Deliciously British

by Scarlett Avery

  It doesn’t take long for Ethan to stop in front of a door. Xander steps forward and slides the plastic card the bodyguard gave him inside the slot. He turns the handle and enters the room. Ethan follows. He pushes the door with one hand and drags me behind him until we reach a small granite counter set in the right corner. This looks like a mini-kitchen.

  When they said room, this isn’t what I envisioned. This place is larger than the shoebox apartment I lived in for four months when I moved to New York City before finding a roommate. “Wow,” I let out as I walk around the room, taking in what resembles a small elite executive condo. Across from the counters, there’s a long white leather couch, a couple of modern chairs at its side and a low glass table weighed down by a large silver bucket topped with ice and bottles of champagne. Next to it, there’s a long tray of scrumptious-looking desserts. When I look up, I notice a glass bar cart stocked full with alcohol. The museum-like art adorning the walls doesn’t go unnoticed. Neither do the thick dark gray curtains drawn over a long window. “This is magnificent,” I marvel.

  I haven’t forgotten their presence, but suddenly I feel two pairs of eyes weighing on me. I turn around to face the two men who lured me here. When did they have time to strip out of their jackets? I take in the delineation of their muscular mass under their perfectly fitted shirts. Xander’s white shirt compliments his buff physique, while Ethan’s black shirt makes him look dangerously hot. They’re devouring me from head to toe. God. These two are seriously fit. I shrill with joy inside at the thought that men who look like this find me attractive. I’m so overwhelmed, I look away for a brief moment, hoping to find my bearings. When my eyes meet theirs again, I smile nervously.

  Xander and Ethan’s only response is a half grin. Right on tempo and in one fluid motion they take a step forward. They’re now standing in front of me. Although I’m fully clothed, it doesn’t feel that way. It’s as if I’m as naked as the day I was born. They’re staring at me with such intensity in their gaze, it’s like they have the power to see right through me. It’s intoxicating and a little intimidating at the same time. Men simply don’t look at me that way. Certainly not gorgeous and very desirable hunks like these two. Honestly, right now, I feel like I’ve just walked through the gates of Heaven and God is saying, “For tonight, Delilah, I’ve selected two of my finest specimens. Enjoy. And oh, this all goes away in a few hours. Don’t blink or you’ll miss all the fun.”

  Most women would clamber over each other ready to knife anyone they need to in order to capture the attention of men like these. Yet here they are with me. I swallow hard. There are so many questions colliding in my head right now. I know I came here of my own accord, but standing here feeling so vulnerable, I start to doubt myself. My temporary burst of self-confidence evaporates like mist under the warm early morning rays. I’m still not sure what’s going on. Or perhaps I’m not willing to read the obvious signs.

  “Drop your handbag. Make yourself comfortable,” Ethan suggests. I obey. I walk to a plush velvety grey chair and drop my small bejeweled clutch. For an inexplicable reason, I step back to where I was standing. “That’s much better, don’t you think?” I nod. “We’ve laid our cards on the table. Now it’s your turn, love.”

  What is Ethan talking about? “I don’t understand.”

  “What do you think of me? Do you like me?” His question startles me.

  My eyes go wide. “You want me to answer that?”

  He nods. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t ask.” There’s not a hint of humor on his face.

  How do you tell a man you’ve been infatuated with for the last three weeks how you feel about him? “I do like you.” It’s much more than that, but I’m not sure I want to compromise myself any further than this.

  He takes a step forward. “Are you attracted to me?”

  Are you kidding me? My eyes shift to Xander’s to find out if this is a joke, but his eyes are as veiled with lust as Ethan’s. “Look at you,” I say, waving at the smoking hot man wearing stylish clothing. Just like Xander, he isn’t wearing a tie. “You’re gorgeous, smart, charming, fun, elegant, eloquent and the list goes on.” And on, and on, and on.

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” he presses. “I didn’t ask for my qualities—although I’m quite flattered by the list. Let me try another approach.” The man is relentless. “Do you want me?”

