She’d been offering the very same silent challenge since the day she met them, when she’d wandered into the bar looking to experience a truly Aussie pub and found them playing a game of darts while arguing the merits of Australia becoming a republic.
So far, they hadn’t taken her up on the offer. Probably because her challenge was a silent one. And really, who knew how to read feisty-American-tourist eyebrow nowadays?
Letting out a silent grunt of exasperation, she fixed them with an unwavering stare. Both Curtis and Logan studied her from the bar. Both men’s expressions were damn near impossible to decipher.
That was another thing about Curtis and Logan Bethany had fallen head-over-heels in lust with—the fact she couldn’t read them. She could read anyone. It was one of the reasons she was so good at what she did. Her boss was an actor oftentimes surrounded by groveling yes-men and fawning opportunists, Bethany could spot the self-serving fake from the legit helpful/considerate associate within seconds.
But Logan and Curtis…
She studied them back, her heart racing faster.
Christ, she wanted them to rip all her clothes off and do things to her body.
She had no idea if they’d ever shared a woman before. She had, after all, only known them for two weeks, despite feeling more comfortable with them than any other guys she’d met. She also had no idea if they were sexually attracted to her, although she was certain she’d caught Curtis looking at her more than once during their time together checking out the sights of Sydney with lust in his eyes.
If Logan was interested in her, he was keeping it very close to his chest. Even on the nights she walked around his apartment in little but her panties and a tank top, hoping to get some hint he felt the same sexual interest in her that she felt for him, he kept his stare glued to his laptop.
What she did know was she couldn’t wait any longer to address the subject.
She’d been staying in Logan’s harbourside apartment for the last week after he’d extended the invitation when her pre-booked Sydney accommodation had suddenly closed thanks to an international drug-ring bust. Tonight, after Curtis finished work, she was going to do something about her rather feverish and all-consuming desire for both men.
And by something, she meant cook them both dinner. American-style.
And serve it to them naked.
Utterly naked. Except for the six-inch cherry-red stilettoes she’d bought yesterday.
Hopefully, that would get the debauched ball rolling.
One way or the other.
“So do you reckon she’s got a date tonight?”
Curtis tried not to notice the way Logan’s gaze lingered on Bethany Sloan as his best mate voiced the question he himself was wondering.
Returning his attention to the glass in his hand—the same glass he’d been drying for the last bloody hour—he shrugged. “Probably. She did say she had something special planned, and let’s be serious, she can’t just keep hanging around with us, can she?”
The sound of Logan’s slow intake of breath told Curtis that was exactly what his best mate had in mind. The bloke was already halfway in love with her. Hell, he’d invited her into his home after only knowing her for one week, after all.
“There was that guy that asked her out at the art gallery yesterday,” Logan uttered. Curtis didn’t need to look at Logan to know he was still facing Bethany where she sat at her favourite booth. The same booth where he’d first met her a fortnight ago. “He was also American. Some high-flier professional hockey player.”
Curtis raised his head, frowning at his best friend. “Hockey player? Ice-hockey or field?”
Logan turned back to him, gaze direct behind the spotless lenses of his glasses. “Does it matter?”
Curtis opened his mouth to say yes. Field-hockey players were a completely different kind of threat to ice-hockey players. He shook his head. Not because Logan wouldn’t understand where he was coming from—they’d been best friends ever since they were twelve—but because he didn’t want to reveal to Logan just how much he damn well wanted to throw Bethany on a bed, preferably his own, and bury himself in her pussy.
“No,” he answered, lowering his stare to the glass and white dishcloth in his hand. Damn it, a fucking hockey player. He remembered those guys being arrogant tossers back in school. And the ones he’d crossed paths with in his professional-cricket-playing days were just the same, especially if they’d represented their country in the Olympics. Could Bethany really be interested in a guy like that?
An image of the gorgeous American tourist he’d become totally obsessed with filled his head, her lips parted with pleasure as she rode the hips of a muscle-bound guy wearing nothing but shinpads and a bright-red mouth guard.
He shook his head again and let out a disgusted snort. Damn, he really needed to get a hold of his imagination.
