by Ladd,Ashley
He glanced up as Patrick left the bathroom fully dressed and nodded as his friend headed to the door and left him alone with Maggie. His buddy knew that there was something more between him and Maggie and being the gentleman he was he left to give them some time alone. Oh, Patrick had enjoyed Maggie and if Alex and Maggie wanted, he was sure that Patrick would join them again. But for now he needed to make Maggie see that there had to be a next time. He had to make her believe that he was more than a casual encounter.
Her tears stopped and Maggie tried to pull away from him. Alex held her tight and refused to let her put physical distance between them when she was already doing a good job of putting emotional distance between them. He placed his fingers beneath her jaw and tilted her face so that he could see it. She refused to meet his eyes but the watery brilliance along with the tear tracks on her cheeks made him bend down to place kisses there. She was beauty in every way. The woman even looked gorgeous when she cried.
“Look at me Maggie,” Alex coaxed and took the shudder that rolled through her body into his as she finally met his eyes. He was shocked by the look in her eyes. She looked so sad and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why. “What’s wrong baby? What’s bothering you?”
Maggie shook her head, her lips sealed.
“I know that you felt it too Maggie. I know that this was more than just sex for you and I’m not going to let you pretend otherwise.” Her eyes flicked up to his again and he didn’t check the impulse to bend down and take her mouth again. He could taste her tears and they humbled him as nothing else could. “I want to know you Maggie. I want to know everything about you. Your hopes and dreams. Your worries and fears. I want to know that you’re not just a dream. I want you.” He knew that he was revealing things that he shouldn’t but this woman made him give what he never had before.
“I can’t.” Maggie shuddered against him and her chin wobbled as a lone tear made its way down her cheek. “Don’t you see that I can’t let him win? I can’t let him get his way.”
“Who?” Alex demanded and he didn’t care that his voice was rough and hard at the moment. Some other man was causing Maggie’s anxiety and he would take care of that immediately. Maggie was his woman now, whether she realised it yet or not. “Who is going to win? What are you talking about Maggie?”
“He wants me to seduce one of you and marry you. He demanded that I put the company first and do what my duty was.” She looked as if her heart was breaking but she kept his gaze and didn’t look away. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to please him, trying to make him proud. But it was never enough. I was never enough. Because I was a woman. And now I find myself wanting to do this, wanting to be with you. But once again he’s the ghost in the room. And I can’t. I just can’t, Alex.”
“What are you talking about Maggie? Who wants you to seduce one of us and marry us? You’re not making any sense.” Alex was totally lost in this conversation except for the fact that she said that she wanted to marry him. Instead of scaring the hell out of him it made his heart beat faster and opened a place in his heart that he hadn’t been aware was empty.
“My father Alex. The man you met today. The man who ordered me from the room before he spoke with you and Patrick. He wants me to seduce you and marry you so that he can have the man he wants take over his company. And no matter what I think I might be feeling for you, I can’t do what he wants. I can’t.” Maggie was almost crying again and if the shaking of her body was any indication this was taking a lot out of her.
Alex lay there for a moment holding her close while he waded through what she was saying and where he had met her until everything clicked into place. Then he threw his head back and laughed and laughed. He felt Maggie stiffen up next to him and only squeezed her closer when she tried to pull away. This was sheer perfection.
“Your father is Dom Alexander Houston.” It was a statement but he looked down at her waiting for the slight nod before he laughed again. “Oh sweetheart, I’m the last man your dad would want you to hook up with. And Patrick would be a close second.” Maggie started to open her mouth, to argue with him probably but he took her mouth with a kiss again. Lord, he couldn’t get enough of this woman. “Where did you go when you left the room?”
“I went to my office and packed my stuff up. I didn’t plan to do what he wanted so I emptied my few personal items out of the office and took them out to my car. I’m not going back to the office, to the house, or to him. I’ll find a job elsewhere and make a life for myself away from him and everything to do with him.” She had fire in her green eyes and she was making his dick twitch again though he had already had her twice in the last hour and a half.
“Had you stuck around you would have met the two men that your father was waiting for. I’m sure that both of them were exactly what your dad was planning for you.” He laughed again at the look of confusion on her face. “I don’t know why I didn’t put it together when I saw you in the office and he called you Margaret. I should have but I seem to have trouble thinking of much of anything around you. Except being inside you, your body, your mind, your very soul.”
“What are you talking about Alex? What other men?” Maggie shook her head but there was no hiding the shining light of hope that shone from her eyes now.
“When your father found out why we were there he sent us away as soon as he could. On our way out there were two other men there that his secretary was telling that he wasn’t seeing anyone else today. She must have confused us with them,” Alex shrugged and grinned down at Maggie. “But then he surely didn’t hire her for her secretarial skills.”
