impressed.”
“I’m sorry, I was trying to be kind. What kind of music do you play?”
“Metal.”
She winced. “I don’t listen to that stuff.”
“That’s okay. So what do you do for a living?”
And now he was about to lose all interest in her. She decided to play down her geek-i-tude. If her wardrobe didn’t send him fleeing for a sexier woman, her career most certainly would.
“I… uh… own a business.”
“What kind of business?”
When she hesitated and tried to think of way to make herself sound less geeky, he grinned.
“I know,” he said. “You’re a madam for high-class prostitutes. It would explain why you’re so good in bed.”
She was good in bed? News to her. Caitlyn was most remembered for her complete lack of athletic prowess. Any activity that required her to move her body in a coordinated fashion ended in disaster. But perhaps she’d finally discovered her sport.
“A madam? Now that would be an interesting career,” she said. “Especially if you were one of my wares.”
“You’re done with me already? Going to sell me off to the highest bidder, are you?”
“No,” Caitlyn said. “Hopefully, I’m just getting started with you. I think we have a lot of pleasurable moments in our future.”
He avoided her interested gaze, and her heart plummeted. She hoped he knew that she was teasing about the male prostitute thing. Had she insulted him? It was a pretty insulting topic to joke about. She opened her mouth to apologize, but he patted her on the butt and nudged her toward the dressing rooms.
“You go get dressed. I’m going to find Kelly and let him know we’re leaving. Would you be overly upset if he caught a ride back to the hotel with us?”
“Of course not,” she said, but her heart gave an unpleasant pang. This was it. The thing that made him too good to be true. Kellen was her biggest competition for Owen’s affection, and Owen didn’t even realize it. “Should I wait for you outside?” she asked.
“Just wait here. I wouldn’t want someone to pick you up off the street.”
As if.
“Just so you know, I only have sex in sex clubs, so once we leave here, I won’t want to have sex with you again tonight. I didn’t want you to think it was anything personal if it came up.”
Caitlyn blinked at him, her heart twanging with a strange ache. So she was good enough to screw in a sex club, but not after a sandwich? Of course she’d think that was personal. Fine. Even if he didn’t want to screw her again, it didn’t matter. She wasn’t only interested in him for one thing. At least he’d been honest with her. It was something her husband had never been.
“I understand,” she said. “I still want to spend time with you.” Did that make her a desperate loser?
He smiled awfully bright for a man who didn’t want to have sex with her. “You just made the honor roll, babe.”
She had no idea what he meant by that, but apparently she’d said something right.
Chapter Five
Owen found Kelly sitting with a woman in a booth near the back of the club. So he might not want a ride back after all. Maybe he’d found someone to get busy with. Or maybe he was hoping that Owen would rescue him. It was difficult to read Kelly’s face.
Owen paused near the corner of the table and caught a snippet of Kelly and the woman’s conversation before either of them noticed him.
“Come on, baby,” the woman purred, “you’re hard as a rock. Let’s go find a room and—”
“Of course I’m hard as a rock,” Kelly said testily. “You keep shoving your hand down my pants.”
Okay, it was rescue that Kelly needed.
Owen cleared his throat and grinned at his friend who, yeah, looked relieved to see him.
“Are you finally finished?” Kelly asked.
“Not really.”
“Then what—”
“I’m taking Caitlyn out. She doesn’t belong here. Or maybe I don’t feel right with her here.”
He wasn’t sure what he meant exactly. There was just something about her that deserved better than this. Better than him. And for fuck’s sake, she didn’t seem to see it at all. He wanted to show her, but not here. Here was seedy, and being in this place made him want to take a shower. He’d never felt that way about one of Tony’s clubs, but perhaps the entrepreneurial genius had just missed the mark with this one. Or maybe something in Owen’s mindset had shifted and he was ready for more than a string of one-night stands. He honestly didn’t know. But he meant to find out. Her reaction to his claim that he wouldn’t want to have sex outside of the club had given him hope. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was hoping for. More. But more what?
Kelly’s eyes widened. “Wait! You’re taking her home with you?”
It went against their rules and promises to each other, but Caitlyn was special. Kelly would recognize that soon enough.
“I don’t know if it’ll go that far, but maybe. We’re going to grab a bite to eat and see if it goes anywhere from there. Are you ready to go?”
Kelly tugged his companion’s hand out of his pants again. “I’m ready.”
“Can I come with you?” the woman asked.
“No,” Kelly said and slipped out of the booth.
