A thrill shot through me—and not just from Ace’s proximity and that sexy chuckle. Even from a distance, I could see that Barton was gorgeous. He was the opposite to Ace in several ways—dark where Ace was fair, beefy where Ace was lithe, and yet he still pushed all my buttons. Visually, at least. It took much more than just looks for a man to float my boat, so I figured it was time to stop gawping and get over there and meet him.
I shrugged, despite knowing that Ace would see right through my feigned indifference. “Maybe he’s changed, Ace. People do that, you know. Come on, let’s get over there before we end up being late.”
Wisely, Ace chose to keep quiet and continued to hold my hand as we approached Barton. Not in a possessive fashion, but more of an I’m-here-babe-you’re-safe kind of way.
Barton swiveled on his barstool as we grew closer, then hopped off it, his hand held out. He gave me a quick smile before greeting Ace. “Ace, mate! How’s it going?” They shook hands, clapped each other on the shoulder, then broke apart.
Immediately, Barton turned to me. “Hey, Aneesa, I’m Barton. It’s great to meet you.” I shook his hand, enjoying the strength and warmth that he emitted. I noted how he was checking me out—in more of a curious than lusty way. I guessed he was trying to be respectful.
I gave a genuine smile. He was just as cute close up as he’d been from across the room. “It’s great to meet you too, Barton…” I tried not to cringe as I tailed off—it was obvious that I’d been about to say something else, but had decided against it. Mainly because the only two options my brain had supplied were ‘I look forward to getting to know you better’ and ‘Ace has told me so much about you.’
The first was cheesy beyond belief and, considering the reasoning behind our meeting, laden with innuendo. If I’d let that phrase come out of my mouth, I think I’d have died of embarrassment on the spot.
The second was simply not true, which is why I hadn’t said it. Until the whole threesome thing had come about, I couldn’t remember Ace ever mentioning Barton. And the questions I’d asked Ace since then didn’t really count as Ace telling me lots about him.
And so the awkward silence hung in the air for several seconds, before Barton recovered. Smiling, he said, “Can I get you a drink, guys? Aneesa?”
“Um, yes please,” I replied, regaining the ability to speak. A double vodka and Coke would have gone down a treat right then, but Ace and I had already agreed we were going to stay sober for this meeting—we needed clear heads to make decisions and to ensure that whatever happened next was influenced only by us, not by alcohol. “I’ll just have a Coke, please.”
“Of course. Ace?”
“The same, please.”
With a quick nod, Barton turned back to the bar and attempted to get the attention of a member of staff. I took the opportunity to study Barton in greater detail without him knowing. Quite honestly, I really enjoyed what I saw. He was a tad taller than Ace, making him maybe three inches over six feet. Tight—but not obscenely so—jeans covered what looked like a very grabbable, bitable backside and thick thighs that were in perfect proportion with the rest of him. A narrow waist flared out to wide shoulders, encased in a short-sleeved T-shirt which showed off his physique. His arms, of course, were muscular, and looked as though even if he hadn’t been a werewolf, that he could throw me around in the bedroom. Mmm…
He also had a couple of tattoos peeking out of his sleeves, but I couldn’t see them properly. Providing things worked out, I’d have the opportunity to study his ink in great detail later. That and the rest of his no doubt delectable body.
Having stared for longer than was polite, even though he was facing the other way, I shifted my attention to Ace, who was watching me with an amused expression on his face.
“You like?” he mouthed.
I waggled my eyebrows theatrically in response, stopping suddenly as Barton turned to us, holding our drinks. We both took the ice-cold glasses and murmured our thanks.
“So,” Barton said, snagging his own drink, “shall we go and grab a booth?”
“Absolutely,” Ace replied, “lead the way, mate.”
As we followed Barton past a group of guys at the pool table, I tried to get my brain in gear for some conversation. Although I hadn’t said it out loud, I did want to get to know him better before I considered getting naked and horizontal with him, so I needed to figure out what to say. I couldn’t rely on Ace and Barton to get the chatter going—they might fall into reminiscing about times gone by, or talking about sports or people I didn’t know.
