Diana Finds Ecstasy in the Big Easy (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)
Page 15
She went back to the liquor cart, walking slowly, feeling the heated gazes of them upon her as she moved. Slowly and deliberately she made herself a gin and tonic—light on the gin and heavy on the tonic. She wanted to have a clear head tonight. The deVille brothers were in what her father called “a state,” and she wanted to be there for them if they needed her.
And, God and she both knew, if there was anything in the world that Diana wanted, it was to be needed by the deVille brothers.
“So,” Diana said as she sat on the sofa between them, “do you want to tell me about this family crisis, or do you just want me to be the dutiful lover, listen carefully when you talk or complain or moan about your lot in life, and then satisfy you in bed in whatever manner your current wishes happen to be?”
“Sarcasm is not a flattering trait of yours,” William said. His words aside, there was a hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.
“Perhaps,” Diana replied after a moment. “But it is a trait of mine, so I think we should all…well, if not get used to it, at least get familiar with it.” She put her palm on William’s thigh, holding her cocktail in the other hand. “Let’s talk first, come up with an answer to whatever troubles are plaguing the deVille family, and then—when the troubles are all behind us—we’ll make love so savagely that when we walk afterward, all of us will limp, and when people look at us, they’ll feel sorry for us, but they’ll think something bad has happened when, in point of fact, just the opposite is true.”
* * * *
“I don’t know why I’m confiding in you,” Sam Geary said, looking at Julie as she stood behind the bar at My Place. “I’ve spent my whole life not confiding in anyone. Keeping secrets is the story of my life.”
She leaned on the bar toward him, giving him a pretty view of her lovely breasts. “Yes,” she said, “I’m sure that’s true. But I’m the first woman you’ve ever met who is as treacherous as you are. And I also suck your cock like a Hoover vacuum.” She raised her eyebrows for a moment in mockery. “Treachery and blowjobs…that’s as much as you can hope for in a partner, now isn’t it?”
Geary closed his eyes and rubbed his eyelids. “What the fuck have I gotten myself into?”
“What have you gotten into?” Julie asked with quiet malice. “You’ve gotten into my pussy, my mouth, and even into my ass. That’s what you’ve gotten into. So you’ve got a partner, darling. A partner to the end. Oh, and by the way, fucking me in the ass wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be, so if you’re in the mood for Round Number Two, the word you’re not going to hear is ‘no.’ At least not from me.”
“I need a cigarette,” Geary said. “I really, really need a cigarette.”
* * * *
“Are you sure we should be talking about this in front of her?” Marcus asked his twin brother.
William shrugged and took a sip of his cocktail. “She’s either a part of us, or she’s not. I say she’s a part of us and that there isn’t anything we can’t trust her with. But that’s just my opinion.”
Sitting between the brothers, Diana was distinctly aware that she was suddenly an integral member of a conversation that neither brother thought he’d be having. Women were objects to be treated respectfully, fucked like crazy, pampered like thoroughbred horses—and then discarded when they started taking their place beside him for granted. As soon as permanence was assumed, it was immediately revoked.
She had been on the outside, but now she was on the inside, and that meant all the difference in the world.
“Here’s the story,” William said, and then told Diana about Sam Geary, the senior deVille’s unfortunate weakness, and the potential blackmail that was about to happen.
“If there’s anyone who understands that particular weakness, that illness, it’s me,” Diana said some thirty minutes later. “But if life’s taught me anything, it’s that for every problem there’s a solution, and for every question there’s an answer.” She looked at the men she loved. “All we’ve got to do is be smart enough to figure out right from wrong.”
* * * *
“What’s wrong, honey?” Marianne asked, standing behind the bar at My Place with a concerned look on her face.
“It’s nothing,” Diana replied, lying unconvincingly.
Marianne gave her a look. “Listen, I’m sure there are thousand people in this world that you can get away with saying things like that to, and they’ll believe every sweet word that passes between your lips—but I’m not one of them. We’ve been friends too long, and we’ve shared too damned many secrets for me to believe that there’s nothing wrong. I’ve spent too many hours looking at that face of yours to not know the difference between everything being right in your world and something being very badly wrong. So fess up, girlfriend.”
It’s easier to lie to myself than it is to lie to Marianne.
Diana looked at her oldest and dearest friend and said, “You could be replaced, you know.”
“No, I couldn’t.” Diana heard the rock-solid confidence in the comment. “We both know that. However, I do find it amusing that you’d say something so incredibly stupid while being stone-cold sober.” Marianne put her hands on her hips. “Now are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or do I have to start slapping you with a wet towel and publically humiliate you by telling secrets about you that we have promised to never tell anyone?”
“You’re an awful human being.”
