by Anita Kidesu
“I’m Matt,” his brother said. “The one you met in Chicago.”
She nodded. “The one with the scar. That’ll make things easier.”
Easier? Did that mean what he hoped it meant? Was she going to go out with one of them?
Matt raised an eyebrow at him. Was he thinking the same thing? Who would she pick?
Ignoring them both, Reenie picked up her menu and perused the choices. She peered over the top and opened her mouth as if to say something, but the appearance of the waiter stopped her. She kept her eyes on her plate and hands in her lap as orders were taken. Did they scare her?
“Would someone please explain to me how all this happened?” Reenie waved her hand between the three of them. “Was this all a plan to make me look like a fool?”
Matt took her left hand in his. Jon ached to touch her, even if it was simply her hand, too. Did he dare take her other hand?
“Hell, no!” Matt said. “When Jon came home the night he met you, he couldn’t stop talking about you, but he never described you nor mentioned your name. When I saw you in Chicago, I had no idea you were the same woman.”
She arched a brow. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Jon said. If Matt could touch her, so could he. And since she didn’t reject his hand, he took her fingers in his. “When Matt came home from Chicago and started raving about this woman, he didn’t describe you or say your name, either. Until last week at the bar, we had no idea we were talking about the same woman. It came as a complete shock to us.”
Reenie pulled her hands from theirs and put them back in her lap. “You have absolutely no idea what a shock it was for me, too.” She leaned her elbows on the table and cupped her hands around her glass of wine. “How horrible I felt knowing I’d”—she glanced around the room—“slept with two different men. Brothers.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Even though I thought they were the same man.” Reenie closed her eyes, and a tear slid down one cheek. “I can’t imagine what you must think of me…” She dropped her chin to her chest.
Matt lifted her chin with his fingers. “Listen, Reenie. Would we have kept trying to call you all week if we thought badly of you?”
“You would if you thought I was an easy lay.” Her voice quivered as if she was trying to hold back a sob.
How could they convince her they were sincere in what they were saying? “Look at me, Reenie.” Jon’s heart slammed in his chest.
When she raised her tear-filled eyes to him, his breath caught. He and Matt had better tread carefully if they wanted what they’d been discussing all week.
“I never thought of you that way.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Hell, you caught my attention the minute you walked into your mother’s office. I wanted to meet you but hadn’t planned to…” He couldn’t hold back a grin. “You know.”
“The same with me. I could barely talk when you came to my booth,” Matt added. “Afterward, I couldn’t think of anyone or anything but you.”
Reenie sat back in her chair and looked at him. “If that’s the case, why didn’t you call me, Jon? When you didn’t, I thought I was just a one-time ‘slam-bam-thank-you, ma’am.’ ”
Heat rose to Jon’s face. “Uh, the number was accidentally wiped off my palm.”
“Seriously?”
Matt nodded. “Seriously. It’s a family joke. Jon’s always writing stuff on his hand then forgetting about it until it’s been washed off.”
Reenie bit her bottom lip as if she was trying to hold back a smile. “Why didn’t you get my number from my mother?”
Jon’s breath caught. Could that have really been an option? “Wouldn’t she have wondered why a stranger would want her daughter’s phone number? It would have probably been embarrassing to both of us if I had to tell her that within hours of meeting you, I’d had the best sex of my life and had lost your phone number. She’d either think I was a sex maniac, a moron for losing your number, or a stalker like Perry.”
“That’s true. She never would have given it to you.” Reenie faced Matt. “What about you?”
Matt frowned and opened his mouth to answer when their food arrived.
In the ensuing silence as they pushed food around their plates, Jon wondered how the evening would end. Would they go their separate ways? Would they have a chance to present the ménage idea? If they did, what would be her reaction?
****
Reenie’s appetite, small because of nerves, had grown even smaller at Matt’s frown. She toyed with her food and took a sip of wine. What did he have to frown about? They were the ones who’d had sex with her then ignored her. Weren’t they?
Matt’s fork clinked against his plate as he set it down and looked at her. “What do you mean, what about me?” His voice was calm, but his narrowed eyes showed confusion.
“Well, you didn’t call, either.”
His stare made her uncomfortable. He raked his fingers through his hair.
She squirmed in her seat. Maybe she should have thought this through. “Ah, you know you both do the same thing?”
“What’s that?” Jon asked.
“Run your fingers through your hair when you don’t know what to say.” She wasn’t about to tell them she’d love to do that to both of them.
“I don’t know what to say, since I couldn’t call you,” Matt said, stopping his fingers just short of running them through his hair again. “As I recall, you were supposed to meet me at my booth or at least for supper. Can you imagine my surprise when I found out you’d checked out of the hotel?”
As his voice rose, Reenie cringed. Oh, yeah, she’d forgotten that part.
“No message. No phone number. You’d just”—he snapped his fingers in the air—“disappeared.” Matt leaned into her. “Can you imagine how I felt? I guess I was simply a ‘slam-bam, thank you, man.’ Care to explain?”
Okay, so maybe she had over-reacted, making it seem as if this was all their fault. “I woke up the next morning and was getting ready to come down, when I got a phone call from Al.”
