hot against her neck. How close was he? “I’ve got some games to play with her.”
Dirty games. Sexy games. She knew what he meant—to dominate her. Again, not for more than a night, but at least she would know how the flat of Master Kellan’s hand on her ass stung, the way that dark voice commanded her to do things she’d only ever fantasized about.
“I don’t understand.” Her mind raced. Her blood hummed. She wanted this so badly, but she knew exactly what a one-night stand with them would mean. She would be devastated if she woke up in their bed tomorrow morning and they again treated her like a kid sister. After that, she wouldn’t be able to work with them. “This has gotten out of hand and gone too far.”
“It’s going where it should have in the first place.” Eric touched her first, just a brush of his hand on her shoulder. Nothing overwhelming, but she shivered at the heat flashing through her. “Straight to you with the three of us. We’ll take it slow if you need, Belle. But we want you.”
Really? They wanted her? After a year of almost no hint of any desire on their part, this revelation blew her mind. Unless seeing wedding guests group off to get it on had an effect on them too… She shook her head again. The alcohol might not have affected her judgment, but the arousal they coaxed from her damn sure had.
“We always have,” Kellan said. “But you should know that I’ll be a lousy boyfriend. I shudder at the word. I’m not built for the whole commitment thing, but I want you right now. I’ll be good to you in bed.”
Because some woman had damaged him. She was pretty sure it was his ex-wife, but she hadn’t pried.
“Boyfriend?” Didn’t they just want to sleep with her tonight?
“I’ll be a good boyfriend, but I’ll want a lot of sex,” Tate said. “The average person has it one hundred three times a year, which is one point nine eight times per week. That’s not enough.”
“But we don’t have to work that out tonight,” Eric insisted, glaring at Tate. “Let us take you to bed and show you all the affection and pleasure we can offer you. We’ll satisfy you so completely that you won’t want to walk away tomorrow.”
Belle heard the speech, but it didn’t make any sense. “I don’t think the question is whether I’ll walk away. Isn’t that what you usually do the morning after?”
Eric looked stunned. “You think this is just a fuck for us?”
Wasn’t it? “I don’t know. You tell me.”
“We want a relationship.” Tate’s expression was so earnest, it stunned Annabelle. “The average male is age—”
“No numbers,” Kell cut in. “You agreed.”
Tate clapped his mouth shut for a moment, then apparently decided he had something else to say. “This is more than sex for me. Way more.”
“Exactly,” Eric added.
Amazing. She looked at Kell expectantly. If he didn’t think he’d be much of a boyfriend, where did he stand on this relationship business?
“You’re a remarkable woman,” he murmured. “There’s no way I could use and discard you.”
“I don’t understand.” They’d kept their distance for over a year. “What changed?”
“In some ways, everything,” Eric said. “But in other ways, nothing at all. We don’t want to let you go, Belle. We’ve always wanted you, but what would you have done if we’d asked you out your first day at the office? Or the second? Or even a month after you’d come to work for us?”
She winced. Okay, so she’d been a bit scared of them in the beginning. After the way her last boss had treated her, who could blame her? The thought of working for three big, gorgeous men had terrified her. After they’d offered her the job, she’d thought of turning them down, but she’d desperately needed the income. She had been living paycheck to paycheck. Her mom didn’t have extra funds to help her get back on her feet, and Belle refused to be a burden.
“I might have been a little…intimidated at first.”
“A little? You wore turtlenecks in August.” Tate’s face softened. “We all knew you were scared of us, so we did our best to make you feel comfortable. We fell into a pattern of keeping our distance. You should know I wanted to offer you my penis the minute I saw you.”
“Tate!” Eric barked at him.
She heard Kellan sigh, but Tate’s ridiculous honesty broke the tension. Belle laughed at the mental image those words painted and relaxed into him, leaning on his big body for strength. She imagined Tate wrapping a red bow on his penis and gifting it to her like most men would a dozen roses. She giggled even more.
He bent and curled his thick arms around her tentatively, like he was terrified she would balk. He wasn’t lying. The rapid beat of his heart gave his feelings away. This big, gorgeous, unbelievably gifted man wanted her. As he urged her against his body, he nestled close to her in a sweet hug, and she felt every inch of what he planned on offering her brush against her stomach.
Whoa. That was not some small penis. Tate was built on big lines—everywhere.
“I would miss you so much if you left, Belle. I understand you want a career that makes you happier, but please don’t leave altogether.” He sighed as if a profound worry had just settled on his shoulders.
Belle clutched him both to give him comfort and for her own strength. Despite his facts and percentages and sometimes slightly abrasive nature, he had a big heart. “I don’t want to leave you guys. And you’re right that I would have run. I was more afraid of my previous boss than I let on. I joke about it now, but he was aggressive.”
“We sat down that week you first came to work for us and talked about your skittishness,” Eric admitted. “We were all interested in you, but suspected that something or someone had you spooked. On top of that, we worried our lifestyle would be difficult to explain. You wouldn’t be the first woman who didn’t get it.”
