Closing her eyes, Valerie covered her face with her hands. “I am so embarrassed. I probably shouldn’t be saying this to a couple of cops, but I am going to kill your sister.”
Chapter Three
If life were fair, a hole would open and swallow her up.
Then she wouldn’t have to face two of the most attractive men she’d ever met and look into their eyes knowing they knew what a freak she was. Not helping at all was the fact that one was her best friend’s brother and someone she’d known all her life. The nervous stomach she’d developed in the six months she’d worked at TelexCentron was making its presence known, and Val thought it was just possible she’d puke all over one, if not both, of them.
But Valerie knew better than to expect fair. She had a vivid memory of moving from the house she’d grown up in to a one-bedroom apartment when her parents had divorced. The first casualty of the move had been her kitten, Bradley. Her grandmother had given her the kitten to help ease the pain of her father’s desertion before they had gotten the bad news that they would lose the house. And when the only apartment they’d been able to afford didn’t allow pets, her mother had taken Bradley to the pound one day when Valerie had been in school. Her mother’s only response to her pathetic wail was seared into her memory. “Get used to it. No one ever said life was fair.” So it really didn’t surprise her when no convenient wormhole opened up to transport her to a land far, far away.
“Hi, there. Coffee all around?”
Their oblivious waitress had chosen that moment to take their order, and Valerie used the distraction to estimate her chances for escape.
Zero.
Even if she weren’t bookended into the U-shaped booth by Dan and Ty, she hadn’t driven. She had no other way home. Defeated, she tried to make herself small by slumping down under the scratched Formica table.
Ty ordered the three coffees and doomed the unfortunate fry-cook’s hopes for the evening with the dazzled waitress when he smiled his thanks. Val watched the poor thing walk slowly back to the beverage station and counted four backwards glances in less than thirty feet.
Glancing up, Val intercepted a look between the two men. Using the silent shorthand of close friends, they seemed to be deciding something. Whatever it was, the decision was made.
“What?”
“Val.” Ty leaned his forearms on the table and fiddled with a spoon left by the waitress, drawing Val’s eyes to the light dusting of sun-bleached hair that coated them. “You’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about.”
Val snorted. “That’s easy for you to say.”
“Seriously. You shouldn’t be embarrassed.”
The waitress was back in record time to bring three cups and the coffee pot. Somewhere between the coffee station and the table, the girl’s neckline had been adjusted in a southerly direction. Val’s eyes narrowed in disapproval. The girl’s only response was to smile even more broadly and bend a little lower while pouring the coffee.
Getting no reaction from Ty or Dan, their waitress tried the direct approach. “Can I get you gentlemen anything else?” Adding, “Anything at all?” in case there was any lingering uncertainty.
Val hoped Ty’s absent “No. That’ll do it, thanks” shattered every one of the girl’s little hopes and dreams.
Picking up the thread of the conversation as though they’d never been interrupted, Ty went on. “I’ll give it to you dead honest. I wasn’t expecting much from this trip. A little down time and some home cooking. But when Dan showed me your note ... I gotta tell you, girl, you made my week.”
Thrown completely off stride, Val didn’t know how to begin to respond. She’d never had a conversation even remotely like this in her life.
“I never expected anyone to see what I wrote. Suzi, maybe. That’s it.” Still unable to meet their gazes, Val picked up her coffee cup and concentrated on the steam rising from the top.
“I don’t know if I agree. I think some part of you really wanted what you wrote to happen, so you put it out there. The subconscious mind has a way of making things happen. Let me ask you, Val: do you want what you wrote to happen?”
Val chanced a quick look at Dan and then Ty. They were both watching her like a cat watches a particularly tasty mouse, intent on her answer. Part of her wanted to tell them the truth.
But what if they laughed?