“Who is Al?” Matt asked.
Jon waved away the waiter as he approached. “Someone who works in her mother’s building.”
“Turns out he’s more than that.” They both frowned, but she decided to skip that part for now. “I’ll get to that later. He told me Mom had had a heart attack. All I could think of was getting back to San Antonio.”
“Is she okay?” the brothers asked at the same time, each taking one of her hands.
“She’s fine.” She glanced down at their large, warm hands covering her own, and her heart swelled at their instant concern. “The concierge called the airlines and got me a ticket on the next flight out of Chicago. I was out of the hotel in less than an hour.” She looked at Matt, hoping he’d understand. “I’m sorry.”
“I’d probably react the same way if it was our mother. Wouldn’t you, Matt?”
To her relief, Matt nodded. “I understand.”
Thank heavens. “I really am sorry. Since we hadn’t exchanged phone numbers, I had no way of letting you know what had happened.”
Jon held up his empty water glass for a refill. “Is she recuperating from the heart attack? I imagine she won’t be able to go on the trip to Greece, will she?”
She smiled. “Actually, it was her gall bladder, not a heart attack. The doctor removed it, and she’s almost back to normal. Al, who it turns out has been seeing Mom for quite some time, has been taking care of her.”
Jon’s grin rocked her to the core. “Ah, I hate to ask, but is he why there were all those condoms in Zelda’s office?”
Why couldn’t she be more sophisticated and not blush over the situation? Damn. Oh yeah, it was her mother they were talking about. “Yeah, I’m guessing they were hers. I don’t even want to think about what was going on during her late nights, working.” She put the last word in finger quotes.
“Believe me, I wouldn’t want to know, either,” Jon said.
The waiter came
back to the table and filled Jon’s water. “I can’t help but notice you’re not eating. Is everything all right with your food?”
Reenie looked down at her plate. Lasagna noodles and red sauce covered her plate. But accepting Jon’s excuse for not calling and realizing Matt wasn’t mad about her leaving him in the lurch made her heart feel free. Her stomach growled. She took a tentative bite as the brothers did the same. Cold.
“Everything is fine,” Matt said. “We’ve been so busy talking that we’ve let our meals go cold. Could we have them reheated?”
After the waiter gathered their plates, she grew uncomfortable when the brothers said nothing but looked between each other and her. What the hell were they thinking? They didn’t look angry with each other. Had they decided which one would continue to date her? Would they give her a choice in the matter? But the choice she wanted was one that would certainly make them think she was a slut.
Okay, enough was enough. Their silence was getting on her nerves. “What’s wrong?”
With another glance at his brother, Matt leaned toward her. “We have a problem.”
If they had a problem, so did she. “What’s that?”
“Um, we’re both attracted to you,” he said, his voice deep and rumbling, sending shivers through her body.
“You didn’t fight over me, did you?” The thought of them doing that made her both upset and turned on. Men had never fought over her before. What an ego booster.
Jon shrugged and nodded back at Matt. Evidently, Matt was the spokesperson for the two.
“Sort of,” Matt said. “Jon didn’t talk to me for a week. We finally got drunk one night and talked about how we felt about you.”
“And what is that?”
“I already said we’re both attracted to you. Neither of us want to give you up.”
Where the hell was he going with this? “And?” she asked, taking a sip of water to soothe her dry mouth.
“We want to share you.”
Water spewed from her mouth. They couldn’t possibly mean what she wanted them to mean.
“You what? What do you plan to do, take turns dating me until one of you decides I’m not right for you? Or do you plan on dating me until you make me decide between you?” She lowered her rising voice. “Will you compare notes about how I am in bed, and then figure out I’m simply not good enough and both drop me?”
Matt sat back in his chair and glanced at the people staring at them. “No, that’s not what we’re proposing.”
“Then what are you suggesting?”
“We want to share you. Together.” Jon’s voice came out in a whisper.
What? They wanted what she wanted? A ménage? That couldn’t be possible. “You mean”—she pointed her finger between the three of them—“at the same time?”
When the brothers nodded, need coursed through her. Sparks of electricity zapped over her skin. Her nipples puckered as her pussy pulsed and her clit tingled. Heat flowed from her toes to her face. It was her dream come true.
But wait. If they thought she’d agree, that meant only one thing.
Anger flared, replacing desire. She glared at the men through slitted eyes. “Do you really think I’m that kind of woman?” She palmed the edge of the table and tried to keep her quivering voice under control. “What do you take me for—a whore? One you can pass back and forth between you? What, first you fuck me”—she glowered at Matt, and then turned to Jon—“then you do?”
Even though this was something she’d thought about, something that excited her, the idea that they figured she’d agree…Well, they were wrong.
Slapping her napkin on the table, she rose, grabbed her purse from the table, and stormed from the restaurant.
****
“That went well,” Matt said as Reenie raced through the room and out the door as if they were going to attack her at the table.
“Did you see her eyes, though, when she realized what we were talking about?” Jon asked.
Matt grinned. “Yeah. There was a momentary spark of interest.”