She couldn’t imagine anyone turning them down. “You can’t possibly have a problem finding dates.”
Tate shook his head. “Dates, no. Relationships, absolutely. Most women don’t want to deal with three men. You would think it’s the demanding sex that would give them pause. But no. It’s often the laundry. Accordingly, I began doing my own.”
“You’re determined to be an idiot, aren’t you?” Kellan asked, shaking his head.
“He’s fine.” Belle had to defend Tate all the time. No, he wasn’t smooth, but he meant well.
The laundry hadn’t really occurred to her. But the sex had. Sex with all three of these men had been the cornerstone of her fantasies for a year. When she tried to picture the reality, however, she shied away. Could she even keep up with them? What would they say if they knew she was a virgin?
“Do you want this?” Eric’s mouth descended to her shoulder, where the straps of her dress met warm flesh. Heat flashed through her when he ran his lips across her skin. “Us?”
Belle wanted them more than her next breath, but she felt pretty sure it was a bad idea. How could an office romance between four people really work? Kinley held such a relationship together, but they didn’t sign her paychecks and all of her men were committed. In love. Was Kellan just planning on being around for the bedroom stuff? Would he ever want anything from her beyond a screw and some dictation? Was she about to become their favorite booty call?
On the other hand, did any of that matter when her whole body felt lit from the inside out with anticipation? When they were giving her a golden opportunity to have her first experience with the men she loved? She’d never felt this way, never had pure arousal running through her veins like the sweetest wine. Besides, if she turned them down tonight, would this opportunity ever come again? Or would this unprecedented honesty be smothered if they donned the polite, politically correct business masks they’d been wearing for over a year?
“I want this.” Her voice shook.
“Then come up to our suite.” Kellan stepped to her side and held out his hand, his blue eyes somehow full of pride and hot promises. “I know that took courage. Let us reward y
ou.”
A deep breath rattled through Belle’s chest and she dredged up the courage to slide her fingers across the masculine heat of his callused palm. Finally they touched not as colleagues, but as lovers.
Belle squeezed his hand. Kellan wasn’t a pampered boy who’d never done a lick of hard work in his life, and his hands proved it. They were big hands that could shelter and protect, hands that could offer such pleasure.
As he led her toward the elevator, Tate and Eric flanking them, peace washed through her. This was right. She was ready.
* * * *
Tate dragged in a long breath and briefly wondered if his cock could saw through his pants. Of course, it wouldn’t happen. Physics made that outcome impossible, but his cock throbbed against the cotton of his boxers, insisting it wanted out—and inside Belle.
She’d said yes. He stepped into the small, elegantly decorated elevator and turned to watch her enter behind him. Eric put a hand out, making sure the door didn’t close on her. Damn it. He should have done that. Sometimes social niceties eluded him, but he vowed to make a study of them because Belle deserved a gentleman.
In fact, she made him want to be a better man. He’d watched his parents push each other to publish more, to excel in their fields. The almost palpable jealousy between them had pervaded their home as though they’d bred competition into the walls. His mother and father had always been rivals of a sort, even taking small delight in the other’s failure. They’d trained him to measure himself against his brothers and only be satisfied when he was on top.
Tate didn’t want to compete with Belle. He wanted to make her happy and swore he’d do everything possible to make that happen. Still, doubt niggled. He wanted a future with her so badly. But what if he said the wrong thing? What if she didn’t care for him the way she did Eric and Kell? Or what if all she wanted from him was sex? It wouldn’t be the first time a female had slotted him in the awkward idiot category and shunned him once they climbed out of bed.
God, he hated feeling so vulnerable.
“Hey.” Belle’s voice brought him out of his thoughts as the elevator doors closed, cocooning the four of them alone.
Tate swallowed hard, nerves getting the best of him. “I’m not smooth, Belle.” He couldn’t give her what Eric and Kellan could. He stood a better chance at crafting an argument to win over the Supreme Court than being anything beyond a liability at a simple dinner party. He’d learned that his genius didn’t buy him love.
She stared up at him, cupping his face in a way that made him feel adored. “I don’t need smooth, babe. Will you kiss me? I’m nervous, but I think I’d be much calmer if you kissed me.”
A happy shudder went through his body. She wanted him to put his lips on hers. Still, he hesitated. Should he have the first kiss? He’d shared women with his best friends before but nothing with this much gravity, nothing he’d intended to last. But Belle was the one.
Eric nodded his way, which set him at ease.
Kell stepped behind her with a wry smile. “I think we would all be a little less nervous if you kissed her, big guy. Let’s see if you can do it without your penis poking out of your pants.”
Crap, could everyone see his erection? On the other hand, if Eric and Kell didn’t have massive hard-ons, Tate would eat his latest case file.
“I’ll try,” he joked. “No promises.”
Then he turned his attention back to Belle, who looked up at him with both a radiant smile and a silent pleading on her delicate face. She wanted him to kiss her. Eric and Kell were okay with him claiming her lips first. If Tate had his way, they would share thousands of kisses during their lives together. But he still wanted their first to be special.