“I’m the best friend you have in this world. Fess up, girlfriend, or I’m bringing out an entire suitcase full of whoop ass, and since you’re barely five feet tall, you’re sooo much smaller than me. I wouldn’t even break into a sweat kicking your ass.”
“You really are awful.”
“That’s why I’m your best friend. Now what’s the story, and you’d better hurry with it because the McGovern brothers at the end of the bar are halfway finished with their beers, and I don’t want them disturbing whatever the hell it is you’re about to tell me.” She smiled. “You’re my dearest and truest friend, but they’re loyal customers and they drink a lot of beer. This establishment likes to make a profit.”
It didn’t just sort of came out. It all came tumbling out like water over a waterfall. Diana started telling her dearest and truest friend about what had been happening most recently in her life, and suddenly, the floodgates opened, and everything came rushing out. Falling in love with twin brothers? Yep, she told that little ditty and did her best to ignore the look of utter shock on Marianne’s face when she gave the details. Having sex with both brothers on the pontoon boat in the middle of the afternoon—or was it making love or just plain fucking?—got brought up, too. Yep. With the sun high in the sky, even.
Diana even answered the very quietly spoken questions Marianne had regarding who did what and where exactly did what go where.
“It gets worse,” Diana said, closing her eyes, sitting motionless on a barstool.
“What you really mean is that it gets better,” Marianne replied. “I want to know everything. Every last sweaty detail.”
Diana hesitated. She didn’t want to tell the truth. After thirty seconds of complete silence, she sighed and began to speak again.
“It happened in the shower.”
“Oh God,” Marianne replied immediately. “That’s not dirty. That’s as clean as it gets.”
“I was standing up.”
“You stayed on your feet,” Marianne said thoughtfully. “That’s a good sign.”
“With William in front of me…and Marcus behind me.”
Another few seconds passed before Marianne said quietly, “Oh…um…really? And they were both inside you?”
“Yes.” Diana took a sip of her cocktail. “Inside me at the same time. Very deeply inside me…at the same time.”
Marianne shivered. Her eyes closed. “I am getting out my toys tonight.”
“Don’t tease me,” Diana said quickly, almost in a panic. “I never expected any of this to happen.” She tried to
take another sip of her cocktail then discovered it was empty. “I…a lot of the time I was on my tiptoes.” She put her face into her hands. “Please get me another drink. I was on my tiptoes every time they….”
“I’m stopping at the hardware store on my way home.” Marianne pulled a paper napkin from the container on the bar and mopped her brow. “I’m going to need fresh batteries tonight.” She sighed. “Tiptoes? Really?”
“Sometimes, when they thrust into me at the same time, my feet left the floor of the shower. I was pinned between them. They literally lifted me off the floor of the shower.”
“Let me get you another drink, and please, my darling, dearest friend, don’t go anywhere. I have sooo many questions for you.” In a very soft voice, she asked, “Seriously? With just their cocks they lifted you off the floor of the shower?”
“I wish I’d never said anything.”
“Details. I’m going to need details, word images, anything you can tell me to let me know exactly what it was like.” She closed her eyes and said, “I’m sooo envious.”
Chapter 15
Marcus sipped his coffee, looked at his three brothers, and said, “We can get help for Papa. Nobody’s going to beat up on a man when he’s as down as Papa is.”
Jared made a sound of frustration in his throat and said, “We’ve tried getting help for him in the past. He’s always fought against it. Isn’t a family feud exactly what a man like Sam Geary is hoping for? He’ll use that with the board of directors and with all our creditors to destroy us. As Papa’s sons, our credibility—our word as businessmen—will mean absolutely nothing once Geary starts telling what he knows. Half our strength relies in Papa’s word as a businessman. The four of us together don’t come close to having that kind of clout.”
“That’s not true,” Marcus said quickly. “We’ll still have our word of honor.”
“Which will mean more than half of the people we want to do business with won’t think Papa’s backing us up,” Jared replied without a moment’s hesitation. “I’m the oldest, and that pretty much means I’ve got the most to lose. We’ve got to get Papa healthy again, and we’ve got to derail Sam Geary because if he starts a rumor that we can’t stop, this whole company—this dynasty that Papa built—is going to come tumbling down around all of our shoulders, and all the kings horses and all the kings men aren’t going to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
* * * *
Diana lay between William and Marcus in the king-sized bed in the antebellum mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans. Their times together—since discovering that Sam Geary was a traitor of the worst order—had been tense. Somehow, though, the loving ecstasy that the three of them shared was undiminished by the bad news the outside world forced upon them. Love and passion, it seemed, trumped everything bad that came their way.
Diana was half asleep, her body still warm from the kisses, caresses, and everything else that the twin brothers had done to her, when her eyes suddenly opened wide.
She stared at the ceiling for a moment, trying to reacquaint herself from being half asleep to wide-awake.
That’s the answer! I came up with the answer when I wasn’t even thinking about the question!