  His question is so bold it silences me for a few seconds. He’s just staring at me, waiting for an answer. Xander has his eyes on me as well. His sly smile and the way his hands dig in his pockets in such a nonchalant way lets me know he has no intentions of rescuing me.

  I shift my attention back to Ethan. “I don’t know if you know this, but I don’t have a model-like body.” I know he has eyes, but the fact that a demigod like him would ask that question makes me wonder if he sees me. All of me. “I have lumps and bumps—in fact, I have a lot of them. My hips are wide. My breasts can get in the way because they’re huge, heavy and they hang when I’m not wearing a bra. Most times, I think they have a mind of their own. I don’t know what a thigh gap is. My thighs have been rubbing against each other for as long as I can remember. Flat abs are foreign to me. I have a soft stomach. And with the size of my butt, you’ll never catch me squeezing in a pair of skinny jeans. Ever. I’m not a size twelve or even fourteen.” I oscillate between a sixteen and a size eighteen. After Paul showed his true colors, I hit an all-time low and plunged into a spell of self-doubting depression where nothing I owned fitted. I had to go up to a size twenty. I wouldn’t call it a broken heart because I wasn’t in love, but I still medicated myself with food. “I’m a big girl.” There. I laid it all on the line.

  Growing up in Austin, I was never so self-conscious of my body. In fact, I was okay with what was reflected back at me in the mirror. There are tons of women who have as many curves as I do back home. Not to mention, I’m as curvy as my mom, my Nana Ruby Mae and most of my aunts and cousins on my mom’s side.

  When I moved to California to go to college, I became aware I didn’t look like a lot of the girls around me. New York was my wake-up call. That’s when it hit home—when you’re as big as I am, men tend to dismiss you or ignore you altogether. Either way, it hurts. And I’m talking about guys who don’t look half as good as Ethan or Xander. I know what Gemma said about Londoners’ preferences for women who aren’t stick figures, but after hearing about their superstardom, I’m not so certain she has the full scoop on Ethan. I’m sure he and Xander had their fair share of women with perfect bodies—I’m sure they still do.

  Yes, my old insecurities are sneaking out of the shadows and taking over, but I can’t help it. There’s no way I’m good enough for men who don’t have to settle and I know it. It’s my job to snap them back to reality. If they’re going to let me down gently, I’d rather they’d do it now and spare me the humiliation of doing it after they’ve seen me naked.

  “And that’s a problem how?” Ethan’s answer stuns me.

  Xander is the one to tackle my concerns head on. “Ethan and I share very similar taste in women. If you were a wafer-thin size nothing with a body that looks like it belongs to a teenage boy, we wouldn’t have given you a second glance. Skinny, emaciated bodies bore us to tears. Your outrageous curves are what my wet dreams are made of. I could gorge on them for days without ever needing a rest. And I know it’s the same for my best friend.”

  “It is, mate,” Ethan confirms.

  “Really?” The compliment, spoken with such certainty, floods me with delight.

  “Absolutely, Delilah,” Xander affirms. I can’t help but smile. As far as I’m concerned, this night is going down in history.

  “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me ask you that question again.” Ethan doesn’t back off. “I want to know if I turn you on half as much as you do me. Do you want to kiss me? Do you want my hands all over you? Do you want my mouth between your legs? Do you want me pressing my cock against you like I did on the dance floo
r? Do you want my fingers playing with your wetness? Do you want me to fuck you? That’s what I want to know, Delilah.” Oh. My. God. Can he be more direct? No one has ever asked me these questions point blank. Ethan doesn’t tiptoe, he barges right in.

  I draw in a long breath, desperate to slow down my speeding heart rate. After a few seconds, I feel brave enough to answer him. “I do,” I offer. I want it all. I surprise myself when I keep talking. “I think I’ve been attracted to you since my first day I met you at work. The second you walked into the gallery and smiled at me, that was it. It’s as if I was under your spell. I never imagined you’d notice me. I mean, I didn’t think I had a chance with a guy like you.”

  “You have me.” Ethan reaches for my face and cups my cheek. I lean into his hand and allow myself to close my eyes, relishing the moment.