“And her breathing changed, like the idea turned her on.”
“I kinda recognized the look and sound from Chicago.” Matt waved at the waiter. “We’ll take the check now.”
“But what about the reheated food?” the waiter asked, looking at Reenie’s empty chair.
“The lady got sick and had to leave,” Matt said, pulling out his wallet.
When the waiter huffed and left, Jon placed his napkin on the table. “I have a feeling she wasn’t as opposed to a threesome as she pretended to be.”
“Yeah, I think she was more afraid of what we’d think of her than actually being afraid of all of us together.”
“So, we don’t give up on her?” Jon asked, letting Matt take care of the bill.
After adding a generous tip, Matt signed his name to the credit card receipt and stood. “Hell, no. It’s only a few weeks until the trip,” he said, following Jon around tables and to the door. “Let’s leave her alone until we leave.”
Jon smiled. “Yeah. I’m not sure she knows we’re both going. The trip will give us time to press our suit. I have a feeling by the time we get back to the States, she’ll be ours.”
Matt’s heart swelled at the idea of a life with Reenie and his brother. He wasn’t sure how or why he knew she was the one, he just did. “I sure as hell hope so.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jon hiked his backpack onto his shoulder and pulled his suitcase behind him, following Matt through throngs of people saying goodbye to loved ones or searching for check-in counters and security. After three weeks of anxious anticipation, the day to fly to Greece for their ten-day vacation and to win over Reenie was finally here.
During that time, they hadn’t heard a word from her. Both he and Matt had decided to leave her alone. They had worried about whether she was considering their proposition or dismissing it all together. They’d quit talking about it, but Reenie was never far from his mind.
“Ouch! Why’d you stop?” Jon rubbed his knee where it had collided with Matt’s suitcase.
“She’s here.” Matt nodded to the people slowly snaking their way through lines divided by black ropes.
His heart skipped a beat. Reenie was last in line. She must have arrived just before them. He recognized some of the people from the night of the trip meeting, the night that had altered his life.
As they passed her to get to the end of the line, she looked their way. Her eyes widened and mouth dropped open. She pressed her fingers to her lips as a rosy hue covered her face.
“What are you two doing here?” she asked when they stopped behind her.
“I signed up for the trip. Remember?”
“How could I forget?” she asked.
How, indeed? It was a night etched in his memory. One that burned through his body whenever he thought about it, which was way too often for his comfort.
“What about him?” Reenie lifted her chin to Matt.
“I decided to come, too,” Matt said. “It’ll be good research for our books.” He eyed her from head to toe. “I also hear the scenery there is excellent.”
When she raised an eyebrow at them, Jon coughed back a laugh and said, “I talked him into coming along. He’s better at research than I am.”
“More like he needs someone to take care of him and make sure he doesn’t get into trouble.” Matt huffed a breath.
Reenie frowned and looked down at her feet. “It has nothing to do with your proposal?”
Before he could answer, the line inched forward. Reenie’s face went pale, and her shoulders tensed.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “What is he doing here?”
Who was making Reenie look as if an ax murderer was coming after her? Jon glanced over his shoulder but didn’t see anyone he recognized, only a man barreling down on them.
“Shit,” Matt said.
“What?”
“Reenie’s ex-boyfriend.”
Jon�
�s stomach dropped. It was bad enough he had to ride on a plane for unending hours, but now, it looked as if trouble was coming to greet them. “The one who attacked you?”
“Yes.” Matt stood in front of Reenie, his protective move giving Jon an idea of what was about to happen.
The man struck his fists against his thighs as if he was trying to keep from pushing people out of his way. If fire could come for anyone’s eyes, it would be from Perry’s. Fury, and what Jon thought looked like craziness, spewed from them. The closer he came, the more the man’s lips tightened and jaws clenched. Perry was evidently on a mission, and Jon had an idea it wasn’t a mission of mercy.
“I thought he was in jail,” Reenie whispered. “I thought I was safe.” She grabbed Jon’s hand.
He’d never felt so protective of anyone since he’d believed he’d needed to protect his mother from Eric. His body was electrified, ready to fight. His muscles quivered, waiting to go into action to defend Reenie.
“Evidently, he got out,” Matt said, folding his arms across his chest. “Don’t worry; we’ll take care of you.”
Perry stopped outside the black rope and reached for her. His eyes softened, but the craziness in them didn’t diminish. “Reenie, love, don’t go.”
“Leave me alone, Perry. You’re not supposed to come near me.”
“But I love you, Reenie.”
“She said to leave her alone, man,” Matt said, taking a step toward Perry.
“You!” he said, his voice rising above the crowd. People around them stopped talking and stared. “You’re the guy who took her from me.” His eyes bulged as he looked between Matt and him. “Fuck. There’s two of you? Which one was in Chicago and stole her from me?”
Jon tried to hold Reenie back when she attempted to push between the two of them. “Stay where you are.”
“No. Leave me alone,” Renee said. “He has to know once and for all that we’re over.”
Matt didn’t budge.
She said around his unmoving stance, “How did you know where to find me, Perry?”