What she had written had been her most secret dream for as long as she could remember and something she’d never shared before. Not even with her best friend. Almost since she had become aware of sex. Alone in the dark, with just her and her vibrator, her favorite fantasy scenario of two hot men was a slam dunk, guaranteed big-O. No maybes about it, take that one to the bank. But in the harsh fluorescent light of Bernie’s Chicken ’n’ Waffles, it seemed the height of hubris to ask for two when everyone else seemed satisfied with one.
Val was thinking so hard, she never saw him move. But a warm hand settled lightly on the back of her neck and began making feather-light circles on her bare skin.
“How about it, Val? Tell the truth. Do you want what you asked for?” She looked up and ran smack into the smoky heat of Dan’s eyes. Her heart pounded and she could only manage short, shallow breaths through the lump in her throat. When the hand massaging her neck moved up under her hair and raked lightly over her scalp, goose bumps sprang up and she shivered in her suddenly too-tight skin. “I know Ty and I do,” he whispered.
Do what? Val was hyper-aware of the male bodies that bracketed her -- she was drowning in the waves of testosterone that rolled off them. In a weird out-of-body experience, she floated back and a little off to the side and observed her own head nodding dumbly.
She watched as Dan’s lips moved. Heard him say, “Tell me, Val. We need to hear the words. Do you want us? Both of us?”
Val was an observer of her own body as she saw herself look from a pair of glowing laser blue eyes to a pair of warm brown ones.
“Yes. I do.”
There. The words were finally out. What would they do with them? Laugh? Wink and chuckle, tell her Suzi had put them up to it?
“Cool.”
* * * * *
The minute he’d touched her bare skin, the second they’d sat down and begun talking openly about what had been on Dan’s mind all night, his fire had been lit. This wouldn’t be the first time he and Ty had brought a woman into their circle. Not hardly. But this particular woman had been on his wish list for a long, long time.
What had begun as mostly just hot sex with Ty might have stayed that way if either one of them had been even a little bit different. But from the start there had been an openness between them that defied limits. Like scanning past dozens of radio frequencies while driving through the desert and coming upon a strong channel from a long way away. Looking into Tyler’s eyes was like locking on to a clear station -- communication was immediate. Total.
The sex was fucking amazing. They’d each known from the start what the other needed and gave it without having to be asked. Closer than blood, there wasn’t a bond on earth like it. But there had always been that sense of something missing. As much as he’d grown to love Ty, he loved women, too, and had never entirely lost that feeling. That sense of incompleteness.
Maybe Ty was right and he was just an incredibly greedy motherfucker. What he and Ty had was special, and he didn’t want to risk messing it up. But at the same time, he had the feeling that it could be even better. That somehow they were meant to be three. And that third would be a woman.
Now, when he least expected it, life was offering him a shot at his fantasy. His dream. Maybe he was moving too fast, but he couldn’t stop himself. When he’d first held Val’s scrap of paper with her wish for a threesome, something like a divine vision had opened up in his mind. He had seen, as clearly as a scene from a movie, how it would be with the three of them. And he wanted it. Bad.
Val would be different. Dan didn’t know how he could be so positive. He just was.
“Can I ask a q
uestion? Actually, I have a few, if that’s all right.” Valerie’s softly spoken words took him back to when they’d both been a lot younger. He had never understood why a smart, self-confident almost-Amazon suddenly became so shy when he was in the room.
Dan loved the flush on her fair skin. The way it made the freckles over her nose stand out. The wide-eyed way she looked from him to Ty and back again roused the hunter in him. It didn’t take any imagination at all to picture those same eyes looking at him from behind a web of ropes, big with apprehension. At the mercy of two naked, aroused men prepared to do their worst.
“Sure.” Ty answered and reached out to take one of her hands in his.
“Ask anything,” Dan told her, still making circles in the downy soft skin of her neck and shoulders.
“Have you two done this before?” Val bit her lip, her teeth sinking into the lush fullness of her perfect mouth. Dan was dying to taste her. Feel that soft mouth give way under his.
He leaned in to take his first kiss, then stopped himself, thinking better of it. He knew once he got started he wouldn’t want to stop.