Maggie giggled and buried her head in his shoulder sharing the joke with him. “He must have been very angry with her. Guess she won’t be the flavour of the month too much longer.” She giggled again and looked up at him then seemed to realise what else he had said. “What were you there for? Why would he send you away?”
“Have you ever wondered about your mother’s family Maggie? Have you ever wanted to meet them and get to know them?”
Maggie’s eyes went sad again as she shook her head. “Dom made sure that I knew that they didn’t want anything to do with me. They never saw mom and didn’t even come to her funeral.” She stopped as Alex shook his head gently denying what she was saying.
“Lies, Maggie. All lies. Your Grandmother and the rest of your family had no idea that your mother was even dead until recently when one of your cousins started doing genealogy and came across her obituary. They had no idea about your mother’s death or anything else. Your Grandmother said that it was like she disappeared when she married your dad.” He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips, just a gentle brush of his against hers. “She wasn’t even sure that you existed.”
”So you’re a private investigator or something?” Maggie asked as emotions rolled through her. She had a family, a real family. A Grandmother and cousins and all that. She had more than her dad. “They hired you to find me?”
“Your grandmother hired us to find out about you and your mother. She wants to meet you but most importantly she wants to know that you are okay.” Alex smiled down at her and she wondered how a British sex god got hooked up as a private investigator with a smooth southern boy. She sensed that there was a hell of a story behind it, one that he would eventually share with her. “So what do you say Maggie. Want to go meet your other family? Want to go with me and see what happens?”
“Yes,” she breathed and she knew that he understood what she was saying yes to by the smile that took over his face. He was everything she’d been searching for alright and now she was going to grab on with both hands and see where this took her. She’d never really had a relationship that was more than a casual thing and would be lying if she tried to pretend that she wasn’t afraid.
“So what was your plan Maggie? Were you going to sleep with both men and then walk away from both of them?”
“Something like that.” She smiled up at him and laughed when he gav
e her a mock glare.
“Well you’re lucky that you got the wrong two men baby. I’m not going to deny the shock of jealousy that goes through me at the thought of you with anyone else.”
“Even Patrick?” She questioned and actually giggled again when he smacked her on the butt.
“Oh, I’m sure that we could persuade Patrick to join us again for the occasional ménage as long as you realise one thing.”
“What?” Maggie asked.
“That Maggie’s ménage is Alex’s too,” he murmured and rolled over pulling her atop him. His cock was long and full between her and she needed no encouragement to mount up. He reached blindly along the bed for a condom and ripped it open. She rose reluctantly off his flesh only long enough for him to roll the condom into place before she took him inside again. “Not without me baby. Not without me there to protect you and make sure that you are taken care of.”
“Not without you,” she agreed thinking that she would never need a ménage again as long as she had him in her life. “Never without you.”
Epilogue
“Where the hell have you been young lady?” Dom demanded as Maggie entered the room. He was appalled that his daughter was in jeans and sandals with a casual shirt. She looked common.
“Why I’ve been busy daddy dearest,” Maggie cooed and it was then that he noticed the rock on her finger.
“So you married one of them. Which one was it?” Dom demanded. He’d of course have to make them redo the wedding vows, a big society splash filled with all the right people but at least the girl had finally shown some common sense and done what he’d ordered.
“I didn’t marry either of those men.”
“Well, who then? Who did you marry Margaret?” Dom could feel the vein pounding in his temple and knew that his face was turning red with anger.
“Do you remember the two men that came into the office the last time I was here? The two that were sent to discuss things with you?” Maggie smiled up at him when he snarled at her.
“What the hell have you done you stupid little girl? Those weren’t the ones you were supposed to entice. Can’t you do anything right? Do I have to do everything for you?” He turned away and moved behind the desk. “I’ll take care of the dissolution. Just tell me where the ceremony took place and I’ll get you out of this mess.”
“San Antonio,” she murmured and waited for the bomb to drop in the room as her father processed that bit of information. When understanding lit his eyes she just grinned and nodded her head at him. “That’s right. I’ve met the family you tried to keep from me. I’ve met them and they’re wonderful.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Your mother couldn’t wait to get away from them,” he declared.
“Because she thought your money would buy her happiness. She learned a different lesson though, didn’t she?” Maggie’s eyes went cold now as she took in the man in front of her. It was amazing what a little bit of knowledge and distance could make you see. He was nothing. And she had spent too much of her life trying to please nothing.
“You’re just as stupid as your mother,” her father thundered as he stood from behind the desk planting his meaty fists on the surface and leaning towards her. She was almost afraid that Alex would enter the room and hoped that Patrick would keep him out there waiting for her instead of helping him into the room. And just the thought of Alex made her smile and release the rest of the pain at having a father who didn’t love her, who saw her as nothing more than a possession.
