by Ladd,Ashley
“I don’t think so,” she replied, her voice a bit shaky. “It’s been a long day. You two go party—or whatever you’ve got planned—and I’ll hang out in my room.”
The men exchanged a glance, then each resumed a face-forward position. She suddenly suspected there had been a plethora of silent communication in their small exchange. Great. Now she was paranoid, too? She took a deep breath and tried to remember she was a respected scientist in her field. This lack of self confidence wasn’t necessary.
She smoothed her hand over her skirt, conscious of the few pounds she’d gained since her early twenties. She wouldn’t stand a chance with a guy if she stood side by side with Miss Skeezy Pants.
Stop it! her brain yelled. Her nails dug into the car’s armrest. Good lord! She needed to get out of this car. Shutting down her thoughts, she mentally recited the chemical periodic table by rote. A sense of calm came over her, and she temporarily relaxed as the letters and numbers floated through her head like sheep lining up to be counted on the way to sleep.
She almost forgot Jason and Christopher were with her. Almost, but not quite. Their presence was so thoroughly imbedded into her subconscious that they were never completely removed.
Damn. She was too old for a crush. Or would it be crushes? Whatever. She’d apparently lost her mind.
Forty minutes later, the vehicle rolled to a stop before the Blakesbury Hotel. A uniformed doorman rushed towards them while Dana gawked at the five-story building like a gauche bumpkin. Her company, Cranston Enterprises, hadn’t scrimped on their accommodations. The Blakesbury was top notch.
To her surprise, Christopher jumped out of the car and opened her door. She glanced at his outstretched hand then tentatively placed hers in it. A strange spark rocketed up her arm. What the hell? Her eyes went wide and she swallowed looking away from his deep brown eyes.
Was that interest in his gaze?
You’re crazy, Dana. She glanced again and whatever she’d seen was gone. She chided herself that it had probably never been there. Desperate… Was that what she was? Not good. Perhaps she should visit the bar tonight and find a nice older gentleman to spend the evening with. Yeah, someone more suited to her age might fuck away this idiotic craving over her colleagues.
Sudden confidence filled her and she grinned as she straightened and smoothed her clothing. Excitement trilled through her as her heels clicked on the walkway. Getting laid might just do the trick.
Jason watched the sway of Dana’s hips and wondered how the hell he would survive this weekend if she refused to spend any time with them. Christopher’s arm slung around his shoulder as his friend tilted his head and watched their colleague’s progress into the building.
He released a dramatic sigh.
“Buck up, Mate,” Christopher said. “The weekend’s young. She’ll come around.”
Christopher always knew what he was thinking. Not surprising since they’d been research partners since college.
“Young might just be the problem,” he replied. “I don’t want to fuck this up. Our research—”
“Don’t worry about our funding. We’ve worked too hard to mess up now…besides, no one’s as close to the leukaemia cure as we are. They need our brains.”
They both knew being close was still a million miles away, but Jason nodded anyway. “And Dana’s. They need Dana’s brain. Maybe we shouldn’t go through with this… If she gets pissed and runs, we’ll be on the carpet.”
She didn’t know it, but her research might just be the key needed to break the code he and Christopher had been deciphering for so long.
He grabbed his suitcase from the boot of the car and turned to find Christopher staring at him.
“What?”
His friend shook his head. “I’m just wondering who the hell you are. What have you done with Jason? Who planned this trip and underhandedly got Dana hooked in? Who practically writes sonnets about her legs? Who growls when another man talks to her?”
“All of those things apply to you too. Look, I’m not wussing out…I’m just being cautious.”
The growl Christopher had mentioned rose in Jason’s throat as he glanced towards the electronic doors in the front hotel. Dana stood there, flirting with the doorman—a bloke who appeared ten years her senior. Christopher grabbed the back of his shirt as he started forward.
“Easy, mate. She’s not really interested in him. Look at the way she’s got her arms crossed in front of her.”
Jason took a deep breath.
