothing short of a national emergency could jar them out of it without earning the idiot who dared a beat down.
Quinn strode into the office and sat down in front of his computer. He had three screens. The middle was his work in progress, the left was his character sheet with notes, and the right was the plot line that helped him stay on track. Kyle called it his cockpit. He chuckled and settled down to write. Only thoughts of Diana kept interfering with his process. She was pretty with a rocking body. He loved the way her eyes had lit up when Quinn had asked for her number. Yeah, it had probably been shock, but they’d looked amazing.
Though he’d only caught a quick glimpse of her body, he could tell she had curves for days. He’d been much too preoccupied with her generous breasts. They looked to be a good handful. Perfect.
He shook his head and drew in a deep breath, intent on getting back into his writing. It wasn’t easy since she kept filling his head throughout the afternoon, but finally he immersed himself in his book and thoughts of her drifted to the back of his mind.
Despite that when he came up for air and a second bottle of water, he wondered what she was doing for the third time that day. Uppermost in his mind was if she’d thought of them at all when he’d been thinking of her off and on since they’d texted with her. Wouldn’t it suck if she wasn’t the least bit interested in them? Quinn frowned. That thought colored his writing until Kyle interrupted him to tell him he was ready for dinner. Quinn resisted throwing his water bottle at the man.
Barely.
Chapter Four
Yowl.
Diana sighed and watched as Felicity carried in one of her huge rat toys, growling around the thing. She dropped it on the floor at Diana’s feet and began to tear at it with her claws as she yowled and growled before finally settling down to lick her paws.
“Finished killing it now, girl? I can’t concentrate when you’re busy disemboweling your toys.”
She hadn’t known that Bengals were known for their high energy and loud yowling when she’d adopted the cat. Felicity would run through the house at top speed, sounding like a herd of elephants, then go into killer mode and attack her toys as if they were live animals. She wasn’t the least bit interested in the smaller toys. No, she had to have eight-inch rats to play with. So far, they’d been through five since she’d moved to Cozy.
At first Diana had tried sewing them back together, but soon got tired of that. Now she bought them in bulk and kept them hidden until the one Felicity was playing with got too raggedy to keep. Then she’d leave a new one somewhere for the cat to find and hunt.
Still, despite her loudness and random sprints around the house, Diana loved the cat. Like now that she’d finished catching and killing her prey, Felicity jumped up to circle her bed several times then settled in for a long nap. Diana ran her hand down the cat’s back several times then settled in to hopefully get some work down.
Just as she got back into the book, her phone rang. She started to ignore it then thought it might be one of the guys she’d met and grabbed it, answering before she checked to see who it was.
“Hello.”
Silence.
“Hello?”
Still nothing but silence. Diana looked at the phone to see if she’d been disconnected but found that she hadn’t. Then she checked the phone number to see if she recognized it, but it was a private number that didn’t show up. She hit End and replaced the phone next to her keyboard with a shrug.
She’d been writing for about an hour when it rang again. This time she checked the number, and again it was a private number. She didn’t bother to answer. Instead, she hit End and switched it to vibrate, so it wouldn’t jar her out of her writing mode.
Though she was intent on finishing the scene she was writing, the buzz of the phone sent a shiver of worry down her spine like icy fingers plucking at nerves. She refused to check the phone and tried to ignore the buzzing as she pressed on with the book. No doubt she’d be doing some heavy editing in this section the next day.
Finally, the buzzing stopped and didn’t resume the rest of the afternoon. Diana stopped around six that evening and fixed a light dinner of grilled chicken salad. She poured a glass of wine in hopes it would help her settle down.
As if picking up on Diana’s nervousness, Felicity chattered off and on the rest of the evening while bumping her head against Diana’s arm for scratches. The big cat stretched out from the far arm of the couch to where Diana sat and made biscuits against her leg.
He can’t know where I am. I moved without leaving a forwarding address. I don’t even call my friends with my personal cell phone. I use an over-the-counter cheapo phone to keep in touch. How can he know my new number? The only people who know that number are my agent and my publisher. And now Quinn and Kyle. What had possessed her to give them that number?
It hit her that the calls hadn’t started until she’d met Quinn and Kyle. Could one of them be behind them? She checked through her phone for the last few numbers dialed, but none of them had been from the guys. All had been that private number.
Memories of that night swam up to crash over her like a giant wave. The knife and the man’s face covered with nylon swam as she fought to break free of them. He’d called her by her pen name and claimed that she was his special woman. The one made for him. He’d smoothed down her hair then ran his lips up and down her cheek before biting her ear so hard she’d been sure he’d bitten through it.