  A pair of hands caresses my back. “What about me, sweetheart? I know we’ve just met, but how do you feel about me?”

  I pull away from Ethan and face Xander. “That’s the problem.”

  “I don’t turn you on?” He looks almost hurt.

  If you only knew. I shake my head. “No. That’s not it. When you accosted me at the bar and I turned around to face you, I stopped breathing for a second. You’re freaking hot.” He grins from ear to ear. “Your charisma is undeniable and you can seriously charm the pants—and the panties—right off a girl.” He grins grows even wider. He might pretend to be coy, but he isn’t fooling me. “By the time we were done with dinner, I was completely captivated by you. Like that weren’t enough, your dancing skills aren’t that bad either. I guess that’s a bonus.” I laugh nervously. It’s not like me to be this open with my feelings when it comes to men, but these two draw it out of me.

  “Do you want me?” Xander reaches out and runs the pad of his thumb across my lips. I nod. I lower my eyes, too consumed by the way I respond to these two. “Do you also want me to fuck you?” At least Ethan allowed me to ease into things, not Xander. He shoots straight for my heart—or should I say my pussy. I nod again. “So you want both of us?”

  He makes it sound so simple, but it really isn’t. “And that’s why this is such a puzzling situation. I’m very attracted to both of you. This has never happened to me before.”

  “It doesn’t have to be problematic at all.” Now it’s Ethan’s turn to attempt to shrink this mountain into a molehill.

  “It’s not like I can have both of you.” Even Goldilocks had to choose. “Am I supposed to close my eyes and pick one of you? Are we flipping a coin? Are we playing Twenty Questions?” Great. After being in a dating rut since I left Austin, God sends two incredible men my way and now I’m supposed to choose between them. He has a very particular sense of humor.

  “Not at all.” Ethan grins. Is that all I have to go by? Three words?

  Huh? “Pardon my naïveté, but how can that be possible?”

  “We like to share.” Xander’s words knock me off my feet. “Once in a while we’ll meet a woman who turns us on so much the only way out is for both of us to have her.” Holy shit. “We want you at the same time and we can make it very satisfying for all three of us.” God, that sounds incredibly perverted.

  My cheeks flame up. “Wh-what? You want to share me?” The way I ask that question you’d think Xander has just spoken Chinese to me. “This can’t possibly work.”

  “It can.” Xander steps forward and Ethan does the same. We’re back to forming that little intimate circle we had on the dance floor.

  “This can’t be happening,” I protest. “You guys are going to make me lose my mind. This doesn’t make any sense.” I know I’m supposed to be shocked, but to my surprise I’m not. I’m more curious than anything else.

  “Think about it this way. It’s pleasure times two. Twice the attention, twice the fun, twice the tongues, twice the hands, twice the passion… two cocks instead of one.” Ethan’s voice is dangerously low when he says that last part and his panty-dropping stare has my insides coiling. Mother of God. Although the air-conditioning is keeping the room at a clement temperature, I’m heating up so badly, I feel like I’m about to melt.

  A shiver courses down my back as his words sink in. For a brief second I allow myself to imagine the possibilities. My pussy throbs so much, it’s pulsating. It’s been dead silence down there for so long—I mean to the point where you could hear crickets—I’m taken aback by the enthralling sensations. Ethan is waking up a part of me that has been dormant since the ice age. This is too good to be true.

  “You make it sound so simple, but in my head, it’s not.” I guess I said that aloud.

  “It is, love. That said, if you only want Xander, I’ll bow out gracefully. If it’s the other way around, I know he’ll do the same. What you need to understand is that even though Xander only met you a few hours ago, I’ve known all along that my best friend would want you as much as I do. We’ve talked about you so many times that being here with you like this is surreal.”

  “You have?” I’m awestruck by his confession.

  “Yes. I’ve also been taken by you since the first time I saw your beautiful face. When you stood up to take me to the conference room, I nearly had a heart attack. Your killer body was making me weep.” He smiles. “I won’t push you into anything you don’t want. Neither of us will. It’s your call, love.” Ethan is giving me powers I don’t think I have.