As we reached an empty booth right in the corner, Ace stood aside and let me sit down first. I slid along the vinyl seat, and he moved in beside me. Barton sat opposite us, his bulk filling a good chunk of the space on his side of the table.
Damn, he really was handsome. I took a long swallow of my drink, using the time to check him out some more. His chin-length dark hair looked soft, strokeable—ideal for tangling one’s fingers into. And maybe tugging. His eyes were brown, with laughter lines at the corners, which were always a positive note in my book. If someone laughed a lot, then they were either fun, or had a lot of fun. Both were good with me. His nose was long, not over-large, and had been broken, likely more than once. Finally, his mouth—possibly the best part of him. That I could see, anyway. Sinful, tempting lips, straight white teeth, and a dimple in his left cheek.
Putting my glass down on the table, I crunched on an ice cube, preparing to ask my first question to get the conversational ball rolling. Barton beat me to it.
“So, Aneesa, how long have you been fantasizing about fucking two men at once?”
Chapter Four
As I choked on the ice cube, Ace’s hand shot out and he thumped my back, preventing the scene from getting too messy.
When I finally got a hold of myself and had gulped down a load of Coke to soothe my burning throat, I glanced up to see an utterly chagrined expression on Barton’s face.
“Sorry,” he said, his hands spread in supplication. “Didn’t mean to, uh, shock you like that. Guess I’m just direct.” He lowered his voice a little, though there was no one close by. “I’m so used to being around other werewolves who are, shall we say, feral, that I forget humans are distinctly more subtle, particularly when it comes to conversations of this kind.”
“It’s okay,” I replied, giving him a tight smile. He was lucky he was cute—I was sure he got away with an awful lot because of his extraordinary looks. God knows Ace did—and not just with me. “I like direct, actually. I just wasn’t expecting it. But now I am, I’m sure we’ll be just fine.”
“Good, good.” Barton nodded, then downed the rest of his drink. “Now I’ve thoroughly shown myself up, I’m going to excuse myself for a couple of minutes and go to the bar. You guys want anything?”
Ace and I shook our heads, and Barton gave us both an apologetic grin as he slid out of the booth and strode away. I watched him for a couple of minutes, hoping that he wasn’t just being polite—saying he was going to the bar when in actual fact he was going to make a run for it. Satisfied he was staying put, I returned my attention to Ace, who wore an expectant expression.
“Well?” he prompted.
Of course, he already knew I was attracted to Barton from my physical reactions. But he also knew me well enough to realize it took a damn sight more than physical attraction to spread my legs for someone.
Smiling, I reached out and took Ace’s hand. “Despite him almost causing me to choke on an ice cube, I like him. He’s cute and polite, and seems genuine. If it’s still okay with you, I think I’d like to sound him out and see how he feels about meeting up again later in the week? Part of me is tempted to take him home tonight, but the more sensible part of me knows I shouldn’t make such a rash decision.”
“Okay, that sounds like a good plan to me. You know this is all up to you, so whatever you decide, I’ll support.” He ran his free hand through his hair and returned my smile.
“You su
re?” I glanced over his shoulder to make sure Barton wasn’t returning yet. He was just placing his order, by the looks of it, so he wouldn’t be long.
Ace squeezed my hand, then leaned forward and kissed me. A relatively chaste peck on the lips, but when we parted, he moved back only millimeters and whispered, “I’m sure I want to see your beautiful naked body completely overwhelmed as it is pleasured by two eager men.”
Goosebumps broke out over my skin. With my free hand, I gripped the back of Ace’s neck and pulled him to me. This time, the kiss was far from chaste. I pressed my lips hard to his for several long seconds, before coaxing his mouth open with my tongue. He allowed me entrance, and I immediately sought out his tongue, engaging him in a heated French kiss that made him grip my hand almost to the point of pain. Fortunately, he realized what he was doing and released it, instead looping his arms around my neck and deepening our kiss further.