Diana swallowed past the thick knot in her throat threatening to choke her. It was all in the past. He couldn’t hurt her here. She was safe.
But was she? Had he found her?
The memory of his tongue sliding down her neck to her collarbone sent shivers all over he
r as she fought to break free of it. She refused to give him the power to paralyze her again. She wouldn’t think about him. She wouldn’t.
Grabbing her e-reader, Diana powered it on and searched through the books to find one she was sure would capture her attention and keep it. She went to one of her auto-buy authors and pulled up the latest book and dove in.
Several hours later, she felt sufficiently distracted that she could go to bed. It was almost midnight, so she was actually getting into bed at a decent hour for a change. She closed her eyes and willed herself not to dream.
* * * *
Diana relaxed in her chair as she gazed out the back at the snow where a pair of birds where making short work of the handful of crumbs she’d thrown out after breakfast. She enjoyed watching them flit from one branch to another before diving in to grab a morsel of food. She didn’t know what kind of birds they were, but she liked watching them. She needed to get a birdfeeder and some birdseed the next time she went to town.
She sipped her morning hot chocolate and relaxed. For once she hadn’t had any dreams even after the disturbing phone calls of the day before. Once she’d finished her hot chocolate, Diana grabbed a bottle of water and walked into her office to get to work. First, she read through what she’d written the day before and edited it. Then she’d jump in and start writing the next chapter.
As she’d thought, she’d ended up doing a lot of editing on the parts after the phone calls. It bothered her that she’d let a simple wrong number upset her. She was sure that all it had been. By the time she made it to the end of that chapter, Diana was ready to write once more.
Felicity jumped up on the desk and settled into her bed but laid one paw across the keyboard to get Diana’s attention.
“What, cat?” she asked with a sigh.
Yowl.
“What? Your food bowl is full. I checked.”
Felicity just stared at her. Diana scratched her between the ears then smoothed down her fur along her back. Finally the cat removed her paw and cuddled down in her bed and closed her eyes.
“Crazy cat.”
Diana read over her notes then started writing, intent on getting to the end of a chapter before she took a break for lunch.
At a quarter after one, she came up for air and realized that it was later than she’d expected, but then she’d finished the chapter she’d started and had driven on into the next one while her creative juices were flowing. Now her tummy was griping about its juices needing food.
She stood and stretched, staring at the still dozing cat. She swore the feline slept at least twenty out of every twenty-four hours. Books said it was only about sixteen, right. They hadn’t met Felicity. The cat had only two speeds. Full throttle or dead to the world.
Shaking her head, Diana padded into the kitchen and pulled out a can of soup. She’d have soup and crackers. Maybe a chunk of cheese. It didn’t take long to heat it up, and she was sitting at the table with her meal.
Her phone buzzed once on the table. She hesitated then swallowed and picked it up. She smiled. It was a text from Quinn.
Quinn. Hey, whatcha up to?
Diana. Eating lunch.
Quinn. Little late isn’t it?
Diana. Was busy. Now I’m hungry.
Kyle. Don’t judge, man. You didn’t get up till almost noon today. You’re on breakfast.
Diana. I should have texted you at ten this morning.
Quinn. Wouldn’t have bothered me. Love hearing from you.
Kyle. Don’t believe him. He yelled at me when I told him what time it was.
Quinn. You’re not Diana.
Kyle. Thank fuck. I look silly in heels.
Diana. You guys are a hoot.
Quinn. What are you doing today?
Diana. Working. What about you guys?
Quinn. Same.
Kyle. Working.
Diana. Well, I better get back to work myself. Talk to you later.
Quinn. Have a good day.
Kyle. Check with you later.
Diana smiled. They were fun. She wasn’t sure what kind of relationship this was called, but she enjoyed it. Nothing too serious, so no pressure. Would it continue, or would they eventually want to go out? Did she want to go out with one of them, and which one would it be? She shook her head. There was no need to think about that right then. She’d worry about that when or if it happened. Right now, she’d enjoy the quick texts.
The day passed quickly for her. She made a good bit of headway into the new book. She was waiting to hear from her publisher concerning the book she’d sent in the day before. It had been a fast book, but Diana was certain it would be okay. There might be more edits to go through when she got it back, but she was positive they’d like it. Her publisher had been adamant that she’d get a fast turnaround on the edits since they’d have to hurry to get it ready for publishing to stay on track.