Owen couldn’t help but notice that Kelly was indeed hard as a rock. He had no explanation as to why he was rapidly getting that way himself. He’d assumed that after that fantastic pair of orgasms, his lust would be sated for a while.
“You should at least let that chick blow you or something,” Owen said. “You have to be hurting right now.”
Kelly shifted the crotch of his pants. “I’ll take care of it back at the hotel.”
Owen tried to stop memories of Kelly masturbating backstage in the communal shower from entering his thoughts, but it was impossible. They used to compete with each other to see who could get himself off the fastest, though they hadn’t done it for several years. In a weird way, it had further cemented their friendship when Kelly was first trying to get over Sara. He still wasn’t over her and he kept receding deeper into himself. It wasn’t healthy. Owen supposed masturbating with your best friend in the shower was pretty fucked up as well, but at least Kelly hadn’t been alone. He didn’t like Kelly to be alone. Kelly had too much to give to be so bottled up inside.
Owen glanced at the girl who was sulking in the booth. Kelly deserved better than her. He deserved the best. Someone more like Caitlyn. Someone he was unlikely to meet in a seedy sex club. The kind of woman Owen had been purposely avoiding because he knew how easily he fell for them. Owen wasn’t sure if he’d gotten lucky tonight or was setting himself up to get hurt again. He’d been avoiding that at all costs for years now. Maybe he was ready to put his heart on the line, but he’d be an idiot to not see how far this thing with Caitlyn might progress. She didn’t seem like the type who’d rip his heart out just because she could.
Kelly headed for the exit, and Owen fell into step beside him.
“So you like this one, do ya?” Kelly asked.
Owen shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Or are you just trying to get me to help you pleasure her?”
Owen stopped midstep. Because, yeah, if Kelly was up for it, Owen would love his assistance.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Kelly said. “You’re so predictable.”
“No, that isn’t it. Or it wasn’t until you mentioned it. Do you want to join us?”
“Not at all.”
Owen didn’t understand the feeling of disappointment in his chest, so he slugged Kelly in the shoulder. “Then don’t bring it up.”
“You’re the one who keeps bringing it up. I think you’re more worried about my love life than your own,” Kelly said.
“That’s because there’s more to worry about when it comes to your love life. Or complete lack of one.”
Kelly chuckled. “You’re as blind as you are predictable, Tags. Do you r
emember where you put your shoes?”
“In the locker room.”
“And your shirt?”
“Caitlyn’s borrowing it.”
Kelly nodded in the direction of the front door. “I’ll wait for you in the limo.”
“What about your shirt?” Owen glanced pointedly at Kelly’s bare chest.
“I didn’t bring a shirt.”
“You don’t own a shirt.”
“I own a shirt,” Kelly said. “A shirt. One.”
Owen grinned at him. “You’re an odd duck, Cuff.”
“That’s why you get along with me so well.”
A woman Owen didn’t recognize paused beside them, more diamonds on display than a De Beers store.
“I’ll pay you ten thousand dollars if you let me watch you two fuck,” she said.
When Owen and Kelly just gaped at her, she looked from one to the other and said, “Cash.”
“We were just leaving,” Kelly said.
“We’re not a couple,” Owen sputtered. Did they look like a couple? True they were standing rather close and were both shirtless, but…
“Obviously you’re not a couple,” she said, rolling her eyes. She had a thick European accent, but Owen couldn’t identify its origin. French, maybe. “Why would I pay ten thousand dollars to watch a gay couple fuck?” She laughed. “They’d probably let me watch for free.”
“We don’t need your money, lady,” Kelly said and pushed Owen to uproot his bare feet from the floor.
“Do straight guys actually fuck each other for you?” Owen had to ask.
“Depends on how desperate they are for money,” she said. She grinned slyly. “Or how much they’ve secretly wanted to fuck a man, but never had someone else to blame it on.”
“Owen?” Caitlyn said from just behind him.
Heat flooded his face. He cringed and turned to find her dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a white blouse with an out-of-style flop of a bow at the throat, and a tweed blazer his grandmother would be ashamed to own. And why did her conservative attire turn him on as much as that negligée had? He was in trouble.
“Hey, Caitlyn. Are you ready to leave?”
“Are you whoring yourself out?” she asked.
“What? No, of course not.”
“I’m not sure why you’re even having a discussion with this woman,” Kelly said, nodding toward the diamond queen. “As if you’re considering this bullshit or something.”