“William, Marcus…you’ve got to wake up. I think I know what to do,” she said softly, nudging the men who bracketed her, their bodies naked and powerful while she wore a baby doll nightie they had bought for her and said they liked seeing her in.
* * * *
“What do you really think of Diana’s idea?” William asked.
“I think she’s a goddamned genius,” Marcus replied.
“We never would have thought of it on our own,” William said. “It’s because she’s an outsider that she can think outside the box. She doesn’t think like us because she’s not really one of us.”
“How perfect is that?”
William looked into the mirror and adjusted his necktie. “Precisely.”
He heard the bathroom shower turn off. He sighed.
Marcus asked, “Is it always going to take her this long to get ready?”
“Probably,” William replied. “I suppose we should just get used to it since she doesn’t really strike me like a woman who takes orders or makes changes quickly.”
“Let’s get some breakfast,” Marcus suggested. “She’s going to need some time, and the last time I checked, whenever I try to hurry her along, my efforts don’t end up well.”
William tossed his head back on his shoulders and laughed from his belly.
“Truer words were never spoken,” he said to his twin.
* * * *
Diana felt a lot more comfortable now that she had lingerie, and the clothes that Marcus and William had selected for her to wear during the “presentation” couldn’t have been more professional. The pencil skirt and matching jacket were black silk. The blouse buttoned almost to the neck and was white silk. Beneath that, she had a white bra, white bikini panties, and white garter belt. Her stockings were black Chinese silk. Her shoes were red-soled pumps from Christian Louboutin. They were black with four-and-a-half inch heels. She couldn’t possibly have been more professional in her appearance.
It was the first time she’d worn a thousand dollars’ worth of clothes at a single time. She’d never even owned a thousand dollars’ worth of clothes at a single time.
Life with the deVilles changed everything. Absolutely everything.
Her confidence was soaring as never before in her life.
They’re just clothes, but I feel like I can conquer the world in them! There’s just no hope for a woman if she can’t feel confident standing in red-soled stilettos.
The men were waiting for her in the family dining room, each with a half-eaten plate of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausages, buttered toast, and some kind of mixed diced fruit that she didn’t recognize.
“There’s plenty of time if you want something to eat,” William said as she entered the room.
Glancing around, Diana saw that there were two servants almost in a sprinter’s stance, ready to get her anything that she wanted. She’d never been catered to, and it made her uncomfortable to have servants attending to her wishes.
“Let’s just get to the office,” Diana said. “I’m so damned nervous I’m not sure of anything anymore.”
* * * *
“Correct me if I’m getting any of this wrong,” the eldest deVille sibling said to Diana, “but what you’re saying is that instead of pushing this traitor out of the company, we bring him so far in that he can’t get out?”
“It’s like what that guy said in The Godfather. You keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. If you pull him in close enough, he can’t get away, and he can’t hurt you.”
“Us,” William said, sitting at the boardroom table, looking Diana directly in the eyes. “When you’re speaking of the deVilles, you must learn to say ‘us,’ not ‘you.’”
Diana glanced individually at the four men in the room. She could feel a warm flush of emotion color her throat and cheeks. William’s older and younger brother showed some surprise at the statement, but not too much. Apparently they’d been talking among themselves, she decided.
“I’m not sure how to reply to that,” she said after several awkward seconds of silence.
Marcus said, “I love you, too, is an appropriate response.”
Diana tried three times before her throat could form coherent words. Finally, lifting her gaze, she said, “I love you,” and then smiled slyly and, with a touch of embarrassment, concluded, “both.”
“Well,” Jared said, hunching his shoulders for a moment and smiling affectionately at everyone in the room, “now that we’ve gotten that little family matter out of the way, what about we all figure out how in hell we’re actually going to put Diana’s harebrained scheme into effect?”
* * * *
“Honey,” Julie said, “I get off in less than fifteen minutes. What about you and me going to your place?”
A meal ticket for the rest of her life was something to be pampered, even if it meant sexual liaisons that were somewhat less than satisfying. Julie felt quite confident that she understood the way of the world.
“Not tonight,” Geary finally replied. “I’ve…I’ve got lots to think about, and I need to concentrate. Soon, though, you and I will get together.”
Julie felt as though she had been sucker-punched in the stomach, but she tried to not let it show. When she made sexual advances toward men, they simply didn’t shrug them off as insignificant. At least, not until Geary had decided to deflate her ego by seventy-five percent.
“You’re sure?” She put her hand over his on the counter of the bar and gave it an affectionate squeeze. “I’ll give you a special night. All you have to do is lie back and enjoy yourself.” She let the tip of her pink tongue do a slow, sensual path over her lips to moisten both the top and bottom. “I’ll make you a cocktail, and while you drink it, you’ll be my cocktail.”