“Done what?” It wasn’t nice of him to make her squirm, but she had to be sure. If she couldn’t say it, how could she bring herself to do it?
“The two of you. And a woman. All three of you. Together.” Her chin came up a little and Dan got the feeling she was warming to the subject.
Looking at Ty who was already nodding, Dan confirmed it. “Mmm-hmm. Several times.”
“How was it?” She didn’t seem repulsed and that was a good sign. In fact, Dan thought he detected an increase in her breathing. Their talk was turning her on.
“It was good. A couple of them qualified as excellent. Ty?”
“Oh, yeah. With the right woman, it’s outstanding. The perfect woman ... off the charts.”
Dan shouldn’t be surprised, but Ty confirming his thoughts that Valerie could be the one they’d been looking for cinched things for him. His own fixation aside, it wasn’t enough for it to work just for him. Ty had to agree. All three of them had to work. But God, if Ty was that into it, he couldn’t wait.
Ty was holding one of Val’s hands in his, drawing designs in her palm while Dan continued to play with her hair and the nape of her neck. Her eyelids began to droop and Val squirmed a little in her seat, even as she drew a long shuddering breath into her lungs.
“Dan, this is going to sound totally stupid to you, but I need to know. Why are you two doing this? You’ve known me half my life and I’ve never gotten the impression I was even remotely attractive to you. Why now? Is this some kind of pity fuck that your sister put you up to?”
Dan swore while the piped-in Christmas carols from the speaker overhead urged the gentlemen to rest merry. Amen to that, brothers. “If this wasn’t a public restaurant, and a family one at that -- Shit. Feel this.” He dragged her free hand down to erection that had been tenting his pants since he’d followed her, gaze fixed on her tempting backside, into the waffle joint. “Does that feel like pity to you?”
“Hey, now. Why do you always get first shot? Greedy motherfu--”
Dan didn’t even acknowledge the interruption. He held her hand over his cock as it grew harder. The heavy cotton of his chinos didn’t allow for much nuance, but the heat and feel of her hand on him had him aching to grind up into her.
“Danny, whoa. Dial back, big fella. You’re not the only one with ideas, and we’ve got time.”
Ty’s voice cut through the fog that was slowly clouding Dan’s thoughts. Looking away from Val, Ty’s gaze reached out to him and he could hear his friend’s thoughts as clearly as if they’d been spoken. Take it easy. Let me handle this.
“What do you think, Val? Would you like to go somewhere a little more private and continue this discussion?” Ty took the hand he’d been stroking and brought it to his mouth.
Dan stifled a groan as Val bit her lip again. Plump and pink, he couldn’t help being reminded of other lips that were surely as inviting. He let his mind wander briefly down the path of what she would look like down there. Pretty in pink, he was sure.
She looked first from Dan to Ty, and finally back to Dan. Val reached out the hand Ty had kissed, and Dan’s went naturally to meet it. Folding her fingers trustingly into his, she nodded and his heart soared. “I’d like that. A lot.”
* * * * *
Ty was surprised when Valerie had been the one to suggest a hotel.
“A hotel? What about your place?”
She had looked adorable when she nodded her confirmation. What would all that red hair look like, finally freed from its braid, wild and loose? Val’s big blue eyes were surprisingly serious, Ty decided, considering what they were planning.
“I don’t think Suzi’s coming home tonight. But I’d rather not have to even worry about it.”
Dan looked away from the road long enough to meet Ty’s gaze in the rearview mirror, before flicking Val a quick glance. Dan kept his eyes on Val so long Ty had finally felt the need to remind his partner of some basic safety. “You drive. I’ll ask the questions.”
From the back seat, Ty reached forward to stroke a finger down Val’s cheek. So soft.
For the entire time they’d worked the undercover gig, there’d been almost no chance for any kind of an outside relationship. He and Dan had had to watch each other’s backs constantly. One call a week to his contact back in the division. Calls to the family back in Cleveland less often. Even the relationship with Dan had taken a back seat -- their cover didn’t allow it. It had been a long, long time since Ty had had the opportunity to really relax and let himself go.