“No, I’m nothing like my mother, not anymore, and never again. It took me long enough but I’ve finally realised something that she never did.” Maggie looked again at her father and felt a deep sadness for him. As much as he surrounded himself by people and things when he died he would be all alone. And he had no one to blame except himself.
“What is it that you think you’ve learned little girl?” he demanded but the bluster had dimmed and she realised that he knew she was leaving.
“That money means nothing if you don’t have someone to enjoy it with. That life is more than wearing the right thing and going to the right places, being seen with the right people. But more importantly, I’ve learned that I don’t have to spend my life trying to please a man who will never be happy.”
“You’ll regret this little outburst Margaret and you’ll come crawling back to me begging for my help.”
Maggie just smiled and shook her head. “No. I’m doing the one thing that my mother never could. I’m walking away and I’m not looking back.” With that she turned to leave the room barely hearing her father bellowing her name. All she could think of was that just outside that door was the man she loved, the man she’d married after two weeks. As she pushed the door open and saw Alex’s face a smile lit her face from the inside out and she ran to him. This was the life she’d always dreamed of. And to think she found it all in the heat of a ménage.
About the Author
Lacey Thorn spends her days in small town Indiana the proud mother of three. When she is not busy with one of them she can be found typing away on her computer keyboard or burying her nose in a good book. Like every woman she knows just how chaotic life can be and how appealing that great escape can look.
So toss aside the stress and tension of the never ending to do list. For now sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride with Lacey. It’s your world…unlaced.
Email: [email protected]
Lacey loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com.
Also by Lacey Thorn
The Debtor’s Daughters: Faithful Beginnings
BOY TOYS
Brynn Paulin
Dedication
To my boy toy. Kisses, baby!
Chapter One
Dana Matthews stared out the car window at the passing English countryside and tried to tamp down her resentment over this assignment. Okay, perhaps it wasn’t resentment. It was more frustration than anything else.
Since her research scientist position in the United States had been eliminated, she’d been dancing on a taut wire—taking the same job within a different branch of the company, transferring to a new country, leaving behind her husband. Ex-husband now, she reminded herself. He’d been set to join her until she’d discovered a few months abstinence had been too much for him. He’d screwed their next door neighbour, Miss skeezy pants—Miss I’m-twenty-two-and-you’re-not skeezy pants—and tried to claim it was a mid-life crisis.
“You okay, Dana?”
Dana glanced over at the brown-haired man beside her and nodded. Jason Kerzi and the other passenger of the car, Christopher Brown, were part of her problem. Also research scientists, but working different projects, the two were headed to London to meet with the Powers-That-Be and explain the findings on their latest work…something about frog DNA and a cancer gene. She hadn’t worked on their experiments so other than witnessing excited whispers from the other side of the lab while they ran computer models, she didn’t pretend to know what they’d discovered.
Their work had little bearing on her own experiments. Which made her question her presence on this trip.
There was no doubt in her mind, she’d been sent to chaperone the dynamic duo while they met with the big wigs who were flying over from the Former British Territories AKA the United States. It galled her. Why should she play mother-hen to the boys? Thirty-seven wasn’t old, damn it. Certainly not eighty. Surely the twenty-somethings could keep themselves in line for a few days.
This assignment put her last frayed nerve on edge. Not because the meeting would suck up her weekend. Not even because she had to chaperone. She took a deep breath and inhaled the intoxicating scents of her companions’ colognes.
Her tension stemmed from the fact that she found both men unsettlingly attractive. Attractive? That was an understatement. She wanted them both with a lust befitting a nubile co-ed. And she’d done her best to hide it for
the last eight months. That didn’t stop her from alternately fantasising about one or the other of them in her bed each night.
She sighed, hoping neither of them caught her mooning over them this weekend. How embarrassing would that be? Hopefully, they’d get to their hotel and she could closet herself in her room until morning. After several hours closed in this car with them, she could use a break from their magnetism.
Maybe she was going through some sort of mid-life crisis. She stifled a snort. She’d always told her husband she’d trade him in for two half his age. At twenty-seven each, Christopher and Jason almost qualified.
Christopher turned in his seat to look back at her, the late-afternoon sun catching his golden-blond hair. “Are you sure you’re not feeling a bit off? We should be there soon and you can nick a bit of sleep before tonight.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Tonight?” she repeated slowly, looking between the two of them.
Jason’s blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “Yes, we’ve been talking—”
“Plotting, you mean,” she interrupted.
He laughed and her pussy immediately clenched. Her fingers fisted on the seat beside her. Please, God, don’t let them be able to smell how aroused I am. Aroused? Pathetic. What would they think if they knew their co-worker, a woman ten years older, wanted to fuck them? They’d probably be horrified…especially when they discovered she harboured thoughts of having both of them at once.
Jason patted her hand, sending a tremor to her core. “You’ve never visited London except for a brief trip from Heathrow. We want to show you the sights.”