“So when are you going to make your move?”
At Logan’s unexpected question, a prickling wave of heat rushed over the back of Curtis’s neck. He stiffened, shooting his best mate a puzzled frown. “Move?”
“On Bethany?” Curtis asked as Logan studied him, a self-mocking smile pulling at his lips. Curtis was familiar with that smile. It was the smile that said Logan knew he was about to take an absolute beating from the schoolyard bully and wished to hell he could do something to stop it. He’d worn it almost every day during their school years. The expression of a nerd well aware he was fodder to those with more muscles and less intellect than he.
Curtis had done whatever he could to protect Logan from those fuckwit bullies, but that expression was ingrained in Logan’s personality now. His best mate wore it like a shield. Until this very moment, Curtis had never ever experienced it directed at him.
Ever.
Even when he’d told Logan the woman Logan was dating was a two-timing bitch who was only using him for his money, that mocking self-contemptuous smile hadn’t curled his lips.
Nor had it when Curtis had succumbed to Logan’s request for proof and had reluctantly informed his friend the two-timing bitch had climbed into Curtis’s bed one night while they were all on a skiing holiday in the Canadian Rockies and whispered in his ear he could do whatever he wanted to her.
Letting out a choppy laugh now, Curtis flung a dishcloth over his shoulder and placed the glass on the rack of fresh glassware beside him. “I’m not going to make a move on Bethany.” He gave Logan a look that said he thought he was bonkers. “I swore off women after the princess tore my heart out, remember?”
Logan chuckled at Curtis’s dry reference to his highly publicized fling the previous year with a member of the royal family. Despite the embarrassing topic, the buoyant sound made Curtis feel better. That chuckle was more in line with the successful—no, change that, stupendously successful—IT guru Logan was, not the self-hating and cowering nerd he’d once been.
“And you’ve been swearing off a different one every weekend since,” Logan pointed out without the slightest hint of malice.
Curtis couldn’t help his cheesy smirk. “Okay, I’ll give you that. It’s hard work sweating away a broken heart. Takes a lot of effort. But seriously, me making a move on Bethany would be…wrong.”
Logan regarded him, blue eyes unreadable. It was a disconcerting stare Curtis recognized. Like the self-deprecating smile, it had once been part of Logan’s defensive arsenal against the regular attacks he’d faced growing up in a sport-obsessed school. It hid a world of pain. Lonely pain. The kind of pain Curtis thought he’d banished from his friend’s life.
“So you’re not interested in her?”
Swallowing at the lump in his throat, Curtis shook his head. “Nope. She’s too feisty and direct for me. No pulling punches that one. Hanging out at the tourist spots with her is enough for me.” The lie tasted sour on his tongue.
In the two weeks since Bethany Sloan had entered their lives, Curtis had lived for the moments she would suggest they all go visit the art gallery, or head to th
e zoo, or spend a day at Bondi Beach. Not because they were doing tourist shit, but because he was in her company.
Her company and Logan’s company. The three of them. Together.
A tight throb pulsed in his cock, fed by the unexpected image suddenly filling his head of the three of them together…naked.
Fuck, Clarkson. Rein in that line of thought, mate, before you go somewhere with it you can’t recover from.
Clearing his throat, he fixed his unsettled attention on his friend, swallowing again when Logan turned to look at Bethany in her regular booth.
Open desire flickered over Logan’s face. Curtis wondered if Logan knew it was there. Logan was the smartest guy he knew, hell, probably the smartest guy in the country, but when it came to women…
Throat as tight as the tension in his groin, he leant his elbows on the bar and bent closer to the man he’d never hurt in a million years. “Go after her, Logan. Before some Yank hockey player gets his hands on her.”
Logan recoiled, as if physically struck by the words. His eyes widened, fear swimming in their blue depths. Fear, self-doubt and resignation. The cornered teenager trapped by his own dread, once again. “I…I don’t…”
Curtis wanted to shake him. Just as much as he wanted the woman who seemed to have made herself completely at home in their lives in such a short period of time. Just as much as he wanted take Bethany to sexual heaven and back. Three or four times at least. Minimum.