He knew the plan…there was a plan. Before tonight ended, Dana would know exactly how they felt. And where they wanted her.
His arms fairly trembled with the need to hold her. Be patient, Christopher had advised—damn his minor in psychology. And he’d been right, but it hadn’t been easy. The first moment he’d seen her, he’d wanted her. It had been like a knife to the chest to discover she was married. Bollocks! Then he’d felt like a wretch when he’d wanted to cheer over her divorce. Of course at the same time, he’d wanted to strangle that idiot in America for causing her pain.
Dana seemed to come through it okay, though some of her vibrancy had faded. He wanted to return the glimmer to her eyes. He knew he could. He saw traces of it whenever they spoke…or touched…or he caught her looking his way.
It was that spark which had precipitated this plan. The big wigs from Cranston Industries headquarters, the company for which they worked, were flying in tomorrow for a day, which was why the group was meeting in London rather than the small town which housed the subsidiary offices. There wasn’t time for the cross-country drive north.
Seeing an opportunity, he’d outlined the reasons why Dana needed to be involved in the trip and why her research should meld with his and Christopher’s…not an untruth which made the plan all the more viable.
The thing was…the project was dear to him, but truth be told, his need for Dana overrode all but the most deep-seated of his concerns over the project.
He swallowed as she peeked over her shoulder now. “Are you coming?”
Not yet.
Christopher paused as Jason started after Dana into the building. As much as he chided his friend, he too had reservations about this weekend. Jason wanted to find the cure because his mother had died from leukaemia. He on the other hand had something to prove.
It didn’t escape his attention that Jason was treated as the brains of their operation, while he was viewed as the tagalong companion. What else should a bad boy expect? Despite his attempts at respectability, he couldn’t shake that tag…
Bu Dana didn’t view him like that. He loved her easy, teasing grin. His cock twitched at the grin she’d shot over her shoulder. She was up to something. He studied her sexy walk while he wondered what was going on in that head of hers.
If you’d get your eyes off her ass, you might figure it out, ignorant git.
The car pulled from the kerb and Christopher hurried to meet his colleagues in reception. “We have one room listed,” the man at the desk said to Jason and Dana as Christopher joined them. He placed his hand casually on Dana’s back, the silk of her shirt smooth beneath his palm. He smothered the urge to trace the ridge from her bra with his fingertips.
“Oh for God’s sake,” Dana muttered. “How cliché is that? You’re kidding me right.”
Her breathing accelerated beneath his hand and there was no mistaking the rapid beat of her heart. A quick glance showed she wasn’t particularly angry. Excitement, then?
“There should be two rooms,” Christopher said. “I have the confirmation if you need it. Two rooms, already paid in full by our company.”
The clerk blinked at him, then started tapping away at his computer again. A few minutes later—unfortunately—he supplied the keys for two rooms on two different floors. It wasn’t what he wanted but it was the right thing. Dumb though, because if he and Jason had their way, they’d only be using one room anyway.
Dana turned to them at the lift. “See you tomorrow mor
ning. Shall we meet in the lobby?”
“You sure you don’t want to see the sights?” Jason replied. “It’s not so late that we couldn’t get tickets for a show.”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, you two go ahead. Have fun. The old lady of the group is gonna rest.”
Christopher scowled. Dana was anything but old. She might have a few years on him and Jason, but good lord, she didn’t look a day older. He’d never known a woman to pull off sexy and classy with the flare with which Dana did. Everywhere she went she garnered glances from men, and they weren’t just benders admiring her glossy brown hair in its bouncy cut nor the brand of her killer high-heel shoes. Christopher couldn’t have guessed at the brand, all he knew was that they were hard-on specials. Just a glance at her long legs, accentuated by the spiky shoes, and his cock went to instant attention…like now.
He adjusted his garment bag to hang partially over his crotch. What was it about her that made him want to bang all day—and night—long? He wasn’t some randy teenager. He’d outgrown this sort of nearly uncontrollable need years ago.
“You’re going to stay in your room all night, then?” he asked in disbelief.
