And they want to share me. Or at least, they've hinted that they will. All of them. The thoughts I had the night before after my shower come flooding back, and instantly, I can feel my skin tingle and my panties grow warm and damp. The flush creeps up my cheeks before a voice cuts through my thoughts and drags me back to reality.
"I'll take a double, please."
The voice is gravelly and low, and when I glance over at its owner, I take a quick breath.
Woah.
The man is a giant. A very, very, insanely attractive giant. He's this big beast of a man, with a huge, build and broad shoulders, a gorgeous smile, auburn hair and these beautiful, kind blue eyes. He grins, resting his elbows on the bar top and leaning towards me, his chiseled biceps rippling and stretching his grey t-shirt. Two full sleeve tattoos extend out from the shirt, covering his muscled forearms in ink.
"Looks like I interrupted something nice you had going on inside that head."
I swallow as I realize I'm still flushed pink as I stare at him like a weirdo. I shake my head as I smile.
"Oh, no, it's nothing. A double of what?"
He grins, his eyes burning right into mine as he shrugs.
"I don't know, I just heard this was the place to get a double serving."
I smile, but my brow furrows in confusion. "Sorry, gonna have to tell me what you want to drink if you want twice the amount of—"
"I’m Luke."
I freeze, and the color comes rushing into my face. Luke, as in Vince and Gaige and Dane's friend and partner. Luke of the mysteriously mentioned Luke and Noah. And Luke who clearly has a pretty good idea what I've been up to with his friends the last two days, judging from the grin and the comment.
"Oh," I say quietly, feeling my face burn.
He just grins, and I cringe.
"Oh God—"
"Yeah those guys can’t keep a secret," he says with a chuckle. "Well, Vince can. Dane probably can. But Gaige?" Luke snorts, his big frame shaking in a laugh.
I know I'm bright red as I start to bury my face in my hands out of sheer embarrassment, when suddenly his large, warm, powerful hand reaches out and squeezes my arm.
"Hey, hang on." His whole tone changes — the jokester fading and serious concern coming into his voice. "Hold on, I didn't mean to make it weird or anything."
I give him a look and he chuckles. "Alright, the joke was a bad opener. Let's start over." He grins as he pulls his hand away from my arm and sticks it out towards me like a handshake across the bar. "Hi, Tess, I'm Luke. I've heard a lot about you from my friends, and I'd hate myself if I didn't tell you right now that I think you're a fucking knockout."
This time, the blush that floods over my face isn't from embarrassment.
I take his hand, swallowing at the restrained power I can feel in his grip. I mean the man is easily six-and-a-half feet tall, and all muscle. And yet, he takes my hand like it's the most delicate thing in the world, shaking it slowly as he holds my gaze and grins.
"Too much?"
I shake my head. "No, I thought that was a pretty suave line actually."
He laughs. "Good."
"Sorry for crumbling like that, it's just…" I trail off and make a face, but he seems to get it.
"It's a lot to take in. By which I mean, getting to know us and our, uh, less than normal views on sharing is a lot to take in."
"Uh, yeah, it is," I say with a laugh, finally letting the air out as his charming personality slowly lowers my guard. Behind him, everyone in the room — including Gaige, Vince, and Dane, start to move to poker tables and sit, and cards are dealt as the tournament begins.
"Let me guess, your 'I'll take a double' line was a fucking bomb, right?"
My eyes dart to the other man who's just appeared behind Luke — this one with slightly curly dark brown hair and these totally gorgeous emerald green eyes. He's got some scruff on his chiseled, defined jaw, and he chuckles darkly when Luke turns and gives him the finger.
"Told you, dipshit."
Luke rolls his eyes and glares at the new guy. "Tess, this, unfortunately, is—"
"Noah." The man smiles this smile at me that is flat-out the living definition of "panty-melting." For a moment, I want to chide myself for whatever the hell is happening to me these days. Because now beyond the whole scandalous "having a threesome with two of my bosses" thing, followed by the "epic and mind-blowing fuck-fest with my other boss" thing, I'm now flirting with and feeling all tingly and warm over two of my other bosses.