It was Friday, and though Diana still wrote on Saturdays, she only wrote for half the day, choosing to do housework and read the rest of the day. Though there were times she enjoyed writing over the weekend, she tried to keep at least one day for chilling out. She didn’t want to burn out. That could easily happen if she pushed herself too much.
By the time she’d finished her current chapter, she was stiff and hungry. She’d skipped dinner again, and it was nearly time for bed once more. She ate some cheese and crackers then took a long decadent bath with her favorite bath fizzes and leaned back with a glass of wine.
I wonder what Kyle and Quinn are doing? Are they already in bed or do they stay up late?
She sighed. She shouldn’t be thinking about them. She barely knew them and had only seen them in person one time. Well, okay, she’d seen Kyle twice, but both times had been quick. What was it about them that she couldn’t stop thinking about them? They were good looking, but it was more than that. They’d been fun and interesting. They had a good relationship if their texts were anything to go by.
Again, she wondered if they were a couple with how close they seemed to be. It didn’t bother her if they were, but she couldn’t help but wonder where she fit into all of that since they seemed to be pursuing her.
Are they just flirting or are they serious about getting to know me? What does “getting to know me” mean to them? She wanted to get to know them because they were handsome and interesting.
Diana unplugged the tub and climbed out, dragging a towel over her skin to dry it then applying lotion and climbing in bed after pulling on a sleep shirt. In the winter she wore shirts to bed, but in the summer, she tended to sleep nude. She debated getting up and pulling on socks, but decided she’d be fine. The electric blanket was warm enough.
It didn’t take her long to fall asleep. This time when she dreamed, it wasn’t of her past—it was of the two men who’d wheedled their way into her life with silly texts and their cute good looks.
Warm, firm hands stroked her skin as soft lips pressed along her neck on both sides. She opened her eyes and hummed her approval as the two men lying on either side of her caressed and kissed every part of her body. Quinn nibbled around her jaw to suck a spot low on her neck near her collarbone. Kyle palmed her breast then closed his hot, wet mouth over the nipple to suck. She moaned at the delicious feel of their hands and mouths on her. It had been a long time since she’d been with a man.
And two men?
Never.
Quinn licked his way down her chest before sucking hard on the opposite nipple, making her writhe between them. It felt so good. So deliciously naughty to have two men loving on her body. She buried her fingers in their hair, massaging their scalps as they sucked and nipped and even bit at her breasts and nipples. It felt so good. So very good.
“Please,” she whimpered.
“Soon,” Kyle said.
Quinn reached over and took her other breast from Kyle’s hands and began loving on both at the same time. Kyle moved down her body with his mouth and hands until he was gently kissing and nipping at her inner thi
ghs. He rose over her for an instant and sucked on a particularly sensitive spot low on her belly near the crook of her thigh, then he was back to nibbling at her inner thighs while spreading her legs wide, so he could fit between them with his broad shoulders.
When he licked up her slit, she nearly came off the bed with surprise. Yes, she’d known he was heading in that direction, but it had been so out of the blue that she startled. Then he did it again, and she could only moan with need. More. She needed more.
And he gave it to her.
He licked her pussy lips then sucked on them before slowly spreading them wide and licking up the inner walls of her cunt. When he entered her with one finger and slowly pumped it in and out of her, she nearly came unglued. She needed him to fill her with his cock, not his fingers. She wanted it all.
He chuckled between her legs as if he knew she was desperate for his dick. He thrust the digit in and out of her quivering cunt before lapping over her clit a few times and replacing the single finger with two. Finally she had something she could work with. Still, it wasn’t enough. She wanted more.
While Kyle tormented her with his mouth and fingers, Quinn had been sucking and molding her breasts until she was squirming beneath him. He laughed and sucked hard on one nipple so that she groaned and lifted up to follow his mouth when he let go with a soft pop.
“What do you want, Diana?” he asked.
“More. I need someone to fuck me,” she said.
Diana had never been so demanding in bed before. He grinned and looked down to where the other man was tonguing her clit just enough to make her need to scream.
“More than that?” he asked.
“Yes!” she all but screamed.
“Give her what she needs, Kyle.”
Kyle only grunted, but next he was thrusting hard in and out of her wet pussy and his tongue lapped at her clit before sucking hard on it as Quinn bit down on one nipple and tugged hard on the other one.
Diana came apart, screaming as she climaxed harder than she ever had before. She didn’t think she’d ever come down from the amazing high they’d driven her to. Then she woke up, and the dream dissipated as if it had never been. She panted with the effort to regain control of her breathing. She was squeezing handfuls of covers between clenched fists so hard her hands ached with the effort. Slowly she relaxed them and groaned at the burn as she did.