A faint pink tinge spilled up her cheeks. “Uh…” She looked away and he knew she had a plan that didn’t include her two co-workers or staying all night in her room. “Mostly. If I feel like it later, I’ll come down and get something…to eat.”
Eat? Right.
Jason glanced at him over her head. Now what? his gaze seemed to say.
“All right, luv,” Christopher agreed, though it was the last thing he wanted. “We’ll catch you later. Ring us up if you’re not so knackered later.”
Jason turned on him as soon as the lift’s doors closed, shutting Dana away from them. “Bloody hell! What was that? I could have convinced her.”
“Did you really want to drag her out to show her Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the Thames?” Christopher laughed. Jason had it bad. He’d never seen him this overwrought. Not Mr. Charming. No, normally he could seduce a woman out of her knickers in five point two seconds—unless her name was Dana Matthews.
“No but I don’t want to spend the night playing naughts and crosses, either.”
Good lord, neither did he.
Chapter Two
A hot bath, some hot thoughts, perhaps a quick but hot finger-fuck and maybe she’d relax. She needed to forget the idea of sex with Christopher and Jason. They were her co-workers, for God’s sake. She might need affirmation that she was still a sensual woman, but not with them. Trouble was, she didn’t really want anyone else, even if it was career suicide.
She just needed to keep this obsession to herself. They didn’t need to know.
Four hours in a car with them was about three hours fifty-five minutes too long. Their presence had seemed to fill the vehicle while their scents…
Their colognes were different yet similar with woodsy under-notes which mixed with their natural aromas to knock her off balance. It was such an intoxicating blend of…man. Her sex throbbed as she recalled it. He ex’s scent had never spurred such arousal. It was namby pamby at best and didn’t inspire thoughts of being dragged up against a warm, hard chest. Or two.
She grinned. She was so bad, imagining both Christopher and Jason at once. Fucking the two of them had been the theme of her fantasies for months and she didn’t reckon that would change any time soon. There was something decidedly naughty about the idea of taking her pleasure with two men…but the fact that they were both ten years her junior titillated her senses beyond reason. She chuckled. In her dreams they could be her boy toys.
Mmm…yeah. Her own personal boy toys ripe for her bidding. She liked that.
Slowly, she unbuttoned her shirt. Her eyes drifted shut as she thought of Jason, his intent chocolate brown eyes filled with passion as he reached for her while Christopher reached for his fly. Jason would be the unbuttoning type. Christopher would be a ripper. Since she didn’t want to ruin her blouse, she went with the least destructive.
His fingers would graze her breasts as he slowly pushed one pearlised button after another through the holes. Her breath caught as knuckles brushed her skin. Her nipples tightened without being touched and suddenly her lacy, underwire bra seemed too tight. A sigh trembled from between her lips as her top slipped down her arms and floated to the bathroom’s tiled floor to land beside the skirt she’d discarded earlier.
Moisture flooded her pussy, lubricating the folds she’d soon caress. Moaning, she cupped her breasts enclosed in Victoria’s Secret’s finest. Sexy lingerie was her secret indulgence and one she’d never fed when she’d been with her ex. He didn’t care what she wore…she did. Now she bought what she wanted and what she wanted was naughty panties and bras. No one else saw them but they made her feel good.
Her cream seeped into the silk over her sex as she imagined her boy toys seeing what she wore beneath her suits. One hand drifted down over her slightly rounded belly. She ran her palm over the garter holding up her stocking. Christopher would kneel in front of her and run his hands over her silk encased legs. Of the two, he was the more tactile. She’d nearly gone through the roof when he’d put his hand on her back earlier. Only a bite to the inside of her lip had stopped a moan and the urge to beg him to slide his hand south.
She did moan now as she tormented her nipple with one hand and pushed the fingers of the other beneath her satin and lace panties. Sensations shot between her breasts and pussy, making her thighs tremble. The muscled in her abdomen tightened as heat coiled in her womb and her body readied for an impending explosion.