I mean, shit, how bad was my dry spell?
"Can I grab a whiskey, Tess?"
"Sure." I smile, trying to hide the flirtiness that I just can't seem to tamp down as I reach for a glass and the bottle.
"I'll take one too, actually," Luke says. "Just a single," he adds with a wink that gets my cheeks hot all over again.
"And honestly, have one yourself if you want," Noah shrugs. "This is really an easy crowd at these things."
I think about it for one second. I think about what a very bad idea it is for me to have a drink when I'm already thinking all sorts of things about the two staggeringly good looking guys in front of me. Yes, there are three other guys in this room — their best friends and business partners, at that — who I've already, uh, experienced. But as filthy as that sounds, it really only ignites something inside of me when I think about it.
It's like they've ignited this dark, dirty, wild side of me that I've never known about. And I have to say, I like it.
I pour myself a small glass as they grin at me, and then clink my glass to theirs when they raise a silent toast. I nod behind them at the poker tournament that's underway.
"You guys aren’t playing?"
Noah shrugs. "Nah. Not my scene. These guys are all fucking scumbags, and I can’t play with scumbags." He chuckles. "And Luke here—"
"Shut it," Luke grumbles, shooting him a look and taking a big swallow of his drink.
I grin. "Oh, there's a story here, I can tell."
Luke flashes a small grin at me before he scowls. "I’m not allowed to play in this tournament," he grumbles.
"Because?"
"Because he also hates scumbags, but he ends up beating the shit out of them," Noah chuckles.
"In…poker?"
Noah laughs. "In fist-fights. They think he's got anger issues, so he's barred from playing now."
I swallow as I eyeball the big, gorgeous man sitting in front of me. "Do you?"
"Only with shit-heads." He grins, knocking his drink back.
I laugh.
The first break in the tournament comes along, and suddenly, I get busy — fast. I'm a quick bartender, but when every single guy in the room and their dates all want drinks at once, I'm suddenly very much underwater.
But suddenly, I catch a shape darting under the end of the bar, and before I know it, Noah's back with me, his arms a blur as he grabs glasses and starts to pour orders.
"Thanks," I spit quickly, whirling to try and keep pace with the rush.
"Anytime, beautiful," he murmurs, making me gasp a little at how close his lips are to my ear as he moves behind me. I can feel his hard, muscled body brush against me as he darts around me to grab something, and I can't stop the warm shiver that teases through me.
"I bartended for a long-ass time," he tosses over his shoulder as he darts for another order. He moves past me again, and I swear I feel his palm brush over my ass right through my black dress. Anyone else, and there'd be a slap coming his way, but with him, I just bite my lip and let the sizzling tease through me.
No, it's not because he's good-looking that I let him get away with it — I mean, I'm not that girl. But it's that in the ten minutes I've been talking with him, I already feel like we've been friends forever. The same goes for Luke too, actually. Really, it's with all of them. All five of the guys have had this way of just melting whatever barriers I usually put up, or maybe it's just that there's something about them all that I just click with.
&nb
sp; Whatever it is, that's why I don't mind — and in fact, like it — when Noah's hand brushes my ass again. It's why I only swallow thickly and shiver heatedly when he moves behind me and presses close in the narrow bar, letting something very thick and very hard press into me from behind.
And then suddenly, there's a low bell, and the crowd at the bar just starts to magically thin as people head back to their tables to play.
I take a deep breath, my blood pounding from the madness of the rush.
"Damn," Luke whistles from his seat at the bar. "You work fast, beautiful."
"Thanks," I laugh, nodding at Noah. "And thank you for the help."
"Anytime," he purrs in my ear, making me shiver as he brushes past me again, letting me feel what I know is his very hard, very big cock tucked into his jeans. He slips back under the bar and leans against it.