“No other reason you don’t want us at your place?”
Val looked down at her lap. Took her hands from her pockets and sat on them. “No.”
“You’re sure? That didn’t sound very convincing.”
“Are you always this suspicious? If you want the embarrassing truth, my bed is in storage. I sleep on his sister’s couch.”
“No problem. Hotel it is, then.”
Tule Corners wasn’t big enough to support two hotels, so that meant heading back toward the interstate where the town’s only hotel stood watch. As though they had done it dozens of times before, Dan dropped Ty and Val at the entrance of the Tule Corners Inn and Suites to register while he parked the car.
Decorated in a generic holiday fashion, Ty noted with wry amusement the Christmas tree, but no cross. Snowmen and candy canes, but not an angel or crèche in sight. Somehow he hadn’t imagined that political correctness would have found its way this deep into small-town America.
Back home in Cleveland, the annual Christmas Parade down Michigan Avenue was a living, breathing affront to political correctness. The eastern European communities that supported and still dominated it didn’t give one half of one shit about who might be offended. Their Snow Queen was still chosen from a pool of local high school girls and tarted up like Cinderella as played by Harvey Fierstein. The local Shriners group wore their fezzes and rode their tiny motorcycles, and the marching bands were all drawn from the schools in the surrounding area. It was tacky as all hell. Clichéd beyond belief.
God, he missed it.
“It’s kind of nice. Suzi and I didn’t put one up this year.”
Lost in memories, Ty hadn’t realized he was staring at the hotel’s Christmas tree that dominated the lobby until Val spoke. Done in primary colors with glass balls of red, blue, and green throughout, perfectly harmonious plaid ribbons dotted the limbs at uniform intervals. It was tasteful, elegant and utterly soulless.
“No? Why not?” Dropping an arm around Val’s shoulders, Ty liked the way she fit against him. Sheltered. Protected.
She shrugged, her arm slipping easily around his waist and her breast sliding against his chest. “Neither one of us is ever there much. Suzi’s been helping her mom get the house ready for the two of you visiting, and I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime. I’m trying to get some money put away so that I can take time off
next month and look for another job. This time of year, there’s a ton of overtime to be had.”
“Yeah, I know a little about overtime, too.”
“I bet you do. Ty?” Something in Val’s voice caught him -- snapped him out of the reverie he’d slipped into thinking about Christmases past. About the last two years and what he’d given up in the name of his job.
“Yeah?”
The second their eyes met, he felt a spark arc between them -- an awareness -- and Ty’s arm tightened its hold around her. A slender, elegant arm slipped around his neck, and he was tugged downward. Not far, though; Val was tall for a woman. Her mouth angled up as her eyes drifted closed, and then those bee-stung lips were sipping gently at his. A warm tongue flicked delicately at his mouth and one, two, three quick kisses were exchanged before she pulled away.
Valerie let her arm fall from around Ty’s neck, allowing it to flow naturally around his waist. She rested her head in the crook of his shoulder and sighed. “That’s good. This is going to work.”
“You guys starting without me?”
Ty looked past the dark head nestled close under his chin to where Dan stood. The automatic doors closed silently behind him as he watched appraisingly from a few feet away.
“Hey.” He couldn’t see Val’s face from this angle, but he didn’t have to. Ty knew that she was slanting another of those come-hither looks at Dan -- looks that were all the more devastating for their artlessness. There wasn’t a calculating bone in her body, making the sultry bedroom quality that had crept into her voice that much more effective. She unwrapped one hand from around Ty’s waist and reached out, drawing Dan into their circle.
Dan took it, asking, “Are we all checked in?” A look over in the direction of the concierge desk told Ty that the kid who had checked them in must be taking an interest.
Ty nodded. “You bet. Valerie, you ready, babe?”
She looked from Dan’s face to his, a slow smile breaking. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”
Rated: X-mas Page 10