It was dizzying. Ace and I weren’t usually ones for public displays of affection, but we were slightly hidden from the rest of the room by our booth, and clearly it didn’t matter if Barton saw us—it was likely that he’d be seeing a hell of a lot more than just us kissing at some point. The thought spurred me on—rather than winding our embrace down, ready to pick it up again at a more appropriate time, I kept it going. I was sure Ace knew what I was playing at, but he didn’t care. Very little fazed him.
Our tongues battled together—not so much a fight for dominance, which clearly I would lose, but actions that showed the strength and depth of our need for each other. I could tell from the flexing of Ace’s muscles that he was fighting the urge to strip off my jeans and underwear, bend me over the table and fuck me into oblivion. At that moment I was so horny I probably wouldn’t have protested if he had.
The kiss seemed to go on and on—so passionate, so heated, obvious to anyone that saw us that the only reason we weren’t taking it further was the location.
My pussy ached. I’d been damp pretty much since I’d gotten dressed after my shower—thoughts in the back of my mind that some time in the very near future, I could be checking off the ultimate item from my sexual bucket list. And if I didn’t, I still had the best consolation prize a girl could ever ask for—a smoking hot vampire boyfriend who already had the skill and stamina of two human men, if not more. The arousal had been there constantly, burning hotter with each new piece of information—Barton was sexy, Barton wanted me… Oh God, it was down to me now. If this was what I wanted, it would go ahead. And fuck, did I want it. But I was determined to stick to my guns—one evening of conversation wasn’t adequate to get to know someone enough to decide if they should be allowed to share something so…intimate.
Reluctantly, I broke away from Ace, grinning and blinking rapidly, hoping to bring myself back into the room, instead of spinning away on some lust-drunk fantasy. Breathing hard, I focused my gaze across Ace’s shoulder again, to where I’d last seen Barton at the bar. My heart skipped a beat when I realized he’d gone. Shit, he’d gone!
An exaggerated cough from across the booth snapped my attention in that direction. My heart skipped another beat as I realized I’d gotten it wrong. The werewolf, the man, hadn’t gone, after all. He’d simply retaken his seat and watched and waited as Ace and I snogged each other’s faces off. No doubt he’d enjoyed the show, too. The lust-fog finally lifted, and I decided it was time to take things to the next level. We weren’t going to invite him home tonight, but why not tease him a little?
Licking my lips slowly and deliberately, I then gave Barton what I hoped was a seductive smile. “Hello there. Sorry about that. My sweetie and I got a little…carried away. I hope we didn’t embarrass you.”
He returned my smile, and the look in his eyes, the widened pupils, told me that he’d been as aroused by our public display of affection as we had. “No need to apologize, Aneesa. I’m not embarrassed, but my cock is so hard that let’s just say it’s a good job this table is attached to the floor. If I get up again now, I’ll be in serious danger of getting arrested for indecent behavior in public.”
Ace cleared his throat. “Yeah, me too.”
“Great,” I said, unable to help feeling smug that the two men had to hide their arousal beneath the table, whereas my soaking pussy wasn’t apparent to anyone except me. Well, and Ace. Probably Barton, too, actually. “It’s been great meeting you, Barton, but we have to get home. We’ll be in touch.”
Chapter Five
Knowing Barton’s hearing would be just as superior as his, Ace waited until we were safely in the car and therefore well out of earshot before speaking. “Um, Nees? What was that all about?”
“What do you mean?” I said, flashing him an angelic smile.
Ace scratched his head. “Well, perhaps I’m just being dumb here, but I thought you had the hots for Barton. You said you were gonna sound him out about meeting later in the week, then we had that super-hot kiss and I thought you’d changed your mind and wanted to take him home tonight. Poor guy looked fit to explode after watching us.”
My grin widened, and I was sure it was far from angelic now. “Well, you know what they say, gorgeous. Treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen and all that. If he’s really up for this, and is a good guy, he’ll be happy to wait until we get in touch, he’ll respect my decision. And if he doesn’t, well then it’s his loss, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.” Ace still looked confused, but he pulled on his seatbelt, then started the car and began driving us home.