“I wasn’t considering it. I just wondered if men actually went through with it. That’s a lot of money.”
Caitlyn’s arm circled Owen’s waist, and her hand slid over his bare belly. “You know I get half of every dime you make, baby. How much did she offer you?”
Owen laughed. Kelly gaped at her. Owen slapped Kelly on the chest. “Inside joke. I’ll explain later. Let’s go.”
“How do you have inside jokes with someone you just met?” Kelly said as he started toward the exit again.
“Good luck finding your fantasy,” Owen said to the woman in diamonds. Sex with another man was one of those sex acts he’d never tried. Probably never would. Letting Caitlyn have her way with him was as close as he was going to get to having a homosexual encounter. He didn’t think reciprocal hand jobs counted.
As the three of them stepped onto the walkway outside, the cool cement registered in Owen’s brain. “Shit, I forgot my shoes,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you in the limo.”
“You sure you want to leave me alone with your girl?” Kelly asked.
“I expect you to take good care of her.”
“Oh, I’ll take real good care of her.” He wrapped an arm around Caitlyn and tugged her against his side. Her eyes opened wide. Kelly was only teasing, but Caitlyn had no way of knowing that.
“I’ll hurry,” Owen said. Assuming he didn’t get distracted between here and there by rich women with money to blow and fantasies to fulfill.
Chapter Six
The limo pulled up just as Owen dashed back into the building. Caitlyn didn’t feel right being plastered to Kellen’s side. Not that it was a bad thing. She just felt as if she were cheating. On a guy she’d just met, barely knew, and who had no long-term interest in her. Boy, was she all mixed up inside.
“You’re tense,” Kellen said near her ear. “You don’t have anything to worry about from me. I was just giving Owen a hard time.”
“You don’t find me attractive?”
“You’re gorgeous,” he said. “I just have a certain type.”
“Big blue eyes?” Like Owen’s…
“How’d you guess?”
“You and Owen need to have a talk.”
Kellen’s dark brows drew together. “About what? So Sara had blue eyes, what does that have to do with Owen?”
So maybe there wasn’t any attraction on Kellen’s end at all.
The driver opened the door, and Caitlyn hurried to climb inside. The relationship between Kellen and Owen wasn’t any of her business. She wasn’t sure why she was so fixated on it.
“Owen will be out in a couple minutes,” Kellen said to the driver. “Just wait here.”
“No problem, Mr. Jamison.”
Kellen slipped into the seat beside Caitlyn. She stared at her hands, which were folded in her lap. She probably shouldn’t have said anything to Kellen about Owen. They knew their feelings for each other far better than she did. She wasn’t even sure if they actually had feelings for each other.
“Why do I need to have a talk with Owen? He already knows what type of woman I’m most attracted to. In fact, he said I’d have better luck getting over Sara if I dated someone who doesn’t look anything like her. What do you think?”
“I couldn’t say,” Caitlyn said. “It must be hard to be reminded of someone you lost when you look at some other woman.”
“I see pieces of her in everyone,” he said. “In everything.”
“Even in me?”
He grinned crookedly and released a huff of a laugh. “Yeah, you have soft lips like Sara’s.” Kellen reached over and touched a finger under her chin. He rubbed his thumb along her bottom lip, sending sparks of pleasure down her nerve-endings. “I still remember how she tasted.”
“How did she die?” Caitlyn asked, hell-bent on sticking her foot in her mouth repeatedly tonight. “Was it sudden?”
“Owen told you just enough to encourage annoying questions, I see.” Kellen dropped his hand. “Not sudden. It took her several months to die once they found the tumors in her lungs. But a thousand years with her wouldn’t have been enough.” A distant look stole across his chiseled features. “One was definitely not enough.”
Caitlyn bit her lip and ducked her chin, swallowing around a lump in her throat. It didn’t seem fair that a dead girl had the unwavering devotion and love of someone as vibrantly alive as Kellen Jamison.
“I shouldn’t have asked. I apologize. And…” She looked up to find him staring off into space. Why did she hurt so badly for him? She didn’t even know him, but she could practically feel the devastation seeping from his pores. “I’m truly sorry for your loss.”
He nodded curtly, avoiding her eyes. She couldn’t possibly ask him if he had any feelings for Owen. Not with him so obviously hurting over a woman. She sat awkwardly beside him trying to think of something, anything, to say.
“I lost my sister a couple of years ago.”
“Cancer?” he murmured.