Jesus, if Logan didn’t make his move soon, Curtis was going to have a fucking hard time not—
“You two finished doing whatever it is you’re doing?”
At the sound of Bethany’s sexy New York accent, Curtis flinched. As did Logan.
Their stares locked, a second before Logan spun around to face her, his lips spreading in a wide smile.
Curtis watched his friend gaze at her, his heart far more rapid than it had a right to be. Fuck a bloody duck, the guy was completely gone for her. Done and dusted head over heels in love. It was as clear as the rimless glasses on Logan’s face.
Love. Not lust, which is what Curtis felt. Well, lust and desire and maybe something close to…affection. But not love. He didn’t do love. Not anymore.
“We are finished doing whatever it is we were doing,” Logan spoke, nodding at her. Curtis didn’t miss the way he straightened on the bar stool, squaring his shoulders as he pushed his glasses farther up his nose with his finger. “Why’s that?”
Bethany slid a slow sideways glance at Curtis. An enigmatic glint danced in her green eyes, naughty and promising at once.
Explosive heat ignited deep in his groin and he sucked in a sharp breath, his chest tight.
Oh fuck, oh fuck, he wasn’t going to let his brain take him to the place it wanted to go. To a place where three people did together what usually only occurred with two. He wasn’t. Not when Logan was so very clearly in love with Bethany. He wouldn’t do that to his—
“No offense to the Cricketer’s Cup, but I need to get out of here.” Bethany leant an elbow on Logan’s shoulder and cocked an eyebrow at him, her smile impish. “And I think you two should join me.”
Logan cleared his throat. He flicked Curtis an unreadable look before adjusting his glasses again and frowning at Bethany. “Aren’t you going out tonight?”
Curtis didn’t know whether to kick him, slap him, or…hug him.
Bethany shook her head. “No. Staying in, if that’s okay with you? In fact, I was hoping the jock would join us?” She flashed a wicked grin at Curtis. “What about it, Jock? Want to eat in with Logan and me? I’m cooking.”
Curtis’s already tight groin grew tighter. And heavier. Damned if her American vernacular didn’t give him a hard on.
He wanted to look at Logan. Wanted to see his friend’s face. Wanted to see if Bethany’s invitation was echoed there. Or if Logan was, in fact, going to finally act on his desire for the American. He needed to see if he, Curtis, was going to be a third wheel in Logan’s home.
But he couldn’t. Not when Bethany was teasing him with her mischievous smile and enigmatic eyes and his brain was painting erotic images of the three of them doing—
“I’d love to,” he burst out, pulse pounding in his ears fast. Faster than it ever had back in the day when he was facing down some of the world’s best speed bowlers on the cricket pitch.
Bethany’s answering smile detonated fresh heat in his balls and a thick spasm claimed his cock. An image of her riding his naked hips, not the unknown hockey player’s, filled his head. His hips. And this time, there was no sign of Logan in the scene playing out in his immoral mind.
None at all.
Some friend he was. Jesus, he was going to burn in fucking hell.
Money had made no difference to Logan. Nor had success—and his was phenomenal. Who would have thought all those years ago, gazing at posters of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in his bedroom, he would have ended up being named among them as one of the world’s most important IT figures? He hadn’t. He’d been too lost in the world of code and data streaming through his head.
Now, with more billions under his belt than he could fathom, he couldn’t believe that a woman wanted to spend time with him for him.
Trapped by his own insecurities—imprisoned by the scars of a lifetime of bullying—he still couldn’t bring himself to let Bethany know what he felt for her.
The amazing American may have swept into his life like a gale-force tropical storm, but he didn’t have the genetic code to tell her he’d fallen for her.
Too many years of scoffed rejection and sneered ridicule had imprinted itself upon his psyche. His billions, his business success, his awards, his acumen all meant nothing. There wasn’t any chance an intelligent, beautiful woman could be interested in him. There wasn’t.
Even more so with Curtis on the scene.