"I'd have helped, but…" Luke shrugs and then grins as he gestures down at his size. "Pretty sure you and I woulda been a tight fit back there."
My apparently completely hormone-drunk brain immediately takes it in a dirty way, and I know my face suddenly goes bright red at the filthy way I take his words. Luke definitely notices, because suddenly his smile fades as something dark and hungry blooms over his handsome face.
"Dirty," he rumbles lowly, his brow arching as his eyes suddenly pierce into me. I can feel a teasing heat creep through me as the man who was the good-looking teddy bear suddenly looks at me like he wants to devour me whole.
"When's your break?"
I turn to see Noah looking at me intently, his eyes tracing over my body in a way that leaves a fire in their wake.
I bite my lip, knowing what that look means but somehow powerless to diffuse it. Powerless, or maybe completely unwilling.
"Do I get a break?"
"I mean, we say you do. And technically, we're your bosses too."
I swallow, glancing back at Luke and seeing that heated, hungry look still on his face.
What am I doing?
I know this is wrong. I know that I've already gone way past any line I should have crossed with Gaige, Dane, and Vince, and that this job is too good to mess up by being some insane girl and hooking up with all of my bosses.
But somehow, I can't just say no.
"I guess now might be a good time?" I say quietly, trying to keep my voice from trembling — either from nerves or excitement, I'm not quite sure which. "You know, since the next round of the tournament is underway."
"Sounds good to me," Noah purrs, his voice low.
"Rick can watch things for a while."
Luke nods at the perpetually sullen-looking bar back, who shrugs and ducks under the bar after I step out.
"So..." I swallow, twisting my hands together. "Where to?"
Noah grins in a way that sets a fire inside of me, and when Luke takes my hand, I gasp quietly.
"This way," he growls, before suddenly he leans down and lets his lips brush my ear.
"Oh, and beautiful? I can promise you that you and I will be a tight fit."
10
Luke
My cock is throbbing hard as we lead this little angel around the perimeter of the room. There's a hunger inside for her — for all of her. It's a physical thing, obviously. I mean, every damn molecule in my body wants to pull her panties down those thighs and run my tongue over every soft, wet inch of her. Every single part of me wants to know how she'd feel when I inch my big, thick cock deep between her legs until her cream drips down my balls.
But it's more than that too. I want to know what she looks like when she sleeps in in the morning. I want to know how she takes her coffee. I want to make her laugh, and watch the way she fuckin' lights up a room whenever she enters one.
I want people to see her on my arm and go green with jealousy. And let me tell you, here in our den of scumbags, they sure as fuck are. Men stare at Noah and me leading this perfect creature around the edge of the room with a cold sort of jealous fury. Their stares drip with envy, knowing by the way we walk and the way our hands linger on her arm that this angel is ours tonight.
…What they don't know is, I want her to be ours tonight and every single night after this. Forever.
Jealousy is a weird fucking thing. For instance, if I saw Tess with literally any other guy in the world, I'm pretty confident I wouldn't be able to control my possessive anger. I know I wouldn't. I know I'd see red, and taste blood, and want to murder anyone who laid their hands on her. Anyone, that is, except Noah, Gaige, Dane, or Vince. What we have as friends is, well, weird. I know that. It's not normal, I’ll grant that, but it's the way we work, I guess.
I don't know when it started, but I'd guess the why would be that the five of us are thicker than water. Thicker than blood, really. Yeah, Gaige and Vince are legit brothers, but it's really like all five of us share the same DNA. Being so close meant we were after the same girls a lot of the time growing up. No, it was never anything wild like all five of us dating one girl or anything. But two of us? Yeah, that'd happened, even if never really worked. For the women, it was frequently cause for conflict, but never for us. There were girls who wanted two guys of course, but as a relationship? No. Two dudes weren't who you brought home to meet Mom and Dad, that's for sure.
As it happened, it tended to be Dane and Gaige, and Noah and me that paired off with women. Not because any of us were closer than the others, it just sort of shook out that way. I think ultimately, Dane and Gaige tended to go for a certain kind of woman, and Noah and I for another. Except in this case; we were about to cross into new territory. Because we all were into Tess — hard.