Cupping her cheeks in his hands, he lowered his mouth to the dusky peach pout of her lips, losing himself in their softness as he poured every ounce of longing he felt into that kiss. The minute his mouth fused to hers, rightness pounded his brain, seared through his body.
Belle responded instantly, both with him and there for him. She kissed with her whole being, giving him a soft little moan and leaning into him like he was a lifeline. His self-consciousness melted away. Suddenly, he didn’t feel awkward trying to express his feelings because he didn’t have to talk. He could simply show her with his mouth and hands and cock. Yeah, he wasn’t awkward with those.
Tate had practiced sex with the same vigor he’d put into his studies. After his first experience, his libido had skyrocketed, sure. But he’d applied himself because he’d been determined to be good in bed. Thanks to his decadent youth, sexual confidence wasn’t a problem now. He planned to employ every bit of that knowledge to please Belle, to stroke her warm mocha skin and penetrate her sweet pussy until he gave her so much ecstasy she’d never want to leave. All the women in the past who had used him for sex no longer mattered. Only the woman he planned to spend the rest of his life with did.
He stroked his tongue over that plump bottom lip he loved. In fact, her lush mouth had incited more than one fantasy. Over and over, he’d imagined how she would look on her knees with those sensual lips parted and taking his cock deep. Even the thought incited him to urge her lips apart and demand entry. A spike of pure desire filled Tate’s cock. He needed more of her. He’d waited over a year just to touch her. And damn it, if he was already forty-two percent of the way through his life expectancy, he refused to let another moment slip past before he claimed her.
Belle’s mouth flowered under his. He breathed a sigh of relief at her utter welcome and kissed her deeper, clutching the back of her dress with his fists and dragging her against him. In turn, she wrapped her arms around his waist and tilted her head back, offering even more of her lips. He plunged back into the sweet heat of her mouth. Her velvet tongue stroked against his. Their dance during the reception had been slightly awkward, but this moment shimmered with sheer perfection.
Where he’d been cautious on the dance floor, he now took full possession. She followed his every move, conforming to him like a leaf in the wind. He repositioned her mouth for optimal penetration, brushing a hand down her spine and settling a palm against the small of her back to meld their hips together.
His cock pressed against her belly, urgent and hot. Tate worried she’d back away, but instead, she held him tighter and caressed her way up his shoulders, as though memorizing his every muscle. Then she found his hair. He wore it too short for her to sink her fingers into, but she curled them against his scalp—a silent plea for him to come even closer.
No way would he turn that down.
The kiss turned carnal. He stopped thinking as heat sizzled through his body and need took over.
With their mouths still crushed together, he lifted her against him. Even in heels, she was comparatively petite. He lifted her up with the ease of a man who worked out hard seven days a week. He backed her against the wall of the elevator and pressed his chest to hers.
“Do you know what I want to do to you?” He whispered the words against her lips as he notched his cock against her hot center.
“I have a good idea.” Her voice trembled.
As he stared into the sincerity of her dark eyes, Tate had no doubt she wanted this. By the end of the night, he’d prove that her trust wasn’t misplaced and that he would never let her go.
“I want to eat every bit of your pussy while you wrap your beautiful legs around my head. I’ve dreamed of tasting you so damn long and hard that I won’t ever get the flavor of your arousal off my tongue.”
She drew in a shocked little gasp, searching his gaze as if seeking the truth. “Y-you want to do that to me?”
“More than I want my next breath.” He needed to make her understand how gorgeous she was. He’d seen her self-doubt at times. Was she attractive? Was she too curvy? Tate didn’t want her to have any doubt that she was perfect.
“I want to do that, too.” Eric hovered beside them, closing in, watching with hazel eyes.
Kellan stood at the door as it opened with a di
ng. “We all want it, Belle. We all want you. Pick her up, big guy. I’m worried you’ll perform some act of public indecency in the middle of the hall if I don’t herd you two into the suite. Control is going to be the word of the night.”
Control, huh? Kell was far too in love with the word, but at least tonight he was right. Tate knew he’d need every ounce of it he possessed not to toss her up against a wall and fuck her. He wanted to give her everything he’d promised, all the pleasure he’d learned to bestow over the years.
Eric held the elevator door open as Kellan strode out, his keycard in hand to get the suite open so they could take their princess into the castle.
Tate swept Belle up into his arms, holding her against his chest and carrying her like a bride. He loved the weight of her in his arms and the way she clung to him. From now on, she didn’t have to walk anywhere. He’d just carry her.
As they neared the threshold, Tate wanted to get one thing straight. “Belle, what are you going to do with us tonight?”
He hoped she had the right answer. If not, that would suck because he didn’t want her to remember this night for any reason except that it was their first together. But if she answered with “go to bed” or “fuck,” Tate knew he’d be forced to stop everything and explain his expectations of their future more clearly, then