Not yet. She wanted this to last. She wanted to be so sated that she wouldn’t think of Jason and Christopher for a few hours. Like that would happen…but she happily deluded herself while she slipped her fingers through her nether curls. Her folds were slippery as she leisurely stroked through them turned on by how turned on she was. She flicked over her clit, shuddering as lightning surged through her.
She jumped as a knock rattled on her door. She struggled from the sexual haze which had enveloped her. Spinning, she spied the white courtesy robe left out by the hotel’s housekeeping. Slipping into the voluminous garment, she tied the belt tightly around her waist and kicked off her heels. The knock came again accompanied by a deep, “Room service.”
She sighed. Christopher. What timing. What would he think if he knew she’d been fantasising about him touching her just moments before? After flipping open the deadbolt, she swung open the door. Her eyes went wide at the sight of not one but both of her companions outside the door. They’d changed and were now dressed in faded, low slung jeans and T-shirts which clung to their muscled curves. Damn, these men didn’t look like scientists…they looked like models. Hot, well-developed models.
They crowded into her room before she could stop them, and Jason pushed shut the door. He held a champagne glass in his hand. She realised that Christopher did as well—actually, he had two glasses and a bottle of bubbly. Where the hell had they gotten that? She’d wager it was even chilled.
“We thought maybe you’d like a drink,” he said, reaching to set the glasses and bottle on the counter just beyond her. Jason’s followed.
She shook her head, her heart starting an erratic pounding rhythm. “Guys, this isn’t a good idea—”
“It’s a perfect idea,” Christopher responded, stepping close so that the space between them disappeared. So did her air. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. The sexual haze returned, clouding her vision.
“And a long time coming…” Jason added, taking her trembling hand. His lips closed over her fingers as Christopher’s mouth covered hers. All thoughts of saying no, all reasons to deny this, disappeared. She wrapped her free arm around Christopher’s neck. Lifting on her toes, she opened for his thrusting tongue while she pressed her breasts to his chest. The thick terrycloth stymied feeling him fully, but it couldn’t disguise the hard planes pushing at her nipples.
“Mmm,
what’s this I taste?” Jason growled. “Naughty, naughty girl. Having a bit of fun were we?”
Dana’s eyes went wide as she realised which fingers he’d sucked into his mouth. Oh man…her drenched folds trembled. This was really happening. They were really here, together, taking what they wanted and what she’d wanted to give them for so long. She moaned into Christopher’s mouth as her eyes closed again.
“Thinking of us?” Christopher asked against her lips.
“Yes,” she replied without thinking. Embarrassment shot through her and she tried to pull from them, but Christopher’s grip around her waist was like iron as was Jason’s hold on her wrist.
“Don’t be embarrassed, luv,” Christopher said. “We’ve wanted you too. Late at night, alone in my bed, I’ve thought of your lush thighs embracing me. Your sweet body pressed to mine while I lose myself in you.”
She felt hands at the robe’s belt then cool air as the garment fell open. A hand splayed over her belly.
“We’ve tried to be subtle. That hasn’t worked,” Jason said, his fingers inched lower. “Now it’s time for hard and fast. Say no. If you don’t want this, say no now.” His breath riffled the fine tendrils of hair at her temple while his fingertips probed just below her waistband. “Say it now, before it’s too late.”
Christopher pulled back a fraction of an inch. She gasped for breath, feeling his heat and Jason’s hand ever so close to where she wanted to feel them both.
“I can’t,” she replied. “Don’t…stop…”
This was insanity. She should make them leave her room. They should forget any of this happened. What happens in London, stays in London and all that…
It could. They could have this weekend then go home and forget it ever happened. She’d wanted a fling. Here was one readymade.
“I need to see you,” Christopher announced. He took a step back and she fought the urge to cover herself. They wanted her, she guessed they should see what they were getting. She bit her lip…would they think she was too fat? Guys like them could have skinny Miss Skeezy Pants types instead of a more rounded, older type like her.