He didn’t say any more, clearly still wondering what was going on in my head. But the silence gave me the opportunity to start thinking and try to figure it out for myself.
My body was thrumming with power, with arousal. Having two gorgeous men wanting to share me was a sexy power trip. But I knew I was right to stick to my guns—this was way too big a deal to rush into anything.
Still, I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering. Images of Ace and Barton, butt naked and erect flooded my head. Their big hands exploring my body, caressing, gripping, squeezing, pinching. Mouths, tongues, teeth—sucking, licking, biting. Pleasuring.
I was just contemplating whether sticking my hand down my jeans and jerking myself off in the car would cause Ace to crash, when he finally spoke.
“Uh, Nees? I think we got trouble.” He wasn’t panicking, exactly, but there was something in his tone that told me he really wasn’t happy.
“What? What do you mean?” My own tone wasn’t nearly so even—it was bordering on a squeak and already my heart rate was increasing. If my big, badass vampire boyfriend thought we had trouble, then it was something big.
“Barton’s following us.”
“Huh? How do you know? Maybe he didn’t want to sit in the bar by himself and decided to leave.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t explain why he’s still behind us. He lives in completely the opposite direction.”
“He’s going to see a friend?” Now I was definitely squeaking, my panic apparent even as I tried to tell myself—and Ace—that there was nothing to worry about. That was me, always attempting to see the best in people, to give them the benefit of the doubt.
“Maybe,” Ace said.
I noticed a slight pick up in speed, and gripped the door handle. “Ace?”
Turning to me with what I’m sure he thought was a reassuring smile, he said, “It’s all right, babe. I’m just gonna ride around for a little while and see if he keeps following us. He doesn’t actually know where we live, so if he stays behind us, then we definitely got a problem. But I’m sure as hell not gonna lead him to our house.”
Closing my eyes, I leaned heavily into the headrest. Despite my comments about Barton maybe going to see a friend, I had an unpleasant feeling, which was manifesting as a hard knot of worry in my stomach. Christ, how had everything gone so wrong? Gone from being on track for what would no doubt be the threesome of my life, the checking off of an item from my sexual bucket list. And now what? I was in a car with an occasionally possessive vampi
re, being followed in another car by a feral werewolf.
What the actual fuck?
Ace pressed the pedal and the car accelerated again. I gripped harder onto the door. “He is following us, isn’t he?” I asked.
Ace glanced at me, his lips set in a tight line. He gave a curt nod. “I think so, sweetheart. I’m almost certain, actually. Just trying to figure out what to do to keep you safe.”
In spite of everything, a rush of warmth buzzed through me. Not I’m gonna kill the bastard or hold on tight, I’m gonna put my foot down but just trying to figure out what to do to keep you safe.
“Uh, okay. W—what do you think he wants?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “I think that’s pretty obvious, babe, don’t you?”
Not to me, it fucking wasn’t. “He’s not going to try and mug us or something, is he? I know I’m only a human, but how would a werewolf fare against a vampire? Surely you’d both end up getting hurt—”
“Aneesa, he is not trying to mug us. He wants you, sweetheart. He’s even more interested in you than we first thought. The treating him mean thing seems to have worked a treat.”
“Are you saying this is my fault?” Fury blazed through me. How was I supposed to know this was going to fucking happen?
“No! Of course not. That’s not what I meant at all. I just meant that our werewolf friend clearly really has the hots for you, and isn’t going to give you up without a fight.”
“B—but I’m not a thing to be won. And he hadn’t lost, anyway. I had every intention of taking him to bed with us, just not yet. But now he can go fuck himself. He’s a psycho.”
Ace’s face twisted into an expression somewhere between thoughtful and wry. “It’s not going to be as simple as that.” He’d slowed the car down now, but was still motoring along aimlessly, and going nowhere near our house.