  “Exactly,” Xander says. “Either of us would be lucky to have you, but that’s so predictable. What we’re offering is so much more. You get two men worshiping your body and we get to share a sexy woman we salivate over.” Every time they refer to me as sexy or gorgeous my heart skips a beat.

  A part of me is so scared and another is saying, You go, girl. After debating for a few short seconds, I let the good girl have the night off. She’s the one who’s been keeping me on the straight and narrow. She’s the one who’s been convinced she has to settle. She’s the one who stopped believing a long time ago. She’s the one who’s too scared to go after what she really wants. She’s the one who allowed Paul to rob her of the last shred of self-confidence she had. She’s the one screaming at me right now that I met these guys a few hours ago and now I’m about to make out with not one, but two of them in a private room at a high-end lounge in a swanky part of London. I don’t want to be her tonight.

  I look up at the ceiling and say a silent prayer. Nothing comparable to this has ever happened to a girl like me. Who knows? This may be my only chance at grabbing something so extraordinary it will leave my head spinning for weeks to come. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this, but thank you, God.

  I want this, but I’m still a little nervous. “I’ve never done anything like this before—”

  “If I recall correctly, this is a night of firsts for you,” Xander interrupts.

  “In more ways than one.” If my body wasn’t trembling like it is now, I might be tempted to believe this is all a dream.

  “Why not go all the way?”

  I ponder on Xander’s question and can only come up with, Why the hell not?

  “I’m not very experienced… you know, with men.” I feel compelled to be honest with them. I’d hate for them to be disappointed.

  “Are you a virgin?” I blink up at Xander. “And if you are, that’s okay. We’ll take things slow.”

  When you think that cleaning your oven is more satisfying than having sex with a man, you might not be a virgin, but there’s a whole world you know nothing about. I shake my head and lower my eyes. “I’m not. I just haven’t been very lucky so far,” I confess, a little embarrassed.

  “Why don’t we change that?” Xander places his fingers under my chin and tilts my head back up until our eyes meet.

  “I second that, love,” Ethan says. He takes a step to the left. He stands right next to his best friend now. “If you submit to us, you won’t regret it.” Ethan’s half-lidded eyes are hypnotizing.

  “What do you mean by submit?” No one has ever asked that befo
re.

  “It means you let us have total control over your pleasure.” Jesus. My words fail me. Once again, Ethan’s forwardness is disarming.

  “I want to know every inch of your body—where to kiss, where to stroke, what gets you off.” Xander sounds like he’s selling me on the idea. Perhaps my silence makes him think I need a little more convincing. I really don’t. I’m so there. “That’s just the warm-up, sweetheart. Then I want to push you further.” Good Lord. “I want to do a lot of raunchy things to you you’ll never have the guts to tell your best friend.” Oh, trust me, Maggie won’t believe a word of this. “I want to make it so dirty, you’ll never be able to think of me—of us—without your pussy quivering with desire.”

  “Sweet Jesus,” I hiss. The man’s words are so filthy, so wrong, so outrageous. Help me, God, I’m so fucking turned on.

  Ethan leans forward. “There’s nothing sweet or gentle about what we have in store for you.” His handsome face is only a couple of inches from mine now, his breath coming out in sharp bursts against my cheek. “I want to defile your huge full tits, your pussy, your soft stomach and your plump ass. Has anyone corrupted you in that way before us?”

  “Er, no,” I say in such a low voice, I’m surprised I can hear myself speak.

  “I didn’t think so.” Ethan takes a step back. He rakes his eyes down the length of my body, sending an avalanche of sexy sensations down to my vajayjay. Without warning, he starts walking in a circle around Xander and I. He looks like a predator sizing up his prey. A part of me is terrified, but my throbbing pussy is sure relishing this experience. “I want to make you scream out my name.” Mother of God. “And I expect you to do the same for Xander.” Lord have mercy. He stops right behind me and leans in to whisper, “All. Night. Long.” His words are like a match dropping in a pool of gasoline. God, that sounds so incredibly debauched.