He’d begrudge his best friend nothing though. Not after what Curtis had done for him all those years ago. So after this dinner, he’d quietly excuse himself and leave the two of them alone.
It didn’t take an IQ of 185 to know Curtis wanted Bethany. And even a man with glasses could see Bethany wanted Curtis.
Walking into his apartment with Bethany and Curtis trailing behind as they discussed the sci-fi film all three of them had watched two nights ago, he tossed his keys onto the hallways table and made his way to the kitchen.
He was angry. Not at Curtis. At himself.
Angry and disappointed.
“Maybe I need to sign up on eHarmony?” he muttered, grabbing a bottle of mineral water from the fridge’s icy innards. “Or buy a cat.”
“What?”
He jumped at Bethany’s voice.
Standing on his right, she let out a low chuckle, the impish light in her eyes making his cock throb. Damn, she flustered him. Almost as much as she turned him on. “Did I just hear you say you’re going to buy a cat?”
Twisting the lid from the bottle of water, he took a quick drink and then let out his own chuckle. “Thinking about it.”
Gaze holding his, Bethany reached out, plucked the bottle from his fingers and raised it to her lips. “Thinking about pussy, Logan Hill?”
From the living room, Curtis groaned. “That was a really bad pun, Beth.”
A fresh wave of prickling heat washed over the back of Logan’s neck. He really didn’t know if she was flirting with him or not. He figured she was, but then again, he’d figured the last woman he’d been involved with had been serious about him until Curtis had revealed she’d been after Logan’s money and just about every other guy’s dick she could get, including Curtis’s.
As always when confronted by the playfully salacious nature of his American guest, words failed him. Instead of fumbling out a woeful attempt at witticism, he retrieved another bottle of water from the fridge and let out a weird little chortle that made him internally cringe. Damn it, after so many years of being in Curtis’s company, why hadn’t any of the guy’s relaxed charm and easy poise rubbed off on him?
If Bethany was aware of his unsettled state, she didn’t show it. With a roguish grin, she pivoted on her heel and strutted across the living room toward the balcony where Curtis now stood.
Strutted. Bethany Sloan didn’t just walk. She strutted, swanned, sashayed and strode. She was that kind of woman.
Oh boy, he liked that about her. A lot.
Logan let out a shaky breath and then drained the bottle in his hand. For some stupid reason, his mouth was dry.
Closing the fridge, he followed Bethany’s path to the balcony, watching as she joined Curtis there.
They looked good together, Bethany and Curtis. The epitome of a perfect couple—him with his towering strength and healthy physique and her with her comfortable sensuality and lush curves. They were the kind of couple advertising agencies used to make people ache for whatever the agency was selling, whether it be insurance, cars, mortgages or condoms.
Two exquisitely beautiful, confident people. Side by side.
Yeah, as if he had any chance at all.
Damn it.
Stopping at Bethany’s side, he rested his elbows on the stainless-steel railing and drew a deep breath of the warm evening air. Oh well, at least he still had his fantasies, right? What hot-blooded nerd didn’t?
“So what are your plans for the rest of the week, Beth?”
At Curtis’s off-handed question—asked while still watching the yachts move across the darkening waters of Sydney Harbour below—Bethany shot Logan a sideways grin. “I don’t know. I’m waiting to see what comes up.”
Her answer made Curtis splutter out a choked laugh.
Logan smiled into the rim of his empty bottle. Seemed he wasn’t the only one with his head in the gutter tonight.
Bethany laughed, supporting her weight with one hand as she swung back from the railing and smirked at them both. “Okay,” she said, raising her mineral water to her lips, eyes dancing with mirth. “I do have plans. But they’re dependent on something else happening first.”
“What’s that?” Logan asked. Hell, she looked so beautiful with the dusk light bathing her in a golden pink glow. The setting sun picked up the copper in the wild curls of her strawberry-blonde hair. It threw shadows over the curves of her body, drawing his attention to the upward swell of her breasts beneath the snug black tank top she wore and to the long, smooth expanse of her legs left bare by denim cut-offs.
Blindsided By You (Outback Skies Book 6) Page 7