Even Vince. Vince had been a part of sharing before, but he tended to fly solo. Hell, honestly these days he tended to not go near women. None of us really had since we opened Lume — too busy, too overworked, too not in the mood. But Vince in particular was always a bit cooler when it came to women.
That is, apparently, until Tess.
Gaige of course was the one that had blabbed to me about his night with her and Dane. It wasn't a brag, either. He'd come to me in a state of disbelief, telling me he'd met "the one." I'd thought he was crazy, until he swore up and down how incredible she was, and how easy she was to connect with like he'd never connected before.
"Dane feels the same way."
"Well, you and Dane DO tend to go after the same—"
"YOU will too, buddy. Trust me."
I'd shaken my head, laughing at my friend until I'd seen the dead-serious look in his eyes.
"Vince is hooked too."
I'd frowned.
"Wait, Vince was there too?"
"No, after. This afternoon, she went in to quit and he and her apparently came together like fucking magnets. I've never seen him like this, dude."
Vince was hooked on her? Now, that was news. That was a benchmark that intrigued me. So, I'd internet-stalked her.
…What, like you're so innocent?
Yeah, I'd looked up her Facebook profile, and obviously fallen hard for her beauty. Tess was incredible, in this sort of old-fashioned way that you didn't see anymore. And fuck if Gaige hadn't been right — she was the anomaly — a woman that all five of us were attracted to. That's why I'd dragged Noah to the tournament tonight, even if both of us usually hated these things. It's why I took one look at her face to face and felt something ache in my chest. It's why in ten minutes of conversation, I already felt like I'd been friends with her for years.
Gaige was fucking right — she was the "it" none of us had even realized we were looking for. She was perfect, she was incredible, and she was both of those things for all of us, which was new. I didn't know if that meant something amazing, or disastrous, but I knew I'd be damned if I let the opportunity to find out slip away.
Her hand tightens in mine as we approach the stairs that lead up to the private VIP loft that looks out over the poker floor. I squeeze right back, feeling my pulse roar in my ears. I swear I can smell her shampoo, or maybe it's her perfume, from here. And all i
t does is make me want to bury my face in her neck and breathe deep until I can consume that smell. I want to breathe her in until she fills every part of me.
A couple of henchmen of some of the mafia-type guys playing in the tournament are crowded at the bottom of the stairs drinking beers, but they straighten up when they see us coming.
"Move," I growl under my breath in a way that gets even the ballsier looking ones among them moving their asses. They know who we are, of course, and know that this is our place. But beyond that, we're fairly imposing guys. I mean, I might be a solid half-foot taller than Noah, but it's not like the guy is any less tough or built.
We lead her up the stairs to the windowed-in loft space and shut the door behind us, so that we're all finally alone. I exhale, the noise of the tournament muffled as the door locks.
"Can they…?"
Tess moves towards the big floor-to-ceiling windows looking down over the tournament and nods down.
"See us?" Noah shakes his head. "Nah, it's one-way glass. It's mirrored on the outside.
Tess smirks. "So what is this, your little private VIP room?"
"Yep." I grin, moving to the mini-bar.
"What, some place you can take girls and impress them?"
Noah and I glance at each other before I turn and meet her eye.
"No, actually. This room is just for the five of us. No women, no one else. Not ever."
She raises a brow, rolling her eyes sarcastically. "Right, and I suppose I just happen to be the one the excepti—"
"You are."
She falters at the firmness in my voice, her eyes darting up to mine and frowning slightly.
"You mean that."
"Of course I do."
"You just met me."
I nod. "And are you going to try and tell me you don't feel the same spark we do?"
She swallows thickly, and when I see the color flush into her cheeks, I know I'm right. She does feel it.
My pulse quickens, and I turn back towards the minibar.
"Drink?"
Tess laughs this light, slightly nervous, but somehow heated laugh.